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garbage day

have you eveer been laying in your bed at 6:55am, technically awake, but believing that if you keep your eyes closed you are still sleeping, but then you hear the garbage truck round the corner inside the gate, and realize that you forgot to put the garbage out to the curb the night before, and then think, 'forget it, ill put it out next time', and then realize that you just made 12 freezer meals with chicken, and all the chicken juice in the garbage can is going to stink-ify your entire neighborhood, and then you get really mad at your freezer meal group even though it makes no sense (hey, you're just waking up, don't get down on yourself about your illogic!), then you determinedly jump out of bed and run, well, walk really fast, to the garage, when you realize you're wearing only your underwear, so you detour to your 4 year old's bedroom, and pull him down from his top bunk & deep sleep, and shake him, just a little, saying, 'buddy! buddy! wake up! the garbage man is coming! you need to get the garbage to the curb!", which wakens him instantly because he loves taking garbage out, and it's not until he's sprinting from the house with the last load of any scrap of garbage from inside the house, that you realize he's wearing the same outfit as you, but he looks so much cuter in it?? 

has that ever happened to you?  ...me too.

 
 
 

sunday dogma with a 4 year old

dear heavenly father,

thank you gracie can come to our house today.

i don't know my letters yet, but my mommy is teaching me.

heavenly father, why don't i know my letters yet?

please help piper to love me.

name of jesus christ, amen.

#7 rapunzel cake

 

in my mind, this cake was more ... refined.  in real life, i'm pretended that i was trying to make a cartoon cake.

it's gracie's 4th birthday, and she is a BIG rapunzel lover. i decided to attempt a rapunzel tower for family dinner on sunday nite.

the bottom cake is the SUPER-AWESOME chocolate cake that i make for any reason, and the tower is a big rice krispie log, and covered in marshmellow fondant. i made the trees, the "wanted flynn ryder" sign, and hair out of gum paste.

and no castle cake - even if the castle is a prison tower - is  complete without 70's barbie cupcakes...right?

**nice blurry picture is compliments of my cell phone.

postman

today i took levi to the post office to have his picture taken & to apply for a passport. i was sitting on a bench filling out the 4-page application. he was sitting to the left of me. and to the right of me. and behind me, with both arms around my neck. and then in front of me, asking question. after question.

i finally said, "hey buddy, mommy needs to concentrate on filling out this paper. give me a few minutes, ok?"
"what is that paper?"
"its a passport application. i need to tell the postman all about you, so he can have a passport made and bring it to our house..."
"oh. well.....i really like the ranch"
"ooohhh....." absent-mindedly, "me too....."
"aaaaaannnd.... i really love you."
"oh that's sweet. i love you too.", distractedly.
"and i'm getting really good at climbing over fences & walls." he said, just as i was pausing to read the directions for the next page. i heard it. but i didn't hear it.
"write that mommy."
"huh?"
"write that i'm getting really good at climbing over fences & walls."
"oh... oh! oh, ok.  yeah, let's for sure get that part on here....", finally understanding, him & the directions, i started filling out the last page. him content that i was finishing up his provided information.
"annnnnnnnd...that's pretty much everything", he concluded with a smile.

how awesome.

how great is it when everything anyone needs to know about you is that you like the ranch, love your mom, & are a really good climber. live on little buddy, live on.

adventure

 

as has been well-documented, pickles is a hardcore animal fan. when i try to think of outings or activities i think she would like, only ones involving animals come to mind. when levi gets all the stars filled in on his chore chart and we ALL get a new toy, she always chooses a dog. when her grandma & aunts asked me what she wants for her upcoming birthday, all i could think of was dog-related items. when i want her to come to her room to get her hair done & she's ignoring me, i let out a few of my best dog barks, real loud, and she comes running. 

seriously? every time? i keep wondering how many times she'll round the corner into her room and see me sitting on her bed, brush in hand, smiling, before she stops falling for the "dog-bark" trick.  i guess she's just super-hopeful/optimistic.  ...she got that from me.

i'm tellin ya, it's ALL she's interested in.  the good news is, her lack of diversity doesn't bore her, she never tires of playing with her same-theme toys, or watching snow buddies, or bringing me 1 of her 2 dog shirts to put on. so...if she's happy, we're happy.

i'm pretty sure the saying is supposed to be "if mama ain't happy...." but in our house 2 of us are lovers, not fighters, so we graciously accepted the rewrite of "if pickles ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  just kidding. turns out, only 1 person in our house is a lover, not a fighter. the other 2....well, we box it out night & day. both of us super-hopeful/optimistic that tomorrow will be the day we "win"! actual winner: TBD.

all that means, is that for piper's adventure this month, we went to the secret garden @ the mirage. she ran up and down the palm-lined walkways screaming "doggie" every 5-10 seconds. i scuttled behind trying to tell her the actual correct name of each variety of lion & tiger.

"that's actually a rare white tiger, piper." and "did you know that due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is SIX times better than that of humans??!!"  you know, the kind of stuff that interests almost 2-year-olds....

but she wasn't listening....big "doggies" whirling all around her at every turn. we came up to a section that had a HUGE white lion, with a couple of his babes chillin together, and we were the only visitors at their crib. i lifted her up onto the handrailing, so that, standing, she was the same height as me. she zoned out on them, and them on her. it was almost as if they were each daring eachother to make the first move.

i thought this quiet moment would be a good time to try to get her to understand that they were actually lions. really, cool, white, lions. i mean, really cool. so i softly put our cheeks together, and said, quietly, "piper, those are lions. LLLLIIIIOOOONS. can you say lions?" she turned her face to mine, so close that it made her eyes slightly cross, and whispered, "doggies", a little puff of her baby breath hot on my nose. "doggies"...i whispered back.