S P I D E R G I R L ! ! !

"How did she get up there?"

She's tiny...she's light-weight, she's flexible as a rubber band. She can scale six foot book cases in a minute flat. She can craft a ladder out of books/pillows/boots/dolls/trains/tissue boxes/etc. to climb to the top of the TV center. She has been known to give her mother gray hair and her father a look of pride.

She's SPIDERGIRL....and she scares the heck outta me.

My litte girl climbs EVERYTHING. So what, you say? All kids like to climb, you retort?

You. Don't. Understand.

EVERYTHING and ANTHING can be used to hoist her body to wherever she likes. She's the mini-McGuiver of ladder making. Sometimes, I can't believe what she uses to climb. I've seen her scale the OUTSIDE of a stair case, nearly to the top before I found her. She gets into places and I have no idea how she got there.

One day I might find her clinging from the ceiling.

My children can't have anything in their room that can be used for climbing...no bookcases, no chairs or tables, no toychests...heck, even books can be stacked and used as a platform. She's even used her brother's train to climb up to the top of her dresser. She's even used her brother! Marcus was quite insulted when he realized his sister saw his back as a means to climb up to the TV!

Baby gates are just a 'bump in the road' to her. She climbs right over them, resting her dainty little foot on nothing but air...it's the strength and flexibility in her lower ab's that gets her over. While it terrifies me that almost no place in my home is safe for my daughter, I can't help but feel rush of pride when I see her climb something impossible.

I wish I had abs like that.

Her last triumph was the top of Mount Kitchen...the play kitchen in their room. Assessed it, scaled it and proceeded to try to do happy dance at the top. Fortunately for her (and me) I heard her saying "No, no don't!" to her brother because he saw his opportunity to get back at his sister for turning him into a ladder...he was shaking Mount Kitchen with all his might.

I stopped the earthquake just seconds before my daughter tumbled to the playroom floor. To think this all happened before nap time. My husband suggested perhaps we buy an indoor gym.

I'm sure she'll love it. She's been searching for something to aide her climb of Mount Refrigerator in our real kitchen for quite a while.

My husband decided to lock all of the drawers in their room with child locks. This way she can't open them to make a staircase up to the top of the chest. I thought to myself, "A-HA! Now we've gotcha! No more climbing for you missy!" I did feel bad though when she realized her Daddy had taken her jungle gym away. My usually sweet-natured little girl threw a fit...rolling around on the floor and throwing her toys. Still, I felt victorious and figured, problem solved!

My victory was short-lived.

The other day I watched as she climbed to the top of her brother's dresser to explore the humidifier using nothing but the knobs on the closed and locked drawers. (See posted picture at beginning of entry).

Rock climbing-101.

I picked my jaw up off the floor, took a picture of her latest climb and gingerly picked her up from the dresser. I planted both her feet on the floor saying, "No climb!". She just looked up at me like, "Are you kidding? That was sweet!".

Then I went online to surf Craig's list for an indoor jungle gym. I also looked into rock climbing at the Y.

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

- The Mamasaurus

Winter blues...

"Baby, it's cold outside!"

Wow!  I can't believe the holidays are over and we're already well into 2008! Now it's the winter blues we have to deal with...

Not my favorite time of year.

They say that when we enter a season we dislike, we should try to find some beauty in it to get us through it. I guess that makes sense but it's rather hard for me to find the beauty in a season that generally keeps me and my restless kiddos indoors suffering from 'cabin fever'. But I suppose if I must, I must. After all, seasons depict perfectly the ebb and flow of life.

Well, this is what I've come up with:

Signs of winter:

1. Going to the doctor more often, sitting in the waiting room and wondering why I even got the flu shot because I'm so sick my hair hurts.

2. Taking my children to the pediatrician so much that I think we are personally financing her new porsche.

3. The barren, leafless, lifeless trees in our yard that now expose the perfect view of my neighbor's backyard with his wonderful pole barn, blue-tarp covered boat, camper, six cars and a rusted out pick-up truck. Apparently, each square foot of grass in your backyard is an opportunity for yet another parking space. Time to plant those fast growth evergreens at the back of our property...

4. The train is louder now because of the leafless trees not providing enough of a buffer...but this doesn't really bother me. I actually like the sound of the train, though I didn't when we first moved here.

5. The lack of energy from the lack of sunlight. Although, this January has been pretty tame, with mild weather here and there. We have enjoyed it but, I don't like tame January's. Tame January's usually mean that winter is going to make a late comeback and most likely whip our butts clear into April, when the flowers should be blooming. We'll see what that groundhog says this year...

But wait a minute...I was supposed to find the beauty in the winter season...

Well, it is kinda cute the way my son's mucus-covered face resembles a glazed donut when he's sick during the winter...does that count?

Oh well. I tried.

I am doing some things to combat the winter blues. Planning my daughter's 'birthtism' is one thing that keeps me busy. Her birthday and baptism will be occuring around the same time so instead of having two parties, we're combining them and having one. Our theme is 'angels' because the theme is great for both. I am currently looking for angel wings to fasten to her outfit for her pictures.

The hubbasaurus hasn't been working such horrid hours lately, thank the good Lord! He still works overtime hours but he doesn't walk through the door at 9:30pm anymore (for now, it will pick up again in time). The kids love seeing their Dad at dinnertime. Especially Marcus. Daddy teaches Marcus everything. How to push buttons, how to help get dressed (he puts his arms up for the sleeves now), how to do a high-five, how to burp at the dinner table (whoops!) and hopefully sometime this year, how to use the potty...we'll see about that one!

Little Annaliese has been growing in leaps and bounds! She wants so much to pull up, stand and walk around because that's what she sees her brother doing. She's getting there and when she does.....LOOK OUT! I'll be running after two then, (Lord, help me!). She feeds herself now and wants no part of anything other than her cheerios, banana pieces, sweet potato puree and her bottle. Try to give her something more adventurous like apple sauce and you're gonna get it on your face. She spits it right back out, powerfully!

Something interesting that happened the other day on one of my many trips to the pediatrician's office:

When I was leaving a young woman with pretty blonde hair was cleaning the foyer of the building. Upon seeing me, she immediately went to the door and held it open (so nice!). People tend to do this when they see the double stroller and it actually has amazed me how many times it has happened. Anyway, this is the conversation that followed:

Her: "Oh no, I hope the little ones aren't sick..."

Me: "Actually yes, they both are."

Her: "My son is nine and he's sick, too. I gave him his medicine the other day but I think he's allergic and when I took him to the doctor the doctor said no so when I went home I gave hom another dose and he still seemed sick and then I read the side of the bottle and it said take with food and I thought, wow! That's why he's getting a stomachache from it so I called the doctor back to tell him..."

Me: Trying very hard not to be rude as I am standing half in, half out of the door in freezing cold weather with my children in their stroller screaming... "Well, I hope your son feels better..."

Her: "Oh he does, now, I think... I mean I hope...that was last week anyway! Hey, how old are your little ones?"

Me: Despereate to leave now... "18 months and 10 months."

Her: "Oh how nice...are they twins?"

It was all I could do to remain poker-faced.

Someone FINALLY came in the other way and the conversation was interrupted. I slipped out as Miss Nicebuttalksalot started chatting with them.

The hubbasaurus and I had a good laugh about it when he got home that night.

Me: "Twins! Can you believe it?"

Him: "Yeah, we just decided to put the second one back in for a while...we wanted a few months between them..."

Of all the comments I've gotten about my kids, that had to be the most interesting one. However I'd have to say that someone telling my husband that his son looks just like him runs a close second.

Blessings, laughter and peace to all in this new year...

-The Mamasaurus