...a mind of her own...

AMAZING... guess what anna katherine picked out to wear to school today? with NO encouragement from me... here's a photo taken immediately before we departed for preschool..

(pardon the fake "mom is making me smile" pic)

reminds me of my own experience as a child with tomatoes.. i hated them but mom made me eat them anyway... and now i'm a BIG FAN.. :)

(see post below if you don't know what i'm talking about...)

... drama filled morning...

so this morning was tragic for anna katherine.  she was forced to wear her pink and brown camouflage pants that her grandmother gave her for christmas from the gap outlet.  i pulled out her outfit for school, and had it ready when she got out of the shower.  she immediately began fussing about the pants, saying that she wanted to wear jeans instead.  she and steve bantered back and forth a bit, and she ended up screaming about how rude we were and telling us she was NOT going to wear them. obviously at this point we could not let her win- just on the principle of the whole thing.  did i really care whether or not she wore the pants? no. but here's the deal-- all parents know that there comes a point in an argument when you CAN'T let them win.  if you did, then they would think all they have to do the next time they disagree with you is to scream, whine, and pout and you'll cave. sooooo.... we dug our heels in.  she basically worked herself into hysteria, and kept saying that "everyone would stare" at her; that no one would want to play with her; she would be embarrassed.  she even said she'd rather stay home than go to school in those pants.  her plea was really stirring, and if i were five i would have believed every word.  now i have to admit, i was starting to feel a little bad about the whole mess.  we hadn't intended for this to become such a big deal.  i mean, i knew what she was saying wasn't true and that she was being irrational, but regardless of truth she really did feel that way.  at FIVE!  i tried to rationalize with her and dispel her fears, but to no avail.  (i am still stunned that a five year old actually cares so deeply about what clothing goes on her body and what other people think.)   so i took her to school wearing the pants.  and she wept the entire way.  she stood outside the door of her classroom begging me to take her home.  finally the teacher drug her in as she screamed to me down the hall to come back.  according to mrs. kelly, she stopped crying after about 10 minutes. whooo... 

i've decided the camo pants will never be an issue again- either she picks them herself or they stay in the drawer.  

she will pick her outfits and we won't baulk. if she wants to wear christmas leggings in late january, then she will wear christmas leggings in late january.  

we will let her assert her independence in this area.  (well, for the most part.) case closed.

  

i think being a parent is the hardest job in the world.  kids don't come with manuals, and i hate learning by trial and error.  every day i try to love them and parent them well, but end up wondering if i'm scarring them for life.  every night i pray for God's grace over my mistakes.  

any one else ever feel like a mess as a parent? come on- tell the truth... 

...oh the memories...

i'm reliving my childhood with the new and improved Baby Alive doll. the original came out in 1973, and i loved my baby alive. what's not to love about a doll that eats, drinks, wets and poops her diaper? yippee! my inlaws gave sara one for christmas, so now i get to help feed and burp this little doll.

my girls think she's great. at first glance, i did also.

5 things i DON'T like about the new baby alive:

1. her diapers are more expensive than real baby diapers. i just bought a 6 pack for 5 bucks! and they are not reusable. try telling your girls that you can only feed her once every few weeks... as soon as we had the messy diaper off today, they were ready to feed her again. she constantly says, "i'm hungry. i'm thirsty." anna katherine was rushing me to get the food ready to feed her, and she was really worried that the baby would die from starvation. (great)

2. her food isn't cheap either. (it's a special green pee powder you mix with water. mmmm yummm.)

3. she is REALLY heavy- sara has a hard time lifting her.. i bet she's 10 pounds on a light day.

4. she's really hard and her eyes are big and creepy.

5. she burps and then laughs about it. i think she's a bad influence! :)

anyway, here are a few shots of the girls feeding and changing her poopy diaper today. sara was too cute, talking about how her stinkie "smelled".. and she held her nose.. (it didn't, by the way)..

did any of you have a baby alive? are you the sentimental type who will get sucked in and by one for your child?

...separated at birth...

dave grohl- steve hambrick- separated at birth? decide for yourself...

for years, people have approached steve telling him how much he favors dave grohl (lead singer of the foo fighters).  and some of those folks would swear that steve WAS dave when they met him.  almost every time we are in an airport, people stare at steve. or talk to him about the similarity.  it's actually quite bizarre, and we've come to expect the comparison. i'm surprised at how many people actually know who dave grohl is and what he looks like!

all of this was thrown into full throttle last night.  we went with our good friends joe and julie lamotta to the foo fighters concert in orlando.  you wouldn't have believed how many people yelled out at steve, or stared at him throughout the evening.  we even had a guy chanting, " DG! DG! DG!"  at him.  bizzarro. we tried our hardest to get backstage and meet the real dave, but try as we may, we remained in section 106 row k.  i schmoozed a cop, an old man checking ticket stubs, and dave's actual cousin i met at the foo fighters shirt kiosk.  none of them were impressed. 

maybe one day we'll meet steve's twin.  for now i suppose we are stuck settling for a good show... (and good it was)...

...the depths of my soul cry out...

steve is spending the night tonight at our local church, helping with an outreach to homeless families. his absence at home afforded me time all alone after the girls went to bed around 7:30. and i have to admit, that excited me.
so i started 3 books. not one, but THREE. do you ever do that? start one book and then move on to another before you are finished with the first? i was so thrilled to actually have some time to read that i ended up reading a chapter or two of 3 different books. they all are so intriguing that i couldn't decide. on top of that, i actually started this reading extravaganza by pulling out a book i started a few days ago. which makes 4 books total for today.
sometimes my soul aches for a good read. and i so rarely take the time to meet that inner cry. i guess it doesn't seem quite as pressing or scream quite as loudly as the laundry in the dryer, the dishes in the sink, and the toys that need to be taken back to their rightful abode. 11pm comes too quickly most evenings, and at that point it's just too late to become consumed by a book.

what about you? do you find the time to read? and if so, how?
what good book is currently on your bedside table?

(if it's fab, i'm sure i'll be ordering it off of either ebay or amazon). :)

...my pimped ride...

thanks kat for the link to this hilarious video. this is the story of our minivan's life. the video is good for a chuckle fo sho-

things that are the same for the hambrick minivan:
1. the scratches down the side from anna katherine riding her bike in the garage and injuring the poor mini
2. the ridiculous amount of food, crumbs,and toys everywhere inside
3. the hidden, rotten food that stinks up the mini and takes a few days to find (thank you to anna katherine for the ripe, nasty watermelon that hid for a week last month)
4. the girls kicking the driver and passenger seats incessantly from behind

PTL we DON'T have ducktaped mirrors and a kid's cd stuck in the player... that just might push me over the edge...

...to my fellow bloggers...

ok, so a fellow blogger and friend (annie d) posted this idea on her blog yesterday which she stole from another blogger (the secret life of kat)... and i'm stealing it now. i think it's a great idea.  

if you read my blog then i would like to read your blog. (because i don't spend enough time already on the internet.)  AND i would like to post a link to yours. so comment below and i'll add you to my list on the right. 

we'll be a big happy blogging family :)