Boy Parts

The title of this blog has you interested, right? Hah. Join me as I spin the tale...

Today during Quiet Time for Abby, I checked in on her. She was so excited to share with me some fashion sketches that she drew, you know, like Project Runway? We had just been to the Barbie exhibit yesterday at the museum, where you get to do that for Barbie. She did a computer one and a hand drawn one. Pretty cool. So, back to her sketches today... She did one of a girl, a princess if you will, with a beautiful dress, gloves, and (!) high heels. She was very excited about the gloves and high heels, because that is what princesses wear, Mommy. Duh. AND, she did a sketch of a boy too. Pants, Shirt, and a big ol' "BOY PART" right there, where it is supposed to be. (I think I'm blushing, just typing this.) I asked her why, and her response was so logical, "Because then you know it is a boy." Of course. (and so innocent, right?) Ahem. Maybe if this happens again, I should have a talk about how you can't see it because it is under their clothes? Hmmmm.

(Oh, and I'm not sharing the drawing because it seems a little pornographic to post it. hah.)

Getting out of the house...

... is a good thing. I'm not always good about it, but today I fought it and the girls and I hit the Children's Museum. I decided not to tell Abby what we were doing. I just told her I had to run an errand, which made her really mad because she isn't used to not knowing what we're doing. About half way I told her that it was a surprise and that she'd like it. Her guesses were The Children's Museum, shopping for clothes, or visiting a big building downtown. She was very excited when we pulled into the parking garage for the Museum.

The museum has 2 new exhibits that she is crazy excited about: Barbie and Bob the Builder. I mean really, those are pretty good exhibits for a 4 year old girl. We had been to the Barbie exhibit once before around Christmas time, but the Bob the Builder one JUST opened this month. I could barely keep up with her as she scurried around it. I snapped a few pictures with my phone, so they are terrible quality and blurry, but they give you an idea of what it was.

We had a super fun morning and I am SO glad that I fought the urge to stay in.

Do you have to push yourself to do things that you know you'll be glad you did in the long run?

I finally bought one

I finally bought one.

A Neti Pot, that is. (Sexy, huh?)

I broke to the pressure. So many people (Dr. Oz!) swear by them if you have sinus infection problems, which I do. Click here to read an article called "Do Neti Pots Really Work?" The jury is still out here.

A couple years ago, I had an ongoing sinus infection for about five months (!). The antibiotics would work and then a week later, the infection would be back. I had a CT done of my sinus' and saw an ENT. No fun. Since then, I always request a specific antibiotic that seems to work the best. Augmentin, if anyone is curious.

Fast forward to today. I have a cold. At least I think that is all it is so far. It isn't bad enough to call the doctor yet, but it is ALL in my sinus area. Matt has almost the same thing but his isn't nearly as bad. My purchase of the neti pot is to hopefully keep the infection at bay and get better faster. I used it this afternoon for the first time. Weird. It just isn't natural to pour junk up your nose. I did it on one side of my nose first, and that was a little awkward. But the package said to do it on both sides, so I did, and the second side went smoother. But it sure does feel weird. It doesn't hurt, but it's still weird.

So, here's to it working and making me a believer!! Cheers!

President's Day

Remember Weekly Reader from elementary school? A age-appropriate newspaper that often focused on current events. As a teacher, I had a subscription for my class of Scholastic News. The other popular one now is Time for Kids.

Well, Abby's preschool gets to do these occasionally. Theirs are designed for preschoolers. The most recent one that she brought home was all about President's Day. They had some interesting facts about George Washington and Abe Lincoln. On the back, it talked about how Abe Lincoln used to keep important things in his tall hat. It then asked the kids what they would keep in their hat, should they have one. I think their teacher must have asked them and then wrote down what each child said. Too funny.

Here is Abby's:

Cute, right? But, an egg?????!! What in the world?

Creation Month at Preschool

Abby made this at Preschool. Cool, huh?

Random Thoughts on Snow

(Picture from here)

As you can tell from my last couple of posts, we have been getting a ton of snow in the last week or so here. So far, I haven't really had to get out in it unless I want to. Until today. Abby has/had preschool today and even thought the local schools were on a 2 hour delay, we had preschool as normal. Thus, Carrie had to get out in the snow. Yuck. I can't really complain after growing up in the snow belt of Lake Michigan, but it just feels different here. Bigger city, I guess. That said, I had some random thoughts while driving Abby to preschool this morning:

• I am glad I drive a SUV. Granted, mine is technically a crossover, but it is still higher up than a car, which means that I don't scrape bottom on all the chunks dropped by the rest of the cars. Yay Murano!
• I am sooo glad that I get to park in a garage. No cleaning snow off the car before I go places. EVERY snow I am thankful for this as I see people who did a half-a$$ job of cleaning off their cars.
• Shoveling all the excess snow from your driveway into the street isn't very nice. It just makes a big ol' pile that others (like me) have to drive around.
• Looking out your window in a subdivision gives you really NO idea what the road conditions are like. Our streets are generally about 10 times worse than the main roads.
• Sometimes the well traveled streets aren't really that much better than other side streets. -and sometimes they are worse (as I found out this morning).
• Bad wind makes everything worse when it comes to snow. Bleck.

Lots of thoughts for one drive to preschool.

I've got the hook up

How awesome is this? Friends from church who come snowblow my driveway while my husband is out of town? Rock on. What a great support network!

Snowed in

We're snowed in (temporarily).

Kinda pretty.

Last night, we decided to snuggle in as the snow fell. Luckily we didn't have to be out for anything and had made a grocery trip right before the snow hit. We lit some candles and the fireplace. We also brought out Abby's air mattress and the girls had so much fun playing and watching TV this way.

Hard Work

Lily's birthday was a momentous day, but not just because she turned one. My, what I feared was delayed, daughter waited until the actual day of her birthday to crawl for the first time. What I haven't shared as much, was how worried I was that she wasn't crawling. Everyone makes a really big deal about crawling ("Is she crawling yet?" "Is she walking yet?" yada yada), until you say you are worried, and then they make it seem like a not-big-deal ("Oh, she'll do it in her own time." "She just has her own way of getting around." "She's just content." "You'll have plenty of time to chase her around soon enough."). But it is. ALL the books and websites say that your baby should be crawling by 12 months. Did you know that if you're kid doesn't crawl, they will suck at reading, and never amount to anything?

That said, what does my kid do? She crawls for the first time on her birthday at her party. Yup. Seriously. She's been practicing quite a bit since then, but it does get tiring as you see...