Top Ten Tuesday

Just a few (or ten) random thoughts about our summer so far.

1.  I have the most wonderful daughters! (and while I realize I do tend to overuse the exclamation point, this does indeed deserve one...a few actually)  I woke up Mondy to go start tutoring, and looked around my house in disgust.  The week with the stomach flu and the resulting uberfussy toddler combined with my weariness and obsession with getting the weekly coupons clipped and sorted left our house a total wreck.  I was horrified, disgusted, and glad to get out of the mess for the day.  When I left, the girls were still asleep.  When I returned, the house was clean!  What an amazing blesssing!  And no, I don't have before and after pictures because I do not wish for DFACS to come and take my children away.

2.Hannah has developed a very loud voice this summer.  It seems as if she must say everything, and I do mean everything  like she is yelling it.  I don't know if it is a result of trying to be heard around here or her ears are plugged up, or a week out of preschool and she has lost the ability to use her inside voice, but wow, is she loud.

3.  Hannah has developed an intersting fashion sense this summer.  What is it that they say? A picture's worth a thousand words?

4.  We have been playing a lot of Wii this summer.  And Hannah and Charlotte have played a lot of fake Wii this summer.  For those of you without the older kids/younger kids dynamic, this is when you give your younger kids "dead" controllers and let them believe they are actually playing...and winning.

5.  We LOVE sidewalk chalk.  Ever since I brought it home at the end of the school year from my classroom, Hannah has had to play "chalk" at least three times a day.  And yes, she is sitting in the middle of the road, in her church dress.  What can I say, I'll do anything to avoid making more laundry.

6.  Fighting, fighting, fighting.  Oh...the fighting.  It's gonna be a looooooonnnnng  summer.  Maddy and Hannah fight, Sarah and Maddy fight, Charlotte and Hannah fight.  Did I mention that Maddy and Hannah fight?  Because they do.  At least 15 times a day.  No joke.  Resulting in Hannah crying and running to me screaming and Maddy calling her a baby and remarking about us liking Hannah better (and can't she just punch her in he face?) 

7.  Screaming, screaming, screaming.  Oh...the screaming.  Remember this?

Every day, most of the day, this is what she looks like.  She hears someone say the word "popsicle," and she runs to the freezer, throws herself against it and screams.  You tell her it's time to put away the crayons, and she immediately starts to scream.  She wakes us, she's cranky.  She's hungry, she's cranky.  The terribe twos have hit with a vengeance.  I actually heard Daryl say to her afterthe aforementioned popsicle incident, "Charlotte, just because it works, doesn't mean you have to scream!"  He's right...it works.  We need to fix that.

8.  She can still be very sweet.  She's like the little girl with the curl...(and I very obviously haven't been to the eye doctor yet)

9.  I saw this book at Barnes and Noble when I was picking up Sarah's summer reading book, The Crucible.

It's a book of short stories, which is about all the time I have had for reading lately :(((<--big big sad face.  Just the title--and the title of the first story captivated me.  Liked some of the stories, loved others.  Found something in every story to relate to.  And, oh how I wish to have a day that I could eat whatever I wanted!

10.  Speaking of eating...or not eating whatever I wanted...I have unofficially hit 20 pounds gone! Unofficial because I haven't reached it on the official weight watcher scale, just ours in the bathroom this morning!