Live by the microwave, play by the microwave

Like Pavlov's dog this morning I found myself responding to the beep of the microwave. My head perked up like a puppy and my mind scrambled to determine what activity I was supposed to transition into. While I will readily admit that I use the microwave to cook daily (my breakfast specialty is Scrambled Eggs with Cheese a la McWave thanks to Sherry's mom Nancy), more often I use the microwave to time our activities. A tool to keep me from abandoning what little sense of time I have, as I lose myself in Lea's play world.

We time bath for 15 - 20 minutes and when the beeper beeps, it is time to wash hair. We time playdoh time and when the beeper beeps it is time to make breakfast and get dressed for work. We use the beeper for time outs when things go terribly wrong. We use it to track playtime, computer time, bath time and even to tell us how much time until we have to leave for church or other time sensitive objective. There are even days I use it as incentive for getting ready. As in "Lea if you can get yourself dressed before the beeper beeps we will have time to go to the playground before our final destination. I am pitting my daughter against the microwave timer in a race to the finish!

I did not realize how readily I rely on the timer until this morning when I heard the beep that signified the eggs were done. I didn't think "breakfast is done," I thought "ooh time to move on, which way do I go?" I don't know if its sad and unfortunate that I live my life in 20 minute increments denoted by the beep of the Magic Chef, but I do know I make it to work each day (in an acceptable time frame, if not on time). Perhaps I am even addicted to these 20 minute increments. Over the weekend I will try letting myself play without the timed knowledge of the beeper beeping.

Seener & Mars

We got a Children's Almanac for Christmas from Mrs. Hopens (Thank you Marge!) so we've been reading about all kinds of stuff from bacteria to robots to planets. I read all the planet names the other day and we even played "driving to Mars on a space mission" One day. So Lea's got a rudimentary knowledge of the solar system.

So as I hugged Lea for the last good night huggle, I was squeezed tight and told "I love you the whole world. I love you more than Seener and Mars."

Now I'm pretty sure she meant "Venus & Mars," but I like "Seener & Mars" much better. I'm pretty sure "Seener & Mars" is a bigger amount when it comes to the measure of love than just Venus & Mars.

A box of socks

"What's in that box?" we'd ask Lea. "A box of socks," she'd reply matter of factly. That's what we taught Lea to say about any wrapped package. During previous holidays — Christmas, birthdays, etc... — we've had a problem with Lea keeping a secret. We'd wrap something and she'd run to Daddy and say "Daddy we got you a so and so." Ug! So finally I just told her to tell everyone it was a box of socks. It was very cute, she'd say "Its a box of socks" and then lean in to whisper "But, its not really a box of socks."

I think this year's best box of socks (but it wasn't really a box of socks) came from Aunt Kaitlin. She sent a package with two Cabbage Patch dolls, one hand made by Grandma JoAnn and one store bought (but old enough to have painted on eyes and a signature on the tush), with a full box of doll clothes (also many of which where handmade by Grandma JoAnn) and a doll bed made by Grandpa Dan. All things Kaitlin played with when she was a girl. A very precious gift for us to share such a piece of family history.

Lea isn't so much moved by the nostalgia of it all, she just thinks they are super great doll with a lot of clothes and the best little bed ever!

But as Dan read Kaitlin's letter the whole family got a bit misty eyed. It was very sweet and Lea loves playing with them. We even had to pack a bag of clothes (which came with the clothes) to take the doll with us when we went to go visit Aunt Bonny after Christmas. Lea was decked out like a little mommy. It was very cute. Here is a video of Lea opening the box and Dan reading the letter on Christmas day.


Of course Lea wasn't the only one who got an unexpected awesome gift fromt the whole family! I got a wii!

What a box of socks that was!!

The family got together and got us a wii game system. I'd wanted one for more than a year. I was really appreciative that Dan got everyone together to make such an extravagant present possible. It is so much fun! We even got Grampy to play. Margarete played almost every time we did during the 10 days we were with them and had a lot of fun. Here is a video of Grampy and wii.


We all got a lot of boxes of socks (but they weren't really socks)! We got wonderful gifts all around. It would be a bit dull to catalog them all, but thank you to everyone for everything!

Here are a few highlights of some of the presents.

Grandma was surprised at what's in her box of socks.

Marvin Slippers! We found them on Craig's list! My Dad had gotten a pair for her long ago and she'd worn that pair until it had 3 inch holes in the bottom! At first, we could only find "collector's items" on ebay for like $75, but Dan found this pair on Craig's list for under $10 and with some phone calls and extra shipping we managed to really surprise mom for Christmas.


Here Grampy and Margarete model the beach robes I made for them. Mom had the idea (they match a swim suit she got Grampy for his birthday over the summer). Mom bought the material and helped me pick a pattern and I sewed at her house two weekends in a row. It was part of the handmade Christmas push. I also made throw pillows with the Morgan family crest for Dan's dad, an Elvis pillow for Teresa and several bags or items with Lea drawings on them. In all I sewed two beach robes, two scarfs, 5 pillows, 5 bags and 3 sweatshirts (just the Lea drawing patch on, not a whole sweatshirt).

Uno Moo was a big hit. Its loads of fun to play. Lea loves the skunks, which mean pick two!

Lea's Doctor kit was a huge hit. A gift from Mommy (found at an estate sale for $2.50! I love a bargain!). Lea did a checkup on anything that would stay still long enough.

This was Lea's shopping spree. Grandma JoAnn got Lea a big gift card and Daddy and Lea went shopping. They were there for 2 hours! But Lea got a lot of stuff. Including a van for her doll house family of kitties, something she had told Grandma Bubby she wanted, but no one else. She picked out the perfect one with seats for the whole family, including the two babies.


In all we were very lucky for every box of socks under the tree!

Welcome 2010

One of my New Year's resolution is to blog more often. Seeing as how the last time I posted was like May I think I can do better than 2009. I will post some of the same stuff as facebook, but I miss my little diary. I just never recovered from the overwhelming amount of photos of Disney World and then a few months later Myrtle Beach. Perhaps I'll find time to do a 2009 in review, but my solemn vow is to not get bogged down in a) posting things in order and 2) feeling the need to post the entire photo album or story. I'll also try not to babble... too late.

We decided that since New Year's eve fell on a long weekend AND a full moon — not just a full moon, a blue moon. I figured that meant the night would be crazier then usual. Plus while most people at work were saying "Christmas was great, but I've had enough family," Well... we headed back out for another 5 days with my family. The opportunity to spend an extra 5 days with my grandpa was irresistable. And its really been picture perfect.

We spent the day by all traveling back to Dallas to watch Lea in Gymnastics class. I had never been able to take her and the grandparents were excited to watch too. It was fun since she's moved to the level 2 class she gets to do a floor exercise every week which includes tumbling and a cartwheel and it was really just super to watch her bounce and tumble.





We celebrated New Year's Eve at 9pm after a game of Mexican Train dominos. We popped open the champagne and twisted open the sparkling grape juice. Lea and I made a clock to do the count down. She wrote all the numbers (not perfectly) all by herself. Grandma, Lea and I made hats and EVERYONE wore them. It was adorable! We set the microwave to 10 seconds, counted down and yelled "Happy New Year." I put on one of Grampy's favorite songs and he and Margarete danced... He even found a new dance partner for a few twirls around the kitchen with is Great Grand Baby.

For New Year's day, Dan made an excellent Ham (with Root Beer glaze like we saw on TV, it was phenomenal!). We had cheesy potatoes and the good luck black eyed peas, as well as green salad for wealth. It was fantastic and I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat again, I'm so stuffed. We then headed out for wonderful weather and a rare glimse of sunshine. It was really a beautiful day and we appreciated it all the more since we've had nothing but rain (Emory where mom lives didn't get the snow Dallas got, so we just got wet and cold.)




It was still a bit chilly, but very nice. We sat around the fire pit. Although some of the family (ahem... Grandma) wondered why were were leaving a perfectly good house to sit in the yard, everyone really enjoyed sitting around something other than a TV for a few hours.

Here Dan and Lea are trying to determine if the thing WAY up in the sky is a plane or bird... the verdict was a plane.


Grampy and Lea went for a little walk. Lea mostly ran around the yard finding other things to do while us old people sat around and talked.

But occasionally she would flit by and shove a marshamallow in her mouth. For a while she was entertained by roasting them. Dan — an Eagle scout you know — made an excellent fire, complete with a little area of coals just for marshmallow roasting. Lea liked that they were gooey, but would peel off the brown crispy part and feed it to me or Grandma.

I think we need to plan a camping trip this year so she can get the hang of this fire business.

I hope everyone's new year's was as happy and safe as ours. I'm looking forward to 2010!

The itsy bitsy spider...

Went up the water spout.

Out came the hand and bamed him down.

The end.

That was the song Lea made up this morning. She also went off to play a fishing game on the computer. She is Dan's daughter today!

A fun converstaion I'd like to remember

Lea says "You be the lion, I'll be the lion tamer."

Me, "Ok. What do you want me to do?"

"Go get me a fish."

"I'm a lion, where would I get a fish?"

"Go fight a bear and take his fish."

"Where did you get that idea?"

"I just came up with it Mommy!"

As Seen on TV

So we recently got a new tivo that allows us to get the digital channels. We still don't have cable, but we've doubled the amount of channels we received. An added bonus is that one UHF channel has a digital version that is all kids shows. Qubo. It shows very odd stuff, but good wholesome stuff Lea loves. It seems to be a lot of Canadian public broadcasting shows. It does show commercials, however, unlike PBS. But they don't have a lot of advertising. Just "as-seen-on-tv" commercials. So we knew that Lea was watching them, but better that than the newest Barbie ever 5 minutes. Or so we thought.

I knew Lea's favorite was the "Touch-N-Brush." She's talked at length about how great the Touch-N-Brush would be when we are brushing our teeth. But it all hit home one night while she was expounding on the virtues of the Touch-N-Brush. It was a conversation we'd had a couple times until she ended with a random "Gold Paq."

"What, Lea?"

"Gold Paq!"

"Lea, is that something to do with Touch-N-Brush?" (Because I do know it comes in a chrome plated version.)

"NO MOMMY!" And with hand motions and demonstrating with the tube of tooth paste my little spokes model explained, "The Touch-N-Brush is a stick on the wall that holds the tooth paste like this and I put my tooth brush in like this and I would have tooth paste. Gold Paq!"

Laughing, I asked again, "Lea, what is gold pack?"

In great exasperation "Mommy, you put your gold in it!"

"OH... You mean we put our gold in and send it to them and they send us a check?"

"YES MOMMY, Gold paq."

"Well, that's sweet Lea that you want that for the family, but its not for us."

"Ok, Mommy.... Mommy?"

"Yes, Lea."

"Do you want Bumpits?"

Hmmm... maybe its time to limit tv watching.