juliloquy

so you see what we're dealing with here

A multiple-choice quiz to give you a small glimpse of life with da Roo.

1. You ask her to go to her room to put on her pajamas. She returns ten minutes later wearing

    a. her pajamas

    b. nothing

    c. the same thing she was wearing previously, plus a birthday hat

    d. princess dress-up clothes

 

2. With whom do the "gooey pahnov goo" hawks roam?

    a. the littlest pets

    b. the watch-out plants

    c. Lovey, the swimming/flying dinosaur

    d. all of the above

 

3. Who/what is seven?

    a. her brother's age

    b. the name of one of her favorite songs

    c. the name of Lovey's pet cat

    d. all of the above

 

4. At school, she has shown true leadership by

    a. getting many of the other kids to "play bird" and "take dirt baths" during recess.

    b. mastering the art of dry transfer and rolling up and restoring the work rug.

    c. starting her own salon and giving actual haircuts to two classmates.

    d. reproducing aminal sounds.

 

5. Words we hope she never learns to pronounce correctly . . . at least for a few more years

    a. calapitter

    b. so'd (so that)

    c. burrtend

    d. all of the above

 

6. When at the kitchen table, Roo might

    a. use chopsticks to imitate a walrus, narwal, unicorn . . .

    b. make a diving board out of turkey bacon for the waffles to use to jump into their "muddle puddle" of syrup.

    c. be too busy talking/playing until an exasperated parent holds the piece of pizza directly in front of her face.

    d. all of the above

 

ANSWERS

1. c. . . . plus a birthday hat (although the others are likely as well)

2. b. the watch-out plants. I'm not exactly sure what these are, but according to da Roo, I don't want to know.

3. d. all of the above. Apparently, Seven [the cat] also has a younger sibling named Four.

4. a. . . . "take dirt baths" during recess. (sorry, classmates' parents!) You also get points for b—her rug-rolling skilz are top notch.

5. d. all of the above. We especially like "so'd" because she "caught" it from her brother, although he no longer says it.

6. d. all of the above. Her chopstick walrus is the absolute cutest.

 

my dinner with Shmooie

Several weeks ago, Shmooie surprised me by saying "sometime I'd like to go somewhere, just you and me. Maybe to grab a bite to eat or something." (He has already mastered the art of romantic-yet-casual date-asking! Ready for college!) We finally got around to our night out last week. When I asked him where he'd like to go, he said, "there's this store? Where you can get food and eat it there or take it home? I think we've only been there once, but there's one near Grandpop and Bubbe's house." I figured out what he was talking about -- a new-to-Frederick regional upscale grocery store. We went there right after school.

  be still my heart

We had a perfectly upper middle class suburban evening.

Guess whose box is whose?
(Hint: the only green thing Shmooie consumed was the "mint chip" milk.)

Shmoo discovered a kids' seating area within which the Disney channel was playing, so it was kind of like dinner theatre. I was glad I always pack something to do in my purse.

22 across: MINOT! I believe this is the first time I've ever seen my hometown as a crossword clue.

After we ate, Shmoo helped with the grocery shopping.

And learned how the sticker-printing scales work while getting some special treats.

 

HPR and Roo had their own fun time at home, baking a double batch of cookies and Roo getting a bath all by herself. So a nice time all around!

I have a draft post about Shmoo's 7th birthday, but in the likelihood that it will never get published, here is a photo of the first annual punkin' chunkin event that was part of the early November festivities.

Put a post up on your dumb blog already

Heya. School has started! Shmoo began first grade on August 29th.

His best friend and one other student from last year's class are with him. I got a really cute picture of the three of them, but I don't want to post it w/o the other mom's permission. But here is when Shmoo and Alicia found each other on the first day.

 

Roo began preschool on August 31. She has Shmoo's teacher from last year (mixed-age 3s, 4s, and kindergarten). Whereas Shmoo still goes through 4-5 cycles of kiss/hug/"I love you"s, Roo heads into her classroom with nary a backward glance.

Also in the photo above is our new-to-us car, Steffi. This is what happened to poor Bucky the Saturn this past summer.

Bucky's the one in the front. The four of us were OK (as was the driver of the other car, except for a badly sprained ankle) and we kept a memento of Bucky (photo comes in landscape for some mysterious Typepad reason).

We did a lot of fun stuff over the summer. I'll leave with a cute kid photo from Shenandoah.

Just in time for my birthday.

Got this in a Money Mailer® yesterday. People, you have got to click to embiggen.

A coupon. From a cemetery Memorial Garden.

I just.

So, the coupons have no expiration date! (HPR: "Even though YOU do!")

I have no idea what a "Complimentary Emergency Space" is, but I can imagine - you're heading out the door to attend to your Cemetery Emergency. "Wait!" you think, "I forgot the coupon!"

If anything happens to me, you'll find the coupon on our bulletin board by the fridge. I prefer cremation.

more nativity hijinks

I have chronicled past adventures of our crèche figurines. This morning, Roo asked me to help her put her baby Jesus into a perfect-scale VW bus.

"I've gotta split, Ma. Nice threads, Wise brothers."

And a close-up:

"Prince of Peace out."

Oh come all ye faithful (you don't have to leave your car)

Saw this in the paper (click to embiggen).

Really, Maryland? A Drive-Through nativity scene?

Shepherds dropped what they were doing and herded their sheep through the sleepy streets of Bethlehem to see a little baby. Wise men traveled hundreds of miles through the desert by camel to set eyes on the Prince of Peace. And you can't leave the comfort of your freakin' car?

Bideo

About a year ago, HPR and I got sucked into watching What Would Jesus Buy? (I had clicked on a link, not realizing it was a full-length video.) It was great. So if you have 91 minutes to spare, see below.

 

If you only have a minute and 47 seconds, then watch this:

 

fowl

Elsewhere I pointed out that I find it a bit disturbing that Woodstock eats turkey in "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." I learned that a friend's parrot loves chicken.

Related:

Oh Richard Scarry, I love you, but. um. Maybe that's just the way they rolled in the sixties.

And an aside. How cool is it that someone recreated the Peanuts Thanksgiving menu?

(Photo from here.)

Promtacular

I think I never announced on my blog that I submitted my prom photo to Promtacular, which is basically Cakewrecks meets Awkward Family Photos in dyed-to-match shoes. My photo was featured back in February. Kristy entitled it "Prom on the Dairy Farm" although we all know my date and I both lived in the metropolis of Minot, ND. We were city kids, dammit!

I need to figure out how to make it into a drinking game.

Here's a little game we like to play at our house: Who Will Be the First to Cave and Take the Recycling and/or Trash Out Already? Who Will Hold Out the Longest before Someone Else Caves and Takes Out the Trash Already? Bonus excitement comes from the Jenga-like challenge of putting each new piece atop the heap.

Guess who always always always wins the game? (see below)

If you answered [Julie's] husband, YOU'RE RIGHT!