Before dinner, while cooped up in the playroom, she said, “Yook at my bum-bum” after having stripped off her diaper.

While eating, he said, “Jack and I sometimes argue.  He says he is 4.5 but that I am not.”  “Well, buddy, you will be 4.5 in a few months.”  **tears, crying, crying, tears**

And I had a dance off with the other she to settle an argument.

Just a few of the days highlights.

When we have a Friday afternoon dance party, we make sure we drop these sick beats!  You can thank me later!

Roar by Katy Perry:

Oscar the Grouch ft. Macklemore:

Take a Hint by Victorious:

And something for the mommy:

What Lily walks around singing…all about the bass, no trouble 🙂

Old School pick:

Go have yourself a little dance party right now!

I thought I would tackle the one thing on my list that no one should be interested in.  I’m bored even thinking of writing it down but I’m doing it as a way to process it.  It is something that bores me to no end; talking about diets.  Not with the people I love, because I want to know that…its the people on the interwebs or friends on FB or moms here that go on and on about the latest evil food.  Sam would say that I am obsessed with food, at least in trying to reduce the bad foods that the kids (or I) may eat.  That is true, mostly, (the kids do know how to read the nutrition label and grams of sugar–don’t judge) but I really do try to chill out and make sure they are eating well, over-all, but I have elaxed in how much dessert, say, I let them enjoy.  (It is easier to be chill when they are running around, literally, all day long.)

Which brings me to what I have been eating.  Or, rather, what I have not been eating this past week, and why.

If you know me, you know I want (need) to exercise every day.  Not hardcore working out…but it does me well to get in an hour long workout each day–emotionally, as well as physically.  But that doesn’t always jive with having small children.  Or with trying to get everything that needs to be done, done in the day.  So I had been tossing around the idea in my mind of finding a way to make peace with not working out everyday but not gaining any weight. (Because I know that the amount of food I eat would lead to weight gain without a workout.) Another thing you know if you actually know me, I eat pretty healthily.  Try to limit the junk or sweets.  Eat lots of salads.  But I do eat a lot of food–grazing and such.

So on to what I have been experimenting with:  The Whole 30  Pretty much it is an austerity plan for eating.  Very Paleo.  No grains, no processed sugar, no dairy, no alcohol.  More or less, no fun.  But what it promises to help you do is clean out all the foods that may not be doing you any good and then give you a plan to work them back in, according to your individual tolerances.  I can already feel a difference going without my usual glass of wine with dinner and recognizing the lack of protein in my usual diet.  Protein sources were sorely lacking in my day to day.  I think I also my be sensitive to, gulp, dairy.  This is very sad news, indeed.

You see, I was not sleeping well (and it wasn’t just the kids waking me up) and feeling like I was on auto-pilot (i.e. in a daze) much of my afternoon into the evening.  And along with Poetry Teatime, crept in more sweets than I would have liked.  Plus its winter and that makes one crave the stuff you probably shouldn’t be eating.  This week I have taken note of how many crackers, cheese, bread and snacks I was eating throughout  the day…now its carrots and nuts and apples and whole foods…

It really is no fun but I have found it easier to go without the foods (and wine) completely instead of giving myself the old, “Well, I’ll only have a glass of wine on Thursday night.” or “I’m going to eat that cookie with my tea in the afternoon.”  I have not given up cream in my coffee…but I am not really looking to heal my “leaky gut” which is what the authors of the plan say is what is wrong with everyone in the whole wide world.  (see–this kind of talk bores me!  Because NO ONE really knows how our bodies are supposed to work PERFECTLY.  Besides–don’t tell me ice cream doesn’t enhance life.)

In any case, I am appreciating how the plan is making me pay attention to what is going on with my body and what I am using to fuel it.  I doubt it will be a lifelong chance I make to my eating habits but I hope to stick with a lot of the clean eating. Hopefully with a little more cheese.

But I simply don’t have the energy or brain-power to bring it all together on the page tonight. In the next day or so, I hope I can share:

1. What happened today and why I’m glad Lily still lives here
2. Why I love our read alouds
3. How I’ve become more aware of what I put in my mouth

Right now, though, I am going to drink my tea and try not fall asleep reading…

Made you look!  🙂  Everyone was out after school to sled at the neighbors in the cul de sac.  They have the BEST hill!  One of ours is steep and ends in a huge retention ditch (sounds lovely, right?  But it is in the woods and is where the deer like to sleep) and the other hill is nice and easy.  Our neighbors have the superior sledding hill, I believe.  It is a nice, gentle but lengthy slope so you can really get going and it ends with a long flat piece of yard.  Sledding heaven!  Do you see how red her cheeks are?  We were out for about 45 minutes and she went down the hill many times with many different kids.  Each time she either got towed back up the hill in the tube (the one that Lily used to slice open her ear:-) or was carried.  Lucky girl!  While we hiked back up to the top, I suggested to Olivia that she try and get out and snow at night.  Nighttime sledding while it snowed is a very vivid and happy memory of mine.

It could have a been a rotten day (although I joked that I was able to sit quietly with a book so the wait for the ultrasound/biopsy was kind of like waiting for a spa treatment….I had something similar to a spa robe on…) but it turned out wonderfully!  No biopsy necessary, I got a coffee and some groceries before picking up the Boy at school and then we played and read and got outside.

Biopsy tomorrow. Not much more on my mind. It will be over soon enough.

I had something else planned to write about but this just happened so I thought I would share.  L and O are sharing a room these days.  Most nights it is awesome; O feels secure and doesn’t visit us in the night, L gets to stay up a little bit later but goes to sleep knowing she isn’t alone.  A win-win.  Then there are nights like tonight after O did this in the afternoon:

I’m just resting my eyes, Momma. ZZZZzzzzzz

and then I get to sit here and listen as they talk and giggle and yell at each other to go to sleep and so on.  But its okay because I know eventually they will go. to. sleep.  We had such a wonderfully quiet day today!  No playing with anyone else (WHOOT!) or even leaving the house…we watched the snow fall and made art.  We worked on our Kiwi Crate in the afternoon.  L came up with this:

It was a baking kit this month so they crafted little cakes with sponges and clay and decorated chef hats and aprons.  Here’s a look at O’s post-nap cake:

I share only because I think this inspired L’s conversation as we snuggled.  She told me she noticed all the white space above O’s bed…she was talking about the ceiling.  Well, she also thought that it would really look great if she could maybe add some paint.  Maybe make a cut-out to help her decorate {which I explained she was probably talking about a stencil}.  Or maybe she would just use some crayons up there.  {ahem.  no.  a gentle no.}  But then she was thinking it would be really awesome to start a company called Super Art and she would make paint and stencils and also art shirts–that I would sew.  O crawled down to join in and listen.  So we have decided to make a plan because she would like this company to begin in the summer, somewhere around the 21st (of which month, I’m not sure.  She only said the 21st).  We need to make some paints out of blueberries and some other kinds of berries.  And there will be a catalog as well as a store.  We also need to take a trip to an art store to price out similar items {her idea} and check out what stencils are made of {my contribution}.  She has the entrepreneurial spirit…even if she won’t get out to sell Girl Scout Cookies :-).

Oh, and then we would be rich and she could probably get that set of play shoes and earrings she saw at the toy store {at Christmastime} which I told her we were not going to buy.

Watching Boyhood. That is all.

Despite our excitement last evening, we were on the go again today. A pot of coffee, a Diet Dr. Pepper and we were off! Lily was such a trooper last night and didn’t slow down today. She started her day talking to both Grammas to give them a detailed run-down of the whole experience. And she never got cranky all day. I am so impressed. We spent the day at the Natural History museum; Sam met us there and treated us to cupcakes! We got home and both she and O went next door to show off the stitches (she got 2!), and went sledding again. I’m really happy about that-no fear!

And can I just take a moment to try to explain the stout and sturdy littlest person in our family? I can’t explain her, I guess, except to say that she is the sweetest, most lively little thing. While we sat at the cafe eating our cupcakes, E was, of course, on the move….climbing in and out of the high chair, sitting on my lap, then no, onto Dada’s. And talking, talking, talking. She doesn’t stop. Not moving or talking or eating pretzel rods.

And Oliver declared tonight that he was NEVER GOING TO TAKE A BATH EVER AGAIN. But then reconsidered when he came to realize no one would want to be around him if he was so stinky. Bath time:1, OWW:0

Real time reporting here. We are at Children’s Hospital ER after a minor sledding accident wherein Lily saved her younger brother’s life (well, that’s overstating…she saved him from bumping his head on a tree). She got a nice little cut on her ear when they went off the track, running into lots of underbrush. Too deep to treat at urgent care so we are here. An adventure as well as an eduction for Lily. Downtown ER at night. Another world.