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. . . .