Well, we made it ten blissful mornings of excitement and wonder.  Today was day #11.  Where do I begin?  It's raining, so there's that.  So throw in not forgetting a slicker for Baby Duck this morning, which was actually a success. 
     Baby Duck woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.  She was grouchy and foul.  For some reason she thought that yelling at me repeatedly was going to work out well for her.  Apparently some of her sense was still asleep!  Did I mention that I overslept and missed my 15 minutes to myself with my coffee before waking her up?  Yeah, that wasn't good.
     So during the few cooperative moments we had this morning, Baby Duck managed to get toothpaste in her hair.  I didn't know about this and it dried.  Next thing I know she is screeching like a banshee because she has ripped a chunk of hair out of her head trying to brush through the Toothpaste Tangle From Dimension X.  After trying unsuccessfully to navigate the bramble patch she called hair myself, I quickly resorted to Plan F:  otherwise known as "Screw it.  I'm just going to wash your hair in the sink."  The banshee screeching escalated because washing her hair in the kitchen sink was scary and weird to her.  Have I told you yet that I still haven't gotten any time for coffee at this point?
     Once I got her in position and convinced her that the scalding hot water I use to wash dishes was not the temperature of what I was about to douse her head with... well, she giggled and squirmed and said it tickled and nearly got her shirt soaked in the process.  In the mean time, Ladybug sat on the bathroom floor and covered her legs in roughly 47 Scooby Doo Band-Aids.

CL

     Ladybug has taken to walking around the house with two objects:  a cylindrical pencil sharpener and the receptacle portion of a crayon sharpener.  She continually pretends to pour the pencil sharpener into the crayon sharpener receptacle and "drink" from it.  She then tells anyone- or no one- she sees that, "It's my coffee.  I need more coffee."

     In other news, Baby Duck is loving kindergarten, and I am adapting much better than I expected.  Hooray for rolling with the changes!

CL

     So I've been in denial up to now that my Baby Duck is about to start kindergarten.  Everything has been kind of surreal, like shopping for school supplies and visiting the school.  Now I am minutes away from putting her to bed.  Her clothes are laid out and her backpack is ready to go, complete with her Nutcracker that she wanted to take for her first ever Show-and-Tell.  Now I have a squirmy feeling in my stomach. 
     Don't get me wrong; I don't wish she wasn't going to go.  I love seeing her move forward in life and grow up.  I never lose sight of the big picture when it's time for my girls to take the next step in their life.  But there is always that wistful moment.  Or hour.  Or week... when you know that they could not be more ready to progress, but you're not sure you are prepared for it!  Ah, but nothing ever really can prepare us for those moments.  That's why I don't fight the denial phase.  It keeps me from worrying too much- and if you know me, you know I spend my life worrying.  Denial is a vacation from worry!  And it's not like worrying ever solves anything, so I might as well skip it and just let reality smack me in the face in the morning. 
     To ice the cake, my family will be hitting a large number of milestones this year.  For starters, when my stepdaughters are included, I have girls starting kindergarten, middle school and high school this year!  Talk about a lot to be excited for!  Also, in the funny pattern category:  I was a senior in high school the year my baby brother started kindergarten.  He will be a senior this year as my daughter starts kindergarten.  What a strange form of deja vu my mom must be experiencing right about now!
     Time to stare this bad boy in the face.  Gotta get the kiddos in bed... we have school in the morning.

CL

     While repainting  overhauling a bedroom this weekend, my girls decided to play library with one of the only items left in the room: their bookshelf.  They were playing along nicely for quite awhile, so I had sort of tuned them out until I heard Ladybug talking about a book about pancakes.  I looked down to see she was holding "Green Eggs and Ham", so I told her what it was.  Her reply was:

"Oh, yeah.  It's Dr. Masseuse!"

Disco.

CL

     Within the span of two minutes, both of my daughters had their bloggable moment of the day:

     First, I heard the water in the bathroom running and I knew that Ladybug was engaging in her current favorite activity: 'cleaning' the bathroom sink.  That's mildly interesting in and of itself, but here's my favorite part: her preferred cleaning tool is a Dixie Cup from the dispenser by the toothbrushes.  I don't know why.  Apparently it's good for removing dried toothpaste?  She basically scrubs the sink with the mushy remains of the cup until it completely disintegrates.
     Second, Baby Duck had been apparently paying attention moments before the water in the bathroom came on when I began to fan myself, saying, "Woo!  I've got a case of the third-cup-of-coffee-sweats!  You know, when you drink enough coffee quickly enough to raise your body temperature?"  As I was returning from observing the sink cleaning, Baby Duck met me in the hall with a wet paper towel so I could cool off.  That kid is a problem solver, let me tell you!

     I wish I had something to include about the other girls, but the Munchkin has spent the last two nights at grandparents' houses, so I'm not fully informed of what she has been up to.  Teeny Bear is unfortunately busy dealing with the heartbreak of losing a beloved pet.  Parvo blows.  Rest in peace, Guinness Cletus.

CL

     I have a Hy-Vee Grocery Store right by my house that I usually go to for my regular weekly shopping.  However, I do read all the circulars thoroughly and am occasionally enticed into visiting Price Chopper for a bag or two's worth of deals.  It is this habit that has led me to the mistake of visiting the Price Chopper that is the closest physically rather than the closest one on my own side of the state line.  I have had two other annoying experiences at this particular location, both involving some pretty unfriendly cashiers.  This time I had Unfriendly Cashier from Annoying Experience #1, but I decided not to hold that against her.  I greeted her nicely when it was my turn and she seemed okay to start with.  The problem came when I asked questions about what was being rung up.
     First, I was buying toilet paper only because it was on sale.  Everyone knows that paper products are more expensive at the grocery store at regular price; does anyone even buy them there if they're not on sale?!?  Well, it didn't ring up at the sale price, so I asked if that kind wasn't supposed to be on sale.  She just stared at me and said apparently not.  I asked her which kind was supposed to be on sale.  She said, "I don't know.  I haven't been back there tonight."  I was taken aback and took a few moments to ask, "Well, is there anyone close by who might have been back there and would know the answer?"  The kid bagging my groceries offered to go look while the poodle-permed cashier just stared at me with her sourface.  She finished ringing me out and I handed her my coupons.  I watched her scan them.  I watched her miss one.  The display did not allow me to see all of them on the screen at once to double check, so I politely asked if she was certain she got all the coupons.  She just said, "Yes."  She didn't even scroll back to look or anything.  Then the kid came back and said the kind of T.P. that was on sale was sold out.  Sourface Poodle stuttered and muttered something about a raincheck, to which I said we didn't need to worry about.  I could live without the toilet paper sale.
     Now, I had contained my annoyance until she handed me my receipt and I stepped away to look it over.  Sure enough, she had missed the exact coupon that I thought she had missed.  Not that a dollar is that big of a deal.  But everyone who knows me knows that it's the principle of the thing that matters and I will drive an issue into the ground based on principle alone.  So I waited for a break in between her customers so that I could ask her about the coupon that I had given her.  She just stared at me and said she didn't know.  This time I just stared back until she opened up her drawer to look at the coupons.  When she flipped past it, I finally got ticked enough to be unfriendly back.  I said, "There it is.  Now can I have it back so I can take it over to customer service so they can fix it?"  She handed it to me and I am certain she made a very nasty face at the back of my head as I walked away.  Must really suck to be so miserable in your own life that you feel the need to purposefully agitate the people you get paid to help.
     So, Hy-Vee, I think I might have to stop straying from you.  Do you honor competitor's ads like WalMart does? 

CL

     I'm used to strange dreams.  Early this morning I dreamed that a friend of mine confided in me that she was pregnant and very scared.  I woke up startled and immediately texted her to see if everything was okay in her world.  I went right back to sleep, and here is where it gets weird.  I then began to dream that she called me to talk about the weird pregnancy dream I had about her and whether or not it was actually based in reality.  I woke up this time having to actually concentrate on figuring out if I had already talked to her.  I believe my brains may actually be beginning the process of leaking out my ears.

CL

     After spending the evening at the ER when we found out Teeny Bear had passed out in the bathroom at the pool and hit her head, I came home completely exhausted.  I've been battling some seriously gnarly insomnia for weeks, tossing and turning for much of the night and looking at the clock every twenty minutes.  Last night around 4:30 I finally gave up for a while and tried E's trick: get up and get on the computer for a bit, then try again later.  I paid some bills  until I finally felt groggy again and tried again for sleep.  I eventually attained it, but now I'm wishing I'd just stayed up.  Intense nightmares involving a rapid progression from trying to take my girls to Vacation Bible School at my childhood church but being unable to because an old church acquaintance had decided I shouldn't be allowed to and then when I saw him he gave me the stinkeye combined with disdain and woeful pity so I told my mom I was leaving but I apparently left my car running because when I got out to the parking lot the kids were there but the car was not because some teenagers that I didn't even know from the church must have been trying to impress Teeny Bear so they kicked the kids out of my car and moved it to the junkyard across the street but when I got over there to get it back someone had stolen it for real so I screamed and cried and flipped out and nobody cared that my car had been stolen because they thought I was overreacting so I had to call the police but then I decided to go all vigilante and next thing I know I'm dressed like Trinity from The Matrix and packing some serious heat while one of the bartenders from the restaurant I work at was telling me I should be careful and stay with the detective.  Thank goodness Baby Duck got up to go to the bathroom or that mess in my head might have gone on forever!  So I decided that maybe the nausea from the extreme duress I was under while sleeping would dissipate if I got up and got it all out of my head by writing.  And that is why you are stuck reading yet another post about my dreams that are probably going to get me committed one of these days.

CL

     This week my family reached a milestone that I honestly never expected to occur: all four of E's daughters in our house for a sleepover!  I can't remember the last time I had so much fun or felt so truly content I wasn't sure I was going to be able to contain myself!  We watched movies, stayed up way too late and laughed a lot.  If you would have told me eleven months ago that we would have had this moment I would never have believed you.  This year has been quite a ride!
     I was happy enough that Teeny Bear had decided to accompany me (along with Ladybug and Baby Duck) to pick the Munchkin up at the airport.  I was even happier when she stuck around to help us do some serious bargain shopping to get the Munchkin a few basics.  It was pretty stinkin' cool to watch the 15-year-old guide the 11-year-old in the ways of fashion.  The Munchkin really looks up to Teeny Bear.  Last Christmas I watched Baby Duck try to battle the Munchkin for the Eldest Sister status they were each used to, all while trying to understand that it didn't belong to either of them; Teeny Bear is top of the totem pole in that area.  This time everyone seemed to relish their place in the lineup and interacted like real sisters.  That's what is truly important to me.  The grownups won't be around forever.  The bond these sisters develop will last a lifetime and hopefully sustain them through difficult times in their lives.
     I spent my evening at work last night walking around like a zombie due to me being very out of practice with the staying up most of the night.  I really should have used my better judgement and gone to bed when I got tired.  Then Teeny Bear dug up my inner Marty McFly: "My mom and I do this all the time.  She can stay up with me and still get up with the baby in the morning."  Oh, yeah?  Well, I can be just as cool!  I' m younger than she is, by golly!  I should still be able to do this!  How can I turn down such a challenge?  I was grouchy and exhausted by 6:00 last night.  But I wouldn't change it for the world.  That's an experience for the family history books.

CL

     I have been suffering again from the affliction that causes me to believe that nothing I have experienced in the last 10 days has been significant enough to write about, so I have written nothing.  Then the pressure is on to have a great entry.  Goodness knows that if a blog I follow has no posts for an extended period I expect something pretty frakkin' impressive when the author bothers to write again.  Let me just tell you now that you should deflate your expectations here and now.  This is not going to be a spectacular post.  It will instead be yet another purging of my brain in hopes of having a fresh start with a witty story tomorrow.
     Ladybug has started speaking in very long and detailed sentences, which has been quite noticeable and entertaining.  She has also begun to ask no less than seventy two questions per day.  That has become a bit cumbersome when trying to get anything said or done.
     Baby Duck went through a phase for about four days where she was an unholy terror.  She was also particularly clumsy during that time, which for her usually signals a growth spurt (be it physical or mental).  She seems to be settling down and responding to positive reinforcement again (instead of making a possessed weasel face at me when I try to be nice to her), so I'm thinking we might be getting through it.  Her handwriting is looking pretty great and she got a tracing book that should have been a couple of years over her head that she was completing very well, so I'm going to write all that bad behavior off as necessary for fine motor skill development.  Because holding a grudge against a five-year-old is a bit immature.
     E has been reading so he can fall asleep better.  That's great.  I love to read.  I'm happy he's reading.  However, I was particularly tired all of last week, and having to try to fall asleep with a light on set me up for several fitful nights.  But that's okay.  He finished his book last night and was looking to get a new one, so I volunteered to find one for him at the library.  I got a couple of books for myself at the same time so I can read at the same time, thus eliminating by unfair annoyance at having the light on in our room at 10:00 at night.
     The Munchkin arrives tomorrow for her summer visit.  I think her sisters are as excited as her father and I are for her to get here!  I hope I can find time to write enough while she is in town.  She is a lot of fun, so I think she should definitely provide me with some good material!

CL