What a Weekend

Aside from our adventure to the Buffalo Home and Garden show, attempting to apply pro-social parenting techniques with Abby and trying to enjoy a day of "rest," the weekend went by smoothly.  Ellie thought it hilarious to run through the Buffalo Niagara Expo Center, playing "don't let Mommy catch me" while darting in and out of jacuzzis, various awning and sunroom booths and the Little Giant ladder display.  Thankfully she's still just scared enough to hop on an escalator, though she considered it with many onlookers until I caught up with her.

Instead of enjoying a night out for our anniversary, we spent three hours attempting to hold fast to the rules prescribed by Abby's therapist intended on helping her choose good decisions.  Hmm.  Good thing he warned us things would get worse before they got better.  (They ought to be getting better really soon.)  We'll just say the girl is persistent and has lungs to go with.  She now sports cheeks speckled with burst blood vessels from screaming so long and hard to show for her valiant fight.

Other than that, our "day of rest" was, as usual, not so restful, but nothing too out of the ordinary.  While Adam lured me into watching the last 6 minutes of his KY basketball game, the girls did decide to fill a "pony bath" not in the bathroom where they got the water, but out in the hall.  For some reason part of bathing ponies required tracking water up and down the hall.  And then Abby did try to help me "cookin'" - some cupcakes and an asian salad.  "Look Mom, I have my lock-up thing that I can break in the drawer like this..." (she proceeds to stick a $4 stalk of lemongrass through a drawer handle and lift it to a near-breaking point, when I intervened.)

Adam heads to Manhattan tomorrow... wish us all luck!

  

(Pony bath in the hall, complete with crowbar...   Nope, it's not a rash on those little cheeks.)

QFTDs

The four of us were sitting on the couch while I bathed and dressed Ellie's foot wound.  Abby: "Now, Ellie, don't touch it.  If I see you touch it, I'll tell one of us.  If one of us sees it, tell me."

Adam gave me a hug before leaving to get his hair cut.  Abby wedged her way between us with a "Cut it out, you two!"

While I painted and Adam ate his breakfast, 30 minutes after planning our day, Abby out of the blue:  "Now you two stop fighting about your plans.  One of you has to give up their plan." Me: "I will!" Abby: "No.  Dad, I don't like your plan. You have to give up yours."  Adam: "On a scale from 1-10, how silly are you?"  Abby: "Zero."

On the way to church, Abby saw some people walking in to a pizzeria: "I just don't understand why everyone isn't going to church."

Ellie has asked several times today, "Where is that tornado?"

While driving home from our friends' house last night, we saw some deer in the road.  Abby:  "Why do they come out at night?"  Me:  "They're afraid of people."  Ellie:  "No they're not.  They bring us presents."

I asked Abby to pick up the million pompoms she dumped on the floor.  "I can't.  This is a ponchki.  A ponchki is when they're all in a family."

The girls were having a heated exchange.  Ellie: "I'm telling Mom you're doing bad things!"  Abby: "DON'T you be a tattle tale!"  "I'm going to tell her right now!"  "No! Mom said to take it up with you or me if we're being bad to each other!"

I went into Abby's room, wondering why the silence.  I could here her rustling around beside the bed, out of sight.  Peeking over to see her with the Hannah Montana/Barbie band-aids, I asked: "What are you doing?" A: "I'm just sitting in the shade.  I'm allergic to the sun and it makes me sneeze all over this stuff."  "Are you doing something you shouldn't?"  "No. Just sitting in the shade."

Ellie wrote on the floor with permanent marker. Abby: "Mom, I think you take away Ellie's drawing privileges." E, shouting in protest: "No!  Don't take away my privileges, Abby!"  A: "Do you want me to draw on your face??"