More Science Fun

To add to the scientific fun going on around our house these days, Mike got a turkey this weekend. Sunny was excited to see the thing, but both of us told Miss Mouse that she did not have to go see it, watch the, ahem, processing of it, nothing. We repeated ourselves again and again....to no avail! She was not going to be talked out of looking at that turkey. Apparently a deer is off-limits for her to see dead (per her decision), but she seems to have little compassion for turkeys. So, Mike cut up his turkey with his two girls standing on a yard chair watching him from a safe distance (Miss Mouse told me, "That knife is SHARP! We have to stay away!"). Not only did Miss Mouse find it interesting to see the turkey whole; she soaked up a whole turkey anatomy lesson and came in telling me that, "Turkeys eat their food, and it goes into a little bag first before it goes to their stomachs." A decent five-year-old understanding of a turkey's crop, we thought. She then added, "This turkey hadn't eaten anything today; Daddy knew that because his bag was empty. Daddy said the turkey was out looking for girrrrrl turkeys!". I'm thinking that's about as far as that lesson needed to go at this point.

Friday night we drove to the edge of town and watched a jake and a tom turkey get mad at eachother over a bunch of hens. The girls thought it was hilarious to see the two males get "all puffy"; they thought it even funnier that they were getting all puffy to fight over their "girlfriend turkeys".

To top it off, we have a piece of turkey skin sitting in water in our fridge just waiting for us to examine it with a magnifying glass as soon as I can psyche myself into doing that, and it is there because I asked for it!

We ate the half of the turkey tonight. Num!

Science Lab

We've become a regular science lab around here. Who would have ever thought? I can answer that: no one who knew be pre-children. I'm guessing I struck pretty much no one as the ant-gathering-type for one.

Yet here I am with two little, tiny, ant-gatherers! Much to their Daddy's relief, we did not bring the homemade ant farm into the house. They froze to death securely on the front step. (Psssttt...The girls don't quite "get" that when I dumped it out the other day, I wasn't dumping our whole load of live ants....).

They really were fun to watch while they lasted.
Miss Mouse was pretty proud of this project. Ask her how many legs an insect has. Go ahead. Ask her.

Sunny turned out to be an ant-gatherer extraordinaire.

Miss Mouse had her turn, too, of course.

Because outdoor science activities seemed a bit, oh, "tame", I needed a bigger challenge. We moved inside and began to study cells and cell division (preschool-style, that is).

Our hypothesis: The yeast mixture left on the counter would multiply more rapidly than the yeast mixture stuck in the fridge. Obviously we were right, but this is pretty exciting stuff when you are three or five! We also found out that even though the refridgerated yeast mixture, which just happened to also illustrate the need of living organisms for 1) shelter, 2) food, 3) air, and 4) water, did recover and begin to grow. Miss Mouse was pleased that "her" mixture had recovered and "caught up" to Sunny's.

Because yeast is so darn fun to work with and so very yummy to sniff at, we did another yeast project. The white balance on this photo was soooo bad that I had to give up and turn it black and white. Blah. Anyway, that is a yeast mixture in the bottom. Miss Mouse sat and watched it for nearly half an hour as it bubbled and frothed its way to the tip-top of the bottle. The pink balloon on top got very "puffy" (that is the technical term, of course!), and she was incredibly impressed with how the yeast made it all the way To.The.Top.

The girls agreed the most fun part of this project was when I went to clean it up. I did point it toward the sink, wondering if it would explode from pressure release when I took the balloon off......and it did. All over the sink, all over me, all over. I smelled like really bad, old beer, always a great smell for someone four months pregnant. When they had collected themselves, the girls pushed me straight into the bathroom to clean myself up!

Well, not wanting to have the girls have all the science project fun, I've started what look like a few science projects of my own. First, there are my grow-lamps in the living room, working hard to raise three types of tomato seedlings, some mini bell pepper seedlings, a few passionflowers (Miss Mouse's pick for "her" garden this summer), and a plethora of lupine (Sunny's pick). The card table takes up a good chunk of our little living room, but other than that, it's a generally carefree project. Carefree as long as the weather kicks itself into high-temperature gear for me to transplant when we need to, that is.....

That project didn't quite seem messy enough, so I have endeavoured to start some sourdough bread. It probably isn't surprising that I am attempting this from scratch - as in, no yeast in the starter at all. I have what looks like a yummy recipe that a friend secured for me, but have I tried that one (which looks easier and more likely to succeed?)? No. No, indeed. I have a pot of rotten flour and water on my counter that I am treating as a "pet" for the next few weeks to see if it will really develop into the yeast-like starter that bread needs. So far, my attempt at bread with it has flopped. For Tolkien fans, it turned out as cram. I would have been okay with lembas, but cram? I was not pleased. It was especially terrible day-old. Very sad. I will, though, give it some more time. It's a fun little experiment, other than that Sunny tells me every morning as I throw out half and feed it fresh "food" that "Mommy, that smells like puke!". I'm not sure there is much hope for this science project/pet.

As Close As It Gets

After a ridiculous day yesterday, today was refreshingly redemptive. Really, yesterday would be best forgotten, though honestly it was so ridiculous it was laughable. Almost. The part about New Baby not liking any of the food I ate was not so laughable, especially at 18 weeks, but it wasn't so terrible either. It's only the second day like that of the entire 18 week period. Still. That made for one exhausted Mommy by 3:00 when we had to pack up and take off for swimming lessons.

Actually, let me be more accurate. It was 2:50 that we packed up. We have a loaner car while the main vehicle is in for some repairs. We have to get it in shape so that we can trade it off for something we can all (physically) fit in! Anyway, this loaner vehicle is great except that the key doesn't turn. I had the same trouble in my Corsica in college, so I know that if I yank on the wheel hard enough, eventually something will click and allow the key to turn. We sat at the grocery store on Monday morning for 10 minutes attempting this trick before it worked. Hence, my rule this week is that we leave 10 minutes earlier for every commitment to allow for the key-turning-fight I will need to have with the car.

We got to swimming lessons on time, early, in fact. I responsibly hooked my keys on the key-hook in my purse and congratulated myself for my organizational skills. Ten seconds later, I decided that there was no reason to take my purse in when I was so tired (my purse is a diaper bag with an identity crisis; it's cute, but it's heavy!). It honestly never crossed my mind that I should take it for the keys until Miss Mouse was dressed and showered after her lesson.

Thankfully a kind man named Kevin ran the spare set of keys down to us from the repair shop. When I confessed that I had left them in my purse in the car, he assured me that everyone has done that and that he himself has done that, too. Then he hastily added, "Well, not with a purse! But I've sure left them in the car before." My embarrassment was definitely tempered by his grace and humor.

At the point we finally made it into the car, and after the 10-minute fight to turn the key (Why didn't I ask him to exchange keys with me to see if the other one worked better? Because we were sitting in a parking lot with traffic already backed-up behind poor Kevin, mainly!), I decided we should all go home and tuck in bed before I could cause anymore problems!

Once I got the girls to bed around 8:15, I thought I was home-free. No more food to potentially start on fire in the oven (Miss Mouse doesn't even bat an eyelash when that happens anymore), no more toothbrushes to potentially mix-up (I haven't done that....yet); I just really thought I had "made it".

Then Mike came home. Then we began talking which means I usually play with my wedding ring. And then.....

as I was rolling it around in my hand, it fell...directly behind me....straight into the 2-inch hole where my stationary bike pedal attaches into the bike. If I had tried to do that, it would have been impossible! Mike had to take the side off to get the silly thing to drop out of there. Grrr! At that point, I finally gave the day up and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to this! From the get-go, this day promised to be better. Redemptive, as I said before. Little Sunny wore a pink and orange hair clip to match her bright pink and orange dress. I loooooove these fun colors together, and I looooove that she was a made-up animal called a "picky" that was hiding in a hole made of couch cushions.

When Hubert got tired of fetch this afternoon, Miss Mouse called for a bike ride. I let her pick the directions, so everytime we'd come to a corner, she'd ask me which way took us farther from or closer to home. Guess which she picked every time? She got us pretty much as far away from home as we could get and not head into the river. I'm sure she biked over a mile today. We were on the ride (I pushed Sunny's trike which still needs a new front wheel carriage....mental note: order that tomorrow!) for over an hour. On the way home, Sunny's hands got cold; Miss Mouse had mittens, so she shared them with her little sister. All the way home, the girls alternated wearing the one set of mittens. It was dreamy! Really, this day was something I think a mommy needs - to know that all those discussions about "how we treat our sister" are sinking in, to know that it is getting through when I ask "Which do you think is more important to God? That you get the toy first/longest or that you and your sister show love to each other?"....Just being out together, no Internet, no telephone, smelling the spring, admiring the flowers - tulips and dandelions in equal measure was such a beautiful experience.

This was as close to perfect as it gets.
Our plum tree's blooms survived the terrible wind yesterday and continue to smell deliciously edible.

Those are Miss Mouse's mean-lookin' Puma tennis shoes and blue bat. She sort of reminded me of a cat about ready to pounce on her prey. What you can't see in the picture is the sound of Sunny shouting "Don't pop it!!!". Miss Mouse refrained herself but just barely.

It seems there has been a lack of Miss Mouse pictures lately, but there are quite a few coming up. I'm just saving them for the right time and right post.

Here's to lots more of these gorgeous days!

Completely Technical

This is perhaps going to be the most boring, least entertaining, and most uninteresting post I will have ever written. I have nothing witty, nothing sweet, nothing funny to write about [at this moment - there will be more soon], but currently I am so incredibly excited that I can hardly contain myself! Excited about what, you may ask. I am over-the-moon excited about a new booster seat for Miss Mouse, even though a good chunk of me (and there's quite a few "chunks" these days....) can scarcely believe she's out of an infant seat and is helping me look for one of those for her new little sibling. Time doesn't fly; time zooms.

Anyway, I've been suspecting for quite some time that Miss Mouse would be moving to a booster far before she ever hit either the weight or the height limit on her convertible car seat. I recalled reading something about a "seated height limit" having to do with the shoulder straps; I read that back in 2007 when our incredibly tall infant had to move out of her infant seat into this convertible limousine of a seat at eight months old. A few complaints on our recent 1,000 mile trip (in 4 days) from the Mouse who rarely complains in a vehicle sort of solidified my suspicions about the seat. We measured Miss Mouse last night, and her "seated height" is 17 inches. The convertible seat's limit is 16.75.

Thankfully, I've been researching like a mad woman lately. Really. Ask me the rear hip width of some different vehicles. Chevy Equinox? 51.3. Ford Taurus X? 56.5 Ford Flex? from 55-57.8 Chevy Traverse? 57.8. Yep. I've done a bit of research into vehicular capacities, LATCH placements (for those who haven't dealt with small children post-2001, they are handy-dandy little metal bars which car seats attach to....and then the seats don't move...at all!), seating arrangements (i.e., rear captains chairs, bench seats, width of bench seats, 40/60 splits in bench seats, optional third rows, optional bench seats, etc.). It was enough to boggle my mind for a period of time.

In addition to researching vehicle options, I also researched booster seat options. Previously I thought that going to a booster seat meant leaving the five-point harness system behind. That bothered me because of how tiny Miss Mouse is regardless of her height. How excited was I, then, when I found that several companies make booster seats that convert from five-point harnesses to flat, under-the-bottom boosters as the child ages and grows??! Super excited!

After a lot more research, I narrowed down my list to two. The first is a narrow booster, the narrowest on the market. It's got enough padding to be safe but no more. It has no armrests (though I wondered if the kiddos wouldn't eventually just use each other as arm rests when crammed like sardines next to each other in the back of our Equinox?!). I struggled with my instinct telling me not to go with this one. It would have been the financially most responsible move, considering we would be able to get 17 inches X 3 across the Equinox (and would have .3 of an inch to spare even!). The other seat has the same safety features as the first, but it has a load more padding. I don't believe it's "safety padding" as much as comfort padding. It also has fold-down armrests. Those two things, more padding and armrests, weighed on me as I remembered our trip of 1,000 miles in 4 days. I'm not sure I could have done it without my own armrest. Given, the kiddos are young compared to my old self, but still. I don't want going to Grammy and Grandpa Bob's house to ever turn into a nightmare because of sore bottoms, stiff necks, and aching arms.

Considering we solified our opinion on Miss Mouse having outgrown her current seat last night (I had Mike measure, too, so that I was sure my measurements weren't wrong), I finally did some phone calling this morning. After finding online that no store in a 150 mile radius from us sold either of my two favorite seat choices, and getting some feedback via facebook, I called the company that manufactures the first car seat, the narrow one. I asked what the seats "seated height limit" was. The cornflake I talked to told me in an irritated tone that all the limits were on the website. She could just as well have added "Stupid" at the end of the sentence to go with her tone. I explained that the seated height limit was not easily found on the website, and that I would like to know what it is. Well, apparently they have none. Red flag. She finally figured out that the top adjustment of the top strap is at 19 inches; I thanked her for providing what is the actual seated height limit (whether or not they acknowledge it!) and hung up. A limit of 19 inches would mean we would have 2 more inches of torso length increase before Miss Mouse would be kissing the five-point harness goodbye. That's not so bad, but when I looked at the comparable Britax seat (the one I loved anyway because of its cushy-ness), I found their seated height limit is 20 inches. We'd get an entire extra inch of five-point harness use.

Miss Mouse and I sat down and found the closest color to red available (it's called "Livia", and I'm sort of afraid it is a purplish/pink rather than anything close to a red) and ordered Sir Cushy. We'll give up another inch of car room in the back once it arrives, but, sigh, I'll give up that extra inch and as much of my savings as needs be if it means we can visit my family in comfort. Poor Mike. All of this just had to be decided during Holy Week. Good thing he got to spend some good time tickling his Mice on the couch tonight as they crawled, literally, all over him (even on his head). At one point, Miss Mouse wanted to tell him something, but he was getting so much laughter from Sunny about a ridiculous face he was making, that Miss Mouse had to start shouting "Stop laughing! Daddy will stop the faces and listen to me if you stop laughing!". Of course, she was chuckling, too.

And I was happy-as-a-clam knowing we have a humongous box on its way here from a Target warehouse somewhere (oh, and it's coming via free shipping and at 25% off retail price.....I'm big on safety, big on comfort, and big on cheap!).

Nesting Club: The Next Generation

When my sister was in early elementary school, she and a few friends started a "nesting club" during recess. The three (four?) of them would sit on piles of rocks, waiting for them to hatch. It was sweet and creative. Unfortunately, it led to them not only being entertained but also being the butts of many jokes, basically being poked fun at. Regardless, given that I was still at the elementary school with her when the "nesting club" started, I'll never forget how cute it was.

Now, for some unknown and possibly genetic reason, the Nesting Club has been revived. I have never, ever mentioned it to my girlies, yet here Sunny sits.....on her "egg", which doubles as a croquet ball.

This one is a "robin's egg"; it's red. Hence, I was told it is a robin's egg.
She is a very attentive mother.

Loving, too.

She's now working on a blue bird egg. Can you see the pride in how she carries her "beautiful blue bird egg" (her words)?

Now she's teasing me about which tree in our neighbor's yard is the chokecherry. She purposely pointed to the wrong tree first.

We're discussing how the tree has to flower first and then get chokecherries. She thought it was hilarious that I called it a chokecherry tree when there are not chokecherries on it yet. Notice she is sharing our nature talk with her "egg".

I love how the sun is shining through her hair in this picture. I know it is overexposed because we aren't quite as ghostly white as these pictures show, but I do love what it does for the girls' hair. She's looking at her Daddy who is asking what she's sitting on. Obviously she doesn't think it should take an explanation.

The baby blue bird hatched! It was a busy and successful day at our Nesting Club.

Three Years in the Making

This was a moment three years in the making.

This was a moment I did not request. Sunny herself decided her bangs had to go. She also decided she would go first at Jill's salon. For about a year, she's been terrified of having her bangs trimmed (I tried a few times), so for her to up and decide that not only was Jill going to trim her bangs, but she was also going to be the first of us three customers? That was a moment for the camera (and for an envelope to put the hair trimmings in, of course...Jill had one at the ready!).

Sunny leapt into the chair, grinned while getting her "gown" on, and then turned into an utterly serious rock.

Of course, she couldn't actually stop talking for too long. Here she's telling Jill that she (Jill) is missing her ponytail. Apparently the last time we were there for Miss Mouse and I to have trims, Jill had a ponytail in. Silly Jill! Didn't she know that meant she always needed to have one?! Teehee.
Back to the serious business at hand.

One would think she may have been thrilled to have an unobstructed view of the world. I think she was, but she's incredibly pensive and thoughtful (though talkative) like her big sis. I think she was also a little bit afraid I was going to have Jill cut the back of her hair, too.

Now that she's sure no one is going to trim her "tail", which is what she calls the back of her hair, she can relax and enjoy the two French braids Jill put in for her. She was so proud of her haircut! She kept saying "I wook wike Auntie Wahwah (I look like Auntie Laura)" and "Don't I wook gwown-up (don't I look grown up?)?!" In all truth, she looks just like me in pictures we have of me at that age, but, hey, if she wants to look like Auntie Laura, I'm not going to argue!

Butterfly Ball, II

She waited for this evening for nearly a year. Every month or so, I'd get the question, "When is the Daddy/daughter dance?" and would have to tell her it was not for a long time. The past week or so has been sparking with excitement as I've been able to tell her, "Not very long now, Honey!". She woke up singing this morning, knowing today was her day with Daddy. It's been a long week of sharing him with so many others who need him, but tonight....tonight was her time to share him with no one.

This was her night to be his princess, and somehow I don't doubt that in years to come, she'll look back and identify with these words.....

"There's nothing that I'd rather do than to sit around and talk to you,

Reminisce about a simpler time

The music that we made was simple, but it stayed

In my memory and on my mind.

Dancin' on Daddy's shoes,

Dancin' all around the room,

Rollin' the rug up, and kickin' our heels up,

Dancin' away the blues

Sister would clap along, everyone would sing along,

Playin' homemade music, and dancin' on Daddy's shoes.

There's something about this musty room that makes me reel, makes me want to swoon,

That strange perfume is one of a kind,

The rhythm takes me back,

When I hear that razzmatazz, there's no nicer feeling I can find

Dancin' on Daddy's shoes,

Memories you'll never lose

Dancin' away the blues,

Sentimental memories,

Dancin' on Daddy's shoes

Dancin' on Daddy's shoes...." --Leon Redbone

To flesh out the evening a bit, we started primping Miss Mouse around 4 p.m. She was ready and raring to go by 5:30 when we left. Nails were painted; stickers applied to the nails; new sandals were being properly broken in, which meant hearing, "Oh, Mommy! My sandals got dirt in them!"; hair was fixed; new sweater, hand sanitizer, and mini-rabbit-purse were all packed; dance tickets were secured; car seat was transferred to Daddy's car; and Sunny had been cheered by "new" boots (she announced to our neighbors that the boots were "new from the basement!"....) and the promise of frozen yogurt with Mommy after Miss Mouse and Daddy's grand march.

If you take a look here (I'm having trouble with my linking ability) http://www.toomeytales.blogspot.com/2011/04/dancing-with-cinderella.html, you'll see Miss Mouse's expression during the grand march didn't change much from last year. She told me this year she "didn't care too much for the waiting part at the beginning" when they were waiting in line for the grand march. Why? Because two sisters in line in front of her were fighting, and their daddy couldn't get them to stop. She liked being introduced by Mike just fine in front of the crowd, but she was pretty upset about those two sisters!

Upon their return home, which was, as last year, very early, I got to hear all about the splendid food and desserts, the music, how she danced like a "grown-n-up", and how she got not only a glow-in-the-dark bracelet and necklace, but also the fancy mask shown above. Honestly, it was sort of spooky when I let her in the door and saw her wearing it. The silly mask definitely put off Sunny's bedtime by a good 20 minutes due to her shrieks of laughter. It didn't help that poor Miss Mouse was talking at the top of her lungs....I whispered quietly at one point, "Is it hard to hear me when I talk quietly?" to which she shouted, "Huh? Oh, yeah!". I guess the music they enjoyed was fairly loud tonight!

Commentary from Miss Mouse on the evening, heard by either me or Mike:

"This was a beautiful evening to go out, Daddy!" - he says this line was delivered much like a teenager girl

"I will never, ever forget this night. I don't think I will. I don't think so."

"Why is Daddy taking so long to get ready? Oh, I suppose he is going to look fantastic. It takes a lot of work to look fantastic." This after we spent an hour primping her, so she knew her statement to be true!

"There was even music while we were eating!"

"When I was in the bathroom, I could not find the soap. I asked a bigger girl, and she helped me find the soap and get my bracelet off. I thought I should take off my bracelet so that it didn't get ruined. I did not want to get a bracelet from Grammy and Grandpa Bob ruined at the Daddy/daughter dance!" ---I can almost guarantee I would not have thought of that at five years old.....

"Daddy let me try to get my food by myself. It didn't work so well, so he started to help me. I didn't get mad at him, though, because there was kind of a mess, and I didn't think I should keep making a bigger mess. So I was happy he helped me." --What I love is that she has no shame in this statement; it's all factual. She tried; it didn't work; she'll accept help and then try again (soon)!

Laura (my sister) and my Dad danced to the song that I wrote out above at her wedding. Though the dances Mike has taken Miss Mouse to haven't involved live music (as did the dancing my Dad and I often did), she's storing up some great memories of how important she is to her Daddy.

"I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection" - Sigmund Freud