Photo finish

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never taken either girl to have their picture taken. I take snapshots all the time, but for assorted reasons, we had never done the Photo. Shoot.
So now I've done it. Jellybean's preschool had a photographer come and do pictures on-site. They also allowed that siblings could come and participate. So I got both girls in their nice duds and managed to avoid trashing the outfits and hair long enough for them to get pictures taken.
We got the proofs yesterday. The good news is that most of them are pretty decent all the way to really cute. The bad news is that most of them are pretty decent all the way to really cute. As in, I can't buy 95 photos, even though a part of me wants to. I'm having a really hard time deciding which ones to get and how many. I want to have enough for gifts (Mother's Day and Father's Day for the grandparents, here we come!), but I don't want to still be holding on to 50 outdated photos a year from now.
I went through the proofs last night and pulled out the ones I definitely DON'T want. A couple of Jellybean by herself have funky smiles, and so does one of Peanut by herself. So that helped with a few. But I still have lots of good ones in lots of sizes. L made it clear he doesn't want to do the picking and planning (grrr, a bit, because most of them will be for his family in the end). So I'm on my own.
I'm thinking we'll get the ones of the girls by themselves just for us. Most relatives will probably want just one picture of both girls together. The picture of them together has a crayon background. The only good one of Jellybean has a plain background. I like the plain one of Peanut too, but there's one of her solo with the crayon background that I really love because you can see her little teeth and little feet. And, is it unfair to buy two of one kid and only one of the other kid (based on photographic quality, not favoritism)?

I'm hoping the photo fairy will appear and magically make my decision for me in the next few days. I had no idea how hard this would be!

(I know, there are wars and an economic crisis and those worry me too, but there are also tough choices closer to home. Like this!)

Decorated bodies

We're in the midst of March Madness, so the TV has been on a lot more than normal (vs. almost never) this week.

The girls know a little about basketball, and they are picking up even more now. For instance, they now can recognize a coach and a referee, and Jellybean even understands things like rebounds. But not everything they know about basketball has to do with the sport or the athletic event.

The first day of the tourney, we were watching a game, and this conversation took place:

Peanut: "Mama, he has stamps!"

Me: "Who does?"

Peanut: "He has stamps, arm."

Me: "Oh, those aren't stamps."

Jellybean: "I think they're tattoos. Peanut, those are tattoos. I wonder where he got them."

This last comment made me laugh out loud. I know that Jellybean was thinking, who gave him those temporary tattoos, because we only get those as presents or birthday party favors, so he must've been somewhere good!

Budding novelist

Jellybean has been "writing" books at preschool lately. She's done one at each of her last three preschool days. I put writing in quotes because she is actually dictating the books, but because she's responsible for the content, I think it can be considered a form of writing.

The books are small, about 3 x 3, made out of construction paper and drawing paper. She has created illustrations for them, almost entirely in purple marker, so that each page looks like it's almost straight out of Harold and the Purple Crayon. The pictures are so small, they didn't come through well on the scanner. You'll just have to use your imagination.

I couldn't resist sharing, so I am reprinting them below, with Jellybean's permission and I promise no copyright infringements here. As you will note, they are not particularly plot-driven, but they do carry some themes. Twilight series, look out!

Book #1:

Mama is taking me for a walk. A thunderstorm! I hug my daddy. That's Mama taking Peanut to the doctor. That's Daddy going to work. Daddy's fixing dinner -- noodles!

Book #2:

That's Peanut going to music class. That's me eating breakfast with Mama and Peanut. That's me, sleeping. I hear a thunderstorm and I'm with my grandma. That's Mama taking me to preschool.

Book #3:

That is Mama. She is sleeping. Mama is going for a walk with me. I am sleeping. Mama is with me and my sister. Mama is coloring.

Spring wine-ing

When the weather gets warmer, I so enjoy a chilled glass of fabulous white wine. I've listed some of my household favorites before, but these deserve their own category.

If you haven't tried a sauvignon blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand, you are seriously missing out. The wines are consistently bright, fruit-forward and delicious. And they are some of the most economical out there, with the highest-priced being around $12/bottle.

These are my favorites, in ranked order:

Kim Crawford Sauvingnon Blanc

Nobilo Sauvingnon Blanc

Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc

Brancott Sauvignon Blanc

As far as I can tell, they are all widely available at wine stores and restaurants. Although I have ranked them, really they are all so yummy. Because they are so flavorful, they are great to pair with food, but they also are drinkable on their own if you just want to kick back with a glass (or two!).

Attitude adjustment

I often wish I could instantly perform an attitude adjustment on my kids, to help them make the best of situations.

I've talked a bit about my own attitude lately, and I made myself the beneficiary of another attitude adjustment a few days ago, with great success. My mother-in-law was here last week (groans of recognition from the peanut gallery, please) -- this mother-in-law, lest you forget.

I had a cold the day she got here and was feeling less than energetic, but L had to teach, so I had to hurry Jellybean out of preschool, come home and shove some lunch in us, load everyone into the car, drive 30 minutes to the airport and get Grandma, then come home and put crashing tired kids in their beds. I'm not complaining; it was just a bit of an orchestration.

So I started her visit out on the wrong foot because I was fatigued from both the illness and the hectic day. And, her initial 6 hours here were spent with only me -- no L to buffer and take in the craziness, er, energy from Grandma. (see? still retroactively adjusting my attitude) As a result, I was grouchier than usual. I'm normally very calm and at ease as a hostess, letting everything slide. But I couldn't resist a few jabs here and there. I was kinda rude, for me.

Initially, I was annoyed because she brought tons of presents -- so many that she couldn't fit her winter coat into her suitcase (not a smart thing to be without in March in Michigan). Christmas was in December, yet she had five presents for each girl. Um, we have lots of toys here; it's a house with little kids. The girls tore into the gifts after their naptime. Turns out that most of them were actually activities that Grandma wanted to do during her visit. Very clever.

From there, everything she said and did was rubbing me the wrong way for about the next 24 hours. I took every opportunity to mention to L how irritated I was with this, that and the other. That went over like a lead balloon.

As my head started to clear from the cold, my cloud of negativity did too. I realized that the girls were having a blast, she loves them more than life itself, and life is too short not to embrace every moment with loved ones.

Somehow, after that, everything we did with Grandma was much more fun for me. Gee, I wonder why.

Mom manners

Every once in a while, a social situation arises that requires more than just average manners: It requires mom manners, that extra level of balancing politeness with assertiveness. Jellybean had a (thankfully short) bout with croup last week, and it might have been avoided had I been willing to trample on some "mom" social graces.

The girls and I were at the library last week for our weekly story time. It was spring break, so it was more crowded than usual. After the story, we sat down at a play table that had these way cool blocks on it. We were doing some serious stacking and building, and another mom and her two older kids came to the table to get in on the action. We happily slid some blocks their way.

Less than a minute passed before the girl, who I would peg at 4 or 5, began to cough. She did not cover her mouth, and in fact, with the table being pretty small, her coughs actually hit Jellybean and me in the face. I thought, "Oh, next time she coughs, she'll remember to cover her mouth." Wrong. More than 20 coughs into it, neither she nor her mom made any mention or effort to cover the girl's mouth. (I wasn't thrilled, and I was even less thrilled that shortly after the other kids' arrival, my girls had about 10 blocks between them of a 62-piece set. But I'm not writing about sharing -- that's for another day.)

I am not a germophobe by nature. But, I am pretty practical and know that coughs that hit you in the face are definitely sending something your way -- infectious or not. I had three choices in the moment, all of which had consequences:

1. Make my girls drop the blocks and walk away to play something else. Consequence: My kids are upset (potentially loudly so -- in the library!) and don't get to play, as a result of someone else's negligence. Next option.

2. Ask the little girl to please cover her mouth. Judging from her verbal ability and dexterity, she was old enough to know better and could effectively do so. Consequence: Asking/ordering someone else's kid to do something is not the most polite thing to do. What else?

3. Ask the mother to have her daughter cover her mouth when she coughs. Consequence: Offending the mom, being rude and telling her how to handle her kids. Could be ugly.

So, what did I do? I did nothing. When we were done playing, I took the girls straight to the bathroom and we washed our hands.

A few nights later, when I was up cradling Jellybean in my arms at 1:30 a.m. while she barked like a seal, I couldn't help but think of that instance. It's no guarantee she caught croup from that little girl, but there was no exposure from anyone we know, including preschool.

From now on in a situation like that, rude shmude. I'm looking out for my kids, and if I make someone mad who I'll never see again, so be it!