More Dinner Chat

At dinner time, Addie told Rich, "My mommy is cute all day long." Later, Rich told her she has chicken in her teeth and she said, "Oh, I gotta get some soffs." She meant "FLOSS."

She's a riot.

This morning Addie and I set up our nativity sets on one side of our bookshelves. Addie's arrived in the mail today from Fisher Price and mine was dug out of storage. Since the set up, Baby Jesus has been fussing, has eaten pudding, and taken several naps (including with Addie from 4-5pm on the couch). 

Here's what one of our bookshelves looked like after we set up our creches. The top one is mine (it has 10 more pieces, but we don't have a good place to set them up this year), the middle shelf is Christmas books and the bottom one is Addie's (well, it's for all the kids eventually--I highly recommend it! We could only find it on FisherPrice.com, but I bet in real towns they have toy stores and you can find them there.)

The Best Baby in the World: Tonight at dinner I was reporting on my day, and I told Rich Heidi was the best baby in the world. Addie chimed in and said, "No, Baby Jesus is the best baby in the world." (here's the baby Jesus from her set). 

MomE-mail

In my inbox (from parentcenter.com) on 11/21: Congratulations - your little one is now 3! More fun is in store for you now that she's no longer a baby: She's probably holding her own in conversations and running and jumping like an athlete, and will soon write her full name. She's developing more sophisticated social skills, too, such as taking part in structured games with others, like tag or go-fish. Before you know it, she'll be cracking jokes (though she may not always know how to deliver a punch line), remembering entire songs, and even reading. Although she'll soon be saying goodbye to toddlerhood, rest assured that life won't be boring with her around.

So true. Sounds like Addie is right on schedule.

A Decade Already

This is an entry I never posted, written November 18th.

Man. Lots of stuff goin’ down today.

First, the fun Melin Girls Update—Heidi was weighed and measured today, and boy is she huge: 28” long and 20 lbs! There was a one-year-old boy right behind her who only weighed 2 ounces more and was ½ inch longer! Pobrecita is only 7 months old. We are amazons. Addie will be three on Sunday and she’s having a princess party on Saturday. She helped me make the goody bags last night, decorating brown lunch bags with glitter-glue crowns. Today she informed me that she named her favorite baby dolls Erika and Hattie. Actually, Erika was first called “Eris.” Her imagination is really developing, which provides us endless entertainment.

My little brother and his wife celebrate their 10th anniversary today. WOW. That makes us feel old. I am really grateful for my sister in law—the way she loves my brother and keeps his antics in check, and the way she is such a good mother. Willy really got lucky (especially considering his previous track record--ugh!), though he's a pretty great person, too. They have a beautiful family and I am so happy for them.

I am really busy today with visit teaching, WIC, playgroup, party prep, and of course, the house (actually, the houses --the old and the new). Ad’s birthday and the holidays always seem to sneak up on me and pounce! So more later.

Addie & Heidi had a great time playing on and around Grampa's coffee table on Thanksgiving night while we watched Seinfeld--here they are peeking out from underneath. Earlier we had taken a nap (after the tryptophan) and gone to see "Spongebob" at the movies.

We spent Thanksgiving with my "real dad" Dad Layton in Pocatello, Idaho this year. My step sister, Kaycee, has a daughter (Becca) who is 6 weeks older than Heidi. Here they are playing on Dad's floor. Becca was trying to show Heidi how to get around--Becca's almost walking, while Heidi has yet to crawl. Heidi DID cut her first tooth on Thanksgiving night, though. Addie's response: "Yay, baby! Now you can eat things!"

Addie turns three today! She had a Princess Party Saturday morning...

Before the party Daddy took Addie outside to see the first snow fall of the winter! She was shouting, "Snow for my birthday!" 

Heidi could hardly wait for the party to start! 

Daddy and Princess Heidi welcomed all the guests. 

First thing we did was make crowns for all the princes and princesses. Here are Sean, Gracie, Kelli, Ivy, and Addie gluing jewels to paper crowns (while munching on grapes and cheese and pretzels).

There's Addie making her own crown with George in the background

Then it was time for ice cream cake--look at Ad's pretty cake! 

...then Addie blew out the candle and made a wish! 

Here are all the party kids with their crowns! Gracie, Danny, George, Addie, Kelli, and Heidi, with Sean and Scott on the floor (It was Sean's 4th birthday that day!) 

Lastly, we opened presents! Here's Addie with Cousin Danny, Sean, Kelli, and Scotty opening her present from Scotty--high heeled Princess shoes! 

..and Addie had lots of help! That's Sean and Kelli helping Addie open her Polar Express book and CD. 

Addie is three tomorrow! She had her pink-princess party his morning with some church friends and it was a wonderful 65-minute fiesta!! We'll post more pix soon, but here she is in all her princess glory... 

Here is our house with the porch on--the roof was finished just as the first snowflake fell! 

Addie and Heidi were goofing around after naps on my bed yesterday. Here they are playing peek-a-boo with me.

"BOO!"

Here is an image of the northern lights I downloaded. I didn't take this photo, but this is the pattern I saw last night. It wasn't as green--it was rosy and light blue.

I downlaoded this from a Scandinavian web site--This is how the "Aurora Borealis" looked on Sunday night, looking to the northwest at 10pm-ish.

Indian Summer and Northern Lights

This week on NPR we learned the supposed origin of the term, "Indian Summer." They say that in colonial times, some authors used the term referring to the shift in the wind that comes to New England in October or November. Just as fall begins to chill, the wind begins to blow from the southwest, bring a current of warm air to delay winter's onset. The Indians believed it was a blessing from the God of the Southwest (--??--a name that began with a "K"), so the colonists started calling the warm period "Indian Summer."

Well, we are having one of those here in Livingston. The past 3 late-Octobers I have spent in Livingston have had daily highs in the teens or twenties. The past 2 weeks it has been 50's and 60's! I feel like I've died and gone to Arizona--er, I mean HEAVEN! I fully believe we are being blessed to finish our build! We worked from 8:30 til 5 pm on Saturday (I stained all the wood for our porch, Rich helped finish Angie & Davy's roof). Ahhh--warm-ish days and cold nights! Hey, it reminds me of a Dream Academy song:

"It was the time of year just after summer's gone
when August and September just become memories of songs
to be put away with the summer clothes and packed up in the attic for another year.
We had decided to stay on for a few weeks more
tho' the season was over, the days were still warm
And seemed reluctant to five up and hand over to winter for another year."

And tonight I saw the Northern Lights for the first time! It looked a little like a sunrise, but it was coming from the north west, with wavy rays of pale blue in the dark sky. No funky colors or anything, just a glow. I wish I could go out to the ranch and watch away from the town lights.

But it's late. We've had a nice Sunday--a good fast, a good church meeting, and a good breaking of our fast with lots of good Italian food and celebrating Angie's (my sis-in-law) 21st birthday at Mom Melin's. We even watched Shrek 2 after the bday party, and now I've got my whole family to bed. I think I shall join them!

What's Wrong with This Picture?

Addie was watching her "Baby Santa" video from the Baby Einstein collection yesterday, and I noticed that the first segment is Santa and Mrs. Claus dancing to "Dreidl, Dreildl, Dreidl." Now, I am all for learning Hannukah songs, but maybe with menorrahs and actual dreidls, not Santa and Mrs. Claus, for Pete's sake! And this is Baby Einstein--as in Albert, who knew about dreidls!

I am so tired...exhausted relief. All I have to say is Hallelujah.

And James Carville is the devil.

And God bless America.

Campaign Coverage Nov. 1st 2004 (From Wonkette.com)

<<7:34 NBC. The Today Show: Head vs. Skull:
White House Communications Deputy Tucker Eskew and James Carville.

Carville: "The 41% of people who think the country's going in the right direction are the dumbest people in America."
Eskew: Kerry took a poll to figure out what he thinks about Osama Bin Laden
Carville: RNC feels "the noose of history tightening around their necks"

Carville jams in 40% more words than Eskew; Eskew looks 40% less crazy than Carville. >>

Here I am with my hubby at 8am with our voting stickers--the badge of democracy! (excuse the bed head, love the Flogging Molly jacket). 

Exercising Our Rights

We went to vote today before 8 am and I decided to take Addie (better instill civic responsibility early, right?). On the way down the stairs (out of the blue mind you--I haven't tried to politicize my kid) she said, "Mom, Bush loves me. George Bush will take care of me." WHAT!?! Even I wouldn't have taught her that! I might have said George Bush will protect us or George Bush believes in freedom, but nothing personal like that. What a cutie. She gave the lady who gave us the "I Voted" sticker a sucker.

At dinner, we ate Short ribs and Bush's baked beans, just like we did in 2000, and bread and butter. Addie stuck her elbow into her butter and cried, "Oh my gosh! Hey, can somebody lick this for me?" Oh, man, that was a funny one.

Ad had a late nap, so it's just me-n-her, coloring a map of the US with red and blue pencils, happy with all of Montana's election results.

Rock on...

PS: The kids from Floggin Molly emailed me today--they're so fun. Turns out "Ellen" is "Helen" so I change it in the entry.

Addie Funnies

Addie is starting to have a really active imagination and it's so much fun. I thought I'd better write some of her funnies down, even though some of these are "old" ones.

When I taught her to sing "You Are My Sunshine" last year, she would always say, "Oh, I sorry mom--here's your sunshine!" at the end. It took me a while to realize she was reacting to the last line, "Please don't take my sunshine away." She would pretend to gather up something from mid-air and hand it to me--here's you sunshine.

She is learning about death and the permanence of our family, too. She started saying, "I want a new mommy," when I reprimanded her and I told her, "You only get one mommy, so you'd better be nice to me!" Now she has translated that to Heidi.

She and Heidi were playing on the bed, just giggling and being silly, and Addie said, "Mom, I don't want my Heidi to get died. We have to take care of her and be nice to her."

I tried not to giggle and I said, "Yes, Honey. We have to take care of sister because she's a special part of our famiy, just like you."

"Yeah...we can't get a new Heidi. There is only one Heidi so we have to take care of her."

Yeah. Something like that.

I'm off to VOTE! Yeeeehaw!