Last night I started tackeling the wallpaper in the powder room.  The wood floors are going in at some point (they are delivered and waiting) and I’m having the guy install them in the powder room as well, even though that room isn’t officially a room to be rehabbed by the contractor.  The crew tore out the toilet and vanity and I paid the plumber to get the pipes ready for the pedestal sink.

My brother took a hammer drill to the floor yesterday and removed the two layers of tile that were in there. So at that point, technically, the floors could be installed.  But when I got home yesterday I saw that he didn’t take the tile off the wall (there was only one row at the base of the wall.)  So yesterday afternoon I took a tool I found in the crew’s arsenal and chipped off the tile.  Which, of course, took off chunks of plaster.  So I needed to fix that before the guy installed the floors, but before I could plaster the walls I needed to remove the wall paper.  And before I did that, I needed to remove the switch plates.  Enter Chip.

I was searching for a screwdriver when John got home from work.  I told Chip to go ask daddy to find me a flat head screwdriver.  John sent him back with one of those multi-tip doohickeys and Chip was upset that it wasn’t the right kind.  I showed him how it worked, though, and then you would have thought I showed him his first piece of sliced bread.

I asked him if he wanted to help me remove the the switchplate and he started jumping up and down frantically.  He was so excited.  Then I lifted him up and he exclaimed
“This is going to be sooooo cool!”.  And then I let him turn the screw all by himself and he was thrilled.  Amazingly thrilled.  The kid loves this stuff.

John and I are headed to Tennessee for a weekend of Volunteers football and solitude.  My parents have a vacation home in Crossville, Tennessee which is in between Nashville and Knoxville.  I may or may not have mentioned that John and I lived in Knoxville for three years befor having kids.  I worked and John finished up his undergraduate degree at UT.  We haven’t been back since and have some friends there that we would like to see.  This would be only the second time we have left the kids for a weekend together.  The first was our trip to New York City when I was on the cover of Women’s World.  We had a blast that time.  I don’t expect this trip to be quite as exciting, but I’m still looking forward to it.

Of course, before I can leave I must get the kids and their grandparents ready for my absense.  I have to pack suitcases and give my mom an iternerary of where to take them and ideas on what to do.   I’m a little worried about my parents going crazy – dad has a short fuze these days when it comes to little kids and mom gets tired.  Hopefully the girls can keep the bickering to a minimum – we’ll have a talk before I leave.  Other than that, they are pretty self-sufficient.  Chip – well, he is four and very, very busy.  Nothing I can do about that.  I predict much TV in my kids’ future.  They will be thrilled.  My brother is going to take them to a family-oriented party on Saturday night, so that will be a nice break for the grandparents.

Anyways, Go Vols!

Here is a link to the segment they were on.

Isn’t Chip a ham?

Yay!

Chip (Kinsgston), Emmy, Bird (Ava) and Mare (Suri)

 

Here are the kids and Emmy just before our segment.  Its a little hard to take pictures in these studios because they have innocuous looking things all over the place that end up reflecting the flash and messing up my camera’s ability to focus.

Meeting Matt, one of the show’s hosts

Waiting to go on

They were asked to be in another segment, so an impromptu gig.

Bird wasn’t happy about the fact that her shirt said “middle child” with a boy’s name around it.  But in the end, getting onto another segment was more important.

They were invited to be on the last segment as well, so this is them waiting.  Mare has changed into her other clothes because she was not a fan of Suri Cruise’s look (too cutesy for her.  She doesn’t DO skirts anymore.)

So that is it.  While I felt like I was constantly taking pictures, their doesn’t seem to be many.  One of the problems, I think, with cameras.  If you want to enjoy the moment, you have to put down the camera.  And yet you want the pictures later.  I guess if my kids really were any of the kids they dressed as, they wouldn’t have that problem.  Not that I would want that life for any of them.

Remember when the girls were in a wedding show?  Now Emmy has them scheduled for the big time – a local morning show on our CBS affiliate.    OK – maybe not quite the big time.  But TV!  Not many kids get to be on TV.  They are thrilled.

Emmy has been doing a show on Great Day St. Louis once a month – they call her the Savvy Shopper.  Her segments are fun and it doesn’t intimidate me in the slightest that I come home every day to St. Louis’s Savvy Shopper (wearing my three-year-old slacks and last season’s sweaters) because I am a confident woman who can dress herself in fashionable trendy classic clothes that last.  Yes, that is right.  Ahem.  Anywhoooo, so today she is doing a segment called “Dress Like the Stars’ Kids for Less”.  And my kids get to be the models.  Bird will be flaunting Ava Whitherspoon’s style, Mare will be strutting like Suri Cruze and Chip will be Chip, dressed up as Kingston Stephani.

I’m meeting them at the station so I can watch and take pictures at 10:00 am.  I’m just hoping that everything goes smoothly – Chip could decide at any moment that he is d-o-n-e.  Emmy, though, has done a good job of practicing with him (and the girls) so we should be ok.  Keep your fingers crossed!

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Last night Bird remarked that Emmy’s family is really cool.  Bird noted that Emmy’s father plays in a jazz band.  Her brother Jason, who moved to L.A., is in a band and is apparently (I just learned) going to be in a movie.  Jill, her sister, puts together St. Louis Fashion Week and is a fashion editor at a local magazine and Emmy is The Savvy Shopper on TV.  And Sue, her mom, is one of the most awesome substitute nannies we know.

Yeah.  That is cool, Bird.

The walls are up, the drywall screwed on and tape is being applied as I type.  Quite honestly, I just walk around, gazing at it all and marvel that it is mine.

Three bedrooms and a bathroom went upstairs.  The “common area” (used to be called a hallway when they made them narrower) isn’t quite big enough for much, but it definitely feels open and airy.  I like the recessed lighting in it.  The bathroom is very small.  Just enough room for a 60″ double sink, toilet and tub/shower.  The girls’ bedrooms are about 11×12, Chip’s maybe 10×11.  Perfect size for kids.

The kitchen is going to be wonderful.  The new cabinets arrive next week some time, not that we are ready to install them yet, but we are getting close.  The new range is in and I’m hoping to order the new refrigerator before the kitchen is complete, though I’m trying to stay within budget and that might be one area where I have to wait.  We are using our old dishwasher and disposal.  The base cabinets that form the bar overlooking the breakfast room is going to be very nice – it’s where the sink and dishwasher are and has a raised area to eat at.  I wish I had made the breakfast room two feet longer, but whatever.  I’m picking a narrow table for the breakfast room and going with backless chairs for the bar.  Problem solved.  The windows were installed last week and they are stunning.  They make the 2′ shortfall not feel so obvious.

I’m going to gut the powder room myself and then pay the contractors to carry the wood floors going into the kitchen on into the powder room and then install the pedestal sink and toilet I’m buying from Home Depot.

I’m planning to make the kids’ old bedroom into my craft/sewing/scrapbooking/computer room.  Yay!  That moves me out of the downstairs office which John plans to make into his Mancave.

When I’m not thinking about my new mortgage, all I can think is:  Life is good.

Mare had her first basketball practice last night.  She didn’t know about it until I picked her up from school because I almost dropped the ball and didn’t get her registered in time I hadn’t told her about it.

Not that it matters at this age, but Mare is on the short side.  While she looks like me feature-wise, she seems to have gotten her height from the paternal gene pool.  When I see her in a group of girls at soccer practice, I’m stunned that I have created this child who is, well, little. For someone who was never little, in fact often thought of herself as the Jolly Green Giant when hanging out with her friends, I’m secretly thrilled for her.  Not feeling like you stand out all the time can be so liberating – I imagine, because lord knows I would not know how that feels.  But, I have to say that there were times when my height came in handy – like when I played basketball.  I was never great, but modestly good and tall enough that I could block a shot pretty effectively.  Back in the day, though, a kid didn’t start basketball until fourth grade.  That seems sane.  Appropriate.  Not so these days.

So, ever since last winter when some of her classmates played basketball, and she didn’t because her mom thought basketball in 1st grade was kind of crazy and Mare had just started taking dance and geeze – I already drive kids around non stop, I just didn’t want one more place to go, she has talked about wanting to play.  And talked.  And laid the guilt on THICK.  So I signed that kid up right away.  Well, erm, as soon as the coach contacted me and let me know that while I had missed the official sign up time (I blame my disorganization on the construction chaos at my home right now) they had extended it and there was ONE spot left.  I drove the check over ASAP.

She was thrilled when I told her on the way home from school that tonight was the night of her first practice.  Ecstatic.  We went to my mom’s for dinner and she was too nervous and excited to eat anything but cereal.  The french onion soup and salad apparently had the potential to give her a headache because of her nerves.  Ditto the slice of impossible pie (gotta love eating at Grandma’s.)  Finally 6:40 arrived and we left for the gymnasium.  I dropped her off and went back to help my mom clean up ran a bunch of errands and stopped by home to make sure my oldest was reading, which she wasn’t.  Got her started on a new book and drove back to the gym and sat to watch the practice.  And laughed my butt off.  Well, not really because then I would be able to fit in my skinny jeans.  But I laughed.  A lot.

These second grade girls were brutal!  And my daughter might have been the most aggressive.  I don’t know what happened, but she wanted that ball.  She wanted that basket, really, so badly that sometimes she forgot to dribble after managing to yank the ball from another girl.  Mind you, she was lacking, well, skill.  But the determination was oozing out of her.

After practice she was talking about all the at home practice she plans to do, per her coach’s instructions.  And, you know, I’m looking forward to shooting hoops with the kid.

Chip and I were driving down the road yesterday, talking about letters of the alphabet.  Do you know how hard it is to come up with words that begin with a certain letter?  Try it!  See – hard.  Right???

“Aaaaa – what letter is that sound”

“R!”

“No, no, listen “aaaaa”.  It starts the word apple”

“T!”

“Um, no.  “aaaaa” – It is an “A” Chip!

“A!”

“Good!  It also starts words like Aunt Amy and, um, apple (shit – already said that one), and um, ant (way to confuse the kid)!  And………………….. anteater!” (I am sooooo lame)

“What is an anteater, mom?”

“A big hairy animal with a long snout that goes around sucking up ants with its snout.  We’ve seen one at the zoo.”

“Well, I know it can’t live in a desert because then it would die from sucking up sand.”

Um.  Yeah, ok.  Well thought-out, my boy.

Have I mentioned that Chip is a pro at preschool?  He still needs an extra hug or two at drop off, but he seems to be really enjoying it – and is proud of that fact.

Yesterday they went on a field trip to the farmers’ market.  I had hoped to go but Mare has been sick (day 3) and thus couldn’t.  Though I was disappointed, I decided it might not actually be a bad thing for Chip.  Quite honestly, I’m pretty sure he was far better behaved without my presence.

I was late for pick up and he was the last one in the room, helping his teacher stack chairs.  She told me what a big helper he was on the field trip, holding the hands of the younger kids.  I glowed with pride because I know that is the real Chip, but not the Chip I get to see very often.

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The real Chip.  Just like the real Bird is the one the teachers rave about, that my friend tells me is such a grown up young lady when riding to piano lessons without me.  Not the Bird that talks back to me and screams at her little sister. The real Mare is the one that parents love to have over for play dates because they just go so well.  She is so polite and quiet, yet her friends have fun, I’m told.  The one whose teachers tell me is smart and respectful at school, getting along with a variety of children.  Not the Mare that teases her siblings and whines to her parents.

I love having glimpses of these real kids because it reassures me that I’m doing it right even though their behavior can be all wrong in my presence.

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Last night after getting back from my parents – where we have been eating dinner every night during the construction – the girls started playing with their Polly Pockets.  They had some elaborate scene going and though I hated to disturb them, by 8:15 is was nervous about getting them in bed at a decent time.  I was told they were “almost done” and so I gave them 7 more minutes and stood outside the door listening.  The dolls were getting married at this point, and I guess the girls wanted to end the scene with the wedding.  I found this so fascinating.  That there was an end to the story they had concocted.  That my 10 year old still wanted to play dolls.  That they could play together so well.

Those are my real kids.  Sometimes.

I was up until 12:30 last night clearing out the kitchen.  The rain has stopped work on the roof (which is going incredibly slow – two guys don’t make much progress on a roof, apparently) and yesterday they took out the exterior kitchen wall, the wall that encased the new stairs and the header in the dining room.  That done, it is much easier to see how open everything is going to be.  I’m so hoping this is going to look as good as I imagine it will.  So anyways, with the rain continuing, the only thing left to do is tear out the kitchen.  So everything needed to be out.

You can’t even imagine how much stuff was in my kitchen.  The small appliances alone were overwhelming.  Three crockpots. two rice makers, an ice tea maker and, well, you get the picture.  And I had to find a place to put it all.  Like, um, the basement floor?

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The girls come home from school every day and go up in the their new rooms.  Which right now have only studs for walls.  But they can imagine.  Bird picked the only room facing the back yard, which means it will be the darkest in the morning – a good thing.  She has her whole room planned out – furniture is theoretically placed, themes planned.  She even picked out the comforter and accessories, which I purchased and put away for Christmas.

Mare wants her room to be all white with multi-colored polka dots.  And she picked the large front bedroom with the biggest window.  So, the sunniest room.  Natch.

Chip could care less what room is his (the smallest) or what it will look like (race cars.)  He just likes playing with all the power tools lying around.

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The kids and I met some friends for dinner at Quiznos last night before they took their daughter and mine to piano lesson.  Chip was a freaking nighmare.  When I told him he had to quit climbing on everying he said “But mom, I can’t behave because I am so bored.”

Because I am insane, I then took him to TJ Maxx because I wanted to try and find something cheaper than what I bought for my high school reunion this weekend.  Amazingly, he behaved really well there.  While he did climb in the racks of clothes, he was very concerned about being near me at all times and called for me if he couldn’t find me.  This is unusual and a welcomed change.  Hopefully it is permanent.

I took him in the changing room with me and gave him the piece of plastic with the number 6 on it to hold.  He looked at it as I undressed, rotating it around and then asked “Is this a 6 or a 9?”  I told him it could be either but in this case it is a six because I have six things to try on.  And I discretely shook my head in amazement.

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Yeah, so 20 years later, I’m headed to my reunion.  I see a lot of the people all the time around town – more this year because an amazing number of women who I haven’t seen in 20 years take their kids to the same preschool that Chip attends.  It will be fun, but I sure do wish I had lost that extra 20 lbs I gained after Chip was born…