A Happy Day.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Ruby starting dialysis last summer. It was probably the scariest few weeks of our lives, but she just had her one-year kidney checkup and passed with flying colors.

So, it's a happy day today; and I can't wait to get home and see my healthy, healthy kid.

Quiet Time.

Since the girls' daycare family has been on vacation yesterday and today, Momlissa and I have had some quiet time to ourselves while Grandma and Grandpa One babysit and keep the girls for sleepovers. We went for a nice long bike ride along the river last night, cleaned out the refrigerator, watched Scrubs on TV; I said I couldn't tell if it was like we were at the beginning of our relationship again or retirees with an empty nest. Either way, it was nice - but I think we're both ready for our little maniacs to come back home this afternoon.

Summer Chic

It seems Cecilia has inherited her mother's thick hair, and the older she gets the thicker it gets. She just has massive amounts of hair. And because she's our Sweaty Betty already (you should see how overheated this child gets!), I thought it was time for a summer 'do. I let her decide just how short she wanted to go, and this is what she wanted:


So. Now she has short hair. Ta-da! Just to be fair, here is Ruby sporting her own summer hair. Yikes.

A Summer Weekend

It was a fun-filled summer weekend this past weekend, and we had some memorable moments from both of our girls, but a few things Cici said really stood out. Here are some of the highlights:

Cici watching Momlissa do a strength-training workout on DVD:

CICI: Why do those girls get skinnier but you don’t?

MOMLISSA: I don’t know. Why, do you think I should be skinnier?

CICI: [thinking hard, then] Uh…no?

A minute later…

CICI: Mommy, look at your shirt! It’s all bunched up because it’s too big for you. That’s because you keep getting skinnier!

Such a sweet girl – recognizing she had possibly hurt my feelings and working quickly to rectify the situation.

On Sunday we caught some of the pre-Olympic diving on television, a favorite event of mine and a sport that I’d like Cici to participate in someday. When I suggested that maybe she could go to the Olympics in diving when she’s older she said, “Yeah!” A little while later she looks at me and very seriously asks, “Mom, do you think I can go to the Olympics in diving and swimming?” And of course I told her yes because, really, who am I to get in her way? It’s good to have goals.

Other than that it was a great weekend. We swam, we grilled, we ate ice cream, we went to the park, we all got too much sun, we watched a softball game in the out-of-doors, everybody’s kidneys worked properly…what more can our little family ask for?!

So Much For World Culture.

On DVD, the girls have been watching Jim Henson's The Storyteller, a 1980s TV show that dramatizes ancient myths and legends from the Mediterranean, Germany and elsewhere. They're often quite dark, and after they watched an episode tonight Cici and I had this conversation.

DADAM: Well, did you like the show, Cici?

CICI: Yeah, I did.

DADAM: Well, there are two more left to watch, and they're pretty good stories: "Perseus and the Gorgon" and "Theseus and the Minotaur."

CICI: Do good things happen in them, or bad things?

DADAM: Well . . . some bad things do happen. Bad things can make stories interesting. You know, if nothing but good things happened, it wouldn't be much of a story. But when you get a story where somebody falls in love with somebody who doesn't love them back, or somebody is trying to get away from bad people who are chasing them, or somebody is sailing across the sea and the ship sinks - well, those are the most exciting and interesting kinds of stories, don't you think?

CICI: No.

DADAM: No? Well, what do you think makes a story interesting?

CICI: Care Bears.

The Pits.

[Cici and Ruby are having some cherries after finishing their breakfast cereal.]

CICI: Dad, Ruby's swallowing the pits.

DADAM: Ruby, don't swallow the pits.

RUBY: Yep.

CICI: Dad, she swallowed another one.

DADAM: Ruby, did you swallow another one?

RUBY: I didn't! [pause] It swallowed its own self.

A Fish Story.

This past weekend we visited Grandma and Grandpa S----- and their family in the southwest corner of the state. One of the highlights was a small fishing outing Sunday morning, during which Cici caught at least four and probably fives times as many fish as any of the rest of us. I've included some highlights in pictures; in no particular order we have Uncle Eli and Ruby, Cici and Grandpa, a truly magnificent sunfish caught by . . . well, modesty forbids, and just for fun a pic of Cici playing Guitar Hero and concentrating very, very hard.

Ruby Music.

Don't tell Cici, but I get the sense Ruby is going to be our more musical child. These are two nice examples of her talents in this area. The first is an original composition of hers we call "The Hamburger Song"; the lyrics (in case you have trouble understanding them) are just "I want a hamburger" over and over again.

And here she is singing "Home Boys Home," a bawdy song of the sea the verses of which involve hanky-panky between a comely young waitress and a sailor on shore leave (hi, Alex). The chorus is clean enough, though; the words Ruby is attempting are:

Home, boys, home! [clap twice]
Home I'd like to be
Home for a while in my own country
Where the oak and the ash and the bonnie rowan tree
Are all a-growin' green in the north country

Cheering Section

Last Saturday I competed in sprint triathlon with some friends in our fair city. I turned the corner for the final stretch of 4 or 5 blocks, and I could see a cheering section waiting for me at the finish line. Cici and Ruby were there with some other kids and they were holding signs and yelling and cheering for all the finishers. Best. Finish. Line. Ever! Here's a shot of Ruby and I, post-high-five. Cici is there in the background and, though you can't see him, Dadam is just out of the shot playing the bagpipes. Such a fun event!

Back.

I'm so glad to be back from my work retreat. I missed my girls - all three of them.

Slumber Party

Dadam is on a work trip tonight, so it's just me and the girlies left to fend for ourselves. Though there are some advantages (cereal for dinner, guilt-free television watching, no snoring bed-mate, etc.), there are drawbacks, too. Namely, I don't like to sleep in the house without Dadam here because I get scared. I know it's silly, but I just can't relax knowing I'm the only grown-up in the house (and I barely qualify as it is). So here's my solution: Slumber Party!

For some reason having the girls sleeping on the floor next to me is all it takes. Weird, huh? So after baths and snacks and stories and half-assed teeth-brushing they'll snuggle up next to my bed and we'll all sleep like babies. Sort of.

A Little-Known Advertising Mascot.

Last night Ruby and I went to Little Caesar's to pick up a pizza for dinner; since Momlissa had done such a great job in her triathlon earlier in the day we figured a less-than-healthy dinner was acceptable for a change.

The trip was especially fun (and more than a little scary) for Ruby because Little Caesar himself was at the store, and Ruby got to meet him in the flesh (or maybe in the plush?).

When we got home, this scene followed:

DADAM: Ruby, tell Mommy who we saw at the pizza place!

RUBY: Mommy! At the pizza place, we saw . . . [to DADAM] Who was it?

DADAM [whispering]: Little Caesar.

RUBY: Bill Skeezer!

Wisconsin

Some highlights from our recent trip to Door County:

Bedtime Checklist.

We've mentioned many times here that Cici zonks out the minute her head touches the pillow whereas Ruby usually needs to accomplish a few things at bedtime before settling down to sleep. Here's what those things consisted of last night:

1) Coming downstairs to ask for Cheez-Its
2) Playing the ukulele
3) Calling for extra blankets
4) Putting together a Tigger puzzle
5) Calling for help putting together the Tigger puzzle
6) Helpfully informing us that she believed Cici was having a bad dream (when I gently shook Cici and asked her if that was true, she woke up and said, "What? No.")

I should add that when we first put the girls to bed, I had informed them that they could talk a little, but only to speak in whispers . . . so of course as she went through this list of items Ruby was talking in the tiniest little voice you ever heard.

The End of Kindergarten

Today is Cici's last day of school, and her last day at her current school. I'm sort of stunned by how quickly her Kindergarten year went -- how did that happen so fast?! I swear we just put her on the bus for the first time...

I'm truly amazed by how much she learned over the past nine months. She's reading like a pro (Recently she came across the word "clearance" and I thought it would trip her up -- nope! She hardly even paused and was all, "Is it ... clearance?"). She really seemed to get a lot out of her science classes, and she definitely takes after Dadam in the writing department. Hopefully she'll pick up math skills from somewhere deep in the gene pool, because lord knows Dadam and I can barely count the members of our own family of four.

I would call Kindergarten an overwhelming success, and her teachers and school were absolutely fantastic. Yay for public education! I'm so excited to watch her as she continues to learn and grow -- it's like the best present anyone ever gave me. Ever. Way to go, Cici!

(Note: Based on the behaviors we've seen so far, it appears as though Cici is headed for a dazzling future -- maybe even President someday. We're also certain that at some point Ruby will need to do jail time.)

A Slick Trick.

Many of you know that one of the big differences between our girls' personalities is that Cici falls asleep instantly upon going to bed whereas Ruby will stay up playing in their room (and in the hallway, and in the bathroom) for hours. Well, last night was no exception, and about 20 minutes after bedtime we heard some sniffling coming from upstairs. I went upstairs to check it out.

What I found was Ruby, wearing only her pullup, as slippery and shiny as a fish from the Vaseline which she'd smeared all over her body and face. I said, "Honey, why did you do that?" and she said, "Because it smelled good."

We toweled her off and told her that she could have a bath in the morning. But when morning came, we actually found that all the Vaseline had been absorbed.

Needless to say, her skin was as soft as a baby's bottom. . . .