Wakey Wakey Rattle Snakey!

Many of you know that Rory can be, well, a little loud.  Since she was born she has always bust into a room like the party has just been waiting for her to arrive.  We love that energy and enthusiasm of hers, even if it does wear us out sometimes.

But did you know that it even carries over into her sleep?  From ages 2-3, Ro cried out in her sleep every single night. Much of that time we were living with Jason's parents, and it woke the whole house, every night.  She didn't scream bloody murder, she just moaned loudly. And every time, we would lay there listening to see if she would actually wake up and call for us, or just roll over and go back to sleep.

Bedtime reading.

On the weekend of her 3rd birthday, her cousin Kendall came to celebrate and slept with Ro.  By this time, we were so used to the sound in the middle of the night that we didn't think to tell Kendall.  About 2am Ro starts moaning loudly.  I hurry into the bedroom. Rory is sound asleep, but Kendall is laying there, perfectly still, eyes WIDE open, looking like she's discovered a bear in the room.  "Sorry. Forgot to warn you, Kendall. She does that. She'll go right back to sleep."  Kendall has slept on the couch every visit since then. :)

One of her last nights in her crib.

Her first night in her big girl bed, saying good night to Poppy!

Rory is now 7 1/2, and I hear her doing it again tonight (I'm awake with a bad back at 4am right now on the couch).  She still does it about once every couple of weeks, especially if her nose is stuffy.  

When she wakes up for good in the morning, she's already happy as a lark. She usually either:

a) wakes up singing

OR

b) wakes up and grabs a book and lays in bed reading (sometimes aloud in character voices).

Auntie Lynn, Rory, and an American Girl doll I can't name.

She's a ray of sunshine when she wakes up, every day, even if her little brain didn't rest as well during the night.  Someday she will learn to turn off that brain a bit more while she sleeps!  And, did I mention that she's up at 6am every day, no matter what time she went to bed?  Oh yes.  I believe that God rewarded us for all the 6am wake-ups by making Rory an early reader.  Once she could read on her own, she didn't wake US up in the morning, but just grabbed a book and let us get another hour of sleep.  Thank you!!!

Call Me Rory

Recently our friends Scott & Gloria had a 60th birthday pool party.  They were nice enough to ask Rory if she would sing a pop song at the party for them, along with a friend of theirs who is a singer/guitarist, Matt Dempsey.  So, with no rehearsal, here they are...

Our Non-Decision Maker

A general rule of thumb when raising kids is "Give them choices whenever you can".  In our house, that is NOT a rule any longer.  Why?  Because we have a kiddo who is RIDDLED with anxiety about every little choice.  When she goes through transitions, it gets worse, like right now when school is starting.  She thinks through the minute details of every choice, and it's overwhelming to her to think about choosing just one.  Example from this morning:

"Rory, what do you want for breakfast? We have waffles, pancakes, and toast."

"Do we have bagels?"

"No, we finished them yesterday."

"I like waffles but sometimes they don't fill me up... I like pancakes but we only have one left... Maybe I could put peanut butter on them...Or have some fruit with it...Do you know what Dad packed in my lunch?...Mom, I just don't KNOW!!!"

Mommy, realizing the need to simplify ... "OK, I'll make it easier. I'm making you toast.  I'm putting peanut butter on one piece. You let me know what you want on the second piece, butter or peanut butter."

She eats the piece with peanut butter, then spends 5 minutes agonizing over the decision about the other piece of toast.  I can't even remember what she ended up choosing, but it's sad/maddening to see how distraught she gets.  The combination of being bright (can see all the angles and details of every option) and being Jewish (high-anxiety kid) is NOT doing this kid any favors!!! :)

I won't even tell you about the 30 minutes it took for her to choose what to wear! OY!

Crazy Daisies

Rory was a Daisy this year.  Heading into 2nd grade, they crossed over from Daisies to Brownies, and this was Ro's crossing ceremony.  Here's her troop, in all their crazies. (Ro is in the back row with no blue smock on.)

War

We don't watch the news in our house.  Why?  A couple reasons:

1) We don't have cable, so for the four years we've been in this house, we haven't watched live TV.  (Some day I'll do a separate post just about the rare exceptions that involved the Bar Mitzvah TV.)

2) When Ro was two-ish, we realized it was tricky to have the news on because it's not kid-friendly content.

Still, through learning about history and hearing some NPR here and there, Rory has been introduced to the concept of war.  She's been to the History Museum and read some books about the Civil War.  This cause nightmares for days, BTW.  Tonight for some reason she was thinking about war and was filled with questions on a ride on 40/64 home from Mimi and Poppy's house.  Just a taste of her questions is below.  Very smart questions, but infused with the knowledge base of a 7 year old.  Thought I'd share.

• Why does anyone sign up for that? Don't they know they could DIE?
• How do you start a war?
• Is it like Tag, but where everyone is it?
• Does anyone ever shoot someone on their own team by accident?
• How do you know who is on which team?  Do they wear different uniforms like we do when we make teams at school?
• If someone gets hurt, who pays their hospital bills?
• Do you get to go home if you get hurt?
• Plus, lots of questions about what people's jobs are in the military, what Grandpa did, etc.

 These conversations are the ones you aren't ever really prepared for as a parent.

Duet with Grandma

For those of you who have asked me if Rory gets her singing abilities from my side of the family ... proof that the answer is NO.

Footloose

Here is Rory's end of camp performance after Footloose camp.  So happy!

Birthday Summary

I had a great day with Jason and Rory, celebrating my 42nd birthday.  My summary:

We worked together.
We played together.
We ate together.
We laughed together.
We snuggled together.

What else do you need?

We had a yummy pancake breakfast, then Jas & Ro helped me wash the deck (I'm getting ready to paint it).  After that sweaty work, we headed to Maryland Heights Aquaport for an afternoon of awesome water slide fun!!  Then home for an Indian food dinner with Mimi, Poppy and our friends, Scott and Gloria.  Lovely, lovely day!

The Sound(s) of Music

I've created a monster.

I love The Sound of Music for the classic it is.  Julie Andrews is lovely as always. The Captain is breathtaking.  The children are well-rehearsed and the music is divine.  So, of course, I thought it was time to introduce our musical-loving child to it.

A week later, I'm now telling you that if I hear "I am 16 going on 17..." one more time, I'm going to throw something!!  Rory keeps stopping and demonstrating lines from the movie, expressions from the kids faces, and oh, the songs!!  Want an idea of how bad it's gotten??  Her Poppy would do anything for her, but I never imagined this:

Oh, and did I mention that Jason has NEVER seen The Sound of Music????

Scenes From a Virus

Under the Bus

We spent a lovely evening tonight having dinner on the deck.  Jason just got back from a work trip to Atlanta in time for dinner. [Note, his "work" trip also involved tickets to the NCAA Championship Game last night!]  We had pasta, fresh homemade bread, and salad.  The dog laid out there with us.  After dinner Rory stood up from her seat and promptly (and with the grace of her mother) fell on the deck and started SCREAMING.  Daddy tended nicely to her bleeding knee, calmed her, and had her laughing before the band-aid was on.  Then I look at the table where the iPad was sitting and noticed pasta sauce on the iPad.

Me:  "Who did this, may I ask??"

Jason:  "It's pasta sauce. That was all Rory."

Rory (still on the ground looking at her band-aid):  "Don't throw me under the bus like that in front of everyone!"

Jason was speechless and I just laughed.  I mean, she was quick!  And she used it perfectly!

And of course, like every other time she says something we've never heard her say before ...

Us: "Where did you hear that?"

Rory:  "A book of course!"

Is it too late to un-teach her to read??

SNIPPETS FROM MY LAST DAY

Lunch with my team on the South 40, with not one, but TWO vegan burger choices!

Retelling the story of falling on the ice when I was interviewing at Wash U and finding mocha in my hair still an hour later!

Bequeathing gifts    

Very special earrings

"I'm a hot mess!"

Handing over the candy machine

Tulips when I got home

Wrapping up last things right as it was time to leave

Lots of Facebook love

Giving the team an Eliot bell!

Ringing the F*** out of that bell as I left at 3:00!

Sharing rainbow Sharpies with someone who loves them as much as I do


Hearing that the therapy-chocolate was busted out in my office as soon as aI left

One last cup of coffee from the DUC

An awesome apron

Plans for a massage soon

Knowing I will see them all again soon, as they are too dear to my heart to be away from for too long!

My Little Texter

Rory has just started to send me a text from Jason's phone once in a while.  In December, I was at my work's Holiday Party setting up and sent Jason a text asking when he and Rory would be coming to the party.  Here's what I got back.  Best. Text. Ever.

Last Day of Being Six

Sadly, Rory is spending her last day of being six years old at home with Mommy.  No going to school today because she is feeling sick.  Something in her eyes just doesn't look right, and she's had a sore throat off and on for a few days.  Tomorrow is her birthday so I hope she is going to be better soon.  She's having a few friends over on Saturday night to help her celebrate, so our goal is to be germ-free very, very soon!! We have celebrating to do!

An Open Letter to Rory About Your Gene Pool

This is you sleeping on Christmas Eve. You have severely dry hands, so we decided to put Vaseline on your hands and cover them with socks for bedtime. Oh the memories.... (Picture on of those swirly hazes you see in movies when they do a memory flashback)

I remember laying on the floor as my mom coated my feet with Vaseline before sliding old bags from loaves of Wonder Bread over each foot and then covering THOSE with socks to try to keep my uber-dry feet from cracking during the winter.

Sorry about the gene pool, Ro.

By the way, Daddy says that if you break out in a cold sweat when you walk into gym class and see either the tumbling mats or the climbing rope out, he apologizes, too.

Sounds from a growth spurt

1:30pm: snack at school

3:30pm: snack in car

4:15pm: snack during haircut

5:45pm, in car going home for already-prepared dinner: "Can we stop at Starbucks for a snack? I'm dying of starvation here! Have a heart!!"

Three Wise Men. Or people. Or things.

From Rory, in the car yesterday:

"Mommy, there are three people who know EVERYTHING:

1. Santa
2. God
3. Computers (and ipads and stuff)"

First Bad Haircut

Rory LOVES her short hair!  It's been an intolerably hot summer, and she's been thrilled to not worry about her hair.  She's a low-maintenance kiddo, so it's been great for her in that regard.  When she got it cut, she got 10 inches cut off!  Here are before and afters:

Then, two things happened.  First, Rory lost a tooth.  Second, we went back a week later to get it "reshaped" and a little shorter.  And those two things resulted in this unfortunate resemblance:



I guess everyone has to have a bad haircut sometime.  And, like I, of all people know, it will grow back!!

Roller Skating - Timeless

As an adult, I now understand that every roller skating rink in America is exactly the same.  They were all built when I was a wee child, and not a thing has been updated in them since.  They all have concrete walls, broken-down bathrooms, and ugly carpet that is completely worn down by 35 years of roller skates on them.  They all play the same games on the floor (YMCA, Hokey Pokey, limbo).  And they all have the same 4 choices of snack at the snack bar.  

And yet, my kid, like me years ago, has the BEST time there!  These pictures aren't great because to cover the dingy aging of the place they now have a glow-in-the-dark theme.  We went skating with our friends Rebecca, Vivian and Scarlet this weekend.  All three kids worked hard at improving their skating.  Ro was rewarded by getting to sit on a pillow at home at dinner (and take some Tylenol) after two hard falls straight on her bum.  

Next time we get to see Daddy on skates!!

Best summer pictures

Is there anything that says "summer!" like swimsuits and watermelon??