La Petite Millionaire

Today is Millionaire Day at Gilly's school.

As if you couldn't guess.

Scissors -- Addendum

More from Gretchen:

Addendum...the fix! Not too bad...Of course, Gilly wanted to have the
scissors and try herself...Right! Mommy had to get mean and got the
boo-boo lip for it--just for a minute, though...all smiles now!

Scissors

Guest blogger, Gretchen:

So, Gilly has been getting up anywhere from 2-5am (since the time
change) to come into bed with us or tell me about her trip to the
potty. I've been trying to get her back to her bed so that the habit
doesn't form, if you know what I mean (visions of Gilly at 15 trying
to cuddle in our bed...yikes!).

Well, some nights, like last night, I am just too tired to get my butt
out of bed. So I try to convince myself that it's close to 6am (the
alarm time) and I let her in. Last night, she wouldn't settle down and
ended up roaming the house for a bit before finally coming back and
dropping into a deep snore.

A few weeks ago, Nicky picked up the hobby of jewelry making. Last
night, he lovingly made Harry(this is rare) a necklace, which Harry
was thrilled about. Unfortunately, Nicky left the scissors out on the
table, even though I reminded him to put them away.

So it seems, Gilly came up closer to 2am than 6am and in her
subsequent ramblings, found the scissors on the kitchen table, cut
some advertisement, a corrected piece of Nicky's homework (wasn't his
best mark, anyway) and moved on to her bangs.


It's not too bad, just that Aunti Edie and Binnie were planning Santa
pictures this weekend.

I will try to fix her "look" today, but I just wanted everyone
(including our wonderful hairdresser and best friend) to see what I
had to work with...including the attitude--yes, that is her 'tude
towards me right now.

Oh yeah, her occupational therapist says she doing wonderfully with
scissors and that I should let her practice at home. Right!

A Big Day

This is a big day at our house. First and foremost, Gillian turns four!


Harry, who has been on a whirlwind tour of grandmothers' houses, is coming home.


AND Nicky is coming home from camp!


Gretchen and I can kiss goodbye the bliss that comes with having only one child at home. But we missed them. And boy howdy, did Pablo miss Harry.

A day in my life...

Guest blogger, Gretchen

It takes me twice as long to get anything done.

Case in point: I was lining the pan for the brownies. I finished the
roll so I put the box in the recycle bin.

Gilly goes behind me, pulls it out and starts marching around the
house with it.

Normally ok, but not with this--metal cutting edge!

I ask her to give it back and end up chasing her down to wrestle it
from her and dispose of it.

Now...where was I??

Wedding

We went to a wedding this weekend. A family friend and our former babysitter tied the knot. It was a lovely ocassion and the kids looked fantastic!

Gilly got dressed up to be the flower girl. It didn't stop her from squashing bugs, though.


The kids behaved themselves exceptionally well, even through a long church service.
Well, mostly behaved themselves.

Harry was the ring bearer, and looked killer in his rental tux.

Breathing Normally Again

I gotta tell you, it's nice to breathe without making bubbly gurgle noises.

And in response to my last post, I made it to 2PM before I had to go lie down. I reawoke at, like, 8PM. So that experiment had mixed results.

Gilly, we think, is getting better but has a wicked case of "sick baby syndrome". She can't bear to do anything but cling to Gretchen and complain bitterly about her lot in life. Not fun.

Speaking on Gilly, a funny thing happened the other night. We have an old baby monitor. Gretchen got it when Nicky was born so it's about 10 years old. Has two different channels, "X" and "Y". What with the creeping illness, we started using it to keep an ear out for Gilly during the night.

So the other night we start hearing a baby crying through the monitor. Gretchen is up and out the door like a flash. I've never seen anyone move that fast, let alone Gretchen. Me, I'm none too swift when awoken in the middle of the night so it took me a few minutes to realize that something wasn't right.

Gretchen races into Gilly's room, but I don't hear Gretchen through the cacophony on the monitor. Then Gretchen comes racing up the stairs, and bursts into Harry's room, across the hall from our upstairs room. And there's this wild, panicked look in her eyes. "It's not Gilly!" she screams as she charges back downstairs to check on Nicky and Gilly again.

Blink, blink. Um, what's going on here?

Gretchen whirls back into the room, and she's electric with nervous energy. "I checked Gilly, she's asleep. Nick's asleep. I think I woke up Harry when I checked on him. The crying isn't coming from our house!"

Oh, yeah. I guess someone else's monitor was tuned to our frequency. Oops.

But you know, in the time that it took Gretchen to check on all her babies twice, our neighbors still hadn't gotten up to take care of their kid. So how's that for a Super Mom?

Tales from the Sanatorium

Yes, Harry is much better. Sadly, Gretchen is a little worse -- she probably is having another recurrence of bronchitis, perhaps lighter than in previous years -- but Gillian is very sick. Yesterday, she had a high fever and earaches. Any sudden movement would cause her to start vomiting rather violently. And because she didn't want to be separated from her Momma, Gretchen got very little sleep last night.

Right now, Gretchen is upstairs napping and Gilly is passed out on a rug. Although the darling puke-monster was doing much better this morning, I don't care to risk moving her.

Me, I still have an occasional coughing fit, but so long as I take it slow, I'm doing pretty well. I'd like to see how long I can remain upright today before I grow short of breath and need to lie down. Should be a good indication of how my lungs are doing.

More Pictures of Gillian

She's my little Rock and Roll.

Doesn't she look like an angel in this picture?

1st Day, update

Gilly's home!

1st Day at School

Today is Nicky and Gillian's first day of school. Nicky is going back to school -- 5th grade -- after a year off for homeschooling. This is Gilly's first day ever. She's only three.

By the way, Harry is going to school too -- kindergarten -- but we have to wait a few days to get him into the right school. (I could publish an entirely new blog on the faults and foibles of the Providence School system, so I'll spare you for now.)

Here they are, all set to go!

Gilly says "bye!" with a wave over her shoulder.

Here we are waiting for the bus. Don't I look so brave? (Yes, it's coffee in my coffee cup.)

15 minutes later and we are still waiting. I took Gilly for a little stroll so she wouldn't get too restless.

Another 10 minutes and we are still waiting. The bus never came, so Gretchen drove her to school. Good thing she had the car today, huh?

While Gretchen and Gilly (with Harry) went off in search of pre-K enlightenment, I walked Nicky to his school. We live 0.9 miles away from his school, so no bus ride for him. Poor guy, I think he's the last kid in America who actually wants to ride the bus -- it just hasn't worked out for him yet. Maybe when we move.

Murder Mystery!

Today we have a mystery on our hands. A murder mystery. That's right: someone killed an entire roll of toilet paper. Let's see if we can figure out "who dunnit" by looking at this series of photographs.


Exhibit One: The gruesome trail begins.



Following this macabre scene up the stairs, we find Photographic Exhibit Two: Here the trail leads in two directions. Following to the left we find...



Exhibit Three: This is no doubt the scene of the crime. Notice the toilet paper. Even in death, it still clings futilely to the roll. Sad. A life of service cut brutally short.



Finally, Exhibit Four: This is our most damning piece of photographic evidence. Notice how the paper lies in clumps at the door of Gillian's room? See how it drapes over the doll stroller? It's obvious at this point who the culprit is...

The doll! What's more, the doll hanged Scooby Doo, either in an attempt to silence a witness or to throw the authorities off by insinuating a murder-suicide.

Although Gillian was upstairs at a time approximate to the occurrence of this crime, there is no need to question her. The facts speak for themselves and we don't want to make her relive this senseless tragedy.

*Today's blog post was courtesy of the LAPD and Mike Nifong.

Greatest Toy Ever?

So, what is the greatest toy ever created?



A box!

Big thanks go out to Randi for scoring this for me. It just fit in the car.

The Littlest Sox Fan

Gillian in her pink Red Sox outfit.
"Pink Red Sox"?
Yep. (It only seems like an oxymoron.)

"I'm a Big Girl Now!"

(Special guest blogger, Gretchen.)

Gilly came to lunch when called, but got up on Harry's chair
as if to say, "I'm a big girl now so I can eat like the rest of you!"

She was much better behaved, too, for both boys became
clowns upon seeing the camera!

Clarification

A mess in Topeka


A messy toe picker


I'm glad we could get this straightened out.

Another Bunny Sighting

Rare photo of the Easter Bunny,
caught in the act of hiding eggs.

Easter Bunny Sighting!

Gettin' "Cozy"

Gilly & Harry wearing tea cozies.

The two fingers sprouting from Harry's head are Nicky's.

Photo Session: Gilly with Hat and PJs