Swimming at PopPop and Grammy's house today

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Let's go on a swing...

Let's go on a swing
Feel the air
Through your hair
Swinging, swinging, on a swing.

Lately... whenever the girls are on the swings... I can' help but start singing this song that's on one of our Wiggles dvds.  Without fail, they go on the swings... and there's that song.  It's not a bad song.  I'm just convinced that I will now never ever be able to see swings without thinking of the Wiggles.

Sigh.

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The difference between sad and happy.

Sad...

Happy...

Any questions?

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(My only question.... which has nothing to do with this actual post...why is the photo quality on my blog so crappy???  Have my photos been looking bad to you?  They look fine if I click on them and open them on a separate screen... but they look awful just looking at the actual blog.  Thoughts?)

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I believe binkies keep you safe.

Zoe - Look at me!  Aren't I just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Ana - Um, yeah... I'm not so sure about that.  I see that glint in your eyes.  I think I know better.  I just feel safe standing this close to you right now because I have this binky in my mouth.  And these 4 binkies in my right hand. Oh, and this 1 extra one in my left hand.

Zoe - No... really?  See?  I'm so cute.  The pose totally shows you how sweet I am.

Ana - No!  Wait!  What are you doing?  Back off!  I will totally use these binkies to protect myself!
Zoe - Really... I promise... I'm being a nice big sister today.

Ana - OK, fine.  But only because I've got all these binkies.

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Slightly Trapped

Ana and I were trapped while spackle and plaster were sanded. At least we were trapped with the TV, computer, and food!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Wordless Wednesday - Chocolate Face

Make sure to visit Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom!

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Favorite Florida Photos (from February)

Yikes.  February was a whole 40 degrees ago (or something).  Still... here are my favorite shots from that trip.

Ana's first time using the CARES harness. 

Gracie's stroller is facing the wrong way.  PopPop was getting Aunt Pru a wheelchair.  I was taking the photo.  But... this is the closest thing we got to a group photo.

Zoe and Avery a true bestest buddies.

Gracie with a cheek full of hotdog.

Ana is big time into "I DO MYSELF".  If she could have pushed herself in the stroller she probably would have.

What day at Seaworld would be complete if it was missing the dolphin photos?

Sunbathing.

The merry-go-round was a little fishy.  heehee

Not a great shot... but would you just look at Zoe?!?!  She LOVES rides.  It seems like the faster and crazier the better.  (She gets that from me.)

Zoe and Pop George doing a puzzle.

I've said it before... and will probably say it a dozen more times... my parents pool deck area has the BEST lighting. 

Zoe practicing her back stroke.  It was freezing... but Zoe insisted the water was lovely.

I was in Florida for my birthday... so I was able to share a cake with my grandfather.  Pop George and I have shared a lot of birthday cakes since my birthday is the day after his.

We had another really great family visit.  I'm so happy we get to go as often as we do. 

(And... um... we're going again at the end of April.  Ahem.)
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The girl... she likes her necklaces

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Pride and Heartbreak

Zoe got an Easter card in the mail from Grammy (before Easter).  It was a card she was excited about... a big pretty tri-fold card where the entire inside was made to color.  It had nice bold outlines.  The picture was of 5 big Easter eggs sitting in the grass in a row.  The eggs were in 5 different patterns.  A striped one, a swirly one, a checkered one, a flowered one, and one plain.  There were a couple of bees and a big sunshiny sky.  It was a great coloring picture.

The card got put up our shelf to be displayed with the other cards we received (the shelf where we always put birthday cards and anniversary cards and whatever cards).  Yesterday I took the cards down and asked Zoe if she wanted to color the inside of her card.  She had forgotten all about it... but was excited to rush and get her colors out.

Zoe decided to color with markers instead of crayons.  Nice bright cheerful markers.  She sat at the dining room table (rather than her small "tiny table" in the TV room).  She made a big deal about it.  I sat at the computer while she colored.  She finished 1 egg and called me to come look at it.  After I'd given it the appropriate amount of oohing and aahing she told me to go away and she would call me to see the next egg.  I went back to the computer... she colored.  She showed me another brightly colored egg.  All reds and yellows and blues.  I praised... she sent me away.

Slowly through the afternoon she colored the eggs.  She took a snack break.  She watched some TV.  She colored.  4 beautifully colored eggs were showed off one at a time.

At about 5pm the UPS man came to the door.  I was in the kitchen.  Zoe ran to the door with Nick to see what the packages were... and if anything was for her.  She and Nick looked at the labels.  Nick told her it looked like the new pillows I'd ordered had arrived.  She wondered aloud why the boxes weren't for her.

I came out from the kitchen to take a look at our fancy new pillows.

I found Ana perched in a chair at the dining room table.  A black marker in her chubby little hand.  She was coloring in her 21 month old toddler scribble.  The blackest crayola marker scribble you could imagine.  The blackest scribble on the 5th and last uncolored egg on Zoe's card.  I said "Ana! Oh no!" I think she looked at me and said "I color!" with a big proud smile.  I looked at Nick as he walked over and I told him that the world was just about to implode in our dining room.  It was going to be ugly... and there wasn't anything we could do about it.

Zoe left the packages in the living room to see what we were doing... and she saw Ana... and she saw the black marker... and she saw the big black scribble on her 5th egg.  I can not quite explain the anger.  It was ugly.  It was red faced and involved screaming and crying and snot.  It involved the quick crumpling and trashing of 5 lovingly colored eggs (4 by Zoe... and 1 by Ana).

Zoe did a lot of crying and screaming and kicking and stomping.  Screaming that involved telling Ana how mad she was and "bad Ana VERY BAD ANA!"  Ana also did a lot of crying that I can only imagine involved some confusion.  Ana asked Zoe a few times "Happen Zoe?  Happen?"  which got more screaming.  We gave Ana hugs.  We gave Zoe hugs once she stopped refusing them.  Ana said "Sorry Zoe.  Sorry Zoe." in the sweetest way.  She wasn't quite forgiven.

Zoe eventually calmed down.  She eventually agreed to do some "work" in her special preschool workbook.  We oohed and aahed more than was probably necessary over her matching letter sounds and circling which group had more and counting butterflies.  Ana watched Zoe... and Zoe made sure Ana knew the book was her book.  We took out Ana's crayons and she colored on the easel.  2 girls happily worked.  Dinner was eaten.  The evening went on.

Oh the drama.  The heartache over 5 colored eggs.

I so wish I had pulled that card back out of the trash before the garbage went to the curb last night.  I'm wishing I could look at it closely just one time at least.

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I know you wish you were me.

I am now going to share with you the joy of motherhood AND texting all at one time.  I will do this just by sharing my last 2 texts to Nick (my wonderful husband who is in Houston and is so unfortunately missing my day).  Exciting right???

Texts:

(5:06pm) Me - Btw we r havin a BARFTASTIC afternoon.

(5:17pm) Nick - You, or the kids?

(5:17pm) Me - I feel REALLY crappy.  Zoe is barfing.  Ana wants to wear the barf bucket as a hat.  And it's really hot.  79 degrees in the dining room with all the windows open and fans on.

(5:59pm) Nick - Sorry to hear that.


You are all jealous of my day now, right?
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I still love my Kindle (and Amazon is AWESOME)

I got my Kindle for Christmas and immediately fell in love.  I totally love gadgets.  And reading.  So it's no surprise that my Kindle is one of my very favorite things.

I will admit to you now though... it's not looking like I'm going to be very successful at my 100 books in 2010.  It's not that I'm not reading.  I have read 11 books so far this year and I'm about 67% finished with book number 12 (at least... that's what Kindle tells me).  So... 11 1/2ish books in 3 months.  That's a HUGE improvement over last year.  (I think I read 5 books the whole year.)  But, it's a far cry from the 25 books I probably should have read by now if I expect to hit anywhere near 100.  I will keep trying though.  My list is slowly growing.

I do want to take a minute to share a little customer service story... and explain my feelings on Amazon.

I've always been a fan of Amazon.  You can find just about anything there.  Their shipping is quick.  I always get what I expect to get.  I've never really had any reason to contact customer service.  But, about 2 weeks ago I realized that my beloved Kindle was developing some small cracks in the face plate right where the cover hinges attached. (I bought a leather cover to protect my Kindle which gets dragged around everywhere.)  After having a slight anxiety attack while wondering what in the world I would do... I checked Amazon for the warranty info.  I am not great at following along when reading warranty info (is anyone???) so I wasn't really sure if I would even have a chance of getting my Kindle repaired.  So... I called up customer service to see if I could get a better idea of what exactly all those warranty terms meant.  I was totally expecting them to give me a price quote on getting the faceplate replaced.  I am still not quite sure I believe what ended up happening.

They sent me a BRAND NEW KINDLE AT ABSOLUTELY NO CHARGE.

Do you want to read that again?  Go ahead... right up there... all caps. 

New Kindle.  No charge.

Derrick (my new customer service hero) told me that it occasionally happens.  He double checked my mailing info and the e-mail info connected to my current Kindle and then he immediately put in a new order to overnight ship me a BRAND NEW FREE KINDLE.  Oh, and it was shipped free.  Oh, and the return shipping on the cracked Kindle was free.  Did I mention how it was all completely free?  Can you believe that?

I think my heart just about burst with joy.

So... I still love my Kindle and I am absolutely madly in love with Amazon.

Amazon?  I love you!

As a total side note... I'm not the only one that loves my Kindle though.

Can you see in the 3rd photo that she knows exactly where to push the "next page" button?  I can't leave that thing for one minute without sliding the little button to put it in sleep mode.  I'd come back to find myself on a completely wrong page.

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She's getting speedy...

Last summer Zoe started out very very very slowly on her bike.  She is a very tentative bike rider.  Quick to slam on the brakes if she even feels like she might be going even the slightest bit too fast.  It's good she's cautious... but don't try riding a bike or even walking behind her.  She really randomly brakes.

Since it's been warming up the bike has been back out and Zoe has been trying to ride as often as possible.  That's not always too easy with Ana around.  So, we've been trying to get the bike out during Ana's snooze.  Zoe believes that she is big enough to ride around the block on her own.  I, on the other hand, think she is crazy for even thinking she could possibly be that independent already.  (When do you let them ride the bike around the block alone anyway???)  Our compromise is that Zoe can ride back and forth in front of our house... about 4 houses to the left and 4 houses to the right.  Usually there are actually cars blocking those driveways so Zoe knows right where to stop.  Then I can sit on our front step with the baby monitor (and an iced coffee and my iPhone) while Ana naps.  Happy campers all around.

The bike riding has become an almost daily event so she's getting pretty good.  She has really started flying... and you can sometimes hear a "WWWEEEEEEE" as she comes all the way down the slight hill.  She's getting much more comfortable... and a little tiny bit less quick with the brakes.  We may have a pretty speedy bike rider by the end of the summer.

I took this teeny tiny video with my iPhone.  Next time I'll have to try turning the phone sideways.  I'm finding more reasons to love the iPhone every day.  It's sad how few people actually call me though.  My phone is barely used as a phone!!!  But... it's great for spur of the moment photos and videos.  (And... I'm slightly addicted to Words with Friends.  Does anyone else play?)
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Happy Easter!

I hope your Easter is full of sunshine and smiles and plastic eggs filled with surprises!  Enjoy every moment.

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