Squishy?

Today Mster started referring to me as "Squishy". Well, not really Squishy but the real name behind the cybersquishy. She thought my reaction was hilarious and I've been doing damage control since this afternoon. I've finally gotten my response to a point where I don't smile and can actually look at her in the eye and tell her to start calling me Mommy.

Baking Day!

In an effort to start getting ready for Sven, Mster and I spent the morning baking goods for our freezer.

I made muffins and banana bread.



Mster made muffins too...



I gave her the yellow bowl and some ingrediants. It was her brilliant idea to get the ice cube trays and fill them.

A Nice Boy!!

For the record these people are considered nice boys by Mster. The list was thought up entirely on her own and spontaneously revealed to me during our drive to the grocery story yesterday.

In order...

1. Uncle D
2. Uncle M
3. Grandma (retracted after a brief discussion the gender of grandma)
4. Matt
5. Fishfrog
6. Daddy

Here's the proof...

Discussions held by some friends tonight sparked questions that I could not answer.

Here are some sites to help clarify:

1. Man stuck in chocolate

2. Garbage disposals in New York City

Literal Translation

I was at a friends house yesterday. Mster decided to play the piano. She wanted to turn the pages to the music book to get a new song but the book was old and I was worried that it would tear. I said: "Mster, we have to put these books away. You are just going to have to play songs out of your head." To which Mster started banging on the piano with her forehead. Oops.

Families

Me: Who is in your family?
Mster: Mommy, Grandma and Cinderella.

The Concept of Pretend

I'm trying to teach Mster the concept of pretending. Its not really working but we're getting there slowly. She will pretend to eat pretend food and say its delicious.

However today she took my purse, put it over her shoulders and announced she was going to the hospital to see baby brother. I told her that sounded fun and I hoped she had a good time. She responded by asking me to open the front door.

She also cracked me up when she told Cster to tickle me. Once he started tickling me she ran over to an area of the room she isn't allowed to be in and started to get into things. I almost died laughing. When we stopped to ask her what she was doing she responded by looking at Cster and telling him to tickle me more. What a little sneak.

My 10 Books of the Summer

I recently told Arfanser that I was going to post the 10 books that I read for the summer reading program with our public library and a little blurb on each. Unfortunately, I didn't finish before him and he posted first. Not that I'm competitive or bitter.

1. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) - This was for my book club. I novel about life in the 60's in the south with a runaway girl and her black nanny that escape to a bee farm run by a family of black sisters. good book.

2. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Jeans (David Sedaris) - I read the book review on an inflight magazine so got it but sadly I found no mention of corduroy or jeans in this book. The author is supposed to be a comedic writer but his musings/anecdotes on life as a gay man in a supposedly disfunctional family were not that amusing. not good book.

3. Galileo's Daughters (Dava Stovel) - This nonfiction read is based on letters written by Galileo's illegitamate daughter (written from her convent) to the astronomy genius. I was looking forward to the social and familial aspects of the book but struggled to get through the initial pages of scientific star stuff. But I did it. I thought the book would be more about the letters but the author more uses the letters to give a chronological account of Galileo's life and life in the area at the time. good book.

4. Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity (John Stossel) - I watched some 'news' show on a friday night based on this book so got it out of interest. It's only worth was that it was a quick read to add to my list. The book is set up as this is the myth and then, this is why its a myth. Simple concept but some of the myths he was apparently disproving I know for a fact to be true. If you lie about my religion I find it hard to find credibility in anything else you say even if everything else is true. not good book.

5. Not Buying It (Judith Levine) - This book had so much potential but was not at all what I hoped it would be. A lady convinces her partner that they shouldn't buy anything they don't need for a year and then chronicles it month by month. The concept sounded good to me. They didn't go out to dinner. They didn't get magazines. They didn't buy packaged food or alcohol. They didn't buy gifts. Again an interesting concept. I thought it might be thought provoking but instead the author spends a good portion of her time talking about daily life and political and social views that have nothing to do with consumer spending. There was a whole chapter on how she specifically she lobbied during the 2004 presidential elections. And there was no real conclusion. No big moment that she captured well to really solidifiy what she had just gone through. not good book.

6. The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth (Richard Evans) - another easy read with nothing too earth shattering. not a good book for me but it might be good for someone else.

7. Jpod (Douglas Coupland) - I was first introduced to Mr. Coupland with Microserfs a great fictional novel and have read a few of his subsequent books too. I enjoy his writing style and story telling. This novel was interesting but nothing spectacular. I guess after awhile I hope that authors improve and grow in their writing but I feel that this is the same old Coupland. The book is about a bunch of videogame coders who are working on a game for a big company. Its style is definately interesting. I mean what novel do you know that has 12 pages of prime numbers with one non-prime number randomnly put in for you to find (odd games that the coders played with each other). I'm going to say good book for someone who feels that a book about game coders might be interesting. and there is a lot of swearing which I was not fond of. good book.

8. Confederates in the Attic (Tony Horwitz) - Nonfictional account of the author's journey through the South (capitalized for a reason) and the people he meets particularly in relation to the Civil War and Civil Rights. good book.

9. The Second Time Around (Mary Higgins Clark) - brain candy alert. I did not enjoy this book. I was looking forward to a silly novel and was thoroughly disppointed. Stupid storyline. Stupid characters and stupid ending. not good book.

10. Magazines - so I sort of cheated a little. I needed to get my book club book read and it wasn't going to happen before the library deadline and magazines counted so they became my 10th but I read a lot of magazines this summer so I don't feel too bad. I monthly read: Reader's Digest (not as good as I remembered it being when I was younger), Parenting (probably the best parenting magazine out there in my opinion although the 2 I read this summer were not my favorite) and the Ensign (a church magazine, always a good read)

Telling it like it is

Yesterday Mster and I picked up Cster from the church where he had been at scout camp. Here is the conversation which took place in the car afterwards.

Cster: What's Daddy going to do when he gets home?
Mster: Take a shower.
Cster: That's right. Daddy is stinky.
Mster: Daddy smell poopy.



On a non Mster note - Cster and I were watching tv last night when a commercial for a man who could train us and help us get a license for a concealed weapon came on the air. This was his slogan: Concealed weapons mean less crime.

Happy Birthday to You!!

or as Mster would say it...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAKE MSTER*!!!

(pictures of cake to come soon)

*do you think she knows her blog name?

Birthday Cake Party

Yes its another post about Birthday Cake. Yes I feel it should be capitalized. For the amount of time I spend everyday discussing this topic with Mster you should all be grateful all the posts aren't about Birthday Cake. We've been trying to come up with a good birthday cake idea since we are having an entire 1 hour open house party centered entirely around cake and ice cream. I can't come up with anything. I ask Mster what she wants on her cake and she says "birthday cake" and I ask her what she wants on her birthday cake and she looks at me like I've asked her to write a dissertation on Marxism. Erg.

And because I feel we need a little reminiscing. Here is the cake from last year:

Fun Game

Here's a fun game Mster made up this morning.

Mster stands in the corner facing the wall.
I say "Where's Mster?"
She replies "There she is"
I hold out my arms
Mster runs over and gives me a big hug and a kiss
repeat.

This must be done in exactly this order. Arms can not go out before she says "there she is". don't even try it.

Beaches?

As anyone seen the beach, Mster is looking for it?

The truth will set you free

I love this stage that Mster is in where she tells us everything. I have to admit it does get annoying when I have to hear a detailed play by play on absolutely everything that she does but its also nice to know that she wants to share. I also appreciate that she is not selective about what she shares, good or bad.

Here are some good ones of late:

1) I'm spitting
2) I'm down (after repeatedly being told she couldn't get down from the table)
3) I'm touching the barbecue
4) I have daddy's phone
5) I'm touching the computer

I know there will be a time when I am not so lucky in her revealing her misbehaviour.

On another note Mster has found her nipples. After every bath she looks in the mirror points to her chest with her two little fingers and yells "LOOK my have 2 nipples". I know she's doing it for a response and I have to admit I give her what she wants everytime. Who couldn't laugh at that?

Quirks of our Morning

We had to do some errands today and I just found some things quite odd or quirky. 1st was the post office that had a certified letter waiting for me (or so I thought). I've never been to my actual designated post office before and had no clue where it was. I'd like to say directions and maps are one thing I'm not too bad at so when the internet went down this morning I pulled out my trusty map and attempted to locate the address. Hmm...maybe mapquest has numbed my abilities but there were 3 streets with the same name in 3 different quadrants with no way of figuring out which was the right one (and Mster dancing on the spread out map on the floor, albeit a cute distraction, still a distraction). I finally succombed to calling the post office to ask for directions and got no answer. No automated person telling me to press 1 for English, nothing. What was an internet free girl to do? If you guessed go try the internet to see if it was up again, you're right. Mapquest did not fail me this time and we were off.

At the post office I was slightly amused by the HUGE mural on the wall. You see this post office is in a lower income neighbourhood. There were windows blocking me from jumping over the counter and attacking my post office employee (not something I've seen at any of the other post offices I've gone to). And yet, the mural depicted a very not lower class suburb of our metro area in the 1800's. Parasoled ladies being helped into horse drawn carriages by top hatted men on beautifully manicured lawns. Not one non-white person in the mural. Very interesting difference to the actual neighbourhood that was not filled with horse drawn carriages, well manicured lawns, but instead filled with boarded up houses and businesses and streets and sidewalks filled with gravel.

After leaving the post office empty handed (if you don't count Mster's sticky hands) as apparently the post office doesn't have my certified letter (although I am quite confident that the lady behind the metal and glass filled windows who wrote a small post it note to remind herself to go look again for hte letter and give it to my postman will indeed do so and I'll get my letter shortly) we headed to the Birthday Cake Store known to the rest of the world as Dollars R Us. Mster is still VERY excited by anything birthday related and calls everything birthday related birthday cake. There is: Happy Birthday Cake Birthday cake hats Birthday cake balloons Birthday cake cards Birthday cake party I think you get the idea. On the way Mster got a bit impatient and started repeating over and over again "Birthday Cake store, where are you, oh birthday cake store". I could not muffle a laugh when she enthusiastically pointed out her window and yelled "there you are birthday cake store". It was the most ghetto liquor store I have ever seen.

We finally made it to Dollar Store Mania and I promised Mster she could walk around the store herself and not ride in a cart. At this point I would like to apologize to everybody for not bringing my camera because Mster immediately found a floppy hat and Dora umbrella and proceeded to wear both and walk around the store in similar fashion to the parasol filled mural we saw at our previous location. I almost died laughing. Finally "birthday cake" items were purchased and we bid a tearful farewell to the hat and umbrella and made it home.

I will NOT panic...the Update

After hours and hours and 2 different crews consisting of what I counted as 8 men going in and out of the bathroom about every 10 minutes they finished leaving the bathroom in a somewhat better state than when they arrived but definately a better state than the pictures of the previous post.

Better in the sense that they painted the entire bathroom and not just the corner where the hole was. Considering we had mold growing up by the ceiling that was a pretty positive improvement.

Not better is that I use the word entire rather loosely in that no tape was used in the painting so instead of using paintbrushes to do the finer edges they just stopped the rollers early.

Not better is that its the same ugly offwhite colour that is our entire house.

Not better in that we had to throw out a lot of stuff that was in the bathroom like toothbrushes and other toiletries.

Better that they did attempt to clean up.

Not better that we still had to scrub plaster peices and dust after they left.

But they left and its done and I promise to return to regular scheduled Mster cute stuff in future posts.

I will NOT panic!!!

About 30 minutes after Mster went down for a nap I heard a knock at the door. 2 construction guys stood there. One of them I recognized as part of the plumbing workers that had to come for the mold incident. Apparently the apartment upstairs that they are building has a tub that doesn't drain properly and the only way to fix it is to cut a hole in my ceiling to get access. I'm not panicking. Really.

We've reached THAT time...

There comes a time in every parents life where things really start to change. That is the time when you have to really watch what you are saying. Here are 3 examples:

1. When you leave your house to go to a movie and come home to find your daughter awake and a bit scared that you're not there and Cster tells her you went to see Big Bird at the movies (the big tv) and for the next 3 nights she will not go to sleep for fear that you will leave her to go see Big Bird.

2. When Cster tells you to "shut up" and Mster immediately repeats it while looking right at you. (He was joking! We all know he's a great person)

3. When Cster is on the phone with family and tells them that we've found out things are good with Sven and that he has 10 fingers and 10 toes and I jump in (thinking I'm funny) and say "and a P-n-s*" and Mster repeats it over and over and over again.

We've entered a new era in our household. I'm not quite sure we're ready for it.

* I do not want my site to come up on a search engine because I used that appropriate word for male genit--ia :)

In case you needed to know...

This morning Mster gave me a list of all the places she's used the bathroom.

Happy Birthday Cake

To say that Mster is excited that tomorrow is my birthday party is the understatement of the week. She is ECSTATIC! When she's not belting out mexican tunes she talking about our "friend A-- make birthday cake". Which is followed by where is the cake? Where is the party? and it goes back to full circle with Mster telling me she's going to be eating bday cake very soon.