and then there were four…

Both girls were happily drawing on Friday, so I told them to make a special drawing for Father’s Day and we would put it away and surprise Bill on Sunday. I told them to not tell him about it, so he would have a fun surprise.

When Bill came home he was asking the girls about their day, and I went into the bedroom to get something. Bill came in a few minutes later, grinning and trying to stifle his laughter.

“Olivia said that her and Sophia drew me a picture but you put it away and said that it was going to be a surprise and I couldn’t see it yet.” he was dying with laughter at this point.

The girls and I let Bill sleep in on Sunday, and Olivia decided that Daddy needed donuts for a special breakfast. Since I have yet to master the art of making a doughnut, we headed out and got a dozen of assorted. After we ate, I took the girls out to run a few errands and Bill was given uninterrupted videogaming time for two hours. To keep her occupied I gave Olivia the shopping list to help me make sure we had gotten everything.

“Mama, what are Tam-poons?” She asked me, reading my list.

“Uh…they are something mama needs to get.”

“But, what are they?” She questioned.

“Um…I promise I’ll explain to you what they are someday, but right now we need to check out and get home.”

Sometimes, I forget that my 3 1/2 year old can read.

We all snuggled in our big King sized bed and watched (most of) Toy Story 2, ate popcorn and enjoyed being together.

During dinner, a shirtless Sophia proclaimed “I’m wearing my nay-kid shirt!” and started anthropomorphizing her spaghetti noodles. “Ooh, I want to go to the party in Sophia’s tummy, but I’m so scared!” She kept us laughing through dinner.

All-in-all I think Bill had a very good day.

He deserved it. He’s the best daddy to those wonderfully goofy girls of ours.

Today Olivia was looking at my face and she said “I’m getting those” and started swirling her finger around near my face.

“You’re getting what, baby?” I asked her.

“Those” (more finger swirling in the general direction of my chin).

Then it hit me. I’m in the midst of a PMS breakout and my chin has gotten the zitty end of the deal.

“My bumps?” I asked her.

“Yeah, I’m getting those!”

“No baby, you’re not getting bumps, your face is smooth and you have a long time before you need to worry about bumps.”

“But I’m getting them! SEE?” And she proceeds to lift her nightgown and show me her kneecaps, which had a few bumps and bug bites on them.

Later today I took the girls outside to play and while they were occupied in the sandbox I took the opportunity to stalk bugs to photograph (For Pioneer Woman’s current Photography Assignment) and I suddenly hear Sophia saying “NOOOOOO NOOOO NOOO” so of course I practically drop my camera to run over and see what the heck is going on. I see her, covered, in sand. In her hair, her clothes, she’s spitting it out of her mouth, it’s mixed in with her (still) snotty nose.

“WHAT IN THE WORLD?” I asked. “Olivia did you throw sand on your sister?”

Of course, she did not want to admit to it, but I finally said “Olivia, I want you to always tell the truth, because if you tell a lie and I figure it out, I’m going to be more upset than if you tell me the truth right away.”

“Okay, I did. I threw sand on Sophia.”

I cleaned poor Sophia off, and as I am doing it I look at Olivia and sternly say “This is MEAN. You are not a mean girl, but you did a mean thing that I do not like.” Then I went on to tell her we were going to go inside since she didn’t know how to behave and she was not allowed to watch any television for the rest of the day.

Of course, this made her cry and get upset. I explained that one of the biggest rules we have is that we never throw sand, because it could hurt and it is not nice. I told her if she did something like that at preschool to one of her friends, she would get into trouble and probably have to come home. I have no idea what would happen, but we’ve started trying to put her misdeeds into “when you start preschool” terms, so she knows what will be expected of her. This made her cry, which made my heart ache, (yes, I am an emotional pushover sometimes), so I told her how much I loved her and knew she was a sweet girl, but she had to apologize to Sophia and never ever do it again. She apologized and I told her if she did it again we were going to throw the sandbox away.

“But…the sandbox won’t fit in the trashcan!” She said very concerned.

Biting my lip, I looked at her and said “I’ll throw the sand away and then give the sandbox to someone else who can use it properly and not throw sand!”

That seemed to satisfy her.

• Yesterday, I was working out with my Wii fit plus “trainer” and the girls were working out with me (they really enjoy ‘exercises’). The trainer likes to shout out words of encouragement throughout your workout. Suddenly I hear Sophia’s little voice shout out (a little congested one, I might add, since she has been sick recently and her nose is still runny) “I’m toning my body! I’m doing it!”
• Last night, Olivia came out of her room, dragging her monkey, Sandwich, behind her. “Um, Daddy…I need to tell you something.” Seeing as how it was nearing 10 p.m., we were growing weary of her stall tactics, but ever the good daddy, Bill asked her what was wrong. “I have a problem. Sandwich is allergic to beds!” Bill stifled his laughter and said “No, he isn’t! Sandwich LOVES your bed.” And then Olivia said “No, he really is allergic, see? And proceeded to “sneeze” for Sandwich, proving that he, indeed, was allergic to beds.
• Sophia had a cold last week and she is still very congested and has a runny nose…Yesterday I said “Oh, you’re Miss PrissPot, aren’t you?” She looked at me, indignantly and said “I NOT PISS-POT! I SO-FEE-UH!”
• Olivia has taken to making a “pfft” sound whenever we say or do something that she thinks is wrong or silly. Ex: Last night I made pancakes and bacon for dinner. We also had yogurt and bananas. I told the girls I was going to have yogurt on top of my pancakes instead of syrup. (BTW: YUM) Olivia looked at me, “Pfft”ed and said “That’s not right” and shook her head at me. We’ve had to enact a “no Pffting rule at the table.” We are attempting to eradicate the pffting altogether. Wish us luck.
• Sophia, on the other hand, has taken to saying “Ummm-hmmm” and “Uh-uh” instead of “yes and no”. We have been responding with “use words, I do not understand these sounds” or something similar. The other morning, during breakfast, Olivia asked Sophia a question and got the standard “Ummm-hmmm” from Sophia. Suddenly I heard Olivia say, “Don’t you UMMM-HMMM ME!” Bill and I had to hold each other up to prevent us from falling over with laughter. Then I had to wonder where she heard that from, because we do try to be good parents and use constructive ways to correct them when they say things they shouldn’t. I am assuming I said it to Bill jokingly, or have, indeed slipped up and said it to her in the past.
• For the past month, both girls have been obsessed with Wall-E and walk around the house saying “Waaaaaaahhhh-Leeeeee” and “Eeee–Vhuuuuu” in similar voices to those the robots use. It never fails to amuse.

I became obsessed with Starbucks’ Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.

Obsessed.

So, in order to avoid going into massive debt, I researched and found a recipe.

Of course, as I do with every recipe, I changed some stuff around. Instead of a cup of white sugar, I used 3/4 a cup of brown sugar, and 1/2 a cup of white sugar (I know, it equals more sugar than called for, but trust me). I also used five small bananas instead of three (and mine were VERY ripe) and I added a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Also, I used mini chocolate chips.

So, with that out of the way, on to the pictures:

The cast of characters (that gross looking stuff in the ziploc bag are frozen bananas)

Well hello there, sexy.

What it will look like when you are done Mixa-Mixa-Mixa-ing.

After you’ve finished baka-baka-baking in the oven. It says to bake for an hour. I can say that if you use a bundt pan, you should only bake for 45 minutes. However, just finished baking another loaf in a bread pan…and you’re going to need the whole hour.

And now try not to eat the whole pan.

Seriously. Yum.