Just a bit of Life, the Universe, and Everything before bedtime

Last night, just after Brushing and Flossing, and before starting Snuggly Reading Time before Lights Out.
E: Mom, what is at the end of space?
M: Well, some people think at the end of the universe there's the edge of another universe.  And at the edge of that, another.  Like a bunch of bubbles.
E: Ohhhhh.... that's great! Because then the aliens are in the different universe.
M:  Maybe.  But some people think that at the end of our universe, there's nothing.
E: (with fearful look)  But then, noooooo.  Then that means the aliens are in OUR space.

Happy Father's Day 2013

What says "Happy Father's Day" more than running 26.2 miles?  Not much.  Brian ROCKED the San Francisco Marathon today, with a time just shy of 4 hours.  Fantastic! The girls and I hustled out to meet him at the finish line.

With flying feet and big grins, B finished one of the toughest 15 marathon courses with a fantastic time.

The girls were ecstatic to see the medal him at the end.

And because he is hardcore parkour, we went to the SF zoo afterward with my folks to spend some quality time with the carousel and petting zoo. 

Happy Father's Day y'all! 

Gotta Take The Bad With The Good

We went to a restaurant tonight.  And it was insanity. We left before finishing our meal, cutting the grilled-cheese dinner short and nearly threatening to never take the kids out to dinner again.

Later that evening I went my monthly Mom's evening get together.  There were 6 moms.  This is what everyone brought:

Yup.  Perspective. Again. 

Media Blackout

Today something awful happened.

We have a total media blackout here for the next few weeks.  The 24 hour news cycle will not help us, or them.  

Why we don't have any rugs/carpets in the house

4 oz of banana soy-vanilla ice cream milkshake, poured on the floor and "played" with.  Cup thrown across the room.  Preschooler happily smooshing in the puddle.  Let her have a few minutes of fun, then clean up on aisle 3. 

Entry closet project

Thanks to Pinterest, I've realized every nook of my home could be *just that more* neat, organized, functional and beautiful.  Martha is being given a run for her money.

So after inspiration from here, here, and here, we've started to attack the entryway closet.

Some "before" pictures:

Before removing the shutter doors:

After removing everything from the closet:

 kind of love the blank slate. Kinda hate the 100000 jackets and shoes now piled in the living room.  But hopefully we'll come up with some easy, creative ways to make it functional.

The transit time....

... of a penny through the entire alimentary canal of a 2.5 year old.


Can you guess?

2 days, 40 minutes. In case you ever needed to know.

Outsmarted by a 2.5 year old - again

I caught Robin picking off an entire bunch of grapes, throwing them on the ground, then stomping on them.  OK, I know it's really fun for a toddler/preschooler because (1) the grapes bounce and (2) they feel really interesting and squishy under the feet.  But c'mon.

So I asked her to clean them up with me and got a grin and another grape stomp.  Rather than totally loose it, I sent her to her room for a minute.  I told her to stay there for a minute, and I shut the door so I could gather my thoughts.

A few seconds later I hear crying, fake crying, and "Help, help!  There's a fire in here!  Help!  There's a fire!"

Robin 1, Mommy 0.

Something I never though I'd do #45

Exhume a dead cat.

We're about to dig out the dirt patch behind our garage to put in an office shed for Brian and vegetable beds.  This means where our kitty Steve was buried will be dug up and removed.  We want to keep him here, so the girls and I got out our shovels and got him out of the ground.  We'll put him back when the project was over.  

File under "D'oh!"

I looked up a Manatee documentary to download on our TIVO.  I thought since Brian is in Vegas, it would be a fun, special dinnertime movie for the kids. So I call him,

Me: Hey, can you tell me your Amazon passcode so I can download a movie?

B: Um.... well, I'm at a Hacker's convention.  Probably not a good idea to tell you over the phone.

Duh.

Murder on Moraga Way

OK, this is already old news to most of the people who read this blog, but holy bananas, this happened a few doors down from us!!!!

More here
and here

This was today!

Here is my picture:

 We heard the sirens just about 12:30.  We passed by at 12:50 on our way to pick up Robin.  There were 9 cops, some unmarked police cars, and 2 motorcycle cops.  On the way back, 20 min later, there was one ambulance and 1 fire truck.

Both the house involved and the neighbor's house were cordoned off.  Holy bubble breath!

Champagne and Chocolate Women's Half Marathon

That's right folks!  Dr. A ran another women's half marathon, this one sponsored by See Jane Run.  It took place in the lovely, flat Alameda, CA on a mild California morning.  While the race organization could have been improved, the course was lovely, the drinks/goo was plentiful, and all the participants were very, very gracious.

A few pictures from my sweaty self:

The 3 mile point.  We crossed a bridge.  It was lovely but smelled like estuary and skunk.

Hard to make out, but we actually had a beautiful view of downtown SF and the Bay Bridge.

Oh, and did I mention the GIRLS RAN A 1 MILE KIDS RACE?  1 Mile people. This is not a fun run, if you're in the 2-4 age group.  This is serious business.  Both girls did great and apparently were self-propelled the entire time. Here's Brian and Robin coming into the home stretch: 

Honestly, I'm so proud of my girls for doing this race.  It's way farther than most kids fun runs, and if I'd known it was a whole mile I might not have signed them up.  But they were spectacular.  Hopefully B will upload some of his pictures and video of Erin crossing the finish.  It was a sight!

The playground is a tough place

Two days ago, we were at the local school playground after dinner to get some of our wiggles out.  Normally it's pretty quite, but since it's Little League season, the playground was packed.  No matter, my girls are so familiar with the terrain they jumped right into play.

Until.

Boy 1 and Boy 2 started picking on Robin.  Robin was on the little slide, Erin was 100 yards away on the swings.  I shuffled back and forth between them. Whenever I turned my back to Robin, she started fussing. Boy 1 was always behind her, Boy 2 by Boy 1's side, grinning.  At first, I thought she was taking too long on the slide and Boy 1 was annoyed.  It happens.

Then, protest #4 from Robin had me witnessing Boy 1 kicking her.  With both feet. With a look of grim determination on his face.  The mama bear in me rose up and I demanded of him, "Where is your Mom, Where is your Dad?"  He immediately knew the game was up and slunk away as best he could.  Dad 2 saw this, raced over to intercept Boy 2 and ask what was going on.  I said, "Boy 1 (probably age 6 or so ) was kicking my 2-year-old."  Dad 1 finally clued in that something was going on and chased Boy 1.  Dad 2 apologized profusely.  Dad 1... well, he just wrangled his boy and left.  Oh, during all the bullying Dad 1 and Dad 2 were engrossed in conversation.....

Today, we were at the city park, girls brought their push cars and scooters, again, to get wiggles out.  There's a center grassy area flanked by two playgrounds, one for little 'ins, one for big 'uns.  Around it is a paved path perfect for riding.  Erin was halfway around her first lap when I heard her start crying.  I saw to older folks and a smallish white dog.  I hurried over and asked if Erin was OK ( she was) and the couple assured me she was just startled by the dog, the dog was a reduce and not very well socialized.  Erin finished her lap and collapsed next to me.

She showed me the indentation and the break in the skin on her leg where the dog bit her.

I'm fine with rescue dogs, it's a good cause, it's not the animals fault.  I'm fine with trying to socialize the animal. But at a children's playground?  Where the dog is on a leash, but given enough lead to bite a passing child?  REPEAT:  ALLOWED TO BITE A PASSING CHILD???!?!!?!!

 

This was a challenging week for the McMillers at the parks.  

That kinda day

7:30 AM
Brian:  So far, I've had to explain what an acid is, what Hantavirus is, and why it's OK to kill animals sometimes.

9:00 AM
Ashleigh: The dryer is not working!  I checked the fuse box and it seems ok.  I can't figure it out.  Oh... wait.... what's this plug on the floor?

10:45 AM
Robin: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah -aaaah -ahhhhhh -ahhhhhh!  (reaction from getting whacked on the back of her head by the wooden swing seat)

7:45 PM
Erin: Waaaaaaaaaah!  Mooooooooooommmmmy!  Mooooooooooomy!  (up-too-late-had-too-much-sun-got-frustrated-right-before-bed-meltdown)