More Dance Pictures

Cute Kid Stories

1. Ellie is still obsessed with the Little House books (we just started the sixth one today). I'm typing as she plays Polly Pockets (my little window to her soul) on the floor at my feet. She made one say, "Now we have to move the homestead." Then she replied with another one, "Oh, Ma, do we have to?" "Yes, girls. Now be quiet. All's well that ends well."

She also used the phrase "gulping and aching" that we read in a chapter an hour ago, and this morning at preschool, she told me that "S" is for "sod." Not a common word for little kids.

2. Ellie told me that when she grows up, she wants to be a "police." When I asked why, she said, "So I can help the cars that are in accidents and drive around and look at cars. I'll have to go to police school and drive my own police car. Mama, will you teach me how to drive a police car because I don't know how to do that?" I told her that if she went to police school, they would teach her that there. "Okay," she said. "But you'll have to drive me to police school." Again, I'm reminded of what little understanding she has of being "grown-up."

Good Advice

1. Don't eat stew on your lap on the couch. When you drop a large piece of meat, it hits the sauce and splatters all over your book, shirt, and couch.

2. When you're driving home north on 35E, don't talk through your exit. Then you end up in downtown St. Paul during rush hour. Ellie held up her hand and solemnly said, "Stop talking to me, Mama."

3. Dominoes' cheesy bread is tastier than Little Caesar's.

Lack of Blogging!

I apologize for how infrequently I have posted lately. For some reason, I just haven't had anything to say. Life has been the usual routine lately, and Isaac and I have spent most evenings that he is home cuddled on the couch happily watching Lost. (Great series, by the way - we're having so much fun!)

This morning my friend dropped two of her kids off at our house to play with Ellie. Isaac came home in the middle of it, looked around at the toys covering every surface, and said, "So three kids is different than one, huh?"

Yesterday Ellie actually fell asleep and napped for 2 hours. Luckily, I did too! It's been a long time since we napped together like that.

See why I haven't posted lately? Nothing exciting.

Restaurant Follow-Up

The name of the restaurant is Nala Pak. It's on Central Ave. in Blaine about 5 blocks south of 694. They serve both North and South Indian food, and I've like everything I've tried. They have a menu (not a buffet) at night, and we discovered that the appetizer platter and bread basket are good deals, but the curry menu items are not. Just a word to the wise!

Chocolate Milk

I love chocolate milk. This week I splurged and bought the good, rich kind instead of the skim kind. So good! I love how thick it is. The few times that we've given it to Ellie as a treat, we've given it to her "Oma-style," which means that she gets an inch watered down with regular skim milk (a reference to my wonderful mother-in-law, thanks to whose influence my husband still can't stand to drink pure chocolate milk). Oh, well. More for me.

Mmmm... Indian Food

I've been really interested in Indian food since my mom took Ellie and me to a delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant in Blaine. This week, I made a shrimp saute curry dish that was a huge hit with my father, my daughter, and my friend Jen (but not my husband). I think it's going to become a staple in our house (sorry, honey.)

Tonight, since Isaac and my mom are both out of town, my dad and I made plans. He asked what we should do, and I said he should take us back to that Indian restaurant! So it's going to be a good night.

Another Crazy Guy Encounter

I took Ellie to the Children's Museum today. As we walked through the skyway, I smiled at a guy who didn't look so normal, but being nice is the right thing to do, right? Anyway, sure enough, he wasn't so normal and perked up right away and sprinted after Ellie and I down the skyway. We kept walking briskly, and he engaged my poor sweet daughter in nonsense kid-directed conversation, such as, "I'm not Dr. Seuss! Both of you are just as cute as I've ever seen" and random lines from children's books.

He stopped following us when we got into the museum, and another mom just inside the entrance told me she was worried about us and had been keeping an eye on us. Thanks, but it would have been nice if she had kept an eye on us where I could see her instead of around the corner so that I thought I was in an empty skyway! I let security know that a "kind of nutty guy" had followed me down their skyway and made me feel uncomfortable.

I attract guys like that.

9-1-1

How many times annually is it normal to have to dial 9-1-1? I feel like I have had to do it an extraordinary number of times lately over the past couple years. Here's the crazy recap:

• Summer 2006: Road Rage Incident - On an entrance ramp, the driver two cars in front of me blocked the road with his car, got out, and went up to the window of the car in front of me, yelling at him. I called the police because I didn't know if he was actually going to bring out a gun next or not, but he banged on the window a couple times and then drove off.
• October 2006: Knocker Incident - Our renter was involved in a court case, and the friends of the bad guy she was accusing banged on her door in the middle of the night to scare her off. The police came to our house, and I spent an hour upstairs calming her down.
• November 2006: Anaphylactic Shock Incident - The aforementioned renter had an allergic reaction to some medication and pounded on our door in the middle of the night in anaphylactic shock. We called the ambulance to bring her to the hospital.
• February 2007: The Infamous Prostitute Incident (Isaac calls this the "Knife-Wielding Crack Whore Incident") - Isaac and I woke up in the night to a car horn that wouldn't stop beeping. After thinking it was an alarm that never stopped, we opened the window and heard a woman yelling, "Help me!" Thinking it was some kind of car accident, Isaac ran outside and I called 9-1-1. Isaac came across a woman yelling she had been raped by a man with a gun and brought her inside to our house, where I called 9-1-1 again to tell them what had happened. When the police came, they took the woman away and told us never to let someone "like that" in our house again. She had been a prostitute who had been refused pay, and she had attacked the guy to make him pay. The policeman pointed out her mitten on our oven filled with cash and said, "Couldn't you smell the crack on her?" (No, we didn't know it had a smell.)
• February 2008: McDonalds Parking Lot Incident - Ellie and I stopped at the University/Midway McDonalds and saw a man dragging a woman across the snowdrift into the parking lot. By the time we pulled in, the woman had collapsed on the ground and couldn't stand up. I called 9-1-1 and tried to help the woman, but another "Good Samaritan" muddied the waters and kept dragging the woman to her feet and yelling at her to breathe and stand up. I left Ellie in her carseat and kept asking the man to just leave her down in the parking lot until help arrived, but he was very belligerant and wouldn't listen. The original friend of the woman ran off angry, and the new guy dragged the woman into McDonalds. Ellie was petrified and screaming in the car because she could see the woman out her window. An ambulance came and decided the woman needed police more than medical attention, and we left after the police arrived.

Does that seem excessive to anyone else? Previous to the past three years, I had only dialed 9-1-1 once in my life. Thank goodness for cell phones, I guess.

Presidents' Day

It seems that all my good ideas for today are stymied because of Presidents' Day. I want to go to the library because I've read all my books: it's closed. I thought of taking Ellie to the Children's Museum or another fun place: but we'd have to go to the library to get the free pass. I want another DVD of Lost to arrive in the mail today: there's no mail. I worked really hard this morning writing nice long letters to get out in the mail today: oh yeah, still no mail.

However, there is a positive side, as always. I have no commitments today until tonight, when I get to pick up Dad from the airport. I planned our meals for the next week and the grocery stores are open. I can write my curriculum for this week (and maybe even next if I am really ambitious). We have a MN Zoo membership if for some reason we still have time. I think it will be a good day after all, even with no library and no mail!

Lonely

My parents are both out of town. Mom has been in Africa for a week, and Dad has been in Texas visiting his brother and sister (it was nice to talk to you, Lynne!). I miss them! Dad's coming back tomorrow, so that's not so bad, but Mom will be gone another whole week. For some reason, I had been thinking she was coming back this week too.

I'm pretty spoiled. I usually see my parents two to three times a week, and talk on the phone with one of them at least every other day. I like it that way. The townhouse across the street from them is on sale, and we would buy it in a second if we could afford it.

We haven't seen Isaac's parents lately either, since early January. Isaac has talked to them on the phone, and usually I do too, but I haven't lately.

Isaac's going out of town this next weekend, just from Friday morning to midnight Saturday. Good thing my dad will be back in town! I've already told him he better put me on his calendar for then.

Grandparent Adoration

Ellie and I were having one of those sweet moments where I promised I would always be her mommy, even after she grew up and even after she had a little baby of her own. She chimed in, "And I would take that little baby to sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's house with me on Tuesdays!" Still doesn't quite have the concept of growing up down yet, I guess.

Little House

Ellie is burning through the Little House on the Prairie series like it's going out of style. It probably helps that both Isaac and I prefer to read those books instead of play other things with her (Polly Pockets, anyone?). She's now halfway through her fourth big chapter book.

It's seeping into her play now. Her Polly Pockets had a "parlor" in their house that was only for company, and this morning Ellie had to go out to the barn and stable to milk the cows while she was taking care of her pretend dog. She's been training her stuffed dog and trying to "break it in" like a calf. And this morning, Isaac was giving her a shoulder ride as she directed him with "Gee," "Haw," and "Giddy-up." Oh, and her bathtub doll was wearing a "hoopskirt."

Nice Break

Ellie usually goes to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) with my mom when I teach on Wednesdays. This week, BSF was on a Thursday, so Ellie got to spend an extra night at Grandma and Grandpa's. I used my day of free time very wisely: after I finished teaching, I shopped at Rosedale for a while, took a long afternoon nap, and then went out to eat with Isaac. It was a very nice day.

Today, I slept late, did some errands in the morning, and then met my mom and Ellie at a Turkish restaurant near our house. When we got back to the car, I looked in and saw a rose on my seat! I thought that was a wonderful surprise from my husband, but then I opened the back door to put Ellie in. There were brightly-colored daisies on her seat! Ellie was so tickled that she giggled the whole way home. She got to pick the vase for her very own flowers and take care of them herself. Thanks, Isaac!

Cute Kid Story of the Week

This just in from one of my three-year-old boys: "P is for pinching and pushing. But P is NOT for falling down the stairs."

Good to know.

More Haikus

Some of you have expressed confusion about my romantic haikus. Okay. A haiku is a Japanese poem with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third. The third line traditionally restates the first line in different words. As for some of your problems with "romantic:" I define romantic as going out of the way to do something for your partner, and if romantic makes me laugh, all the better.

Here's a romantic one:
"Making me a king
Wife of noble character
Proverbs 31."
See? Isn't that nice?

Here's my personal favorite (slightly self-serving, but hey, it's my blog):
"Itty bitty wife
Proud of you for working hard
Nice tight running pants."
Awww!

Pictures from Dance

What We Do at Home

We had an interesting discussion about roles today. I was reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder to Ellie (part of the Little House series) and she was really interested in how the horses were Father's job, and not Mother's at all.

To try to help her understand, I asked, "What are Daddy's jobs at our house?" She answered, "Washing the dishes, and making the bed." I added that he also works to earn money for us, then asked, "What are my jobs at home?" Without a pause, she answered, "All the things that Daddy doesn't do." (I'm pretty lucky that Isaac does a TON at home, but it was still a pretty funny answer.)

Tell Me Why

The big spills always happen the day after I sweep the floor. Isaac always needs a haircut the day after I clean the bathroom. I buy "new" used clothes that need to be washed the day after we get all the laundry done. We run out of toilet paper the day after we go to the grocery store. And on and on.

I don't think I should do anything today. I'll do it all tomorrow instead!