Snippets

Our first night in MI the kids were reluctant to sleep when I thought it was appropriate.

We spent many hours doing this:

Matilda recited poetry (of unknown origin) to the cowering cat while Porter makes sure we are aware "THERE IS A CAT!" I bet the poor cats have not recovered yet.

Porter find some fun in the airport: wheel AND trash.

Not a photo, apparently.

Rebel Mermaid

Mom's sweet friend Angie who was visiting before we arrived left a bunch of things to entertain the kids including a set of "mermaid jewelry" for Matilda. After spending the weekend with her super cool Aunt Gia, who sports a nose ring, Matilda has decided she wants one too. For now she is content with jamming the mermaid ring up her nostril in some crazy approximation. Also, my brother is going to be a dad!! How crazy is that. We are all terribly excited to meet new baby R in early 2011. Maybe now Brutus will stop being such a spoiled only child.

Long awaited guest post from Uncle Brian

I admit that this post is mostly "long awaited" by me, but regardless, here I am posting again. I was planning to do another post when I was in LA back in February, but I got a bad case of the flu de nicoise.

It is so great being here in Detroit with the FAM. Mom, Chris, Kristen and Gia have been relaxing/keeping an eye on Matilda, Porter and I. Porter has gotten much more steady on his feet and can move pretty fast when he sees something to get himself in trouble. Matilda I haven't seen since February and she has apparently graduated from the University of California since. It is incredible the things that come out of her mouth. She sounds more intelligent than many ten year olds I know and even seems to have a better grasp on how to act in social situations than full grown adults that I work with.

Not a long stay here in Detroit, but it has been great to be with Mom. Seems like there was something else that I was going to announce here on Rdmama today....hmmmmmm what was it ...Oh yeah, Gia has a little baby Rumsey inside of her!!!!!!

Good Day

We all had a pretty great day today. Mom was feeling well and had some energy to join us for a mall adventure with fountain splashing & a funny vegetable playground.

After dropping Mom off for a rest we all grocery shopped and then retreated home for some festive World Cup face painting. I gave M some stars and stripes to watch the game. She gave me a dragon with black fire.

For dinner Uncle Brian worked his magic with the pizza dough and made 5 kinds of pizza, including one whole anchovy one for you-know-who.

Matilda worked her own form of magic on the sprinkles can by emptying it in record time. About 3 inches worth filled the bundt cake we made to commemorate Bri & Gia's belated birthday and some of the remainder still are scattered on the kitchen floor.

Gia was also very brave tonight & let Matilda give her a manicure. It was more of a whole-finger-polishing session but they both seemed pleased in the end.

MI fun

We are all enjoying our visit with Mom so far. M & Mom have been watching some soccer and some Dora and Ponyo together. We also have spent a lot of time in the backyard. Matilda seems confused here, but really it is just that she can't stand the drips.
While M ate a popsicle, Porter sucked on some sidewalk chalk to get this blue tongue. I guess I'll take chalk over the prizes he has been fishing out of the kitty litter box.
The kids both spent a long time collecting lawn trimmings for Grandma Marge. Just what she wants!

Another First: Chewing Gum

Well, first sanctioned piece anyways; ABC gum (AKA garbage gum in our household) doesn't count. She was thrilled and gum has become her new motivator of choice for all reward situations.

Sleep Won Eventually

It took a while last night, but they did eventually sleep. Matilda was so pleased to sleep in bed with Porter & I that I suspect we are going to have some serious issues departing from the family bed model once we return home. Had some good naps too!

SOS

Will someone please come put my children to sleep? I am dying of sleep deprivation after our red eye last night. The kids both did great and slept the whole flight + a few more hours today for naps. Now I am really ready for them to let me sleep. I would say never again but we've already bought ourselves another ticket on the no-sleep-express when we go to NC next month. Curses.

Pulled Pork for Dad's Day

We basically celebrated Tim with food. The rainbow cake, BBQ, raspberry pie and mojitos. Win win I think. Porter cools off with a refreshing beer to the cheek. Tim's plate, yum.
Matilda also cools off and goofs off.
Porter approves. In addition to the pork he also particularly enjoyed the mac and cheese and their yummy green beans.

Rainbows for Daddy!

Matilda & I made Tim his Father's Day cake early. It was so tall and sweet, just like Daddy!

Fashionable Content

Cousin Michelle is talking about starting fashion blog to document her fabulous outfits.

I think I might be able to contribute if she needs submissions. (You can't really see it, but all three of these girls are wearing crazy high heels.)

Rubber boots will do , also.

Today M went to school in pajamas (coincidentally ones bought by Cousin Michelle & her GA crew). Ever since last June when M learned they did a pajama day at school she has been talking about and waiting for it. I learned last Friday that tragically they aren't doing one this year. When Matilda asked yet again about pajama day this morning, I decided she should have her own private celebration. She was super pleased and not at all phased to be a non-conformist. Hopefully she can hang on to some of that individuality while passing through her jr. high years!

Starting to Feel like Summer

Schizophrenic

Pardon the daily template changes. I am really digging playing around with new looks (while parked in front of the tv watching my daily dose of soccer), but I can't seem to settle on one yet.

Football Fever

Porter has soccer fever. Here he is pictured watching his first World Cup, in awe.We got cable on Thursday just for the occasion, as we did 4 years ago. If you need to find us we will be planted on the couch shirking our parental duties and watching the DVR while P chases balls around the living room.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Kix: Dumped & Scattered

Matilda was almost more thrilled than he was with his work as she scampered around and snatched the snacks up. Porter has become quite the food-thrower these days. Today I made the mistake of giving him a snack cup of blueberries which became stain-y missiles in the backseat while we drove.

Tally of Items Thrown into Matilda's Bath This Evening

Snack bowl

Clean shirt

Stuffed dog (Ricky the pug)

Catalog

Porter has now been temporarily banned from bath time festivities.

The Essentials

Cape, Car and Coffee: All we need to survive the morning it seems.

PSA: Pick Up Your Butts!

Don't make babies do all the work, smokers.

1st Annual Preschool Camping Trip

We went camping this weekend in Malibu with 25 other families from Matilda's school. It was utter chaos most of the time but much fun was had. The school has been doing this a long time and some families like it so much they are still coming with their now-elementary school aged kids.

Porter looked like a filthy street urchin the entire time and had a blast. Word got around that we had hot chocolate, so site 66 was the place to be Saturday morning.This is Matilda's BFF. She can rock the bathing-suit-with-boots look, no problem.
After a little tidepooling Porter & Matilda got some surf pointers. They were both so excited to balance and climb on the board.
We shared a huge pile of fried seafood and and even bigger Sol for lunch at Neptune's Net. Except Porter, who slept even through all the Harleys.
Refueled, Matilda went back to work sand castling. She also found a ball of tar to play with. No joke. One of the other parents said it was from a local spill in the late 60s? It was a joy to try and clean off her skin and nails.
All kids are even cuter than normal when sleeping in a tent. We all actually slept fairly well, for camping-sleeping especially.
Our site featured the best climbing tree ever.

Dirty AND Sandy

Camping by the beach was a huge success. While Matilda is still quite terrified of the surf, Porter was thrilled with the tidepools. He particularly enjoyed putting the little snails and hermit crabs he found in his mouth. Both kids are beat from all the fun and currently napping. Now for a shower and some un-packing.

Bleck

Porter just told me the garbanzo bean I handed him from the tabouli was bleck. He threw it on the kitchen floor and stepped on it.

Also, I have no idea how I thought I could get all this camping prep done today with two kids underfoot. We'll be lucky to make camp by nightfall tonight.

Hobos

Tim took the kids off to the farmers market around the corner this weekend while I worked on Sunday. I think they would fit in at a homeless camp caravanning with all their stuff.

Too Much of a Good Thing

We had the neighbor kids over Saturday night to watch while their parents had a date, in order to try and balance out our babysitting debt with them. Turns out 5 kids is too many for me. Who knew?

The upside is we shucked that corn in record time. Sarah and Gaurav came over to have dinner with us and got to witness the insanity and provide an extra pair of eyes.

Stella says get me out of here!

Which is Worse?

That he fell asleep at dinner, or that we left him there long after we all finished?

Monday Fun

We crammed a lot into the long weekend, especially considering I worked Sunday and TIm worked Monday, but it was still super fun all around. We capped the weekend yesterday with a trip to the Disney soda fountain where I got the most enormous, most delicious ice cream and chocolate chip cookie sandwich. You can also see Porter coloring here, his first real coloring attempt without just eating the crayons the entire time! After ice cream we went across the street to the big fountain there and Matilda went wild and had the best time. Feels like summer finally.