Sweet Home Chicago

Claire, mom and I drove to Chicago to see little Leah for her birthday this weekend. So far it's been an adventure in toddler-mania. Friday night we went to The Most Crowded Pizzeria Ever and had a yummy pizza. But since I have M.S.A.D. (multi-sensory agitation disorder - mike and I invented said diagnosis especially for my neurosis), I likened my dining experience to eating in a war zone. There had to be fire code violations all over the place.

Saturday, we picked up Mary and went shopping. But not until Leah full-on rolled the window down and yelled at a young gentleman driving a BMW that STOLE HER PARKING SPOT. There were words, there was embarassment, we had to park like 2.5 miles away from the restaurant. Only to be seated in a booth right next to BMW parking spot stealer. It was hilarious. I thought Leah was gonna crawl under the table.

We went to Target, b/c you know they don't have those in the 'Lou. (actually Leah's is usually better than ours). I got 3 boring yet comfortable T-shirts, a new turqouise leather wallet, amethyst drop earrings and two cute shirts for Claire. Mom got her some games to keep at Leah's house to keep her entertained, Go Fish, Memory and a puzzle. Because everything takes longer in the city, we got way off schedule and Claire unfortunately missed her nap. She quickly turned into a drunk sailor - spitting out food, yelling uncontrollably, hoping on people's laps, it was madness. She was overtired and had hit the wall and there was no turning back. She would only eat the crusts of my bread and dip them in spaghetti sauce. She was getting time-outs during her time-outs. FUN! Eventually, I had to break out the big guns and call Papa. She missed him and started crying. Mike sang her songs and was babysitting our niece Zoey and they got to 'chat' (I use that term loosely) on the phone. At one point Claire told Papa she was going to "punch him in the face" (thanks Aunt Ya Ya!) Thank beejebus she's sleeping soundly now, but she'll probably be up at 5 a.m. ready to party.

What's that? IKEA? I know, I miss you too. I long for your enormity and low-priced Swedish merchandise. I'm certain I could find just the right ergonomic watering can for $1.99 or streamlined ottoman I didn't even realized I needed. I can hear you calling my name! I can't even pronounce the names of 70% of your products! But I don't know if it's meant to be this trip.

5th Anniversary = Wooden Gifts

Beautiful day, yummy noodles at Bobo, my first trip to the History Museum and 100th to the Art Museum, yummy cheese & chocolate fondue at The Melting Pot, beautiful wooden inlay watch from Michael, champagne toast, TONS of fun at Jive and Wail with awesome friends, many, many beers, MIZZOU fight songs, singing "watermelon" with my girls, shots from Nancy (Rebelettes forever!), free drinks all night from Eric, the Cobbs appearance (they just had twins for god's sake!), dueling pianos, downtown hotel room with perfect view of the stadium, SLEEPING IN!, crepes at Rooster, 3 hour nap. wheh!

What a perfect way to ring in 5 years!

Special thanks to Grammy and GG & Bobbo for watching Claire overnight!

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

March 20th, 2004.

Happiest day of my life.

(Most people say the birth of their children is the happiest day of their lives, but anyone that remembers what that day was like for me would understand my rankings.)

Parent of the Year!

As I sweetly tuck in Claire for the night (in my room b/c Mike is playing), she says,

"Mama. Will you clean my room please?"

"Yes, honey. Why?"

"So I don't trip over anymore toys."

This is just sad.

Holes

To help relieve the guilt I feel every morning when I leave for work, I've explained to Claire that at work I "help people". This makes me feel better, teaching her altruism and all and I'm explaining to her about the helping profession I am so proud of.

So lately, when I leave and Claire asks where I'm going I remind her "to work". Claire will say "oh, to help people?" And I respond, "yep, to help people". (It's very Mary Tyler Moore/Peace Corp volunteer of me).

So the other day I ask Claire what Mama did to actually "help" the "people"?

She quickly responded.

"You help get them out of holes."

?

A few days later I ask again.

Same answer.

"No honey. Mama talks to people. That's how she helps them."

Few more days.

"Mama? Are you going to go help people? Help 'em out of holes?"

"Err, yes honey. I'll see you when I get home. Hey! By the way, how does Mama help the people get out of holes exactly?"

"You pull 'em up!".

"Why are they in the holes Claire?"

"Because they're stuck."

Duh.

a girl after my own heart

Yesterday Claire was begging for a snack. I knew what she wanted, but I wanted her to have something healthy. I offered her lots of choices I knew she liked. Here's how this exchange went down:

CLAIRE: I hungry mama.
MAMA: OK, how about a banana?

CLAIRE: I don't want a 'nana! I want Diego Snacks!

MAMA: No, you've already had Diego Snacks today. How about some applesauce?

CLAIRE: NO! I want something else.

MAMA: What about some yogurt?

CLAIRE: I don't like yogurt! (yes she does!) I want Diego Snacks!

MAMA: Honey, you don't need more junk. You need something healthy.

CLAIRE: I DON'T WANT SOMETHING HEALTHY! I WANT SOMETHING YUMMY!

Spoken like a true Stallone.

For the record she settled on applesauce. But at one point I had to sprinkle "fairy-dust" on it to get her to finish it. What?! Stop judging me.

Blatant Request for Gifts

MawMaw and PawPaw got Claire a kitchen set for Christmas last year and since she had received one the year before we got the receipt and finally took it back to Toys R Us. I had something special in mind. Dollhouses have changed tremendously since my days! We got her a Fisher Price Loving Family Grand Dollhouse.

It's pink - Claire's favorite color. : )

The backside of the dollhouse is all kinds of tricked out! Mike wanted to get her the deluxe version that included 'all the pieces you see here!" b/c he's a sweet dad. But I'm old-school and I thought she needed something to work up to. "save your pennies Claire and you can buy a mini refridgerator for your dollhouse!" I mean, it's real-life money management skills as far as I'm concerned.

So, Claire's 3rd brithday is coming up (April 8 - if you don't know that you probably shouldn't be reading this, or you have a bad memory) Anyway, Mike says she needs more furniture and apparantly not milk crates and particle board bookshelves like when we had our first place. He's so uppity. So check out Toys R Us. Anything "Fisher Price/Loving Family" will suffice.

While I'm thinking of it, other listables include:

1. X Binoculors

2. Penguin-related things (her favorite exhibit at the Zoo)

3. "Wall-E" dvd

4. Gift certificates for clothes (her size is usually so inconsistant,

but i'd go with 3T b/c we don't have to worry about

length during spring and summer; current shoe size is 7)

5. Anything Princess-related (especially Sleeping Beauty) I almost vomitted as typing this b/c I am normally anti-princess, but you can only fight gender

conditioning for so long right?! (A Princess who's "true heart's desire" is NOT to get

married to a douchebag prince at a young age would be preferable....to her mom)

6. Gift Certificate to Technique Studio in Valley Park for her dance classes

or Stages St. Louis for singing classes.

Quadruple Birthday Dinner

We had a quadruple birthday dinner for my Grandma Stallone (Feb 11), Grandpa Stallone (Feb1), Mother-in-Law, Cindy(Feb 8) and Father-in-Law Ron (Feb 14) about a month ago for my homemade lasagna. Grandma and Grandpa Ellsworth came too. It was really nice having everyone over to the house and celebrating the plethora of February birthdays. Grandpa Stallone gave my lasagna props, which made me proud! We had four different desserts for the birthday peeps so they could all blow out their own candles. Lemon tart with raspberries, cheesecake, chocolate cake and carrot cake. Yummy! Happy (belated at this point) birthday everyone!

Gingerbread House

We bought a Gingerbread House Kit last December and hid it as to not torment Claire until it was time to build the masterpiece. And then we forgot we had the thing. Mike put it together with her one morning while I grocery shopped in peace. Claire gazes at it lovingly when she's hungry.

What a week!

This has been one crazy week! The best news of the week...I got a promotion! My new title will be Support Services Coordinator

. I will basically be supervising my department now. Really excited and nervous about this new change, but mostly proud. A year ago I was at a job where I was miserable and now I really feel appreciated!

Saturday night we went out with our friends, the A

ustin's. We met Laura and Brady Valentine's Day of '08 at the Bissell Mansion Dinner Theater. They were seated at our table and the dinner was kind of weird and hilarious and so was our conversation. We had lots in common, Mizzou, 2 year olds, similar ages, similar wedding anniversaries, etc. So they graciously invited us over to their house for pizza and margaritas. Their 2 year old, Tyler, got along famously with Claire. They're both very intense, talkative and don't understand personal bubbles. It was like death match one minute, a fairy tale the next. At one point, one (or both) of them pushed over a brand new standing lamp and broke it. It wasn't embarassing at all. It was mortifying. God, I hope JC Penney has a leniant return policy.

Sunday we rode the parent train to two kiddo birthday parties. Nina turned one at her dad's restaurant, Jive and Wail. Shout out to the homemade red velvet cupcakes. I mean, real red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing. We had to skip out early and missed Nina tearing into her strawberry shaped cake to go to my niece, Viviana's, 4th birthday party at Monkey Joe's in O'Fallon. If you're not familiar, this is basically a monstrous gym with a dozen or so 'bounce houses'. Claire had a spastic time climbing and jumping and sliding and bonking around with her cousins. Unfortunately, the purple monkey "Monkey Joe" made several appearances and it probably scarred her for life. I mean, are they even trying to make this character appealing to kids?! I don't think so.

By 6:30pm Claire was asleep and Mama had a migraine. I'm watching the L word and calling it a night.