Busy Weekend

So many things have happened this weekend, and it's only Saturday evening.  First off: I finished "Connect the Stars."  Madeleine was right; it really DID kick up in the last quarter of the book.

We Rowes have been busy with so many activities.  Last night, we all went to a Fund-Raiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  Billed as a Kids' Dance Party, the event was full of blasting music, flashing lights and throngs of people.  Ethan was pretty much miserable, but at least the kids had a ball.  I wasn't sure that was going to be the case at the start, since Julia was a total grumpster.  The reason for her grumpiness?  She kept seeing people that she KNOWS.  What an awful situation.  I guess since she's so shy about talking to people, she couldn't handle the fact that there were so many of her classmates around her that she had to try and avoid.  Luckily, she found a close friend before long, and spent the rest of the evening happily socializing.  Madeleine's best friend was there as well, so they were inseparable.  The kids visited the photo booth several times, got ALL kinds of junk food, and got baseball caps that were decorated with whatever name or word they asked for.  Julia opted for "Jules," although you can't see it in the photo, and Madeleine went for "Swim":

Today was equally busy.  Julia was excited and nervous for her Select Choir's attendance at the MICCA Festival.  MICCA (Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors' Association) holds a day-long competition every year, and today was the day.  Julia had to board a bus from the middle school to a nearby town, and while Ethan and I would have loved to go and watch the competition, instead we accompanied Madeleine to the girls' Swim Banquet.  Madeleine took care to sign Julia's name in cursive in the cards for the coaches, and was instructed to go up to the front of the room to collect any awards Julia might win.  

So, when the MVP of the 11-12 year old girls was announced, we heard Julia's name (along with the name of one of her friends; two awards were given for her age group.)

ME: Okay, Madeleine, go up and get Julia's trophy.

MADELEINE: (wrapping her arms around me in terror) You come with me.

ME: Madeleine, just go!  Go quick!

MADELEINE: (frozen with terror)

ME: Come on. (walking up to the front, beckoning to Madeleine.)

MADELEINE: (sitting frozen in her seat)

So I collected the trophy.  I was THE ONLY PARENT who went up for anything.  Any other missing swimmers had a sibling or friend collect their prize for them, but whatevs.

                                                                    Julia's MVP trophy!

Madeleine received the Coaches' Award, and she was at least brave enough to go up and get her own trophy:

Julia was also featured as a record-holder in several events, so even though she had the huge disappointment of missing New England's, she was shown to be a hugely important part of the team this year!

I was texting Julia all this info, expecting her to be over the moon about her award and records, but she was busy being over the moon about something else: Select Choir won gold at the choral festival!  What an exciting day to be Julia!  

As she put it in a text to me, about she and her Select Choir bestie, "Me and Lily think we really deserve going out to ice cream together."

She just recently got home and had dinner, and now she, Ethan and Lily are getting the ice cream that they deserve going out to together.  Congrats to both my girls!

Madeleine's Reading Recommendation

Madeleine recently read the book "Connect the Stars" by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague.  She was a HUGE fan, and highly encouraged me to read it.  So this week, I delved into it and I'm about 150 pages in.  Madeleine has been extremely inquisitive about what's going on in every section I'm reading; however, her memory of the book seems a bit spotty.

MADELEINE: So what part are you at?
ME: The kids just got to the desert for camp.  I feel bad for Kate.  Does she ever get less sad?
MADELEINE: Mmmm...I think...well, I don't know. They don't really say.


OR

MADELEINE: What part are you at NOW?
ME: They're on the Scavenger Hunt.
MADELEINE: What PART of the Scavenger Hunt?
ME: Caesar's Nose.
MADELEINE: Wait.  WHAT nose?
ME: Caesar's Nose.
MADELEINE: Oh.  I guess I don't really remember that part.


However, there is one thing Madeleine is certain about.

MADELEINE: Mommy.  The last, like, QUARTER of the book reeeally KICKS UP.

I can't wait.

Dramatic Morning

Getting ready for church today was really fun.  The kids were SUPER cooperative.

9:15am
ME: (shouting down to the girls, who were watching "PowerPuff Girls" in the playroom) Girls, we have to leave for church in about fifteen minutes, so it's time to get dressed and ready really soon.
GIRLS: (shouting back up to me) Okay!

9:17am
JULIA: (coming upstairs to get ready) Mommy, it's WARM out!
ME: Yeah, it's nice today.
JULIA: (emerging from her bedroom with a pile of sleeveless dresses) Which one should I wear?
ME: How about the sparkly one from Yiayia?  Madeleine is gonna wear hers today too.
JULIA: Okay!

9:20am
ME: Madeleine, come on up and get ready for church.
MADELEINE: (stomping up the stairs, whining) Julia never TOLD me it was time to get ready!
ME: It's not Julia's job to tell you.
MADELEINE: No, but Julia went upstairs and she didn't TELL me why she was going upstairs so I didn't KNOW it was time to get ready!
ME: Madeleine, Julia is not in charge of telling you when to get ready.  I told you.
MADELEINE: No, but Julia didn't TELL ME she was going upstairs to get ready.
ME: It's fine. I just told you.
JULIA: (emerging from her bedroom in her sleeveless dress, with bare legs.) I'm READY!
ME: Honey, you're gonna want tights.
JULIA: No I don't!  It's warm out!
ME: It's not warm enough for bare legs.
JULIA: Yes it is!
MADELEINE: (putting her sleeveless dress on) Mommy?  Should I wear sandals?
ME: You should wear your dress shoes.
MADELEINE: Okay, so then should I wear socks?
ME: How about tights?
MADELEINE: I don't WANT tights!
ME: Well, aren't dress shoes going to bother your feet with no tights?
MADELEINE: Well, I have some knee socks.
ME: Honey, you really shouldn't wear knee socks with this fancy dress.
MADELEINE: How about regular socks?
ME: Come on, let's get you some tights.
MADELEINE: (losing it) FINE, THEN JULIA HAS TO WEAR TIGHTS TOO!
ME: (calling to Julia) Julia, can you do me a favor to help make everything easier and just put on some tights?
JULIA: WHY?!?
ME: It would just make things much easier.
JULIA: But I don't WANT to wear tights. I'm gonna be HOT!
ME: Can you please just put them on?
JULIA: (stomping around her bedroom)
MADELEINE: (whining from her bed)
ME: You know what?  Let's just not go to church.  It's not worth the battle.  Just take the dresses off.
JULIA: But I'm GETTING tights on!
MADELEINE: But we HAVE to go to church!
ME: No, I'm really not doing this anymore.  I'm just gonna go read my book.

Even when I'm trying to call it quits, my kids decide to defy me.  Julia stomped into the bathroom, tights on under her dress, to do her hair.  Madeleine began crying because she banged her arm into the bathroom door frame.  Julia stomped down to the garage and got in the car.  Madeleine was still crying in her bedroom so I went to check on her.

ME: Honey, let me see your arm.  You really hurt it, huh?
MADELEINE: No, it's just that I was trying to find my dress shoes in my closet, and I could only find one, and you were already so upset so I didn't want to bother you, and (tears flowing even more freely) I felt like the fate of the WORLD rested on one little shoe, and then I found it.
ME: Honey.  You can ALWAYS ask me for help finding something.  I'm never going to get angry about that.  What makes me frustrated is when you girls are fighting and not cooperating.

We did finally get out the door.  Needless to say, we were late for church.

Here are the girls in their sparkly dresses from Yiayia.  Just try to picture them with bare legs and/or knee socks and you may understand why I was such a meanie and made them wear tights:

Lost in Translation

Over the past few days, I have come to the realization that my children speak a different dialect of English than I do.  They clearly interpret my commands and requests to mean something COMPLETELY different from what I think I'm asking.

I think I'm starting to translate some of my version of English into Kid-English, based on their responses to the things I have asked them to do.

Apparently:

"Get ready for bed" means "decide it's time to throw a paper airplane around the living room."

"Go get dressed" means "sit on your bed in your pajamas and play with a miniature Slinky."

"Can you grab your pile of laundry and put things away in your room?" means "drape your dress over the handle of your closet door because you think you're not good at hanging."

"This is not a problem worth fighting over" means "get into a stupid argument that requires being separated because you think your sister is 'being mean' to the exercise ball."

And it seems the kids even have trouble understanding each other lately, as well.  In several instances today, I have discovered that:

"Stop!" means "keep doing the annoying thing you're doing no matter how many times the other person has requested you cease such activity."


I guess I'm in good shape if I ever need to know how to ask the kids to throw a paper airplane around or play with a Slinky while still in pjs.  Otherwise, my success at translation doesn't seem to give me much of an advantage.  Maybe one day I'll be fluent enough in Kid-English to know how to be understood and obeyed.

Yet Another Book

Well, this looks really promising!:

Science Girl looks an awful lot like a wizard.  Maybe she's just so into astronomy that she feels the need to wear outer space-themed attire from head to toe.  And carry a scientific instrument that looks suspiciously like a wand.

That Extra-Terrestrial though.  I can't wait to find out more about that two-headed pink-vomit-mouthed creature with a wiggly tail between it's legs.  I'm hooked just by the cover itself!

Plague House

Greetings from the Plague House, wherein I became the lone Rowe standing.  Thankfully, the girls have turned the corner and were back to school today.  There remains a cacophony of hacking flu cough throughout the household, but I think this video shows that the girls are feeling MUCH closer to normal:





The man on the couch, unfortunately, is still in recovery.  Hopefully he too will be dancing around and galloping within a few days' time.

Full House and Fevers

So, Ethan, Madeleine and I are sitting in an exam room waiting to get tested for flu.

MADELEINE: Mommy.  A fever of 101 is: stay home from school.  A fever of 103 is: go to the hospital.
ME: Well, 100.4 is considered a fever, so that's the temperature that means stay home from school.
MADELEINE: Well, Mommy, they say on "Full House" that 101 is stay home and 103 is hospital.
ME: Julia had a 103 fever on Thursday and she didn't have to go to the hospital.
MADELEINE: Maybe it's because "Full House" is from a long time ago. I think it's from, like, 1976.
ME: "Full House" is from the '80' and '90s, honey.
ETHAN: Yeah, like around 1992.  Not 1976.  Madeleine, 1976 is when I was born.
MADELEINE: (thoughtful silence) Did you even HAVE TV's then??

Sheesh, Madeleine.  We're not THAT old!!!