Hooray for Hollywood!

My sister has been here since Friday...  but tonight is what we've all been waiting for.

This is me at my mom's Oscar party:


This is me and my sister at Mom's Oscar party


This is our Mom.


Any Questions??

Say Goodnight Gracie

Gracie helped me unload the dishwasher before lunch.  She knows where everything goes and its her favorite chore to help with.  Right now she's in her crib "taking a nap" but what I'm hearing over the monitor is this:

Rockabye Elmo on the tree top!  Ellie!?  Where are you Ellie?  Lellow, Geen, that's Red!   George (as in Curious), lets' change your diaper George.   Go see Mommy?  Go see Daddy?  One Two Free Four FIVE!  Rock a bye baby on the treetooooop    Cookie Monster, you go nite nite?  we found him we found him lalalalala   its nigh night time  ....humming rockabye baby now.... piggy toooooeeeee.   Where's Noopy?  Oh goodness!  Uuuuuuuuuuuppp  uuuuuuppppp     uuuuuuuuuuuuuup   Change your diaper George.  New banket?  yes you did  Nigh Night blankie  Night Elmo.  Hi Cookie... Oscar   Zoe no no.    Now she's just banging her books around.   10 minutes later and she's still talking.... say goodnight Gracie!!!!!

Spaghetti

She did it!  She did it!  Kayla finally tried spaghetti again for the first time in almost three years!!!!!!  We just happened to catch her in the right mood and didn't give her an alternate meal to eat.  She took a bite and said "YUM!"  and devoured every last bit!!   Yay Kayla!!  This opens up a whole new list of dinner choices... raviolli, lasagna, PIZZA!!!!    In honor of this I give you one of my favorite all time poems by the late great Shel Silverstein.   If you child does not have Where the Sidewalk Ends, it is a must have IMHO! 

Spaghetti

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,
Up to my elbows--up to my face,
Over the carpet and under the chairs,
Into the hammock and wound round the stairs,
Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,
Making the sofa a mad mushy mess. The party is ruined, I'm terribly worried,
The guests have all left (unless they're all buried).
I told them, "Bring presents." I said, "Throw confettii."
I guess they heard wrong
'Cause they all threw spaghetti!
Shel Silverstein

Wanted to write down some Gracie-isms.   She has finally learned to say "yes" correctly but before a day or two ago it came out "nes".  It made Don laugh every time to the point where he would ask her questions just to make her say it.   On Friday we brought my mom a balloon to sign and kiss and send up to Papa Joe in heaven.  I purposely bought Gracie her own little balloon so that she would be ok when we released Papa Joe's.  Instead she fell apart and cried and wailed "where Mommy's balloon go?????"  over and over and over again.  We brought her inside to try and calm her down but the entire night she kept bursting into tears and  bringing up that doggone balloon.  Yesterday (four days later) as I was buckling her up in the carseat, she asked me again "where Mommy's balloon go?"    After dropping off Sissy at school yesterday we saw lots of school buses in a row and she started waving frantically and yelling "bye school bus!!! Have a good day school bus!!!"    She randomly breaks into song all day long and I love listening to her sing the big finish just like Kayla used to do.  "That's Elmo's Wooooorrrrrllllldddd!!!!!"   When she watches Sesame Street she counts along when they are showing the numbers.  Oh and she gets soooo mad at Ernie for messing with Bert!

A Most Embarrasing Moment

I have a weird habit of reading the obituaries.  I figure if I read them every day I won't miss an important passing of someone I know.  My mom's friend Maxine passed away on Monday.  So, I was paying particular attention to the obits over the last few days and was surprised to see a familiar name this morning.   I scanned the obit for the names of family members to confirm he was who I thought he was and then decided to go to the visitation tonight to give my condolances.  The deceased was the father in law of a friend of mine that I haven't seen in a while but worked daily with for almost 10 years.    Don got home and I changed into my dress clothes, hopped in the car and went to the funeral home.  Have you figured out how the story ends yet?  I poked my head into the room where the family and friends were gathered and looked for my friend Lisa who was nowhere to be found.  I thought well maybe she's stepped out for a breath of fresh air or something so I walked over to the tv and watched the video montage of this man's great life.  There were photos of him in his travels, with his dear wife of many many years, of him with his children and grandchildren... and the more I looked at the pictures the more I started to question whether I was in the right place.   I took a closer look at some family photos that were displayed on a collage board.... not a single picture of Lisa and her kids anywhere.  Yep, wrong guy.  Turns out Lisa's father in law is alive and well and I went to pay my respects to a man I never even knew.  In an odd way I'm glad I went... Mom decided not to go to Maxine's visitation because it was in another town plus she was feeling extra emotional because tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of Gramps' death.   So in a way I felt like I was paying my respects to both Maxine and Gramps as well as the dear-departed- not Lisa's father-in-law- Mr. Anderson.     Some of the family members saw me and some of them must have wondered who this oddly silent visitor was but maybe they will just smile thinking he had touched my life in some way even though I didn't speak to them.  The two rooms were full of people so I have the feeling he must have touched a lot of lives.  

Rest in Peace Jerry Anderson.  May God hold your family in the palm of His hand.

And by the way, my husband has yet to stop laughing at me.

Random thoughts

* What is it with the one shoe in the middle of the road?  Are there people out there just randomly throwing shoes out their car windows??

* Kermit just made a rare appearance on Sesame Street.  Why isn't he a main character anymore???  Was there some sort of controversy I don't know about??

* Someone stole our trash can.  Its been gone for a week now.  We have a back up but its not half as big as out city trash can so for now I have two garbage bags sitting in my kitchen.  Thankfully, tomorrow is trash day.   I called the city and they said the trash guys would look for our can tomorrow but if they can't find it they will bring out a replacement.

* I hate litter boxes.

Gracie's question of the day is "what color is dis?"   I'm not trying to brag when I say she speaks really really well for a not even 2 year old.  I'm sure there will be lots of things in her life she won't be so advanced on... like math if she takes after me and Kayla.  I totally give Sesame Street all the credit for her verbal smarts.  She can count to 20  (skipping one or two numbers in the middle of course), sings lots of songs including Elmo's World, Twinkle Twinkle, and her ABC's, and knows some of her colors.   She can also name all the Sesame Street characters including the humans.  Totally random fact here... did you know that the original Mr. Noodle (the short balding one) was from Memphis?  Sadly, he died a few years ago but I always smile when they play an episode with him.   I can't believe my kid is about to turn two!