Morning Car Ride

Princess: Mama, put on Shane's song.

Duchess: Okay. (puts on Mulan song make a man out of you and think to self, wow Donny Osmond's voice is pretty good, and think, holy crap did I just think that?) Starts singing: be a man, be a man...

Princess: Mama, they asked me to do it.

Duchess: Okay (thank God because I am now singing all the words to a Donny Osmond song and someone needs to shoot me)

Princess: (looking out the window) time is rushing toward us, before the Huns arrive...

Great ride in.

Put Your Hand on Your Tummy

While driving this morning, I was commentating on all those drivers who seriously have no clue how to drive and who would very much benefit by my being in their backseat.

My daughter said, "Momma, put your hands on your tummy and breathe in and breathe out. Then you will be calm."

Love her - my conscience.

Lily and the Camera

Every once in a while - okay maybe once a day - the Princess grabs the camera and starts shooting. As I am not one to censor artistic freedom, being a big supporter of the first amendment, I let her go. I love to see the pictures she takes. Over the months she has developed a kind of artistic sense - used to be all thumbs and fingers but now she arranges objects for portraits.

A favorite subject is toys - any toy. Here she has placed Bert in the car wash. I kind of like the look on his face.

But what I find most interesting is that I see the world from her perspective. Below she's in the kitchen taking a picture of Paul at the computer. It never occurred to me until I saw this how intrusive into her sight line the peninsula in our kitchen is. Just look at that counter jutting out. I used to giggle when she'd go around it about three feet away, but now I realize why.

My Life With Kids

I decided a hundred years ago to become a college professor, which meant I went to school for 25 straight years and got my PhD when I was 30. This meant, or so I thought, that I could sleep in a good third of my life - all summer, all Christmas breaks. This is a good trade - I won't make much money and I'll be grading and thinking about classes and writing papers and answering questions about politics and having to sound smart when I do it for the rest of my life in any of my spare time (so I end up "working" all the time) - but I can sleep in for a full third of my life, and if I'm smart, I can schedule my life so that I get to sleep in all the time.

GREAT!

Then I met my children, who don't really care that's Christmas break and they are up ready to go at 545am. I say, please, I love you, please sleep a little longer. They say, of course Momma, we love you too, we'll give you until 630am, but during that time you need to get up and showered and ready for the day because if you don't it will be 8pm again before you have a breath to yourself. I am convincing myself this is a good trade too - wonderful children who love life and who are healthy and who are so freaking cute for not being able to sleep in. I figure at some point they will want to sleep in too...then we'll all sleep until 2pm all summer long.