Strange little girl...

Quiet Time recently has consisted of Mabes dressing up and either dancing to The Nutcracker or re-enacting Cinderella. Who knew she'd be such a girly girl? Up until 2 months ago, I thought I had a total tomboy. But after ballerinas or princesses get boring, she plays trains, builds things, reads books, etc., and comes out every so often to tell me what she's doing.

Last week, Mabes comes running into the family room. "Mommy! I found a bucket!" Yeah, I know, it's been there for a while--go back to your room. "I made a bucket like the man at Hee Teeter!" (Harris Teeter, our grocery store, for the non-Southerners) Uh-huh, great! Go back to your room. "I need a bell."

Sensing that I wasn't giving her my full attention, she brought this out:
"See, I need a bell. And you can give me money and I will say 'Meeeeeeerry Christmas!' and I will DANCE!" (Our Salvation Army guy is very enthusiastic.) Interesting. Some kids play doctor, some kids play school or house. My kid plays Salvation Army Bell Ringer.

And because it makes me laugh:

(she's a very serious, somber child)

Rah-rah-rah for Rocket!

When Laura came to visit last May, she warned me that she had a present for Mabes, assuming it would fit in her suitcase. It did (only after taking it to work with her, right Bora?), and Mabes was delighted with her new giant plush Rocket from Little Einsteins. She had a blast with him for the next couple of days, but after that, it just sat on the chair as more of a decoration than a toy.

In the last few months, however, Rocket has become one of her favorite toys and her best friend during quiet time. She talks to him. She plays hide-and-seek with him. They have quite loud conversations, and it sounds like they re-enact her favorite episodes of Little Einsteins during quiet time. Still, I didn't understand her level of attachment until our last night in DC.

Like most nights, she asked "what's going to be tomorrow?" I told her Thursday, and she asked what we'd do. "Well, we'll go to a museum in the morning to see dinosaurs, and then we're going to drive for a while in the car, and then we'll be home." She thought for a minute, "Not the hotel house? But Mabes' house? My green house?" Yes, is that alright? "Yeah, I need to go home, because I miss Rocket." Really? Okaaaaay...

The next morning, as I was getting ready, she decided she needed to make some phone calls, so I unplugged the phone and let her have at it. First, she called the "man at the restaurant" and told him to make us some breakfast. We'd come get it soon. Then she decided she was going to call all her toys at home and tell them she missed them and was coming home. And then she needed to talk to just Rocket for a while. They had a heart-to-heart and she was fine the rest of the morning. The whole drive home, she talked about how much she missed her toys, especially Rocket. When we walked in the apartment, I asked her if she was going to go see Rocket. She slowly walked to her room and peeked in, with that shy "I know I like you and I'm happy to see you but I'm going to play coy for a minute" act that she does with family members she hasn't seen in a while. But this is a stuffed toy. She got over it, greeted all her toys, and was happily playing with them and everything is back to normal. To this day, we can't talk about our trip to Washington or see a picture of the Capitol or Washington Monument without her mentioning that that was when she missed Rocket.

I'm kind of nervous about our trip next week. Considering baggage fees, luggage space will be at a premium so Rocket will not be going with us. (Unless of course he flies himself.) I'm hoping she'll be too distracted by family members to notice Rocket's absence, but fam: if she starts whining about missing Rocket, you'll know why. Blame Laura.

Sunday

On Saturday, Mabes got two packages in the mail: a new Christmas dress and sweater/skirt combo from Aunt Nancy and my mom (aka her fashion benefactors), respectively. People at church often comment on how well-dressed Mabes is, and I'm sure they think I spend a small fortune on her wardrobe. But the truth is, thanks to gifts like these and Ainsleigh's hand-me-downs, I have purchased very few dresses for Mabes.

I tried my best to get a decent picture, but Mabes was in an uncooperative mood. The best are:

Too bright, though that pose was completely uncoached

or

Forced smile with crazy bright background.

I just got Photoshop Elements as an early Christmas gift, so maybe someday I'll figure out how to fix the background. Or just crop her out and put her on a beach in Kauai for funsies.

And because I don't learn, I decided to try again after church, when Mabes has a permanent Louie-like buzz until bedtime (though she paused briefly to give me the stink-eye):















Mabes was particularly excited about having a new dress, since Sunday marked the start of the Nursery-to-Primary transition. Though she won't be with the big kids full-time until January, this month, all the incoming Sunbeams get to go in to Primary for Singing Time. We had prepped her pretty well, so by the time the big day arrived, Mabes proved the naysayer ("I can't believe she's going to Primary--she's crazy in nursery and is always playing and running around!" Yeah, well that's because it's nursery, and they expect them to play and run around.) wrong.

When they brought in Mabes' class, the primary kids were sitting in a big circle and singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." They led them to chairs in the middle of the circle, and when Mabes realized they were singing for her, she abandoned her reverent arms-folded-walk in favor of a huge grin and Miss America wave. She did a great job of sitting still, though later reported that she didn't know the song and therefore wasn't able to sing. I don't think they sing "Give Said the Little Stream" anymore--we'll have to work on newer songs.

If the rock fits...

As we were walking out to the car yesterday, Mabes found a rock that she had to take in the car with us. "It's my magic rock!" I wasn't sure what was so magical about the raisin-sized pebble, but hey, she likes to hold random things in the car so why object?

We got in the car and I called my mom (with my bluetooth, so it's safer, right?) to tell her about holiday plans. We were talking for all of 5 minutes when Mabes starts yelling, "My nose! My nose! My magic rock is stuck in my nose!" Oh you're kidding me. I know there comes a time when kids discover that their nostrils seem to be the perfect size for many things, but why? Thankfully, my mom was already on the phone and could hear the mayhem in the background. "You'll need tweezers," she responded with a matter-of-fact, been-there-done-that tone. I quickly got off the phone with her so I could pull over and deal with Mabes.

As luck would have it, the first place I could pull over was the park. As soon as we pulled in, Mabes gets really excited and starts saying, "Park! We're going to go to the park! I want to swing and slide and run!" Sorry, Mabes, you stuck a rock up your nose. You can't swing with a rock up your nose. I jumped in the backseat with her to see if I could get it out. Nope, too high up. She sneezed a couple of times, and even with me covering the other nostril, the rock wouldn't budge. So we headed back home for tweezers, with Mabes upset about the no-playing-with-foreign-objects-up-your-nose rule. Then I hear, "Yaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy! My magic rock jumped out of my nose!" I turned around to see a beaming Mabes pointing to an empty nostril. "The rock is gone! Now we can go to the park!" Well played, Mabes.

We went to the park. It hadn't been part of my plans, but since the only objection I had given was the rock up the nose, I figured we could squeeze in a quick trip. And then I promptly called Sarah, only to find out that I'm in for all sorts of things-up-the-nose fun, and that a 3-year-old's nose can apparently also hold several peas.

How to burn off Thanksgiving Dinner

1. Rake leaves into a large pile

2. Jump in the middle of said pile


3. Run in circles, spreading out leaf pile

4. Roll around in leaves

5. Repeat. Over and over again. Then go back in for more pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

At her library class last week, Em made almost the exact same turkey as last year. She looks a little older, and is obviously less willing to sit still for pictures.


For Family Home Evening this week, we talked about gratitude and made this "thankful turkey," where we listed things we're thankful for on each feather. He looks a little ridiculous, but it was fun.


And finally, Mabes has officially become a girly girl. She's always seemed like more of a tomboy, so I thought we'd bypass that. I was wrong. Suddenly, it's nearly impossible to get her to wear pants ("Princesses don't wear pants! Or skirts! They wear dresses!"), and she spends just about every waking minute at home in her "gowns"--which consist of nightgowns, her pettiskirt, and/or a shiny piece of red fabric tied like a halter dress. And she loves those ridiculous plastic heels. They are both her glass slippers and ballet slippers, and I'm thinking Santa will take those away when he brings her ballet slippers.


The only other thing a princess needs is a wand, so Mabes and I made one yesterday. I had seen some at Target but I could practically hear my mom saying, "I could make that..." So we did, and Mabes declared me the best mom of the day. She applied the sequins, can you tell?

Speed Demons

Last Saturday, we were uncharacteristically up and ready to go fairly early in the morning, so we headed north to the outlet mall. I needed to get some long sleeved play dresses for Mabes, but that's a different post. As we were shopping, Dave pointed out that they have a go-cart track at the mall. Dave has been wanting to drive a go-cart for a while--he said he had a "craving" for it this summer--but we stopped at a local place and Mabes was an inch or two below the 40 inch requirement, and he didn't want to go without her. But he loves go-carts, and I think he really fell in love with my family when we celebrated Becca's 13th birthday with In-N-Out and unlimited go-cart rides at Camelot.

I didn't want to get Mabes' hopes up again, because I was afraid she wasn't quite tall enough. We got there and measured her, and sure enough, she was well over the 40 inch mark. She was thrilled. She and Dave waited in line while I waited to the side, kicking myself (yes, literally...okay, not really) for not bringing my camera. And then I noticed a girl that was maybe 7 or 8, riding with her mom, just completely freaked out and screaming. When the teenager in charge of the operation signaled that there was one lap left, she screamed "thank you!" and looked positively terrified. And I just thought, "What have I done?!?!" And then overprotective Allison took over--"I should tell Dave to be careful. And that he shouldn't drive fast. Or maybe I should just go get her, I mean, who lets their 3-year-old ride a go-cart? Simply because she's tall enough? They probably assumed most kids are 4 or 5 at that height...There will probably be some horrible go-cart accident and I am the worst mother ever!"

She was fine, and (shocker) my worries were unnecessary. When they opened the gate, she ran to the first car and jumped in. Though I could barely see her head , when she came around the corner where I was standing, her smile and wave were unmistakable. And when Dave realized she was in fearless mode (she's usually quite brave, but every once in a while, silly things, like a helicopter flying overhead or a twig on the ground paralyze her with fear), he floored it and got his speed fix. He even noticed that the 2 person go-carts must have been more powerful than the others, since he was passing (!) a lot of people.

So because I left my brick-like camera at home (someday I'll join Laura and Jeff and trade mine in for a younger, smaller model), phone pictures are all I've got:

And here they are after--notice her windblown hair:

Published

Okay, not really. But two months after submission, my picture finally made it. My next goal is to get on cakewrecks.

Birthdays!

Today is Bora's birthday, and while her cousins may have beat her to the punch, Mabes is very excited to wish her aunt a happy birthday. She was quite disappointed when I told her we couldn't bake her a cake and drive it to her, nor would she be coming over for a party tonight. So yay for Bora. In the last 24 years, the world has been blessed by Laura and her obvious talents, such as her music and just general awesomeness, but let me point out the many silly reasons Laura is fabulous.

(you may have to crank up the volume, Mabes insisted on whispering)

"Sparkler hugs": Okay, this has become and Ostler-girl thing, but Laura has mastered the finger tapping/awkward breathing that make the hug both creepy and hilarious. Stairs: If you're going up the stairs and Laura is behind you, run. And cover your bum. Phone calls: Conversations generally start with "so I don't really have a reason for calling you," but then we end up talking for an hour mainly about food and/or TV. Food is at least mentioned once. Pork: I revere bacon as much as the next girl, but Laura is one of two people I know who dreams of eating a bowl of sausage like she would a bowl of ice cream. And I find this hilarious. Ice cream: it's a food group. Silly walks/prances: I don't have much to say about this, I think it's self explanatory. Humor: While I happen to think our entire family is pretty funny, Laura is exceptionally talented in this area. She has not only mastered the sarcasm necessary as an Ostler, but she is perhaps the best one at being able to take a joke and laugh at herself. I mean, she's put up with being the butt of the same joke for 12 years now, and while that may be mean on our part, I think it just shows how easy-going and fun she is. Happy birthday, Bora.

And I can't post a birthday song for Laura without mentioning my mom. Her birthday was almost two weeks ago, and I didn't post anything for her. Mabes sang to her via Skype, so my mom got to see it. But given that last month was Scream Like a Demon Month, video just wasn't happening. But rather than having Mabes sing "Happy Birthday" to Grandma again, I thought I'd share this:

If you turned up your volume for "Happy Birthday," you may need to turn it down now. About a month or so ago, my mom sent a package including CDs for the entire Primary songbook. Mabes will only let us listen to the CD with "Give Said the Little Stream." Mabes adores this CD, and while I may get a little sick of it, it makes car rides much more bearable. There are enough songs that she doesn't get bored like she does with other CDs we've tried. This is just one of the many reasons my mom is awesome: she always knows what we need. It may seem random at the time--a CD when your kid is crazy, a dress when you have an ovarian cyst, or just listening when nothing is going right--but she knows what will make you feel better. She knows when to give advice and when to hold back and let us make our own decisions. But she's always there, supporting, crying, cheering, sympathizing. I had a boss tell me once that if his kids turned out half as well as I did, he'd be thrilled. Likewise, if I turn out to be half the mother my mom is, I'll consider that a huge accomplishment.

I voted!

Because this is the first presidential election in which I've been able to vote in-person, I was really looking forward to voting on election day, getting my "I voted sticker," and really feeling a part of it. In 2000, I was out-of-state, and in 2004, I was in Oregon, which is (or at least was) absentee-only. After seeing all the clips about how long of lines they had at early voting, I was a little nervous for today, though, and was pretty mad at myself for not going early.

Mabes and I went to vote just before 10 this morning. I really wanted her to go with me, but was going to bail if the lines were really long and just go back on my own tonight. I was armed with paper, a pen, a bag of carrots, a box of raisins, and 2 lollipops if things got desperate. Fortunately, lines were pretty short (but much longer right as we finished), and Mabes stayed close as I pointed out the "special voting computers" and we talked about the election and the president. I'm sure it all went over her head, but thanks to our DC trip, she was excited to hear that this election determines who will live in the White House--"Hey, we saw the White House when we saw the Washngtn Momumin! Let's go again!"

I voted, got my sticker, and then went over to the "kids voting" section where Mabes got to cast her ballot. At the risk of sounding super cheesy, I got a little teary-eyed as I looked around the room. This is our democracy, and it's great to see it in action. And as Mabes put her ballot in the box and got her "I voted!" sticker, I realized that though she may not remember this historic election, someday I'll be able to tell her how excited she was to participate.

Boundaries, Mabes

Mabes is the complete opposite of me and Dave in so many ways, and this was only made more obvious tonight. Dave and I don't like to bother people. We're not pushy. We don't want to put people out, and would certainly never intrude. Mabes...not so much.


We went over to some friends' neighborhood, and the men took the kids trick-or-treating while the women stayed and handed out treats. Most kids are motivated by the idea of getting as much candy as possible and race door to door to get as much candy in as little time. Mabes thought it would be more fun to stay and chat, see what people were doing, and maybe even see what toys they had, as several times Dave had to pull her back as she went barrelling into peoples' houses.

(it's blurry because she's flying so fast)

At one point, they came up on a cul-de-sac party, and rather than go to where they were handing out candy, Mabes headed straight for the snack table and helped herself to some chips and candy corn, and was about to grab a hot dog when Dave caught up to her. Shortly after that, they crossed paths with a family who had a wagon. Seizing the opportunity while the kids were knocking on a door, Mabes hopped in the wagon and held tight as Dave tried to pull her out.


It was a fun night and Mabes had a blast. At one house, Mabes said loudly, "Wow, it's getting late! It's past my bedtime!" She did really well, and I was both shocked and thrilled that there was no demon-screaming tonight. Looks like the sticker chart is working!

Tired butterfly at the end of the night--notice the skiwampus wings and antennae.

Scream like a Demon Month

For all the trouble Mabes has given me in the sleep department, she's been a pretty easy going, go-with-the-flow kid. Lots of energy, but in reading "Raising Your Spirited Child," I decided that despite her sleep issues, high energy, and perceptiveness, she lacks the intensity and sensitivity that lead to the screaming tantrums that plague not only "spirited children," but most toddlers in general. Nice, I thought. I may have to be awake for hours at a time in the middle of the night, but I can handle that. I can function on little sleep. But I know myself, and knew I couldn't deal with a child who threw kicking-and-screaming fits for no reason, so thank heavens I didn't have to.

That all changed this month. It all started when Mabes threw herself on the floor screaming because she didn't like the shoes I put on her. Fine, let's change them. Then she realized we were meeting Hen(g)ry at Costco, and he'd be wearing tennis shoes, so she needed to wear her tennis shoes. Fine, change them again. Then she decided I needed to wear tennis shoes. That's where I draw the line, kid. I tried to explain that she can decide what she wears, but she's not the queen of the world and can't dictate everyone else's choices. Seeing that my logic was falling on deaf ears, I didn't even bother explaining how ridiculous tennis shoes would have looked with my outfit. We were late to Costco and I had a good laugh with Deserae about how crazy my kid was--I mean, really, who does that?

Mabes. That's who. She has continued to do this several times this month. And I must say, I prefer sleep issues. (Not that I have a choice, as they seem to be going hand-in-hand right now.) I'm hoping that this is a phase. This whole month has been rough--between Dave's trip to Singapore, our trip to Washington, and us being sick, Mabes hasn't been sleeping well and has just seemed unsettled. I'm hoping that as we get back into our regular routine, she'll be back to normal and stop this madness.

I was telling Dave how I don't like that October has become "Scream like a Demon" month, and he suggested that maybe it was a theme to go along with the spookiness of Halloween. Perhaps November will be "Gobble Like a Turkey" month--not unlikely, as there was a time when Mabes would shout "quack quack!" when she was frustrated--followed by " 'Ho Ho Ho' Instead of Hissy Fits" in December. In my mind, November works out to being something akin to the Bluth family and their various chicken dances (rent Arrested Development seasons 1-3 if you have no idea what I'm talking about, and thank me later), so I'm rather looking forward to it.

"It's my best Hawoween day!"

Tonight was our ward's Halloween party. I'm very, very sad it's over, because the promise of the Halloween party drastically improved Mabes' behavior and gave me the best night's sleep I've had in a while. (Travel+illness+girl who doesn't like to sleep at night anyway=sleep mayhem. Boo!) She was so excited for the party that several times during the day, she would randomly start jumping and clapping, yelling "I'm so essited for my Hawoween day!" We even practiced trick-or-treating with her knocking on the laundry room door so she would have the script memorized. I mean, I didn't want her freezing up and yelling "You're welcome!" or "I like toilet paper!" You never know with this kid.


Finally, after pleading with me to make it dark so we could go (I like that she thinks I control the sun), it was time to get her costume on. She had decided she wanted to be a butterfly this year, so we bought her wings and a leotard, and I made her tutu. Dave was rather disgusted when I told him about the tutu idea--"Butterflies don't wear tutus!" First of all, they do in my world. And second, since when did Halloween costumes have to be completely realistic and logical? Someone needs to watch Mean Girls again.


We went to the party and Mabes had a blast. Her friend Hen(g)ry was Spiderman, so much of the evening was spent with them chasing each other around the gym. At one point, Henry dropped to the ground in a ball and apparently Mabes wasn't paying attention (shocking), so she flipped over him. With her giant wings and fluffy tutu, it was both beautiful and hilarious, though Mabes was understandably not as amused.


And then it was on to trick-or-treating. The kids just went from room to room getting treats, but despite all our practice, Mabes saw all the candy and immediately forgot her lines. She was mesmerized.


As we drove home, Mabes just kept saying "Today is my best Hawoween day. I love my Hawoween. I think we'll have more Hawoween in the morning time! It's my best day."

Something is wrong...

Mabes opted to take a nap instead of eat lunch today.

First of all, you have to know by now that Mabes doesn't voluntarily take naps. And second, Mabes isn't one to miss a meal. So when both of those happened, we knew she was sick. Sure enough, she was running a low grade fever by the afternoon, ate about 2 bites of dinner, and then threw up on her placemat. Surprising how much she was able to expel, given that she had only had water and a couple of candy corn (bribery so she'd let me take her temp) all afternoon.

One of my greatest fears of becoming a mother was having a kid throw up. For some reason, poo completely down the legs of pants--which has happened on more than one occasion--didn't phase me, but I never thought I could handle vomit. But thankfully, my parents' reassurances of "it's different when it's your kid" had some merit. There's something so sad about a sick, subdued kid who has just thrown up on the table look at you with sad eyes and say, "uh, oh, mommy, I spit and it made a mess. I'm sorry I made a mess..." Having a stuffy nose helped with the clean-up, though. And thanks to Tylenol and a bath, Mabes was much more chipper by bedtime.

Captain's Log

After returning from Singapore Friday night, Dave told me he had to drive up to Washington on Monday for a conference. I really, really wanted to go (I mean, I'm 29, majored in political science, and had never been to our nation's capitol. That's just sad.), but given Mabes' temperament lately, I wasn't sure if this was the best idea. We decided to go for it, since I didn't love the idea of a jet-lagged Dave driving 7 hours by himself.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Tuesday morning, we dropped Dave off at his conference and then it was time for us to see the city. Given that I hate driving in big cities, Washington streets are confusing, and Mabes' insistence on questioning/commenting on EVERYTHING (and demanding an answer), the day was pretty amusing. Oh, and wanting to tear my hair out from listening to the same Primary CD for the 28th time in a row didn't help either. We parked at Potomac park and walked around. Immediately, Mabes tore off and ran down the grass to look at the boats, lost her footing, and slipped in a puddle of mud. I had a change of shorts, but she had to wear the dirty shirt. Why is mud the same color as poop? We walked a lot, watched planes land at Reagan airport, and walked to the FDR memorial. The Lincoln Memorial was just a little farther, but Mabes was getting tired of walking, so we started heading back to our car and stopped at the Jefferson Memorial. I tried to explain that it was a special place and we had to be very quiet, and she did pretty well. She threw a fit after we left, but hey, she was good at the memorials.

World War II Memorial

We went back to the hotel, had lunch, and she took a nap. She's doing her wide-awake-for-2-hours-in-the-middle-of-the-night-for-funsies thing again right now, so that, combined with the morning of walking, made for a nice nap. We picked Dave up from his conference, and headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Again, lots of walking, but Mabes put up with it.

Lincoln Memorial

Dave and Emaline at the Lincoln Memorial

On the way into the city, we passed by the Air Force Monument. Mabes decided that this was scary, and kept saying that it was scary. Dave said, "it's not scary--it's hair!" Seriously, Dave? You know that stray hairs are among the few things that scare her (an irrational fear she shares with her uncle Jeff)--you might as well tell her they're twigs.

Memorial Gate at Arlington National Cemetery

Wednesday morning, Mabes and I went to Arlington National Cemetery. Because of Dave's work schedule, we were limited to that and some driving around, but we got to see the Pentagon, and drove back into the city again. Mabes got excited when she recognized the buildings--"It's the Washngtn MOMUMIN!" "It's the Morial where we be quiet!"

The Capitol building Wednesday night...
...and Thursday morning

On Thursday, Dave dropped us off at the Capitol on his way to a meeting. We took some pictures and headed to the Natural History Museum. Mabes loved the dinosaurs and fish, but by the time we got to the History of Western Civilization exhibits, she was getting tired and was begging for her stroller (which we didn't bring, since hasn't ridden in a stroller in ages). We were running short on time, so we blew through the gemstones exhibit, saw the Hope Diamond, then made our way to the exit. I stopped to take one last picture in the atrium, only to realize that a tired and frustrated Mabes had thrown herself down, face to the ground, crying because she wanted to leave. Worried about judgmental stares from other parents, I picked her up and hurried out, but now I wish I had taken a picture because hey, it was funny.

Mabes meets a dinosaur

We walked several blocks to where we met Dave. It ended up being quite the walk, and Mabes alternated running, jumping, and complaining about how tired she was. She's got a long way to go before she qualifies for one of my dad's "death marches," but I'm starting to see why he never attempted those with little kids. So we weren't able to see as much as we did when Dave and I walked all over London, but I think Mabes did pretty well for a 3-year-old. We'll work our way up to a march deserving of the yellow legal pad.

And because it's cute: Mabes and Ricecake enjoy their queen sized bed

Heeeeeeeeeeeeee!

More later. In the last week, Dave returned from Singapore, Jackie came for a quick visit, and then we headed up to Washington for a conference for Dave and sightseeing for me and Mabes. I'll write a proper recap once I've tackled this load of laundry, put away some luggage, and maybe cleaned a little.

A new friend!

What, you don't see him? The pumpkin in her left hand. His name is Perry. She fell in love with him at the grocery store and refused to let him go. He ate lunch with her, she put him down for a nap, and he also woke up happy, though a little hungry for a snack. (Sidenote: She napped! I was actually quite surprised she didn't insist on napping with Perry. I was so desperate to get her to sleep that I would have let her.) He read books with us, he colored with us, but when I suggested he might be more comfortable in a stroller than on a folding chair, Mabes just looked at me with exasperation, "No, mommy, my strollers are for my babies. Perry is a pumpkin. That would be silly. Silly mommy."

Perry did, however, eat dinner with us, go to mutual with us, eat a cookie with her, and put on his pajamas and go to bed (without throwing a fit tonight), and Mabes has informed me that he will sleep all through and wake up happy when it's light outside. But he's a pumpkin, so he doesn't ride in the stroller. Because that would be crazy.

And since it's been a while...

Here are some random pictures of Mabes. Because let's face it, those are more fun than my rants, right?













Mabes in her new skirt from Grandma Ostler. A friend at church asked where she could get the grown-up size, and I was like, "lady, I would have been all over that..."














Mabes in her new raincoat. She's now ready for whatever crazy rainstorms the South would like to throw at her. Unfortunately, she insists on wearing it all day when it's raining. Because you never know when it could start raining inside Target. When we got it out, she said "Here's your coat, mommy! You're the mommy, so you can wear the mommy coat and say 'shush.' Because you're the mommy and you say 'shush' in your coat." First, I didn't know that I said 'shush' that much. Second, I didn't realize that my shush-ing ability was dependent on my outerwear.

Oh, and despite seeing long lines at the gas station yesterday, I drove by ours today and there was no line! I was at a quarter tank and starting to get nervous, so I went in, got my gas, and was out of there in 5 minutes. The decreased demand must have been a new thing, because they still had security/traffic directors there, but they were just sitting there enjoying the lack of cars. The relief of being able to actually find gas without waiting in line makes the sting of gas prices much easier to bear. Kind of like, "We're still going to kick you in the crotch, but at least you don't have to wait an hour for it." And I don't have to worry about being able to go to the grocery store.

So what do they do to the customers they don't value?

I went to the bank yesterday (Bank of America) to make a deposit. The teller was very friendly and told me to wait a minute. I momentarily got kind of excited, wondering if I was going to get something cool like the free flowers at Trader Joe's. Silly Allison, this isn't Trader Joe's. My bubble was burst when she brought out a disclosure statement and said that since I'm such a valued B of A customer I can have this great credit card blah blah blah. We get them in the mail all the time, so I thought nothing of it. I declined, she persisted, I said no thank you, she relented, Emaline got her lollipop, teller said "thanks so much, have a great day," and despite the pushiness, was really sweet. I thought they were supposed to be tightening up on credit, though.

Fast forward to last night. Slickdeals had a post to a free equifax credit score. I've never found out my score, I just get the free annual report. So Dave and I get our scores. His was a bit higher than mine, which was surprising (since our credit history is basically the same) and irritating (since I pay all the bills--his student loan probably helped his credit, but didn't even know what the monthy payment was). The main thing hurting mine was "recent inquiries." I hadn't had any hard pulls in over a year. I was due for my annual credit report from equifax, so I pulled it, and what do you know, there's was hard pull that day. Google the name, and it's a B of A card. Ummmm......

Found a number, called, and was told that yes, I had applied and been approved for a card today. The number should be assigned tomorrow. I explained the whole situation and the person was very helpful, said to call back after the number has been assigned and the account and inquiry will be removed from my credit report. Unfortunately, these things happen as employees and branches get incentives for the number of cards they open.

Even though I was quite confident everything could be worked out over the phone, Mabes and I headed back to the bank today to have words with the manager. I grabbed another lollipop to keep Mabes occupied. When the manager came out, she said, "Oh, you were just here yesterday--I remember those pigtails!" (Mabes', not mine.) Yes, it's that visit I'd like to discuss... Told her the whole thing, she was very nice, she said that's only happened one other time at their branch, and it's because the teller accidentally hit the "okay, get card" button instead of the "decline" button. Apparently it comes up when a customer comes in for a transaction. But then she said something about needing a signature in order to properly process it, so I'm not sure if the "honest mistake" thing was just a line. Everything should be resolved by next week, but I'm still ticked it's that easy for the bank to "accidentally" open a credit card that I very clearly stated I did not want.

On the way out, I grabbed another lollipop. I showed them!

Laura and Jemaine flip the bird at Bank of America.
copyright 2008 redheadedchick.blogspot.com Used with permission.

Yikes

We had heard that, due to Ike, there could be gas shortages in the South. I didn't really think about it again until last Friday, when Costco was out. On Saturday, we noticed that several gas stations had bags over the pumps. By Monday, I got nervous, and even though I had a half tank, I filled up. Good thing--ever since then, you can tell which gas stations actually have gas by the ridiculously long line of cars stretching out in the streets. There's a gas station just around the corner that has gas, so it took me about 10 minutes longer to get back home this morning. And that explains all the honking and sirens I've heard since yesterday; cars are blocking traffic, police are trying to move it along, and despite hiring security guards to control traffic and line jumping, fights have broken out.

I think I'll be staying home for a while. The craziness should hopefully end tomorrow.

The beach!

So it's been a while since my last post; I didn't have anything to say last week and just haven't felt blog-y. But the best way to get over writer's (blogger's?) block is to just write, right?

Last weekend, Mabes got to enjoy her first beach trip of the summer, and her first ever trip to the Atlantic. Some good friends of ours rented a beach house for the week and invited us to stay with them, but due to Dave's work/travel schedule, we could only make it for the weekend. It was still a nice mini-break and we crammed a lot into a short weekend. We headed out Friday evening and spent the night at a convenient half-way point--Jackie's house. Mabes was very excited to see Grandma, even if the stay was short. We left there late Saturday morning and arrived in Kitty Hawk a couple of hours before we could get the keys to the house, so we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial.
Mabes is fascinated by planes and absolutely loved it, but unfortunately wouldn't stand still long enough for us to read everything about all the exhibits. From what we were able to read, it was really interesting.

Then we went outside in the heat and humidity and hiked up to the memorial. The view was amazing.
Mabes thoroughly enjoyed the memorial, but that was probably because she thought it was a lighthouse. She refused to believe us when we told her otherwise.

(she's being a plane)

Then we went to the house, got some dinner, then went out to the beach. The sky was pink and it would have been a perfect evening to watch the sunset--except we're on the east coast, so watching the sun set into the ocean isn't really an option. The warmer water and lack of seaweed make up for that, though. We even got to see some dolphins swimming fairly close to shore!
The next morning, we went to church (well, the first hour, at least) and then went to see a real lighthouse.

Mabes was very impressed. It was windy so she kept trying to get a mouthful of air.

Family pic in the lighthouse

After that, we went to the aquarium where Mabes went crazy. She pretty much just ran from tank to tank pointing to the fish, turtles, and snakes--she was so excited.

Dave tried to get her to pet the stingrays, and though she kept reaching in, I don't think she ever touched one. She'd chicken out at the last second, but Dave and I both got to touch one.

Her favorite was the giant tank with the huge fish and sharks.

After that, we went to Fort Raleigh and learned about the Lost Colony. Dave was amazed that I had never learned about it in elementary school history, but then I reminded him that we learned all about missions and the discovery of gold--lots of California history, and then the just the main points of American Independence, Civil War, etc. It was very interesting, though.

We went back to the beach, but Mabes decided that she didn't want to splash in the water, so she played in the sand while everyone else enjoyed the water.

I managed to coax her down to the water in an attempt to get a good picture of her splashing, but as soon as a wave came up, she bolted. So I just managed to get a picture of her running from the water.

We had an excellent weekend with great friends and perfect weather, and it was so nice to get away for a little bit. Thank you again, Ken and Sherry!