Anatomy and the Pasta Isle

Laney and I went to the store together on Sunday. While we were shopping, I picked up a lemonade Koolaid mix. Laney wanted a different color, so as we proceeded down the pasta isle in the bus cart she yelled at me: "Moommm, I can't have lemonade! It makes my penis hurt!". To which I replied calmly, "you don't have a penis". (others in pasta isle are laughing). Laney keeps going with the penis theme. She does have one and it hurts if she drinks lemonade. I decided that a more face to face chat would be in order. So there I was, in the pasta isle, telling her: Laney, you don't have a penis. You have a vagina. Boys have penises. And we don't usually yell about our parts when we're in the store. Then we went back, exchanged the lemonade mix for pink lemonade and continued on.
Charles is off to Denver again and we're holding the fort. We had our first carpool day yesterday. We are picking Rorie up after school for Tues and Wed and Rorie's grandma will pick Laney up on Thursday. So I guess at least one of the school days the twins will get a longer nap. Laney was really whoopin' it up to impress our guest. She took off her car seat straps (a recently learned skill--she can both buckle and unbuckle now), she talked nonsense and then laughed hysterically, she purposely mispronounced Rorie's name over and over again. We had to have a serious talk after dropping Rorie off. It made me realize though what a big personality Laney is compared to other kids.
Off to water the new plants now. The calamondin is not looking happy.

The Streak

It was a long week. Charles left last Monday and was gone until Saturday night. He came home for Sunday and left Monday until Wednesday. The kids were all sick with colds last week too. We made it through though and really it wasn't too bad. We went across town on Friday to shop for some bedding for Kenna. I took the kids to visit Olive and Don and then we went to Homegoods. It was getting a little late and lunch needed to happen, but I was trying to complete the mission. So we did the quick shop and went to the check out--where all hell broke loose. While I was trying to check out I started to hear laughter in the line and turned around to find Kenna stripped butt naked. Like not a stitch on including no shoes. I calmly finished paying for my stuff while she ran through the store grandstanding for all the people. Laney melted down because I wouldn't buy her a makeup kit and Griffin ran off with a rolling backpack and was doing the circular route through the exit doors and back into the store with it. By the time I was done I literally hauled three screaming children, three bags of comforter/pillows/etc, and a twin stroller out of the store and across the parking lot while the crowd of seniors looked on. A definite joy moment
I cleaned all the carpet in the house (and it was immediately peed on again). For some reason I said yes to play dough and moon sand after finishing cleaning the carpet. BIG MISTAKE. BIG. I did not realize that moon sand was invented by the devil. I've swept and vacuumed about 5 times now and am still finding purple moon sand everywhere.
We're having big car seat milestones this week. I threw G in his seat the other day and went around the car to buckle in the girls. When I came back to buckle him in, it was all done. Amazing. Laney figured out how to get out of her car seat later in the week.
Laney and Griffin knocked down a box of hats and gloves right before school on Tuesday. They both decided that they needed to wear a hat. So Laney wore a fuzzy orange hat that made her look like DJ Lance (Yo Gabba Gabba for those not in the know) to school and Griffin wore a snowflake pattern ear flapped knit hat. It was almost 100 out and humid like nothing else. Kenna had to take her plastic Elmo purse and the puppy on the string in with her. We were a parade of freaks. But hey, we're used to the circus effect. Griffin has continued to wear the hat occasionally. He looks a little like Elmer Fudd.
We are off to play group in a little while. We're doing a kindermusik demo today. Tonight we're going to the Greek festival (fried cheese!!).

The Grass is Always Greener (when it's fake)

We have grass. It is very, very green and shiny. I should have installed it with the grain of the grass (yeah, our grass has a grain) facing the house but I didn't want to buy more grass to do the install that direction. So it runs side to side and our view from the house is somewhat shinier than it is from the pool. Isn't it funny how you obsess over little things when you do things yourself?
Ernie came over to help with the install on Saturday. Seriously, he's just the best. And he brings tools. We've started saying the same thing over and over "Yes, we have an X. It's in Idaho". As in we have a hammer, we have a wheelbarrow, etc. Charles moved all three tons of crushed rock off the driveway himself and Ernie brought the plate compactor. We were done installing by early afternoon. Now I have a chunk of grass left and I'm thinking of adding another grass area over by the end of the pool. I'll have to do seaming, but I think I can. Overall, I think I like the grass. It does get hot in direct sunlight but cools immediately in shade and it is a rather bright green, but it's nice to have it out there. I keep feeling this little shock every time I look out the window and see green.

Projects

I should be working on my lengthy to do list, but I'm going to blog instead. We have been working on the back yard and I've been trying to get the twins' rooms put together so it's been busy. One of these days I will learn to take a before picture (and post after pictures...). We destroyed our yard earlier in the year in a fit of enthusiasm. The patio against the west wall was torn out and we removed the dog kennel fencing. We also quit watering the grass. Then we left for the summer. Let's just say that it was a MESS. It wasn't that awesome before our "improvements" this spring, but it was yikes-worthy by last month. I guess once I start spending money, I just can't stop. It's weird. So after buying a second home and working on improving it all summer, we hired a somewhat sketchy team of guys to put in new patios and brick edging plus a new outdoor kitchen. Ooooh, ritzy, yes? We also walled off the mechanical section of the yard with the A/Cs and pool equipment. And we removed all of the dark red ugly rock. I've ordered grass from Costco and it should arrive at the end of the week or so (I'm so done with watering, overseeding, and mowing). Hopefully we'll get it installed without any problems this weekend. Then we'll install new plants all over the yard and paint the new stucco walls. I'm going to buy new pots too. So, hopefully, by my birthday we'll have a nice pretty back yard. We spent Labor Day weekend painting our fencing. We went darker and painted it the house color. I really like it. It's a lot warmer and has less glare (which probably means that the color will absorb more heat, but hey).
The twins have their own rooms now and I've been buying furniture for them. Cheap furniture because I'm broke now. Griffin's room has blue furniture and a dinosaur theme. I got his bedding at Marshals and found the quilt at Homegoods. score! I need to find bedding for Kenna now. Her walls are yellow so I've been trying to find something that I like. The thing about kids bedding is that it's often made of really cheap material that looks bad in about a nanosecond. I'm on the hunt. But I did find both of them headboards, side tables, and toy boxes on clearance at Target. I need to buy a dresser for Griffin still.
The kids are doing just fine. They have been sort of wild lately. Must need to run around more or something. The twins are potty training. Kenna is doing amazingly well. She didn't wear a pull up last night. I have been fighting with her because I want her to use the potty since I don't trust her yet and she REFUSES. It turns into a scream fest. I just need to let her do her own thing and realize that she goes when she needs to. G is working on the potty thing but he doesn't seem to have as much awareness of his need to go. But he's been wearing his big boy underpants more frequently. Laney started school and is going through this "you're not the boss of me stage". I'm quite ready to rip her arms off. She's just so big and independent now.
I went to the rheumatoid arthritis doctor last week and it was a good visit. I really like the doctor. I got sick over the summer and my arthritis really flared again. Turns out I probably had Parvo. The human form of Parvo is Fifth disease and it can cause viral arthritis. Who knew? The upshot of the visit is that I'm renewing my dedication to taking my meds and hopefully I'll start feeling better again. I'm really tired of being tired. The fatigue of RA is really something.