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Brian wore the red cowboy hat. Marie wore the Dora cowboy boots, a pink tutu, her princess earrings, and a life preserver. Add a pillow for a boat, two spoons for oars, a nice wood floor and a willing mom to pull you, and you have an authentic “rower lady”. Then Brian got a try with the life preserver and Marie morphed into a farmer princess. We fed her animals, put them to bed, and then Marie and Brian cleaned up and went to bed!

This is what Marie wanted for a snack this afternoon.

She settled for pickles and pretzel goldfish.

We watched Finding Nemo today! I skipped through the scary parts. That is: the beginning where a shark eats Nemo’s mom and all the other eggs except him, the part where Dory and Marlin encounter the sharks, and the angler fish part. Both kids loved it. They got a kick out of the turtles and laughed out loud when the whale blew the fish out of his blowhole. Brian keeps saying “Meemo Bish!”

Marie likes to pray before bed nowadays. We usually say thanks for the things that happened and relate any issues that are still on her mind. Tonight she wanted to say thanks for people who help others and make them feel better, and kids and mommies who feed babies and take out their splinters.

Marie loves to draw. She just drew a picture of Bob and Larry (from Veggie Tales), well actually Larry’s dad and Larry’s sister and Bob. Bob is about to fall in the lake but Larry’s sister is catching him and it’s raining on Bob and Larry’s dad. The sun is in the sky with a hole punched in it for the rain to come out. She taped it to the wall for decoration.

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight. Brian asked for ketchup and dunked his noodles in it, instead of eating the sauce. Oh, that is so wrong!!!!! My Italian neighbors of my German grandma are cringing in their graves!

I just spent $10 on a pair of socks.
(they are really beautiful socks – ruffles with beaded flowers – they’ll look great with her flower girl dress)

It’s not that I don’t like talking to my daughter. She is bright and funny, charming, interesting, and compassionate. I love that her mind is busy working and learning about the world and she always wants to know more. Sometimes, though, I avoid starting a conversation with her because I know where we will end up – “Why?” But why is the dog with black spots called a dalmation? Why is it called spaghetti? Why do some people don’t use their turn signals? Why was it Brian’s tub when he was a baby? I can’t just say “because” to everything because that would be rude. Sometimes I end the conversation by starting blankly off into space. She thinks I’m ignoring her but actually my brain has completely shut down from wear and tear and I’ll be back after it reboots.

Marie is almost 4. She has been sleeping with a pacifier (binky) since… well basically since she got home from the hospital. When she turned 3, we thought we had her convinced that she had to give it up, but us softies couldn’t stand the whining about it, and so we gave it back to her.

When she turned 3 1/2, we started whittling off the end of the binky, hoping that the growing hole and shortening chewy part would make her lose interest. She didn’t.

About a month ago, we introduced the concept of the binky fairy. A big girl leaves her binky on the windowsill (so the binky fairy can see it when she flies by in the middle of the night). When the binky fairy comes, she takes the binky and gives it to a new baby (hopefully after some reconditioning) and leaves “a present”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LWQZ1K behind.

Last night, the binky fairy came. What a relief. Fortunately, Brian has never been interested in a binky.

Not making this up.

bq. Dear God,
Thanks for giving us food that we like and not food that we don’t like – like squash and… aaaples, and germs… and bugs. Thanks for only giving us good food. Amen.