rhino

When you think of Mo, you think of a gigantic African animal, no?

Well her best friends have name her Rhino.  The other two are Termite and Cucumber.  There are others in the group called Rice, Lady and Fishy.

This Halloween she embraced her inner nickname and dressed up as a ...

Mother's Day - 2017

It's literally been years, but I'm making the effort to blog again.

The girls are big, I'm working more and more, and we have a wild and crazy (newish) lab.  His name is Fitz, and he's just over a year old.

I love that I've been able to capture so many of our family's memories in this blog, and realized I've been missing so much not blogging the last few years.  Blogging provides a greater context and hey, I'm a writer, so the more background, the better.  You don't get that with the Facebooks and Instagrams.

Facebook and Instagram are for other people -- many of whom you used to know -- to keep up with what we're doing.  Blogging is for me and my family.  I think I'm going to stick with the latter.

Ever since I was a little girl I kept a diary.  I kept a diary all the way through undergraduate school.   I threw my diaries away years ago, but wish desperately I would have kept them.

There was one particular entry I wish I still had.  It was from the day I met Song.

I still remember what I wrote.  I was (still) pining over the loss of my ex-boyfriend who lived (literally) 30 feet across a cement path from me.  It was all about how much I missed him, how lonely I felt, how I didn't know if I'd ever feel that way again, etc., etc.  And, then there was one little blip about how how I met my neighbor's visiting friend, and how he might be transferring to UCSD the following year.  I said he was cute, and that I hope he did transfer down.

Well, wish granted.  And, *poof* 21 years later, here I am.

I cannot reiterate how much I wish I had that particular diary entry.  More than just sentimentality, I wish I had that entry to show my daughters that a lot of us go through heartbreak (there were, I'm sure dozens of nauseating entries about that ex-boyfriend in there).  So they could see  how blind I was to the fact that I had met the man of my dreams and had NO IDEA at the time.

I know they are young, but I think it would be valuable to show them today, so they could tuck it away in their memories, and hopefully remember it when someone breaks their heart.  I don't wish heartbreak on them, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that it happens to most of us and those with a strong constitution, and sense of self tend to fair better.

Today I had a lovely mother's day with my girls.  Songer was gone on a business trip.  They picked flowers from the garden, and decorated the house before I woke up.  I played soccer, we took the dog out, we ate Persian food, and we watched a movie together.  Barring Songer not being here, it was perfect.

funny how they sometimes chose to be

themselves for Halloween sometimes.

Mo is constantly pretending to be a cat, and has in real life, quite a few cat-like traits.

Kaitlyn not quite a surfer yet, is an avid boogie boarder and lover of all things water.

Both made it exceptionally easy for me this year.

Hey, even moms get luck sometimes.

fools rush in

Upon waking up on April Fool's Day KT asked me, "How many jokes are you going to play today?!"

I attempted to tell her that you generally don't say, "I'm going to surprise you" before you surprise someone.

I got a blank stare in return.

It's always interesting to see what they think is most funny.  For example, they thought this was funny.

It opened a discussion on how Mo wishes Snoopy were a girl, that KT wasn't really like Charlie Brown, etc.

Mo thought this however, was hilarious:

KT has been obsessed with getting an allowance lately.  We've talked about agreeing on chores, and that Mom and Dad would need to have some discussions before anything is finalized.  

This morning I told her that we had finally agreed on the list.

This was her face as she got further down the list. 

(Photos are a little grainy, because she understands that when I get the camera out, there is going to be a April Fool's joke, so I had to be sly with my camera phone.)

This was her when we shouted "April Fool's!" at her. 

I switched their drawers around when they were sleeping, and put some "ha ha ha" notes in the toilet paper.

When they came out of their room in the morning they found this line to the bathroom.

I told Mo, "I'm sorry you're going to have to wait in line."

Mo replied, "But I have to go SUPER bad!"

After she cut in line and used the toilet I heard her say, "Okay Pluto, it's your turn."

For breakfast I put food dye in their cups and had them pour their milk own (I do this a lot anyway, because they think it's a blast).

KT laughed and understood what was going on pretty quick.

Mo was a bit more taken aback.

She didn't understand how it was working, she kept looking at the white milk in the creamer, and then back down at her orange juice-looking milk.

I flipped a bunch of pictures upside down in the house, and I also glued eyeballs on just about everything I could.  Mo got a kick out of this.

For snack, I put pudding in their cups to look like milk and placed eyeballs on top of the pudding.

Maybe next year we'll get a little "meaner," but for this year we just had fun.  Did you do anything fun with your kids?

did you know

there are back-to-back holidays next week?

KT informed me of this.

Not to leave you in suspense, but those two holidays are of course... Easter and April Fool's Day.

As you might guess April Fool's Day ranks pretty high up there, garnering the coveted "holiday" status in our household.

Ever since KT was four, I've been playing little pranks on April 1 to her delight.

See what I've done in the past... 2010; 2011; 2012

The bad thing:  I'm running out of ideas that are 1) easy to do; and 2) fun-spirited.

I have a handful on my "list" for this year.

If you're looking for ideas, check here, here, here and here for starters.  I've found Pinterest has been a great resource too.

Here's to making little ones smile on Monday!

Top 10 of 2012

#1 - Just add water

That is how you can describe the vast majority of the Little Wickies happiest moments of 2012.  Both girls are pretty good swimmers now.  This proved significant on a recent trip to San Diego when it was 60 degrees, and the girls were in the pool while us rents sat in the hot tub.

#2 - boogie boarding babe

If we thought KT was impervious to cold water before, with her wetsuit she is unstoppable.  Armed with her spring suit, that girl charges into 50-degree water on overcast days like she's in the Bahamas.

#3 - Water + Mo = a happy Mo

Mo has truly excelled in the pool this year.  One of the most entertaining memories I have is her learning butterfly, her little backside popping up and down out of the water.

#4 - The year of boots

The first part of the year KT wore yellow rain boots adorned with dinosaurs practically every day of school.  Somewhere around summertime, the cowgirl boots made inroads and have been on her feet daily ever since.

#5 - wings, tiaras and the ever present yellow cardigan

While we are on the topic of fashion, Mo had at least a month-long stint where she wore fairy wings daily.  She also had a couple of solid weeks of tiara-wearing.  The accessory de jour was always accompanied by a dress and a yellow cardigan (we currently have 4 in rotation) -- the girl straight refuses to wear pants or a shirt.

#6 - uke girl

We took our first big vacation this year to Hawaii.  KT picked up her first ukulele in Kailua and has been strumming almost daily since our return.  

#7 - school days

Mo began preschool this year.  The day before the first day she chose a backpack that looked like an incarnated version of Michael Jackson's glove.  You know, to match the sequined shoes.

#8 - No. 1 fan

KT and I went to a handful of Galaxy games together this year, and she has become a devout fan.  Three days before Christmas she asked Santa for a "soccer ball signed by all the Galaxy players."  Maybe next year.

#9 - dancing queen

Mo started tap and ballet at a nearby studio and is absolutely in love.  Getting her up in the mornings is generally a chore except on ballet day, where she springs out bed.

#10 - Little Wickies world gets a little bigger.

2012 marked many things.  There were firsts from airplane trips and kayaking adventures to broken arms.  There were lost teeth, roller skating escapades and rainbow parties.  They fell in love with High School Musical and continued their love of the beach and each other.  All in all it was a good year.

Happy new year!

the last 10 days of xmas

So I know December is a busy month for everyone, but this year it has seemed crazier than usual.  

First of all we have a lot of birthdays in December between our family and close friends -- Me, Kaitlyn, my little brother, both his kids, Grandpa John, Papa's best friend Chris, Chris' son Noah, Greg, a slew of Kaitlyn's friends (Hayley, Cody, Lia, Amelia, etc.), my friend Jeni, my cousin Lisa -- you get the idea, right?

The last ten days looked something like this (the photography is haphazard because that's pretty much what our life has been like)

We visited family up in the Bay Area.

Friday, 4:20 p.m. -- Me on the phone with a client sitting in the King City Taco Bell while looking at these two mugs, "No, I'm not going to be able to look at the document today."

While the trip was short (we drove back on Sunday) we did get to see some family and one of our favorite toddlers -- Miss Ariana.

We came back just in time for my birthday which was a nice little day with the family.

Then the next day we headed down to Legoland for Kaitlyn's birthday (she chose this over having a party).

We checked out the surf in Carlsbad.

Then, headed up to the O.C. to see our brand new two-week old niece -- Violet.

And yes, she's as little and perfect as she looks!

During dinner we hear over a police loudspeaker that Santa is coming outside.  And, sure enough there he was on a flatbed truck to visit the neighborhood kids 50 feet from Uncle Scott's door!

My thought:  score!  I don't have to take the kids to see Santa at the mall two days before Christmas.

But, they were so hurried they didn't have a chance to tell him what they wanted.

The next morning Mo had a tap performance, her blue sequined skirt popping quite nicely in a sea of red.

Some video...

And, fate would have it -- Santa was there too!  And, we had enough time for the girls to chat with him about all their lego wishes.  Kaitlyn also told him that she wanted a soccer ball with all the Galaxy player autographs on it (gulp!)

And, lastly tonight the girls sang at church.  Kaitlyn and Mo got up and did a little holiday ditty...

Whew!  Only one more week to go in 2012...

Merry Christmas everyone!

kaitlyn the red-rimmed reindeer

crafting

For those of you who know me well you'll understand the irony of the post's title.

Making things + Becky = not always such a good result.

This seemed like a very Becky-able project, so we took it on.

There are generally a bevy of pinecones at a lot of the parks near us.  However, it seemed as though other people had decided to get  crafty as well, because we actually had to hunt for them a bit!

The Little Wickies love doing crafts.  You would never know it from their faces though.

Our little pinecone Christmas trees.