You are what you eat

"It's a Vegan option." I say.

"Vegan?"

"Vegans don't eat animals or animal byproducts like dairy."

"Oh." Lindsay considers this. "You're planning to not eat meat any more?"

"No. I am not planning that. I am actually currently eating a steak."

"Ah. I would not like it if you stopped eating meat."

"Why would you care if I ate it or not? You can eat it even if I don't."

"A mom that doesn't eat bacon is a bad idea." She replies.

Shortly after dinner, I stop at a friend's house to take care of her cats, and call Alec's phone to find out what kind of ice cream I should bring home. Alec is gaming, so Lindsay answers, "Hi Mom."

"What flavor?"

"What are you getting?"

"Banana."

"Are you being Vegan?"

"You just saw me eat a steak, like an hour ago."

"I was making sure. I will have banana also."

Puff the Magic Dragon

"Puff the Magic Dragon is a song about a dragon who loves a little boy. But little boys grow into men, and grown men don't believe in dragons so they can't be friends any more. This makes Puff very sad, because dragons live forever and he's going to spend a long time missing his friend. But his friend brings his little boy, who will be his new friend. So see, it actually turns out OK."

Conversations you never thought you'd have to have with your seven year old daughter

There's a spa in town that has a big sign on the front window. They list their prices and services, and that they have organic products for sale. The big sign suggests that after you have your bikini wax, you might want to vagazzle.

Yes. Really. Vagazzle.

We are walking to the sushi place for dinner. It's just the three of us, since Lauren is away.

Lindsay inquires, naturally, "What's vagazzle?"

Alec clucks and says nothing. I stiffle a giggle, and take a deep breath. "They glue sparkly gems on your private parts."

Lindsay makes a face. "Why would you pay someone for that?"

"That's a good question, Linner," Alec says, "Why would you pay for that, Mommy?"

"I wouldn't pay for it. It sounds uncomfortable."

"Daddy, can you get vagazzled?"

"No, Linner. I don't have a vag."

"Oh, do they call it a penazzle?"

Alec and I both start laughing. We can't stop. Finally, I say, "This is probably the most awkward and inappropriate conversation ever."

Lindsay says, "Seriously, I don't know why you would pay for that."

A time to every purpose under heaven

Early morning. The earliest we've done in a while. Lauren is dressed, but mostly sleeping. She sits on my rocking chair as I pull on clothes.

"Chelsea came to talk to me," she says.

Chelsea is the cat, since passed just before Memorial Day weekend.

"Okay," I say. It's time to listen.

"She said that it hurt to die."

My heart breaks a little bit."I'm sorry to hear that."

"She knew that it would hurt to die."

"It hurt for Chelsea to live with the tumors growing in her face and eye. Did she say that where she is now she is happy?"

"Yes. She understands now."

"And did she say she loves you?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad you got to talk with your cat."

"Me too, Mama."

Halloween 2011

It's NaBloPoMo! And I'm in despite being powerless. Halloween was fun, see? We trick or treated for 2 hours. Awesomesauce.

Posing vampires?

My costume: I was lunch. Ouch.

My friend Kim called this her "Vampire Bunny" pose

Nom nom nom

High drama, like always.

Lauren is nine

Saturday was Lauren's birthday...and she turned 9. I have no idea how that happened so fast.

Lauren opened her present from Alec and I, which was tickets for Saturday's matinee to see Wicked in New York City. She was SO excited. We scored awesome tickets, and they had a fabulous time. it was her first Broadway experience.

Lauren opening her presents from her sis.

Tutu (Alec's mom) sent Lauren her very own iPod shuffle, in her favorite color - green! Alec and I opened it so that it was already loaded with some of her favorite music, and the soundtrack for Wicked.

Wow, look at ALL those presents!

Lauren got Field Notes from our friend Mark who shares her birthday. Alec contemplates snagging one of them.

Reading a card.

An angel necklace from Grampie Fisher. She hasn't taken it off.

A pretty good haul.

We went out for a sushi dinner - Lauren's favorite...and finished our day with ice cream cake. Lauren declared it was the best birthday yet.

My girls are so big

September 2011

September 2009

May 2007

First Day of School

Lauren dressed for the third time for the first day of school. Little did I know the changing clothes thing would start in 4th Grade. She finally settled on this classy top from GG, her comfy yoga pants, and the All Stars that Alec and I bought her.

Lindsay, ready for kindergarten. Wearing the first day of school dress that Tutu bought for her. She added the charm, which came on a scented candle. Fancy.

Oh, so much cuteness.

Lindsay found her seat, which was at a table with plates and teddy bears. She was feeling a little shy. Her teacher announced that their first class on Wednesdays is Art, so we said our goodbyes and they lined up for Art.

But as we got into the hallway, the fire alarm sounded. We exited the school, and lined up on the sidewalk quietly. Ironically, on the way to school, Lindsay had asked if I thought there would be a fire drill on the first day. I said I didn't think so. While we were in line, I whispered, "You were right!" As it turned out, there was a malfunction in the sprinkler system, so the fire department had to come and override the system error so that the kids could return to class. We stood outside for about 20 minutes, and Lindsay made friends with Claire, who had the umbrella. Her other friends names are Lucy and Katie.

Lindsay's class heard a story called "The Kissing Hand", which is a great tale about a raccoon and his mama on the first day of school. Lindsay brought home her writing assignment. She said, "Oops, I got mixed up."

We had gymnastics at the end of the day on Wednesday, which is always fun. Lindsay was pretty tired, but she did get a stamp, and she made a new friend.

Vacation in Scenic Schenectady NY

There isn't a whole lot to do in Schenectady, I'll assure you. But we had a hotel with a very nice indoor pool, and we were the only ones in it the whole time we were there. I'm raising a couple of water rats, so, it was a good time indeed.It was nice and warm in the pool, but the atrium was air conditioned, so it was a little chilly getting out. I hung out in one of the lawn chairs.
Yeah, I am wearing a dress and pants. Did I mention the air conditioning?
Oddly, the hotel restaurant was not open for lunch, so we had to head elsewhere. Lauren helped by navigating using my iPhone's map. We made it to Friendly's.
We write each other fortunes on the paper wrapping for the silverware. Mine read "I love you more than ice cream. Oh, and thanks."

Lindsay, modeling a dress I'd fashioned from a hotel towel.

The first day were in Schenectady, we had lunch at the movie theater and saw Zookeeper, which was surprisingly funny, and not too raunchy. On the walk home, we noticed that there was a Museum with a planetarium across the street from the hotel. On Thursday, we headed to check it out - the museum included displays about electricity (GE has a big plant there) and information about the history of Schenectady, which was a bit of a yawner in my opinion, but I was excited for the planetarium. We had a planetarium in the town I grew up, and I remember our times there fondly. Besides, it's cool and dark, and it was not quite as hella hot as it is in Jersey, but it was about 90 degrees. Disappointingly, the projector wasn't working right, so there was only about a third of the sky lit, and during the slide presentation, most of the constellations they were referring to were in the other two-thirds of the sky (of course). The girls thought it was cool anyway.

Not as cool as the pool, though.

Diving board

There's my little swimmer! Go Lindsay!
About to dive in...
Taking the plunge!
Very proud of herself.

My cold loves

Pictures at the Park

Rinsing our feet off in the Raritan River.
I am just as tall as Lauren!!

Throwing rocks. There were plenty of them.
When I'm not "looking" they're holding hands.
Pretty summer day.

Me and my littlest billy goat

This week, Chez Stoll

It was Alec's birthday, and we took a (very short!) trip to TD Bank Ballpark to watch the Somerset Patriots. We're always up for a good minor league game. We had dinner at the park, plenty of treats, and watched the Patriots succumb to the York Revolution.
It was bat night. The girls were psyched, and nearly gave both of us black eyes swinging the darn bats. They went to Alec's office, where his coworkers will likely injure each other with them.
Lindsay got to bring her friend Mackenzie to gymnastics. They had fun. Mackenzie navigates the balance beam in reverse, with some help from Miss Allie. Lindsay tries to wait her turn.
My baby geese are gawky teens. Swimming in the Raritan.
Lindsay's class presented a musical version of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff". Lindsay is the little goat wearing red boots.

Mercer County Park

Movie night! We girlies watched Tangled together on Friday night - a birthday present for Lindsay from a friend of hers. Lauren commented that it would really be a problem if Rapunzel got head lice. Ewww.
We had a tournament in Plainsboro over the weekend (yeah, near where Dr House works.) This was a climbing structure on the playground that the girls really liked. Here they are wearing their "away" uniforms. Lauren is next to the center support.
Lindsay enjoyed climbing also. A rare look for rockstar Linds, cotton dress and sneakers - you can tell she didn't dress herself.
More climbing with Chloe and Emily.
Lauren and her friend Daniella, this time in their "home" whites, relaxing between games on the bench. Mostly they were eating as many gummy bears as they could and trying not to get wet, as it drizzled a little before the second game was underway.

Besides the cute pics, we were outplayed in the tourney, but we were the only "new" team, and the only team below flight 2 (we were flight 6 of 6 this season). The girls were excited to get their first set of patches (you collect a team patch from every team you play in a tournament), and a medal for participating.