Brooke

MY BIG GIRL

How ridiculously cute is this picture?

Brooke is growing up so fast. She is a master of her own little destiny. At the park I don't feel the need to be right on top of her anymore (the mall and public areas without fences are a different matter..)

She can dress herself without any help from Mommy.
She can get a drink from the fridge.
She can do small errands like go in the other room and get a diaper when Mommy realizes that she doesn't have one but has a baby on the changing table fully loaded (if you know what I mean).
She is tettering on the verge of not wanting hugs and kisses all the time.
She is one step away from being able to turn on the tv and make her own bowl of cereal in the morning.
She has definite opinions about what to wear and what not to wear.
She can get undressed and in to the tub by herself.
She does not need the stool to get on the potty anymore.
She can write all the letters of her name (though some are backward and none are in order).
She makes friends on her own.
BUT
She sleeps in her crib.
She tends to eat with her hands.
She uses a sippy cup mostly to save Mommy's sanity.
She uses the baby blanket she has slept with since birth.
She jumps for joy when Mom picks her up from "school" and when Dad comes home from work.
She looks to Mom for reassurance when she's scared to try something she really wants to do (i.e. swim, climb, jump).
She still wants a kiss on a boo boo even if it really doesn't hurt that much.
She still wants to sit in someone's lap after dinner and sing or hear a skunk story.

I am so aggravated

I just wrote this entire HUGE column about the irony of Brooke Shields and Tom Cruise giving birth on the same day but it got completely erased and I can't bring myself to recreate it again so here are the highlights:

• Love Brooke Shields - loved Blue Lagoon - hated crab scene in Blue Lagoon reminiscent of monkey flying scene in Wizard of Oz
  
• Hate Tom Cruise
  
• Should have picked on Marie Osmond who is way more annoying and didn't have postpartum until after about the 8th kid
  
• Blog site pissing me off so if you are able, click on the Shutterfly link to see pictures.
  

That pretty much sums it up. Suffice it to say it was funnier the first time around but it's hard to type when your head just exploded from frustration.

Birthday party and Easter!

Brooke's 3rd birthday party was a BIG hit! I would post some pictures but the upload (at home) didn't seem to work so I'll have to try again tonight. Suffice it to say the kids jumped until they were falling over, did arts & crafts until they were covered in paint and blew bubbles until they were out of breath! The sun was shining, the juice/beer was flowing and, most importantly, no one got injured (shock, shock, shock - I was convinced something would happen).
My mother, father and Karen stayed until the wee hours of the night (granted John and I could be considered to have coerced them) which was fun. Loads of wine and popcorn was consumed. I was a little tired the next morning but it was Easter so we had to make the best of it and my mother was still there so there were more presents to be had.
The Easter egg hunt was a HUGE hit for Brooke. She was in awe. Lexi didn't really get it, of course, but she had a great time anyway.
Overall a successful weekend. Pictures to come!

Isn't this cute? It's a photo from daycare of Lexi (middle) with her friends hanging out on the mini-couch they have. She just looks like she's loving it. It's funny because I know they love it there but when I come they still come barrelling at me with big hugs and kisses to go home. Best of both worlds really. I'm very lucky.
See, I can be upbeat!
On another note - yesterday my mother surprised me by taking me out to lunch and shopping. It was really fun. So nice to be able to hang with her without the kids. It's one of those things I miss that you don't realize until you do it again. She really is a very cool human. As an example, we went to this restaurant called Blu (at the Ritz no less) and there was no one there except one sort of hidden table which we peeked at. Well, she thought she saw Matthew Broderick at the table, but not sure. So we sat down (they seated us away from MB's supposed table behind a pole which, of course, convinced us it was him). We could not get a glimpse so we moved on but kind of kept mentioning it when my mother goes, "I'll go look for the bathroom." She did not have to go to the bathroom as we had made that stop 5 minutes before. She went clandestinely looking for the bathroom while passing this table no less than 3 times. Too funny!! So then she's like "I guess I'll ask" loudly but not obnoxious and sat back down. "Nope, not him," she said and then the waiter came up saying, "Miss can I help you find something?" and she had to follow him to the bathroom in order to not look like a goofball. It was a riot. Something your college friend would have done but she had no compunction about doing and, may I say, doing it with considerable aplomb.
I was proud!
Another cool thing happened since my last post, John & I went out to dinner with my friend Kate and her partner Barb. It was super fun. I hadn't seen Kate in literally a year and a half though she lives 2 towns over. I've known her for 10 years and been through loads of good and bad with her. She finally seems happy and I'm so glad for her. Barb was wicked nice and she and John had a lot to talk about while Kate and I caught up. Great time!
So this weekend is Brooke's b'day! 3 years old. I'm not going to start with the time flies but the saying "The minutes feel like years and the years feel like minutes" is sooooo true. I'll have loads of photos from the b'day party next week. Moonwalk, arts & crafts, BBQ all dependent on no rain - pray for us!

Stupid humans

So I'm thinking that this could be a regular feature. This week I am featuring Brian J. Doyle, 55. The fourth-ranking official in the Department of Homeland Security's public affairs office. This idiot struck up sexual conversations with a "14 year old girl" on-line who, shockingly, turned out to be an undercover detective. When the investigators went to his house he was on-line chatting with her. Pretty much bagged I'd say.
Just how stupid do you have to be? How close was he to retirement? From a federal job? Gotta be pretty close. Oh well, it appears he'll be in a federal institution of another kind for awhile and then he'll get out.... and be broke.

For the grace of god

The scaffolding collapse is 2 blocks away from where I work. I routinely walk up there to get lunch at the "Alley". I could have been walking back at 1:20pm had it not been a Monday. OK, enough said. Life is fragile - this is just another reminder.
Speaking of life. Raising kids is really tough. You want to expose them to everything but then when you do you want to hug them and protect them from failing or being sad or scared.
Case in point, swimming class. Brooke was doing, well, swimmingly (haha) even though I was a little nervous when they swam her across the pool and left her hanging there for 10 minutes. But then they swam her back and she was OK. When they wanted her to float on a stick in the middle of the pool I knew it wasn't going to be pretty and it wasn't. She panicked and didn't cry but wanted to.
I hated it.
Couldn't have hated it more. Wanted to jump in the water and get her. The instructor could tell she wasn't able to do it so she held on to her hand but moved on to get the other kids out there and they all were able to do it so now I'm berating myself for putting her in the class too fast. UGH. I wonder what is going to happen when I tell her we're going to swimming this weekend. I predict panic & crying. We'll see.......
p.s. Lexi off to the doctor again today because I'm pretty sure the old ear infection is back (even though she is on the antibiotics, I'm thinking tubes are coming)