Competitive

Some girls idolize their moms. They believe that no job is too difficult and no challenge too insurmountable for their supermoms. They see their moms as nothing short of heroes who (usually) don't wear capes.

Mabes is not one of those girls.

Last week, I went to a friend's house for Bunco night. (Cue the shock from my family--"But Allison HATES games!" Correction: Allison hates games she doesn't win and has to put up with her siblings' incessant taunting and gloating.) It was a fun night with friends, made even more fun by cupcakes and winning--in that order.

The next morning, Mabes saw my prize of a pitcher, glasses, and colorful reusable ice cubes on the kitchen counter and asked where I got those new "fings." I told her that when I went out with my friends the night before, we played games and I won. Mabes' jaw dropped, her eyes widened, "Wow, Mommy. Dat's really cool. 'Gradulations, Mudder." (Oh, and she's taken to calling me "Mudder" more than Mom or Mommy lately. It's kind of weird. I think I like Mommy better.)

"Thanks, Mabes," I smiled, amused that my accomplishment elicited such an astonished response.

"Wow, Mom, I didn't know you were going to win," she continued.

"Neither did I, Mabes, but I scored lots of points and won."

She went on, arms outstretched in a sort of shrug as she tried to explain, "But, I didn't fink you would win. I just fought you would come in last place. Because you normal don't win, like I do. Just maybe last place. Or maybe almost last place. But I didn't knew you would WIN!"

As if her condescension wasn't bad enough, she continued to repeat the above all.day.long. I'm quite certain that if she knew how to use my phone, she would have called Alisa up and thanked her for letting her sad, losing Mudder win.

Seriously, Mabes? You want to see Mommy win? Name your event. Trivial Pursuit? Jeopardy? Some sort of bee, be it spelling or geography? A foot race? I will mop the floor with you. But then the thought of the neighbors watching in horror as I race my 4-year-old down the street, trash-talking while sprinting, made me realize that maybe I was taking her too seriously. And realize that perhaps my sisters had been secretly coaching her in the art of post-game Allison taunting.

So I guess I need to step up my game-playing skills with her so she doesn't see me as a perpetual loser. I'm not sure how to go about this, as somehow Candyland is rigged so that despite thoroughly shuffling the cards, Mabes always draws the snowflake and I always get the candy cane. Stupid Hasbro.

Happy birthday, Dave!

Proving what a great guy he is, for his birthday, Dave took Mabes uptown for the afternoon for SpeedStreet--basically a big annual party in the streets of Charlotte right before the Coca Cola 600. Mabes loves race cars, so she was really excited.

Mabes as Danica Patrick; Dave with his head cut off (can you guess who took the picture?)

They had fun, and I had a nice quiet afternoon--it felt like my birthday! So I decorated the cupcakes and cake Mabes and I had made earlier. In talking about Dave's birthday, Mabes suggested we make him a baseball cake, since he likes baseball. She pointed out that for her "four-year-old birthday," she had a princess cake, since she likes princesses. Maybe she'll have a flower cake this year.

So for the first time perhaps since we've been married, I made something other than a cookie cake for his birthday. I made a dozen baseball cupcakes and this beauty:

Chocolate cake with Nutella frosting. Yum.

Annabelle still likes candles

Day at the park

Before we left for California, Becca told me she bought a small kite for Mabes at Target. "It has princesses on it, and it was only a couple of dollars, but oh man, it's kind of sad how excited I am about it!" Her excitement was well justified. We had some really windy afternoons, and the large neighborhood park down the street was perfect. And let's face it, kites are fun.

First, Becca shows Mabes how to get the kite ready...

And it's up! (I have lots and lots of pictures of Mabes dancing under the kite.)

Mabes gets a turn, and is surprisingly good at it.

Laura thought she was too cool for the kite, but soon changed her mind.

Dave and the kite (with Mabes and Louie frolicking in the background).

And then of course Mabes turns her attention to Louie. Poor, tormented Louie.

Louie's thinking this seems vaguely familiar...

Flat Ainsleigh

Several weeks ago, we were thrilled to welcome Flat Ainsleigh to Charlotte. And then I realized we got her at the ugliest time of year. Sarah said I could keep her for a couple of weeks and, well, we exceeded that. But she's Mabes' cousin (or at least the flat version of her), and Mabes wanted to keep her longer. It's now spring and gorgeous, so we were able to take some nice pictures instead of "Hi, Ainsleigh, this is the barren lifeless wasteland which is Charlotte."

Let me just say I love the idea behind the Flat Ainsleigh Project. I love geography. I love learning about other places. For the last 12 years, I've almost always had a map on the wall. This project is a fun way to teach Ainsleigh (and Mabes and Dono) about the world around them.

We're still learning about the area, but I love taking field trips. I grew up in a newer city in California, where a 1950s ranch-style home was considered old. We would take field trips to the Mission, but that was the extent of history in the area. (Now that my parents live in Pleasanton, I've learned that there is a lot more history in the area. But that's a different post.)

We decided to go colonial and take Ainsleigh to the Charlotte Museum of History. She learned about how Charlotte was founded on a Native American trade route, and how Charlotte had it's own gold rush that lasted until gold was discovered in California (Gold! Gold! Gold at Sutter's Mill!). We saw the oldest home in Western North Carolina, the Hezekiah Alexander House, built in 1774.

We even learned about "Mec Dec Day"; according to tradition, Mecklenburg County declared independence from Britain on May 20, 1775--235 years ago today. I thought we should have a cookout and ice cream to celebrate that tonight, but we just had leftovers. Boring.

We skipped the usual trip to Bojangles (a favorite with guests), since Ainsleigh already tried it in Florida last summer. So we took her out to try barbeque and hush puppies, which she and Mabes loved.

Dave also pointed out that I should take Flat Ainsleigh to the PTL Castle. It's an interesting site we pass on the way to preschool, it was part of Heritage USA, a Christian theme park. It opened in 1978, and by 1986 it was the most popular destination in the US after Disneyworld and Disneyland.

Another perk of keeping Flat Ainsleigh well into spring is strawberry season! It's in full bloom (?) right now, so we took Flat Ainsleigh strawberry picking. I wish there were a way to capture the scent--the fields smelled so good, and the actual strawberries were even better. We picked 5 pounds of strawberries in about 10 minutes, and they are amazing. I got home and finished off the last 3 store bought strawberries in my fridge and they were crunchy, dry, and tasteless compared to these bad boys. (I thought they were pretty good when I bought them, though!)

The week in summary

4 flights, 1 canceled
1 bonus day
3 trips to In-n-Out
4 movies
11 bowls of ice cream, 8 milkshakes, 2 ice cream cones (split among three of us)
2 shopping excursions with Moomsie-daisy
1 Junior's Cheesecake, fresh from New York
4 jaunts to the park to fly a kite
3 trips to Rite Aid for Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream (unfortunately, only 1 was successful)
4 games of Buzz! Quiz World
2 pans of homemade Mother's Day cinnamon rolls
Daily Mario Kart and/or Super Mario Brothers Wii (with the ensuing screaming and yelling)
1 giant bowl of Dad's popcorn
Countless hugs

Back to life, laundry, Jillian Michaels DVDs, early bedtimes, portion control, and not relying on my sisters or Mom to entertain my kids. It was a fabulous trip and I'm sad it's over.

Sisters

My sisters are redheads. And they (well, at least two of them) have the personalities to match. I took Annabelle in for her 4 month (!) check-up yesterday, and had a bunch of questions for the doctor because she is so different from Mabes. The doctor assured me that everything is fine, kids can just have very different personalities.

And then I thought back to Sarah. Her personality is very different from mine. Sure, we have a lot in common: our love of food, TV, sarcasm, silly games, and so much more. But she is just...more. For example, if something good happens to me, I'm happy about it. If something good happens to Sarah, she's ecstatic. She claps. Her eyebrows go up as her smile grows. She yells. She may jump up and down. She may even hug the salesperson at Emporium because she likes her new shoes so much.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the personality differences, though, she's one of my best friends. At the heart of our relationship is an understanding--I love her something fierce and I know she feels the same way. She's always there for me. As I've said before, she will celebrate my joys with more enthusiasm and lament my trials with more sorrow than I do. Perhaps that is why it's so easy to be truly happy (and only a little jealous) that she's wearing size 4 pants. If one of us does something to irritate the other, we know it's not intentional, we give each other space, and things are fine. Of course, there was that time when I got mad and yelled "shut up!" while shoving her off the sidewalk outside of Old Navy. And then we collapsed in laughter.

So despite Mabes' and Annabelle's personality and age differences, I look at them and hope they have the kind of relationship Sarah and I do. I hope they play silly games and have inside jokes. I hope their kids love each other and can't wait to visit. I hope that when one of them is having a bad day, they can call the other and talk about TV and food and shopping and somehow feel better.

Happy belated birthday, Sarah. I just wish I knew what happened to that turtle beanie baby so I could send it to Joel and have him hide it in your bed.

Edited to add: In rereading this, I realize the personality contrast makes me sound like quite the wet blanket. Comparatively, that could be true.

Birthday cake, avocados, and brownies

For my birthday dinner, I decided to go with the always-classic tri tip sandwiches. The tri tip was fantastic and the avocados I had purchased a few days earlier at Costco were perfect and complimented the meat nicely. Dave and I were raving about how great the avocado was, and I asked Mabes if she would like to try it again. She looked unsure. Since it wasn't flat out rejection, I told her she might like it--it was nutty and creamy and we really liked it. She tasted it and her eyes lit up, "Hey, I DO like this! I like avocado!"

I didn't know if she was just saying it to get a reaction from us, but since then, she's been an avocado fiend. She had some on her sandwich, and the next day suggested we have turkey sandwiches with avocado. Great idea, Mabes. She's had it several times this week (thank you Costco bag of avocados), and I'm happy she's tried and likes something new, but now I'm realizing I have to share my avocados with her. And no more telling her I'm eating avocados when I'm really eating M&Ms.



Dave and Mabes made a great cake for my birthday, and Mabes is proving to be quite the ham for the camera. Annabelle, on the other hand, was so intrigued by the candles she didn't notice the hat we stuck on her.

This weekend was also the annual men's bake off at church. After last year, Dave decided to go with something different and made avocado black bean brownies. I know, right?



Several people said they really liked them. They're very moist and chewy, but I may experiment with more cocoa or something. Considering the nutrition info, they are really good. But if I'm craving a really good brownie, I'd take Brandi's or Karin's any day. There were a couple of times during my pregnancy when they brought their brownies to parties--I think I ate at least a half dozen of each. People don't judge the pregnant lady, right? Or at least judge her less? Maybe I should stick with the avocado black bean version.