Keep Away: Puppy Style

Molly. is. bad. She is sooooo puppy. She is lucky that she is so precious because she really is so bad. She picked up on how to use the doggie door super fast. Watching Max and Abby and Cooper use it over Christmas was valuable teaching time. She is all over it. She is in and out all the time.

Now do not confuse this in and out business with being housebroken. She will play outside for 30 minutes, come inside and tee-tee right on the carpet. We are still working on it. BUT the doggie door thing coming so early is pretty cool. When (and if) she does ever grasp the whole potty outside thing, the doggie door knowledge will be even more useful, right? Right??

Well, she is also using the doggie door to just be bad. She is a puppy, so she is always chewing on things. At times, I look and realize that the things that she is chewing on are not terribly appropriate. So I go to reach to grab the item, and she sprints across the house and dives out the doggie door to safety. Nice, Molly. She is too smart for her own good.

Anyway, we have had so much snow lately that the yard itself was not even visible buried beneath the residual snow. Well, it warmed up this weekend. The snow melted. And this afternoon I was shocked at all the items that little Miss Molly had hauled outside for "safe keeping." She had them all spread out all over the yard. I walked around for a minute or two and collected a pile of Molly treasures that she is trying to keep away from us.

Are you ready for the craziness?? (see key below)

1. Chewed open Ziploc bag that had some Chocolate Chips in it

2. The sock that she pulled off my foot and then ran away

3. A penguin dog toy

4. A monkey dog toy
5. A tennis ball

6. Spencer's missing glove

7. A tennis ball/barbell dog toy
8. Jessa's brush

9. A garden trowel
10. Jessa's baseball

11. A squishy toy ray

12. A to-go kids cup

13. A change purse

14. A water bottle
15. A small tire from one of Spencer's cars

16. A fruit roll up wrapper - empty :-(

17. A Nestle crunch wrapper - also empty :-(
18. Half of a to-go cup top

19. A plastic tea set plate

Seriously?

Molly is keeping us all on our toes.

And after seeing her stash, I am thinking we need to step up our game.

Like I said, she is lucky that she looks like this:

How can I be mad at that face?

Procrastination is genetic

On early mornings when Jessa does not want to wake up, she asks me, "Mommy, why did you even sign me up for school? I changed my mind!" And I always laugh and say, "Silly girl, you have to go to school." And then she whips out the argument, "You could home school me." To which I laugh and say, "Uh, I don't think so." I am keenly aware of the fact that home school is not an option. I am not knocking it. I know it works for some people. But I also know that it would not work for us. Thus, she is in public school, and even though mornings are hard, she is overall pretty happy. And until very recently, I was pretty glad that I "signed her up."

At the beginning of January, her teacher told the class that their big assignment for the month would be to write a book. Her school has a Young Author's Program that requires every student to submit a book that they have written and illustrated. The requirements are different for each grade, based on their skills and abilities. This year, Miss Jessa's book had to be 3-5 pages with 1-3 sentences per page and one illustration per page. The rest was up to her.

When she came home with the assignment, she was thrilled, tickled, excited, FULL of ideas. We started talking about it right away trying to narrow her many thoughts. She finally chose her characters based on some of her favorite stuffed animals. She was all ready to go. Only she was easily distracted and not too focused at all. That's OK, I thought. She has the whole month. Then I tried again to get her interested. She'd do it later. She wanted to sled before the snow melted. She was tired. She had a spelling test to study for. You know, the busy life of a 7 year old! Who has time to write books, right??

So finally last weekend about a week before this sucker was due, I put my foot down and told her she had to sit down until she came up with a rough draft. She could not leave the table. Period. Well, of course, then came a bathroom emergency, extreme hunger and thirst, spilled drink on her pants from quenching the aforementioned extreme thirst, the need for dry pants because the wet ones made her "miserable." Then there was Spencer. He was talking, which distracted her. He was laughing, which distracted her. He was chewing, which distracted her. He was breathing, which, yep, distracted her. Then I made her nervous or I was too loud. The dogs were distracting. She was too cold. You name it, and it was bothering her no end. After about 2 hours, she FINALLY had a rough draft. She came up with the characters all on her own. 5 of them. 5 main characters for a 3-5 page story. I suggested that maybe that was a lot, Jessa cried because she loved all 5 characters. Fine, I said. 5 it is.

Then on Monday, I told her it was time to recopy the story neatly on the papers for her book. And so began the longest week of my life. This child has cried and screamed and ran to her room and called my poor Momma more times than I can count. Y'all she could have written War and Peace with the effort that she put into procrastinating this week. She has fought me every step of the way. I called my parents to apologize for every project that I was assigned ever. NOW I feel their pain. And the worst part, SHE IS ONLY IN FIRST GRADE. Oh heavens, I am not sure I can make it.

I can also tell you that my otherwise precious child comes by this tendency quite honestly. I have always been a procrastinator - only I have learned how to cope with this throughout my years. So I know all too well that my sweet girl has to figure this out on her own. No matter how many times I say the words, "Jessa, you could have been finished by now." She doesn't get it. She can't. And I KNOW this because I was her. And it took me figuring it out for myself. And someday, she will figure it out, too. I just hope I live to see it. . .;-)

Want to see her book?

Oh, and I asked her, "Someday when you are a famous author and you are being interviewed on TV about your fabulous books, will you tell this story? About how you owe all your success to me because of how hard I had to fight you to get you to write your first book?" And that little stinker said, "No! When my fans find out how mean I was to my Mom, they won't want to buy my book anymore." I guess at least she realizes how mean she was, right??

#48 Mom

In a somewhat related story to my last wordful post, (at least in its numeric title anyway) I must tell you a story about my Spencer. See, he REALLY gets into the whole Christmas thing. It is almost February, but he is still dressing up as Santa almost every day. He puts on his red coat, a pair of red pants, his rain boots, black gloves, and a Santa hat. He talks to us like he is Santa. He poses for pictures with us. And he gives us all kinds of "gifts" that he pulls out of whatever bag is closest. He is all about giving of the gifts. I love this, of course, that he is so much more into the giving aspect of Christmas. I am not crazy about the bags of "gifts" that are strewn all over the house. But I roll with it. His teacher even commented that he is still playing Santa at school, too.

My boy.

So keeping in mind that Spencer is crazy focused on giving gifts right now, I take you to a scene in my bathtub. There are all sorts of random things in the tub. These are items that get dragged up there because they happen to be playing with it when it is time to take a bath.

And as you know, my children are slightly nuts, so there are some pretty interesting things in there:

On this particular night, Spencer was playing away in the tub. He told me not to look because he was making me a special present. He said it was going to be a surprise. Of course, he began telling me about it. This sort of spoiled the surprise, but it was still fun.

S- Mommy, I am making you a special present. Do you know what it is?

Me- Nope, but I cannot wait to see it.

S- It is a lamp. I am building it for you.

Me - Oh, wow! I can always use a new lamp.

S- Want to see it?

Me- Oh, yes!

Here it is:

(Pretty creative, huh?

He made it using a plastic cup with a political advertisement from Louisiana, a plastic slinky, and half of a Zhu Zhu hamster wheel.)

S- Yep, it is just for you because you are the #48 mom.

Me- 48?

S- Uh-huh.
Me- Well, is this out of the whole wide world?
S- (proudly) Yep!
Me- OK, I guess #48 isn't too bad if we are talking about the whole world.

Such a thoughtful and silly little boy I have!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

"Living the dream as a turtle"

#1 Mom

Jessa's school has a Secret Santa Shop each year. It is sponsored by the PTO, so I have been sort of involved the past 2 years. And it reminds me of the same kind of thing that we had at Mt. Zion Elementary several years ago when Lucas and I were there. They even used some of the same bags that we used! Crazy the things that you remember, right?

Well, the Shop is a little bit fundraiser and a little bit, "hey, kids, you can buy gifts for your family for cheap!" There were no gifts that cost more than $10.50. So you could do some serious shopping if you were so inclined. As you might have guessed, Jessa and Spencer were so inclined. There is a pretty big selection of stuff to choose from. Since I was working behind the scenes, I knew what all the merchandise would be. OK, OK, fine. I admit it, I dropped a few hints. There were some things that I was not crazy about, so I tried to steer them away from said items.

So I was tickled when Christmas morning rolled around, and I found that Jessa had actually listened to me. I unwrapped this sweet little pink bracelet with a lovely sentiment.

Yep, it says #1 Mom. What mother could possibly argue with that, right?

So I immediately put it on, and I have been wearing it lots since Christmas. And boy does she notice, too. She checks pretty often to see if I am wearing it.

Well, a week or two after Christmas, I was fussing at her about something. And she was giving me a really hard time. She has been almost a teenager lately with her little attitude. She is so advanced. Yeah, I know, we are so proud.

At this particular moment, I had just about had enough. I cannot even remember what the issue was, and I really cannot remember exactly what either of us said. I feel pretty safe in saying that whatever I was being "the meanest mom ever" about was "ruining her life," though.

She was looking at me with daggers,
and then, she glanced at my wrist.

I saw her eyes flash as she thought of a great idea.
She knew just what to do.
She folded her arms.
She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
And she looked straight at me and said, "Mom. Do you want me to take that back?"
I tried not to smile or laugh and asked with a very straight face, "Take what back, Jessa? What are you talking about?"
She motioned toward my wrist that was decorated quite nicely with my new pink bracelet.
I said, "Well, if you think you need to."
This was not the answer she was hoping for.
She huffed out of the room and within about 6 minutes, she liked me again. She may have even thought I deserved the title so boldly written on my new pink bracelet again.

I cannot imagine what she thought would happen. Like if I was faced with the threat of having my Christmas present reclaimed that I would change my tune and stop being so mean and totally unreasonable about allowing her to play in the snow in her bathing suit or whatever super great idea she was trying to sell to me.

Oh, Jessa!

The teenage years are going to be so much fun, don't you think?!

S-s-s-now!

Yay for snow! We have already gotten quite a bit this year. We even enjoyed a white Christmas which is a pretty big deal for us. Of course, Atlanta even had a white Christmas this year, too, which is just nuts, am I right?

We are still enjoying playing in the snow at least once a day every time the cold white stuff appears. It has been so cold, though. I try to weigh being a responsible mom and saying that it is simply too cold with being a party pooper. Plus, I know how exciting snow can be when you are a small person, so I try to just go with it.

They have both perfected their sledding skills this year. This is something that they are way better at than me since they have already seen more snow than I ever did as a child.
Jessa has gotten the layering down to an art. Although sometimes I think she goes a tad overboard.

We have built a snowman - their first one ever! In the south, I grew up thinking that if you ever got snow that meant you could have a snowman. I have learned that sometimes the snow is not the right consistency. Unfortunately, my children do not get this when I try to explain it.
We have created snow beds, which appear quite comfortable to me. Spencer even said he wished he could sleep in his snow bed all year. Even in summer.

And I have gotten lots of awesome shots of these sweet snowy faces!

Of course, we have also enjoyed gallons of hot cocoa to warm us up after we get too cold outside.
Oh, and as much as Molly LOVES the snow, she loves burrowing and digging and rolling and running. . .

Max, well, he is not too keen on it. He keeps looking at me like, "Lady, we're from Georgia!"

I hope that y'all have had lots of wintertime fun this year, too!

And here's hoping for more snow and more snow days. . .

New year's Blogolution

Y'all. I have been bad. And it has totally not been my fault. Well, I guess it has been. But I have just not had any free time. Things have been so very busy. And even before this month, I was slacking. Big time slacking. And I know it disappoints my loyal readers. Like my friend Tara, she has been SO proud of the way I have been a pretty consistent blogger all this time. I feel that I have let her down.

But it is hard for me to justify sitting down to indulge in posting a funny story or cute pictures when we are all about 1 day away from having to turn out underwear inside out. Or when you cannot even see the coffee table in the den. Or when I have a stack of "stuff" to take care of for one of my many commitments.

And here's the deal: I MISS IT! I love typing and sharing my stories. My babies and my family are the most important things in my life. And they make me laugh and smile every day. And when I do not have this outlet, I am missing something. So I have missed typing my stories and preserving my memories since I know I am going to forget so many of their funny sayings and quirks over time.

So I am going to try to be back. And I am going to try to hold myself accountable and stick with it. Because I know that I am happier when I am blogging away. Ever since I started blogging, I even see the world in terms of "Oooo, I can't wait to post this!" I even start composing posts in my head sometimes. So I am thinking I need to unload some of this info, don't you?

It is now 2011! And my New Year's Resolution is to jump back into blogging.
Please stick with me. I am back! I really am!
Here goes. . .