Punished!

Ok, so the title is a little overly dramatic. But, we are admittedly softies with E, and, tonight, she did something that mandated a punishment.

Let's just say it is REALLY tough to get indelible marker off of hardwood floors.

E was really tired and looked to be headed upstairs. I was holding Andrew and turned around to turn on the upstairs light. When I turned back around, I saw E move her hand in a circular motion on the 2nd step. "That doesn't seem to be good," I thought.

And, it wasn't. She had a black marker in her hand...and had drawn two oval shapes...on the 1st and 2nd steps. Arrrrrrgh!

After shocking her with a loud, "Elizabeth! WHAT are you DOING?!?!" I thought, "Well, she has a box full of water soluble markers. It'll clean up fine. No harm done."

Then I picked up the pen. The only marker in her box that is NOT water soluble. @$%!#@!

And, apparently, rubbing alcohol only does so much. It'll need to be sanded and re-stained to fix. Unless someone out there has a foolproof way of removing marker from untreated hardwood.

"Laid back. With my mind on my money and my money on my mind."

I thought about posting a ridiculously cute picture of E with the caption, "How could you punish this child?" but that pretty much feeds into the aforementioned softy-ness. Which would undoubtedly cause countless eye rolls among the mothers out there. My little girl can indeed be a little scamp and have some disdain about it. I thought this picture captures that sentiment somewhat.

After taking away the marker (and promptly placing it in the trash), I came back to a sobbing Sweetpea on Mommy's lap, with Andrew on the other leg. (The leg occupied by E was soaked in tears.) I learned that it is possible to feel nothing and heartbroken at the same time. As heartbreaking as it was to hear her clearly dejected sobs, I knew that we had to teach her a lesson, even if small. Susan took E upstairs where she cried some more on our bed while I tried in futility to clean the steps.

During the bedtime routine, I explained to E that what she did was wrong and that she was going to be punished. No story before bed tonight. (See, I said it was small.) She didn't seem to know what to make of this, and it took a couple more minutes of explaining to get the point across.

"No brushing teef?"
"No, sweetie, no story. We're brushing teeth, then it's bed and prayers."
"But, there's always story."
"Not tonight, Baby Girl. You're being punished."
*pause* "No story?"
"No story."

After that, she didn't want to let me clean her up or brush her teeth. But she begrudingly gave in (no need for more tears). And, true to our word, there was no story.

I thought for sure that she'd cry herself to sleep, but I think she had tired herself out beforehand because she dropped right off. In her defense, she was exhausted -- she was up at 5 AM and didn't have a nap. She wasn't doing anything maliciously, and the crying was more because she was tired. It's a small punishment, but, we have got to teach her that there are repercussions to her actions. I hope she has learned something. As for me, I have learned that I need to keep a closer eye on that girl...

- Rich

Happy Birthday Grandma W!

Happy birthday to my Mom. I won't reveal her age, but, suffice to say, I'll be 10 yrs older than her when Elizabeth is my age. Yikes. I feel old. And, no I had not been drinking when Elizabeth snapped my picture. I felt it was only fair that, if we were going to pose her, she should have the chance to pose me.

- Rich

Had to just jump in here to describe the taking of Rich's picture. First, yesterday was not a good day to be a sweetpea. It's hard to be three sometimes. So getting the picture of the two of them - let's just say lots of bribery and there are plenty of pics on the camera with not so pleasant expressions. As you can see, Andrew finally gave up and conked out. So after it was all over, Elizabeth was in a much better mood. She grabbed the camera and said, 'now it's daddy's turn.' (revenge is sweet.) And posed him, made him add the toy to his head, thought about it, grabbed the note and positioned it, said 'ok, now, let's see a pretty smile!' took the photo, said 'good job!' (in exactly Rich's tone and inflection) and then held out the camera for us to inspect the photo. I wish I had a video of how exactly she acted like us trying to take her picture. (and then she took a picture of the ceiling. And Aggie. And sleeping Andrew (or at least part of him). And then it was back to a rough day as the camera was put away and bath time began!)

laughing

Elizabeth and I spend a lot of time with Andrew in one pursuit: "get him to smile at me, Mommy!" Yesterday, during the day, I said to her, "I think Andrew might have dimples." "Dimples? What are dimples?" So I explained, with some difficulty, that they were little dents in his face when he smiled, but he was still so chubby with a baby face we might not see them if he has them, but maybe they were there.

So last night at dinner, Elizabeth made some faces at Andrew which caused him to break into his wide-mouthed grin.

"Look Daddy!" she shrieked. "Andrew has nipples!"

- Susan

shrinking?

Had the 2 month check up last week, and Andrew is shrinking! Not really, but at 1 month, he was recorded at 24 inches, which put him off the charts. This time, after two measurements, he clocked in at 23.5 inches. They figure it was just an incorrect measurement before, and 23.5 puts him in the 60th percentile, so that's ok. Weight? 14.5 lbs! That's 2 lbs 4 oz in one month, and puts him in the 90th percentile. And his head was 15 inches around, right in the mid-range. It's all about the numbers, right?

In other news, I know we're falling down on the job in posting. My computer is so jam-packed with photos and music that I can't upload any more pictures, which means getting them on the blog is problematic. But a solution is in the works, I think. We have lots to catch up on. There are some cute pics coming!

Obama Inauguration

So we went down to the Mall the day before the inauguration -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (1/19/09). We planned to watch the inauguration from the safety and warmth of our living room the next day, but we wanted to get a sense of what it was going to be like for the 1.6+ million people that ended up down there.

We have a public Obama Inauguration Picasa Web Album where we have posted all of our pictures from the day before, day of, and day after one of the greatest turning points in American history. Here is a small sampling:

Day Before

News trucks lined the Mall...

...and so did the port-a-potties

Mommy's mittens make me look crazy!

What a trooper!

Up Penn Ave from 7th St (toward White House)

Down Penn Ave from 7th St (you see the Capitol)

Inauguration Day

Someone's excited!

Congratulations, President Obama!

Couple Days After

World's Cutest Obama Fan modeling a "toboggan" (aka knit cap as understood by the world's population outside of Pocomoke City, MD and some random place in Kentucky)

NOTE: Funny story about the "toboggan." I give Susan a hard time every winter about using this term to describe a hat. To me, and every other sane person that I've known, a toboggan is something you slide down a hill on in the snow. So as I'm giving Susan a hard time on the street the day before the inauguration, she overhears a couple of women talking. One says "toboggan" to the other. In one quick move, Susan engaged the women and asked if they were referring to the hats being sold by the vendors. They were! Turns out they were from Kentucky. They asked me, "what do you call them?" My answer: "A hat." (* laughter from random strangers *) I hate it when random strangers corroborate Susan's stories...

It was an amazing time to be in DC. We have some slight regrets about not going down for the actual event or the concert over the weekend at the Lincoln Memorial. It just wasn't practical. At least we can say we were here when history was made and it became "cool" again to be an American.

- Rich

Happy Birthday David!

We went to a very nice party held in honor of E's friend David's 3rd birthday. Held at Generous George's, the kids got to make their own pizzas and play on the games and carousel rides.

Good seeing that everyone made it through the holidays unscathed. Hard to believe that all of the Milk Moms' progeny are now 3 years old. The days are long but, geez, the years are short.

Couple of pics from today.




"Can't wait til I can get me some pizza."






Making pizza - cheese with black olives. Birthday boy is in the background behind Sweetpea.






Ride 'em, cowgirls!





- Rich

The sick house

Instead of a touching and sentimental post about how great it was to have my parents here helping us and how sad we are they left today (who will do the laundry? hang with Elizabeth? empty the dishwasher? hold Andrew constantly?), I'm wishing I had hopped in the back of their car as they sped away from the sick house, driving toward 80 degree weather.

My dad got it first, and his developed into bronchitis. Then my mom went down, then Rich. And yesterday, Elizabeth. Andrew and I are hanging strong, but I'm not sure how long we'll hold out.

- Susan