Whole Again

Our family is back together again, after a month being apart. Win spent the month of February in California, training for the upcoming deployment. For reasons I think are fairly obvious, I don't like to announce when he is going to be gone. But now he's home again. He actually failed to tell me when he was going to be home, and so I found out the morning he got back, from my friend who is married to one of Win's co-workers. But it all worked out, and it was a great surprise for the kids.

I was pretty anxious about spending a month by myself with the kids, even though I've been through two deployments and countless training deployments. However, this was the first one since our move from Italy, and the first time for me with both kids. But once he left, I quickly realized I could handle it. I was just out of practice. I'll admit I didn't sleep very much, and probably yelled too much at the kids, but we all survived. It was good training for us as well.

The kids handled it well, although Lem fought me more than usual. And every time we turned the corner to our house, Gwyn saw Win's truck and said, "Oh, Dada home?" Then Lem would say, "No! He's in California!" And she'd say, "Oh."

So that is why we had both grandmothers visit us, to keep us company. I'm very thankful for that.  And I'm also thankful for Netflix and lots and lots of episodes of Gossip Girl. 

Books

I saw this article and was so sad to hear that the author Jan Berenstain has died. I had just read one of the Berenstain Bears books to the kids the other day. I loved these books when I was growing up, and now I love sharing them, and their lessons with my kids. My mom had just sent The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners, because when she was visiting, she asked Lem where his manners were, and he said, "I left them in Illinois."

I will keep reading these books and enjoying the stories of the Bear family. Right now, it looks likes I need this one:

Young Love

As I mentioned before, Bean Dip has a girlfriend at school. He talks about her all the time. When I ask him what he did at recess, he says, "Followed Ivy around." He gets strawberry milk every day, because "that's what Ivy gets."

On Wednesday, he came home in his spare clothes. Right before the end of school, Ivy got sick and threw up. Bean Dip was sitting next her. Ms. Michelle, the aide who also rides the bus with them, said she was surprised he wasn't that upset about it. I said maybe it was because it was Ivy, and she just smiled and nodded knowingly. As my mom said, "Well, in sickness and in health."

Ivy hasn't been back to school all week. Bean Dip has been moping and missing her. Tonight, when I was putting him to bed, I said that maybe he could make her a welcome back card, since she'll probably be back on Monday. He got all excited and said he was going to put her face on the front, and also guns on it. And then he said, "And you know what I'm going to put on the back? 'I heart you.'" Then he lay there practicing drawing hearts with his finger.

And he's not the only one in love, apparently. Also tonight, Baby G was up late, refusing to go to sleep. Finally, she was laying in bed just crying, and I told her she needed to go to sleep, because we are going to see Gabe tomorrow. Gabe is her new friend. He is two, also. He has spent the night twice now, once when his brother was born, and the second time was a couple weekends ago while his brother was in the hospital. His dad works with Win, and his mom is a friend of mine, so we see him fairly often.

So ... as soon as she heard that, she immediately stopped crying. She said, "Gabe? And Gabe's mommy and baby? I play with Gabe." Then she rolled over and closed her eyes and had a big smile on her face. I didn't hear another peep from her.

A Few Days with Grandma

Katherine, Win's mom, came to visit us for a few days this week. Bean Dip and Baby G were so excited to have Grandma visit.

She came Sunday morning, and that evening we went to Rich and Jessica's for dinner. Bean Dip spent most of the time beating up on his uncle. Luckily, Rich was having fun too. Even G got in on the fighting a bit.

Monday was President's Day, and beautiful. Katherine kicked me out of the house, and she played golf with the kids in the front yard while I was gone. I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I ended up at Books-A-Million in Clarksville. (Clarksville no longer has a Borders and doesn't have a Barnes & Noble.) I'd forgotten how nice it is to just browse in a book store. I spent two hours there, and ended up in the clearance section, which had a remarkably good selection.

On Tuesday, we met Jessica in downtown Clarksville for lunch at the Blackhorse Brewery. Bean Dip was at school, so it was just the girls. But in the evening, Katherine got to watch BD's gymnastics class. She left Wednesday morning, after seeing BD get on the bus, and visiting Jessica at work.

Showing Grandma his schoolwork.

After School

What a joy to have a clean room ... and a space to lie on the floor and read a comic book.

The Things They Say

 February:

Gwyn: "Mama, stop talking me" (Mama, stop talking to me)

Lem, Christmas (2011) morning: "Let's get this party started!"

Lem: "This is out of control."

Gwyn: "More wotion? (lotion)
Lem starts calling me Susan, instead of Mama

Lem: Susan, I want to go to Rotary park. I have a good connection with that park.

Lem: I really like Ivy. I'm going to marry her some day. (Ivy is a girl in his class)

When Katherine asked, "What makes you so happy?"
Gwyn said, "Uhhhh blueberries! ... and Mama."

How Quickly They Grow

We've had two big events happen very quietly here. Two more signs of growing up. One happened so gradually that I barely noticed. Baby G has stopped sucking her thumb. She started as a baby, I think around three months. She was suck her thumb to go to sleep, while holding Bunny over her head. She is still very attached to Bunny ("My Buh-ie!"), but the sucking has stopped. I think it's been at least a month since I've seen her do it.

And the other event happened in the last week, and I definitely knew about this one. Bean Dip has finally stopped needing a Pull-Up at night. Oh happy day (or night)! He had more than a week of dry mornings, so I put the Pull-Ups away. So far, so good.

It's hard to capture all the little events in your child's life. I thought G would be sucking her thumb for years, but I was wrong. Now it's done, and another sign of her growing up. They aren't babies anymore, but kids.

And speaking of growing up ...

Bean Dip has a girlfriend. She started out as his best friend. Her name is Ivy, and according to her mother, she feels the same way about Bean Dip. BD came home from school one day and said, "I'm going to marry Ivy."

We asked him about the wedding and he said, "I sure hope the menu has meat on it. I like meat!"

I'm glad he's got his priorities straight, and Ivy seems like a nice girl.

Overheard

On the 20-minute ride home from the library Saturday, when I hoped they'd both fall asleep, I heard this:

Bean Dip:  Hey, Susan, you know how when stars are babies they are black holes? Then they grow up into stars. When they get old, they explode and --

Baby G:  Stop!

BD:  Gwyn! Stop yelling stop!

Me:  Gwyn, say you're sorry to Lem and stop yelling at him. Let him finish. And Lem, just ignore her!

G:  Dorry Memo. (Sorry, Lembo)

BD:  That's OK. When they get old, they explode and --

G:  Stop!

BD:  Gwyn, stop yelling stop! Say sorry.

G:  Dorry Memo.

BD.  That's OK. When they get old, they explode and --

G.  Stop!

And so it continued, over and over, until Bean Dip was almost in tears. Eventually it came to this:

BD:  When they get old, they explode and --

G.  Stop!

BD:  GWYN! STOP YELLING STOP!

G:  Memo, stop yelling!

Then next time we got in the car, I instituted mandatory quiet time until we got to the park. 

A Few Good Movies

We've been on a roll lately in picking good movies to watch. A few were much better than expected. I'm not going to go into each one too much, but here's the list: 

Real Steel: I did not expect much from this one, but it was surprisingly good. The robots were a total hit with Bean Dip.

Midnight in Paris: The best part was the Paris scenery, but it was a great fantasy.

Super 8: Another one I didn't expect to like, but did. It is a good, old-fashioned monster movie. And not too scary. (The kids did not watch this one.)

Dolphin Tale: Bean Dip had wanted to see this one after watching the trailer. I thought it'd be a sappy family movie, and it was, but it was really good. And a true story. I want to go visit Winter now.

Mr Popper's Penguins: Another one I was surprised by. Jim Carey was great, and the kids loved the penguins.

The Guard: Fantastic movie. One of my favorites in a long time.

50/50: Really, really good. I think I might like Seth Rogan now. But it made me think I had cancer.

Drive: Kind of random 80s-style movie. I did like it, even though it gets graphically violent about half-way through.

Kung Fu Panda 2: Loved it.

The Help: The best book-to-movie I've seen in a really long time. And I loved the book.

Love

Smelling (and tasting, apparently) the roses Win gave me for Valentine's Day. Bean Dip and Baby G each got a metallic balloon, they were overjoyed.

A Pre-K Valentine's Day Party

Our big celebration for Valentine's Day was attending Bean Dip's party at school. I was there to help out, and Baby G got to tag along.

Monday night was spent assembling Valentines for the entire class, and trying not to eat all the candy. Bean Dip wrote his name on every single one and barely complained.

We arrived in time to help with centers, the part of the day when the students could do various activities at different centers around the room. Because it was V-Day, some of those centers included candy. Mine was a worksheet that involved counting and coloring a graph, and once they were done, the students each got four Hershey's Kisses. Bean Dip started his centers with me, then ran around doing the other ones with Baby G, both of them, and the rest of the class, juiced up on sugar.

I really enjoyed it. I got to meet quite a few of BD's classmates individually, and finally put faces to names. I got to meet Ivy (and her mom, again), the one girl Bean Dip has been talking and talking about. A boy named Samuel took a liking to G and led her around the classroom, introducing her as his cousin. It was really a lot of fun, but man it was exhausting.

The day ended with snack time. Snack was ice cream sundaes with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and a cookie on the side. And fruit punch to wash it down.

Samuel had brought in balloons and decided G and BD should have them.

And on the way home, and I asked BD where Mrs. R was, his teacher. She was there when we arrived, but I'd noticed she'd disappeared and left two aides in charge of the chaos.

"Oh, she went home. She had a headache."

Mom's Visit

My mom (Oma) came to visit last weekend and keep us company while Win was gone. We had a great time, mostly just hanging out, eating out, and watching movies. The weekend happened to be one of the coldest of the year, so we tried to find things to do inside.

We spent Saturday going to visit Jessica at work, and then having lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings, at Bean Dip's request. Sunday, we took a Sunday drive to Hopkinsville, to see what it offered. I guess Kentucky has the same idea as Italy -- everything local was closed so everyone could go to church. We found the Trail of Tears memorial park, and Bean Dip played on the playground for about 10 minutes before he got too cold. Baby G was sleeping.

We were about to head back to civilization when BD declared that he was so hungry and wanted ribs. Of course, all the local BBQ joints were closed, so we ended up at O'Charley's. We were pleasantly surprised, and BD got his ribs.

Sunday night, Rich and Jessica invited us over for dinner. She is an amazing cook, and made delicious steak, potatoes and salad for us. It was a great evening, except when BD got mad at G for drinking from his milk cup. She was two feet away from him, and he heaved his cup at her. He scored a direct hit right between the eyes. She cried; he got a timeout until he apologized. She still has the bruise.

We also watched a couple movies. Friday night was a chick flick -- I Don't Know How She Does It. It was pretty good, not great, but not terrible. I think Sarah Jessica Parker will always be Carrie Bradshaw, though. Saturday night we watched Tangled (again), with the kids and with popcorn. I love that movie.

We missed my dad, but I always enjoy these girl weekends with my mom.

"I T-Rex!"

Heard ...

Since then end of November, I've heard these from Baby G (and one from Bean Dip):

When reading Goodnight Moon every night at bedtime, she asks, "Mere mouse do?" (Where mouse go?). And when he's at the bowl of mush she says, "Mouse eating nummy (yummy) mush."

When she want Ghardettos she says, "Please, more nummies?"

She calls herself "Men", and Lem is or "Momo" or "Membo" or "Em"

In the morning, she says, "Mama, bate (wake) up!"

When Win asked her what she thought of zombies, she looked very serious and just said, "No."

Bean Dip was "reading" the box of cookie mix, trying to figure out how long to cook them. Then he said, "Well, whatever, I have a weapon."

Says, "Wegos!" for Legos.

If she gets messy while eating, she'll look at herself, then at me and say, "Mama, I big huge mess."

2/8/12

"Hey guys! I barted (farted)"

Calls Goldfish crackers "bol-bip"

Let's Move

And So We Start Another Sport

Last night was Bean Dip's first gymnastics class. Ever since he's heard about it, he's been begging to go. Baby G and I were able to watch the class, and she really wanted to join in. Next month I hope to get her in a class.

There are about 10 kids in his coed class. It's "Beginner Gymnastics," so they are starting out with the basics -- running laps and stretching, and then doing a little obstacle course before moving on to the bars, balance beam and ending with the trampoline.

BD said his favorite was the trampoline.

I always like watching him in situations like this. Last night he was very well behaved and did exactly what the teacher said. He seemed to take it every seriously.

And the best part for me? They both fell asleep on the way home, so all I had to do was carry them into bed. That made the rest of my evening very relaxing.

S**t 173rd Wives Say

I had to share this video that my friend Samantha shared. She gets it right -- in my five years in Vicenza, I think I've heard all of these at least once.

My Grocery List

Bean Dip helped.

Apparently, I was supposed to go on Monday.

He really likes mangoes.

And hot dogs.

Good Luck

We had a beautiful double rainbow yesterday afternoon. The main one was a full rainbow, stretching across the neighborhood, but I couldn't capture the entire thing. They didn't last long, but it made my day.

The Shoes