Growing up, I didn’t care for my first name.  It’s kind of hard to say (is it “Den—eese” or “Duh—neese”?) and I just don’t think I look like a Denise, whatever that is.  I may have gotten over it more quickly had I married a man with the last name Duckworth, but that didn’t work out for me.  (The best part about my married name?  You can’t Google me—it’s too common of a word, even if it’s an uncommon name.)

But here are two reasons I like my name now:

1) When someone says “Denise”, I know they are talking to me.  Kyla even shouts my name, instead of “Mama” when she’s trying to find me.

2) I’m fast but lousy typist, so when I mis-type my name, it’s usually pretty funny. Here’s usual ones:

• Denies
• Dense
• Denose (my poor, poor schnooze)
• Demise

(Any shot that barely shows my nose is a good picture!)

I came home this morning with a pussy willow tree (or “pissy willow” as Piper likes to tell it) in the back of the car, necessitating stuffing the wagon up where the kids usually sit.  The girls were in school, so I just had Wes.  When I got to our neighborhood, two dogs—clearly siblings and strangers—were running around, clearly on a lark.  One was very easy to catch, and luckily he had a phone number on his collar.  I was able to reach the owner, but she was 45 minutes away, helping her daughter with her two toddlers and newborn twins.  I have a very soft spot for grandma’s taking care of grandkids, so I offered to drive them home and lock them back up.  Hence two dogs in my unusually crowded car.  (The other dog is crouched on the floor, unable to find a carseat for himself.)  Wesley was thrilled to have a new paw to hold.  It was inconvenient, but oddly, a highlight of my day.  And now I have a new neighbor to meet!

We went to the zoo two weeks ago, and Kyla’s allowance was burning a hole in my pocket (I was carrying it).  She quickly decided she wanted to spend it on a carousal ride—for her and her siblings!  We did the math, and she didn’t flinch at the $6 total. 

I was really proud of my generous girl!  And happy not to have another stick of candy or cheap plastic trinket around.

I love this shot of Piper realizing she can’t always keep up with Kyla, who had climbed several yards beyond this!

After bemoaning yesterday that it was spring and we hadn’t had any snow this year, the kids got to put on their snowsuits over their pajamas (or in Piper’s case, instead of pj’s) this morning before school.

Such hard play deserves a special breakfast—cheerio’s, ham, and hot chocolate.

Phrases that escape his mouth too often:

“Listen to me.”

“Mom.        Me.” (He take mommy and makes it into two very distinct, impatient sentences, and adds a dash of aggravation.)

“Mom.       Me.   Listen to me!”

“This is so deLISHous.”

“That’s my favorite.  But I don’t weally like it.”  (?!)

*****

Wesley has been completely diaper-free for a while, and has had just one or two accidents at night.  Until the other night.  Dwayne was out and the kids were wound up well after I had put them to bed. Then I found out they were playing drinking games.  Yes, read that again.  My kids discovered drinking games.  Luckily, they have not discovered alcohol, but they were drinking a lot of tap water.  I came upstairs, sent them all to the potty, then to their own rooms (a killer punishment for them on a Saturday night).  Wesley just couldn’t settle, so I decided to go to bed and read and let him sleep with me.  He fell asleep right away, curled up against my back.  Twenty minutes later, I was soaked.  He peed the bed so much I had to change my underwear (and everything else).   He peed so much, I had to change the waterproof mattress cover.  He peed so much, the mattress was soaked under the waterproof mattress cover, which I didn’t realize at first, and I had to change into my third set of PJ’s for the night.  He peed so much that after I showered while still holding his sleeping self in my arms, and put him in a last remaining diaper, I had to put in next to a sleeping Piper because Dwayne and I had to sleep in his bed for the next two nights while I cleaned and dried our mattress.  It was so epic that it’s actually worth bragging about.   If one can call  complaining “bragging”.

*****

After over a year of not napping, Wesley has started taking naps again if we are ever in the car for than 10 minutes in the afternoon.  This afternoon, he was still sleeping when we got home.  After getting the girls settled, I returned to the car with the tablet so I could read in peace.  He woke up, wanted to be held, then immediately went back to sleep in my arms.  While he was sleeping, he laughed, smiling so happily with his eyes shut.  While he was snoring, I kept reading all the updates about the local teenage girl who went missing two days ago.  While he shifted in my arms and grabbed my hand in his sleep, I read that the helicopter above our home earlier that morning was part of the search team I had seen right outside our neighborhood.  While he snuggled deeper into my arms, I opened the email from a neighbor who is always the first to find things out—no point in praying any more.  When he yawned, I found out that the police were contacting her parents, who live just one street over from ours, before publicly declaring that her remains had been found a stone’s throw from Kyla’s school.  No foul play suspected, she “passed away unexpectedly”.  Yeah, suicide.   It was a good day to hold my sleeping child for two hours.  And hug them all a bit extra.

It’s been a while since I did a real science experiment with the  kids. With Dr. Seuss’s recent birthday, I found an article about how to make oobleck.

It looked awesome so I bought an extra box of generic corn starch. To make oobleck (a.k.a. gloop) is simple.

2 parts water

3 parts corn starch

food coloring

I used 1/2 cup water to 3/4 cup corn starch for each of the three bowls, but f0und I had to sprinkle more a few more teaspoons of  cornstarch before it was gloopy enough.

Once it’s mixed, it’s both liquid and solid, depending upon how much pressure is applied.  It is fascinating!  If you poke it quickly, it is solid and your finger bounces off it.  If you poke it slowly, you finger sinks to the bottom.  If you roll it between your hands, it is as hard as a ball.  If you stop for a second, it immediately liquefies and runs off  your hands.   The girls—and their mother—played with it for about an hour. It get’s really fun when you take a spoonful of your sister’s gloop and pour it on top of yours! (Oddly, Wes didn’t like it much.)  While the clean up is actually pretty easy, I would still wait for a warm day and do this outside next time.)

Here’s the science behind it.  But do it because it’s fun and brings out your inner child and your outer child in.  (I wish that made sense, but brilliant writing doesn’t always.  Just ask James Joyce.)

Wesley and Piper decided to get the paints off the top shelf in the hall closet.  They cleaned up their own mess (they spilled the green paint right away)…with the white bath towels stored on a middle shelf in the same closet. 

I know we are done with diapers in our house, but maybe I should get some for myself.

We decided to get a membership this weekend so that we can do a little more of this

and this (the girls and I are just about to go on the Blue Angels simulator, which they loved, of course).