Nicknames

Macy declared that she will now be referring to me as Mommer and the artist formerly known as DaDa as Bobber! I love it. I might call him Bobber, too.

Meow

Hortonville had the sterotypical "cat lady". You know, disheveled appearance with ratty hair, paper bags full of God knows what, and cats- lots of cats. The people in the village quite creatively called her Cat Lady.

Not to speak disparagingly about mentally illness, but young kids in my experience seem to act like Cat Lady. Macy tends to haul around animals. Claire has illegible scribbles that only she can "read". She insists on having my junk mail to carry around. Lord knows, they both despise any semblance of organization I attempt to impose. Why would the toy food go in the play kitchen? They love to take actual bags and fill them with random stuff. I find the canvas library bag full of dolls, a train track, a headless barbie, a lamp from the dollhouse, toy fruit, someone's underwear and the Tablespoon from the real kitchen.

Maybe just my kids are going to be crazy cat lady sisters...

Lazy Bones

I have a rule that I won't "retire" a too small outfit if I already took the effort to get it on a girl. Piper's 18 month shirt is so ill-fitting (picture an overweight high schooler who insists on wearing a shirt that's in rather than something that looks good on her) that I almost wanted to break my self-imposed rule. It is especially amusing given the style of the shirt with the little jackety type top with belly bursting beneath it.

Piper is pretty hilarious so I feel like we're laughing with her not at her. She likes to stand up and kinda shake her rear to show-off. I think she does it just to be funny. And poured into this shirt, she's funny for sure.

Happiness from within

As a mother of daughters I always want my girls to learn to find happiness from within. I just don't want them to depend on the approval of others (male or female) to feel good. And Claire. & Macy are at such a great age right now in regards to self-confidence:

"I'm beautiful!"
"Watch me dance"
"I did a really good job"

Generally, I'm pretty happy. And, that's probably because I have a lot to be grateful for with three healthy kids, no fertility struggles. But realistically I'm rather mediocre. We're not rich, but we are without financial struggles. I'm overweight but in excellent physical health. I can run, but I don't set any speed records. But, I am generally pretty happy, and I really want my kids to be happy. And nice to each other. For the love of God, be kind to your sisters. I want to give them opportunities, but not every little thing they want. I am always the bad cop around here. They better like me, too!

Maternity Test

Claire is a mini-me. Piper is Bob in pink. Macy looks like no one. Blue eyes? Constantly eats, skinny little thing?

If I didn't recall her labor (hardest of the the three), I might wonder if she's mine! She is generally fine being bossed around by Claire. Last weekend my mom had the big girls, and Claire took a toy from Macy. My mom told Claire that this might make Macy sad. Macy asked if she promised not to be sad, if Claire could keep it. Mind you, she's smart as a whip and not a pushover. Her tolerance of Claire's constant micro-managing is enviable and not a trait passed down from her mother.

But what floors me the most is her preference to play indoors, alone. Unseasonably warm day this week, I offered a walk before naptime. No thanks, rather sleep. SLEEP?!? Most times when Claire, Piper and I go outside, she will play alone indoors which means I'm stuck hanging out by the window. At the beach she'll often chose to play in the sand over water. Sand is so sandy!

Claire gets up and wants to know where we're going. If we're not going anywhere (school isn't enough anymore?), it's who is coming over? I was hitting the library story hour circuit pretty hard last year to appease her appetite for people & adventures. This year Macy has asked once to go to the Neenah library. I was happy to oblige, but I was caught so off guard. I would have showered or chosen my clothes with more care since Neenah seems to be the fancy library!

Macy is so often in her own little world Claire even knows we call it La La land. She's an absolute hoot, everything in the past was "yesterday". She's probably spent more time with her head in the clouds at 2 1/2 than I have at 33.

It might help the whole mother-daughter relations to be so different, but most days I think, how are we related?

They still sell those in stores, right?

So, I was just perusing Craigslist, and someone had a wanted post for diapers - not cloth diapers, because for me that's not even weird. Their post said they both had jobs (telling potential sellers they have money?) and that their baby was due January 27 and they wanted diapers. Maybe they were looking for free ones, but they didn't really have a request for freebies. It was all very strange to me.

I wanted to reply that I believe both Wal-mart and Target sell these diapers of which they speak. It seemed odd that buying them off Craigslist would be easier or even much cheaper, but maybe I am out of touch. I live in a bubble (the Internet) that exposes me to a certain type of local mama I rarely see since mornings I get Claire on/off the bus and afternoons are for napping.


I'm feeling especially crunchy these days. In the last couple months I have had to define even the word "crunchy" to people I know IRL (I totally learned that acronym today- thanks urban dictionary! ) I spend all this time worrying about things like the goldfish that occassionally end up on Piper's highchair (grains = bad), carseat bases (apparently the car seat might fly out in a crash), and using corn syrup in holiday treats (because corn syrup is actually pretty bad stuff). These worries are really not on most parents mind. We've always been on the cloth diapers, but we now use cloth at night 100% of the time. I use cloth wipes with Piper. I really should have been on the cloth night diapers and wipes all along. None of this really has made me feel any different than say,recycling. But, I bought myself a Diva Cup last month. I officially feel like a hippie. A hippie that would mention this on the Internet (well, I'm still me, which is to say not shy).
I felt like an 8th grader again (I was a late bloomer) feeling like everyone knew something was different- in this case that I was using a menstrual cup.

I asked a friend who also uses a Diva Cup if she felt like a complete granola. She said, "yes, so I just try not to think about it." Sounds like a plan!

She's a mover & a shaker (but a bit of a crier)

She can't crawl. She can't walk. But, she managed to scoot over to the dog's waterbowl (which is in desperate need of a cleaning).

The days this week have been filled with her getting in position to crawl with one troublesome leg caught under her. Then, she cries. If you push the leg out to crawling position, she cries. If you put her back to sitting upright, she cries and then repeats. If you leave her to figure it out, she cries. I hate to make predictions. Well, actually, I just hate to be wrong about predictions. But, daresay, I think she might crawl soon.

I should be used to this, but dang, they seem to just grown up so fast. Today she clapped at Claire's school fair when other kids were clapping. It was so cute. Earlier this week I was raking with her in the Beco, and I thought "this will be easier when I can carry her on my back." Then, I remembered ,she isn't a baby and she has contentedly been in the back carry position all week. Sniff.