Press Play on Words...

Well, we continue to battle germs at Casa Marx. Along with the germ warfare comes the inevitable movie marathon. This morning during Bambi, I snuck upstairs to grab a few things and Miss Bailey followed. She very much wanted to take a bath and who am I to deny her a chance to decontaminate? So we got that going.

Not much later, Sir Hayden ambled up muttering about soem technical difficulty. As he rounded the corner to the bathroom I heard his pleas more clearly, "Mama, pleeeeease can I watch the bonus feet? I just really want to watch the bonus feet."

Haha!!! Yesterday Michael found an aged minicartoon about an old mill on the bonus features. It was chock full animated o'slapstick and had Hayden in stitches. He just couldn't figure out how to get to it on his own. So I assured him that he could choose a few upstairs toys to play with as we finished up Miss B's bathtime and then we could explore the 'bonus feet'.

In no time at all we were done with bathtime... Bailey announced "Poop in Water Mama, Poop in Water...." We wrapped up the soak lickity split!

Bailey Busts BoBo

Yesterday morning while Hayden was at school Miss Bailey and I curled up to watch some inauguration coverage. She is battling a cold and was content to curl up with me while I caught some actual grown up news. After a bit she did decide to check out happenings in the kitchen and found BoBo grooming on the area rug.

Miss B planted both feet and gave the poor beleagured feline a rather harsh face. And then her little speech began...

No BoBo - No, No! No Eat pfeet!

She carried on for another minute or so but switched back to 100% Bailey-ese, which I am unable to adequately capture in this format. Suffice it to say that poor BoBo was most certainly put in his place for grooming his paws in the prescence of Princess Busybee.

My Country Tis'... the Season?

As we were getting our day started Tuesday, it occured to me that on this rather momentous day in the history of our country I should help Hayden understand a teensy bit about what was happening in America. With that in mind I struck up the following conversation during his morning potty break...

A: Hayden, today is a very big day for America.

H: It is? Why Mommy?

A: Well, today we are getting a new president. His name is...

H: What is it? What is it Mommy? I want to open it!

A: Oh honey, not present. Prez-ih-dent!

H: What is it? Can I have one?

A: Yes you can have a president. A president is the person in charge of America. It is alot of work.

H: Like Miss Diane at St. John Preschool?

A: Sure, a bit like that. Miss Diane is sort of the President of St. John Preschool. And Barack Obama is going to the the Miss Diane for America.

And that my friends is Civics 0.101!

Notions that are Out of this World..

Yesterday morning as we scurried through our morning routine Hayden managed to give me a much needed good giggle. As we cruised down our country road to drop him off at preschool we got to chatting about the weather. I remarked that it sure was a gray day and that I didn't think we would see much sunshine. Hayden agreed and added that we could even say it was a cloudy day. As I complimented him on his accurate weather forefast the wheels in his little noggin kept a turnin'. He said, "Mommy, I think -- I - I think that the cold from Pluto is coming down to Earth and making us cold. That's what I think is happening."

We have a book on outer space that has been an occaisional bedtime read. He was fascinated earlier this month with the idea that things close to the sun are hot and things far away from the sun are very cold. This concept must have stuck with him and surfaced on our morning drive.

So naturally I cracked up and then Sir Hayden felt pretty proud of himself, "Mommy I know how to make you giggle. I can make you giggle and that makes you happy!" I agreed and thanked him profusely for the funny observations.

Hayden the Wannabe Night Owl

Like many kidlets, Hayden and Bailey have a fondness for animals. We have enjoyed two different Nature magazines subscriptions as gifts from Uncle Jake and my folks. They are apparently helping us do more that pass the time as evidenced by my conversation with H this afternoon.

After lunch, Bailey did her new favorite thing while I was trying to clean up, she tugged at my sleeve, pulled me into the family room, pushed me towards the sofa and in a firm but throaty little voice said "Sit Mama, sit sit." Once I complied she scampered up, sat down right next to me and rested her little hand on my leg. Very sweet. So we snuggled and bit and Hayden was not far behind. Pretty soon we were all huddled up on the love seat and being the crafty mom that I am, I suggested we take a quick pretend nap. Hooray!

After a few mock snores, Hayden says to me, "Mama, I want to sleep all day. Can we sleep all day while it is light out?" Before I could respond to this, (I was busy censoring myself. I wanted so badly to get on board with that plan but knew that it would come with dire night time consequences) H tosses out the zinger...

Mommy, please can we be a nocturnal family? I want to be a nocturnal family like the owls. Then we can stay up allllll night."

So, I smiled and kissed his silly face. I assured him that I would give this idea some serious thought since it was so creative and then ushered him upstairs for naptime. He didn't seem to see the irony in that.

S'more Trouble for Bailey Boo

No, this post is not about Christmas. Yes, I know that it is not caught up. I am at least three holidays behind at this point but let's examine some day to day fun anyhow...

I am hosting a gathering for our neighborhood Bunco group tomorrow evening and have been preparing a few edibles to share. This afternoon I mixed up the ingredients for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Ball while each of our offspring was either napping or pretending to nap. Being the uber-focused gal that I am I neglected to pack up the extra minichips when I headed upstairs to retrieve the snuggliest noisemakers around. Thank heavens they were mini, read on for that explanation...

Not surprisingly it took about 3 milliseconds for the MiniMarx's to find the minichips. This was certainly not the "Explore the Inside of a Giant Grapefruit" snack that we discussed after lunch. But in the interest of harmony, I agreed that a few would be no biggie as long as we forged ahead with the original fruity gameplan.

Somewhere along the line, things happened that I did not observe with my own two eyes. Somewhere along the line, the kids decided to rough around in the family room and I saw something stuck in Bailey's hair. Not so alarming, there is often more stuff than hair with my walking, talking Glamour Don't (typed with much love). At some point I wandered over, encouraged everyone to settle down a bit and pulled some melted chocolate out of Bailey's hair. Again, not shocking given the way snacktime went. Other than feeling it was a waste of decent chocolate I was rather unperturbed by the sugary discovery.

That is until later this evening when I was assisting with a delicate playdough extruder procedure. I glanced at my sweet daughter and thought perhaps she had gotten a wee bloody nose during the great sofa smackdown. No biggie - this can be cleaned up and obviously didn't bother her enough to fuss earlier. Since I am such a veteran Mom now, I gave her schnoz a quick sweep with my pinkie fingernail to remedy things.

What do I find? A gooey mess! Goshdarnit - my delicate flower has finally gone and shoved something up her nose. I knew this day was coming, and now that it is here I would like to say.....

Thank you Bailey Sue for stuffing your sweet little nostril with something that melts! Kisses for everyone!!!

And by kisses I don't mean Hershey's, clearly that would be ill advised at our house right now.

She's Got Alot of Pluck for a Little Gal...

So I am thinking that one of my New Year's Resolutions ought to be more alone time at the bathroom sink. Why, you ask? I am certain it is obvious that every Mother of little ones craves privacy in all its forms but this goes beyond your typical Mommy craving. This morning Bailey was playing with the tongs from the toy kitchen. She sauntered on over to me (It turns out there is no age limit on sauntering.) climbed up on my lap and proceeded with an attempt to shape my eyebrows with what to her seemed like an enormous tweezer. Lovely! Not the makeover I was looking for but I appreciate the crafty love that was shown nonethelesss...