Brianna

I think Brianna skipped the terrible twos and is now in the torturous threes. She is a pistol, a handful, spirited, um . . . a pain in the behind. Here are just a few examples:

We were at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. Liam was walking along minding his own business when Brianna just goes up to him and pinches his arm.

That afternoon she had hit me with a plastic golf club. When I told her to stop, she just smiled and hit me again.

Her favorite object to torture is her brother. She hits, pushes, kicks, and pinches him.

We do time outs, which work while she's in the time out and lasts about an hour after she gets out. We take things away and she throws a temper tantrum - typically throwing herself on the ground and crying and screaming (occasionally she throws things during these tantrums too).

No means do it again to her. And she'll scream at the top of her lungs if you tell her anything she doesn't want to hear. She's always been a bit of a spit fire, but now she has moments of complete unruliness.

The worst part is that when she knows she's doing something wrong, she looks up at you with her beautiful big eyes and just smiles the sweetest smile ever.

Now, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. She's not like this all the time, actually most of the time she's very sweet. It's just those times when she's not sweet, she's down right sour.

Some of the sweet things she does:

She loves to run her fingers through Liam's hair while they are watching cartoons.

She loves to help out in the kitchen

She is a very good back rubber/scratcher

She loves to take care of Liam and pretend he is a baby

She sings and dances in the cutest/sweetest way

She grabs the sides of your face when she wants to give you a big smooch

Random Updates

Just some random thoughts/things that have happened recently.

1. Liam has added to his alien story. As usual in the car on the way home I received the following information: On Liam's planet the aliens are born in eggs, but they don't call them eggs. They call them meggs because on his home planet they really like to rhyme. He was talking about leaving when he went back to being an alien. I asked if he would leave me and if he wouldn't love me anymore. He said he'd always love me and I'd always be his people mommy even if I wasn't an alien.

2. Greg took Brianna to one of his favorite Japanese places. They had a kids menu, so he ordered Brianna a beef teriyaki bento box. He also got a bento box. Evidently the only difference was that the kids don't get wasbi and pickled ginger, instead they get a lollipop - otherwise it was the same amount of food just less expensive. Brianna ate all her soup, her salad, most of the rice, and the beef. She also has my habit of making yum and mmmmm sounds when she eats something she really likes. Oh and did I mention she used kiddy chopsticks for the whole meal. The waitress commented to Greg that Brianna did really well considering it was her first time using them. She also gave Greg two sets to bring home, so Brianna could continue to practice.

3. We ran to REI today at lunch to pick up Liam's birthday present - a new bike. He's outgrown his old one. Hopefully he likes it. I can't believe he's going to be six on Sunday. We doing his birthday party at Jump-N-Around again this year because it was such a hit last year and I just can't bring myself to go to Chuck E Cheese ever again, no matter how much he and Brianna want to go.

4. I've been a supervisor for a little over a month and I think I'm finally at the point where I'm not stressing about every little thing. I can't believe how much of my time is now taken up in meetings and in coordinating things. I hardly have time to walk down the hall and talk to my friends anymore. But I have to say, I'm really enjoying the new responsibilities. Let's just hope I don't screw up anything too dramatically. : )

5. Where did this year fly off to? Last thing I remember we were celebrating the 4th of July. Now I'm trying to research charter and private schools. It's hard to trust the public education system in a state that is bankrupt.

6. Des Lynn is spending the night tonight, so that her parents can go out and celebrate Dan's (her daddy) birthday. I put the girls to bed a little after 8:00 - we went potty, brushed our teeth, and read two stories. Last time I went back to check on them, they were still up playing. But at least they are being quite and staying in Brianna's room. Whoops I think I just jinxed things - I can hear giggles and Greg talking to them. So this is going to have to be the end of this post.

I'll try to post on Sunday after Liam's birthday party, if I can get the pictures downloaded that quickly.

A Good Weekend

We had a really good weekend.

Saturday:

1. Had a 9:30 hair appointment, which is always a nice kid free, relaxing time.

2. Got home and got the kids ready to go to the End of Soccer Season Pizza Party. It was a really good time. Took my laptop to show a slide show of the scrapbook that I had made for everyone. I used the Polaroid My Memories Suite software. Unfortunately, I didn't get it together in enough time to be able to hand them out at the party. One of the moms made cupcakes for everyone. And unexpectedly everyone had gotten together to give Greg a gift for being a great coach.

Oh I almost forgot the best part of the party. Brianna was able to get her spiny dress completely off before I was able to get to her. Luckily everyone understood and started telling me their stories of when their kids went through the naked phase. It was still embarrassing though.

3. After the party it was time for the closing ceremony at Porter Youth Center. The coaches sat on the gym floor with their teams. Each coach went up and announced their players. Each player got a medal and a certificate with the team picture on it. Brianna wanted to sit with her brother and at one point almost got her dress off again, in front of everyone. I got to her before she was able to. Liam loves his medal. He slept with it and wouldn't let it go until we left the house today.

4. After the ceremony, my parents took the kids over to their house. Greg and I went to Mission Ranch for our anniversary dinner. It was terrific. The only problem was that I was exhausted from chasing Brianna all day and keeping her clothed. Because Greg was the coach and everyone wanted to talk to him, he didn't really have much time to help out with Brianna. So we didn't stay out too late. We picked the kids up (and neither one had had a nap) and they were both asleep by the time we got home at 8:30. I was asleep soon after.

Sunday:

5. Sunday, Greg had homework to do. He let me sleep in until 8:30 (he got to sleep in on Sat). Then I made cinnamon muffins. Got myself and the kids dressed, then took them out so Greg would have some time to do homework. We went to the Party Store to pick up invites for Liam's birthday (oh I also reserved Jump N Around the day before for Liam's birthday). He wants an Army party, so it's going to be camouflage everything.

6. We still had some time before the movie started, so I took them to Target. And as usual I went a little crazy. We got stuff we didn't need, but I just love that store. Of course it was difficult keeping Brianna in control.

7. Finally it was time to go to the movie. We saw Astro Boy. Brianna had almost fallen asleep on the car ride to the theater. We all went potty (very important because Brianna always sits on my lap at the movies). Got snacks - popcorn, m&m's, water for the kids, and diet soda for me. Then we found our seats. Brianna was a little fussy because she was tired, but stayed awake for the whole movie. It was a good movie.

8. When we got home after the movie (around 3:30), we put in a video in our bedroom and the kids watched it, while I started on dinner. I made homemade fettuccine which took some time. I made Alfredo sauce for the grown ups and cheese sauce for the kids. I made garlic bread too. For dessert, I made chocolate mousse in plastic wine goblets (that I got at the party store earlier). It was a super yummy dinner. But I was exhausted afterwards. Luckily Greg gave the kids a bath and now they are sitting watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, while I blog.

It was a good weekend, lots of fun, but I didn't get a whole lot done. I guess I'll be doing laundry during the week (urg, I hate doing that - the clothes always end up wrinkly).

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

The Imagination of a 5 Year Old

This week Liam has been periodically telling us little details of his alien life while driving to and from school. It started with my mom on Monday. On Tuesday night she asked me if Liam told me about how he's an alien. He had. Here's what mom and I have pieced together.

Liam is a good alien, but there are bad aliens on his planet. They all had to leave their planet. I think because the bad aliens took over. He was on the Moon for 60 days before he came to Earth. He decided to be born to me. His face is just a mask. I asked him what his alien face looks like and he said matter of fact, "I don't know. I've never seen it, mom." (like I'm the biggest idiot in the world for asking that question.)

He's gone into great detail about how long he was on the Moon and stuff, but of course I can't remember everything now. I do good to ask an intelligent question during rush hour and while Brianna is trying to talk over him. But I thought this was funny, creative enough to share.

Maybe he'll be a writer some day.