Never leaving the nest...maybe

It is HOT. Okay, by our standards, 85 is HOT. The girls were very fussy today because of the heat, and it was a bit tough to get them down. I laid down with Cassidy for a few minutes, at which point she told me, "Mommy, I want to stay here forever. I don't want to leave our house. I want to live with our family for ever and ever." I told her she could stay as long as she wanted. We'll have to wait and see how this one turns out.

Mothers Day

 
The girls were kind enough to pose with me this morning. We had a BEAUTIFUL day today, and decided to head to the zoo. The girls had a ton of fun, as did I. Jeremy did great by doing most of the kid wrangling. Then we did some yard work in the early afternoon, followed up by a trip to Trader Joe's. It was quite the busy day. Keira fell asleep on the ride home with a book over her, and that pic is posted below this one. Happy Mother's Day!! 

One tired kid

  

What will your Honey-dew....

if you Cantaloup? Now that warmer weather is upon us, we are enjoying some warm weather fruits. Like melon. Cassidy LOVES melon. Now when I say she LOVES it, I am not understating it by any means. I bought two melons last week and she single handedly ate 1/4 of a GIANT honeydew, that after she ate about 1/4 of a cantaloup. You think she would be done with melon for a bit, but she still wanted it in her lunch the next day, and for dessert that night.

I had a conference with Keira's teacher this week. She informed me that Keira doesn't talk at school. She doesn't say "No" or "Mine", which made me laugh out loud. Anyone who has ever talked to me on the phone with Keira in the same room knows that Keira knows how to say those, quite loudly too.

Membership has it's privileges

For Christmas we asked for a membership to the Aquarium. For months I've been asking Cassidy if she wants to go and she has been saying no. *grumble* All that changed a few weeks ago when we found a video of an octopus attacking a shark at OUR aquarium. The girls fell in love with it. Every night before bed they want to watch it. Keira calls it "shark" when she wants to watch, but then when she sees the octopus, she says, "Modster....Rah!" Which translates to "Monster, roar". So we FINALLY made it to the aquarium this weekend. We made it right at opening, and everyone was sort of milling around waiting for the ticket booths to open. Then I saw it, the membership stand, with a teen already manning the post. I pulled out my card, and the next thing I hear is, "Let me just unlock the door for you." We had the whole place to ourselves. Okay it was only for 5 minutes, but it was great. Yes, membership has it's privileges!

Date Day

Jeremy and I used to have a weekly date night. Now it's more like a monthly date night , but we still make it out for some time without the kids. Cassidy has been acting a bit, hmmm...the word I want isn't really invented yet so I'll skip it, lately. We had a pony pals class scheduled this weekend, and I thought maybe Cassidy could use some time without Jeremy and little sis. I told her we were going to have a date, and we headed off to lunch together. After lunch, we headed off to class, and I dutifully walked by her and the pony in the POURING rain. After class we headed off to look at some other animals. To finish off our date day we headed to Starbucks to warm up with some hot chocolate and a Grande nonfat latte. (Yes I've graduated from a tall.) It was a fun time even though the weather was sort of cold and bleak. I think I have found a new date partner.

Tulip Festival

 
Oma was out last week to watch the girls while school was out. We headed to the Tulip Festival for some R&R. The girls had a blast. Even though Cassidy calls Tulip Town "Ice Cream Town" now. 

I love you a lot

Tonight after baths, Cassidy was jumping on our bed and being a little wild. She kicked me, and I asked her to apologize for hurting me. She did and then gave me a big hug. Then as she continued to jump, she told me, "Mom, I love you a lot." "I love you too." "I love you more than you me." "Oh, really. You love me more than I love you?" "Yeah. A million million more. I love you as big as Triceratops Poop, which is as big as the bath tub!" I feel so loved.

Twins

The girls made it to school today, and Jeremy and I made it back to work, for most of the day at least. The sitter called in sick, no surprise as she has what we have. Oops! So we picked up the girls and headed to the grocery store to pick up some dinner. The girls love the big grocery carts that are a truck or a race car, and they clammored in. We passed a woman, who said under her breath, "Must be twins." Then 10 feet past her, a woman asks Jeremy, "Are they twins?" Keira must be catching up quick. I would have never thought them twins as they look so different, but then again, they didn't say, "Identical Twins". It is obvious they are sisters though.

Recovering...at least the kids are

It has been a rough week for all of us. Keira had the worst of it with all the coughing and nose wiping. Cassidy had a hard time as she was feeling ill, but had to deal with Mom and Dad being occupied with Keira. Then there was Mom and Dad. Juggling work schedules, telecommutting and never letting Keira's feet hit the ground have been the norm. Now that the weekend is upon us, and the weather is great, Mom and Dad have sore throats and want to sleep all day. Keira, can you get Mommy some juice??

Croup, anyone?

This weekend I kept thinking I needed to blog. The girls were doing all sorts of stuff, that I have already forgotten. Darn! I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo, short-term memory loss. What was that? Oh yeah, Keira was up most of the night coughing. I suspected the *croup*, so I set Jeremy up by the cracked window for her to settle down. We took her in to the pediatrician and yup, it's the *croup*. So now Jeremy and I have to juggle schedules to accomodate the girls staying home for the rest of the week as they are "highly contagious". It won't matter soon, as the doctor asked which one of us had had laryngitis. Neither. "Well, when you do get it, now you'll know who to blame." Neh-ber!!

NEVER!

Cassidy has been playing Dr. Jeckyll and Ms. Hyde lately. One minute she's being a little angel, and even asks, "Mommy, am I being nice?" The next minute, she's fussy, bossy and mean at the same time. I'm not sure where she picked it up, but when she's a real funk and you ask her to do something she yells, "NEVER!" at the top of her lungs. Which is quite funny, in 20 years... We told her that Keira would copy her if she kept doing it, so we started giving her punishments for yelling this. It stopped, for a few weeks. It surfaced again this weekend. *sigh* Jeremy just picked up Keira to take her to bed, and she started fussing. Jeremy said to her, "It's time for bed." and Keira yelled out, "NAHBER!" Why did we have to be right?

Who's prettier?

 
I just found this picture on my camera. Seems Dad took it the other morning when Cassidy was helping Mischief get glamoured up for the day. Cassidy had asked me to put braids in her hair, and I swear she just looks angelic when she has them in. Which only lasts about 5 minutes since her curls just want to jump out. 

Birthday Circle

Montessori does a nice thing for birthdays called Birthday Circle. The have a mat with the solar system on it, and light a candle for the sun. Then the child holds a globe of the Earth and walks around the sun for each year. Very cute. They also ask you to write down memories so the teacher can share them with the class. For when she was born the teacher read off that "Oma" was waiting at home. The teacher asked who Oma was. "Oma is my grandma and so is Oma Grandpa. And I have another grandma too. Nana and Nana Grandpa. Oma is my Mom's Mommy and Nana is Daddy's Mommy. But they are my grandmas. Oma and Nana." Jeremy and I had a hard time not laughing out loud. I fully expected a report on what kind of hair they each had and what type of glasses to come out of her mouth next.

Breakfast and Lower Case Teacup

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of Keira fussing...from downstairs. She woke up early and headed downstairs to see what was going on. When no one was there and it was dark, she got a little worried. I actually found her trying to open the door to the garage. Poor thing thought maybe we had left her. Well, once I called to her, she was quite happy to tell me it was time to eat. So into the pantry we went, but I had to leave to let the dog out. When I came back, Keira had decided on her breakfast, oatmeal, and pulled out all the ingredients. Oatmeal, raisins, and brown sugar.

Jeremy took Cassidy to the doctor for her checkup. They did an eye test. Before doing the test, the nurse showed Cassidy the different symbols. Star, teacup, circle. Cassidy read the first line no problem. Then when she started on the next smaller line Cassidy read off, "Lowercase O, lowercase star, lowercase teacup." The nurse said, "I bet she knows her alphabet too". Jeremy was beaming.

Sledding Photo

 
We went sledding last weekend and the girls LOVE the snow. Here's a great shot before we went down the hill of flying death. 

The Hunt for a Family Car

Despite Jeremy's Mini being able to hold 2 car seats, it doesn't deliver 2 kids every day so well. So we have started the discussion about what we should do. Mini van? Hybrid SUV? Wagon? Well, Jeremy decided to ask the girls what they thought we should get. Cassidy was quick to answer, "a truck". Seems logical. "With mail in it. So we could be the mail man, and deliver all the mail with all the other mailmen." Hmm...sliding doors are standard.

Sledding

Something unusual has been occuring in Seattle lately. It's been SUNNY! So we decided to try and enjoy it this weekend. We headed up to the Cascades and went sledding. The girls were really excited. We climbed to the top of the hill, jumped on the sleds and pushed off. Well, we must have purchased the Olympic sleds, becuase we FLEW down the hill. Lots of fun as you're going down, but then you get towards the bottom and you aren't slowing down. There's orange fencing set up, before the 5 ft snow bank overlooking a road. *gulp* I had Cassidy with me, and I had no idea how to stop. We cracked into the netting, broke a pole, but thankfully didn't go farther. I thought, "Well, that's the end of sledding for the day". I asked Cassidy if she was all right. "Yeah. That was scary." Just as I figured. "Let's do it again!" SWEET. Amazingly though, the girls weren't into it as much as Jeremy and I. Keira managed 2 runs, and Cassidy 4. Still it was a great time heading up to play in the snow.

Less blogging

I'm sure that many of you have discovered that the biggest problem with me going back to work is the decrease in the amount of blogging going on. I think of things at work, but don't want to blog them at work. I just don't want to say something, like work was yucky one day, and come in the next day to find I'm no longer needed. ;) So here are some quick catch-up's on the girls. Cassidy came home last week and told us she was learning about "Alien-fabians", which turned out to be amphibians. Keira LOVES to sing along and dance. She also starts singing "Twinkle twinkle little star" when she sees a picture of a star. Awww.... Cassidy informed me yesterday that there is something that is always behind you, beside you and in front of you. Do you know what it is? Well, I'll give you a hint, it was a sunny day and we were outside. Your shadow! She then decided to try and get her shadow and chased it on to the garage where she finally 'caught' it. Keira is starting to get the idea of playing games as a group. Yesterday, she participated in Red Light, Green Light. It was hard to make out which color she was saying, but she loved it when we got to her. She also, mostly, followed the rules when someone else was the stop light.

An Official Seattlite

I never thought this day would come. I mean, who NEEDS a coffee every day. And when I say coffee, I mean Seattle's version of coffee, which is a latte. My new job has turned me into a Starbucks junkie. Seems all I can think about is when I'll get my "tall, non-fat, half de-caf, sugar free vanilla latte". Yes, I have an order. Even more amazing, the worker at Starbucks recognized me on Friday. My job is located a nice little walk away from a Starbucks, which is why I thought I was taking a break in the afternoons. Take a walk, and might as well get something while I'm out. Haha! I'm so hooked now, this weekend I actually went to one of the coffee huts while we stopped at a gas station. Even crazier, I can tell you that those huts are better than the big chains. Cheaper and tastier. And what ever it is they put in the lattes up here, it's got me hooked.