Team Mates

*wiping a kiss off Adam's face

Dear Adam,

One day we'll have a house with a yard and a tree. The tree will be "ours" and in it's bark I will carve a heart that says:

Dana + Adam

FOREVER

That way we will never forget!

Thanks for being my Valentine!

I love you!

Dana

I Wish I Could Live in This Book:

I love reading books, but I am NOT a re-reader. As soon as I finish a book my mind wanders off in search of the next one. I rarely re-visit a book--even my very favorites.

Recently I read In My Hands: The Story of a Holocaust Rescuer. Depressing? Yes. Inspirational? Yes. Recommended? Definitely! Re-read? No way!

So my mind started to wander...NEXT?

I read The Giver. That was a rare re-read from junior high. I read it again because I had planned on going to book club, where they would be discussing it. I didn't go. Too tired that night.

NEXT?

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. The title sounded promising, but titles can be deceiving. I was bored to tears up until the last 20 pages, and even then I was not all that into it.

My mind was desperate! NEXT!

That's when my friend lent me The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. (Thank you!) The title seemed strange, but titles can be deceiving, right? I enjoyed it more and more as I read. As soon as I finished, all I could think about was reading it again! Coming from me, that's saying something! It was a fun, cute little tale about unlikely friendships during the German Occupation. Set in the Channel Islands, it is a mix between Pocahontas, Pride and Prejudice, and In My Hands. I am in love with the book's main character, Juliet, her quietly charming Dawsey, and all her other quirky friends from the island of Guernsey. I highly recommend it!

I think my mind will be stuck on this one for a while.

The Theater

This morning Katelyn informed me that she and Zachary would be putting on a play for me. I was very excited! I felt like Mrs. Davies in "Finding Neverland", except not so sick. I decided that I wanted to look my best for the theater, so as the kids prepared their play, I had fun getting dressed up. Out of my pajamas and into some clothes I never wear. I even put on my red lipstick, which I wear only at home for my kids. It makes things like cleaning the house and wiping dirty bottoms feel a little more glamorous. Plus, they like it a lot. Zachary stares at my lips, smiling, and Katelyn tells me I look beautiful. Then I give them funny-looking kisses. What a treat!

Here is the play in photographs.

(I got the feeling that Scene 3 was mostly improvised.
That must be why it was the most entertaining.)

Sleeping Beauty

starring Katelyn as S.B.
and Zachary as Prince Phillip

Scene 1
...in which Sleeping Beauty gives a book to the King and Queen.



Scene 2
...in which Sleeping Beauty reads library books to the children.



Scene 3
...in which Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip fight over the same book,
and everyone gets their feelings hurt.
(I'm not gonna lie, this was a pretty emotional scene.)



Scene 3 ended with said library book going on time out.

Nobody in the kingdom was happy.

Oops!

Zachary had his first taste of gum today.

Silver paper and all!

Does it really take a YEAR for gum to pass through your system,
or is that just something grown-ups tell kids to scare them?

What about silver paper?

P.S. Valentine's giveaway here!

Thumb Suckers Anonymous

Zachary has two bad habits.

(Or maybe more, but why dwell on it?)

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

The Diaper-Digging is easy enough to control. Feety pajamas are always an easy deterrent. Also, using a onesie as the foundation for EVERY outfit has worked pretty well. And on days when even that won't stop him, we put a pair of tights UNDER the onesie and that keeps him out fo' sho'!

Now let's address the Thumb-Sucking.

Today, after being told by Zach's grandpa that Zach is officially becoming Buck-Toothed, I decided it was finally time to begin discouraging the habit.

But how do you keep him from putting his thumb in his mouth?

Hot sauce?

Maybe.

Gloves?

He'd pull them off in a flash!

Those bad-tasting medicines you paint on?

Are those even okay for a 20-month-old?

So...

I find myself faced with a dilemma:

How do you get an addict to stop sucking his thumb?

Suggestions are welcome.

*me, circa 1982

P.S. He gets it from me...(or maybe Grandpa P?)

I stopped sucking (that phrase has double meaning. lol.) after my parents bribed me with a CareBear, but I don't think Zach will be so easy to reason with.