Daniel San... Paint the Fence

Today was paint the fence day... Well, more like stain the fence day. For those of you who don't know, we recently got a new fence. To commemorate this momenteous occasion, we decided to stain it. It helps keep its nice color and helps the wood stay good longer, blah blah... Finally, after months of deciding on what type of stain, water or oil-based, what color, Cedar or Transparent Redwood, we finally made a choice and today was the day. Basically, it was a LOT of work.... Let me re-emphasize a LOT. The close to 100 degree weather did not help either but we were able to get 2 sides of the fence done. Flashes of Karate Kid dialogue flashed through my mind... "Daniel San... Paint the fence... Up down. No left right."

We got help from the older 2 Clark boys, Rayden and Matthew who did a wonderful job. I'm sure the $10/hr per person we promised them and a free lunch helped provide motivation. By the time we were done, all 4 of us were "painted" in stain and sweat. Here's snippets from the conversation that transpired as I was driving the boys home:

"I'm going to throw this t-shirt away."

and

"I don't think I'm going out anymore today. I think I'm just going to go home and sit on the sofa all day."

And I totally believed them.

Here's some pictures I took of the guys working:

After we were showered and clean, because we felt we weren't tortured enough, Carter and I decided to take Mekayla to The Jungle Island to let her expend some of her pent up energy from being cooped up alone in the house all day watching Playhouse Disney and Noggin. She had a great time but the whole time we were there, the only thing that went through my mind was "Germs!!! Germs!!!" It didn't help that we found cat poop in the outdoor sand pit that she was playing in. ARRGGHHH!!!! And the staff was like, "Oh where is it? Okay thanks." Picks up poop with a dustpan and tosses it in the nearby trash. Whatever... It's just cat poop

That brings me to my next point. Why do we do things like this? We spend hundreds of dollars on a sandbox and nice clean pretty safe sand for Mekayla to play with and what do we do? We go to The Jungle Island so she can play with sand there. Not just any sand. Icky, rough sand with cat poop in it. It's craziness. Oh but she had so much fun.

Well, here's some pictures of Mekayla playing at The Jungle Island:

Here's the grand finale, a brief, not very clear video of Nadia that I took while Mekayla played:

Why do I like reading blogs so much?

I must confess. I thoroughly enjoy reading other people's blogs... It's almost an addiction. I find myself checking out their pages daily (sometimes several times a day if they have not updated their site yet... yikes!) to see what yummy piece of news they've got today. It's like reality TV on the internet but totally not the same...

I'm personally not a big fan of reality TV. They drive me nuts. Especially the shows about crazy people doing stupid things and then getting all dramatic about it... (a.k.a. Farmer Needs a Wife. Seriously??? Who watches a bunch of clueless city chicks race tractors and lug bales of hay around in high heels?)

However, I love blogs. They allow me a glimpse into the world of someone else (who I may or may not know) that I wouldn't otherwise have. What funny, thought provoking, outrageous, fascinating thing are they going to say, do, think, and blog about next? You can be sure that I'll be tuning for next week's episode of Blogville.

That's My Girl

Today, Mekayla got her first set of art supplies (besides crayons). We took a trip to Toys R Us and got her an easel, finger paints, markers and paper. Here's pictures of her painting and some of her original creations that she did today.





























Anyways, the point of this is that after she was done painting, I let her have her markers which she proceeded to carry around the house in it's open case. At some point, she drops them all over the floor and says this, "Up-A-Deesies (Oopsey Daisies). Messy.... Keep Up, Keep Up (Clean up, clean up)." And picks up each marker and puts them back into the case. :) That's my girl...

Incidentally, we've spent hundreds of dollars sending her to Gymboree classes... The single best thing she has learnt there, I think, is cleaning up... After each activity, they sing the "Clean Up" song and put the items (maracas, musical instruments, finger puppets, etc) away. For the unfamiliar, it goes something like:

Clean up, clean up
Everybody, Everyone
Clean up, clean up
Everyone let's do your share.

Being a "smart" mommy, I brought that back home... So, now, we'll "keep up" her Play Doh and blocks while happily sing, "Keep up, keep up. Keep your share. Keep your share." Brilliant. That's my girl.

Poops... I did it again

This pretty much sums things up almost every day. Nadia has a natural talent of making the most ferocious bowel movements known man. And at the worst times... While she is eating. Result = Mommy gets pooped on too. The all time poop record so far has been 3 in 30 minutes... 2 of which resulted in a blowout of epic proportions.

Tonight we had the misfortune of having one right as she was she was going to bed. Tell me, how does a creature so little make so much poop? I'm sure I learnt somewhere that it is physically impossible to create matter out of nothing. My daughter defies the laws of physics.

Mekayla Cuteisms

1. Mekayla counting, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, nanoo*, 8, 9, 10.” *nanoo = don’t know.
   
2. “Why so sad O? Why so sad?”, says Mekayla eating ham on her high chair while Norbert looks on with puppy dog eyes. BTW, O is what she calls Norbert; adapted from his howl “Arrwoooo”.
   
3. Mekayla drops her little ball from her high chair and thinks Norbert is going to eat it:
   Mekayla: No O, no O… Stop stop. Daddy, daddy, help help.
   Daddy comes to pick up the ball.
   Mekayla: Yay. Go! Daddy Go!
   
4. Mekayla as she’s slipping around on her water play mat, “Steady, steady… Careful, careful…”
   
5. Mekayla’s new dance style: An adaptation of Happy Feet meets River Dance. You’ve got to see it to really appreciate it.
   
6. Mekayla has had the biggest challenge saying “fish”. .. It use to sound a lot like “sh*t”. Well, Trader Joe’s has this giant underwater mural… So here’s Mekayla:
   Points to one fish, “Sh*t.”
   Points to another fish, “More sh*t.”
   Points to a different fish, “Big sh*t.”
   No trips to the aquarium for a while.
   
7. Mekayla says to Nadia while Nadia’s crying, “ Sshhh. Ssshhhh. O sleeping. O sleeping.”
   
8. Mekayla telling the plastic Easter eggs which are too high for her to reach, “Come down eggs. Come down eggs.”
   
9. Conversation that transpired with mommy the first time she saw cars on a fly over:
   Mekayla: Car! Car! Up there! Up there!
   Mommy: Yes there’s cars up there on the fly over.
   Mekayla: Car fly??
   
10. Mekayla whenever we’ve had large plates of food arrive at the table in a restaurant, “Wow… Awesome….”