Red Stamp

No one is paying me anything or giving me anything to write this post.  I just like to share the cool stuff I find with you all from time to time.

I suck at thank you notes.  I mean, really, really suck.  It's not that I'm ungrateful, I'm just really busy, and for some reason finding a stamp is as hard in this house as finding tape or a pair of scissors that is still suitable for cutting fabric (seriously, family, lay off Mommy's scissors!).  Excuses, excuses, it's one of the things on the short list of things I wish I could change about myself (we don't need to get into the rest of that list, it's depressing...  But I'd like to be in a single digit size between now and when I die, and also I really would like to cure my chronic foot-in-mouth syndrome).

And then I found out about Red Stamp, and everything changed.

Red Stamp is an iOS app.  You download it free from the app store, then you give it permission to muck around with your photos and your contacts, and BAM!  Instant thank you notes.

Seriously, look at the one I made from our Halloween picture in like 33 seconds:

Or this one that I sent to my mother-in-law after our trip to Chicago:

Or this one I sent to Uncle Doug and Aunt Kathy:

Once you've designed your card, you can email it, text it, save it to your camera roll, post it to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or you can pay $1.99 to have Red Stamp print it and send it to your recipient in the actual mail!

I am using the heck out of this thing.  Sure, the same functionality is available from a variety of websites (I've used Shutterfly for the past several years to do our Christmas cards, for example), but this app is so quick and so slick, and it makes sending personalized thank you notes so easy, that I have officially run out of excuses.  I don't have to plug in my camera, upload to my computer, walk uphill both ways to the post office...  I just choose the cute layout (and they have a lot of cute ones!), choose the picture, change the text, choose the recipient, and hit "MAIL IT!"

The other thing that I love is that they're something that the recipient will actually keep and enjoy, rather than just reading and saying, "Oh, that's nice," and tossing away.  (Actually, I keep every single personal piece of mail I get, from letters to thank you notes to Christmas cards, but I'm crazy like that.  Most people don't.)  I wish I had found the app before we left the Jack Hanna show, because I would've taken a picture of the kids.  I found it later that same day.  I just happened to have taken a picture of the logo on the wall and the screen to blog about it. 

So, there you go.  I just made your holidays a LOT easier if you have an iOS device.  You can just email me the thank you note. 

Birthday Stuff

We recently survived Mary Grace's Friend birthday party.  Her Family birthday party is tomorrow.  There were 22 kids here from 2 - 4:30.  We've got 22 relatives coming tomorrow.  You can see why the parties needed to be divided.

I went rogue and I didn't plan any activities.  I didn't have goodie bags for the kids to take home, either.  I also asked our guests to bring donations for the food pantry in lieu of gifts.  With 22 relatives coming tomorrow, Mary Grace really didn't need gifts from her friends.  A couple of our friends have done similar things (donations of books or school supplies), and I thought it was a very good idea.  The kids just went nuts and played.  We served apples, grapes, watermelon, chips, snack mix, popcorn, and of course cake and ice cream (actually, we forgot to get ice cream so Colleen ran out to get some - thanks again!).  It was very simple and very nice.  The kids were really good.  Everyone got along.  Mary Grace had a great time.

Simple parties are where it's at, y'all.

Yesterday, on her actual birthday, we took her to Dave and Busters down in Indy, which would have been a lot of fun except for two 12 or 13 year old girls stole all of Mary Grace's tickets.  They came over and asked us "Who's winning?" while we were playing a driving game, and swiped the tickets while we were distracted.  I had a rough idea of their size and age from their voices, so I went looking around for them.  They made eye contact with me and then ran - guilty behavior if I ever saw it!  I told the girls, "Go find Daddy!" and took off after them.  They sat down in a booth and I said, "Did you come up and talk to my daughters and me while we were playing the driving game?"

"No, that wasn't us."

"Then why did you run when you saw me looking for you?"

"Because we're leaving, it's time for us to go."

"Really?  If you're leaving then why are you sitting at an empty booth looking guilty?  Where are your parents?"  I marched them over to the table where their family was, and when their mother appeared I told her what I suspected and why.  I said, "I don't want anything from you, but I thought you needed to know what they did."  She said, "I'm sorry that happened to you," but didn't accept responsibility.  I walked away feeling shaken and sick.  The hostess took me outside to calm down.  She said, "If some stranger was accusing your kids like that, you'd stand up for your kids, too, wouldn't you?" and I agreed that I probably would, but I would grill them later and extract confessions, and then I would punish them severely - once for stealing and once for embarrassing me in public!  I didn't expect her to beat them senseless right there in front of me or anything.  But I sure hope they were suitably punished when they got home.

After talking to the hostess, Danielle, I went back in to find BJ and the kids.  Mary Grace was sobbing, and even though the restaurant refunded her tickets (we guessed that she'd had between 500 and 1000, so they gave us 750).  She didn't understand at first that they'd put them on the debit card thing and that's why we didn't have a bucket of tickets anymore.  The whole thing cast a dark shadow over what was otherwise a really good time.

I just don't understand people.  I hope those girls learned a good lesson.

Monica was impressed, when I told her the story, that I had confronted them.  She said, "Weren't you afraid of getting punched or something?"  It never even occurred to me to worry about it.  The police and the manager were standing right there by the time I talked to the mother.  I guess the pain of getting punched would go away in a day or two, but the anger I would have felt if they had gotten away with what they did would have lasted a lifetime.

Teachable moment for the girls, too, about why we don't take things that don't belong to us, and why we need to take good care of what does belong to us, because there are dishonest people, etc. etc.  Ugh.  Heck of a lesson to learn on your birthday.

Anyway, I'm exhausted.  I have some new books downloaded, so I'm going to go lay on the couch in the family room and read until I can put the kids to bed.

Got Hair?

There's a lot of hair in this house.  Mary Grace has difficult hair.  It's thick and curly.  Very, very curly.  I tease her that she spends most nights lying in her bed tying it in knots.  Claire, on the other hand, has thick, straight hair, and a very tender head.  And of course, my hair (which desperately needs to be cut) is also thick, but mine is more wavy than curly.

Consequently, I used to spend at least 15 minutes every morning dealing with hair.  Generally this involved chasing a screaming Claire around the house, threatening to shave her head if she didn't just suck it up and let me comb her hair, already.  Mary Grace behaved better, but it still broke my heart to hear her say, "Ouch Mommy, it hurts!" as tears rolled down her sweet cheeks.  I'd tell her that I remember my mom combing the tangles out of my hair, too, and I know how much it hurts, but there's nothing I can do.

Then I heard about a product that has changed our lives.  I loved it so much that I contacted the company and asked them if I could share it with you!  Behold:

That, my friends, is a Magic Flowerpot by Tangle Teezer, and they are not kidding when they say it's magic.

The top part lifts out, and there are eensy weensy little plastic tines on the other side.  Somehow, probably with magic, it takes out the tangles without hurting the kid.  Even Claire's tender head! 

I can brush Mary Grace's hair dry, which is something I haven't been able to do since she was one.  This is going to make our winters so much easier - it used to be that I had to soak her hair to comb it, and then worry about her going out in the cold with a wet head.  We won't have to worry about it next winter!

The kids have even asked to comb their own hair with the Magic Flowerpot, and because of the magic they can actually do a pretty decent job of it - freeing me up to do other things in the morning.  I just give it a once-over when they're done, and we go.  No more 15 minute hair battles in our house!

I'm still in the post-partum shed - I don't know how I actually have any hair left to lose at this point, because it has been six months, but I'm losing a TON of hair every day.  It was all over the bathroom before, because the brush I used to use didn't grab it as well.  The tines on the Tangle Teezer actually grab the hair better, resulting in less mess (and fewer loose hairs all over the house).

You can buy the regular Tangle Teezer at Sally Beauty Supply (which is what I did) or you can order one online.  I'm excited to be able to give you an opportunity to win one, too!  All you have to do is go to the Magic Flowerpot by Tangle Teezer's Facebook page and click "LIKE," then post a comment on the wall saying that you came from http://prettybabies.blogspot.com, and why you need a Magic Flowerpot by Tangle Teezer.  One winner will be randomly selected to win!

Good luck!

Thank you

All of the support that you have shown our family this week means so much.  We've received so many calls, texts, emails, comments, and cards.  So many of you have offered your love and support.  It truly touches our hearts to know that Max was loved by so many of our friends and family, too.

I wanted to share a couple of special stories...

Our neighbor, J, is 11.  He and his parents and his baby sister live two doors down.  He mowed our lawn for us while we were gone last weekend, and with everything that happened, BJ and I both forgot to pay him.  I called him after school yesterday and said, "When the storm is over, come down so I can pay you.  I'm so sorry we forgot."

J's mom came down after work and told me that J had asked her if, instead of paying him to mow the lawn, if it would be ok if he asked us to donate the money to the Humane Society in Max's memory, instead.  And his little sister, who is 3, told her mommy that she's going to grow up and be a vet so she can make Max strong and healthy again.

What wonderful kids, and what a lovely family. 

Other friends of ours have also made donations in Max's memory.  It just blows me away.  I've never been on the receiving end of memorial donations, before.  I had no idea how much it would mean to me.  What a beautiful thing to do.


Our vet, Dr. Miller, called me last night to check on us.  We spent 15 minutes on the phone, with her reassuring me that we had done the right thing, that we couldn't have known any earlier that anything was wrong with Max, and that even if we had known, there was nothing we could have done to fix it.  It really helped ease my mind, because I had started to question whether or not we had done the right thing, whether or not it was really painless when we let her be euthanized, and whether or not we missed some sign in the last month or two that something was wrong.  I'd spent a good part of yesterday Googling.  Google is sometimes not my friend.

BJ and I are surrounded by such loving, wonderful, generous people - from our family to our neighbors to our friends and colleagues to the professionals we've chosen to work with our family (teachers, doctors, dentists, vets, insurance agents, accountants...) - we are truly, truly blessed.  Thank you so much for loving us so well.

Organizing My Life with Evernote

(No one paid me anything to write this, although I'd happily accept a year of Evernote Premium in return for being such a nice blogger, if the Evernote people happen to find this...)

I've been looking for a solution for literally YEARS to the information overload that plagues me.  I think I've found it with Evernote.

Evernote is free.  You download the app to your phone and your computer, and you can access it through the 'net, too.  You can save images, photos, lists (with check boxes), web pages, PDF files, notes... and in the premium version you can save Microsoft Office documents.

I have to admit, I've had it on my phone for a long time without realizing its potential.  But yesterday I had some time to fool around with it, and I'm really excited about the possibilities...

One area where I have total info overload is recipes. I'll be surfing and I'll see something and think, "Gosh, I really want to try that!" but then when I sit down to plan our grocery list I have NO idea what to make.  I can't remember that there was this recipe on Allrecipes and that recipe on Pioneer Woman and so on.  Well, now when I'm surfing and I come across a recipe, I just "clip" it to Evernote.  Just this morning I made Oatmeal Pancakes from Smitten Kitchen (LOVE these) and I clipped it to Evernote (with a picture copied and pasted into the file!) so that next time I want to make them, I don't have to search for the recipe (and run the risk of finding the wrong Oatmeal Pancakes because I can't remember which blog it was, or the risk of the whole blog being taken down for whatever reason).  If the internet is down, I can still make them, because the file is mirrored on my computer.

I can scan in my own recipes and put them in the same "notebook."  Then, when I make them, I can take a picture with my phone and upload it to the recipe easily.  I can tag all of my recipes, too.  Entree, Beef, Chicken, Dessert, Must Try!, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Christmas Cookies....  The possibilities are endless, and it will make them easy to find.  And it's SEARCHABLE!

Now, imagine I'm at the grocery store and I suddenly have an urge to make pancakes...  I can call up the recipe on my iPhone and make sure I have all the ingredients (ok, bad example, because I always have all those ingredients, but if I wanted to make some exotic recipe that didn't just use pantry staples, and I couldn't remember if I needed lemon or lime or whatever, I'd have that information at my fingertips).  If I'm up in Grammaland and I want to make a new Christmas cookie with Mimi, we can pull up all my recipes on her computer and use them there.  And since it's web, phone, and computer based, I don't have to endlessly print out the same recipes (or type up the same recipes to send to someone - I can e-mail it to you straight out of Evernote).

Ok, so beyond recipes and groceries, I have plenty of ideas for how Evernote can simplify my life.  If I'm talking to someone and they mention a book I'd like to read, I can put it in a special note (with check boxes!!) called "Books to Read" - then, 10 years from now when I have time to read again, I can call up that list and have all those book titles at my fingertips.  Ditto for movies.  How many times have we been sitting in a theater watching previews and said, "That looks great!" but then we get to movie night and we can't think of anything to rent.  Oh my gosh, that happens every time!

Let's say I'm out shopping and I see something that my mom would love.  Well, we draw names at Christmas so I don't get her a Christmas present every year... but I could put a note called "gift ideas" in my phone, and jot it down, and then if I draw Mom I've already got an idea for her.  I could also clip a website to Evernote if I'm surfing and run across something I'd like to get for her.  Awesome, right?  I can't be the only one who gets to December and draws a total blank on what to get for everyone.

We get freezer beef every year.  I am considering making a checklist of what we get, then checking it off as I use it.  With the checklist function, there is a lot of potential for inventory. 

But wait, there's more!  If I'm on the phone with someone at work, and I need to take notes on the conversation to refer to later, I have a whole notebook called "Work" where I can keep that stuff, and tag it so that I can find it.  There are about a thousand ways I can use it at work, all of which are boring because they're work, so let's move on.

Kids' sizes?  In a note so that if I'm shopping without them I can remember what size shoe they wear.  I never remember shoe sizes.  I can put BJ's sizes in there, too. 

Medical stuff that I need to remember?  Note.  Tagged with the person's name.  Magically accessible from anywhere so that if (God forbid) we're in the ER and they need to know when something happened, I can call it up and tell them exactly.

We want to build a house in a few years.  As I'm surfing if I run across an idea I like, it goes into Evernote.  If it's in a magazine I can scan in the page.  If it's at someone's house I can take a picture with my phone.  So when we sit down to design our "forever" house, I'll have years worth of ideas at my fingertips.

I can even take pictures of the kids' art projects (or scan them) so I don't have to store the originals.  Tag them with the kid's name and date them, and poof!  Instant preservation.  It doesn't get much easier.

I just couldn't wait to share this tool with all of you.  I hope you find it as useful as I do!

Follow Up: How do you handle gifts?

Well, after all of your excellent advice, here's what we did... 

We let Claire buy herself a Jessie doll with her own money.

Both of the kids have piggy banks, and somehow they accumulate money - they'll get a $5 from a grandparent for Valentine's day or a $20 from another one for a birthday, or I'll have too much change in my purse so I'll dump it in their piggy banks.  It's not like they have many incidental expenses.  Sometimes when I know we're going shopping for stuff that will bore them (like maternity clothes) I'll let them take a purse and a little bit of their money (and sunglasses and lip gloss, of course) so they can be Big Girls with their own money... but that's really the only time they have an opportunity to spend it, and that only happens once in a great while.  Generally they spend their pocket money on Polly Pockets dolls and small things like that.

Last Christmas, Claire got a FurReal cat that MG loved and coveted, so we let MG go to Walmart with some of her Christmas money from her Great-Grandma Gleason and get one for herself.  I figured this was the same sort of situation.  I may not always make the best decisions as a mother, but I try to be consistent.

So Grandpa Bob went to Indy and bought another Jessie doll, and brought it back, and Claire bought it from him.  (The ones available at our local Walmart had plastic hair, and we wanted the one with yarn hair).

Grandpa Bob may or may not have stuck that money right back in her piggy bank, but if he did, Claire didn't see him.

I'd like to say that peace has reigned in our house since then, but unfortunately that hasn't happened.  Claire is still finding things to fight over, but this attitude of hers started before the birthday festivities began.  Something else is going on with her.  I'd check to see if she has molars coming in, but I'm afraid I would lose a finger.  If she doesn't knock it off, I'm going to make her a doctor's appointment, because she's just been acting a little bit too strangely.

I mentioned on Facebook that we had to leave Wolf Park on Sunday because she was acting like such a colossal brat.  She was terrible at the zoo on Monday, too, but I just ignored her.  She did fairly well on MG's birthday, until we opened presents.  She's just got a hair trigger when it comes to crying and throwing tantrums, lately, and I can NOT figure out what has changed.  She's getting the same amount of sleep.  Her eating habits haven't changed.  She isn't much more or less active.  I haven't changed the way we discipline her (time outs) at all.  There have been moments when she has played SO nicely with MG, and then for no reason that anyone can figure out, she loses her little mind and starts hollering about something.

If anyone has any guesses, besides teething, I'd love to hear them.  She hasn't complained of being in any pain.  Do kids even get molars at 3-1/2?  I can't remember.

How do you handle gifts?

Let's imagine that I'm at my sister's birthday party.  Her birthday is after mine (mine is in April, hers is in June).  Let's pretend that she just opened a really cool gift - a new book by an author I love.  What would I do?

I know exactly what I'd do.  I'd have it ordered on my Kindle before she blew out the candles, that's what.  The last thing I would do is wait until Christmas to ask for it and then hope that I got it from someone. 

Ok, let's imagine a second situation.  My sister gets a book, and I want it, so I take it from her.  When Megan got angry, would my mom say, "Megan, you need to be a better sharer!"?  Would she insist that Megan give me a turn with her book?  Would Megan get in trouble for not sharing?  No.  She would say, "Amy, quit being a jerk and get your own book."

Exhibit A

So, based on the above, I don't see anything wrong with running right out and getting Claire a Jessie Doll like the one MG got yesterday from Grandpa (or Grandma - it was unclear who got what from whom in the chaos).  BJ says we can't because 1) we don't want them to be spoiled and 2) we work hard for our money while Claire doesn't have to do anything productive but convert oxygen to carbon dioxide for the next 15 years and therefore 3) we're not going to set the precedent of getting two sets of everything and 4) Mary Grace doesn't have to share her special toy even though 5) it's breaking Claire's little heart in spite of the fact that 6) Claire totally usurped the Woody doll that MG got and 7) MG didn't even blink because she was too busy falling in love with Jessie.


It's different for kids, BJ insists.

But Claire doesn't understand!  I counter.

That's why we have to teach her!  he says.  And I know he's right, except that it's so hard.  And people always bring gifts for the non-birthday girl in our house (we have such generous friends and family!) and it has rarely been an issue.  But they're both in love with Jessie, and you can't share a doll like that.  You can't take turns with a best friend.  It's really not fair to make Mary Grace give Claire a turn (see above re: Amy, get your own book).

So do we make her wait until Christmas?  Do we let her take her piggy bank money and buy her own Jessie?  That's what we did with Mary Grace when she wanted something Claire got last Christmas - it was a "FurReal" kitten.  Neither one of them have played with the kittens in months.  So while I'm leaning toward the "use your pocket money to get your own" option, I'm not sure that's the right thing to do.

We were not planning ahead when we had these kids 19 months apart.  That is too long between birthdays.

It's going to get 33% harder in December.

I hope Gozer's a boy.  Poor Woody needs someone to love him.

How do you, especially those of you with close-in-age same-gender children, handle birthdays and gifts?  Am I totally being a marshmallow if I take Claire to Walmart with her piggy bank money and let her buy her own? Is anyone hiring pouty three year olds?  Could I have her do some chores around the house over the next couple of days to earn enough money to buy a Jessie doll?  For the record, I hate the idea of paying kids for chores, because chores are something you do because you're part of a family, not because you get paid (no one pays me to do the laundry, after all).  But in this instance, I might be able to make an exception.

And, bigger picture, do the things we teach kids about waiting and sharing in our culture make any sense at all?  And if not, why do we teach them what we do?  Do we do it to make our own lives easier?  Does that even make any sense?

Barnes & Noble

Mary Grace had a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble from her birthday. When we went out shopping the other night, we told her that she could choose a book.

She brought back a paperback Barbie Princess book that was only $3.99.

"Honey, this is only four dollars - you have ten! You can afford to get two books like this!" I said, and she scampered off.

A few moments later she came back to BJ and I with a Disney Princess book in her hand. "I chose this book for Claire."

We didn't prompt her. We would've bought Claire a book, anyway, so she didn't go home empty-handed (books are the one thing with which I don't mind spoiling the kids). But Mary Grace noticed that Claire didn't have a gift card, and she got her little sister a book, all on her own.

She has such a kind heart.


(I post this here not to boast, but to record and to remember. Sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed with the difficult moments, and the sweet gestures are so easily forgotten. Why is it that our minds remember the hard days so much more easily than we remember the good days? Is it part of being a mother, or is it just part of life?)

Holiday Gift Idea - Constellation Night Light

Once upon a time, there was a queen. At first she was kind and pleasant, but her two princesses were afraid of the dark. They forced the king and queen to sleep with the bathroom light on, and the queen became wicked because she didn't sleep well and woke up with a headache. The queen was desperate, and so on a trip to the Children's Museum, she purchased one of these:

...a ladybug that projects stars onto the ceiling of the princesses' room. She told the princesses that the stars wouldn't work if they turned on the bathroom light. The princesses totally bought it, and they stopped screaming at the queen to turn the bathroom light on, and fighting over how wide the door's opening should be. Instead they fell asleep peacefully, gazing upon stars of blue, red, and green, and they all slept peacefully ever after.

It also comes in land and sea turtle styles, and seriously, folks, this was the best $30 I ever spent. It times off after 45 minutes. The buttons are big and easy, so if the kids wake up in the middle of the night they can turn him back on without waking me up! I wish we'd gotten this years ago.

You can buy him here. He'd make a great gift for any kid. Or any sleep deprived parent!

Lows and Highs

Yesterday was a really crummy day. Sorry for not posting. I called BJ at work and said, "When you get home I am LEAVING," and when he got home I bravely ran away. Don't worry, I came back. All my stuff is here.

***

When Claire was little, BJ would give MG a bath while I nursed Claire to sleep. When MG got out of the tub, she would crawl into bed with me, and I would sniff her head (usually right at her neck, to make her giggle) and say, "MMMMMMmmmmm! You smell so nice and bathy!" We used Johnson & Johnson's bedtime baby shampoo on her then, the stuff that smells like lavendar. That smell still takes me right back to that time.

I woke up this morning to exciting news! I won the Pay Your Way to Blogher Sweepstakes, sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, to cover the costs associated with getting to the conference, and a Flip video camera! My roommates and I are so excited, and so grateful to Johnson & Johnson's!!!!! We're also grateful to GM, for sponsoring the vehicle we're carpooling in to get to the conference!

I can not WAIT to bring you exciting coverage of this conference, on my new Flip!!

I really needed good news today, after a rough week. Thanks so much, Johnson & Johnson, GM, Flip, BlogHer!!

My friend Cate, who lives in Alaska, is going to be here any minute, but I just had to share this amazing news, and my gratitude, with all of you! Today is looking like a MUCH better day.

Odds and Ends

Does anyone have a clever tip for extremely dry skin? BJ's hands are already cracking, and it's only December. He's cursed with terribly dry skin that plagues him all year, but especially in the winter. My plan is to try olive oil, applied liberally after a thorough hand washing. I just hope he doesn't drop either of the kids! His skin gets so dry that regular lotion burns. I'm hoping that olive oil will be inert enough (no alcohol, no scent...) that it won't hurt. Poor baby!

He's been working a ton lately. Hooray for Grandpa Bob who has been coming over to keep me sane on his nights off. On Thursday he took us out for supper, then we went to Battleground to see the light show I mentioned earlier this week. The kids LOVED it. I was pretty impressed, too. I wonder what the guy's neighbors think!

We have done very little Christmas shopping or decorating - the tree is up, but there are no ornaments on it - mainly because BJ has been working like a crazy person. Unfortunately, he'll probably continue to work like a crazy person until Christmas. We're going to try to squeeze some shopping in today. I was supposed to go to a baby shower, but with this virus I have, I don't want to run the risk of getting the mom-to-be sick. Nothing's worse than being sick when you're pregnant, because you can't take anything! The grandma-to-be had a kidney transplant several years ago, so she has immune system issues too. It just seemed wise to skip it, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to celebrate with the baby's family. She's the first grandchild, and they're SO excited. Before I quit my job to work for BJ full time, I worked for the company where the mom-to-be works, and that her parents own. They're the best bosses I ever had. Such a wonderful, loving family. It was a tough job (I was a staffing supervisor for a temp agency - so I was the one who sent temps out on assignments), but I really loved working for them.

I'm headed up to Grammaland for Mimi's Christmas party tonight. I don't care if I get them sick. Ha ha! I have to be there to advocate for having Christmas at my house this year. It looks like that's how things are going to turn out, but I don't want Uncle Chuck and Mimi and Uncle Trey and Gramma and Pops to get any bright ideas when I'm not there to talk them out of it. Of course, there will be no point to doing Christmas if I don't get some shopping and decorating done. And baking. Lord, do I have baking to do!

This cold/virus/plague thing has come at a really inconvenient time! Couldn't I have gotten it in January?? We're not sick all the time, by the way. I just complain a lot. If I kept my house cleaner, we'd probably be healthier. I need to bust out the Lysol more often, I guess.

I've been getting a lot of questions about sizes, so I thought I'd put the info here. Mary Grace is in a 4T - she's so tall that 3Ts look like flood pants already! Adjustable waists are always good, because she's skinny and I'm not handy with the sewing machine. She could really use warm play clothes - sweatshirts and stretchy pants, etc. Claire is wearing a 12 - 18 month size currently. She also needs warm playclothes. She has a lot more in terms of clothes than MG does, because she can wear all the hand-me-downs. We could use a bunch of hats and gloves, too, because they keep disappearing. I'm searching for at least two hats and three pairs of gloves that I know must be around here somewhere...

Mary Grace loves princesses, ballet and gymnastics, and Dora. Claire loves Charlie and Lola, Mickey Mouse, and cats. They both love books and music. Claire especially likes board books with animals in them (especially cats).

Claire has really achieved maximum cuteness lately. She's learning her animal sounds, and will tell you what a cow says, etc. She has perfected the phrase, "I want some more!" She is also beginning to say "I love you," which just melts my heart. It seems like she comes up with a new word or phrase twice a day. She also loves to sing, and will sing along with the soundtrack to Wicked, which has been playing in my car for the better part of a year. I tried to get them to switch to Les Mis, but they weren't interested. Maybe I'll try Phantom next. No surprise that my little hams would love Broadway musicals...

I've been trying to teach Mary Grace to say, "John, get a close up of this!" for the benefit of people who knew me when I was little. Some kids have imaginary friends, I had an imaginary camera man.

Mary Grace slept over and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Heather's house last night. Reports are that she was very good. It was odd to wake up without her today. The house is so quiet when she's gone.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print.

Look-Alike Dolls, Creepy or Cute?

I got a very compelling catalog from a company called My Twinn (I HATE intentional misspellings!). For the low-low-low price of almost $200 (eep!) they will make a doll that looks just like your kid.

I thought that Mary Grace was just at the right age for such a thing, so I "constructed" her online, right down to the freckle underneath her right eye, and told BJ, "Hey, I found Mary Grace's Christmas gift!" via chat...

His reply: Creepy!

I assured him that it wasn't for him, and he said, "Yeah, but I still have to live in the same house with it!"

So, Brilliant and Beloved Readers, what say you?