Olive's 1st Haircut!

Olive had her very first haircut today... and loved it!  The two of us had an outing all on our own.  She wore her cute blue dress and ruffle pants and was ready to "turn into a princess"!  The girl was on cloud nine at the idea of getting princess hair and a "big girl" haircut.  Olive is so rough and tough, with such a deep little voice and her daddy's obstinate scowl, that it is always funny to me when she exclaims that she must have the pink shoes or cup or shirt.  She doesn't really care if she wears blue or green or black, but she sure says that her favorite color is pink!

I took Ivey to Glamorama last year for her first haircut... so I just had to take Olive back for the same treatment!  Olive was such a big girl sitting up in that seat.  She stayed still, as much as possible, and was all grins.  After her just-below-the-shoulder cut, she was given her favorite side-braid and glitter hair!  Her face was every bit as sparkly as that glitter!

Happy Birthday Ivey!

Ivey is 4!

We had a small birthday party planned for her on Saturday, but I came down with a really nasty cold (which wouldn't have been nearly so nasty if I had taken care of myself, stopped stressing and working, and just slept more than 3 hours a night for the past week, but I digress.)  We had to reschedule her party for tonight.  Although I was sick over the weekend, Ivey was able to go to both sets of grandparents for a nice heaping helping of birthday love.  She also was able to go to Dennis and Barbara's house with Jeff on Saturday night... where there is a basement full of full sized pinball machines!  Top that off with a birthday cinnamon coffee cake Sunday morning, a little birthday cake and song Sunday night, and a rescheduled party at Partner's Pizza tonight, and the girl came out WAY better than she would have if I had been well!

My sweet little girl could not be more proud to be 4 years old.  She thinks she is such a big girl, and she most certainly is.  The things that constituted the "terrible twos" are well past us, and it has been replaced by this spunky little girl who knows just what to say and just when to say it.  Sure, she has her moments, but she has matured so much as of late.  Olive may still be in the thick of it, but Ivey's last 9 months have shown me that it will not be long before we are out of the toddler trenches!

Her party tonight was just perfect.  She is at the age where a party is a party, whether there are 6 kids there or 2.  She was all lit up with excitement... and sugar.  The party was as eclectic as she is.  It was full of things that she loves:  My Little Ponies on the table, a sunflower cake, and a bunch of pink balloons... with one Spider Man balloon in the bunch.  My girl is such a funny little mix of fairy tales and super heroes.  The girl is more into comic book cartoons than I could have ever been.  She has a particular affinity for The Incredible Hulk, the Avengers (cartoons, of course) and the Fantastic Four lately.  She will watch Care Bears and My Little Ponies, but give her a dose of that super hero charisma and she is hooked.  Spider Man, Astro Boy, she loves them all... at least all that she is allowed to watch!

She has another side, as well.  The girl loves anything creepy.  She can don a Cinderella dress-up dress and her frilliest shoes and play "Jack Skellington" or "Coraline" pretend with Olive.  For a while, she was hooked on The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Ask any sitter we had, the girl would watch, replay, watch, replay, and study the opening song... memorizing every line.  She loves that movie.  She loves the characters.  She also loves Coraline, which may have the most creepy story line of any "kids" movie she has ever seen.  Another one of her favorites is Ruby Gloom, which I also adore.  Ruby Gloom is basically a normal little kids cartoon-- the main character teaches to be a good friend, think positively, and all sorts of other warm fuzzy kid-friendly lessons, but happens to be with goth characters and settings.  Even the theme song makes me happy.  I love this show!  In a few weeks, Ivey will be Ruby Gloom for Halloween, with Olive playing the role as Doom Kitty!

Happy Birthday, my sweet Ivey.  The world, and our family, is much brighter for having you in it!

Dennis the Mennis

We have not had cable or satellite t.v. at our house since, maybe, 2007.  I thought I would miss it.  At the time, it was a crazy idea and not quite as common (not that it is incredibly common, but more than it was!).  We took an old computer and hooked it up to a large monitor.  Back then, we simply watched whatever was free and streaming.  Now, we have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and can watch videos with my Amazon Prime Account.  These three come to under $25 per month, yet we still judge each one for how often it is used... because it can be dropped.

On two occasions, I walked by the DirectTV people who were set up in WalMart and, as they tried to lure me into a sales pitch by asking what type of t.v. service I use, were struck with the answer, "We chose not to have any t.v. service."  Neither time did the salesman/woman even TRY to dig in for another attempt!

My boys have been stuck on old black and white episodes of Dennis the Menace lately.  They sit in my bed and watch it on the ipad, cackling out of control.  "He never seems to get in TROUBLE!", Asa exclaims. The boys are absorbed in the episodes, but I wasn't sure that Ivey was paying any attention.

That is, until last week when we expressed her frustration with dropping her juice cup by saying, with all the emphasis and inflection in all the right places, "Awwww, Nuts!"   Ms. Gina, who keeps the girls twice a week and teaches at their preschool, brought up the hilarious new phrase.

It seems it is her favorite expression of disgust at the moment.

And it makes me laugh out loud every time!