Sharpies = not for kids.

My girls love to draw, color, paint, fly their art flags! 

Far too often, their canvas has been a wall or a door or the dining room table. Like last week when Brad thought it would be a good idea to give them assorted Sharpie's for coloring ornaments at the dining room table. Seriously - how did he think this was a good idea? After they had the Sharpie's in their hot little hands (unbeknownest to me), he came over and sat on the couch with me to go through digital pictures. For 30 minutes. 

Imagine MY surprise when they were finished and I went over to find the entire dining room table colored with Sharpie. There were several portraits of our family, some hearts and a lot of "H's". Brad started to yell at them...something about "you know better than that!" to which I immediately went off on him with my own version of "YOU should know better than that!"

In related news, rubbing alcohol and a soft rag rubbed gently on a table will remove Sharpie from stained wood.

Please, pass the wine. 

Yes, the whole bottle.

But...the writing and practicing is a good thing ultimately because Hayden is getting good at writing her name.

Proud of herself

She told me that's a picture of her. That's my little one eyed, spiky haired, giant eared, freckled, no body kid.

Cat-Griz Game: EAT CHIPS!

Montana State Bobcats vs. University of Montana Grizzlies - the longest running rivalry in college football. There is no love lost at all between these two.

With Brad being an MSU alum (with both is undergrad and Masters from there), we are most definitely a Bobcat household. It's not a far cry for me to root for them as my college mascot was also the Bobcats. 

Our girls, since pretty much Day 1, have been clad in MSU Bobcat gear. 

Lucy ~ our Montana State Cutie...

It's all sweet. :)

Go Cats!

There's also a little cheer that the MSU folks do about the Griz. A little something like "Eat shit Grizzlies, GO CATS GO!" 

Of course we had to teach our girls...but we did adjust the words ever so slightly...because it's not totally appropriate to teach them to curse. It's always better when they learn that by example...haaaa

Hayden last year: 

And both of the girls this year: 

*sniff* 

Great Moments in Parenting, right? 

Bags of Juice

I was driving home with my girls and some, uh, person cut me off. It's possible that I may have used an expletive at this time (which is of course, a complete shock to those that know me).

Shortly I hear a small voice in the back seat.

"Momma? What's a 'juicebag'?"

???

Mother of the Year

Both girls like to mess with things. They aren't particular about what their messing with either. It could be a chair, a book, my face while I'm trying to read, something I've specifically said to not touch, buttons, et cetera. 

Today their daycare was closed so I stayed home most of the day and had Zoee come over for 3 hours to watch them so I could go to the office for awhile. After I left work, we dropped Zoee off and went to the store to find Lucy's Halloween costume. 

I pulled out of the driveway and went to the gas station to fill up (6 miles to empty! Ooooops). The traffic was bad at that intersection so I went back up the road, past our house and out to the main highway from there. I was going very slow through the residential area and past the two schools. I stopped at the traffic light and waited for green. 

The giggling in the backseat probably should have tipped me off, but it didn't. 

Light turned green. 

I stepped on the gas and made a quick left turn. 

I hear a noise. A scream. A giggle. A "MOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAA" 

Oh shit. 

 

At some point, unbeknownst to me, Lucy had unbuckled the seat-belt that holds her car-seat in place. Not only was it unbuckled, her car-seat was just sitting on the back seat not attached to anything. 

Just one step closer to Mother of the Year (MOTY).

Great moments in parenting.

I have had a few of these throughout the four years I have been a mom. I don't always recognize the moment as great right away. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. A friend of mine posted a status update about how when is child was born, he swore he'd never lie to her. Apparently, their goldfish has been away at summer camp for 5 months now. Hey, it happens to the best of us....

A few years ago, one of the obnoxious noisy toys that Hayden was playing with finally stopped working. She was getting a little frustrated with it because she was not done playing. I finally explained to her that it needed batteries to run and the batteries were dead. The only way to get it working again was to buy new batteries. She completely understood me and it made sense to her.

And then...

"Mom, we need to batchries. We go to the store for batchries?" 

Soon, Hayden. The store is out of them right now. But we'll go soon. I promise. Ahem.

A few days later we are in the car and I'm driving them to daycare. Both girls are madly clicking their power window buttons. I lock these intentionally because I can't stand the change in pressure when the windows are going up...and down...and up...and down...or God FORBID if one window is only a few inches down because that's when my eardrums feel like they are going to explode. To avoid exploding heads, I lock the windows. 

The girls sense something is wrong and tell me 45 times "Momma, the window is broken!" and finally a lightbulb goes on and I say "No, honey, it's just the window isn't working anymore because it needs new batteries." 

"Oh," she says. And she is satisfied with this answer. I feel like I won some sort of parenting-secret jackpot. Now, the minute anything stops working, it  needs new batteries!

Flashlight won't turn on? It needs new batteries! 

The candy drawer is stuck shut? Definitely needs new batteries!! 

The markers dried out? They need new batteries! 

Great moments in parenting come back to haunt me sometimes though. 

One morning we were on our way to daycare and I was singing along with the radio. Miss Hayden says "Momma! Your singing is broken. It needs new batteries." 

Well played, Hayden. Well played.