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Romy recently turned 5.  Although she feels a great sense of pride in her new status as a 5 year old, she has some apprehension about her next birthday.

She told me that she doesn't want to turn 6.  I asked her why.  She said "Because when I'm 6 you'll be 200 and dead."

Sienna is a quirky little thing.  Sometimes she does stuff that is devilish, but she's so sweet and innocent looking that it's hard to tell if she's intending to do something "naughty" or if she just doesn't understand what she's doing.

On Saturday I took the girls to a birthday party.  In her usual style Romy bounded into the house and dove right into the action.  Sienna held back a little.  She is much more timid than Romy, and in crowds she sometimes clings to me.  I spent part of the party carrying Sienna around.

At one point sweet little Sienna grabbed the front of my shirt, pulled it down and yelled "Mama's boobies!".  I was a little shocked.  I looked at her face to gauge her intentions.  She just beamed at me with that sunny little smile.  I said "Please don't do that Sienna.  Mama doesn't want to show her private parts to everyone.".

Sienna did it three more times.  I'm not sure what the appeal was.  She hasn't been interested in that part of my body since she stopped nursing a year and a half ago.

I doubt that anyone noticed.  But maybe if you look closely at the background of  those birthday party snapshots you'll see me, and maybe much more of me than you'd expect to.

Sienna is going through one of those "explosion of word" periods.  As she learns to talk she has some slow times, but then at other times she learns an incredible number of words in just a day or so.

We watched a "Old McDonald's Farm" movie today.  She was fascinated.  Now, while she is sound asleep, she is chanting words from the movie.  I am downstairs listening to her.  Here is a sample of hr barnyard litany:  Cow.  Tractor.  Pig say "oink".  Fields.  Seeds.  Chicken dance!  Sheep dance!  Barn.

Very, very cute.

Romy dressed her little teddy bear up.  He now looks like a demented, gender-confused Coast Guard guy.

He is wearing a bikini, a winter coat and scarf, and a U.S. Coast Guard ball cap.  She named him Snakey Puma.

I wonder if the Coast Guard accepts transvestite bears?

I know all about the terrible twos.  I *enjoyed* every minute of those times with Romy.

Sienna is very prompt, apparently.  She started with that obnoxious terrible two stuff  RIGHT on her second birthday.  Where is my sweet, mellow, sunny baby girl?  She is gone.  In her place is a whiney, screechy and very sassy toddler.  She pulls the dogs tail and stomps her feet when she doesn't get her way.

If you see my little punkin', please send her back!

A finishing school opened up in our little town.  If you've ever been to this town you'd be thinking "What's up with that?".   I am certainly thinking "What's up with that?"

I imagine they teach manners and other important social protocols.  I don't feel the need to send Romy to finishing school.  She has a fine grasp of etiquette.  Just last night she said "Hey Mama, when someone is in front of you and you want to get by them, you say 'excuse me'.  You also say 'excuse me' when you fart."

That's what Romy has been singing all week.  She heard an off-color Thanksgiving song on satellite radio, and that's the only line she remembers.  It sure stuck with her.  I have been cringing as she proudly and loudly sings it to anyone and everyone.

Sienna is starting to talk a lot more, and unfortunately she is parroting Romy.  She sings "turkey!  turkey!" over and over, followed by explosive and contageous giggles.  Luckily that's the only part of Romy's "song" she repeats.

Today I got a "bill" from Romy's school.  She is in pre-k and she has the option of eating breakfast at home, or eating at school.  She usually opts to do both.  The bill had a space to mark whether we want Romy to get meals, snacks, or both.  Snacks?  I wasn't aware that was an option.  I asked Romy what kinds of snacks she can get at school.  She said "You know.  Cereal, donuts, and junk."  I guess I need to check on that.

Romy is asking a lot of questions these days.  She is four years old, and that's what four year olds do.  Sometimes her questions are funny.  She wants to know why people have pubic hair.  I tell her that I don't know, because I really don't.  

Sometimes her questions are scary.  She is asking a lot about death.  Those questions are really hard to field.  I don't know a lot about that one, either.  What is dying like?  I tell her that I don't know, but I think it's very peaceful.  I don't tell her "It's like going to sleep, but you never wake up" because all I need is a child who's terrified of going to bed at night.

Although I have no strong religious convictions about the topic of Heaven, I do tell her that lots of people think that when you die you go to Heaven and you get to see everyone you love who has already died.  She said "Like my birdie Kiwi?"  Yep, Kiwi would be there too.  That seemed to comfort her.

That led to questions about who dies, and what.  Yes, trees die.  No, rocks do not.  But rocks do change over time.  Yes, mosquitos die (thank goodness).  No, Barbie dolls don't (unfortunately).  But things that don't die do break sometimes, or stop working.

After this conversation she got thoughtful for a few minutes, then she said "So nothing lasts forever, right?"  I said "That's right. all objects eventually die or change, but certain things, like love, do go on forever."  She liked that idea.

She looked around and speculated about the things around her.  That tree would die someday.  The mailbox wouldn't be there eventually.  The leaves were falling and they would die and change too. 

We talked about new things being born and growing.  The leaves would change into soil (at least the ones I don't rake and haul away) and the nuts would fall out of the trees and maybe someday new little trees would grow.  Next spring the flowers will grow again, and new leaves will grow on the trees.

A car went by (too fast), and Romy said that people shouldn't drive that fast because they might hit a dog or a squirrel.  She said that people shouldn't run over animals and hurt and kill them.  She really does seem to have a sensitivity to living things.

Then she thought about it for a while and said "But we can shoot animals sometimes and make them yummy!  I want a hotdog."   I guess her sensitivity to living things is not limitless.

I wonder what we'll talk about tomorrow....

We girls are planning our day.  Romy, Sienna and I are hoping to go visit some friends.  Romy speculated about what Daddy could do while we are gone.

I said "Maybe Daddy can get some yard work done since we won't be here to get in the way."  Romy said "Yeah, maybe he can dig a big daddy hole that's so deep that he can't ever get out." 

Something tells me that's not exactly what he plans to do.  Might not be a bad idea though....

Romy has a small ceramic wallhanging in her room.  It's a picture of a cat sleeping peacefully on a windowsill, with a sweet little kittycat smile on his face.

This evening Romy patted it and said "Awww, poor little lonely kitty."  I asked her why he's lonely.  She said "Because his wife left him, and his mama got into a fight with a snake and she died.".

And I was worried that fairytales were too violent....

It was time for a new mouse.  For the computer, not a rodent.  The old one was jumpy and erratic and it was driving us nuts.

So my husband bought a new mouse.  A cordless one.  What was he thinking?  We have a 4 year old and an almost-two year old.  At least the other mouse was actually attached to the computer.  They could mess with it, but we always knew where it was.

Now they can take it and hide it.  And they do.  I miss my cord!!!

Also, you can use this mouse three feet away from the computer.  But, who wants to do that?  I can't see the screen from that far away anyhow.

If I don't post a new entry for a while, you know why.  It's because my sweet daughters have hidden my mouse.

I am in the middle of a stressful, hectic week.  But who isn't, I guess?

We are suddenly without child care.  And we both need to keep our (contractual no benefits) jobs.  I'm not sure what we'll do.  One day at a time....

While driving to an appointment today I had a little bit of time to (sort of) relax and reflect a little bit.  Having children has added a lot of challenges to my life.  But what stands out the most in my mind is how many gifts parenthood has given me.  This is the short list:

A clear mind, a strong heart, empathy, and a very silly sense of  fun.  While waiting for the finalization of our adoption of Romy I learned patience.  While giving birth to Sienna I learned my ability to bear pain.  Watching my girls watch me makes me want to be a kinder person.  I'm trying.

One way or another we'll work out the child care problems.  But the stress of this new situation doesn't compare to the pure joy that raising these girls gives me ever day.

Just yesterday I mentioned giving up sleep so I would have more time to devote to nonessential activities (like this blog).  And now here I am at 1:48am, unable to sleep.  Coincidence? I think not.

Problem is, although I am wide awake my mind is so disjointed and fuzzy that I am completely unable to write anything even vaguely insightful, witty or interesting.

I don't remember a time in my life when I felt that there is enough time for me to do everything I have to or want to in any given day.  OK, there were a few days before I had a house and a family when I didn't have much to do and I actually felt a little bored.  But as far as I can see those days are completely over.

This blog is an example of something I'd like to spend more time doing.  Not hours and hours, but a few minutes here and there.  But my weeks have been filled with sick kids, sometimes-happy kids, work, a busted-up knee (again), meals, home projects, weekend trips, and I hesitantly add "housework" because I am no Susie Homemaker and that is at the bottom of my list.

If there is anyone out there who actually regularly reads this disjointed blog, then sorry.  Today will not be a day when you will find tons of new and exciting things to read here.  Maybe I'll give up sleeping to make time to blog more.  Or then again maybe not.....

Yesterday I took the girls to a county fair.

Romy was determined to ride the ferris wheel.  It was pretty big - too big for her to ride alone.  But I couldn't leave Sienna alone on the ground to ride with Romy, and we only had enough tickets for two.  So the nice (albeit smelly and psycho-looking) man running the ride let all three of us for the price of two. 

So up we went.  Try to guess if anyone was scared up on that ferris wheel.  Sienna was not.  It was as if she had spent most of her 20 months going around and around on one of those things.  Romy was a little bit afraid.  Me?  I was moderately afraid.  But you have to understand two things:  One, I have a bit of an issue with heights.  And two:  I have the knowledge that some things aren't safe and that I'm not immortal.  This ferris wheel was older than me (yikes) and it appeared to have been held together with twisty ties and Rustoleum.  And we were awfully high up.  I was too busy checking out the rusty bolts and frayed eletrical cords to really enjoy the view.

We had a really nice time at the fair. We checked out all of the animals.  The 4-H kids were sitting in the stinky cow barn eating their greasy fried chicken and when Romy passed them she said "Pee yew!  How can you stand to eat in this stinky place?".  They glared at her, but I'll admit those were my thoughs exactly.

Sienna spent most of the time in her stroller with a slightly-amused look on her face.  Who knows what she was thinking.

I bought the kids lemonade and hot dogs.  Romy gobbled her hotdog up with gusto and then said "That was the worst hotdog I've ever had in my life."

When I said it was time to go home they were OK with that.  When we pulled up in the driveway at home Romy said "Thank you for the day, Mama."  That was the kind of day that makes all of this parenting stuff worthwhile.

A big part of my blog is bragging about how special and funny my kids are.  And they really are.  But today I have to give credit to the two awesome daughters of my friend Anonymous.

My girls' accomplishments cannot compare to some of Anonymous' daughters' achievements.  Eldest daughter, age four, saves the family time and money by giving herself haircuts.  How thoughtful and how resourceful!  Younger daughter, age 2, relieves the family of exterminator fees by biting the heads off of the live snakes she finds in the house.

So kudos to Anonymous and her two incredible daughters!!!