Stone Soup

Jacqueline's kindergarten class had a Stone Soup Feast for the parents. She was very excited for the whole shindig. They even went shopping at a store for the vegetables and other ingredients.

They made invitations and Jacqueline was tickled pink that she got to deliver them herself. The class made the place cards and place mats for their guests. They also made corn biscuits and butter! Yes, their own butter; shaken in a jar & everything.

The soup was . . . interesting. I couldn't get past the whole "children prepared this" part and politely stirred my soup around and pretend sipped. Bless their little hearts, but I can't account for where their hands have been. It's the Monk-ish part of me.

A belated birthday

Jacqueline's birthday was this past weekend. I can't believe my baby-est baby is 5. It doesn't feel like it was so long ago that she came into this world. That Saturday when I unexpectedly went into labor, water breaking at home and not having an overnight bag packed! And the not-soon-to-be forgotten epic car ride to the hospital, and how Spencer would not run the red lights!! When all was said & done, it was just a little over 2 hours from her deciding to start the show and then make her appearance.

L to R: Jacqueline, 2 1/2 mos; Grant, 2; Mairyn, 4; Eliza, 6.





How did she go from this?



To this?



Happy Birthday, Jacqueline, baby mine!

Guess what?

Guess who got glasses today?

JACQUI!!
She loves her new glasses! She likes these frames because they are pink & purple and have flowers on the sides.

And she picked these because they are pink & the stems are sparkly! She loves her new glasses and, believe it or not, likes seeing everything clearly! Once she got them, she wouldn't quit pointing out "new to her" details; "Look, that grandma has a smoothie!" (said about the lady at Sam's Club, 4 tables over) Everything she brought to our attention was a good 20 feet away; amazing what glasses will do for a kid.

We knew this day would eventually come. I mean c'mon, with parents like us, I'm amazed we've made it this far without one of our offspring sporting glasses yet! Spence got glasses in high school & I got glasses in third grade. Last April, I had laser PRK surgery and went from 20/400 vision to 20/20!

Exhibit A:

(that's my wee sister, Hannah. i was 15, she was 7 months)

When we were running the medical clearance gauntlet for Bahrain (last spring), Jacqui failed the eye test. They do a structural something test, no letter or shape reading. So she had to go to an independent optometrist for a "real" eye exam. Long story short, the Dr. said that glasses weren't necessary right now, but if she started having headaches and complaining about her vision, to get an eye exam. Fast forward about 6 months, Jacqui starts having headaches. So what is the first thing I do when we are evacuated? Make an appointment at the optometrist's office. She's got an astigmatism (which the dr. said she showed symptoms for 'classically': meaning that headaches are a big red exclamation point) and is near-sighted.

I am a bit in mourning. Don't get me wrong, I think she's as cute as a bunny's tail & twice as delicious as a cream puff with those itsy, beensy glasses! But I will miss the way she used to look. I'm in mourning for the independence she's lost. Believe me, I know what it's like to suddenly have glasses, then have to decide whether I like sledding blind or just watching everyone. (I sledded blind) The same with swimming. And glasses are *so* much more adorable these days and have such variety, gone are the windshields-posing-as-glasses.Might I also add that they are a lot more tough; springy hinges & flex frames.

Exhibit B:

(isn't everyone so cute? and yes, i picked those glasses out myself. they were mostly clear. to my 11 year old self, that seemed the best way to make them invisible.)

Just don't harm the bananas

I was read a friend's blog and it reminded me of a similar course of events with my kids.

It was November 2008 in Cairo, Egypt. I was back in the family room puttering around. Grant comes running in at full speed.

"Mommy!" he yells, "Can I have a banana, too?"

"Sweetie, we don't have any bananas," I said, "Who has a banana?"

"Jaqui has one!" he responded. I asked Rere (my fantabulous housekeeper in Cairo) if she had given a banana to Jacqui.

Rere said, "No ma'am, we don't have any. Remember to put 'bananas' on your grocery list."

So the three of us are all puzzling about bananas and Jacqui come toddling around the corner with a peeled banana in her had. (she is all of 17 months old at this time)

I ask Jacqui, "Where did you get that banana?"

She said, "NANA!" and took a big bite. Where did she get that banana? It didn't look spoiled. Did she have her own stash of bananas somewhere? What else was she holding hostage in her secret hidey place? We never did solve the mystery. Maybe the next tenants of our apartment found that banana prison, freeing little black lumps of banana bread candidates, along with who knows what else. All of our left socks?

YouTube Tuesday: Lavendars Blue

I know, I know, it's Thursday today, not Tuesday. But I have been having some real video uploading issues and power outages lately, so there, that's my excuse.



I caught Jacqueline singing this medley of bedtime songs to her dolly. Interesting fusion of 'Twinkle Twinkle' and 'Lavenders Blue'.

Never heard of Lavenders Blue? Shame on you.

Lavenders blue, diddle diddle, lavenders green.
When I am king, diddle diddle, you shall be queen. {'cept J. turned it around b/c she said she wouldn't be king, she's a girl, she'd be queen}
Call up your men, diddle diddle, set them to work.
Some to the plow, diddle diddle, some to the cart.
Some to make hay, diddle diddle, some to cut corn.
While you and I, diddle diddle, keep ourselves warm.

Well, that's the way it was in my nursery rhyme book. I actually did some reading on this little ditty and found it quite interesting. It's an old English nursery rhyme first printed around 1680. Now, from what I could find, this video below was the only offering of the tune & words familiar to me. This guy's a riot.

If . . .

. . . you give a girl your iPhone.

First day of preschool

There just aren't words for this picture. The title says it all. *sniff* Those are bittersweet tears. My baby is growing up & going to school 5 half days a week. But also, my mornings are free 5 days a week. Wa-hoo!

Little Legs

One advantage in Bahrain? There is always enough hot water. At least in the summertime. I was just entranced by Jacqui's little feet & legs sticking out from under the shower curtain. In my head, a picture of her feet facing me would have been perfect.
Turns out, I like the back view of her legs even more.

Happy Birthday, Jacqueline!

My baby is 4 years old. Wow. How time does fly!

On Thursday {her actual b-day} we were getting ready to welcome the movers into our house. To box our life up & move it across a few oceans. But with little kids, they really don't care which day is observed as long as there's cake & presents!

Today, she got to pick our one red raspberry. We planted raspberries at the beginning of the summer. We watered them every day. Then on August 2nd, one little berry decided to turn from green to red. {we have about 5-8 green buds on each cane} So Jacqui got to pick the prized pretty & eat it. I hope it was memorable. We also finished emptying the house of loose crap & trash. It's amazing what you find when a dresser is pulled out! We also had cake, presents & fun with our Jacqueline Ruth today.

*these portraits are courtesy of my dear friend, Leslie. Don't worry, there's more where these came from! I actually have some free time now & can get back to blogging!*

Tonsils; Take 3

Today Jacqui had her tonsils & adenoids taken out. A procedure I'm familiar with. Yes, Jacqui is the third of my four children to join the ranks of T&A. Tonsil & Adenoidectomy. Right now she is not coping well, but the first 24 - 48 hours are the hardest. It's hardest when they are in pain but their stubbornness about taking "yucky medicine" is keeping them from feeling better. Just take the medicine! You'll feel better, I promise! It's codeine! We just finished a battle and now, 30 minutes later, I can tell it's working. She's asleep.

Chillin' like a little baby villian at the break of dawn. We had to be AT the hospital by 7am.


How can she still be so cute?


Just coloring on my iPod and waiting for her turn under the knife.


The aftermath. Grumpy and not wanting Mommy's camera in her face.

Home again, home again. Jiggity-jig.

Matchy Matchy

While I was away in "Spencer-is-home" land, this was something else I was up to.


This is Jacqui with her cousin, Emily. They're about 6 months apart in age. I've been a skirt making machine. I completed another in different fabric for Jacqui; little butterflies and a green geometric pattern. And I've got skirts cut out for all my other girls and two ties cut out for Grant. Now just to sew them up. Cutting is half the job!

Here's a fun cousin shot. Amazing. Most everyone looks pretty pleasant!

Chinese Water Torture

According to Wikipedia Chinese Water Torture is not as awful as everyone says it is. Actually, the Chinese never even used it. The phrase may have come from Harry Houdini's Chinese Water Torture Cell; a feat he created for an act in Berlin. Mythbusters investigated the "torture" itself, not the origins of the title, and found it was plausible for a person to be driven insane, but not definitive. No one was willing to be driven insane.

The misnomer of Chinese Water Torture; something probably not that bad, but nobody is willing to try. Sounds like Jacqui's opinion of everyday ordinary grooming habits. Jacqueline is opposed to anything that has to do with trimming her nails, washing her hair, combing or fixing said hair or washing any part of her body that needs it. Cute little pigtails are positioned on either side of those kissable ears and *yank* "No, I no like dem." Ooookay.

We can usually avoid the nail clipping encounters for about 2 weeks at a time. Sometimes, I can surreptitiously peel a pinkie fingernail off without her noticing while we read a book. But it always comes down to the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. You'd think I was pulling the nails out instead of just trimming them so she wouldn't have to register those daggers as concealed weapons.


An Unexpected Client Comes for a Manicure - Watch more funny videos here


I really can't wait for her to be out of this stage. Her hair hanging in her face, catching any debris that doesn't make it to her mouth. I do keep it short, but it doesn't solve everything. Seriously, would I want to have to explain this in 15 years.

"Why Mom, why did you make me look like Scout?" I don't even have the excuse of "It was popular then."

So until Jacqui decides to cooperate on the grooming front, please don't mistake my little girl for some abandoned orphan. Or an extra from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Thank you.

I can't walk . . .

Today as we were leaving the kid's school, Jacqueline took a nose dive right into the rough pavement. She skinned up the palms of her hands and basically took all the skin off her knees. She was a mess, inconsolable. Band-aids that I keep handy in the glove compartment helped a bit and the fruit snacks in my purse smoothed most of it over.

We get home and it's time to get out of the car.

"I can't walk!!" Jacqueline cried, gingerly stepping on the tiptoes of her left foot.

I carried her inside and put some toys by her on the floor. This is like having a 6 months old again. That didn't help much and soon she had to go to the bathroom.

"Mommy, carry me! I can't walk!" she wails from the front room.

We go and do the business and return to the toy pile. Not gonna work and I have cleaning to do. So I fold and turn on Dora in my room for her. She is happy as can be. Until she's hungry, or needs a drink or has to go to the bathroom. Seriously kid? She was a weeping, wailing mess until she fell asleep for a rare hour and a half nap. I thought she'd be over it once she woke up. Nope. Still singing the same song. So I packed everyone up and took them to a new park very near us that they've been begging to visit. Everyone starts piling out and Jacqueline is just crouching behind the front seat.

"Carry me, Mommy! I can't walk!"

The park doesn't last very long because since it is very new, there are no shade trees around and the equipment is HOT. 10 minutes later (really) I pack everyone back into the car, head to the grocery store for the manna from heaven produce and back home. Jacqueline looooves watermelon, so she was satiated for at least an hour; sucking on the rinds and slurping down slice after slice of juicy watermelon. She is content just coloring at the table until bedtime.

Bedtime. Can I say it again how wonderful it will be once the basement is done? Jacqueline does not want to share a room with Grant right now, so all girls are tripled up in one room. Jacqueline seems to think this is pretty cool and won't calm down at night. Combined with jumping on her trying to sleep sisters, she wanders out for a drink of water or to go to the bathroom for the 5th time. (because of all the water. It's a vicious cycle) But since she "can't walk" she hasn't come out all night! Can she just suffer from this "I can't walk" syndrome at night?

Spa Baby

I was actually preparing this post for yesterday; and then Grant happened. Jacqueline had just finished a bath and we were drying her off. Since we are in a hotel, we get a certain allotment of towels. We get 6 big ones, to be exact. And Jacqui getting in the bath isn't a once-a-day event. She'll take 3 or 4 sometimes. What else are we going to do when we're here? So, she had already used and dampened one and the other kids hadn't bathed yet. So I toweled her off a bit with the damp one and then got out the hand towels. I wrapped the first one around her little body and the other around her head. They fit perfectly! It was so cute I couldn't NOT take pictures.



** p.s. Grant is feeling fine and back to his old self. Just no windowsills for him anymore. Hopefully.

Happy Sad

So, being back in the land of awesomeness (a.k.a. the US of A) there are a few things that we have missed. One of them being fruit snacks. We could get said gem at the commissary, but they would

cost an arm and a leg. Maybe they were more reasonably priced for other people, but when I have 4 fruit snack inhalers in the house, a box of 8 bags only lasts a day, maybe. And at $2.50 a box, just not worth it to me. Well, we hit up the local Wal-Mart for a big box of them goodies as soon as we landed. (ok, maybe the next day) Jacqueline was the least acquainted with the fruity goodness and loves them the most. (to say the least) And I would dole them out one by one, to make the treat last longer. Jacqueline won't say "fruit snack", though. She calls them "Happy Sads".

"Mommy, I unna Happy Sads."
*translation* Mommy, I want a fruit snack.

And so now the term "Happy Sads" has entered the Penrod family vernacular. Forever to reside beside such hallowed terms as "show-show" (a shower) "nook" (look) and "noo-noos" (noodles). We promise we're not babbling idiots, we just sound like them.

Cutting up!

This face is the reason the hair was chopped. If she asks me "why", in years to come, did I cut her hair like this, I will show her this picture. Jacqueline can be a very stubborn child and trying to get her hair fixed and keep it that way has been a big hurdle in our relationship. I would give myself deadlines; ok, if she doesn't let me brush her hair today, I'll cut it tomorrow. Or the last straw which was this week, if she doesn't keep that ponytail in, I'll cut it off tomorrow. Well, we had waffles last night and Jacqueline had a wreath of sticky hair around her face because part of her preparation for dinner included pulling out the cursed ponytail holder and throwing it to the ground. So, this morning, choppy chop chop. I did the same haircut that I did on Mairyn when she needed her hair cut off. Just cut the ponytail off and trim up the uneven parts. Voila! New hairdo! I was really really trying to hold out for Spencer's brother's wedding at the end of May, THEN I'd cut it, but I couldn't take it anymore. This will be better. For both of us. ** P.S. ** When I cut the ponytail off, she saw it and said, "No, Mommy. Put it back on." I said I would and then hid the swatch of hair.

A confession . . .

I am in love. I never fell out of it, I'm just deep in it right now. The saying goes that mothers are biased, that may be true. I'm not trying to brag about my kids, I just want to proclaim a few facts! I am so in love with being a Mom right now. I could just eat them. (Yes, all mothers are cannibals.) Mairyn is such a riot. The other day she said,

"Mommy, if we're driving you crazy, what kind of car do you have? Sophie D.'s mom has a Paseo. It says so on the side."

Grant is starting to read. Eliza is just so . . . Eliza, articulate and patient. And Jacqueline is pulling out new vocabulary left and right. She'll insert new words like "now" at the beginning of a sentence like, "Now the water is cold!" When did my pipsqueak learn that? This is quite a comfort to me at this time. I am up to my eyeballs in moving minutia and packing peripherals (hello, alliterate much?). We are down to t-minus 13 days and I am pretty much annoyed and harried every moment. So when my children choose to shine and bring me a little bit of happiness, it gives me the perspective I need to continue on. And to remind me why I do it all.

Going Crackers!!

So the two youngest have renewed affection for graham crackers and chocolate milk. You're thinking, what kids wouldn't like that combination? My kids, that's who. Grant has had a couple of food funks this year. When we got back in August, they were all hooked on kiwis. (No, they don't eat natives of New Zealand.) They were really cheap at Costco this last summer, so that was a staple. I got them a few times here in Egypt, not very cheap. The tide shifted to bagels with cream cheese and a sippy cup of white grape juice. Every. day.

"Grant, snack time. What would you like?"

"Bagull wit cweem teese." (no, it's not welsh, it's bagel with cream cheese.)

And that's basically the only thing he would eat. Jacqueline liked it too, but she'll eat anything. Really. This girl has a sweet tooth the size of Africa but it's balanced by her love of 'cumbers. A whole bowl can be polished off in no time. Jacqueline is the only well rounded child in that aspect. Then, without warning, he rediscovered Goldfish. That's all he wanted. The choice in drink didn't change, though. White grape juice, through and through.

I would try to offer other choices. Chocolate milk, plain milk, apple juice, purple grape juice, cran-raspberry. Nothing was good enough. I began asking myself why I even bought 2% milk. Then, I got lucky. That's the only explanation. I got sick of buying that big box of Goldfish every week and a half. I grabbed a box of graham crackers. Snack time came around and I offered up the new foodstuffs. And it's good!! Graham crackers and chocolate milk! I just about fell over from the shock. These are the kids that would turn their nose up at chocolate milk. Graham crackers? Yuck, get them away from me. You'd think I was trying to poison them, the way they reacted. But now, they can't get enough! And everyone is happy.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

It was time. The mane grew out of control. As was the girl. Day after day of fighting tangles, tears, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Enough, I say. Something has to be done. Jacqueline has been shorn of her long locks. But don't shed any tears for her (she did enough of that), it will be easier, for both of us!