The Wearing o' the Green

So St. Patrick's is here again. However, at our house, it has been non-stop Leprechauns since the first of March. Seamus McDermott, our resident Leprechaun, mentioned to us that he might be moving to a new family, unless we could prove our worth. He gave us puzzles and assignments to fill each day and we earned Leprechaun points and colored in pieces of our clover. Lucky for us, we filled the entire thing before March 17th, and he decided that he would be staying with our family for good.

Phew.

Pretty huh?




So last night, we filled up our pot of gold for Seamus (who we really can claim as ours now).



Since we stuck the coins on our foreheads last year it seemed fitting that we do it again, but this time we added a wish.



In the morning, Seamus left some fun stuff for us. The girls all wore their green hair and necklaces throughout the day.



Robyn wore hers to her Spring Program in Pre-school. She did a great job singing all the songs. Here she is singing that song that goes, If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, Oh what a rain it would be...There are in the midst of the Ah ah-a-ah ah-a-ah ah-a-ah part.



She loves school so much, not to mention her teacher Miss Mackenzie.



Ivory loves going for the cookies at the end. She knew right away when we got there how these programs end (funny duck).

Daisy...did wear green until she spit up all over herself (like usual), but I think she was less than impressed by her first St. Patrick's Day.



Just you wait Daisy, you will love the wearing o' the green as much as the rest of us.

Cute Moments:

June asking if every house had a Leprechaun. When I told her "No" she said, "Then our house is special." Yep, it sure is June.

Seamus left two necklaces for each girl; one pink, one green. Ivory told me she was wearing the green one because it wasn't Pink Patrick's Day yet.

No Alligators Please

As a mother, I have been told before not to try and reason with my young children; that they just don't understand. I can't help it though. I have to explain why I am disciplining them, what they did wrong, what they might have done instead. And yes, I know it doesn't all soak in, but don't worry, I am ready to say it all AGAIN if I need to (hundreds of times really).

So I find it very interesting when I figure out exactly how much of what I say makes it through. This morning, I was washing Ivory's hair. Every once in a while she protests at the washing-hair stage, but I usually don't have any problems with her. I do have the lecture of why we wash our hair in the first place, but I know she hasn't heard it for a long time. Nevertheless, this is what I heard today.

I had just finished washing her hair and I was squeezing the water out when she looked at me and said, "We don't want bugs, or spiders, or alligators in our hair. We don't want any bad people in our hair."

She sure thinks a lot can get in there if you don't wash it. I'm not sure if those were my exact words when I gave her the hair-washing talk, but I am definitely going to add in alligators the next time I give it.

It Takes a Special Kind

My name is Maleen and I'm a Wal-mart shopper. I am not thrilled about it, but you can't beat the prices or location for us. One of the reasons I do not like it, manifested this week. I took out the bread a few days after shopping and I could already see huge green patches of mold through the plastic.
I decided to return it right away since it hadn't hit the expiration date. I sent Tyler since I was busy with the kids and this is the conversation he had.


Tyler plops the bread on the counter at Customer Service.

Customer Service Man looks at the bread for a moment and then asks, "What's wrong with it?"

Tyler (thinking that the man must need glasses if he can't see the mold growing on it) says politely, "It's expired."

Customer Service Man: "Let me check."

He then turns the bag over and upon finding the expiration date says, "Nope, it doesn't expire until tomorrow."



Well in that case, let me take that back and make some peanut butter and mold sandwiches.

Do you think that guy still drinks chunky milk if it hasn't passed the expiration date?

Dog-Caching

Many of you have been geocaching before. We discovered this sport last fall and went out several times (not blogged about because Tyler wanted to do it. He never did, so I am filling you all in now).

Naturally over the winter there wasn't much going on, but at the request of our Leprechaun (sorry—that's a different post), we went out today, once again.

This one wasn't too hard to find, although I have to say that I HATE burrs. They are so hard to get out of hair!! Robyn had some on her socks (annoying, but okay) but it wasn't until late in the afternoon that I found five in a nest that used to be Ivory's hair. Poor girl, but she was so patient while I took them out.

Anyway, I digress...

...we found the cache fairly quickly, and we exchanged our treasures (we have had a travel bug all winter and I am very thankful to be rid of it—the guilt was eating away at me). June is very serious about hunting; check out this face.



But her perseverance paid off.



Ivory was a good little looker too, and even Daisy joined in on the fun (much more alert than previous quests—then again, she was only a couple months old then).



Next, I thought we might snap a few pictures at this old wood stand that was in the middle of nowhere. Tyler thinks it was made for shooting clay pigeons (I'll buy that).



We took a few photos,




then loaded back in the car. It was down at Utah Lake, so not a long drive by any means. We arrived back home in record time only to realize we had left the dog behind.

Poor Moxy. Can you imagine how she must have felt watching the van drive away?



We obviously piled back in the car and quickly drove back to the scene of the crime to find her. And there she was standing at the top of the structure. I think she was up there trying to get a better vantage point of where we went. We were all very relieved to see her (yes, even me).

But this was a great time to teach the children a lesson, so we talked about what you do when you get lost. You stay in the same place, so people can find you. Man, I hope I never leave a kid somewhere.

This here picture is proof that I did try to keep track of the dog for a while, with a leash, but Tyler prefers letting her roam free because she is pretty good about staying close by.



Now we just need to train her to get in the car when everyone else does. (This is actually funny to me because when I go pick up Robyn from school, Moxy hates to be left in the kennel, so if I open the car door, she is usually the first inside hoping that I will let her go for the ride. She must have been distracted by the lake and all the new smells.)

Lastly, here are a few picture from our previous caches back in September.



Lastly, lastly...I love this picture, with Ivory's polka dot unders showing. It reminds me that she is indeed fully potty trained (again).

Number Two

Number two is NOT number one.

Number two is NOT second in command.

Number two gets less hours with the parents (I read a whole article on this).

Number two is often a middle child.

Number two gets to do everything SECOND.

Number two doesn't know life without an older sibling.

But...

Number two is NOT loved less.

Sometimes I feel like I spend a LOT of time with June since she is doing and learning new things. And let's be honest, June demands more attention and likes to play games while Robyn is fairly content to play by herself.

Ivory is very attached and will follow me around the house, and of course Daisy needs plenty of attention. And then there is Robyn. She plays well with all her sisters. She follows the dog around and hugs on her. She watches movies and plays on the computer and helps when she is asked. I never forget she is there, but I also know that I can focus on other kids and she will do fine by herself. I worry that I am not being a good mom. I hope she doesn't feel neglected or un-loved.

I was a number TWO Robyn.

So was your Dad.

We understand.

And just so you know...

You are number ONE in my book.

The Pictures of Tyler

I understand there is considerable demand to see my likeness on the web—here on Maleen's blog.

I'm just not sure the world is ready for these photographs yet.

In time the pictures may come, but you'll have to complete a challenge first. I'm not sure what the challenge will be, but it will be good. Stay tuned: the challenge will be forthcoming. And if you pass the challenge, so too will be the photos!

Are you in?

The Oxford Comma

For those of you who don't know what the Oxford comma is, it is only the most exalted and most controversial of all punctuation marks. I know there are some of you who will not like what I'm about to say, but for the good of English, it must be said.

As for the definition of an "Oxford" comma, Wikipedia—as always—puts it best in their entry about the Serial Comma (also known as the Oxford Comma): "the comma used immediately before a grammatical conjunction (nearly always and or or; sometimes nor) that precedes the last item in a list of three or more items. The phrase "Portugal, Spain, and France", for example, is written with the serial comma, while "Portugal, Spain and France", identical in meaning, is written without it."

If you're an MLA style fan or AP style guru, prepare to be offended. I'm a Chicago style junkie—and therefore the correct usage of the comma is indeed the Oxford comma. So in all those lists you write, don't just write "and ..." write ", and ..."

And now to the question of why am I blogging about this? Well, Maleen started her last blog entry with a non-Oxford comma construction. (Yes, you can scroll down and go find it.) Ok, welcome back! I was going to fix it, but she told me she wanted to see if I would catch it. Ha! As if?

Ok, that's all. And now, go forth into the world and use properly the Oxford Comma. And if anybody tells you differently, send 'em my way: I got some-in to say to 'em!