Dance!

The last night of dancing lessons, Rose #2 and #3 did a fabulous duet for the assembled group of parents. It involved lots of stepping backwards and forwards in tap shoes and then several spins by Rose #3. At the end of the dance, the teacher (Miss Amy) asked the Roses if they wanted to explain the dance or leave it to the viewers' imagination. Rose #2 quickly demurred to imagination, but Rose #3 gave the following explanation:

"The dance was about stepping forward and backward and forward and backward and then spinning around." Here's to my dancers:

Electra, Where Art Thou?

Tonight Rose #3 was perched at the kitchen table as I was cooking dinner. She very cheerfully told me that when I die, she is going to use my shower and she is going to marry her daddy. (Note to self: Look up on Google what the appropriate response is when your youngest daughter tells you that she is going to marry her father after you are dead.)

Rose #2 invented a game where she draws a picture and I have to guess what it is. Most of the pictures were indecipherable until we got to a very competent rendition of Dora. She also got a little sad as we were emailing with her Guppy. Guppy is sick from cancer and the Roses are mostly dealing with it pretty well. Sometimes - like tonight - a little sadness peeps through. Like the overly concerned mom that I am, I rushed to tell Rose #2 that if she wants to talk about it, I will always be here for her to talk, or she can talk to her dad or any of her aunts and uncles... She cut me off midsentence to ask for a Ho Ho. Classic Rose #2.

Rose #1 is aloof these days. Her nose is buried in Harry Potter whenever she is not being forced to 1) join her family at dinner 2) brush her teeth or 3) do her math homework. (Rose #1 is age 7.5 by the way, not 13.5. Shudder to think what 13.5 may bring.)

Sledding

Note to self: When sledding with Roses, keep arms inside sled. Do not attempt to slow descent by jamming arm into snow. All this will do is jam your shoulder. Ouch.

Germy

All three Roses are sick. Everyone missed some school this week - Rose #1 missed Friday, Rose #2 missed Thursday, and Rose #3 missed Friday (not such a big deal to miss preschool, but Rose #3 LOVES preschool). Sick days on the weekend rub me the wrong way - no one wants to do anything, everyone wants to watch TV, everyone is crabby. There isn't much help for it - the Roses definitely can't be around Guppy when they are sick, so I made two trips over to Guppy's solo today. (Which actually turned out fine - we watched the first episode of Emma, the Masterpiece Theatre version. I loved that very much. Plus while I was there, friends of Guppy and Poppy had a huge box of bakery treats delivered. THAT was yummy.)

Still, H and I spent some time starting on the basement cleanup. Last fall we had two egress windows put into the basement, and now we need to get the basement ready for Rose #1 to move. It is time for the girls to have their own rooms. We have to get our sleeping routines under control, and I think Rose #1 is ready for her own room. There is a lot to get done in the basement - we need security for the egress windows, we need to paint the two walls where the egress windows were installed, we need to organize the unfinished side of the basement and clean that side thoroughly, and we need to clean the carpet. It is really hard to get uninterrupted blocks of time to do anything when you have kids, even one kid, and we have three, and a lot of other things going on. The basement really could be a nice space if we could just finish the last things that need to be done, though, so we have to make it a priority.

Booster Shots

Today I took the girls for their H1N1 booster shots. I wish you saw Rose #2. She was our daredevil at Disneyworld - rode Space Mountain five times without even blinking, rode Expedition Everest. But she got completely freaked out by the prospect of the shot today, and wedged herself into a corner of the examination room. Behind the bed. Where she could kick my legs when I tried to remove her and simultaneously push me away so that I couldn't grab any part of her body effectively except her hands (and I was afraid she might dislocate her own wrists if I pulled too hard!).

Eventually a nurse got her out and two nurses and I held her down, and she got the booster shot which took all of two seconds. I remember nursing Rose #2 after getting shots at her 18-month appointment, when I was already pregnant with Rose #3 and feeling as sick as an old mangy dog. I think it was the last time I ever did nurse her. I loved nursing Rose #2 - she was and is a cuddlebug. rI planned to nurse her until she quit on her own, but then we got Rose #3 who could hardly be coaxed to nurse through the ripe old age of 11 months.

Happy Valentimes

Rose #2 calls it Valentimes day. We had some good times this Valentimes Day, including MYOP (which stands for Make Your Own Pizza). Here are Roses #2 and #3 with the pizzas (Valentimes just wouldn't be Valentimes without wearing your ninja suit, which was a Christmas gift from your Uncle Felix):

And here are the actual pizzas. Rose #1 could be forgiven for asking if they were actually supposed to be Mickey Mouse.

Happy Valentimes to all of you.

We Love Guppy

The Roses' grandmother - Guppy - is in the hospital. She is very sick from cancer. We went to visit her today and Rose #1 made this message from a game that my brother and sister-in-law brought. A picture is worth 1,000 words:

We hope you get well soon, Guppy. We love you so much.