November 12 - I Pledge Allegiance...to Unicorns

"I pledge Allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America." - Jillian

"Jillian, are you learning the Pledge of Allegiance? That's great!" - mommy

"Yes, we say the pledge for the firefighters, the policemen and the unicorns. My teacher forgets to mention the unicorns but they are very important too." - Jillian

And this my friends, is why I LOVE age 4!

November 11 - My Grandma Says

Some kids have imaginary friends. Some kids have imaginary pets. Our kid, our spunky little Jillian, has an imaginary grandma. Jillian loves grandma. Sometimes she's 'Grandma', sometimes she's 'Grandma MoMo' and sometimes she's other 'Grandma xyz' names. But Jillian and grandma are tight:

My grandma says I can eat dessert tonight. 

My grandma says we are eating pizza for dinner.

My grandma says I can have a trampoline for Christmas. 

My grandma says we can bake cookies after school. 

My grandma says she gives the best hugs. 

My grandma says that I don't have to work on my letters and numbers. 

My grandma says that I can come over for a sleepover tonight at her house.

In fact, one day Jillian told her teacher she was going to her grandma's house for a sleepover and explained all the fun things they were planning to do. When I picked up Jillian, her teacher told me she was so excited and loved the bond Jillian had her with grandma. Imagine her surprise when I told her she rarely sees her actual grandmas and the one she is talking about is imaginary. 

We love our little spitfire!

November 9 - The Moving Shadow

It finally happened. After years of owning dogs and thousands of miles walked, there was an incident Friday night. The dogs and I were wrapping up a 3 mile walk on the greenspace close to us. It was dark (after 8pm) and there are no lights. As we rounded a curve, I thought I saw a dark shadow move slightly within the shadows. It was only a few feet from us. The dogs ran forward and I didn't see anything immediately And then..I saw something rise up. I saw a white stripe. I pulled the dogs back as fast as I could. Now, those that know me well know that I have a horrible sense of smell. I asked myself "Did the dogs just get sprayed by a skunk? Did I pull them back in time" I sniffed them and they smelled a tad 'off' but I didn't notice anything particularly pungent. I quickly texted JD and asked me to meet me at the back door in 2 minutes. 

2 Minutes later..

JD opens the back door and immediately knows what happened. He only opens the door a crack and talks to me through it. Apparently, I couldn't smell much but it was quite pungent to everyone else. The kids were shouting through the door "Oh my goodness, it smells awful!" JD looked up what to do-wash the dogs with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. Wouldn't luck have it..that we had no peroxide and were low on baking soda. So JD tossed me my purse and I headed to the grocery store. This would be a good time to note that either the dogs rubbed up against my right leg or my right leg also was the lucky recipient of the skunk spray, because I also smelled quite bad. So, skunk smelling Christine headed to the grocery store Friday night to buy supplies. Yes, I did get some looks. The peroxide had a limit on bottles and the cashier was not sympathetic to my plight, but I got enough to wash the dogs. 

20 Minutes later..

I mixed together the peroxide, baking soda and dish soap and got to work. Apollo was sprayed on his right side and I was able to successfully wash him and get the smell off. Success! Bella was next. Bella had the misfortune of being sprayed directly in the face. I washed her with the solution as best I could and let the dogs in. The house then smelled, you guess it, like a skunk. No problem I thought, I'll schedule a bath at PetSmart in the morning with a professional groomer and this will be taken care of. 

Saturday morning..

The PetSmart groomer informs me that she cannot wash Bella. That washing Bella will in fact, make the smell worse. The only thing she can recommend is washing her with the peroxide solution had I done the night before. She recommended increasing her brushing and said the smell won't go away until the hair falls out. And warned me that anytime she gets wet, the smell will become more fragrant. I left the store but wasn't discouraged. I called the vet to see what they had to say...and they echoed everything the groomer said. 

Late Saturday morning..

Not one to be deterred, I decided to try again. I had Julia sniff Bella all over to determine where exactly the smell was coming from. She determined the neck, snout and surrounding the eyes. I made another bath of solution and I cleaned her 3x with it, waiting 10min in between each time. I used a washcloth on her face and massaged her fur as much as possible. After that, I poured a giant bottle of V8 juice on her head (people swear by tomato juice although every website I found said it doesn't do anything..can't hurt trying). 

The verdict?

I would love to say she smells great but alas, that is not the case. She still smells like a skunk. It's marginally better now than it was before our extended cleaning session on Saturday. I did a deep house cleaning Saturday afternoon so at least the house doesn't smell. 

November 5 - Halloween

Halloween 2020! Halloween was a pretty low holiday this year (you know...good old 'Rona). We decorated the house in early October and decided against trick or treating. That was until about 7pm on Halloween night when I said the kids could go to Tammy's house as she had a 16' candy shoot from her second story. Julia and Jillian both had costumes but Luke didn't, so he had to get creative. No worries, he figured it out! They ended up with tons of candy and had fun. Not our typical Halloween but still fun!

Julia - pirate

Luke - Nintendo switch controller

Jillian - Elsa

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! 

October 27 - Beautiful Blonde Pirate

Julia went from princesses and dresses to becoming sporty spice in first grade. She likes to be active and be ready for activity at any time. I'm not joking, whenever she tries on anything she says "Can I run around in this?" She still climbs trees, rides her bike and goes for jogs for fun. So, she's a t-shirt and shorts, hair in a ponytail type of girl (except for school when she was a jeans and t-shirt girl, which is what everyone wears here due to the school dress code). The last time her hair wasn't in a ponytail was when she was a flower girl 2 years ago (it was in a bun). 

So, our girl scout troop traditionally has a big Halloween party every year. Obviously, things are different this year so our typical party wasn't in the cards. One of the GS mom's recently moved to a new house and offered to host a viewing of 'Hocus Pocus' for the girls in her driveway. We decided to plan this Thursday for Saturday, so limited notice. We recently watched Pirates of the Caribbean and Julia wanted to be a pirate. Well, we found one pirate outfit that could ship in time. And to my surprise..Julia asked me to blow dry her hair. She wore it down! She has the most beautiful natural highlights (that aren't as easy to see when it's in a ponytail). And, drum roll please, she let me put on some eye makeup! So fun! Love our little pirate!

Ahoy Matey!

People pay a lot of $$ for highlights like this (of course she doesn't believe me)

October 26 - Sports Weekend

cold morning

Our weekends have been pretty empty since March..until this past weekend. There have been two swim meets this fall that we opted out of but this past weekend was our home meet and we were strongly encouraged to attend. Julia has tapered off on swim due to cross country and didn't want to go and 'be slow' but we convinced her she could whip out a 50 free. So, we headed to the pool bright and early Saturday morning in 55 degree weather. 

Now, you may be wondering, how does a swim meet work in the current environment? First of all, outdoor pool only. The pool area is open to coaches, officials, timers and swimmers in specific heats only. Masks are required for everyone-the kids have them on until they are on the block and put them back on as soon as they get out of the pool. My volunteer job was at the one gate everyone was allowed in and out of. My job was to take temperatures and make sure people filled out COVID-19 health forms. There was a dad whose entire job was to remind everyone to wear masks (everyone was required to wear a mask, even around the pool area) and social distance.

Go Luke!

Every team had a general area where they were supposed to set up outside the perimeter of the pool gate and each team had volunteers whose sole responsibility was to make sure everyone was 6' apart. I'm sure you can see how fun all these volunteer jobs were LOL! Well, Julia swan her one event, the 50 free, and broke 30secs!! This is a big deal in swimming to break the 30 sec mark. Great job Julia! 

Sunday was the first (of two) cross country meets of the season. Cross country is easy for social distancing because there aren't a lot of kids that compete and it's in a huge park. No need to anyone to bunch up. Still, masks were required for all spectators and they even had a police officer there that told parents that anyone who violated the rules would be kicked out of the park. Both kids compete in 3k meters (just under 2 miles). Luke went first and did great! He had a really strong finish and was a little speed demon! Julia was the next age group and also did really well placing 6th. So proud!

Great job!

October 21 - Bye Bye Thumb

Jillian came out of the womb sucking her thumb. Literally, her thumb was in her mouth in the first few pics we ever took of her. I'm sure you have heard people say it's the worst habit ever. I'll be honest...a thumb sucking baby can self soothe. That translates to a sleeping baby. Everyone knows you don't mess with a baby that sleeps. I loved thumb sucking baby Jillian.

As we entered toddler-hood we knew we had to nip this in the bud. Jillian primarily sucked her thumb when she was tired and while she slept and we could see her teeth being pushed forward. The dentist told me "You need to stop this."  But wow oh wow it was hard. We tried socks on her hands. We tried nasty tasting nail polish (applied morning and night). We tried bribing her with a "Mommy Jillian trip to Disney." We tried scaring her with "You are going to look like a bunny!". Nothing worked. After a year of Jillian saying "I'm done sucking my thumb" (and not stopping), I was on the verge of buying arm braces when she finally stopped. I waited to post this to give it a few weeks but it's been over a month and no thumb!! Finally!

October 19 - Happy Birthday Luke!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Luke,
Happy birthday to you!

Luke started the day with breakfast in bed-breakfast being a Starbucks chocolate chip Frappuccino and pumpkin bread (he had the choice of breakfast or lunch and he 100% wanted Starbucks). After school, he was granted use of his iPad (which he hasn't had for months) and was in heaven. We ordered sushi for dinner (his choice) and then had an ice cream cake (shaped like a pumpkin) for dessert. Happy birthday Luke!!

Favorites (I need to start this for all the kids):

Age: 10

Color: green

Sports Team: Pinebrookwood Orcas

Restaurant: Starbucks/Jason's Deli

Food: mac and cheese

Snack Food: strawberry M&M yogurt

Beverage: chocolate chip Frappuchino

Ice Cream: French vanilla

Store: game store

Book: enjoying Hardy Boys

Hobbies: video games

Sports: swimming & cross country

Pets: 2 dogs (Apolla & Bella), 1 cat (Lucky) and 1 hamster (Peter)

TV Show: Psych

Misc: loves to argue about seemingly anything and everything; leaves socks all over the house, has an aversion to putting dirty laundry in his laundry basket and dirty dishes in the dishwasher; night owl; takes the fastest showers ever; loves to snuggle with me when JD is out of town

October 13 - Not Fancy Enough

This is not fancy!

Last Monday, the day was finally here. The day where...uniforms were required for school. Unlike Julia's preschool uniform, Jillian had a lot of options. I let her look at the options and pick out the ones she liked. I hoped this will get her excited about the uniform. Did it work? 

No. An emphatic NO. Julia somehow finagled her into a navy jumper (missing the white shirt) and Jillian spent a solid 30min throwing a fit worthy of an Academy Award. Screaming. Crying. Shouts of "this isn't fancy enough!" and "I hate you for making me wear this!" could probably be heard from the house next door. She finally calmed down enough to go to actual school.

And when I picked her up? My little blonde gem walked out of school STILL MAD about the uniform. By day 4, she was only throwing a 5min fit and today was also minimal. 

But look how adorable...

October 5 - Cross Country

Cross country started up last week and there is a new team member...Luke! Luke has been doing great at swim but the temperatures here have been dropping and the pool temp is about 76 degrees. Our coach recommended kids who are very skinny (Luke) or temperature sensitive (also Luke) either skip practice or wear wet suits. So, JD and I decided it was a good time to shift gears and try something new. I'm sure you can imagine Luke's excitement about trying a new sport (not excited in the least) so he was not a happy camper on the drive to practice last Monday. However, he did the entire practice without complaining and did great. After one lap (approx a half mile), he proclaimed "My legs feel great!" After a few more he proclaimed "I can't feel my legs." The second practice was tougher but he worked hard, I'm super proud of him. Julia is excited for the season as she's in great shape going into it (opposed to last year when she had not been swimming or doing any cardio). The team only has 7 kids and who knows if they will even do meets, but it's a nice to switch things up once and awhile. 

Go Yamo's!

My adorable playdate while the big kids run