6 months of Kidbits...

So, we're all deep in the midst of Winter Doldrums, and going crazy. It's such an odd thing how even when you feel like leaving the house will cure your blues, you leave the house, and the winter blues are still there... ugh. The lack of snow, and the melty conditions do not make it better. If it's snowy out, at least it is usually bright and cheerful and gorgeous, and plus the snow makes a lovely crunching noise when you walk, plus the cold is invigorating, and sitting on the couch with a book and a blanket and coffee feels cozy, instead of lazy. But, without snow, we are left with gray, and mud, and a general blech feeling.

Anyway, so my creativity has really been suffering too, I've just not been feeling the glee that I usually feel over my sewing projects. Thankfully, as of a few days ago, when Auntie Caca came to visit, that glee is back, and my world is considerably brighter. Yesterday we went and found the snow ourselves, and drove like maniacs on a icey, muddy, puddly road, which is bound to make me feel better. And, with that revelation, I am renewing my vow to find something every day that makes me happy, because feeling blue is not normal for me, and I'm sure if I put my mind to it, I can find some simple little thing every day to wallow in that makes my world brighter... whether it's beautiful fabric, and amazing meal, dropping everything to play with my kids, or a trip in Rovey to find snow, we shall make it through this gray muddy winter with our cheer intact. Amen.

Today, I am putting forth the last 6 months of Kidbits, because I tell you what, reading these cracks me up, and gives me warm fuzzies, and makes me realize how incredibly blest I am to have these delightful children of mine in my life. I apologize if you've seen most of these before, and don't care to see them again. :-) A lot of them have been my status updates in Facebook, but I keep track of them in my notes too, because the thought of losing them is horrifying. So, here goes the record of fun in my life:

8/05/09 K&B were helping me make cookies tonight. B was not following K's instructions. Finally K says, very frustratedly... "Brianna, do you know what's going to happen to you if you don't learn to listen? I'm going to grow up, and move away, and I'll come home to visit you, and you'll still be sitting in mom's kitchen, drinking beer and eating cookie dough!"

08/11/09 According to Kiki, "Scuze me" means "I'm sorry I farted" in spanish.

09/09 Kiki: "when exactly is it that I am going to get a day off around here?

09/15/09
Me: Have you guys cleaned your room yet?
K: No, we forgot how! How to clean our room just popped out of our heads!
B: Yeah, we forgot how, can you show us how again?
Me: That is baloney! Get in there and get your room cleaned up right now!
B to K as they close their bedroom door: "I told you that excuse wouldn't work Keira!!

09/17/09
Debris: Mom, where's the Cantelope with Kiki's birthday money in it?
Me: Do you mean ENVELOPE?
Debris: Yeah, that's what I meant. The CANTELOPE with Kiki's B-day money in it...

09/17/09
Debris comes running into the house howling and pointing at her scraped leg... MOM! I fell down and Mr. Skin jumped off my body!!!!

09/17/09
K wrapping up a conversation with Poppa N on the phone... Bluhbluhbluh Beep beep! I'm saying "I love you bye bye" in robot Poppa!!"

09/24/09
K: "Mom, are the people on the other side of the planet upside down?"

09/25/09
B's version of the memory verse this week: "The LORD is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that ALIENS perish, but that all should come to repentance. I CANNOT convince her that there are no aliens in this verse.

09/30/09
Here's a regular convo with Debris.
Me: Brie, stop that noise!
B: I'm not making any noises!
Me: What's making that noise then?
B: Oh, my foots are kicking the couch!
Me: Well, does the bum that's attached to the legs that are attached to the foots need a paddling?!
B: No, I'll tell them to stop. It's the dogs fault anyway, I wanted her to come!

09/30/09
So, after dinner I was watering the plants. Kiki comes running out the door and yells, "Debris, smell that fresh air!" Debris, right behind her, says, "Yeah, Keira, it pretty much makes me want to hurl."

09/30/09
I thought I was losing my mind because I've been finding "clean" dishes randomly in the fridge for the last couple days. I just watched Brie finish her chicken nuggets, lick the plate clean, and then walk over to the fridge and stick it in there.

10/01/09
The little boy in swimming class with the girls was screaming when lessons started. Debris says to him, "What's your problem? It's just water!!" The amazing thing is that it worked... he'd been screaming for about 4 weeks for every lesson... that totally snapped him out of it, and he never screamed again.

10/02/09
Kiki's philisophical breakfast question today... "What would cereal do without milk?"

10/02/09
Debris just gave herself a bloody nose by kicking herself in the face. She proceeded to howl while standing on the very edge of the rug in the living room, dripping blood all over the rug, while the hardwood sat clean just 3 inches away. Of course, ...it had to be one of those situations where I was busy cleaning the bathroom and yelled, "Something better be seriously wrong with you if I have to come out there!

10/09/09
Today my coffee table chest has served as: A school bus, an ambulance, a bear cave, a thing what holds dead people (coffin?!), a pirate ship, a princess bed, a teepee, a tent and a castle, and an apple picking tractor. The imagination is a wonderful thing.

10/13/09
Kiki woke up FURIOUS with me this morning... arms crossed, she says, "Mom, why'd you let a squirrel come in and poop under my bed while I was sleeping?!" HAHAHA! It took me quite a while to convince her that it was a dream, and I hadn't actually done that. :-)

10/14/09
I had Kiki use all her spelling words in sentences today... for the spelling word "boy" her sentence was, "I really wish I had a boyfriend."

10/15/09
I asked the girls to help me clean out the fridge before we go grocery shopping. K announced that they really actually shouldn't do that, because if they helped me clean out the fridge, they would be too tired to be well-behaved at Costco.

10/16/09
After I was scolding Kiki for something... "Mom, do you even know anything about having kids?!"

10/20/09
Girls conversation in backseat:
B: When Gramma G comes, we should take her to our house up through *************! (a narrow road that travels up the front of a hill, with cliffs on one side, and a valley view to die for.) K: Well, Gramma G might not like that, because she's afraid of heights.
B: Well, I know karate, and I'll be with her, so she'll be safe. I can kick and punch those heights!!

10/26/09
Debris just told Kiki she'd buy her a Jet-Ski if she'd give Debris her spot on the couch.

10/29/09
Debris hit herself in the head. While she's howling, Kiki says, "I'm pretty sure the best thing to make her feel better would be Dad's BBQ Beef and Baked Beans!" So then I told Brie to stop howling, and she says, "Mom! You oughta try being nice to your kids every once in a while!!!"

11/03/09
Kiki voluntarily cleaned her bathroom earlier this morning... I just heard a huge sigh from her in there, a moan, and she yelled this: "You've got to be kidding me! I just cleaned up in here!!" LOL! The glee I got from that made my day, I tell you what.

11/04/09
K's first lesson of this swim session on monday she shook her fist in the air and proclaimed that she would not 'fail' this class. Tonight before lessons she got down and stretched dramatically, then jogged in place until it was time to get in the pool.

11/07/09
Debris just yelled to Kiki: "The giant has spelled a spell on us all! And if we don't get that look off our fat faces we'll all be walking around like this (fairy dance) or like this (goose steps)!" I dont know when I've heard a finer social commentary. She then announced that she was going to throw bombs (soft soccer balls) on the dogs and children in the kitchen. Sigh.

11/10/09
Today Debris has poured herself 4 glasses of orange juice & eaten 3 packets of emergenC in an effort to "not get the sicks you and Kiki have", had a lovely phone conversation with our local 911 call center, and pretended to go to bed and wake up tomorrow morning, in the hope that she could deceive me into thinking bedtime had already happened.


11/12/09 This morning Kiki announced that she would like to live in Siberia when she grows up so she could have snow year-round, and also be able to ice fish, and hunt for bears all year long. I really hope she never loses that sportswoman inside her!!

11/13/09
Debris is making snow angels in the dirt-snow and singing Frank Valli's "can't take my eyes off you" at the top of her lungs!

11/20/09
According to K, the way to whistle is to eat a thousand bites of salsa with no drink, and then breathe to cool your tongue off.

11/23/09
We were telling Gramma how Kiki fell in the ocean today. "Its not funny!" Kiki said, "My whole mouth was presented with salt water!"

11/25/09 Today at Costco Kiki announced that she wished her mouth was big enough to eat all the smoked salmon in the world. A true Pacific NW girl. :-)

11/27/09
Text message from my dad: "K just told Grandpa M that he should not tap his feet during the bible reading, only while tap dancing."

11/29/09 K--"I remember before B was born, it was just the three of us, and we had peace and quiet. Then B was born and it was jingle bells and waaah waahing! So Garrett asked her if she actually remembered that B was born around Christmas and she so matter-of-factly said, "Indeed I do; I remember everything dad."

11/30/09
I yell to the girls: "Hey, are you guys ready to go? We gotta take Daddy lunch!" Kiki says... Mom, it would really be nice if you would ask us TO get ready to go before you yell at us "ARE you ready to go"!"

11/30/09
I ask Kiki what the difference is between two numbers written on cards. She says, "How should we know? We're not scientists!"

12/01/09
Reasons, according to Debris, why she should be allowed to go on the roof today instead of me:
I'm little, so I won't get hurt if I fall.
I fall all the time, so falling off the roof won't hurt me.
The ladder might break if you climb on it, but I'm little, so it won't break if I'm on it.
The roof can be scary, up so high. I'll got up there, so you don't get scared.

12/01/09
K: Mom, where does "Santa the fake boy" live?

12/02/09
K: Mom, I don't like my life being narrated by school!"

12/03/09
K: "Mom, you are always making me do school and clean, and I don't like it one little bit! Life doesn't last forever, you know!"

12/03/09
K: "I love my stister, but sometimes I need peace and quiet. She really hurts my earbuds."

12/10/09
We get home from a restuarant. "Debris, I say, you have BBQ sauce all over your face!" Kiki shouts, "Yeah, and she smells delicious!!!" and grabs her, pins her down, and starts licking her face!!

12/22/09
So, Kiki went to climb down into a steep mini-ravine on our walk today... Debris was voicing her concern over the safety of this endeavor in a very panicky manner. Kiki says, "Debris, we will go carefully and slowly, and hold hands for safety. If you're going to be a mother about this you're going to ruin everybody's fun!"

12/22/09
Debris just disappeared into the backyard with the bowl of popcorn. She came in the house a few minutes later with a huge grin on her face... "Mom!" she annouces... "I planted all the popcorn seeds, and next year we'll have popcorn trees! It will be SO exciting! I can hardly wait to pick popcorn!"

01/04/10
Debris, yelling from the window, "Momma!!!! We're going UP!!!!" pauses... "Oh, wait. The snow is just falling DOWN!"

01/06/10
The girls got into a new thing of ice cream for an afternoon snack. K says with a grin, "Debris you taste it first to make sure its not poisonous!"

01/07/10
Debris walks in crying..."Momma, my leg walked me into a chair and I got a bruise... Stupid leg."

01/12/10
Kiki today... "mom, why in the world would ladies want to bathe in mud and put pickles on their eyes?!"

01/13/10
My children have dismantled the futon, and are sliding down the mattress they propped up against the wall, yelling, "YAY!! Wedgie Slide!" Very disturbing. Then Kiki wasn't following Debris' instructions, at which point, Debris yelled. "Mom! Kiki is burdening me with her disobedience!" We're all a little bananas with the... eternal fog... perhaps a trip out of the house is in order?

01/19/10
Kiki was chewing on her straw. I said, "What are you doing?!" She says, "I'm destroying my straw." I say, "Don't do that! Why would you want to do that?" "Mom," she says, "I'm keeping up on my destruction skills. You never know when you're going to need to destroy something."

0//23/10
Debris just gave me a hug, and said,"I know they all want to throw tomatoes at you mom, but don't worry, I still love you!"

01/24/10
K: Why do people go duck-dipping?
Me: What's duck-dipping?
K: You know, when people go swimming with no clothes or swimsuits on?

K: Boy, the selection of goggles is very un-fortune teller here!
Me: Do you mean unfortunate?
K: Yes, the selection of goggles is very unfortunate here. Silly me!

K: Mom, does it hurt to be kicked out of a band?

01/29/10
I awoke to ABBA blaring in the kitchen... I stumble out, and Debris is dancing her heart out on the kitchen counter and waving her revolver around. Turns out the spumoni ice cream she wanted for breakfast was gone, so she decided to dance instead.

01/29/10
When Debris was jabbering at Kiki while Kiki was trying to focus...
"Debris! Cut the voice!"

02/02/10
Kiki: Mom, wouldn't it be weird if I was Nutella, and I had to wear a jar all the time?!

Have a great day!!!!