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Why do we always hurt those we love the most?

Bobo has a ritual she follows when I leave the house, it is not all that elaborate and it makes me feel loved and missed. She absolutely must get a big hug and kiss and then she stands on the porch and waves goodbye as I drive away, and I open my window and yell that I love her and to be a good girl. Well I gather it is all a bit too sappy for my oldest to wittness because the other day as I was driving away and giving Bobo my final farwell I see her come flying out of the doorway she was standing in and fall to her knees. I stopped the car and yelled for Nick, Ella who was on the other side of the door had slammed it shut and sent Bobo flying. It was fine in the end all was forgiven and it was back to being playmates, but as I drove away I thought it is too bad that we often do treat those closest to us the worst. I know that I am sometimes guilty of being more patient with the clerk at the supermarket than I am with Nick or the girls so who I am to ask any more of them.

Fear Factor

Bobo has always been a scaredy cat but recently her fears have expanded in both scope and intensity. The phrase that escapes her mouth most frequently is "what was that noise!?" followed by "was that just you?" She gets worked up all the time and when I say worked up it is a sight you would have to witness to believe, you would think she had spent the first years of her life in a war torn country. She screams, cries, clamps her hands around her ears, sweats, and just becomes generally paranoid and miserable, the main culprits are as follows.

Fireworks
Cats
Dogs
Thunder storms
The ice maker (which she call the ice cream maker)
Trucks
Airplanes
Construction noise (they are building houses on our street and have been for the past 2 years)
Bugs
Closed doors (even when you would like a little privacy in the bathroom)
Bugaboo Creek, a steakhouse with a talking moose on the wall.

Chuck E. Cheese, Nick has a bad experience there with Bobo and to tis day when we drive by she makes us promise to never bring her there again. One of the easiest promises I will ever make in my life.

The dark, when she goes to bed the following lights must be on, our room, the guest room and the upstairs playroom. Yes they have two playrooms one upstairs one downstairs and I still have toys strewn all through the house. You should hear the reasons given for not playing in the two room dedicated to play.

Any noise that she does not know the origin of, no matter how distant the source or low the volume.

You know I could go on and on with the list, it just grows by the day and while I hope that this stage is reaching it's peak at least Nick and I can keep our sense of humor. While discussing her fears we came to the conclusion that some day her biggest fear will be running in to us in public, her friends will hear her say "what was that noise, was that my mom's car, it sounded like my mom's car"

Really

Bobo why must you yell down the stairs every night at the top of your lungs. Asking the same question each night. Mommy do we have to whisper?

And while we are on this topic why do you ask me every night if that is your seat at the dinner table, as if you have not sat in that seat at every meal since you graduated from a highchair. Never mind that every other seat at the table is already occupied. Do you really not know the answer? Because if I do not answer you repeat the question over and over your voice growing in size and pitch until I look you in the eye and say not just yes or yep or thats right, but I must tell you that yes that is your seat Bobo.

You are something else miss Bobo.

There are lots of real animals you can eat.

Something occurred to Ella the other day and she bound in to the room to share with me. "Mommy you know there are lots of real animals we can eat, like we can eat chickens that are real, or lobsters, well you can't mommy but people can. And we could eat, umm, umm well there are a lot of real animals to eat."

Sister's

Ella assures me that when they grow up they will still be the best of friends and I hope that's true.

P.S -make sure to scroll down there are a few posts with new pictures I just did not have time for the stories today.

What are you really thinking?

This look just might catch on

What do you think?

The Greenhouse

On a Saturday in July this is where we were, I will wish for these moments back when February rolls around.

It's my hair!

Last Wednesday as we rushed around getting ready for gymnastics I thought I covered all my bases and fought all my fights for this round of outings. I pulled the door open and turning back to get the girls I noticed that Ella had modified her hair, hair which I thought looked rather cute prior to her adjustments. She had pulled her bangs out of the pony tail, although I am not sure that they qualify as bangs anymore seeing how they extend just below her nose, and put a barrette in the bangs so that they hung down covering one eye and laid to the side of her nose. I did not really want to bring her to gymnastics looking like that but I know how strong willed she could be. So I thought for a second and against my better judgement made a comment. The comment was something like won't those bangs get in your way during your class countered with "NO" so I followed up with, but you are covering up your beautiful face. To which Ella replied "it's my hair, on my head and I will do what I want with it!"

Christmas Wishes

I found the girls Christmas list in my desk the other day and it made me laugh so I thought you might like to see it as well. It was created with the help of their daddy, who's handwriting is charmingly child like. Molly spirit of commercialism was not up to par and as you can see her list is a bit shorter, but luckily she has an older sister to show her the true meaning of the holiday. You can see that Ella added to her list as well as Bobo's and although I can not make out all of the item's on the list there is one that stands out under Molly's column. Fourth down Ella was thoughtful enough to add coal to Molly's wishes.

The Castle

The other day when we went to the local park they were setting up for the small carnival they have there every year. We were playing on the playground and watching the "professionals" set up all the attractions when Ella's eye caught a glimpse of a "castle", "ohhhh, I want to come back tomorrow and go in that castle!!!!" I looked around to find her castle was actually Hillbilly Village, you know the old saying one man's Hillbilly Village is another girls castle.

Mmm Mmm Good -Possibilities

Molly "may" watch too much t.v because when she saw me getting some soup cans out for lunch the other day she whined " no mama, I don't like possibilities". At the very least Campbells has come up with a catchy slogan.

Right Now

Right now Ella wants me to spell everything for her. She spends the day following me around while I do dishes or laundry or all the other things that are so much fun already and adds to the fun by making it a spelling bee. Quick spell party or wait now spell giraffe o.k here's another how about Alessandra ( a classmate). The funny thing is while I should be able to spell any of her requests with ease she actually trips me up more often than you would think. It is like my brain can not process the steps to preparing a grilled cheese and how to spell yesterday at the same time. Now I have never been a great speller but these pop quizzes are really bringing my confidence down.

Right now Molly wants to wear the least amount of clothing possible. We had one nice day toward the beginning of May when Molly declared summer had arrived, that day was of course followed by a string of cold weather but Molly did not care she wanted to wear her crocs and sun dresses. Molly tells me that any shirt with a sleeve gives her a wedgie, I think she has misunderstood the definition of a wedgie? While Ella was pretty sure we were still in the throws of a Maine winter and refused to give up her wool lined boots. All of the children in her school had moved on to shoes weeks ago but not Ella. Ella who also wears a thick cotton Christmas sweater to bed over her p.j's every night even though our 1890 house has no air circulation upstairs and is about 100 degrees even when the air temperature outside is a reasonable 65 degrees. Could they be any different.


Right now I am too embarrassed to return to our regular grocery store. Let me tell you why. On Wednesday while picking up some groceries we had a bit of an incident. It started in the check out line where Molly started to display some pretty memorable faces, I asked if she needed to use the ladies room and Molly who is terrified of public restrooms stiffened and in a panic ridden voice said no she most definitely did not. I repeated this line of questioning and she convinced me she could make it home. Just as I finished paying for out groceries I saw that she was clenching her butt and making her lovely I have to poop face. I grabbed her and the cart of groceries and ran for the bathroom while she cried rather loudly "I am going to poop my pants". The cart was slowing us down so I ditched it in the produce department and grabbed Ella from the cart remembering she had begged me to let her ride in the cart so she could leave her shoes off and in the car. Great so she was going to have to walk in a public restroom with no shoes, well I had bigger problems so we continued on to the bathroom. Did I mention that Molly's outfit of choice for this day was a leotard and pirate rain boots, well as we burst in the bathroom I am trying to wrestle the leotard off but she has her butt clenched so hard it is proving more difficult than you would imagine. As I finally free her from her outfit I see that she has already started and she continues all over my pants and all over the toilet. Ella is standing behind us plugging her nose and making faces. I calmly ask Ella if she thinks she can go get mama's bag out of the cart, a look of panic crosses Ella face as she shakes her head no and I realize that is not going to happen and probably not the best idea anyway. So I strip Molly down and throw her underpants and leotard away, then I realize the situation is still pretty bad I have no baby wipes and she is filthy and my pants don't look so good either. So I do the best I can with the thin, cheap, flimsy toilet paper and come to the realization that I am going to have to walk back to the produce section with poop on my pant leg, a daughter dressed in only pirate themed rain boots with yellow poop stains that could not be removed with mere toilet paper and another daughter trailing behind barefoot. If I saw this display I can only imagine the judgemental things I would think of this mother. But since you are reading this you will realize we all survived.

SUNDAY MORNING...

Bunny

Easter Morning 2007

Her Jacket

This is the flare that Ella has added to her coat zipper.
1. It is a shell that opens up and has a little mirror on the inside, this is a very valuable McDonald's happy meal toy that we have managed to hang on to for quite some time.
2. A flashlight ( a well loved gift from Maga)
3. A witch who has a happy face and a mean face which you spin around and change by pressing the orange button ( a well loved gift from JJ)

My girls have style-

Ella's Masterpiece

Ella made this at a the first birthday party she ever attended. She was very proud of it and gave it to me when we got home proclaiming that I could put this anywhere in the house that I wanted to. Truth be told I think it is pretty ugly but that birthday party was in November and I still haven't had the heart to dispose of the hand. It is displayed in the corner of my kitchen and every day I wall past it thinking how ugly it is sitting there but at the same time I am afraid that she may grow up right before my eye's and never create anything like it (and be proud of it) for me ever again.

Dress Up