Mommy's season opener

Today, the family and I got to see our first baseball game of the season. (Well, technically Mike's second ballgame this year.)

Oakland did not win (the game wasn't even close) but we all had a lot of fun.

After the game, Amelia and Diana told us their personal highlights of the day. Amelia loved singing "Take me out to the Ballgame" and the new and improved scoreboard dot races ("chip racing").

Diana's favorite thing was, of course, the cotton candy. And while I'm not normally a huge fan of cotton candy (Amelia passed all together) the four-color, four-flavor cotton candy at the game was pretty darn good. And while I wish Oakland had won the only game I'm likely to see in person all year, I was very happy that we went and I had a wonderful time with Mike and the girls.

Lisa

Disappointment

Things have been going well. Diana is going to school part time, and she loves it. Still, she was a little disappointed when the teacher asked her what song she wanted to sing, then didn't know the words to her favorite Disney song. Why Diana's teacher hasn't bothered to learn every song in the animated version of Hercules is beyond me.

Amelia and Diana were both disappointed when they missed an opportunity to throw a coin into a hollow stump and make a wish. You see, while riding a small train through a local park the train conductor announced the arrival of the "lucky tree" too late for mom to hand coins out to her daughters. Still, I did have the chance to toss one in myself with a swift throw over my shoulder.

When the train stopped, and the girls began complaining that they hadn't made their wish, I happily offered my lucky wish to the two of them. Amelia said that she wanted to use my lucky coin to wish for a new teddy bear. Diana, following her sister's lead, asked for the same thing.

Oddly enough, a few days later I was told that Amelia would need a stuffed teddy bear for class. Apparently students graduating kindergarten and pre-kindergarten normally bring home-made bears and collect signatures from fellow students as a graduation memento. I knew that the girls wanted new teddy bears, and my sewing machine was already up and running, so I agreed to make bears right away.

We got our bear pattern from school (a silhouette cut from a cereal box) and went straight to our local fabric store. Amelia chose a pink floral pattern and raspberry pink buttons for her bear. Diana wanted blue fabric with white polka dots (which I thought was okay, since her class wouldn't be signing the bear).

Amelia was excited to watch every step of the bear-making process. With dad's help, Amelia and Diana even stuffed the bear. Amelia wanted to bring her bear to Target and to lunch before I had a chance to sew her little stuffing hole. I finished the bear in the car, worried that she would lose all of her stuffing the first day if I didn't finish quickly.

Amelia's bear looks kind of funny and simplistic to me. The bear's legs are long and spindly and, like Hank Hill, the bear has no butt - no butt at all! But Amelia thinks her bear is great and loves the fact that we made it ourselves. In fact, if you ask her, she'll tell you that she made the bear.

Tonight, Diana's bear is almost complete. I will finish sewing the red, white, and blue bear tomorrow - hopefully before anyone loves the stuffing out of it.

Lisa

So who's the fool now?

I left Diana alone for a moment, and she painted her face. Don't I feel foolish?

Reminds me of something Amelia said to me this morning, "I'm sneaky, but I'm still pretty nice." Both of the girls can be sneaky, but we love them just the same.

I haven't been blogging much, because I have been worn out every evening. Many nights I stay up to complete online training for my part-time job. The training is mind-numbingly dull and drains me of my will to live. This is not the best mindset to have when I would approach the blog, which is supposed to be happy and friendly. BUT I'm pretty sure I have all of my really important online work finished, so I'd like to welcome my brain and my smile back and give a shout out to all my peeps in the world of Internet blogging.

Now for the news: The weather has been beautiful. However, the warm sunshine and spring flowers have driven my family indoors. If you can't fathom why lovely spring weather would be avoided, check out the pollen count data for Northern California on weather dotcom.

And speaking of numbers, some of you know that I have undertaken a quilting project. For those of you unaware of my domestic undertaking, I have undertaken a quilting project.

So now you know.

Weeks ago I found myself beaming with pride because I had completed the required 108 squares needed to assemble my daughter's twin size bed quilt. But as I began to piece the quilt together, I found that I kept running out of specific colored squares. Beginning to feel a tad frustrated, I took out a pen and paper and calculated the actual number of squares needed to complete my first, fairly basic, fence rail quilt. I came up with 186.

After taking my first quilting class I realized that quilting required a lot of intelligence and skill in areas such as geometry and math. Apparently, the author of my quilting book missed the math section, somehow. Still, the book I'm using is a good one and I'm willing to sit down and sew another 78 fence rail blocks if that's what it takes to get the job done.

Lisa

"That'd be the butt, Bob"

(If you're curious about the title for this entry, click here.)

The past couple of weeks have been hectic, but fun. One thing we all enjoyed was another trip to "Old" MacDonald's. Of course, it's all fun and games until that greasy food starts to make it's way through the girls' digestive tracts.

But while at MacDonald's Diana showed me that she could play the piano with her butt. In case I didn't understand what she was doing she told me, "Look, I'm playing with my butt!" She played a fair version of "Jingle Bells" and asked if I would like to try it. Amazingly enough, I had no luck at all playing the piano with my butt.

Diana has been enrolled in school part time and now attends classes the same hours as her sister. Diana loves school, and didn't seem anxious at all to join a classroom full of new faces. When I bring her to her class, Diana does a happy dance around the room. I try not to take it personally.

Amelia is doing extremely well in school. He received a 45/45 on her kindergarten assessment at the local public school. She also did very well on her assessment at her current preschool.

But we all knew Amelia was sharp. Tonight I was giving her a hard time because everyone wanted to play "cheers" at the table but her. I called her an old stick in the mud and asked her, "Do you know what a stick in the mud is?" She immediately answered: "Dirty."

She is one smart cookie.

Lisa

Diana at school

This week Amelia's preschool class had a party to celebrate Valentine's Day. As she often does, Amelia's teacher invited Diana and I to come to school that day and join the party.

My intention was to let Diana stay for a few minutes while the class had their snacks and received their valentines. However, it turned out that the Valentine's Day party wasn't the first thing on the agenda.

Diana moved right into Amelia's class without hesitation and was invited to join with the students for "circle time" and "share day." Amelia and Diana both shared the Valentine's Day Disney Princess balloons they picked at the grocery store the night before. Once circle time was over, the girls got in line to wash their hands for snacks. Before moving to the sink with Amelia, Diana leaned over to me and whispered, "I got to have circle time and it was really fun!"

Diana did everything with Amelia's class and at the end of the day she told daddy all about her day. She played games, ate cookies, read a book, and played outside on the swings. She even learned how to do the Bean Bag Boogie! At one point, when the students filed into the office so that the teacher could photocopy her weekly newsletter to parents, Diana looked over her shoulder and whispered to me, "I'll be right back."

I think it's time we put Diana in school part time. She loves it, and I know she'll do well. Now if we can find the funds...

Lisa

A landmark of another kind

Thanks to grandma and grandpa, Diana now has her first "big girl" bed.

I had a wonderful time cleaning Diana's room and setting up her new bed, though I wasn't sure how Diana would feel about being back in her own room. Surprisingly, Diana loved her new bed and was very happy to be back in her own room. I can't say the same for Amelia.

The way Amelia has been acting, you would think that she was simply tolerating having her sister in her bed at night. When Diana climbed into her own bed, in her own room, the other night, Amelia cried. She really missed her little sister. Amelia confided in us that she needed her sister to be close by in case she had bad dreams. I suggested that she bring a stuffed animal to bed so that her stuffed friend could help her feel better in case of bad dreams. Amelia said, "But it's just a toy, I need a real person."

Amelia's doing better, and it was endearing to her how much she was missing her little sister.

Wednesday afternoon the girls and I travelled to Sacramento to visit my brother ("Uncle Chris"). As you might guess, Sacramento has several historical markers, so it wasn't terribly difficult to locate a marker on line that would be fun and interesting for our group to visit. The funny thing is, the marker I chose to visit is one that I have looked for several times before.

You see, according to the Internet, California Historical Marker #780 is in San Joaquin county near Tracy. But I have to tell you, I've looked for it where it was supposed to be, and it just ain't there. Because I felt confused and frustrated by my inability to find this spot I did some more digging and found that the marker was actually in Sacramento. That made me wonder if the location of the western end of the first trans-continental railroad was actually in Tracy, and the marker had been moved to Sacramento, or if the first listing was just plain wrong and the western starting point had been in Sacramento all along.

It seems that the correct answer is "B." And truthfully, it makes a lot more sense to me that the trans-continental railroad reached out from the site where gold was discovered and not from Tracy, California (no disrespect intended).

The railroad museum where Historical Marker #780 was actually located was quite impressive. A large collection of railroad engines are contained within the museum along with informative plaques and life-like figures in period clothing. You can also enter several of the engines which are usually manned by individuals who are familiar with the trains you are visiting.

While the girls liked the full-sized engines, they really loved the toy trains located on the museum's second floor. Upstairs there were very elaborate electronic train sets and two wooden "Thomas the Tank Engine" play sets. This was where the girls spent most of their time at the museum. As for me, I think I might like to return to the museum and spend much more time exploring the real trains and reading about the history of trains in California and in America.

And if I win a million dollars, I think I'll start collecting the china set they're selling at the museum gift shop - but that's neither here nor there.

Lisa

More funny stuff

Though we've visited a new historical landmark, and we have a new addition to our family, I've been too tired to record any of it here.

I should be more rested tomorrow.

In the meantime, let me tell you a joke Amelia shared with us tonight. "Why did the banana get together with the peach? To make a banana, strawberry pie!"

There was another good one about a banana getting together with a split to make a banana/strawberry sundae, but I can't remember the exact phrasing.

Regardless, enjoy this great, new video until tomorrow. (When you may get to read all of the news fit to print, maybe.)

Lisa