this girl ...

...just got voted "most musical," by her 8th grade class.

The beginning of quarantine was tough for her.  Everyday she'd come into my office:

"We should be performing in Simi today..."
"What are we doing today?"
"We would be having our dance today."
"We'd be on Spring Tour today."
"Can we go to the beach tomorrow?"

She was pretty mad about her social life being put on indefinite hold.

Two months later it's down to:

"What are we doing today"
"Can we go to the beach tomorrow?"

She's definitely less angry which is nice.

I get it, no music trip, no Washington D.C. trip, no 8th grade dance, no 8th grade promotion event (which has been rescheduled as a "drive through" event -- that will be interesting) and probably 6+ music performances cancelled.  It really isn't fair.  I keep telling her, at least she's not a high school senior.

She has been doing a lot of solo music.  She has started composing using software which I for one think is pretty impressive (yes, I'm her mom, but still).

All in all we've settled into quarantine life pretty nicely.  The girls and I have found our weekday rhythm and I have to admit -- it's not terrible.

The Rolling Who?

Katie:  Kaleo is going to play in LA can we go?

Me:  When, where?

Katie:  They are opening for the Rolling Stones

Right, we are going to buy tickets to see the Rolling Stones ... so we can see their opener.

Good band, but we'll have to wait to see them when they come back on their own tour.

In the meantime here is Katie singing "No Good" by Kaleo at Rockshop Academy.

See other videos of her playing here.

she just looks grown up

I know it's such a motherly thing to say, but Katie is getting so grown up.

No, she doesn't wear makeup.  Her, D and Lia were just messing around at a mom's makeup event.

Love their "gentle" technique of palming each other's head when applying makeup.

We watched The Bourne Identity with her recently, and I feel like we have more and more "adult" conversations with Katie.  Often I feel like I'm talking with a friend rather than a kid.

Then something like this happens:

Song:  Fitz's tongue just went into my mouth.  He Frenched me!

Katie:  That's not how French people kiss.

... and then, I remember she's still a little girl.

Twenty-two years ago today...

Songer and I went on our first date.  We were in college and we ate at Tony Romas, and watched the movie Waterworld.  Five years later we got engaged in Paris at the restaurant pictured above. 

Now, every year we eat ribs on March 1st.  Tonight we were eating ribs ...

Me:  Hey Katie, 22 years ago today your dad and I kissed for the first time.
KT: You kissed on the first date!?  Ewwww....

olympic hopefuls

Yup those are Christmas jammies -- but this post isn't about Christmas.

It's about the Winter Olympics of course.

I have fond memories of watching the Olympics as a kid, and the girls are just starting to get into it.

I love watching them trying to figure all the sports out.

Mo:  I can't wait for the gymnastics!

Me:  There isn't gymnastics in the Winter Olympics.

KT:  Why not, it's not like it's an outside sport.

Watching the biathlon competition

KT:  I think he has an extra pole in case he breaks one of his… WAIT… it's a gun!

Watching them try to do the ice skating move where they hold their skate above and behind their head in the living room was pretty hilarious too.

Mo:  Wait, I can do it, let me take my jeans off (she then precedes to try the move in her underwear)

Oh yeah, and this is back of the Christmas jammies...

Go Team USA!

power bar = juice

Mo comes into the room with the iPad.

"Mama can you plug this in?  It only has nine juices left, and it's red."

getting exposed

to Queen.

Watched a couple Queen videos with the girls tonight.

KT:  Is that a girl singing?

Mo:  Their hair is poofy.

KT:  That one looks like Sally Ride.

Mo:  He wears weird clothes.

KT:  He's really sweaty.  He looks like daddy after basketball.

Mo:  I think he just bit the microphone!

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!

things you don't want hear from someone behind you

Katie went biking tonight while I ran.  She's behind me on the path (where there are plenty of people)...

Katie:  Whoa mom, you're huge!

Me:  What?

Katie:  Your shadow, it's huge!!!

summer o' football

Little Wickie reaction upon seeing players' kids on the field after the championship game this weekend.

Mo:  Ooo!  Sparkly!

KT:  I wish I could be there with all that confetti.

Not "I wish I could meet Fernando Torres," or "I wish I could be at the final Euro Cup game."

I suppose it's kind of good thing, throwing metallic confetti on them is way more do-able than meeting Fernando Torres or attending a final Euro Cup game.

Next up: Olympic soccer and other Olympic sporting events.

What are you watching with your kids this summer?

mo and her fighter

I was quite the tomboy growing up, always playing with my brother's G.I. Joes, watching Transformers, constructing spears out of bamboo in the backyard.

I've been realizing lately that we have a very girly house.

We recently received purple swords at a friend Jake's ninja party and these are recent tidbits of conversation from Mo.

"Mama, you hold onto this part, and boom with the other purple part."

"Where is my fighter!?" (referring to the sword)

"Mama! (crying) Sissy says this isn't a gun!!!" (waving the sword around for me to see)

a dose of diesel

Yesterday waiting in the doctor's office

Earlier this week Papa watched about 2 minutes of the movie XXX with the girls in the room before we left for dinner.

Me: Are you sure that is something they should be seeing?

Papa: It’s on basic cable, it should be okay.

Scene synopsis: It’s a car chase, which turns to a boat chase, all with lots of shooting and blowing up of things. Apparently, there is a bomb on a boat headed for the city, Vin Diesel takes control of the boat (whew!) and manages to make the boat dive down deep into the water so it explodes away from the city (and only to the detriment of the marine eco-system below).

As you can imagine my girls don’t experience a lot of this kind of programming and the questions (pun intended) came fast and furious…

Maddie (watching a rocket launcher blast from the top of the car): Is that a magic car?

Katie: Did they buy the car like that? Or, did they add those things to the car?

Papa: Those would be aftermarket purchases.

Katie: What’s an aftermarket purchase?

And then...

…Why did he jump on the boat…why was there a computer on the boat…how did he make the boat go underwater (a very valid question)…what was the boat’s job before…is that girl his friend, or are they boyfriend and girlfriend...how does he arrest someone...

the things they see

Three firemen walk by and say "hi" to the girls at the supermarket today.

My girls turn shy and Katie sort of waves at them.

KT: Why do we say 'hi' to firemen?

Me: Because they are good helpers and it's okay to say hello to them.

We pass by the firemen a couple more times in the market.

Later in the car...

KT: How come only women said 'hi' to the firemen in the market? I didn't see any men say 'hi' to them.

conversations with a 6-yr old

Katie with her flea market find: a dolphin for her charm bracelet

Katie was sick this weekend, so instead of attending a birthday party, I made her go to the flea market with me.

I was shopping when I look up and next to me is a girl who is impossibly skinny and way too pretty and flawless for a flea market. I look back and there is a large man with sunglasses following 4 feet behind her. Turns out it was Taylor Swift.

Me: Katie, see that girl with the cream colored dress on?

KT: Yes.

Me: That's the girl who wrote and sings the song that mommy is learning how to play on the piano right now.

KT: Back to December?

Me: Yes.

KT: Why are you whispering?

Me: Well, she's famous and I want to give her some privacy.

KT: How famous is she?

This is where our conversation faltered. I mean, how do you rank famous-ness in the world of a 6-year old? Less famous than Elmo, more famous than Cailou?

Our conversation descended into what other songs she sang (I only knew one other); how many people in the world know who she is; in what countries people knew her in; etc., etc.

mo and george

Mo this morning telling me about George...

"I love my Georgie the best. I want him to stay forever and ever and ever."