Springing

This has been the longest winter EVER. I know I say that every year, but I'm sitting at the end of another long week with temperatures in the 40s & 50s and gray skies every day, and I'm beginning to wonder if spring will ever get here. Maybe we'll be skipping spring this year and moving right on into summer, which I hate but if it means I can park my Uggs in the closet for 5 months then I'm in. I've even created a new verb for my spring fever, "springing", which is the act of spending endless amounts of time pouring over the internet and magazines looking at brightly colored lawn furniture, margarita recipes, and garden designs. For instance, if our city ordinances would allow it, I would order one of these:

That's right. It's a little egg shaped chicken coop where I could cultivate my own little flock for fresh eggs. These are not the thoughts of someone who is getting enough Vitamin D in her life. 

The Curious Case of Batey the Fish

A few weeks ago Rob made a horrible discovery in Casey's room at bedtime. The boys' beloved fish, Batey, was dead. Batey was the class fish at Connor's preschool last year, and at the end of the year he won Batey in a drawing. So as far as beta fish go, Batey had a pretty good run there. I knew immediately that I did not want the boys to know that Batey had headed off to the big aquarium in the sky, and so I told Rob I would hit the pet store and find an identical fish to replace Batey. The boys took Ani's death really hard, and I just couldn't stomach having that talk again. You might not think the death of a fish would be a big deal, but they are VERY attached to this fish. So I figured I'd just slip a replacement in there without anyone noticing and we'd be all good. Right? Right - as long as the fish I chose was very close in appearance to Batey. I guess I never really studied the original fish all that closely, because the replacement fish is about twice as big as Batey I, and almost a completely different color. After checking out Batey II Rob asked if I even looked at the fish before I bought it. "It looks just like him, right?" I replied. "No," Rob said between laughs, "Not even close." Oh well I concluded, the kids will never notice. Um, yes, yes they will notice. Casey came running in to my room the morning after I made the switch, "Mom! Mom! Come look at Batey! He's GROWN! LIKE ALOT!!!" Both boys were amazed at how the fish had doubled in size overnight. "How did that happen?" they asked. "Well," I explained, "you know how you have grown from last year to this year? It's the same for Batey. He's just growing up." Thank God they totally bought it. Of course now there is some concern that he will outgrow his tank and then we'll have to keep him in the bathtub, but I told them we'd cross that river if it happens.

We're still working hard on potty training Riley, and part of convincing her that she is a "big girl" who needs to use the potty instead of diapers is allowing her to pick out her clothes and dress herself. Which is great, except the results are often like this:

This morning's outfit consisted of brown tights, two bathing suits, a long sleeve t-shirt, and Elmo slippers. Fetching, eh? It reminded me of this. The irony of this photo is that she's standing there watching Elmo's Potty Time video and moments later she pooped her pants. But she looked good doing it, right?