Annie came home yesterday from school and declared that I need hearing aides. Apparently, I ask her to repeat what she and her sister are saying too much and must have a hearing problem requiring medical assistance. She’s probably right to an extent because I do find myself having a hard time understanding what people are saying to me most of the time, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say I need hearing aides. Later in the car ride home from the eye doctor to pick up my glasses (I guess I’m just a mess) Mimi was asking me something from the way back of the van and while music was playing, I might add. Of course, I couldn’t hear her, and I said so. Annie then interjected and uttered to Mimi but audible enough for me to hear, “Remember, you need to talk loud because Mama doesn’t hear so well.” There you have it. Now I’m off to make the ear doctor appointment.

After coming to terms with my deafness I decided I’d try again to feed Violet her rice cereal. I mentioned in my comments on the previous post that I attempted to use formula in the cereal, and Violet would have nothing to do with it. Someone said it would be sufficient to use water, so I decided to go that route. I’m pretty sure that’s all I did with Annie and Mimi, but I couldn’t remember seeing as it was so many years ago. Apparently, Violet has had a change of heart because this feeding session was no more successful than the attempt with formula. See for yourself.

“What are you doing with that thing.”

“You think you’re going to put that in my mouth.”

“Get that away from me.”

“Blech.”

“I can’t believe you actually tried to get me to eat that vile, detestable substance.”

Annie, being the budding photographer that she is, asked if she could take over the camera after she saw me snapping pictures of the cereal session with Violet. I agreed to her request.

She wanted to first document my other disability, that being my blindness. I’ve worn contacts for many years but have been an eyeglass wearer on-and-off (mostly off) since grade school because the glasses usually give me headaches. At Mike’s insistence I decided to go to the eye doctor after not going for about 8-10 years to acquire a new pair of spectacles.

Then a picture of Mimi with dinner still on her face.

This horse is on loan from a lady from church that Mimi and I visited earlier that day. She lives way out in the country out by a lot of horse farms. Mimi and I got into a conversation about she really wants a pet horse. We ended the talk with agreeing that she could get a horse for herself when she’s a grown-up. The lady we visited got wind of this and revealed to us quite a collection of horse figurines that her son used to collect as a child. Mimi chose this one, and Annie was there to document it.

And we’ll end with a picture of the little photographer.

Do you think he’ll get the hint?

Can you imagine a person assigning a profile picture
to his/her vet for his/her phone? Imagine that this
person went through the trouble to pose not real
animals but stuffed animals to photograph purely
for the intent of this profile picture. How pathetic
this person must be. How sad this person must be.
How lonely this person must be. As if the vet’s office
is calling this heartbreaking human being regularly
enough to justify a profile picture for his/her phone.

Wait a minute, this person would be me. Yes, I did
all of the above which means I must surely be all of
the above.

Below is the picture that will be displayed should the
vet’s office ever feel compelled to call me.

In my defense, the stuffed animals were already sitting
there posed while I was making an appointment for Sadie
to get her kitten check-up when the idea sprung to mind.
It’s inexcusable though, and I hold my head in shame.

To make myself feel better, I will also post pictures of a live being. One of my favorites at that. A smiling baby can cure anything.

Annie asked if she could start her own blog. Instead of that scary idea, I told her she could make a post on our family blog. This satisfied her. The following was typed up by Annie all by herself with only a couple of spelling/grammar helps from me. Sniff, sniff; she’s not my little girl anymore.

I got a cat and she is so good and well I named her Sadie. We love her but I got a American girl doll. Happy 2010. I lost a tooth my 2nd . Vivi is sick. I am home from school because of snow. Bye bye.

Annie wanted to have pictures to post, too, so she was given permission to take the camera on her own to snap a couple of pictures of Sadie.

What she says is all true. All kids are home today. Thank goodness we have the kitten to take up much of that time and outside playing in the snow more time. Violet was up much of the night last night with a fever and coughing/sniffling/sneezing. Poor bebe:( Once the Tylenol sets in though she’s just fine. Annie did lose her 2nd tooth yesterday. However, the tooth fairy wasn’t able to make it through all the snow to trade Annie’s tooth for some money. We are going to send her a snippy email reminding her that little girls get their hearts broken when the tooth fairy doesn’t come. (Yes, we forgot. We are bad bad bad bad parents. In our defense, the tooth was overshadowed by a sick kid and new kitty.)

I’ll leave you with some random pictures, too. The girls have been dying to wear their Christmas dresses to church but our trip to NC forced us to miss the previous 2 Sundays. They wore them for New Year’s Sunday instead. Mimi picked out her own tights and shoes. Both girls adore those coats that Grandpa Indiana got for them a couple of years ago, and they constantly wear them around the house, too. Daddy accidentally broke off Annie’s fur collar on her dress, so Annie improvised with her white, furry scarf. And the story behind Mimi’s furry hat is that Mike purchased it for me because he wanted me to have a real fur, Russian hat. It was too small for my head, so Mimi is very reluctantly wearing it.

Lastly, Lucy looks so forlorn.

We got a special treat for New Year’s Eve this year. The Smiths, Mike’s sister’s family, stopped by our house on their way home to Florida. They got to spend Christmas with the Minnesota relatives, but their journey home will be quite long. It was decided that they would take a 2-day break at our home. The Smith girls are getting so tall and mature. They are all taller than me now (not that that’s a big record to break) and no longer resemble the little girls I have carved into my memories from our Beaufort, SC days.

The Smiths are a fun group, so we decided it would be amusing to ring in the new year with another white elephant party. They were definitely on board and searched for interesting gifts at Grandma Minnesota’s favorite store called Bethesda Thrift Shop in Hopkins. The Smith girls also got presents to participate which meant more fabulous gifts to exchange. Mike and I shopped for our gifts separately in order to maintain the surprise element. The Johnsons also attended and brought along Seth’s sister’s family. They followed our instructions properly and each provided one gift per adult. There were 11 wonderful presents to open, and everyone could hardly contain their excitement.

I picked #1, and the gift I chose was a Vanilla Ice c.d. and a “Happy Purim” noise maker from Morgan.

Next up was Seth’s brother-in-law, and he received an inflatable, Vikings pennant from Maddie.

Then Seth’s sister received something so useful, an adding machine. Rozzie was the giver of this gift and apparently was coveting it greatly as she stole it back on her turn.

Seth was so thrilled for his gift, a cobra incense burner. Jenni later stole this in hopes of intriguing her students. Mike provided this gem.

Morgan couldn’t have been happier about her “Lunker Lake” board game all about fresh-water fishing. After some other stealing Mike ended up with this and tried to convince us later to play it with him. I believe Seth’s brother-in-law gave the ever popular board game.

Maddie’s gift required a lot of work to discover the final contents. Seth thought he was so clever to use up all the boxes around his home to wrap this up.
Box #1.

Box #2.

Box #3.

Box #4 finally revealed what the gift was to be, the Clapper. The Clapper caused quite a stir and was stolen into to retirement with the final recipient being me.

So Maddie got to open another gift. Oh, the pure joy she expressed after realizing it was a Dale Earnhardt lunch box. What a collector’s item!

But wait, there’s more. It’s look awfully like the winner’s cup after a Nascar race. How appropriate! (This was my contribution.) This combo gift was popular among the fellows and was stolen into retirement with Seth being the final recipient.

As you can see, Seth was quite proud of his “tropy”.

Travis was up next, and he got exactly what he had been wanting for so long, Stitchopoly and a wall hanging reminiscent of something you’d find in the Cracker Barrel General Store. This wonderful combo gift was from Seth’s sister.

Julie received the perfect gift, a 1999 Internet for Dummies desk calendar. And she was just telling me the other day how she really needed help on how to use the internet. Turns out that 1999 and 2009 have the same days. I believe this was Travis’ gift.

Jenni’s turn was next, and she actually got a gift that I think most people wouldn’t have minded, 10 pounds of candy corn in Valentine’s colors. At least I wouldn’t have been disappointed if I had received this delicious gift. Of course, it probably would a little nauseating after eating a few handfuls of that stuff.

And the final gift to be opened was a garlic house given by Jenni. I told Jenni she should have provided some garlic to the recipient to make the gift so aromatic.

Violet was sad that she couldn’t participate and kicked herself in the eye.

I’m pretty sure fun was had by all, and I hope we can continue the tradition next year with another party. Most everyone stuck around for the final minutes of ringing in the new year. Mike has had the urge to rent a keg of root beer for ages, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one. It provided 90-12 ounce glasses of Pointe Root Beer made right here in Wisconsin. Yum! There was enough root beer to enjoy the next day, too.