My daughter, President of the Earth and she wears a Minnie Mouse dress!

Vote for Sam! Sam for President of the Earth!

Today Sam and Riley were role playing, and Sam declared herself President of the Earth. She quickly followed this up with, "The President wears a Minnie Mouse dress."

Not like him.

Last week Bill went on a business trip to New York. The girls and I took him to the airport, so the girls could get the idea that he was going away for awhile. "On a plane, just like Hawaii," per Sam and Riley. Of course we had to pick him up too, so I got there nice and early (earlier than planned), parked the car, and took the girls inside. We got a little snack and set ourselves up at the glass so they could see him when he came through the gate.

As we waited, Sam became more and more worried that he wasn't coming, or that he was lost. Finally she asked me if we would know Daddy when we saw him. I told her, "of course we will." This was not enough for her. She very calmly told me, "Mommy, Daddy has black hair and a big head, and he doesn't look like that guy (pointing to a random male passenger)." Now I know.

I finally figured out what I want to happen to me when I die

For my whole life I've been disturbed about what happens to me when I die. Mostly I'm irrationally afraid that I will be buried alive, or if I decide upon cremation, that I would be burned alive. I think I can finally set all of that aside thanks to Helen's Whatever Wednesday post and Jesse's response. I am going to have myself made into a diamond courtesy of Lifegems. If Bill goes first, I'm experimenting on him. ;)

Children are so literal

I don't know how I do it, but I seem to keep forgetting that children can be so literal, and often misinterpret things they hear.

This weekend Riley had a high fever, so much so that I claimed she was burning up. I tried to give her some Tylenol (which she has had in the past without complaint.) As I was reaching out to hand her the tablet she started screaming, "No, no, no", and covered her mouth. Now we've never had this problem before, she always takes her Tylenol just fine. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "I don't want to burn up" at this point it became like an Abbott and Costello routine with me saying, "This will help with the burning up" and her screaming back, "No. I don't want to burn up." After a minute or two I finally realized what I was saying, and how she was interpreting it. Once I explained that the Tylenol would cool her off, not cause her to burst into flames, she was ok.

From the mouth of babes...

Sam happened to come in while I was watching a Food Network show on making beer. After watching for a minute or two she made the following statement:

"Beer is not for little girls. It's not good for them. Little girls need milk. And water. And warm chocolate (this is what they call hot chocolate)."

There you have it. The beverage necessities of little girls.

I heart William Fisher

Rich sent this to me with a, "What the heck" message attached. Not sure why this is on Amazon, but I think it's pretty funny.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Many of you may have plans for a nice little dinner with your sweetie,
maybe a card or two to exchange, or some chocolates and flowers to
celebrate Valentine's Day. Not so for me.

First of all, we just don't celebrate this day. We celebrate the 13th
instead as that is when we got engaged (9 years ago now). We had a nice
dinner last night out on the wharf in Santa Cruz, where we always go
since it's where the inaugeral event occurred. However, I do always
have a little treat for my kids on V day.

So. What did I do to celebrate the day? I went down to my nice little
doctors office and let him slice my breast open. Shortly after that I
started my period. And no, I'm not a little grumpy right now. Why do
you ask? Just hand over that cookie and no one gets hurt.

Serious speedtrap on Middlefield in Palo Alto

Or should I say, "traffic control zone?" There are at least 5 officers
patroling and it looks like they are focused on the area between San
Antonio and Charleston.

Police activity = entertainment for 3 year olds

Yesterday, somebody ran from the police in our neighborhood. No idea what he did, or why he was in this area. The police were not forthcoming, and we haven't found anything in the news about it yet.

However, it did end up being good fun for the girls. There were three police cars parked around our house, and one had a police dog. There were at least a dozen police up and down the streets doing searches which makes for good breakfast entertainment. They did ask us to be sure all our doors and windows were closed and locked, and then they came in the backyard to look around (as they did for all the houses in the neighborhood.) The girls thought that was funny.

Eventually they moved off to the next block, and we were back to our day to day routine.