Eleanor dressed herself today.  She did an AWESOME job. I got out of the shower with her and sent her to her room while I dressed the baby. After several rounds of yelling “Did you put your panties on???” She walks into the nursery- fully dressed – in her pastel stripe tights – a pink polka dot scooter skirt, black MaryJane shoes and a white tee-shirt with butterflies that match the skirt.

I was astonished.

It was the Mona Lisa of Toddler self-dressing.

She was adorable and I was thrilled.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed a tiny flaw in her logic, just a wee err: She had put the tights OVER the shorts of her scooter skirt. But, as we were running late, I shrugged my shoulder and said “Eh?” and pulled her out the door.

She spends the whole day this way – and every now and again she stops mid-whatever to pull out the wedgie. She naps this way. Tony chases her around the park this way. We go to dinner this way. Not until we get home – and I am helping her into her jammies – do I notice she’s got her panties on sideways.  That’s right. The Princesses – who usually are polar North – were heading East.  Evidently she put both legs in through the left leg hole, and then one foot out the waist band and the other out the last leg hole.

Talk about a youth crack problem.

Even now, I am laughing so hard I can barely see. Anyway, I look at her and say, “Hey, what’s with the panties?”

She looks down, checks to see if there’s a tag, and says “Heh, Heh. Oops.”

YOU try going through your whole day with your Skivvies Askew.  She may be all pastel stripes and polka dots, but she’s made of some pretty tough stuff.

I actually really love it when FireFox updates in the middle of the night and wrecks my session while I sleep. It gives me that little “Well, this is embarrassing…” page.  OOps! We’ve forgotten the 3 bagillion pages you left open.  Wanna start a new session?

Sure I do. It’s nice the way they take responsibility, and then move on. (Take note Cheeta Tiger Woods.) So here goes.

I haven’t blogged in 2 weeks. ANYWHERE – not seriously anyway. This is embarrassing. Forgive me?

Whew! Now that the grand apology is out of the way. HI! I’ve been really busy lately. Holiday. Book publishing. Whatnot.

The Thanksgiving holiday went great. People came. My parents cooked the bird. Everyone else brought sides. Very warm room. I loved my tasty mushroom loaf. Very few leftovers.

Speaking of pigging out, the diet and exercise are paying off. As of my trip to the gym yesterday – the official weigh in place – I’m down 19 pounds. Very pleased.  (Yeah, I was just too weak to write before, that’s it!)

Looking for a house – still – this is embarrassing! Too annoyed to discuss, so I will just sum up: 6 houses offered on – no contract. BA!

Eleanor is a working hard on her preschool Christmas play – she’s a cow. She has several speaking lines – mostly of the “moo” variety. He principal says she know ALL the words to ALL the songs, and she was rather impressed with Eleanor. I am, too. She is very attached to the Little Mermaid soundtrack we have on endless loop in the car. Filling the roll of both diva and director, she assigns parts to everyone, “YOU! You’re the sisters, you are Sebastian, Sara – this song is your favorite! Now, Mommy, YOU sing!” Eleanor and Saralyn are ALWAYS Ariel. I need to get Tony to secretly video the two of them singing “Part of that World.” Elly is rather off-key and Sara doesn’t know how to speak all the words. It’s about the most charming thing ever.

As for my third baby – my book – I have my first books signing coming up next Saturday – 12/12 at 12-noon. Sara’s Godmother Sam is offering up her shop on Main Street for me to have this shindig. I’ve spent hours on Vistaprint designing tee-shirts and post cards  and trying to figure out how to get the most free stuff. I’m getting pretty good at it. Who wants a Chenda Tee? I have been invited to two Sci-Fi Conventions – Chattacon in January and Deep South Con (Charlotte) in June. I’m frustrated at Chattacon already (my contact there is way slow with the details) but have high hopes for DSC. That reminds me – I need headshots.  Who will trade Photography Services for books? Anyone?

This weekend is the Lilburn Christmas Parade – an annual tradition for me. I really like this parade. I hope to see you all there! But, if you see me, don’t bring up my dearth of blog posts; it’s just too embarrassing.

I spent the whole morning cleaning out Saralyn’s closets – sorting the piles into Consign – Goodwill and Junk.  I took a whole diaper box of too small clothes to the consignment store, lugged them in, got a gash of a paper cut from the box and found out that they don’t do kids clothes any more. What they did have – balloons out front.  Guess who cried all the way to the next consignment store because she wanted a balloon but couldn’t have one? Sorry, Saralyn… The other store made it feel like giving up a kidney. They said 40 times I was entering a BINDING contract. Whatever. The next stop is Goodwill for these clothes if you don’t take them.  They did. I was happy – now – how much will I get for them? I guess I don’t really care.

It’s seams really unfair that ALL I did today was fold, sort and organize clothes, and MY laundry is still in giant piles on top of my dresser waiting to be put away!  It is nice that all the girls’ clothes now have room to live in their dressers.  But mommy “burnt toasted” herself again. (You know that mommy syndrome – where you make breakfast for everyone, and you get left with the burnt toast? It’s the mommy way…)

Tomorrow is picture day at school – Eleanor got to pick what she wanted to wear this year and she picked her overalls. “My very own favorite,” she says. Now, if I can get her up and moving in the morning in the direction of the shower… that will be a miracle.

Who want’s to see the cover of my book?

I love it!  What do you think?
It will be available soon – VERY soon – In time for ALL your Christmas shopping soon…

Thoughts, in no particular order, hence the dots.

• Turtle in the carport. Friday – it rained cats and dogs all day. Hence the very big turtle in the car port. Eleanor got to get up close and personal while the big slowpoke waited for its mate and Noah. It rejected the parsley and moved on when we weren’t looking. It did give me a little thrill. I don’t often see wild turtles. Bambi and I debated whether there was good eating on a turtle. The reptile just ignored us.
• New glasses and new dress. Fridays, at least every other one, is my happy fun day with Bambi. I look forward to the outing days, more than one could guess. This Friday we went to our usual pancake breakfast, where Bambi deviated and ordered French toast, and then on to the mall, usually the last place Bambi and I head toward on ANY day of the week. I had the lenses in one of my new pairs of glasses re-cut and then went to buy a new dress to wear to Dragon Con. I lost an umbrella, but gained a swanky dress and some tee shirts!
• Aquarium. For the second Saturday in a row, the family headed out to the Georgia Aquarium. I like that place, and Tony is starting to like it, too. Eleanor is really learning about fish. She can identify the whale sharks, sea horses, hammerhead sharks, otters, saw fish, Dorry, Nemo, the rays and jelly fish.  Clever girl. She is particularly cute when she walks like a crab. (Try this – squat down with your knees far apart and walk around sideways with your hands pincering over your head.) Saralyn tried to touch the sharks and rays in the touch tank, but her arms are so short. Poor baby. Eleanor is to scared.
• Costumes. Trish came over Sunday afternoon, and we started working on our costumes for the Time Travelers Ball at Dragon Con. We are trying very hard to re-purpose items we already have – which is philosophy part and parcel to the Steampunk Aesthetic – and the projects have been going rather well. The biggest breakthrough has been in the area of bustles. Baby. Got. Back. That’s all I’m saying.  Meanwhile, Eleanor found the pumpkin costume.  I bought this overstuffed orange suit three years ago for her, and forced her into it for two separate Halloweens. She squeezed herself into it today and wouldn’t take it off. Whatever.  Saralyn gets to wear it this year. Probably next year, too.  I’m SO getting my $20 out of this thing.
• Several rejections. I got some nice and not so nice rejection letters this weekend. If you are counting at home, I have sent 27 queries out, and am only sure that about 5 are still alive. The rest have been rejected outright or are ignored.  I’m starting to loose hope.
• No new chapters. I’ve gotten a great start on my new book, which I am calling Cryptid. However, I am eager to start Chapter 4.  I’ve got the chapter planned out and am really looking forward to writing it, but I’m waiting for a good time.  Why? I don’t really know. And yet I wait.  I need another good night of insomnia. Perhaps all my creative energies are heading into my costuming and my other areas of artistic interest.
• We’ve been working out the details with our Realtor for acquiring the house we’ve called “the cabin in the woods.” It seems very promising and if it all works out – I’ll write ALL about it. We’ve been making out checks for earnest money and having the mortgage broker make good faith estimates.  Tony and I have been discussing strategy about down payments and number of years for the loan and what that means for us in terms of cash flow right now.  We’ve come down on the side of conservative choices, as we have no idea how long it will take us to sell the house we already own, a house that I will gladly take at the Zillow estimated price.
• Speaking of Saralyn, the baking incident. Never leave a toddler alone with a 5 pound sack of All Purpose Flour and a box of Kosher salt. It was a case of “I thought YOU were watching the baby.” Huge mess. Dusty mess. And shame on me for trying to vacuum the baby. The poor girl is terrorized.

My parents have made it home from their very long journey, and we are going to see them some time tomorrow. This should be fun.

Now, what did YOU do this weekend?

I’ve spent considerable time today looking at party plates with Eleanor.  Her birthday is just under a month away, but more importantly, it’s one VBS and two weeks of swimming lessons away.  That’s an eternity in mom years. But I digress.

Eleanor, approaching 4-years old with glorious tantrums, is the prettiest princess loving princess that ever-ever was. Every day she tells me that she wants to be a princess, or can I be a princess now? or I’m getting married to a prince next week tomorrow.  That’s my favorite, obviously because he’s paying for the wedding, as I have yet to make any deposits.

Color me so surprised that she picked THIS theme for her party:

No kidding – that was her choice. She’s so full of surprises.

Here’s Sara’s party pack for this year:

See – even though she was born on Halloween, there is not ONE pumpkin in the kit.  I can control myself.

I promise I will blog with pictures tomorrow, but Eleanor said the funniest thing.
I made Kale Chips. I said, “Eleanor, come try these.” And she did.
Then she spit it out and said, “This is yuck.”
I said, “Well, you tried it, and I’m happy.”
Without missing a beat and in all seriousness, she said, “Well, I tried it and I’m not happy.”
Touche’, Toddler.
More kale… soon.

As far as my kids know, today IS Valentine’s Day.  Both girls had Valentine’s Parties at school today.

Check out what was in Eleanor’s bag of goodies: handful’s of candy, erasers, pencils, toy frogs, a little pinball game, a coupon for a free donut, a bracelet with her name on it, stickers, a luncheon cake,  and a stack of Valentine cards.

I’m floored by the quantity of stuff.  I did think the nicest thing was the bracelet from one of the boys in the class.

I’m glad that this gift giving for the whole class takes place only 3-5 times a year.  I find it hard to keep up.

Elly loves it, though.

It was great fun for her to look through all the gifts.  The kids did not actually get to look at their haul at school.  They decorated their bags, but they are really too young to pass out their own swag.  So, the teacher does it while they are playing.  If you are wondering, we got pencils for Eleanor to give out to her friends.

It was the smell that tipped me off when I opened the door to Eleanor’s room. It took some further investigation to actually find the puke folded neatly into the white comforter.
Ugg. Not again.
For those scoring at home, Saralyn has had it and is OVER it, Eleanor has had it and it has come back, and Tony had it Monday night and is slowly getting over it (he’s up to jell-o now).
I am nervous that I have not had it yet. I don’t want it. Can’t use it. I’m running away to work today to see if I can keep it away!

OK.  Who else is whipped?  I feel like a wrung out sponge.  A spare tear to shed? Not from me.  Done.  And this, only the 3rd day of Christmas.

One deep breath and a good night’s sleep make for the perfect remedy.  A liberal application of lottery winnings would not hurt, either.  Nevertheless…

Christmas morning came.  Eleanor and Saralyn enjoyed three gifts each from Santa.  By far, the Madeline doll stole the favored place in Eleanor’s heart.   Santa tucked the doll inside a princess play tent along with a foot high stack of DVD’s.  Saralyn received an Elmo’s Hot Tomato game, a sit and spin and a simple motor skills flip-switch plaything (you know the kind, you twist a key, push a button or slide a latch and one of 6 little doors on top pops open revealing a plastic endangered species).  These toys of Saralyn’s fell into Elly’s clutches in short order, especially the sit and spin, to a chorus of “I’m doing it!  I’m doing it! (flop). Whaaa!”

When the Family arrived, Eleanor had a very Princess Christmas.  Princess coloring books.  Princess paper dolls.  Princess tea set.  Pretty little girl dresses.  Fluffy toys.  She got so much stuff, I can hardly believe it.  I gave her new sneakers.  Lame old me.  Tony and I also gave her a Fisher Price camera.  Eleanor took many terrible pictures right away, but she caught on to the process quickly (we took the camera to the Aquarium* on Saturday and she took pictures of all the fish.  Tempers flared for a moment when Eleanor saw another child with HER camera.  I fished (haha) Elly’s camera out of my bag to say, “See your camera?  This other child does NOT have your camera.”  She grabbed her camera and ran off to share pictures with her new “friend” by the piranhas.  No kidding.  Toddlers and piranhas.  Coincidence?  I think not.)

Saralyn got what she really wanted: warm food and dry pants.  She also passed a pleasant few hours ripping paper and rattling boxes.   Saralyn, too, got many nice gifts, including her own drum and percussion set, froggie pajamas and Pooh’s Bees light-’em-up bead on a wire set.

My gifts?  Thanks for asking.  I received a nice scarf and some French stuff (my sis visited this year), a few picture frames, a variety of baking pans (including some 6″ tart pans – what to make first???) and a James Avery tree of life pendant from my husband. My sister gave me a gift card that I spent right that very day on pasta roller and cutter attachments for my KitchenAid mixer.  In just two weeks, I can dazzle you all with home made pastas and crackers and so much more.

The family came.  We ate and ate.  All day.   I make Texas Brisket and pulled pork.  The house smelled SO good.  I don’t care to eat another sweet until Spring.  I want FRUIT!  And maybe some high-fiber breakfast cereal.

So, tell me about your Christmas.

*For the next year, I have a pass for the Georgia Aquarium.  I also aquired two guest passes.  If you come to visit, guess where we will go?

I was so surprised to find all the little sweets and gifties in Elly’s bag today when she came home from school. It seems that about half of her class came with gift bags for everyone. I guess I missed that memo. However, I don’t feel bad about it.