If Ella Had an iPod

These would be on her playlist:

The top song of her four, almost five years (mostly beause it's been out the longest of all of her faves) is also one of my faves. I can't help but crank this up and beat on the steering wheel. We both look like fools when this comes on!



And then I'm a little ashamed to admit that she absolutely loves this one. Her parents, not so much.



Oooh, I really, really like this one though! So does she, so that's good, but there's just something alternately funny and disturbing about hearing her loudly sing 'cold beer on a Friday niiiight!'



But as of late, this song sparks the request to turn it up.



And then this one, which I think shows all kinds of class and intelligence. It's George, people! Obviously she's got her mama's taste!

The Perfect Outfit

My mom sent this bib to me four years ago for Ella to use and of course I had to keep it tucked away, just waiting on Ashley to be ready for it. It makes me snicker when I see her in it, shoving food in her face and being an all around terrible party guest, but wow isn't she dressed appropriately? Pearls and all!

(So, I'm very aware that I owe everyone a Trip Home post and I've got one saved here on blogger in my drafts... but the truth is, I've got to go through some of the pictures of wee little baby Anderson and blur out his wee little privates! Maybe I don't HAVE to, but I'm going to. I don't want to become Mean Aunt Megan right from the get go!)

Purple Power Play On Poyntz

Before we left on our trip east, Ella and Mallory performed at Purple Power Play on Poyntz (a big pep rally to get everyone pumped for K-State football) with the girls from the gym where they take gymnastics. They didn't do moves that were all that tricky, but it did lead to one classic picture: the roll.

While Ella and Mallory were up on stage showing their wares, Ashley was out in crowd doing her best to be mischivious, like pulling Angie's hair.

But how in the world could you be mad at this face, even after she made off with a fist full of hair? You just can't, I tell you, so Angie made Ashley pay for her naughtiness with a visit from the Tickle Monster.

Water Treatment

Sometimes we at the McClure house do our very best to add punctuation to the truth that is the title of this blog.  We're all certifiably crazy, and that's what keeps us from going insane.  Or getting a divorce, whichever.

Friday night Ella was down the hall in her bathroom when she hears us talking in the kitchen as we're getting supper ready.  David says something about how I'm throwing a fit (who, me?) to which Ella yells 'Mama! Do Not Throw Fits!  Daddy doesn't tolerate fit throwing!'  We both get a good little laugh out of that but then I bristle just slightly at being called a fit thrower and possibly make a statement that only David could hear.

David, who at the time was holding a cup of water, made the insinuation that he was going to toss all that water on me, right there in the kitchen, as payment for my surliness.

Being surly has gotten me drenched before, many years ago at our old place in Georgia, when we were busy hosing out the dog pens that were out back.  David made a remark that I didn't care for and I sprayed him like there was no tomorrow.  And then I promptly threw the hose down and ran into the house like a girl.  This didn't deter him, however, and he drug that hose, all eighty billion feet of it, up to the house and stood outside yelling COME OUTSIDE AND TAKE YOUR MEDICINE!  I didn't, of course, so he got a little surly himself and sprayed me, inside the house, through the open window.  I kid you not. 

I tell you this so that you know what the two of us are capable of and how our minds work.  So you won't be surprised one bit when I say that as I stood there, staring down a man with a large amount of water who is threatening to throw it on me, I knew he wasn't bluffing.  This is going down on my terms, I thought, so I reached forward and knocked some of the water on him.  And then turned and ran like a girl.

Chariots of Fire started playing as I spun around, and in slow motion David threw that whole glass full of water at my back. HIT!  I'VE BEEN HIT! A quick glance over my shoulder tells me that David's coming after me.  But as soon as I turn back around I hear it:  ZZZZZZOOPE! as the rubber traction of David's moccasin-esque shoes hit the puddle of water and his feet go flying.  And as I stop and turn to watch this train wreck, I see a six foot two inch tall man with one leg kicked high in the air and the other giving way as he crumbles and bends and gets squished like a long legged spider in the very narrow, puddle filled hallway.

I don't think I even checked to make sure he was OK before I started laughing so loud and for so long that you would have sworn I was a crazy person. 

It's what keeps me from going insane.

I'm Cooking: Banana Crumb Muffins

I'm going to need you to go ahead and make these Banana Crumb Muffins.

Because when you do you will want to kiss me and say all kinds of nice things and possibly even send me gifts? Gifts would be nice.

These are really some of the best muffins you can make at home, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. About 2800+ people over at All Recipes, one of my very favorite sites on the web, agree with me. Actually, this is the number one recipe at AR!

The recipe is really basic but they come out of the oven looking like they are from some fancy schmancy deli, and they taste even better than they look. So good, in fact, that David ate FOUR of them this morning for breakfast. Um, yeah, they're that good. (He has even decreed them his very favorite muffin of all time ever to infinity.)

As usual, I made slight adjustments to the original recipe, but nothing too drastic.

Banana Crumb Muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
walnuts to taste, optional
chocolate chips to taste, optional

Crumb topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter, vanilla and any optional nuts/chocolate chips.

Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together dry ingredients of crumb topping. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

These will disappear, I'm here to tell you!

(PS: The walnuts are so crucial, SO CRUCIAL! But I happen to like nuts in bread, unlike someone else I might know. That had to have his made special without nuts. But I'm not naming names. Mavid DcClure.)

In The Mean Time...

Until my camera arrives, can I placate you with these pictures of baby Anderson from my cell phone? 

I took these so that I could send them to Rusty after he had to leave his precious, brand new son to go back to work.  Work that involved traveling to St. Louis for three days.  A proud new daddy needs to get photo messages sent to him periodically, just to warm his heart, you know?  I'm pretty sure Rusty was glad to get all of the pics that Marisa and I sent, and I'm going to guess that he even showed a few of them to anyone who would look.

Anderson is SO CUTE, y'all.  SO CUTE.

 

 

More Ashley Than You Can Stand

Since the weather has turned officially fall  here, we made a rather large trip to our storage unit this past weekend.  We had several stacks of the  girls' clothes that we needed to store away or trade out.  Thank goodness for having a ready made wardrobe for Ashley just waiting on us!  Despite her squishy thighs and bulging belly, Ashley still seems to fit into clothes that are small for her age, which could be trouble if all those 12 month winter clothes don't fit! 

In digging through tote after tote of clothes stashed away, I realize how often I would pack the clothes up and think to myself I'll come back later, fold them neatly and organize. Ha!  I have a feeling there's going to be a whole storage unit full of totes that are haphazardly thrown together!

One of the things we ran across in the big clothes shuffle was a box of teeny tiny shoes.  Ella's first shoes, to be exact.  I was so excited to see these little bitty things, remembering how cute they are and how cute she was when she was learning to walk.  I brought a couple of pairs home because even if Ashley's not walking in them, it will still be nice to have them on her feet once it gets cold.  That, and maybe she can practice her walking in them?  She is at the very, very beginning stages of putting one foot in front of the other when I hold her hands and 'lead' her.  We've got a while, that's for sure, but  I will at least be prepared when the time comes, right? 

This morning I outsmarted myself with the shoes, though.  I went ahead and put a pair on her, just for kicks.  As soon as I did her eyes got real big and she opened mouth, inserted foot (shoe).  You see, shoes are a bit of a hot commodity for Miss A.  She will absolutely beeline to the shoes by the door when she's on the floor.  You can imagine that anybody's shoes are going to be dirty when it comes to a baby putting their mouth on them, but ours especially.  But oh no, she wants those shoes!  So when she folded herself up like a pretzel and shoved that shoe in her mouth I thought Gooood one, Megan, just GIVE her a handy dandy shoe to put in her mouth!  Maybe this wouldn't be all that bad if, when I had put that certain pair away, I had actually cleaned them up like I should have (see above).  But I didn't.  So there I was, offering my sweet little baby a veritable feast of dirt and germs and poop, right there on her foot.  And now in her mouth.  I am such a genius sometimes I hurts.  For real.

All this shoe talk reminds me that a) maybe baby Ashley will take after some of the other women in the fam who have quite a thing for all things shoe and b) Is it a faux pas to let younger children use the much revered FIRST PAIR OF SHOES of their sibs?  Of course one of the pairs that I brought home was Ella's first pair, bought for her by my mom, because they are a good, stable pair of shoes to learn to walk in.  But should I have left those alone and let them be Ella's for eternity?  Does Ashley deserve her own pair, or am I just being silly?  I can see me, many years down the road (or maybe not so many years, as I paused in the storage unit and gazed at them longingly) looking at the first pair of shoes of my children and just wanting to bawl.  Will one pair mean even more because they were worn by more than one pair of feet?  Or should I spread out the sweet pain into several pair? 

 

Ashley's utilization of her first pair of shoes, no matter what they are, may be a ways off.  Just like the day that she gets a tooth! Who knows when one of those  will show up.  Ella's first came at ten and a half months, so it cold be any day now... Or not.  I don't see any real sign of one coming in, but I'm not complaining.  She can gum h er food as well as any toothless adult!  Ashley is also learning by leaps and bounds about pulling up.  She hasn't done too much on her own as far as discovery goes, but once I 'teach' her a little, she catches on in a flash.  I feel a few pangs of guilt about this since I'm not at home to help her along like I was with Ella.  I just have to remember to make time each evening when she and I can trot off to do a little exercising.  Ashley will get what I'm showing her for that little session and I'll just clap and say Yea, Ashley!  You did it!  Yea! and she just grins that toothless grin and seems so incredibly pleased with herself.  That, in and of itself, is enough to make me want to do it over and over again, much less the fact that she's learning some skills!

 

Where Ashley Kat e's physical skills (and toothical skills) might be lacking, she definitely makes up for in her vocal skills.  She has long since been vocalizing various sounds, the first of which was ma ma ma ma ma!  Then baa baa baa baa baa!  Always with the little higher inflection with the last syllable.  Beyond her sounds, it would appear that Ashley has also been exercising her volume.  My daycare provider recently mentioned AK's ability to be really loud with her babbling.  I kind of snickered, because usually I just laugh at her when she does it at home, but apparently when you combine her with the other little girl at daycare w ho is Ashley's age, they make quite a racket.  Actually, the other little girl is INCREDIBLY loud, as I have experienced first hand, so I did what all good parents would do and blamed Ashley's behavior on the other baby.  Hee hee!

One thing that Ashley has done, where David and I just looked from her, to each other, and then back to her, took place one night as David was doing a little leather working.  Ashley was in her seat, gumming some of her absolute favorite star puffs, when David started making some pretty loud noise as he hammered.  Ashley looked at him, kind of startled-like, and put one hand over each ear.  We both noticed her response so David quit hammering.  Down come the hands.  I told David to do it again, just to see, and sure enough, as soon as the hammering started, back went the hands on the ears.  Pretty clever, I thought!  Now that I really think about it, I'm sure it was a Holy moly this makes my ears HURT, rather than I'll just block the noise, but whatever.  Pure genius is filling up that huge melon of hers, I tell you!

Genius or not, poor baby AK has been cursed with something that her smarts can't get her out of: the absolutely killer susceptibility to being tickled.  She and Ella both get it from their daddy and it's pretty fun for me, being the tickler.  I'm an OK ticklee, but David, not so much.  Right now Ella thinks it's fun to get tickled to the point of peeing her pants, but I'm sure one day that will wear off, much like it did for David.  If I'm feeling dangerous and would like to gamble with the safety of my hands and arms, I'll give David a quick jab.  I don't often feel this way, since should I lose my hands in some terrible 'accident' I'd never be able to tickle Ashley, and that would be missing out on one of the most wonderful experience  s a person can have with a baby.  There's just something about those peels of laughter that can make you look past all of the other, not so glamorous aspects of parenthood.  It's a good thing those poor defenseless babies have on diapers, isn't it?  Ella Grace is another story all together.  If I had a nickel for every time she has yelled 'Stop! I'm going to wet my pants!' (only to take a 3 second break and then beg 'Tickle me again!') or actually run off to the bathroom...  I'd be one rich mama, I would.

 

Daaang, look at me,  writing more here than I have in a long while!  I suppose an update on Ella is the only fair thing to do next, isn't it?  That could take more time than I've got, to tell you the truth!  Sometimes the things that come out of that girl's mouth just astound me.  As of late, it's been shocked-at-the-audacity astounding, unfortunately, but there have been some shining moments of pure-genius astounding too.  Maybe calling her daddy 'Dude!' would fall more into the audacity category, and not the genius one, I think.  Oh, and as far as the gloves that Ella Grace was wearing in her crazy get up picture?  Those are leather work gloves, just for little childrens.  You should know that we would have all of the appropriate accessories so that we can be hauled off for breaking child labor laws!  We're putting that girl TO WORK!

 

PS: A loyal blog reader, Karen, welcomed a beautiful baby girl to her family last week.  Meghan Gloria arrived, much to Karen's delight (yea! pregnancy is over!) and dismay (WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S TOO LATE FOR AN EPIDURAL?).  I'm pretty sure it was 99.9% delight, though, since baby Meghan is absolutely gorgeous and fantastically healthy.  Even better is the fact that it appears that Meghan takes after Karen and her Filipino family!  (Karen's first daughter, Faith, is a gorgeous little girl herself, but is as white girl as they come.)  Congratulations to Karen and Jason!

MIA

So sorry to have been MIA for a while!

We took a lovely trip to Georgia this past weekend so that I could love up on baby Anderson and give Marisa a helping hand. The trip went really well and I promise to report more on it once I get my camera in the mail. Yes, I did it again, leaving my camera behind! Thank goodness David's mom is so kind and shipped it out to me (again!).

In the mean time, I will leave you with this picture of Ella from a few weeks ago. Don't even ask me what in the world she is up to. Sometimes I just don't know what's going on in that head of hers!

This is What Angie Gets For Letting Mallory Come Over

Remember last week when I mentioned that Ella and Mallory had to have a bath after they played together?  And that the water had to be changed out?

Yeah, this would be why:

Ella and Mallory start out with water cans, innocently watering the corn (stalk stubs).

 

And then all that water turned the exposed dirt into mud, which demands to be played with.

  

And meatballs made for Lilly.

 

This isn't even as bad as it got.  I just gave up on taking pictures and started preparing for the clean up!

  

These two girls had to strip on the deck and be carried in to the tub, they were THAT DIRTY. 

And it was fantastic. 

(David and I just told them 'go play outside' and we were perfectly happy with the result.  It is so nice to see kids be kids and play in such a basic way!  Ella and Mallory had so much fun, and we've got so much mud, that I'm just sure Angie will look past the stained pretty purple shirt and bring Mallory back for more fun SOON.  Right Angie?!)

My New Favorite

Ashley uses her long monkey toes to hook onto the edge of her tray, which I think is so funny. But even more funny is the view from below, seeing these chubby legs sticking out!

Still in AWE Over Here

More photos of baby Anderson. Isn't he to die for?! I talked to Marisa and she sounds really, really good. It seems that everything is going well with her recovery and the baby in general. Or was that just the drugs talking?

Only a few more days until we will be there!

We are in AWE

Welcome, welcome to baby Anderson William!

Marisa and Rusty are now the hap, hap, happiest parents around as Anderson was born early this morning at 1:04. Marisa went into labor on her own yesterday afternoon and after feeling the soothing effects of the epidural, tried her best to welcome him on her own. Baby AWE was having no part of that, preferring to stay cozied up inside her ginormous belly. After an hour of persuasion, it was determined that a C section was necessary. Rightly so, since he weighed in at 8 pounds, 12 ounces and 21 inches long! GEEZ LOUISE!

I hear that the color of his hair is disputable... Marisa says that in the right light it might take on the reddish tone of his daddy's.

In regards to the bets, it looks like I was closest as far as weight and length (I guessed 8 lbs. 10 oz. and 20.5 inches). Pen, however, was the closest as far as the delivery date (she guessed Sunday). Unfortunately, we were the two who placed the most cruel bets! No Vegas for us, though, I don't want to earn money off of that kind of pain!

ISN'T HE SO CUTE?!

I am such a proud Aunt and I absolutely can not wait to hit that Georgia soil and get my hands on him! Less than one week, y'all!

We're Waiting... Impatiently

Patience is a very nice and polite way to say WAITING.

Just when does waiting move past patience and become sitting on your ass? Not doing what you should because you are hoping/expecting for something to come to you?

I don't know where that line is. I want to be a patient girl, I really do. But holy moly, what if in my eagerness to be polite and patient I have let things pass me by, or even worse, go totally undetected because I have been sitting here, waiting?

If I jump up and shout I'M NOT WAITING ANY LONGER! I'M TAKING CONTROL, RIGHT THIS MINUTE! will I then become impatient? Or demanding? Or impulsive? Or Even Worse, stupid?

Because I'm at that point, people. The point where the line between being patient and being proactive is getting dangerously blurry. The point where I may make a rash decision because damnit, I am so tired of waiting and I want activity, forward progress, momentum RIGHT NOW.

I don't know when to continue giving free rein to the path of our lives, hoping and counting on the 'right thing' to happen or to choke up on them and guide us into what we think is the best avenue. I'm coming up blank here and wondering, just wondering, which is more erroneous?

We will eventually choose one of these tactics, and I sure do hope it's the right one. The one that gets us where we are supposed to be. What we are supposed to be doing. And whether that be by biding our time and waiting for the prime opportunity or by striking out and searching for it on our own, I know not.

This Is Just How We Are

Me: You realize that if we ever get divorced, Ella and Ashley will have a New Daddy like that. [snaps]

David:  Yep.

Me: What?  That's all you've got to say for being replaced?

David: You're the one talking about remarrying!

Me:  Yeah, actually I'm the one talking about divorce!

Me:  No, you know what?  You're not lucky enough to divorce me!  I'm going to make you suffer for the rest of your life!

David: No, I'll suffer for the rest of your life.

Me:  You're crazy if you think you're going to outlive me.  I'm taking years off of your life as we speak.  You'll be lucky to make it to 50!

David:  That's NO SHIT.

(I swear this is how it all went down, verbatim.  But before you go getting all worked up, it was totally tongue in cheek.  Unless David keeps beating me at Scrabble.  Then it's New Daddy all the way!)

There is a Reason We Call Her the Fly Catcher

I swear that Ashley spends half of her day with her mouth wide open. It always makes us laugh and sometimes gives us a little peek into those barren gums, just to make sure that no teeth have sprung up that we don't know about (and no, none as of this moment).

Ashley has finally, finally decided that crawling might be alright, and she has begun to scoot around a bit. She has also picked up on the idea of pulling up, and can do it herself for the most part. Critically related to that, she has learned that she must HOLD ON once she thrills herself by standing up. I suppose she learns the hard way since there were a few incidences of blatantly letting go followed by blatantly falling down.

However I feel about her casual, laid back approach to hitting a few milestones (which is very understandable, give her casual, laid back approach to everything else!), it pales to how I would feel if Ashley were like Andria's little boy, Wyatt, who is was walking at 9 1/2 months! I'm really ready for her to crawl and eventually walk, but not yet! Andria is a busy girl!

Lots of mouth openings:

And then one Ok, I'm done with the mobile, GIVE ME THAT CAMERA!

The Olympic Fever is Contagious

Ella is all about the Olympics. So are we, so we let her stay up late (sometimes too late) and watch all of the goings on, especially the swimming and gymnastics. Apparently Ella can do each and every event, because she acts them out in the living room, jumping around and making sound effects, especially with the diving.

At one point, when it seemed like all that was on was beach volleyball, we watched that too and boy did she pay attention. So much attention, in fact, that she decided to create her own beach volleyball area in the living room Saturday:

She told me this was 'Chow Yow Park' which is pretty dang close to Chaoyang Park where the competition is held. That girl, I tell you... Who would ever think that a four year old would soak up that kind of detail?

We attempted to play a little bit of beach volleyball in the house but that didn't turn out well. Even sitting down didn't keep the ball from hitting all sorts of things that are best left alone, like the entertainment center and fan/light, not to mention little babies.

I asked Ella which player she was, Misty May or Kerri Walsh, and she chose Misty May.

Misty has quite the spike.

Ella has also been paying close attention to the swimming and really liked to cheer for Michael Phelps (as did we!). It *almost* got to the point of driving us up the stinkin' wall with her asking over and over again about when Michael Phelps was swimming? Is that him? GO MICHAEL PHELPS! She got to see the race Friday night where Phelps beat Cavic by one one-hundredth of a second and was so excited, cheering right along with us. Later she says 'Cabbage just put is head down but Michael Phelps kept swimming and Cabbage lost because he put his head down.' Ah, Cavic, not only did you lose, but in the ears of a preschooler, you are now a vegetable.

I think staying up late all these nights in a row is going to kill all of us. David is quite the Olympics fiend so he stays up well past the normal bedtime to watch with me. Oftentimes I am the one who fades first and have to ask him how it all ended up! Ella, on the other hand, has been SUCH a bear with the decreased sleep. We keep telling ourselves that she'll make it up at preschool with a longer nap, but unfortunately that has not happened. And we are about to go insane with her attitude. But what do we do? Let her stay up late AGAIN and perpetuate the cycle! AAAGH!

Maybe the Olympics should do us all a favor and take a few days off to let us all catch up on some sleep? That would be awful nice of them.... But oh how I love to see the male swimmers... I suppose I'll fight through, somehow, someway!

Read The Writing On The Wall

Mallory and Ella found themselves in desperate need of a bath this evening after quite the fun time at the McClure ranch (more on that later). 

Before David went in and changed the water, because believe me, it was necessary, the girls played with every. single. bath toy Ella has.  The crayon soap is generally reserved as a *sometimes* toy since they are a pain in the ass to clean off the wall, but unsupervised as they were, E and M went to town.

Which one was reading my mind, I wonder?

       

Do you see the almost word beer at the bottom right?  Thank you, I will!

Place Your Bets!

Marisa is getting ready to have Baby AWE any day now, so I'm opening the tables for bets:

When will he come?

What will be his weight and length?

How long will labor last?

Will Marisa have a C-section?

How many times will she cry within the first 24 hours of his arrival?

And finally.... What do the A and W stand for in AWE?

Garth Brooks Owes Me Child Support

Jamie brought me one of her cookbooks to look through when she came over this weekend. It's by Trisha Yearwood 'Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen.'

Quite a few interesting recipes that I will keep, but what was most interesting is this photo near the beginning of the book:

Um, excuse me? Did Lilly come from Oklahoma? Could Lil be the offspring of this pup? OR IS SHE THE MOTHER? I hope not, because then I owe Garth Brooks child support. But isn't this nuts? I thought surely any remote relative of Lilly's would have long since been killed, due to her general sorriness and overall uselessness. But no!

I think a trip to Oklahoma is in order, where I will demand to know the origins of this dog, and then maybe Trisha and I will do a little Georgia cookin'.

Why Use Two Hands When You Could Use Four?

Ashley Kate has been accused of having monkey legs, and that might have been by me.

That child uses her feet to hold things she is interested in looking at or playing with.

I present to you Exhibit A:

AK checking out the Dressy Bessie doll (that Genelle so keenly suggested), foot coming up...

Exhibit B:

Feet holding DB securely, much like hands

Exhibit C:

Another DB foot hold

Exhibit D:

I thought you might like another angle, notice the foot coming in for the grab

Just some cuteness that I thought I'd throw in

Could these monkey legs come from me and the fact that I gave the child monkey toes? Could this really be my fault? Or is she just ambidextrous, but between feet and hands?

She does like bananas. Hmmm....