that my daughter is lying next to me in bed with a big lotion bottle, a slightly smaller tube of sunscreen, and a mini tube of sunscreen, and telling herself a story about the daddy and the mommy and the baby? The Sunscreen Family? Only they aren’t sunscreen, they’re BIRDS, as she just informed me. And they are currently lined up next to my computer watching me type. I’m a little freaked out here, people. Stalker sunscreen.

Five thousand toys and dolls and she plays with the Neutrogena. Sigh.

Mimi: Boo, did you know fish have soft heads, like us? And turtles have hard heads? Like Papa?

I used to get a copy of all my comments in my email, but since the upgrade I haven’t been getting them, and I can’t figure out why. Not a huge deal, but it does make it harder to respond individually. Therefore I’m copping out on getting back to everyone and doing a general response here.

As an aside — I do have a nifty plug-in that allows me to respond in the comment thread, rather like on livejournal, but I haven’t been using it because I wasn’t sure if anyone would see the responses. I like the idea of keeping responses with the relevant post, however I’m not sure if you guys would like it or not.

Anyway. On to the comments.

In general, it seems I have to cave on the capitalization thing. Which I am actually pretty happy about, because if you haven’t noticed I’m rather ADDICTED to capitalization. But I felt vaguely guilty about being a grammar bitch and then going around CAPITALIZING THINGS like I DON’T KNOW ANY BETTER. But if y’all do it too, I’m not going to feel bad. And I’m not judging you, either.

Jill was wondering which foot I broke and if it would impede learning to drive a manual. It was my right, so no, but I still don’t particularly *want* to. I mean, I will learn, just in case someday I am riding in the car with Mark and he has a heart attack or flying monkeys come down and carry him away, and I have to take over to prevent a multi-car pile-up, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about. It is, however, one more thing which I can use as a bargaining chip, should the need ever arise: “Well, I learned to drive a stick so you could buy that car …. ”

It’s actually not a bad little car, and not nearly as bad as I made it sound. I do find it odd that the front seats have shoulder belts — the kind that pull up from the bottom and click in at the top of the door — but no lap belts. I don’t think this is safe, but Mark has promised to look into getting this fixed. Otherwise, it is in good shape — the interior is very clean, the radio and AC work just fine, all the pertinent engine-type things seem to run well. There are a few rust spots that do indeed look as if they have been painted over with white-out, but in all it’s not a bad little car. I wouldn’t want to go on a cross-country trip in it or anything, but I do think it is fairly safe for the girls to ride around town in.

Amy asked “OK, what happened to husband giving you more leeway with the choice of car since he got to pick exactly what he wanted? The van makes so much sense.”

It does. And I’m still working on it with him. When I said he was sneering at it, I didn’t mean to imply that he was putting his foot down and saying no in no uncertain terms, just that he wasn’t enthusiastic. He’d prefer another crossover with a third row, like the Ford Freestyle we have now. However, despite the fact that we’ve been driving the Freestyle for two years and haven’t had any problems, I’m a little leery of another third-row crossover. I’ve seen some safety reports that make me nervous, particularly as pertains to the passenger in that third row amd rear-end collisions, because there is not much of a cushion between that back seat and the rear of the car. In the Kia Rondo we test drove, Kev’s head would almost be touching the back window. I don’t think that would be good. The thing is, we DO need to tote around five people comfortably, and squeezing Kev in between two car seats in the back of a station wagon really wouldn’t be terribly fair to ANY of the kids. And I definitely do not want a big ol’ honkin’ SUV. So a minivan really does seem like the best bet. I’ll wear him down. Especially if I let him teach me to drive the manual. Heh.

The consensus from you guys on the princess thing seems to back up my first instinct, which is to suck it up and deal until it’s outgrown. I try not to overly encourage the princess thing, but I’m not going to ban them from my house and thereby make them more attractive. I don’t think a princess obsession in and of itself is inherently evil; it’s the marketing machine behind them that I object to. Does a little girl really need princess sheets, underwear, cereal, fruit roll-ups, camp chairs, light-up sneakers, and a bike helmet? Of course not. But at one time or another we have purchased or been given all of the above for Mimi. And as I mentioned, I am so not above using the princesses as a bribe. I know that in the long run our influence is far more important than Cinderella’s. I hope.

There may be more, but for now I am wrapping up my work (heh) day and going home a bit early. Happy Friday!

Have you seen the “Alex” ad? Agree or disagree, it makes a powerful point. A hundred years is a long freaking time. My kids. My grandkids. Maybe my great-grandkids.

I know in the end it’s not my choice, but theirs.

I try to keep politics off this space, but this year it’s going to be hard.

You Can’t Have Him (or Her)

I am too tired for any sort of narrative thought.

So the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. I’m good with that — I was more excited about Barack Obama finally securing the Dem nomination (and holy cow, what a speech he gave!) — but the rest of my family is extremely geeked about it. Boo now throws up her arms and yells “SCORE!” on cue. As well as saying. “Dude. Hockey.” and “GO WINGS!!” Mark tried to go to the parade yesterday but scheduling just did not work out. Considering it was NINETY TWO out and sunny, it’s probably just as well.

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Between me and the two girls, we were at FIVE doctor appointments yesterday. No wonder I rarely seem to find time to blog when I’m home. When I’m at work, doesn’t seem to be a problem. When I’m home, I am busy EVERY SINGLE SECOND.

Mimi had checkups with the ENT, a hearing test, and her seriously overdue five-year physical. All is well on those fronts. She’s on the growth charts! Woo! She had three shots, and afterwards we went to Target and I told her she could pick a treat for being so brave. She picked new underwear. Really. Disney Princess underwear, of course, but still.

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Boo has this lovely thumb-sucking technique which has created a nice rash all around her mouth from the constant damp. I’m glad that was all it was, but geez, I was seriously embarrassed when the doctor told me that was it. Because I’d called the office all “she has this rash that keeps coming back!” and they were all “bring her in right away!” and then the doc is like, “yeah, it’s from sucking her thumb.”

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So this part may be TMI, but I have to share why I love my doc. Yesterday morning I went in to get an IUD (finally — the Pill has just never been my favorite thing). First, she totally bonks her head on the spotlight thingie and starts laughing. Then afterwards she says “wow, I wish they all were that easy.” And then she says “Oh, I mean, it went in easily, but not too easily. It’s not going to fall out or anything. It’s not like I could have pea-shot it from across the room.” I was totally cracking up.

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Packing continues apace. We had an impromptu yard sale today — well, several of our neighbors were having sales so we dragged some stuff out to the end of the driveway to catch the traffic through the neighborhood. I sat out in the 90-degree heat with my foot propped up, got a lovely sunburn, and made a few bucks off of baby clothes and baby gear. And we have less to pack, so it wasn’t a total loss. I seriously put SPF 50-something sunscreen on and still burned. It’s ridiculous.

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Mark took Kev up today spend the week with his grandparents (and honestly, not a minute too soon, but more on that later) and took Boo with him. Mimi and I have spent the entire afternoon and evening watching movies while I listed stuff on eBay. Sad but true. We just finished up “Enchanted” for the umpteenth time. I freaking love that movie and I don’t care who knows it. is coming around.

So Kev. He has been horrid this week. Sneaking out, lying, doing just dumb things like going home with one of his friends from school yesterday (the last day of school) and not bothering to call or let us know where he was for over two hours. And then treating me like I’m insane for being worried and angry. And telling me to “geez, calm down” and that it’s not as bad as it could be because at least he isn’t sneaking girls in or growing pot in the corner of his room. I’m so reassured. Yeah. And we discovered his grandparents (mom’s parents) are completely undermining our authority on several important points, which is not surprising, but really frustrating and crazy-making. It’s been a long week where that stuff is concerned.

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Foot is still achy and sore but not having to drive anywhere for most of the week has helped a lot. I was definitely up and around too much yesterday and was limping this morning, but it’s ok.

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I have next week off as well. Doing a bit of work-work at home, bu the goal is mostly to pack. And pack some more. And try not to go crazy, or let anyone else go crazy.

I don’t even have a good end to this post, I’m so not up for any sort of coherent thought. I want ice cream. I think we’re all out of ice cream. Damnit.