Puzzles make me sleepy

Curt was home with the girls this afternoon. There's no school or daycare this week so we're playing tag team. They spent the morning with Mommy while Curt worked and the afternoon with Daddy while I worked.

My morning with them consisted of breakfast, Disney Channel, a trip to Costco, lunch, playing on the playset and some popcorn (not necessarily in that order). I heard that their afternoon centered around frisbee, basketball and hanging out in the neighbor's yard.

That must have been enough to wear poor Vivian out.

Curt just sent me this photo.

It's gone!

Audrey's other front tooth is finally gone! Free at last!!

Many thanks to Kailey for giving her the "idea" (as Audrey calls it) to put ice on her gums before working it out. Audrey pulled it herself.

This time there was no note for the Tooth Fairy. "She can keep the tooth," was Audrey's comment on that.

I even had to remind her to look under her pillow this morning. I guess all that mystery is fading.

Although she did think the $2 bill was pretty cool.

[Almost] All Girls Weekend

We had a completely delightful weekend! The Waugh family had the pleasure of hanging out at a friend's cottage in the thumb area of Michigan for the entire weekend.

We didn't go up there expecting to sit back and relax . . . there were five little girls in our crowd -- ages six down to one year. We knew there would only be a few select moments of peace and quiet. Like during nap time . . . except for us because our girls avoid napping at all costs. Lucky me.

However, I was pleasantly surprised how well all of the girls got along. That was a huge relief. Not that I expected it to be horrible . . . but you just never know with this crowd of emerging divas. Here's a sampling of the gaggle of girls we were dealing with.

Someday, they will talk about make-up and clothes and boys and avoid their parents at all costs. But this weekend, their happiest moments came from hanging out by the rock in the lake, riding the botsun's chair and playing "Mermaid" in the upper bedroom. [A game they made up that consisted of jumping across two twin beds back and forth. I think they were pretending to jump like dolphins or mermaids.]

And just to clarify, the parents had a lot of fun as well. At least we did. Curt is still sore from riding the jet skis so much.

Although I did discover that I totally suck at Bananagrams. Never play with Scrabble professionals.

Speaking of toothless

Audrey bit into a piece of baguette last night and said, "ouch!"

I just assumed it was because of the one front tooth remaining that's dangling from her gums with the tiniest filament of . . . something. [I can't for the life of me understand why this tooth is STILL there!]

However, I looked over at her and found her wiggling yet another tooth on the bottom right. I swear she's going to be all gums in a month.

And here's a photo of Vivian at the CCC cast party on Sunday . . . just because she's so squeezably CUTE!

Many Stars are Born

We just wrapped up a very busy week/weekend of parties and shows and more parties at Children's Creative Center. I'm tired just thinking about it all.

The kids (ranging in age 5 to 14), performed a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. However, this wasn't your typical Shakespeare. This version included musical numbers such as "Season of Love," "Hit the Road Jack," "Stop in the Name of Love," and "Why do Fools Fall in Love." Audrey's favorite song seemed to be "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" -- which also just happens to be my college sorority's theme song. Go figure.

Audrey played one of Queen Titania's fairies. She enjoyed every minute of it. During the benefit night after the opening performance, the summer camp director called me over because a patron wanted to know who the little toothless girl was. "She was SO good!" was the patron's remark to me. Awwwwwwww . . . .

Somehow, the director managed to whittle down the entire play into ONE hour -- including the songs! It was quite a feat. And I cried every time I watched the show. Perhaps I was emotional about other things . . . but it really got to me each time.

I must admit that when I first heard this was the chosen show for the summer camp production, I was a little disappointed. I was just SURE that it was going to be a huge disappointment and completely boring. I'm happy to report that it was nothing like that. This show was magical -- just like the story itself. I can't wait to see the video! I'll be sure to post some highlights here!

I'm so proud of all of the kids!

[The parents had a pretty good time as well I must say!]

"Very, very big"

So I accompanied Vivian and her preschool class to Independence Lake. All of the kids on this trip were 4 and under -- many of them two years of age and in diapers. What could have been an exhausting morning of chasing toddlers, running to the potty and changing diapers was actually a very welcome change of routine for me.

Much like her sister, Vivian loved swimming in the lake but had very little love for the Splash Zone area.

After several hours of swimming and a lunch of baloney & cheese sandwiches, the adults of the group set out to change the kids back in dry clothes and head back to the preschool.

Never at a loss for words, Vivian said something that completely cracked me up.

While I was changing her friend, Tate (whom she affectionally calls "Tatertot") I could see that he had a lot of sand in his swim diaper. I asked him to lie down so I could clean him up a bit before I put on a dry diaper.

Vivian, who was nearby, remarked, "Mommy, Tatertot has a worm."

And as if that weren't enough:

"It's very, very big."

ACK! I'm sure Tate's Dad would love hearing this!

As the Stomach Turns

I always know when life is moving at lightning speed or I'm caught up in too many things because I have NO talent for moderation and just "cain't say no" . . . I feel it in the pit of my stomach. Not the faint little "butterflies" that people claim to feel when they're happily nervous about something. No . . . I'm talking about doubling over, I wanna' die, pain in my stomach.

I inherited all of my stomach issues from my father (gee thanks, Dad.) All three of my siblings have it as well. My sister eats Pepcid like popcorn. I try to go a more natural route like watching my diet but I'm not always very good at doing that and it doesn't really work anyway. Sometimes Audrey will claim that "her stomach hurts." Oh man. Audrey . . . I'm really sorry about your luck.

Anyway, here it is Monday afternoon and I can feel the stress coming on me this week. Audrey is involved in a very fun production of "Midsummer Night's Dream" at her summer camp. This is tech week. And for some reason, I'm as stressed about this tech week as if I were the lead in the show or something. Perhaps it's because so many things are out of my control. Or perhaps it's because I volunteered to do a bunch of stuff for it and now I'm overwhelmed by it all. Damn. Caught me.

Tonight is their first dress rehearsal and parents are supposed to stay away . . . far, far away. That's actually a relief. No responsibilities for me tonight. Whew.

Tomorrow night we get to to watch the final dress, Wednesday night is the benefit night and Curt and I are tagged to do a TON of stuff for it (yeah . . . I get Curt involved, too) and then, hopefully, it's smooth sailing into show weekend. A girl can dream, can't she?

I'm sure my stomach will feel better when I'm sitting in the audience for her final performance on Sunday afternoon and reveling in the talents of these young kids.

That is, until the next shiny thing comes along that I haven't said no to . . .

A lot of work and a little play

I had a really stressful week at work . . . actually last week was more stressful but it leaked into this week a bit. It was nothing earth-shattering. I just had a ton of projects to do simultaneously. And none of them were related so the folks I was working for couldn't care less that I was working on three other things. I wish I had one of those "take a number" machines outside of my office. That would be grand.

My nephew's wedding was sandwiched in there this weekend so that added to my stress. Don't get me wrong -- I love weddings and I was thrilled to attend. However, I was also the soloist for this wedding and had to attend several rehearsals to make it happen. I should also mention that this wedding was three hours away from me. So, when I was still sitting at my desk at 2:00 pm on Friday afternoon, I was sort of shitting my pants wondering if I was going to make the 7:00 pm wedding rehearsal in Ohio that night. I was very happy when I left the office.

And everything went well. Whew. Curt was my white knight again and was able to fix the church's WAY overboard sound system without blowing the place up.



We all hung out in the balcony during the wedding-- girls and all. Because there's nothing better than having a two-year old tugging at your leg while you sing the Ave Maria.

The wedding was beautiful. Everyone . . . well, most of the women anyway . . . cried all day and all night. Tears everywhere and we were all perplexed (especially my mom -- who didn't seem to understand why everyone was crying!) We decided that it's because my nephew is a pretty special guy. And he married a special girl and we were just all so HAPPY.



As expected, the girls had a ton of fun at the reception. The tables were filled with packs of gum labeled with the couple's names and wedding date. Audrey thought that was cool.




Unfortunately, we could not get the girls to take a nap earlier in the day, so they didn't last as long as we were hoping they would. It turns out I was pretty exhausted too so I don't know why that even concerned me.



















The weekend flew by and by Sunday afternoon, we were making the trek home again. Ahh . . . home, sweet home.


Oh yeah, I forgot, I had to fire up my laptop and do more work. Ugh. At least I could grab a glass of wine and sit in my comfy chair.

Shhhh . . . don't tell my boss I was drinking on the job.

a-one and a-two and a . . .

I've got an update on Vivian's counting. Here's how it goes:

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, a-levin, a-twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, nineteen, TWENTY!"

"a-twelve?"

I love it!!!

and we're still missing a few teens . . .