Tuesday, May 31, 2011

THIEF!

See this cute little face?
Well she's a rascal. A scoundrel. And a ruffian. Today she methodically took all the tupperware off the shelf and then took all of the coke cans out of the box and had herself a little party. You know, what we all do for fun.

She was on a mission that made total sense in her mind. A clarion call, if you will. It consisted of putting all the tuperware in the box and ripping off pieces of that box.

And then stacking all the cans inside the leftover tupperware. Genius.


It was a brilliant plan until mom came in and ruined the party. She has been really good about drinking from a sippy cup lately. She'll throw her head all the way back and chug as much as she can until she begins to water board herself. She started doing this with all the coke cans thinking she could drink some of that sweet nectar. But she was foiled! Unfortunately we haven't taught her how to open a can yet. Maybe next month. Anyway, I had to intervene because she was throwing her head back with such abandon that she started dropping the cans. So I stopped her once she was thisclose to dropping them on her face.

Needless to say she was disappointed. I was only disappointed that I couldn't manage to get a picture of her "chugging" Diet Coke.

Maybe we'll both win tomorrow.

(The shirt she is wearing is a hand-me-down that I stole from my mom. My older brother wore it about 1979. I love it.)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

AMERICAN IDOL FINALIST OR ENGAGED?

Let's play a little game.

Which of the following is a picture of American Idol finalists and which is a picture of an engaged couple?

OPTION A

OPTION B

If you said option A then I think I'm about to win a record deal because Brad refuses to sing in public. I'm sorry but these kids are on AMERICAN IDOL and the best their fancy photographer could come up with is the quintessential engagement pose? It was cliche when we did it 4 years ago but it was the best of the bunch AND we were actually engaged. There are about six million other ways to pose with two people where it doesn't look like you are engaged. Siblings and friends make it happen all the time. It can't be that hard.

Anyway. Now that I got that out in the open what I really wanted to say is the best part about the American Idol finale is that it means it's over and So Can Dance can start! Hooray! And for the first time in two seasons I'm not pregnant nor do I have a newborn. Double Hooray! So I'm bringing back the nicknames and recaps! Although I probably won't review the tryouts unless there is something super exciting to say. I hope all two of you who care are enthused. I know there are a lot of good dances from last season but for some reason this is the one that always sticks out in my mind. Probably because I love the song so much. (Sorry I couldn't find one to embed so you'll just have to click on the link.)

Friday, May 20, 2011

TOUR OF ALTON: ROBERT WADLOW

As our countdown of time left in Alton begins I want to start a regular posting where I feature all the quirky things about Alton. I might do this weekly or monthly or not again. You never know! But you can't start talking about Alton without mentioning their "gentle giant." In fact I can't believe we've lived here for three years and this is my first post on him.


Just down the street from our house is a statue of Alton's most famous celebrity, Robert Wadlow. He is the tallest man in history for which there is irrefutable evidence and this statue is an accurate life size replica. 8 feet, 11.1 inches. Brad and I have this joke that at any given time there is ALWAYS someone at Robert Wadlow. Never more than four or five people, mind you, but an endless stream at all times. Finley and I pass it everyday on our walk and we are rarely alone. Rain or shine he always has company.

Here is a list of questions I have for Mr. Wadlow:
- How do you use public restrooms?
- Do you have to sit down to shower?
- Do you get sick of people asking you your height?
- Are you extra conscientious of a clean nose?
- Have you ever played basketball with a group of average sized people for fun?

Alton does love this claim to fame and I have to say that it's on my list of quirky things I may miss when we move.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

ELEVEN MONTHS


Our little Stinky Cheese has turned 11 months. And since I'm a little late on this post she's only a few weeks away from her first birthday. As I'm creating this post Finley is eating a snack on her own while watching The Care Bears Movie. What?! When did she become so self sufficient? I'm feeling so unneeded! Actually I'm enjoying this last bit of time before she can walk because pretty soon she'll be running away from me and refusing to wear the clothes I've picked out for her. Oh the drama. Indeed there will be drama. She has already mastered the fake laugh and the fake cry. Which she employs all day long intermittently.

These days she's a standing machine! With and without support. Everyday she gets more brave and tries new things. This morning she stood up in the middle of the room and started clapping because that's what we do when she stands up. She was so proud! She hasn't made any attempts at walking but that's fine with me. Once she starts to walk I feel like I'll be forced to call her a toddler instead of a baby. Let's not talk about it - I'm already emotional over the fact that I have to start putting away the "baby" toys because she hasn't played with them in months. I read this book recently that made fun of people who seemed so surprised by the fact that their children grow. As if we weren't forewarned or something. The real surprise would be if they didn't grow. Still, the growing just hits you in the face sometimes. Like when I used to think that it would be forever before she would need to wear shoes. Or when she eats an entire Ritz cracker without killing herself and I realize she's not three months old anymore. Sometimes those mom glasses are blinding.








PS - As you can see the hair situation is, well, not really happening yet. But we are ever hopeful. It's growing, just slowly. She doesn't tolerate anything on her head so we are bow and flower free right now and have decided to embrace the large bald noggin. Eh, what can you do.

Friday, May 13, 2011

THE BRADY BUNCH WEEK (MINUS MR. BRADY)

Last week I babysat for my brother and sister-in-law while they were off on their grande European adventure. So I soloed it with Finley plus their five kids. Yes, you read that correctly. I was a single mother of SIX kids - three boys, three girls - all under the age of ten for an entire week. Did I mention I was by myself? Luckily Charlie and Brook have good schedules in place for their kids and I got there with enough time to learn how and when everything happens. So when you insert Fun Aunt Bridget (I'm calling myself that in hopes that it catches on) everything pretty much went along with their normal routine. Except I let them stay up late and eat a ton of junk food. And also, I think Sam (almost three) got sick of me after the first 45 minutes.

I also happened to be there on my first Mother's Day so they had a babysitter come one day and I took off for an hour long massage. It was a fantastic surprise and a lovely break from the little kiddos. Plus I told Brad that he still owes me for Mother's Day - so we just delayed it a week. He totally thought I was gonna let him off easy. Yeah right.

Anyway, I tried to take pictures among all the chaos but I didn't get as many as I thought. But here are favorites which give a long pictorial summary of the week:

Things Fun Aunt Bridget let them get away with:
- Not practicing their piano the full amount of time
- Introducing them to "cheesy popcorn" (aka white cheddar popcorn) and letting them eat it on their parent's bed while we watch a movie way past their bedtime
- Letting them have a treat whenever they asked, which was often
- Allowing Ethan to wear his pajamas all Saturday
- Eating cold pizza and popcorn for lunch after church
- Laughing after Morgan ate several spoonfuls of sour cream straight from the tub (don't worry after the shock wore off I told her it was unsanitary and clogging her arteries and made her stop, I still have standards)
- Brought Morgan home from school halfway through one day because of an ambiguously itchy rash and a case of head lice that she swears she's had "since 2007," I'm telling you that girl is going to be a comedian
- Let Sam drink as much chocolate milk as he liked, even right at bedtime, and also only fruit snacks and crackers for the first two days I was there


This picture was taken about thirty minutes after Brook and Charlie left. There I was in the kitchen and my little entourage came in and just stared at me with the expression, "What now lady?" And I honestly had no idea.

We made several trips to the local park so the kids could get out of the house - I found out too late that letting them play in the volleyball pit results in an extremely sandy van. It got so bad I had to vacuum it out before Brook and Charlie got home.


Abby is the quintessential oldest daughter - and she was such a huge huge help. Honestly I couldn't have done it without her. One night I let her stay up and watch a movie with me until after midnight and it was so much fun. It made me excited for Finley to get older so we can talk about American Idol (is there any chance it was still be on in 9 years?) and watch movies.

I was making sandwiches for a picnic one afternoon and found twist-ties baked into the bread. Not smashed-in or stuck-to. Literally baked inside about six different pieces. I ended up throwing the entire loaf away lest I injured one of their kids. I'm not sure why the twist ties are with the bread during the baking process at the plant but this may be a mechanical error that Home Pride should figure out.

This is the only picture I got all week of the five kids together - they do love those computer games. Left to Right: Sam, Ethan (in orange), Logan, Abby, Morgan.

I still took some time to get close-ups of Finley. I'm sorry, it's what I do. I just love a good close-up.

I left Sam watching Max and Ruby while I put Finley down for a nap one day and came back in the room to find him shirtless. No particular reason, he just felt that eating pretzels was a shirtless situation.

Here are the two babies. They are two months apart and were pretty much at war the entire time. Except on Sunday when another woman at church held Logan and they reached their arms out and "talked" back and forth - it was adorable. Other than that hour of cuteness they were constantly taunting, pushing, and smacking each other. Logan is used to standing up for himself but Finley had to learn pretty quick and she did. They were often found vying for the same toy. In this picture I was getting them ready for a bath and they both wanted to play with the hot water nob. It looks all cute, like they might be playing nice, but they were actually screaming at each other to move over. But just look at those cute little diaper bums!



It definitely had it's moments of craziness (like the first 5 minutes of church where the three littlest kids decided to start crying within seconds of each other - don't they know I'm only one human person?!) but overall I had a good time and felt several moments where everything went smoothly and I felt a surge of Wonder Womanesque pride. I'm not ready for six kids - but as my mom said there's a reason that nature doesn't allow most woman to get that many all at once.