Seven Quick Takes (Vol 10)

Oh, where to begin....

1. Katie is the queen of kisses. At eighteen months old, she kisses everyone and everything. It's really too cute. I think it's because she has the urge to bite a lot, and then changes her mind because she knows that the kisses are more acceptable behavior. I do believe the sweetest ones she gives me, though, are the ones I get when I'm trimming her toenails. Yes, dear readers, trimming her toenails. I have her sitting on my lap facing forward and I'm leaning over her shoulder snipping away at the teeny nails, and she turns her head and plants a big one right on my cheek. I love it.

2. Maddy has outgrown her last pair of jeans this week. I find this frustrating because I really hoped that pair would get her to shorts weather. They fit fine the other day, and then today she sat down and they popped unsnapped. Darn. I picked her up a pair at Walmart in the size she wears most everywhere else and they're too big. Double darn.

3. On a lighter note, I bought a mop. When I was picking it out, Maddy asked me what it was. (A sure sign that I don't clean nearly enough.)

4. Billy, my dear husband, could use some prayer. His psoriasis has flared and he is very uncomfortable right now. (By the way, I just learned the other day on another blog that the "DH" I'm seeing in all these women's blogs stands for dear husband. I knew they were referring to their husband, but I had no idea that's what it meant. I think it's a little much. They're not dear all the time.)

5. I actually sat down and had some Bible time with Maddy the other day. This was big for us, because honestly, I'm horrible at just making the time to read it myself. I sat down to read a bit, then she came along and started interrupting and asking questions. I started to get irritated and then realized, well instead of just reading, I guess I could act upon what it said. So she flipped and randomly asked me what things said and we went through a couple of Psalms. If I said "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord", she'd go "Woo HOO!". She acted out a few verses and we had fun together.

6. Katie wakes up grumpy from her nap almost EVERY DAY. By this I mean, about once every two weeks or so, she'll take a good long nap and wake up happy. The rest of the time, she wakes up crying and an emotionally fragile wreck. We usually grab a snack and put something on TV that brings her joy and I hold and coddle and pet until she can get a grip on herself. This usually takes at least 30 minutes.

7. All of you out there with kids who have normal poopy habits, thank your God right now. It's something so easy to take for granted, but we're going into year four of Maddy's issues and while she goes regularly now, we still run into her trying to hold it, etc. (Of course, it's really hard to hold it when you're on 3 teaspoons of Miralax a DAY. Therefore I have to wash out panties quite regularly. I refuse to put her back in pull-ups because then, she thinks it's all good and not a problem to have little accidents on the way to the potty.)

Feel free to check out the everyone else's quick takes over at http://conversiondiary.com.

Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 9)

1. We saw the Parthenon when we visited Nashville. I have to say, that big ol' Athena was pretty impressive. I've been a mythology nut since I was about ten, so seeing her was pretty cool. I was a little bothered by her face, though. It didn't go so well with her body. What do you think?


2. Maddy is in the "knock knock joke" phase. Need I say more?


3. I have learned to make homemade mac and cheese (as in no box and no orange cheesey powder). I wish I hadn't. I don't make it often but when I do, I eat ginormous amounts of it. The sauce is about a million times better than the boxed stuff and I just lap it up.


4. Katie has reached the point where she thinks she's speaking understandable English, but those of us who live with her beg to differ. So I end up with her in the high chair pointing randomly around the kitchen screaming something that sounds like "oooooo" and getting more frustrated by the minute that I don't understand. This happened today and when I got her out of the high chair, I discovered a heinous, large pOOp that was burning her bottom up. In my defense, when I asked her to say poop, it sounded nothing like what she had been saying in her high chair.



5. I am going to read a Joshilyn Jackson book. I have a link to her blog on my blog and I think she is hilarious. It's not often that I read something and laugh out loud, but she makes me. My favorite quote from her post yesterday is, in reference to her cat, "Boggart is hell’s twinkie and he has DEMONS where the cream filling should go." Is that not funny?



6. Have I mentioned that I tend to avoid Christian fiction? I have trouble reading any book that isn't written well. I have read Christian fiction that is well-written, but not very often. I have to say that Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is a good one. And, of course, anything C.S. Lewis has ever done is great, including his science fiction.



7. My oldest has a lot of OCD tendencies. One of her most recent adventures in anal retentiveness involved her stuffed animals. She has quite a lot of stuffed animals, large and small. She has two plastic bins in her closet, one for the large ones and one for the small. After telling her repeatedly the other night to straighten up her room, I walked into her closet and just tossed them into whichever bin they happened to land in. Right before bed, she noticed this and lost it....to the point that I realized she wouldn't even be able to sleep with them in the wrong places. So after threatening to make her go to bed without redoing them, I let her put it to rights while I put her sister down. She finally climbed into bed and I noticed a couple of small stuffed animals that had not been put away, I grabbed them and tossed them into her closet. She proceeded to want to get out of bed to check and make sure that I put them in the right place. I assured her that I had and then looked her in the eye and said, "Mommy does not LIE. If I told you I put it in the right place, I did." She has trust issues, too.