Commentary on Planet Earth

Our friend Derek invited us over to watch the documenatry Planet Earth on his giant tv. The girls were impressed.


Miss A: I’m a leopard that eats big sharks.

Miss M: I don’t want to ride on it. (A shark.)

Miss M: I don’t have a tail! See- I don’t!

Miss M: The ammals on you tv need a drink?

Daddy: What was your favorite part?  Miss M: The ammals.  Miss A: The deers.

Miss A: My leopard (imaginary) is going to sleep with me.

Comparisons...

Miss A:  Mama, where's Sadie (the cat)?
Mama:  She's probably taking a nap somewhere.
Miss M:  Why?  (This is usually Miss M's conversational contribution...)
Mama:  That's what cats do.  Take lots of naps.
Miss A:  Like Daddies take lots of naps.

Merry Christmas!

Miss A Just Woke Up...

"Hi Mom.  I dreamed I had lots of teeth."  "Like a dinosaur?"  "No.  And I saw cheetahs.  Lots of baby cheetahs.  And I dreamed about a rainbow and me.  Not a girl.  A big guy.  From starlight.  Uh uh.  A boy rainbow.  He has lots of light sabers."

Anatomy

Miss A: Our cats had all their girl parts removed.  That's why they can drink milk.

While Coloring...

Miss A:  Look at her tail!  And I know Ariel's breast holdings are purple...  And I know she lives in the sea and her eyes are blue.  That's how it goes.

Comfort Food...

Miss M:  I feel sick.  I want some hot dogs.

Random Quotes

Miss A:  I smell tuna fish.  Did you make tuna fish?  I can smell tuna fish.  I think it's my feet.

Miss M:  (While Miss A sings a song with words that go "I will work, I will pray, I will always walk in His way...")  I will hold hot soup.  I will burn your fingers.  I will hold Buzz.  I will hold Jessie...

Miss A:  I'm going to have like twenty babies!
Mama:  That would be a lot.
Miss A:  Yeah, like twenty!  And when they're one, they'll eat with their two teeth.

Miss M:  I don't like to cut alligators.  But you can't cut alligators.  Only Miss M can cut alligators.

And Miss R leads her sisters in choruses of "Ah-gee" until the back seat sounds like a zombie convention...

Halloween

It was a fun holiday!  The first time that the girls have really picked up on trick or treating.  They looked so cute going up to the houses...

We had a fun party with friends.  One family is visiting from Finland, and this was their first Halloween.  Their kids normally are very shy about trying to speak English, but they caught on to "Trick or Treat" extremely quickly. 

And our sweet next-door-neighbor girl, Miss L, who is ten, led all the kids around to get their candy.

There was a slightly frightening experience involving an elderly man with a scary mask and chainsaw (at 5:30?  Come on- save it for the big kids...) but on the whole we were very impressed by how into it our neighborhood was.  Then we came home to have supper and visiting and handing out a lot of candy.  It was a fun night!  And Miss R was an octopus...

Plant List for Aunt Cene

This post has nothing to do with little girls!  But my sister has requested some ideas for plantings in her amazing back yard, and I thought this was a good place to put them...

So I'm going to give you two lists:  one of more "alpine" type plants, and one of some woodland plants.  A disclaimer though- these are not necessarily actual plants you would find in these environments if you were to go look.  They just convey, to me, the same idea; but without the strict drainage and temperature requirements.  I would sort of group the alpinish ones together, probably around that twisty cedar for example, and maybe a couple other places, and then have the woodland types, which tend to be bigger, around other places.  If you throw them all in together the alpines might get lost...  Together it should give you a nice mountain garden look. I'll put stars by the ones that I think you should get most of...

ALPINES
Colubines- shorter varieties.  This one is Aqueligia alpina
 
Silene schafta- pink, blooms in fall.  (I guess you can find the pictures faster yourself on google images...)
Blue fescue grass
Candytuft
*Campanula- Any of the short varieties like Birch's Hybrid
Aster monch
Dianthis firewitch
*Heuchera- the green leaved types are native to our mountains and would look great.
Hymenoxys- if you can find it.  Great little yellow daisies.  If not,
*Coriopsis auriculata Nana
*Salvia May Night
Thymes
Veronica Georgia Blue or Waterperry Blue or Blue Reflection, or any other creeping
Creeping Phlox- not too many because they're ugly, but nothing beats them for early spring color.
*Campanula rotundifolia- my all time favorite, put it everywhere...
Diascia Coral Canyon
Epimedium- talk to the guys at the nursery and ask how this does there.
Geranium dalmaticum
Bulbs- for the bulbs in these areas I would stick with the small perennial tulips (like Lilac Wonder) and smaller daffodils (like hawera and tete a tete) and lots of the small irises (like reticulata)

WOODLANDS
I would definitely do some roses, to give the look of wild roses.  Nearly Wild, or eglanteria maybe.  Where are you getting your roses?  Are they own root roses?  High Country Roses is a good source, for info as well as the plants.
*Columbines- any and all varieties.
*Campanulas-
Geraniums-
Thermopsis
Baptisia-  These and thermopsis both give the look of lupine but are easier to care for
Blue Fescue
Other grasses- some Miscanthis sinensis Morning Light, or Penisetum Karley Rose
*Gaura
*Asmonia hubrecctii
Aster Monch
Ferns- Ask the nursery people what does well there
Alchemilla mollis
Yarrow
Heuchera
Flax
Phlox paniculata David


Well, that's what I can think of right now.  If I come up with anything else I'll pass it along.
Oh, and it looks like your lilacs have powdery mildew...

Sweetness...

I don't know if I have ever shared how very sweet my little Miss M is.  Her baby blessing stated that she would be known for her generous nature, and I have definitely found that to be true.  This morning she picked out a pink spoon from the drawer for her cereal.  Miss A immediately started whining that she wanted the pink spoon, and on and on.  I told her to shut it (basically), that Miss M could have it.  Well Miss M walked over and gave the special pink spoon to her sister.  She also gets Miss A her water bottle whenever she tells her to.  I'm not quite sure how to stem this sisterly manipulation!  Miss M hugs little Baby R, and lets me know when her "plug" falls out.  I have never known her to be selfish or mean.  I did laugh when Miss A started crying for no reason today, and Miss M told her "You not hurt.  Stop crying."  Hopefully we can find a happy medium between being abused and standing up for herself...

Cousin Nafan's Boat...

(Let me preface this by saying that my nephew Nathan is stationed nearby on a ship called the San Antonio.  This ship, unfortunately, has never worked very well.  Too bad for Nathan, who joined the navy to see the world...  And this conversation happened while crossing a bridge.)

Miss A:  There's Cousin Nafan's boat!
Mama:  Oh.  That's not Cousin Nathan's ship.  It looks like it though.
Miss A:  Where is Cousin Nafan's boat?
Mama:  I think it's out in the ocean.
Miss A:  Maybe it sunk!

Rules for Babies

1.  Food stays in the belly.
2.  Poops stay in the diaper.

Those are the two cardinal, hard and fast laws, but, here are some Strong Suggestions:
1.  Focus only on eating.  Babies don't need to multitask.
2.  If it's light around you after you eat, stay awake and play.
3.  If it's dark around you after you eat, go to sleep.
4.  Suck a plug, even if you don't want to. 

Miss R

The Baby Sister has arrived!  (If she looks concerned, she has cause...  The Big Sisters don't have the best grip on her...)  She is a good sleepy baby, and her sisters love her, mostly because Miss R came home from the hospital with some very nice presents for her sisters...  Playmobiles will buy anyone's love, right?

Miss A Pretends to be a Cat

Miss A:  Miss M, are you a sneaking rat?
Miss M:  Yep.
Miss A:  Cats love to chase sneaking rats.  So this cat is going to get you!
(Much running and chasing, then crying when Miss M didn't want to get tackled.)
Miss A:  Do cats love balls?
Mama:  Yes, they do.
Miss A:  This cat is going to puster on that orange ball.
Mama:  You're going to pounce on it?
Miss A:  NO!  I'm going to puster on it.  That means pounce.

The Stall...

I just put the girls down for bed, and Miss A obviously doesn't think she's ready (she is- through a terrible mistake on my part she stayed up until 12:30 last night).  Here are some of the questions I got:
What's inside our nose?  Way down deep.
Where do snots come from?
Where are we moving after Florida?
Why?
Why is water good for our bones?
This water bottle doesn't have any ice.
Why do we have to stay in heaven for a long time?
I don't want to get resurrected.  I just want to go to the circus.
And on and on and on....

While the Daddy's Away...

The girls will all go kind of crazy.  Daddy had to go play soldier in Texas for eight days, and we're all finding it a bit hard to cope.  Miss M repeatedly asks "Daddy still in Textas?" and Miss A comes in to my room several times a night to tell me about her bad dreams.  At least I think she does.  I'm never really coherent enough to make sense of what's happening.  We have tried to stay busy and do fun things- Friday we went to the beach with friends, and today we attended a Pirate Festival.  Tonight, in keeping with the girl's-only theme, we painted all our toenails and watched a fluffy musical.  But nothing seems to really do the trick.  Miss A kept asking "Why are they all singing?" and "Why are they dancing again?"  She must have inherited her father's genes...  

Aquatic Mammals...

Miss A and Miss M were born loving anything to do with water.  Baths, sprinklers, pools, oceans, you name it.  Even getting underfoot to wet their hands while I water my plants with the hose.  Miss A prays for the beach every time she says a prayer.  They beg to go swimming.  They talk about Grandma's pool with a "big slide" (a little blow-up pool with a plastic playground slide) like it's paradise on earth.  So yesterday we finally made it to the spray ground at the botanical garden, and these girls got to get themselves wet. 

They were so excited, they could barely function to dress in their bathing suits.  They ran, they splashed, they dashed through every fountain, jet, mister, bubbler.  And when they had no more energy, laid down in the deepest puddle, twitching.  Daddy and I sat under a shady tree, and tried to fend off their dripping bodies when they leaped at us to tell us they were "GETTING ALL WET!!!!" and "DID YOU SEE DID YOU SEE DID YOU SEE!?!?!?!?"  It was a wonderful time.  Obviously, I need to take them swimming more often...

Time Relativity

Miss A:  "Well, six can be seven if it wants to!"
(Our house rule is that girls must stay in bed until seven o'clock.  Miss A popped up next to my bed as the cuckoo struck six...)

On Anatomy

Miss A: Food goes from our mouth to our sofagus then our stomach.  Then it goes to our little testins, then our big testins then the extra large testins!!

On Nudity...

We drove around this statue today.  Miss M's comment:  "Where's his socks?"

Hairstyles...

Mama:  Do you want one tail, two tails, or a bun?
Miss A:  A Ballerina Bun, because I love boys.

Easter Dresses

Aunt Cene sent Easter Baskets and new matching dresses for Misses A and M.  Very sweet!

Prayers...

Items from Miss As prayers lately:
"Thankful for my skin."
"Bless the beach."
"I want my friends and my family to be good."

Disney World!!!

The girls and I had a perfectly happy day at the Magic Kingdom with Grandma, Uncle B, and Aunt M.  (Daddy had to work...)  Beautiful weather, no long lines, perfect company.  Miss A and Miss M didn't have any idea such a place existed, and we walked around laughing at their awed faces all day.

Some quotes:
Miss A:  "It tipped over lots and lots!"  (After getting off Big Thunder Mountain, which she made the height requirement for by a whole 2 inches.)
"It's ok if I don't look..."  (On the Haunted Mansion ride, which she spent with her face plastered into my side.  But then Grandma convinced her to peek by telling her there were ghosts dancing in pretty Cinderella dresses.  Miss M watched nonchalantly for the whole ride.)
"I'm not scared, I'm just plugging my eyes..."  (When the Jungle Cruise entered the ruined temple, and it was dark.  Except she had her ears plugged, not her eyes.  ?)

Miss M:  "Pincesses!!!!!" (When she got to meet Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty- 'Pincess Booty'- all at once.)
"Intense Giggling"  (During the entire Flying Dumbo ride.)
"WOW!" (In Small World, and when she saw the elephants on the Jungle Cruise.)

Mama:  "Miss A, what was your favorite thing today?"
Miss A:  "The teacups!  And the Princesses!  And all the rides that I likeded!  You rode on the carousel!  We all rode on the carousel!"

A Handsome Daddy...

Miss A:  Ginia is beautiful!  I'm so very happy we moved here to Ginia!
Mama:  Yeah, and in the summer, we get to move to Florida, so Daddy can learn to fly planes and copters.  (Miss M refers to helicopters as "copters", they are her favorite things.)
Miss A:  Lots of planes and copters?  Then Daddy will be hot.