As Seen on TV

So as you well know from my last post, the Lady has eagerly been anticipating the arrival of her "Hot Buns" in the mail.

I have been hoping upon hope that they actually work and that she won't be super disappointed if they fall out of her hair after two minutes.

I finally got the email that the Hot Buns had shipped but in the meantime the Little Lady and I went on an excursion to Michael's to pick up some poster frames for the Lady's artwork. As is typical on any outing with the Little Lady, she wanted to buy a million things, had to make a stop at the bathroom and did some serious skipping around the store.

What did she find? Why the As Seen on TV section that included the Magic Ice Cream Shake, something she has been desperately wanting ever since she saw it on a commercial. Again, advertisers I have to applaud your efforts at selling to the under-5 set. If they had credit cards our house would be overflowing with even more useless junk.

I was dubious of course, but the Little Lady was insistent. I had to buy it because on the other side of the aisle was, you guessed it, Hot Buns. Why wait for the mail delivery? The Lady needed her Hot Buns and apparently the Little Lady needed some Ice Cream Magic. I am either A. the greatest or B. the worst mother ever.

We headed home and as soon as the Lady got home from school we tried the Hot Buns. I have to say I was impressed with how easy it was to do. Basically you just put a pony tail in the hair, take the Hot Buns and roll it up like you would a curler, snap it, and then distribute the hair around it. It comes with two sizes, small and large. The small was more than adequate for the Lady and I gave the large one to our sitter because I have no hair.

Anyway, the Lady was initially impressed, but as with all things new it takes her a while to get used to things so she had me take it out about 5 minutes after it got put in. Know what isn't easy about Hot Buns? Taking it out. Imagine trying to unroll hair off of Velcro. Yeah, that's about right. There was some hair pulling, some complaining from the Lady and I might have had to throw out a fistful of her baby wisps, but hey, sometimes there is a price for beauty.

The next morning the Lady was willing to give it another try. I had to do a high pony, not a medium or low pony. The Lady couldn't have been happier. We topped it off with the light blue scrunchy I had to buy her for ballet and I sent her off to school. She came home with the Hot Buns still in, maybe not as neat as when she left, but I was impressed.

How was the Magic Ice Cream Shake you ask? Well let's just say it took longer than the promised 3 minutes, was a bit more work then anticipated, and ended up tasting like whipping cream with a bit of vanilla extract in it. The Little Lady did like to shake it, but I think we will be using the cup and spoon provided to eat actual ice cream that I have purchased from the store.

What else was on that As Seen on TV stand? The Callous Clear, which the Ladies have both insisted that I get for my feet. I believe the Little Lady's exact words were "Mommy, you should get that because your feet aren't good." Thanks Little Lady, but it isn't flip flop weather yet and Momma has a few more things to worry about than her feet. She is totally right though. Maybe I should get it. . . .

When Everything Isn't Beautiful at the Ballet

My husband was out of town all last week. My mom was a huge help and we totally managed. The plan for the weekend was simple, the Ladies would be starting their new ballet class and then we would hang with the Wild Ones on Saturday. Sunday would probably be a lot of TV time until my husband got home, but I was well prepared for that.

We made a decision to sign the Ladies up at the Wild Woman's ballet studio. Even though it is a bit further from our house and we really liked our old ballet place, the new place has multiple studios and the Ladies could both take class at the same time. At our old place the Little Lady was going at 9:30 am and then the Lady was going at 11:30 am. It took up most of our morning and was a lot of back and forth. In all honesty, I am all for simplification at this point in my life, plus the Little Lady was very excited to be in a class with the Wild Woman.

Know who wasn't excited? The Lady.

I understand that change is hard for her, but every time ballet was mentioned during the week it turned into dramatics. She hates ballet, she doesn't want to go, she wanted to sign up for gymnastics, she doesn't like to dance. . . the list went on and on and on.

Friday night I was met with a bit of resistance as soon as I walked in the door from work. She was already whining about going. In an attempt to try to get organized and get everyone out of the house by 8:45 the next morning, I went looking for the ballet stuff. We have leotards and tights a plenty. At this studio there is a "dress code" for each class. The Little Lady would be pretty in pink while the Lady was supposed to wear a blue leotard and pink tights. Luckily we had a blue leotard. My sister was bringing some new ballet slippers that would fit the Lady that we won at the Wild Man's Christmas party at school and we would be set to go.

However, I couldn't find the ballet stuff. It had been in the same place for about six months. Finally, I found it spread on the bottom of the Ladies' closet and in general disarray. I got organized, packed the bag and listened to an increasing level of discord from the Lady that continued until I put her to bed.

I tried to talk it out, see what it was that was bothering her, but I did not give in and promise her anything. I did make mention that if she didn't want to actually participate she could watch, but from inside the studio, not outside where we would be watching the wonderful world of dance on closed captioned TV screens or through a one-way mirror.

She was not convinced. In fact, she took the time to draw me a picture of how she was feeling. I think art therapy is the way to go with this girl. . .



You have to love the X's.


Ever the perfectionist, the Lady made a second draft with the correct spelling of ballet and a much more colorful presentation. I do love the giant frown on her face.


I get the point Lady.



So at 6:45 the next morning the Lady shows up at my bed already complaining about ballet. I let her know that we are going one way or the other because the Little Lady has class as well. For the next hour and a half, we battle. She comes downstairs smirking because she "hid" the ballet slippers. Mind you, these weren't even her slippers they were the Little Lady's and she wasn't so sinister that she didn't immediately tell me that they were in her sock drawer.

The Little Lady was dressed and ready to go in her full-on pink. QT was dressed and ready to go in his Spiderman shirt and the Lady eventually got dressed, but in leggings and a t-shirt. I did manage to get them all in the car and we were the first ones at the studio at 9:15. I was pretty impressed with myself.

Know what else was at the studio? A wide array of ballet leotards, tights and tutus. I was able to bribe convince the Lady that maybe a new light blue leotard would be nice. I was also not 100% sure the blue leotard we had would still fit her. $28 for a leotard I wasn't even sure she would be wearing more than once? Sure. $9 for a pair of pink tights? You betcha.

I was finally able to dress the Lady and get her in the vicinity of the studio. We tried walking in once. We tried walking in twice. Finally, the dance teacher came out and escorted her in. I watched like an anxious dance mom from the window and she finally started to participate.

When her class ended, we bought a new blue tutu. We bought a matching blue hair scrunchy from the dollar bin. She was energized, invigorated and full of love once again for the ballet.

I was also told that I had to order her "Hot Buns," which are a product she saw on TV that helps create the perfect bunhead. Putting in my order now.

So after almost a full week of complaining, I had a girl who wouldn't take off her leotard, who insisted on dancing around my sister's house for the rest of the afternoon, who woke up on Sunday morning and asked to put on her ballet outfit and who is constantly hounding me for the "Hot Buns."

Hot Buns. Not sure if this will actually work in the Lady's hair, but we are apparently going to find out.

After class

Showing off her moves.

Everything is beautiful at the ballet indeed.

Some Shots from the Snowstorm

Hope everyone got shoveled out! Here are a few pics of the kids out and about in the snow this weekend.

The Lady

QT

The Little Lady

The Three Beans

Mommy Mishaps, Brought to You by the Letter M

M is for Misinterpreting Manipulation

So, last week the Lady was complaining about her stomach hurting before she went to school. To say that she has a laundry list of complaints and stalling techniques that she uses to try and manipulate her father and I into driving her to school would be an understatement.

We put her on the bus. Two hours later I got the call. "The Lady vomited." That is all the nurse said. I sent her father to pick her up and headed home after my appointment.

The Lady 1
Mom 0

M is for a Manic Monday

We took the kids out to my sisters for the Super Bowl. Instead of trying to put them down there and just waking them up for the ride home, we just let them do whatever they wanted. The Little Lady fell asleep on the couch around 10. Her sister and brother didn't even close their eyes in the car ride home at 11.

Monday morning wasn't so good. The Little Lady decided that she didn't want to go to school. In order to drive home her point she stomped up the stairs screaming "I don't want to go to school" at the top of her lungs, wearing only a pair of purple jeggings before slamming the bathroom door and locking herself in.

She didn't make it to school. I got a pretty good preview of her at age 16.

The Little Lady 1
Mom 0

M is for Missized

I have been meaning to get QT some new sneakers for a while now. I don't remember when I bought the one pair that he has been wearing, but it seemed to me that perhaps his feet might have grown in the last few months. I have been talking about bringing him to the shoe store for a while. But you know what? Things get in the way and I forget and we make other plans and the amount of time that he and I spend alone together is so small it is super sad.

Yesterday, I had some time before my appointment to get out and run some errands. I had the sitter meet me at the mall. I texted her to be there at 9:45. At 9:40, when I rolled in, I realized that the mall doesn't open until 10. We spent a good 15-20 minutes running around Barnes and Noble and then stood outside the gate to Stride Rite until the lady opened it for us.

QT has been wearing size 5.5 sneakers. One of his feet measured a 6.5 the other was closer to 7. Can you say bad parenting? The poor kid. My husband and I had been wondering why he was running on an angle. Probably because one of his feet was so wedged inside his shoe he didn't have proper balance. Oh QT, Mama is sorry!

Anyway, if you think that kid didn't leave there with a pair of well-fitting light up car shoes that he loved and that I spent double what I should have, you would be wrong. That kid made his way around that store like his sisters on a Sporty Shorty adventure, and ran out of the place twice.

I was just happy he had the correct size shoe and we had a couple of minutes together.

QT 1
Mom 0