Last week, Camille and I were waiting for one of her beloved physical therapists, Brad, in the waiting room at Munore Meyer Institute at UNMC. He'd been held back a bit, and in the spirit of making the most of it, we played a little game of rhyme time....
M: What rhymes with sat?
C: Cat!
M: What is a color that rhymes with the word "sink?"
C: Pink!
This went on and on and on...and on for several minutes, the result being me having to pause to keep thinking of more rhyming words. Capitalizing on the lull in conversation, Camille jumped right in (in a very serious, teacher-y, quiz-like fashion):
C: Mommy...(dramatic pause)....what is a shape that rhymes with the word "Ri-angle?"
What can a mom do but burst out laughing? She, too, broke into a fit of giggles, so proud of her ingenuity, unable to keep her game-show-host face on.
Maybe you had to be there or maybe you have to be able to hear her little Camille voice in your head and see that funny girl smile to fully appreciate the moment. If so, trust me, it was one of those moments that has come frequently back to me since last Thursday, making me laugh out loud in the silence, causing others to say, "What's so funny?"
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Stories from the front line
Liv is officially home.
After a week at Grammie and Pappie's, she came home, cast in tow, though noteably more cheerful, relaxed, and certainly more pampered.
Many stories emerged from the front line in Kearney.....Pappie acting like a puppy and Livvy portraying a cat....a mere sponge bath turning into a magnificent to-do complete with bubbles, spritzers, lotions, blow-drying and the like....art projects involving stamping, strings and creations that Liv deemed "absolutely beautiful. Pappie even let it slip that his new favorite T.V. show is "The Backyardigans." It must certainly have been three-year-old heaven.
Perhaps one of the stories that made me laugh the most involved Livvy's get well card from Grandma O'Neill that was delivered to Livvy at Grammie and Pappie's by the mailman. Liv was even spoiled via the postal service, for when she opened the card, out slipped a bit of presidential green. Grammie read Livvy the note from Grandma:
"Hi, Livvy! Grandma was sorry to hear you have a broken leg. I hope it is feeling better by now. Maybe Mommy or Daddy can buy you a treat from me. Maybe a new color book!! Or Maybe some ice cream. Get some for Camille, too. Love, Grandma O'Neill."
In what was actually less than the blink of an eye, Livvy snatched up her bill, thrust it inside her pocket, and matter-of-factly told my mom, "Camille doesn't like ice cream."
Okay, so we're still working on the virtue of sharing.....
After a week at Grammie and Pappie's, she came home, cast in tow, though noteably more cheerful, relaxed, and certainly more pampered.
Many stories emerged from the front line in Kearney.....Pappie acting like a puppy and Livvy portraying a cat....a mere sponge bath turning into a magnificent to-do complete with bubbles, spritzers, lotions, blow-drying and the like....art projects involving stamping, strings and creations that Liv deemed "absolutely beautiful. Pappie even let it slip that his new favorite T.V. show is "The Backyardigans." It must certainly have been three-year-old heaven.
Perhaps one of the stories that made me laugh the most involved Livvy's get well card from Grandma O'Neill that was delivered to Livvy at Grammie and Pappie's by the mailman. Liv was even spoiled via the postal service, for when she opened the card, out slipped a bit of presidential green. Grammie read Livvy the note from Grandma:
"Hi, Livvy! Grandma was sorry to hear you have a broken leg. I hope it is feeling better by now. Maybe Mommy or Daddy can buy you a treat from me. Maybe a new color book!! Or Maybe some ice cream. Get some for Camille, too. Love, Grandma O'Neill."
In what was actually less than the blink of an eye, Livvy snatched up her bill, thrust it inside her pocket, and matter-of-factly told my mom, "Camille doesn't like ice cream."
Okay, so we're still working on the virtue of sharing.....
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Financial Freedom
To the average Joe, financial freedom may mean:
Not for us. No way, no how. We have achieved the ultimate financial freedom. We are no longer bowing down to the diaper and pull-up goddess. We are Pampers and Huggies free going on two months. All four of us are potty-trained. Whoopeee.
Unfortunately......the bliss is to come to an end soon. In June, the cycle starts all over again.
But until then, we'll bask in the glory.
- Paying off the house mortgage
- Having no car payment
- Eliminating credit card debt
Not for us. No way, no how. We have achieved the ultimate financial freedom. We are no longer bowing down to the diaper and pull-up goddess. We are Pampers and Huggies free going on two months. All four of us are potty-trained. Whoopeee.
Unfortunately......the bliss is to come to an end soon. In June, the cycle starts all over again.
But until then, we'll bask in the glory.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Baby Talk
A few days ago, it dawned on me that 28 weeks into this pregnancy, I've not yet had an official baby blog.
So, here it goes.
Come June, we'll not only be moving into a new house, we'll be adding a new baby to the household.
Will it be a he or a she? We can only guess. The girls, however, have their opinions....their very strong opinions. Livvy and Camille are getting very strong girl vibes.
Camille is readily telling everyone that the baby is going to be named Madison or Mackenize.....oddly enough, the names of the two family friends who both just turned three. She likes to talk about the baby in my tummy, but whether or not she really knows how this may rock her world, I really have no idea. My prediction...she will be completely fascinated. These days, she talks nonstop ALL of the time at home. The arrival of a newborn will merely be new subject matter for an endless stream of commentary. She was quite young and in quite a little pain when Livvy was a baby. I am so excited that this time, she will be able to take in the whole experience and enjoy....provided the stars are in alignment. I am a little concerned that she may want to hide the baby in the pantry as she currently likes to hide everything, including herself, in there.....we'll see how it goes.
Liv. Oh, sweet Liv. She has informed me that the baby is never coming out. Nope. And if it does, it will be a girl....because she doesn't like boys unless they are grown up like her daddy. I proposed to her that there is a chance that the baby could indeed be a boy. She stubbornly holds that it will be a girl....and by the way, she likes my fat tummy and baby girls live in fat tummies. I have proposed that if the baby is a boy or a girl, she may be able to help feed and change it if she is a good and loving sister. This is under consideration. We'll let you know how it goes.
The question of the hour.....which will come first? The house or the baby?
So, here it goes.
Come June, we'll not only be moving into a new house, we'll be adding a new baby to the household.
Will it be a he or a she? We can only guess. The girls, however, have their opinions....their very strong opinions. Livvy and Camille are getting very strong girl vibes.
Camille is readily telling everyone that the baby is going to be named Madison or Mackenize.....oddly enough, the names of the two family friends who both just turned three. She likes to talk about the baby in my tummy, but whether or not she really knows how this may rock her world, I really have no idea. My prediction...she will be completely fascinated. These days, she talks nonstop ALL of the time at home. The arrival of a newborn will merely be new subject matter for an endless stream of commentary. She was quite young and in quite a little pain when Livvy was a baby. I am so excited that this time, she will be able to take in the whole experience and enjoy....provided the stars are in alignment. I am a little concerned that she may want to hide the baby in the pantry as she currently likes to hide everything, including herself, in there.....we'll see how it goes.
Liv. Oh, sweet Liv. She has informed me that the baby is never coming out. Nope. And if it does, it will be a girl....because she doesn't like boys unless they are grown up like her daddy. I proposed to her that there is a chance that the baby could indeed be a boy. She stubbornly holds that it will be a girl....and by the way, she likes my fat tummy and baby girls live in fat tummies. I have proposed that if the baby is a boy or a girl, she may be able to help feed and change it if she is a good and loving sister. This is under consideration. We'll let you know how it goes.
The question of the hour.....which will come first? The house or the baby?
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Series of Unfortunate Events...
Consider yourself warned.
If you are ever caught in a thunderstorm, run far away from anyone in our family. Otherwise, you may get struck by lightning.
If you are hoping to catch a homerun ball at a major league baseball game, don't sit next to us. The ball will probably bounce off your head into the hands of the guy behind you, who happens to be obnoxious and laden with barley.
It seems that sometimes, many times, the stars just don't align correctly at our house.
Case in point: Please note the neon yellow, full length leg cast sported by Livvy at picture right.
Wouldn't you know. Last Wednesday, Liv fractured her tibia. The break was a result of an incident at the playground involving dad and Livvy on the slide, a very fast ride down, and what seems to have been an unsteady landing. By Thursday, knowing something was wrong when she wouldn't bear any weight, wouldn't play on the cool play equipment while Camille was at PT, and most importantly, wouldn't run to the kitchen for chocolate, we limped off to the doctor and ended up with four weeks of casted bliss.
What can you do but laugh? After all, it isn't permanent and no one died.
So, this brings us to things about the whole incident that make me laugh:
- Upon leaving the park on Wednesday, Livvy turned to Bill and said, "Maybe next time we will just use the swings."
- On Thursday, Bill met us at the peditrician's office and we drove together to the pediatric orthopedic office for casting. Forgetting that we had left the car at Dr. Cicero's, we settled the girls in at home and waited for the babysitter, who was coming so we could go to Camille's kindergarten information night. With the stars off again, the babysitter forgot, so I headed off to the meeting while she scrambled over to relieve Bill. Of course, the car was still at Dr. Cicero's, so Bill ended up coming to the meeting in style--in the babysitter's black Volkswagon Beetle with a bumper sticker reading, "I drink the beer I brew." Dear God, please don't let anyone at the school have been looking out the window.
- What a sight we must have been. A pregnant lady walking down the sidewalk carrying a three-year-old in a neon cast, dishing out oreintation directions to Camille, who was following behind with her cane in tow, hollering out, "Mommy, how do you spell, 'take a right?'"
Well, now it's Monday. Liv is settled in at Grammie and Pappie's house in Kearney for the week as dear Papps insisted she come stay for a week of vacation. So...the stars are now aligned. Liv is tickled pink and in her glory with all of the attention, and the pregnant lady is a lot less tired.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Laughter
I love that I have a hubby who makes me laugh.
As you probably well know, our children are not tall. Likely won't ever be. Genes are not on their side. For about three months, Livvy was in the 90th percentile for length. She now measures in at the 18th. To top it off, all of her length is in her torso and none is in her legs....a Rademacher and O'Neill family trait. So, what does this mean? Never, ever will she get to shop in the 'average' jean section. She will constantly be searching for those stores that carry "ankle length" or "short".
At her three-year-old check, the nurse was buzzing through the developmental checklist. "Is she starting to walk up stairs with alternating feet?" I burst out laughing. She might if she could, but her legs aren't long enough!
Nevertheless, we were at MMI today for Camille's PT session and Liv had a room to run wild. It is so darn cute to watch her run with those little legs----the best way to describe it is a long string of stutter steps which putters her right across the room. Every once-in-awhile, she throws in a couple of jolted half-jumps which turns the puttering into kind of a skip-jump-putter. All the while, she laughs and smiles from ear to ear.
In watching her today, Bill took one look, paused, and noted, "Oh, Liv, there you go, with all the grace of a gazelle."
Thanks, Billy, for the 10+ years you've always been able to make me belly laugh.
As you probably well know, our children are not tall. Likely won't ever be. Genes are not on their side. For about three months, Livvy was in the 90th percentile for length. She now measures in at the 18th. To top it off, all of her length is in her torso and none is in her legs....a Rademacher and O'Neill family trait. So, what does this mean? Never, ever will she get to shop in the 'average' jean section. She will constantly be searching for those stores that carry "ankle length" or "short".
At her three-year-old check, the nurse was buzzing through the developmental checklist. "Is she starting to walk up stairs with alternating feet?" I burst out laughing. She might if she could, but her legs aren't long enough!
Nevertheless, we were at MMI today for Camille's PT session and Liv had a room to run wild. It is so darn cute to watch her run with those little legs----the best way to describe it is a long string of stutter steps which putters her right across the room. Every once-in-awhile, she throws in a couple of jolted half-jumps which turns the puttering into kind of a skip-jump-putter. All the while, she laughs and smiles from ear to ear.
In watching her today, Bill took one look, paused, and noted, "Oh, Liv, there you go, with all the grace of a gazelle."
Thanks, Billy, for the 10+ years you've always been able to make me belly laugh.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
What happens in the dark
I am most certainly going to get killed for this post in about 10 years. Eyes will roll. Words like "C'mon, Mom, really!" will roll out of the mouth. But....Bill and I had such a belly laugh over this one tonight that I'll take the consequences later in order to preserve the memory.
Camille has this oooh-too-cute pair of button down sage green, brown, and cream flowered pajamas that she likes to wear to bed. Tonight, I had a conference call and Bill tucked her in. When I came out in the living room, I could hear her carousing in the dark of her bedroom, so very obviously not at all close to the bliss of silent sleep. Bill reported that she wanted me to go in and say goodnight after my call was over. Off I went.
When I opened the door and the light shined in, I could see her laying in bed with a ten-mile-wide smile spread across her face. "Mom, did I take my jammie top off?"
Yep, sure did. No clothes on from the waist up. We redressed, said our goodnights, and retucked.
Thirty minutes later, Bill and I could still hear the rumpus coming from behind closed doors. Bill headed off to investigate and in a few short seconds, I heard his laughter emerge, "We better go show your mommy this." Out he comes, carrying Camille, completely stark naked. No jammie top. No jammie bottoms. No panties. Ultra-commando. Buff to the bones....and smiling and laughing from ear to ear. She couldn't have been prouder. When he had opened the door, she was just sprawled out in bed, covers nowhere to be found, basking in the breeze.
Guess all of the practice with dressing and undressing independently as of late has paid off--sort of.
Obviously a Kodak moment was not in order and posting it to the blog would have crossed the line, but the thing that made it so funny was just how plain cute her caboose is and how completely thrilled she was to be showing it off. No matter how many cookies this girl ingests, no matter how many Reese's peanut butter cups go down the hatch, this girl still has a 5" span from hip to hip and the boniest, tiniest little bum you ever did see.
Having said that, let's just hope this is a phase.
Camille has this oooh-too-cute pair of button down sage green, brown, and cream flowered pajamas that she likes to wear to bed. Tonight, I had a conference call and Bill tucked her in. When I came out in the living room, I could hear her carousing in the dark of her bedroom, so very obviously not at all close to the bliss of silent sleep. Bill reported that she wanted me to go in and say goodnight after my call was over. Off I went.
When I opened the door and the light shined in, I could see her laying in bed with a ten-mile-wide smile spread across her face. "Mom, did I take my jammie top off?"
Yep, sure did. No clothes on from the waist up. We redressed, said our goodnights, and retucked.
Thirty minutes later, Bill and I could still hear the rumpus coming from behind closed doors. Bill headed off to investigate and in a few short seconds, I heard his laughter emerge, "We better go show your mommy this." Out he comes, carrying Camille, completely stark naked. No jammie top. No jammie bottoms. No panties. Ultra-commando. Buff to the bones....and smiling and laughing from ear to ear. She couldn't have been prouder. When he had opened the door, she was just sprawled out in bed, covers nowhere to be found, basking in the breeze.
Guess all of the practice with dressing and undressing independently as of late has paid off--sort of.
Obviously a Kodak moment was not in order and posting it to the blog would have crossed the line, but the thing that made it so funny was just how plain cute her caboose is and how completely thrilled she was to be showing it off. No matter how many cookies this girl ingests, no matter how many Reese's peanut butter cups go down the hatch, this girl still has a 5" span from hip to hip and the boniest, tiniest little bum you ever did see.
Having said that, let's just hope this is a phase.
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