Sometimes I Don't Know Where She Came From

Scene: cookie baking

Bug (pointing out a specific cookie to me): After lunch, can I have one with those kind of sprinkles? Because those are the ones I really treasure.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Holiday Dessert Season is Officially OPEN...

The girls and I spent the day before Thanksgiving baking sugar cookies to take for a kid-friendly dessert the next day. (Side note: if, the week before Thanksgiving, you decide to make sugar cookies for dessert on the big day and think it would be cute if those cookies could be shaped like, oh, turkeys, or pumpkins or leaves, and you head out to purchase a Thanksgivingy cookie cutter, YOU WILL BE SORELY DISAPPOINTED. Much like one cannot buy snow boots in February (bikinis and flip-flops, yes, but not anything vaguely winter-related) your choices will be limited to only Christmas cookie cutters in the week preceding Thanksgiving. So, plain ol' circles in sorta fall-ish colors it was.)

My helpers were very industrious. They made the dough, cut out the cookies, and decorated them! Hooray for child labor! AND, they happily accept cookies as payment!

Certain preteens are getting camera-shy and prefer to be photographed unwittingly from behind. Otherwise, I get goofy faces or the paparazzi hand-in-front-of-face shot.

This, according to Bug, is the appropriate amount of sprinkles to put on a cookie:
(I only let her do that to one cookie).

Thankful

2008 has not been the best year. In fact, it's been overtly crappy in parts (hello, peanut allergy & damn dental bills), but this is a day to deliberately shift the focus to our blessings. I had to dig a little deeper this year to find the good, but still:

I am thankful for my girls, who illuminate my life with both their sweetness and their shenanigans. I am grateful that they are healthy, smart, and possess the ability to see the funny in life. If they can keep all three, they will be able to get through whatever life throws at them.

I am thankful for my husband, who works hard both at the office and at home to ensure that our lives are comfortable and our faucets drip-free.

I am thankful for our parents, who provided us not only with the foundation for our lives, but who continue to be supportive of us and stellar grandparents to Bear and Bug.

I am thankful for having a brother and sister-in-law, who I love and look forward to spending time with.

I am thankful that we have a home, unlike so many families who have faced foreclosure and joblessness this year.

I am thankful that our country has managed to come full-circle from its slave-owning past to elect an African American president.

I am thankful for Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show", who kept me sane during the presidential election.

I am thankful that my gum surgery and root canals are in the past.

I am thankful that Mittens has not yet figured out how to open doors, so we can stow her mischievous little self in the family room overnight.

Happy Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for?

This Morning

Time: 6:00 am.
Scene: Dark.

Bear's alarm clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP....

Me (first counting to ten): Bear! Turn off your alarm.

Clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Me: Bear! BEAR!

Clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Daddy Shortbread: BEAR!!

Bear (sleepily): I know.

Clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Me & Daddy Shortbread (staring at each other incredulously): BEAR!!!

Bear (now sleepy AND cranky, but clearly not moving): I. KNOW.

Clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP...

Bug (still in bed, does not need to get up for another half an hour): Bear! FOR GOD'S SAKE would you turn off your stupid alarm?! YOU ARE WAKING ME UP!

Clock: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-.

Bear's New BFF

Meet Kelly, my old cell phone. I did not name her. I do have a life.
Bear is her new owner. She immediately named her "Kelly."

To Bear she is heaven, Disneyworld, and her new best friend all wrapped up in a metallic pink bow garnished with jazzy ringtones. She is completely and obnoxiously enarmored with the damn phone. For all the gushing she does over the sheer amazingness of her phone, the kid should be getting a weekly advertising check from Motorola.

Bear has been petitioning steadily for a cell phone since THIRD GRADE, when the first of her friends received one. "Mom, Christa can call her mom from the school bus to ask if she can go on a playdate!" she told me earnestly. Like I would somehow find this convincing. I was not swayed.

But now, in sixth grade, I had to admit that some situations were cropping up where it would have been useful for her to have a phone, like school activities that ended after dark. I even had to lend her mine on a couple of occasions, which was not so convenient. When Nana and Papa offered to get one for her as an early birthday present, I caved.

It's only to be used to call for rides and to call family at this point. No calling friends. I'm not ready to totally jump into the deep end. She's only eleven, after all. For now, she is content. She's happily texting and calling us, her grandparents, and her aunt and uncle. She changes her ringtones every two and a half minutes. She takes pictures of the cats, her sister, and tinfoil ("it makes a cool texture for a background!").

This is about the maximum distance Bear ever allows between herself and the cell phone:

This photo kinda says it all, yes?

Just Tell Me When I Can Nap

Tonight is our fourthVisitor's Day at the dance studio in a week. While we love seeing the girls dance and getting a first peek at their recital costumes, there is also to be considered that we sit on supremely uncomfortable little plastic chairs for an hour and a half at a time in a studio made stuffy and sweltering from all the parents and kids crammed in there. Also? The 20 pairs of tap shoes in a confined space? I find myself consciously trying not to wince at the sound within twelve minutes. I don't know how their dance teacher does this on a daily basis. You know, without drinking heavily.

Still - I was so proud of my girls: Bear, whose grace and carriage really shines through in ballet; and Bug, whose energy and sense of rhythm is best showcased in jazz.

I must say, though, that after the crazy week we've had, when I treated the girls to McDonald's last night and Bear bit into a McNugget only to find it COMPLETELY RAW INSIDE, it felt like fate was deliberately messing with us. Enough so, that even though I was already in my comfy pants and slippers, I threw my coat back on and drove back to Mickey D's to return the Chicken McSalmonella Nuggets.

In summary: TGIF.