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The List and Other Randoms

This morning I woke up with the list of ‘things-that-need-to-get-done-holy-hell-school-starts-tomorrow” spinning in my head. I’ve had kids floating in and out of my class – moving to PM Kindergarten or full day and so I haven’t even written their name tags yet. Worry not, that task is on The List. I intentionally left my notebook, which is keeper of The List, at school over the weekend because I wanted to really enjoy this Labor Day weekend with not too many distractions and school pressures. Translation: I sent myself e-mails about what needs to get added to The List.

Yesterday we squeezed every, single ounce of the day out and by the time our heads hit the pillow, we were satisfied with our weekend. Friday, when we had our ultrasound,  seems so long ago and the things we did in between then and now aren’t really important, but boy did we enjoy the weekend. After we left the ultrasound, Barry and I set out on a mission to find a perfectly round pink balloon. We were successful in finding the balloon; however, it wasn’t until we got out to the parking lot that we realized that perhaps the balloon wouldn’t fit in our car. It was that large. We did some maneuvering and got it to work and next time I have a need for a balloon, I plan on getting another rad huge one. The instant we walked through the door with the massive thing, Maggie was enamored. It didn’t take much convincing to get her to ‘take the balloon to get some pictures taken.’

And that was the start of our weekend. We went to Bellingham to visit Barry’s family on Saturday and Maggie got to spend some time playing with Greg and Linda. I slipped up to Bellingham to run some errands and by the time I got back, they were still having a great time. It doesn’t matter where we go, Maggie always remember who has what toys at their house. I suppose we’re all that way as kids, I can clearly remember toys that both sets of my grandparents kept for the grandkids. She just seems so young to be remembering!

I wish I was better at writing down more of Maggie’s day-to-day anecdotes (maybe I should add that task to The List?) because she has become so dang funny. Like the other day when I was changing over our duvet cover in our bedroom, a long process, and suddenly I heard fake snoring coming from the corner where she was playing. I looked over to see her curled up inside a pillow case with her head sticking out making sleeping face.  Then she’d pop up and yell “Good Morning!” and instantly fall back in to sleeping face/snoring/ball curled inside pillow case. She then insisted on finding a rubber band “I need rubber band right here. I need it now” and tying the pillow case closed around her waist like a potato sack. She kept the pillow case on to hop to her table and eat a snack and for quite a bit of time afterwards.

She’s also trying to figure out who her friends are and anytime we mention some of the little people she knows, she says “they my friends, mama.” She also is figuring out that mama and papa have friends too. We’re working on helping her distinguish between family and friends because as we were pulling out of my grandparent’s driveway the other day, waving to them, Maggie informed us that ‘them my friends.’ She’s right that my grandparents are her friends, but they’re also her family.

 [Other side note, the other morning Barry dropped me off at the Farmers Market and waited in the car with Mags and Syd. I guess while they were waiting for me, Maggie started to ask “Where’s Janet? Where is she? Where’s Janet? Where is Grammy” Barry tried to explain to her that Janet/Grandma was at her house. I wish I could have heard her ask for my mom by first name. So funny.]

But trying to figure out  the friends & family concept is a tough one, because what happens when you have friends that really are like family? How do you explain that? We’re not going down that road quite yet….instead we’ll settle for pillowcase wearing

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Good Planning Vs. Bad Planning

I’m officially deciding that for me to complete the 30 Day Photography Challenge, it doesn’t matter that I actually take the photo on that exact day. It’ll just work better for me that way. Plus, I don’t feel as much pressure…who needs pressure with something that is supposed to be fun anyhow, right?  I had grand plans today to photograph the Seattle Space Needle, but we had a mishap (mishap = puke) and I totally forgot about it. So I used an old (old = two days) image.

This post is kind of all over the place, but most of the images are from our trip to T-Town to visit Brian, Darcy & Dexter. The last time we were there it was summertime and we let Mags run in the water park practically nudie. This time we were all wearing our sweaters, but February was playing games with us and let us sit outside on their deck for majority of the afternoon.

I’ve really missed having some family photos taken of us lately and was hoping that I could use Darcy’s eye to capture a few, but Maggie had other plans. She was more interested in the ducks and dogs than posing with a cute smile. I had to let it go, which I find challenging at times.

There are few things in life that I love more than a good plan, so I struggle sometimes when something I’ve got on my mind doesn’t go my way. I sometimes see this come through in Maggie’s personality and I feel sorry for Barry – that he has to live with double planners. (double planners = bossy people)

Darcy did grab my camera and snapped a couple shots…none of which are great, but depict the situation pretty well. I was intent on trying to get Mags to take a photo on a stone bench, Barry was minding Syd and trying to convince me to forget about it, and Maggie was practically jumping into the duck pond. So it goes sometimes.

The rest of the evening was splendid. (splendid = running out of diapers and sipping on wine) The men had to make a heroic trip to the corner store to pick up some diapers after we discovered that Maggie really used the last diaper that we’d brought.  Bad planning on my part, I suppose.  Ironic for the girl that loves a good plan, right?