soak it up

You know that saying, "watch what you say"?
Well, clearly I'm not doing such a good job at that.

A month or so back Gage and I were talking about college as we were laying down to sleep.  Sure, he's only six but he likes to talk about these things, ok?  Finding myself a tad humorous at the moment, I spout out something like, "yeah, you're going to college...but Zuzu?  nah, she's going to jail."  She was there.  She didn't react much.  Gage and I laughed.  It was over.

Or so I thought.

Then, a few weeks later we're walking home from the park and Gage is on one of his *I don't want to grow up* kicks.  Out of nowhere he announces that he does not want to go to college.  At which time Zuzu follows, rather nervously with, "and I don't want to go to jail!"

Honestly, I had no idea where she got that from.  I walked a bit in silence racking my brain to figure out where that came from when BOOM.  I found it. 

Oops.

I explained that no, she wasn't ever going to jail and that mommy had just been joking.  Zuzu, in fact, would go to college just like her brother.  Done?

Nope.

Tonight as we're getting ready for bed the subject of college comes up again.  Zuzu turns to her Grandma and asks, "is college like jail?"

Imagine Grandma's surprise.

truth be told

Well, here we go again. Santa has retreated back to the North Pole so the Tooth Fairy has consumed us.

Gage asked me the other night whether or not she was real. (Of course he prefaced the question with something like, "I know you're not going to want to hear this but...") I paused for a moment trying to figure out how to respond. Then he hits me with, "C'mom mom, all my friends at school are dying to know. We talk about it all the time. We don't think she's real but we don't know for sure. Can't you just give us the answer please?"

Us? So now the entire CLASS is depending on me? Great.

***oh my goodness.  a trailer for a movie called "tooth fairy" just came on my television.  swear.  just now.  too weird.***

Where did I leave off?  Oh yeah.  Resentment.  Truly, I'm a little resentful to whomever came up with all these fictitious individuals. Did they realize that they would be forcing parents everywhere to LIE to their children?  I will not lie.  I can not lie.  But I didn't tell the truth either.  Not gonna be that mom.  Gage will have to retreat back to school and profess to his cronies that he has the world's vaguest mother ever.


*image courtesy of the doodle girl

antique

A about a week or so ago Zuzu lovingly announced that I was "antique".  I'm thinking she heard the word on Martha Speaks although I'm also thinking she may be confusing it with the word "unique". This morning she wanted to know what "antique", "magnificent", "anxious" and "irritated" meant.  I'm not sure what the relationship between these words is, unless she believes they all define me, but she was especially concerned about antique.

This afternoon we went mini golfing with some friends. This has absolutely nothing to do with Zuzu's new vocabulary obsession other than the fact that these photos looked especially yummy when I "antiqued" them. And so we have a blog post.  I think.

sleep talkin' man

"Oompa loompas don't sing in heaven. They tidy up the clouds."
"My vision of hell is a lentil casserole."
"Vegetarians will be the first to go. That's my plan. Vegans haven't got a hope. 'I eat air, I'm so healthy...' Bollocks!"
"Don't leave the duck there. It's totally irresponsible. Put it on the swing, it'll have much more fun."
"I've got a badger, a dog, a cat, and a sack. Now that I've got 'em you can fuck off. All mine."

While Gage DOES talk in his sleep he is not quite this creative.  These are the sleep talking words of a Brit named Adam who is apparently quite a conservative gent when he is not sleeping.  His wife, in an attempt to reap some reward from her many sleepless nights, has begun to document his adventures in dreamland.  The blog is called Sleep Talkin' Man and it is absolutely side splitting hysterical.   R Rated.  But hysterical.  And they just launched a line of t-shirts too.

petite photog

The new year brought a clear realization that I must get a handle on the now 13,500 photos saved on my computer (yes, that's after an hour of editing down last Wednesday), the year and a half worth of photos that have yet to be digitally archived, and the year of prints that still have yet to be ordered and stored (and yes, that's after the six months worth that were appropriated to their albums last week). And YES, I still put photos in albums. Shoot me for being traditional like that.

Anyway, if you know me you will realize that this lack of order literally keeps me up at night. The fact that I am making small progress is good, but only exemplifies how far I still have to go.

And, alas, the new year brought us something else. A new camera. No, not mine. I have enough thank you very much. This new camera belongs to Gage. He's six. And he loves everything about it. Must run in the blood. The photos above are some of my favorites of his from the past week. I have altered the color on a few just slightly but no cropping or editing has been done beyond that.

The last photo of Zuzu on the bike was taken from a tree while she was moving.

So now I must stop blogging and get to work making room on my computer for what's to come. And somehow that makes it almost fun. Almost.

And did I mention that his camera shoots video too....?

fort gage

My first thought: damn, Gage has far too many legos

My next thought: but look at how creative we were. Our new fort has two working doors & a window. The kids are ecstatic and it was FREE!

My next thought: free? Those boxes must have cost about a grand... and where am I going to put this thing when the novelty wears off?

My final thought: damn, Gage has far too many legos

snow bunny

No reason, really. Just couldn't resist archiving this photo of Zuzu experiencing snow for the very first time. Talk about pretty in pink.

dear grandparents,

Happy New Year!
This is just a little insight into what your grandchildren have been up to during the two long weeks since I last posted here...

1. Zuzu is learning to swim. We are four weeks in and the instructor is still focusing mainly on lifesaving skills...like what to do if she ever falls in the water and needs help. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize that our children follow directions SO WELL that her screaming "Mommy" is all part of the act...


2. After a week at Grandma's Art Studio, Gage is still creating like mad.


3. Lucy is officially out of her mind and can now be accepted fully into the family.


4. Gage has an idea for yet another journal he would like to keep. This one is called his "curious book". In it he will write down all the questions that he wants answered (and that mom couldn't seem to answer without the help of her trusty friend Ms. Google and/or secretly just doesn't want to answer for fear of nightmares). Original entries will include: why can't you SEE the water evaporating into the sky? and who created halloween...and why?

5. And while we're on the subject of nightmares, when asked by the homeopath today how often Gage has nightmares his answer was, "not too much, I mean, about as much as I have goodmares".

6. And while we're coining new phrases, when trying to explain to Zuzu that Christmas happens everywhere, not JUST at her Grandma's house as she previously believed, she challenged me like this:

do they have Christmas in California?
yes, zuzu, they have Christmas in California.
do they have Christmas in San Francisco?
yes, zuzu, they have Christmas in San Francisco.
do they have Christmas in your-ami? (that would be my-ami)
(chuckle)
yes, zuzu, they have Christmas in your-ami.
do they have Christmas in our-ami?
yes, zuzu, they have Christmas in our-ami too.