Family Fun Adventure

It was 4:45 and we were nearly home.  We'd had a late lunch and a noisy afternoon downtown at Palmer Events Center, where we'd gone to the "Camp Fair" to gather information on the myriad summer day camp choices for the kids:  dance, science, performance, art, golf, nature, language immersion, just to name a few.

After the fair we'd walked to Sandy's and stuffed ourselves with frozen custard, then walked back to the car and - finally, it seemed - headed home.

We were nearly there when Twin Daddy said, "We should go to San Antonio right now."  I raised an eyebrow.  "Really," he said.  "It's been so long since we've been there."

I thought of the wet laundry waiting in the washer, the pile of mail on my desk, my overstuffed closet I'd promised myself I'd finally clean this weekend, the tired kids in the backseat.  "Ok," I said hesitantly.

"Girls, what do you think, do you want to go to San Antonio right now and stay in a hotel?"  he yelled to the backseat.

"Yeah!!"    

"Ok," I said again, still not sure how this was going to go down.

Twin Daddy laid down the plan, and the law.  "Here's how it will work.  EVERYBODY.  When we get home I'll set the timer for 15 minutes.  Everybody has to be ready when the timer goes off, or we don't go.  If anybody cries, 'uncle' and says they just can't make it, we won't go."

The girls and Twin Daddy seemed so excited that I finally gave in.  "Ok!" I said, meaning it this time.

And so the great Family Fun Adventure began.  Twin Daddy gave us girls a one minute head start and we all sprinted into the house to get ready.  By the time the 15 minute timer sounded, all 4 of us had packed an adequate overnight bag and Twin Daddy had booked us a last minute bargain at a 4 star hotel on the Riverwalk using Priceline.com.  We were off.

On the way, Twin Daddy made us all pinky swear that we would have a good time, no fighting, no whining, no arguing.  "Fun" was the number one rule for our Family Fun Adventure, no matter what happened.

The rule held, despite some disappointing traffic, overcrowding at Casa Rio that pushed us to a less-than-stellar restaurant, a horrible margarita for Twin Daddy that I sent back on his behalf, and a very late night for the girls.  It was fun, and there was no fighting, no whining, and no arguing.

This morning, after a fairly decent night's sleep, I ordered room service so I could get a good cup of coffee and the girls could stay happy.  After a trip to the Alamo that teetered on whiny due to complaints about thirst and hunger, we bought the commemorative $25 photo to memorialize our Family Fun Adventure, and stopped at El Mirador to stuff ourselves happy with Mexican food one last time.  The drive home was peaceful and quick, thanks to the "Nancy Clancy" audiobook on Twin Daddy's phone.

Family Fun Adventure #1: a rousing success.

Things that Happened Today

Things I heard Turtle say before noon:
"I'm not going to church with you, you bad woman!"
"Daddy, when can we start painting our nails?"
"Mommy, when can I dye my hair?"
"I want to go to a private school!"

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Twin Daddy asked the girls if they wanted to help him hang Christmas lights outside.  They both said, "Yes" and immediately began talking about changing into new outfits to help.  Monkey put on her current daily staple - an red satiny Annie dress costume, complete with wig and shiny black patent leather mary janes.  Turtle put an orange NASA astronaut jumper, with brown boots.  They are walking around like that in the front yard now, checking for burned out lights.

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A woman at church complimented me on how well-behaved the girls were during the service.  "Really?"  I said.

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I found out our 7-year-old neighbor got an iPad. Granted, it is a combined birthday and Hanukkah gift from parents and grandparents.  But still.  I may ask her mom to hide it from my kids when they are over so they don't get any ideas.  You've heard the things Turtle says.  

Turtle can read!

Despite my long months of neglecting this blog, I think of it often.  Tonight I had to post because I can officially say that Turtle knows how to read.  She and Monkey just turned 5 yesterday and I will admit that I expected them to be reading months ago.  They have been able to sound out words beautifully for awhile but the smooth reading wasn't there.  Turns out we didn't have the right books!  We bought the girls Series 2 of the "Bob" books for their birthday http://www.bobbooks.com/bob_books_set_2.php and Turtle opened them up today and read three books in a row, out loud, smoothly and with almost no assistance.  Turtle also draws better than I do, but that's another topic.

Monkey is not quite there on reading and I expect it will take her a couple more months.  She can focus on following directions for building Legos for a lot longer than Turtle, so I know she has different strengths.  But still.  Despite my mostly successful attempts to keep my Type A personality under wraps when it comes to mothering, I know I'm about to go Tiger Mom all over both of them on reading now that the first big threshold has been crossed. I've already read several "Ramona" chapter books out loud to them, and we are now reading both "The Borrowers" and "Charlotte's Web."  If they aren't both reading at a second grade level by the time they start kindergarten next year, I will consider myself a total failure.  (and I'm only kind of kidding).

The Laundry Fairy

Yesterday evening I had two big piles of unfolded laundry on our dining room table, one in the dryer, and one in the washer.  I sighed and said, "I wish the laundry fairy would come and fold all these clothes for me."  Then I sat down on the couch and put my feet up, planning to resume the laundry after I rested a bit.

A few minutes later Monkey walked into the living room wearing her big pink wings and smiling.  "What are you playing honey?"  I asked.  She said, "I'm the laundry fairy and I'm here to help you!" That was so cute I forced myself off the couch and back to the laundry.  Monkey is a pretty excellent helper in general, and she really was a little laundry fairy last night.  She kept getting distracted by her arguments with the "invisible baby tooth fairy" who kept trying to get her to leave and go collect teeth in the neighborhood, but she sternly told the invisible baby tooth fairy, "No, I can't go right now" repeatedly, and stuck to her job.

Now that the laundry has been washed and put away, I'm hoping Turtle will stop complaining, as she did all last week, that "Nothing in my closet is pretty," and "my clothes are all ugly" and "I look stupid" and all the other four-year-old versions of "I have nothing to wear."  It was really aggravating and of course, worrisome, but I think the problem was that her three favorite dresses had been dirty for awhile and she couldn't stand the choices presented by the other dozen+ beautiful dresses in her closet, most of which she has picked herself.

What I'll be when I'm a grown-up

This is Monkey's list of what she'll do when she's a grown-up, she just gave it to me in a sing-songy voice:

"I'm going to go to space, and build things, and fix things.  And do ballet.  And art.  And be an old woman."

This came after Turtle's announcement (she was mad at me) that when she was a teenager she was going to go a whole week without talking to me.

I'm pretty sure both girls' statements are true.

Discussions

In the past week, Monkey has all of a sudden started saying, "Oh. My. Gawwd" like a 1980s teenager, and pretty much using it in the proper context.  I asked her today, "Monkey, where did you hear someone say that?"  "From you," she replied.  You know, like in those commercials about smoking pot? "I learned it from YOU."  Anyway, I thought that was the case but wanted to make sure I was right to be feeling so mortified by my vocabulary.  

This morning I was taking the girls to a bouncy house (!) playdate, and we'd been in the car about 2 minutes when Turtle popped out with, "Mommy, does God live in space?"  So after I struggled through that answer, she immediately asked, "Mommy, which one is your sweet tooth?"  I burst out laughing, but was able to give a shorter and less tortured answer to that.

 

Conversation and Pink baseball gloves

This morning on the way to school one of the girls asked, "Mommy, when will I be 4 and 3/4?"  This turned into a conversation about birthday parties.  I asked, "Where do you want to have your birthday party?"  They replied, in unison, "Pump It Up!"  I have been to approximately ten thousand birthday parties at Pump It Up and was chagrined to hear this.  They then suggested another bouncy house place where I've only been to five thousand birthday parties.  I suggested a few non-bouncy places that they seemed to think were ok, so we kind of tabled the location discussion as this conversation ensued in the back seat:

Turtle: "Sissy, want to have a Cinderella birthday party?"  [cut to Mom in front seat, closing her eyes and shuddering.]  Turtle continues: "I mean, a Princess party?"

Monkey: "Sissy, I don't want to have anything nice.  I want to have a Star Wars party."  [Mom grins.]

Turtle: "Well, how about a Wizard of Oz Party?"

Monkey: "Maybe."

Turtle: "I could have a Dorothy cake and you could have a tin man or scarecrow or whatever."

Monkey:  "I want a Yoda cake.  And a Pin the something on the something Game.  Pin the sword on Luke."

Turtle:  "Pin the light saber on Yoda!"

Monkey: "Yeah!"

We were at school at that point, so the discussion is on hold.  We always get two cakes, but I think we may have two themes this year, too . . . .

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On a side note, I'd like to report a follow up to my long ago post "No More Pink Baseball Gloves." (May 2009).   I drew a line in the sand in that post, and while I have had to give up many, many of my preconceived notions about what I would and would not do as a mother to girls, I am happy to report that this one has stuck.  Twin Daddy took the girls to get baseball gloves at Academy a couple weeks ago, but before they left, he gave them (Turtle) a talk about what color glove was acceptable (brown or black) and what was not (pink, blue, purple), no matter what was at the store or what our neighbor had.  They returned from Academy with respectable baseball gloves and happily played catch in the backyard.  Turtle may play catch in a pink dress with sparkly silver dress shoes, but at least she's got a decent glove (and a decent throwing arm to boot!).