Spring Fever

My girl's got a severe case of spring fever! She has been begging to wear flip flops to school for the last two-three weeks (too cold!) and lately I have been letting her wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts inside on the weekends. She stays pretty warm, whereas I'm just about right in sweat pants, t-shirt and sweatshirt. She makes me cold just looking at her. She did get to wear flip flops to school about three weeks ago when we had a nice day, but I had her put a pair of shoes and socks in her cubby in case she needed them (didn't need them). This pic is last Sunday - the slushy snow started falling just as we left for early church, and it was so windy. I should have worn my winter coat, but grabbed my spring jacket/coat instead. I froze getting us out of the car and into church (early church as I was cantor).

I had a terrible headache all morning, and after two services and a meeting, we went to Burger King for lunch so she could run around and I didn't have to cook anything. Then home and I went straight to my bed. I let her play awhile and then called out that it was time for her nap. Thankfully, I didn't have to move a muscle for her to actually get in her bed for her nap, and we both slept for a couple of hours. I woke up headache-free and felt great. I must have needed the extra rest! She played inside the rest of the day in her shorts. The slush had frozen to the tree branches, and with the wind, it fell in chunks against the roof all afternoon. Made for some interesting background noise.

Here's something I can't believe I have to deal with. It's just about the one thing I SHOULDN'T have to deal with. Sibling arguing and complaining! Amanda has taken to yelling at and about her "brother" all the time, but especially on the way home in the car during the week. And a critical component (to her) is my interaction in this pretend relationship. "Mom, brother hit me" or "Mom, brother said a naughty word". And if I'm ignoring this, she says, "Mom, say 'why don't you two stop arguing'" or something like that. If I'm still reluctant, she says, "Just pretend, please, Mom?" I've never been good at pretend! I don't exactly hate it, but it's fairly close. Sometimes I tell her to just pretend that I've said what she wants me to say. A couple of times last week, I asked her to pretend she has a nice brother. A few nights ago, I put "brother" in time out, and when she started in about him doing whatever (still), I said, No, he's in timeout. "But Mom, he....(whatever)". No, he's in timeout in the next room and I don't want to hear anything about him. Yesterday, I told her to go play with her dolls and stop yelling about brother - I was done hearing about him! I definitely preferred when she had her "class" and spent her time yelling at them. I didn't have to be involved in that!!

New pajamas from Jacob's Babushka Sue! She loves them and wanted to wear them right away, even though it's still cold (continuing the opening theme).

I asked her to sit on the couch for a picture to send Sue (haven't done that yet - sorry, Sue, and thanks again!). Above is the pose she gave me - what's up with that? Doesn't it seem sort of... well, not exactly a little girl pose? I asked her to sit up for another picture, but she refused and settled into another like the above. Funny.

Last weekend, Aunt Patty, Brittany & Abby came up for Abby's Tae Kwon Do tournament in Bellevue and some power prom- and graduation-dress shopping for Brittany. Aunts Cindy & Barb handled the shopping (with some impressive bartering skills demonstrated by Barb) while Patty found herself a dress and I tried to take Amanda for an Easter Egg hunt. I say tried because it turned out the hunt was third on the agenda, and I didn't have time for an hour-long experience. They had storytime for one group and crafts for the other, then switched groups, and THEN had the egg hunt. As soon as I heard this plan, I bailed. I found a pastor-looking guy (this was a church in my neighborhood) and asked if Amanda could please just go wherever the eggs were staged and just pick up maybe three eggs, as I told her we were coming to an egg hunt. So a lady took us upstairs and she let Amanda pick out 4 eggs. I was a little irritated (maybe irrationally so). Seems if they advertise a 10:30 egg hunt, it should be a 10:30 egg hunt? Today we went to one and they had a 20-minute magician/balloon entertainer lady first, which the kids enjoyed, and since I had time for it, I was fine with it, so maybe I shouldn't have been irritated last week.

We spend the afternoon at a Bellevue high school watching Tae Kwon Do. Abby did ok with her form (looked good to me, but she said it wasn't good according to the judges' scoring), but got the best girl in her group to spar with, and the gal got her with a kick right to Abby's chin. Yikes! I think she had fun at the tournament, but it was a rough end to it for her.

On the way home, Amanda says, "Well, Mom, I have a hole in my pants." I asked, "Did you do it?" and she said no. I look in the rearview mirror and think, ok, maybe it's a seam that's come undone. We get home and I remember to take a look at it. It wasn't a seam but right in the middle of her front thigh. As my brain is processing what I see, I say, "How did this happen?" and she said she didn't know, but as soon as I say it I realize - it was cut with scissors. She had a pair of her scissors in her purse that she had with her, and I guess she got bored and decided to see if she could cut clothes. She spent some time in the naughty chair for that!

"What do we use scissors on?!" "paper *sniff, sniff*"

"Do we cut clothes?!" "no *sniff, sniff*" (Well, I think to myself, today I guess we do...)

More later with an Easter update. I have to be at church early tomorrow morning, so need to get to bed. I need to have us ready to go straight from church to Lincoln for dinner at Aunt Cindy's. Choir is singing (a lot) at both services. I'll try to leave early to as not to make everyone wait for us, but hate to miss our second service singing of Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus", which is how my church closes both Easter Services. Usually I'm in Kansas for Easter weekend, so I count my blessings that I get to sing it at the end of the early service.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! (He is Risen, Indeed! Allelujah!)