The hills are alive....with the sound of music

Ok...so for some reason William decides that the thing to do this afternoon was to dress up as Capt. Feathersword the friendly pirate (arrrrrrrrr) and have his sister wear the monkey costume. The monkey hat was as far as we got with her but that seemed to appease him. Anyway...to make the scene more interesting he decided that he should be a violin playing pirate. Then...to make it all even more bizarre, he wanted to sit at the piano with me and sing Frosty the Snowman. As I'm sweating, doing the 14th encore, I spy my Sound of Music songbook and grab it, telling William we need to learn a new song. With visions of skipping through town this fall in homemade frocks from the curtains (I don't really have any curtains but you get the idea) I start playing Do-Re-Mi....thinking what a good Mom I am teaching him real music and so early! Apparently he was no longer inspired so he jumps off the piano bench and it goes something like this: (at this point I had moved on from Doe a dear and was on to something much more dramatic)

"Climb....ev---ery mountain..."

MAMA!!!!!!!!

"Ford....ev....ery stream....."

MA...........MA!!!!!!!

"Follow every rainbow....TIL....YOU.....FIND.....YOUR.....DREAMMMMMMMMM"!!!!!!

MAMA...MAMA....MA........MA!!!!!!!! I want to watch a movie.

Sigh. Just as well.....I'd probably find the piano on the front lawn if Andy ever catches William singing showtunes. Not that he'd be very happy with the paisley romper and knee socks either.

Cousins

We had so much fun with our cousin Jackson. It was nonstop action. Here are a few pictures from the visit.

Not so happy anniversary

Here are a few pictures from the trip to New Orleans and the coast. Appropriate on this anniversary weekend. Here's hoping Ernesto stays away from us all.Hard to look at the Superdome knowing what all happened there.
French Market still standing but no traffic and no people. So strange.
Sign seen in Pass Christian.
Stuff still hangs in trees everywhere.
Marina in Pass Christian.

Fear Factor

The other night I was home alone wishing I was an octopus while trying to feed the kids. For some reason, even though he's completely capable of feeding himself, William reverted and wanted me to feed him his dinner. His dinner was chicken pot pie (.49 Swanson's...his favorite...nothing but the best!) and Catherine's, because I still can control what goes in her mouth, was spinach and pasta. I had both the kids lined up, going down the assembly line, and accidentally put Catherine's spoonful in William's mouth. He went bat nuts. You would have thought I fed him breaded worms smothered in poo gravy. Then it hit me. Toddler Fear Factor. What a great show. They would be forced to ingest horrible things like milk and veggies, then they have to take a bath, use the potty on their own and....gasp....brush teeth. For the bonus round they would have to take a bath with their baby sister. I need to contact NBC asap.

Yoga Girl

Ok so earlier today I had some me time and indulged in a little retail therapy while Mom had some grandbaby therapy (I always picture the grandparents after we leave walking back in the house, looking at each other and saying...hear that? exactly.... silence!). Anyway....needless to say with all the excitement for the kids playing with Gigi and Grandpa all day naps didn't exactly fit into their busy agendas. Which was fun for them but not so fun for me tonight.

So we get home with two fussy kids and Andy tells me 20 minutes before he is leaving for his Chamber meeting that he has to do a Blues Brothers skit and could I please help him find appropriate music and clothing, including cool black sunglasses. The scene was something like this:

William is in his room in nothing but his underwear banging on the door and screaming to get out and go tee-tee. (in case you're wondering why he was trapped in room twas because of earlier meltdown when he literally wouldn't pee OR get off the pot. We don't allow public meltdowns. Thus his entrapment).

Catherine is eating her dolly's hair as well as every piece of @&*#(@ on my flithy floors and whining because she's starving and the #^&*$ and doll hair isn't tiding her over.

I'm scrounging through the CD cabinet, knowing that half the cases are empty because we have never been able to put CD's back in the correct cases, so I'm hollering at Andy saying "Will Barbra Streisand or Kathie Lee Gifford do?" He gives me a dirty look and says "Don't you have the Animal House soundtrack?"

"NO....but I see Wiggles Hoopty-Do...you know all the moves to that!"

I get another dirty look. I hand him my not so cool Jackie-O sunglasses and tell him that's all I have in black. Had I been given prior notice I might have done better. Can't save everyone. Did I mention that in the middle of all of this the grizzly dog outside is trying to attack the UPS driver? Poor Brown.

So here I am by myself during the witching hour, eyeing my new cool t-shirt I bought today that says "Yoga Girl" and thinking I really need to learn to find my center. Hmmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmm.

Went to the levee but the levee was gone

Andy and I just returned from a quick overnight road trip to New Orleans to celebrate our anniversary. Ten years. Years ago we started talking about where we might go.....Hawaii....Europe....some romantic deserted island. That was before we had kids.

We still had a great time though but my oh my the devastation there one year later. We stopped off in Gulfport on the way over and drove as far as Pass Christian....at least what's left of Pass Christian. Hard to tell there is even a town there. No people. No businesses. No churches. No streets even. Still. One year later. I noticed a teddy bear propped up against a pile of rubble. Hard to believe he's been there a year but I still couldn't help but wonder what his story was and who he used to belong to. It's the little things that get you thinking.

New Orleans was a little different. If someone just dropped you in the middle of the French Quarter you might think something was amiss because of the astonishing lack of crowds (we walked right into Masperos) but there is little to see as far as damage. New Orleaneans haven't lost their sense of humor though as the many t-shirts for sale show. The levee line is probably the cleanest one I can post here as I plan to keep my G rating. Lets just say they aren't complimentary to FEMA, Nagin or Blanco. Imagine that.

In spite of everything that place is fighting to come back. Our service and accommodations were outstanding and we felt so welcomed there. We'll be back.

Pictures coming soon.

Fabulous Firsts

Catherine's first birthday is actually not until tomorrow but we celebrated on Sunday. Can't believe she's already a year old and oh so close to walking. She stands on her own and then gives herself a big hand because we always clap for her when she does it! There were more firsts for the birthday party. I baked a cake(from scratch that is) and made a seafood quiche I had never made before...not always a great idea for a special occasion but they both turned out fabulous if I might say. The recipes have been requested so I'll post those later. The birthday girl loved her cake and ate every last bite...not a surprise at all.

Frog Cheese Chicken

I promise that every entry isn't going to be a recap of William's dinner but this one's too exciting to keep to myself. Those who know this child know that he won't let a vegetable cross his lips. I thought I had tried every which way to get him to eat them. I've begged and pleaded. I've bribed. I've tried reasoning with him. Example - The other night I put ONE bean on his plate...just one tiny little lima bean. I told him that Baby Catherine was eating them (of course Mikey eats anything but that's another post altogether) so he said she could have his too. I told him that I would eat one if he ate one and he told me I could have his and that would make two for me. Tonight though I tried something I've never tried before: trickery. I have a wonderful baby/toddler cookbook (I'll have to post that link too) so I tried a new recipe for chicken and spinach. I put a big helping of spinach in his Wiggles bowl, topped with chicken, topped with a white sauce and some sprinkles of cheddar cheese. I thought about trying to hide the spinach but I knew he would find it and go nuts. So instead, I announced loudly "I have a SPECIAL dinner for you tonight....a special green FROG dinner (don't really know where that came from...guess I was inspired by the green)." I got a little green gummy frog, put it on the side of the bowl and told him this was the frog's favorite meal and he was going to sit there and watch William eat it. William took one look at it and said "OH COOL.....FROG CHEESE CHICKEN!!!!" He gobbled it up, ate the frog as dessert and then...I'm not kidding....proceded to LICK the bowl to get the rest of it. Unreal.

They call him Flipper, Flipper, la la la laaaaa la

William graduated from swim school last week, Swimma Cum Laude I might add. We are very proud. Actually he really did do great. We weren't surprised though given that we discovered this summer at the pool that he is part fish. Here are a few pictures, including the graduation "ceremony" where they played that darned Flipper song over and over so I still can't get it out of my head....only wish I knew the rest of the words.

Trial and error

I was trying to post this picture at the top of the page but I can't follow the complicated directions. Something else I didn't learn in school. So anyway...here is a picture of me and the little darlings at Easter. Will try to figure this picture thing out and learn to navigate the blog better.

What they don't teach you in law school

Finally joined the cult and became a blogger. I've gone from brief writing to blogging about potty training and Snoopyburgers. Glad that the 3 bar exams I passed and the monstrous student loans I amassed are paying off. Three years of law school never taught me how to feed a picky toddler though, something that I'm having to learn on my own. My own creativity is beginning to amaze me if I am honest. Case in point...tonight we grilled hamburgers, which I've never been able to get William to eat. That is...until a regular hamburger became a Snoopyburger. I pulled out the ole Snoopy cookie cutter (thanks to Mom who salvaged it along with the rest of the Peanuts gang cutters left over from when I was a kid), cut Snoopy out of the hamburger bun, loaded that dog up with meat and cheese, put it in front of William to which I got a "WOWWWWWWWW"...."COOL!!!!" He ate very bite. Sheesh. Now if only I could figure out how to turn broccoli into Snoopoli.