New car

It was time for Stolls to turn in their Mazda 5. We loved that car, and before the winter blast had talked about buying it. The 5 handled poorly in the snow. We decided we LOVED the Mazda, and the folks over at Open Road Mazda took great care of us, and so we've now a Mazda CX9. It has the 3rd row of seats like the 5, but is a bit more SUV than crossover with all wheel drive.

So we're excited! Yay, new car!

Argh!

Lindsay is a wonderful, brilliant, funny little person.

Having said that, smart kids are freaking frustrating. They always think they're smarter than I am.

Lindsay cannot be convinced of ANYTHING. Reasoning? Cajoling? Meh. The only thing that works with any regularity is bribing, and that is of course, turning her into an entitled little monster.

Today, she refused to get out of the car at drop off. When that happens, the aide will say, "Sorry, you have to pull up." As soon as I did, Lindsay happily got out of the car without an argument. Why? I have no idea.

Snow Day

Bundled up. Lindsay commented, "I look like the Home Depot."

Merry Christmas

No disrespect

"What was your favorite part of your day," I asked.

"We made dream catchers. That was cool!" Lauren replied.

"Oh? You made dream catchers in Art?"

"No. We made them in Social Studies."

"In Social Studies?"

"Yeah, we're studying Native Americans."

"In Social Studies?" I repeated.

"Hey! Native Americans have beliefs too." She said fiercely.

"Wow. Yes, I know."

So cynical

I don't know if it started when she turned 8, or when she began 3rd grade, or even if it was earlier then that and started when her baby teeth started falling away to be replaced by too-big-for-her-mouth yet adult teeth. But Lauren somehow became a big kid. Unfortunately the characteristics of big kid seem to be endless irritation at the stupidity of one's own parents, expressed mostly in long sighs and eye rolls. And letting your little sister know that everything she likes is deeply uncool. Dora? Uncool. High School Musical? Very uncool.

She let me know that yesterday they had a "real lockdown". For my dad out there who remembers nuclear war drills (I think he called them "hide under your desk and kiss your ass goodbye drills"), lockdown drills are pretty similar. According to Lauren, the teacher turns off the lights and everyone has to hide silently out of sight from the door in case a gunman is running around the building. If you make noise, you could get shot. They do these drills somewhere between once a month and once every two weeks. (It's district wide. Lindsay's school also does lockdown drills, but mercifully, Lindsay doesn't see this as "someone is trying to kill me" in the way Lauren does). During yesterday's drill - I have to assume it was a drill because the Honeywell system didn't call/text/email anything about an incident - apparently a couple of the boys in Lauren's class thought that groping other people would be a good way to spend the time. Lauren was neither a groper or a gropee (it sounded like the boys were mostly grabbing each other), but she was pretty upset by the incident. She said that her teacher sent the boys to the principal, and that their parents were going to be notified, and that they were put as a class back on a daily status system. Basically, they get 5 points at the beginning of the school day, and can lose points for bad behavior. If, for example, a kid is out of points by lunch, he's not going out to recess. Lauren said, "We haven't been treated like that since first grade" and was clearly irritated. She's always chafed at group discipline.

I'm not really surprised by any of this. I know this stuff probably goes on at the private school nearby that's $25k/year. It's still really frustrating.

Conversations with Lindsay

"Mommy, did you go to Pre-K?"

"No. They didn't have Pre-K when Mommy went to school. Mommy started school in Kindergarten."

"Ohh."

"Did Daddy go to Pre-K?"

"I don't think so, honey. There wasn't Pre-K then."

"Who were Daddy's parents."

"Oh, you know the answer to that."

"Oh yes. Poppy and Tutu." She began to sing:

Poppy and Tutu

Up in a tree

K-r-s-n-i-n-g

First comes love

Then comes marriage

Then comes daddy in the baby carriage

Sucking his thumb, peein' in a diaper

Then he drinks the al-co-hol.

Seriously. I have no idea.

Christmas Pageant

By any other name

Lindsay has been insisting this week that we call her Samantha. We've obliged, mostly because we figure at some point, she will get tired of it.

Unfortunately, part of this obsession included disposing of all the Christmas ornaments that we've collected over the years that had "Lindsay" printed on them. This probably wouldn't have been a big deal had she not done it on a Thursday evening, before we'd bundled all our trash, curbed it, and had it carted away by the sanitation department.

Shortly after this picture was taken, our daughter formerly known as Lindsay began crying because she realized she would never have her ornaments again. She was instantly cheered by the ice cream that came after this.

I'm still bummed. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find ornaments that aren't "Lynn" or "Lindsey". Grr.

Now, with pictures!

This is the trivet I knitted. Isn't it pretty? I based this on a pattern for a dish towel.And this is something Lauren left in the downstairs bathroom. What does it say?

Dear Dad,

I love you. Put

the nobe on

the broar!!

What the heck?

ETA: I just realized that the note says "Put the knob on the drawer." 6/8/11

Happy Hanukkah!

Hey, I'm here, and I don't have to be. Nomoblopomo...

It's actually NOT even Hanukkah yet. I went out this morning and bought gelt for the girlies. Okay, I bought more than that. I did manage to put back the Star-of-David-and-Dreidel lights though. No lie. There is such a thing, and they were briefly in my cart. They just weren't really $15 of awesome.

Lindsay and I will be making latkes tonight. When Alec gets home, we will light our menorah, which we've had since we lived in Boston. It's a beautiful one, but it had very skinny candles that one can't buy anywhere, so we have to melt the bottoms of the store bought ones to make them fit. Also, and I write this because I didn't realize that you have to let all the candles die out on their own, so it will be something of a fire hazard Chez Stoll for the next eight nights.

You've been warned.

I did it!

Hey, I did it! Thirty posts in 30 days. Some of it was dialed in, but screw perfection. I used to dedicate this post to navel gazing about the things I've learned this month, so here goes:

• Soccer season ended.
• Lauren made a travel soccer team!
• I learned how to knit.
• Lindsay declared that trips to the library when you're not allowed to check out books is pointless, that HER husband would mop, and that David better watch out.
• Lauren lost 3 teeth - two of them on Thanksgiving.
• I voted.

I think those were the highlights. No big revelations this month. Besides posting 30 times, I volunteered at the thrift shop, helped with the Thanksgiving food drives at the girls' schools, picked up shoes 64 times, and did 25 loads of laundry. Go me.

According to Lindsay

"Can I help you mop?"

"No, honey, I only have one mop."

"When I grow up, I am going to have two mops. One for me, and one for the daddy."

"Or, so you're going to make your husband mop?"

"Yeah. He is gonna help me with that."

Christmas Tree

I will post a picture of my tree when my girls stop rearranging all of the ornaments. Odd. I don't remember my brother and I being quite so particular about the placement of the decorations. But then, we put tinsel on the tree in those days. It was plenty of work just to get the tinsel off your footed bunny pajamas.

Last night, we made turkey pot pie turnovers. Oh my, they were good. We finished up the pumpkin pie and watched "The Wizard of Oz". It took a lot of explaining about why there were "grey people". I'd guessed my grandparents were about Lauren's age when the movie was originally released. It's amazing with all the digital enhancement now that movie still stands up really well - the costumes are really incredible.

Enjoy your last day of Thanksgiving weekend!

Happiness is...

...when girlies are up early playing Barbies together instead of watching television.

...my home group on Saturday mornings.

...leftover turkey for lunch.

...putting up the Christmas tree.

Hopefully NOT a Thanksgiving Tradition

We had a great turkey dinner last night complete with sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, mashed potatoes, Brussel sprouts and pancetta, and finished with a pumpkin pie. We played a little RockBand before our friends turned to pumpkins (they had to be on the ice at some ungodly hour). After they left, I sat at my desk with my knitting, and Alec played some BioShock - to regroup later to watch Battlestar Galactica.

About 10 minutes in, Lauren came down stairs. "Mom, my tooth is too loose and it hurts. Will you take it out, please?"

My dad may remember that we had as many of these conversations as I had teeth. I absolutely HATED having wiggly teeth in my mouth. He often obliged - as I recall, he'd say something funny, and then pull the tooth, hard and quick. I've since mastered the technique myself.

I said, "Let me give it a little wiggle." I gave the tooth a hard push with my thumb, and out it came.

"Yay!" Lauren shouted, running over to Alec, her mouth full of blood, "I lost my tooth!"

I gave Lauren a glass of water for rinsing, and a damp paper towel for blotting. Tooth in hand, she headed upstairs.

About 20 minutes later, she came bounding down the stairs. At this point, I was reloading our dishwasher (dinner parties are fun, but they usually require at least 2 rounds from our slow machine). She came into the kitchen, her mouth full of blood, and announced, "I lost another tooth!"

"What? Open your mouth."

Sure enough, the tooth I'd pulled out had neatly clotted, and it was, in fact, the tooth above it that was now missing. I handed her another glass of water for rinsing, and a new damp paper towel for blotting.

"Um, are we done with the teeth tonight?" I asked nervously, mentally reviewing that there were only $7 in my wallet.

"Don't worry, Mom," Lauren said. "I don't have any more wiggly teeth."

Thanksgiving

I am learning that being thankful is an attitude I have the great privilege of practicing daily. There are some great women I have in my life that share with me the things they are grateful for everyday. It is a practice that frames my thoughts for that day, and changes me, I believe, a little bit at a time.

I am so grateful for the life I have - my husband and my beautiful girls. My family, far and near. My friends who let me vent and make me laugh.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Out of touch

"So, basically, Rachel said if I didn't like the Eagles, I couldn't be her friend."

"The Eagles? You mean, the band?"

Lauren's eyes rolled. "Duh, mom." She snorted. "The football team?"

Silly mommy. You'd better have written down all the lyrics to Hotel California, or we're through! "Oh. The Philadelphia Eagles." I replied. "So what'd you say?"

"I told her I thought the Eagles were great. They have some great pitchers." Mischief sparkled in her eyes.

"But you just said you were talking about a football team..."

"Duh..."

Everybody loves clam chowder

Things accomplished

Food drive haul, sorted and packed in boxes for families in our school.

Turkey, in fridge.

No grocery shopping for me! Yay.