I used to like packing boxes and moving, but that was before I had two, two year olds.  Now I’d rather be taking them to the library and cuddling all day instead of packing boxes.

However, our house is closed.  We’re temporarily moved.  Our garage sale is over.  Our 10th anniversary trip is days away and I’m EXCITED!!!  I’ll post something later on tonight.

Just a picture post, since we are way too busy around here to do anything else right now.

My girls sleeping in their tent this weekend.  It was a HUGE hit!

One of my gorgeous nephews.

Me & Skyler at the park.

Skyler LOVED the fireworks.  Her favorite color was blue, and she liked the popping sound.

Sydney petting some lady’s dog.

She HATED the fireworks.  She calls them scary monsters in the sky.

It was a fun 4th!  Hope everyone else had fun too!

Soft sounds don’t make up for the root word. – Yesterday PBS had a clip featuring a little girl named Latrina.  The name flows off the tongue beautifully, and it looks really feminine with the la and the ina.  BUT, when you hear the name Latrina don’t you immediately wonder if the parents came up with the name while they were in the bathroom?

“Honey, I am just plumb wore out trying to think of something to name our little peach!   And could you bring me some toilet paper?”

“Darling, please don’t speak to me while you’re on the latrine.  It’s a little gross.”

“By George!  That’s it!  LATRINA!”  Cue hallelujah chorus…

Words in this category = Latrina, Analise

The meaning doesn’t make up for the way it sounds. – Yes, Pulani is a Polynesian word meaning “heavenly flower”, and that’s lovely, but your kid has to live with poo as the first syllable of her name.  Most of the general public is going to think less “Birds of Paradise” and more “dookie”.

If it’s not your heritage, ask permission. – It seems unfair to overuse a foreign name.  Four out of five girls under the age of 4 are named Bella.  It’s pretty, but for goodness sake, this name is slapped on Irish and Indian kids alike.  Italians don’t even want to use it anymore, it’s become so generic.

Don’t name your kids after an image you’re trying to create. – If your kids are named Dakota, Cord, and Roper it doesn’t immediately make everyone think, “Oh, that must be an awesome, rugged, cowboy family!”  It makes us think, “What the crap?  Don’t they live down the street from us?  What’s with the cowboy theme?”

Don’t play the inanimate object game. – Please don’t just pick a random word you think sounds tough and cool and slap it on your kid’s birth certificate.  Gunner, Rope, Cord, Gauge, Flower, Apple…  Those aren’t names.  They’re nouns.  You might as well name your kid, kid.  Uh, wait….  Some people do that.  Which brings up the next category:

Changing the spelling doesn’t make the word a name. – Kidd, Walkyr, Rainn.  You get the picture.

For the love of Pete, don’t reference the conception. –  I know it might seem really special to name your kid Denver or Dallas because that’s where you did the deed that changed your life forever, but your kid is probably going to HATE that thought.  If the question, “What’s your name?” is going to send him up to a high-rise roof top desperate to erase a horrible mental picture, you should probably just move to the next name on your list.

Alternate suggestions: Susan, Anna, John, James, Mike, Brad…  Don’t worry, these aren’t all that common anymore.  Your kid will probably be the only James in his class.

Lately, Skyler has become attached to a Disney store sack and is calling it her purse.  It’s with her at all times and she fills it with all the things she needs or wants around her.  Usually it’s things like her elephant, her sippy cup, & her blankie.  Sometimes though, her choices are a little harder to understand:

I think she was packing the necessities for a weekend away from home.  A change of undies, some entertainment, and some food.  Or maybe it was completely random.  There is no Rosetta Stone to help decipher the mind of two year old Skyler.  We just have to wait until she’s old enough to tell us.

Aren’t they really all just a bunch of “Harry Johnsons”?

Makes me laugh every time I take this street.

In order to plan this week’s date, I really tried to think, “What could we do that would make us feel closer than ever?  What would make me forget about the fact that Ping is a constant TV channel flipper and he won’t throw his own floss away?  Would it be a good idea to give Ping an opportunity for reprisal, considering the nagging I do when he leaves the aforementioned floss on the bathroom counter?  Is it necessary to work out these issues every once in a while?”

I felt that perhaps an act of aggression on both of our parts couldn’t hurt anything.  We could take it all out on each other and have a good old fashioned fight.  So, I went to the store and bought some ammunition:

Lesson learned:  Filling up water balloons is a pain in the butt.

Lesson #2:   Two year olds will lose all ability to obey when confronted with colorful orbs full of water.  I filled forty of these things, and we only got to use twenty.  The other twenty were smashed on the ground  directly adjacent to the tub.  (We decided to let the girls stay up for this date, since it was quick and we knew they would think it was cool.)

The rules were that we could only get one balloon at a time, then had to run to opposite fences and touch before we could turn and attack each other.

Lesson #3:  Boys are just better at these type of things.  Ping caught half the balloons I threw and chunked them right back at me.  I got a pretty sound beating.

The whole thing was really fun.   The girls LOVED it, and Ping did too.  I wouldn’t suggest it as a valid pet-peeve therapy, but it’s awesome if you just want to be outdoors and not melting in the heat.

Next week is Ping’s turn again.  Can’t wait to see what he comes up with!  For more about Project 52 Date Nights, check out Simply Modern Mom.

I’m not sure what it is about me that causes birds to want to die.  Maybe my body produces some weird chemical that drives them insane.  Don’t get me wrong.  I hate birds.  I think they are annoying, loud, pooping, pests.  I have no problem with them committing suicide around me.  Go to town, birds!  BUT, I couldn’t kill one on purpose.  The first time I noticed my weird influence over birds was in high school.  I was cruising around in my little Plymouth Laser with my boyfriend.  We had the windows down, & it was a beautiful day outside.  We stopped at a light and waited for the signal to change.  As I put my foot on the gas and started rolling, I noticed a little bird fly down and land in the path of my right tire.  I slowed down, waiting for him to fly back up and away, but he didn’t.  I stopped in the middle of the busy street.

“What are you doing?” says boyfriend.

“I don’t want to run over the bird.”  says me.

“There’s no way that bird is still there.  Just go!”

“Are you sure?”  I hesitated.

“Yeah, just go.”

Slowly I began to pull forward, and immediately was rewarded with a slimy sounding, “CRRRRUUUUNNNCCHH!”

The dadgum thing was waiting for me to squish him.  I just know it!  He must have just gotten dumped by his bird-girlfriend, or fired from his bird-job, or caught his bird-wife in the nest with a raven.

Whatever.  It was sickening, but I did everything I could to talk him down from the ledge.  I mean, I stopped on Western Avenue during lunch hour, for goodness sake.  One less bird to annoy me.  I’m the Kevorkian of the avian world.

Which is why I wasn’t one bit surprised this past weekend to hear Ping say, “I think that bird just flew right into our path!”  I was thinking about something else, so I didn’t say anything.  When we got home, Ping said, “Oh no!  Look at your grill.”  He probably expected repulsion, tears, or at least something besides….

“GOTCHA SUCKER!”

Today was the girls’ first dance class!  I was excited and I kept talking to them about it.  I dressed them up cute and took pictures the whole time, of course.

Sydney just being adorable.

Showing me some dance moves.

Skyler doing her own dance.  Sydney’s dances are very princessy, while Skyler sort of goes the mosh pit route.

Some pre dance class love.

I’m not sure why Sydney felt she belonged in the middle of the circle, but she did.  She also introduced people whether she knew them or not, and claimed to be everyone during roll call.

Skyler is a pretty good little direction follower, although her preferred expression of creative movement tends to be running fast in a circle.

I think at this moment, they were pretending to be horseys.

Swinging their arms.  Skyler is right next to Sydney.  She’s kind of hard to see because she was really giving those arm swings all she had.

There was an unfortunate head conking incident that resulted in Skyler wailing for a few minutes.  Daddy fixed everything though, and she got back in the game.

SIDENOTE:  Please excuse Ping’s hair.  We all hate it, but he made a really weird agreement with my dad to keep it long until the weather is bearable again.  As soon as it gets cool, he’ll be back to his normal self.

This is Cheryl teaching her to do happy and sad toes.  Cheryl, who is an owner of Artworks, was my diamond sister during my stint as an Alpha Delta Pi member.  I transferred after my freshman year, but Cheryl was a sweet girl, and she was really good with all the kids.

It sort of surprised me that Skyler was the one who really loved the class the most.  I keep expecting Sydney to just go nuts and have so much fun, but she gets a little overwhelmed in group settings sometimes.  She doesn’t quite understand the dynamic of a group of toddlers.  She’s pretty used to being center stage all the time, so when she’s not, it confuses her.

I don’t care if I’m biased.  Show me a girl cuter than this one.  I dare you to try.

Not going to happen.  Sorry.

The little girl in black was really cute, but she kept knocking into Sydney, and Syd just would get stunned, to the point where she eventually just quit trying to dance around anymore.  I think she was embarrassed that she got bumped, irrational as that sounds.

When class was over, Cheryl asked all the kids if they liked stickers.  Skyler immediately jumped up and went over and grabbed her shoulder, where she was rewarded with a sticker on the nose.  That was the big money for her.  Dancing was fun, but a sticker on the nose was big time!

I have to admit it…  I’ve really been a crappy date planner.  We committed to this thing, and honestly, so far, Ping’s dates have been much better than mine.  Mostly that’s because my months have coincided with things that made date nights nearly impossible, and also because I’ve been too lax about it.  Which shows a complete disregard for the reason that we wanted to do this in the first place.  We wanted to commit our actions to our priorities.  We intended to not just say that our marriage is important, but do something to prove it.

Luckily, we’re not going anywhere this weekend, and I have my plans made.  For our date night tomorrow, we’re going to…..   GET IN A FIGHT!  Yep, you heard me.  It’s going to be an all out war!  Tune in on Saturday for all the gory details.

P.S.  If you haven’t seen Snatch, you should rent it.  It’s good.

P.P.S.  I’m not a Brad Pitt fan, but I like almost every movie he’s ever been in except Cool World.  It makes me feel like I’m living a lie.  And yet, I just can’t like him that much.  I think it might stem from how much I dislike Angelina.  I can’t even stand the name Angelina for goodness sake.  It’s a good name for a ballerina mouse.  Terrible name for a human!

P.P.P.S.  Never mind.  I just imbd’ed Brad Pitt and I haven’t even seen hardly any of the movies he’s been in.  But, I really liked Snatch and that one episode of Friends.

My little Skyler is incredible.  Where Sydney is sparkly, loud, funny, and outgoing; Skyler is kind of quiet, observant, helpful, nurturing, and independent.  She needs lots of affection all the time, but she isn’t going to just jump on you like Sydney will.  I think she thinks that’s a little bit too easy.  Sort of like, “If I ask for it, it’s not as good as if you just do it on your own.”  She doesn’t want any second-rate attention!  In a way, I think she understands things that are kind of heartbreaking for a little two year old to understand.  The waters just run a lot deeper with her.  But, it’s that vulnerability that makes me want to protect her so much more.  I just always want to be hugging her for some reason.

I love that she thinks her stuffed animals are so special.  Yesterday she climbed on the couch to cuddle with her stuffed elephant and monkey and said, “These are my friends!”  Lately her favorite game is to make a baby crib out of her animal basket and curl up in there to where you can’t even hardly see her.

I love that she cooks me a fake dinner every night with her toy pots and pans.  I love that she likes to put away the dishes and put the laundry in the dryer, just because she thinks it makes me happy and she’s being a “big girl”.  I love that she knows exactly what she wants most of the time.  I love that she has certain people she really likes even though it means there are certain people she doesn’t want to be bothered with.  It’s almost like a prize to be one of Skyler’s select few.

Sometimes, she’s naturally counter-productive when it comes to people.  She wants attention, but she won’t ask for it.  Life can go in lots of different directions, but it makes me think that if she’s a confident person when she gets older, she’ll end up with someone really exceptional.  Probably someone like her dad, who naturally gives without being asked.  In fact, I think the way that Ping gives love to his girls (me included) is going to contribute to that confidence she’s going to need.   And that’s a good thing, because sometimes the most fragile things are the most beautiful.  To me, Skyler is like a delicate flower.  You can plant it and forget about it, and it will wither.  It’s easy to kill, just like Skyler’s spirit would be easy to break.  But if you give it good care and attention, you can grow it into something more beautiful than all the rest.