Princess Play

We are fully immersed in princess play at casa Fifty Below.  The girls have no fewer than 20 Little People princesses, a princess castle, princess Barbies, princess movies.....you get the picture.  The princess movie of choice right now is "Enchanted", with both of them wanting to be Gizelle after they watch it.  (Mitch and I play the roles of Edward and Robert, respectively.)  Gonzo's obsession still remains Ariel and everything under the sea.  There is nothing sweeter than listening to her sing "Part of Your World".  Gizmo enjoys dressing up in her Snow White costume and using the apple from her toy food set as her "poison apple".  And they both love to play wedding with the princesses and their princes.

Tonight Gizmo and Mitch were playing wedding when Gizmo decided that Aladdin had a change of heart.  He was supposed to marry Rapunzel instead of Jasmine.  Here's how the conversation went:

Mitch:  "Sorry, Aladdin already married Jasmine."

Gizmo (thinking, then with a laugh): "Oh Aladdin, you stop goofing with me!  Stop fooling with me, Aladdin!"

It could have only been better if she said, "You quit fooling with Jasmine, Aladdin!"

It also made Mitch and I think of this little video short from Saturday Night Live last year.  Hilarious.

If This Doesn't Make You Happy, Nothing Will

This was taken a few weeks ago, when Gonzo was into her butt-wiggle stage.  

Oh, Gonzo, you make me so happy it hurts.

Backlog: January 2013

I know it's been a while....and I really have no great excuse, except that life is busy around Fifty Below Zero.  But, as I sit here on a Saturday night with a glass of wine, I thought it was time to show off what we've been up to.

Last month I took Gizmo into Minneapolis for her very first "theatre" experience - Sesame Street Live! Boston and Katie had given her tickets for Christmas, and the day had finally arrived for her "big girl" trip to the city - no Gonzo invited.  ("You're too little, Gen!")

To document the day, I thought we could take a cute mommy-daughter picture before we left.  Gizmo was not so cooperative....

...nor was she interested in taking pictures with Aunt Katie, whom we had met for lunch.  

But when we got to the Target Center, she was overwhelmed at the amount of Sesame Street stuff.  A play area was advertised in the concourse of the Target Center, and so she was very anxious to play.  I was a little disappointed in the fact that it only consisted of some wooden cutouts of the characters with a button to push so they would talk.  But, she loved having her pictures taken with all of them.

Katie and Boston spared no expense, and so we had fantastic seats five rows up and just left of center.  We got to our seats just in time for the show to start.  Once she figured out how to navigate the seat (it was one that you had to pull down to sit on, but she didn't have enough body weight to keep it down), she was ready for the show.  Truth be told, the show was really cute.  Who doesn't love a magic wand in the hands of someone else other than its owner who makes everybody sing?  The music teacher in me just adored that "M" was the letter of the day, and "MUSIC" was the word on the street.  Cute!

 

There was an intermission during the show, and this is when the real spectacle began.  Truth be told, I was not anticipating the onslaught of products for purchase at this thing.  I had exactly zero in cash, and when the candy, popcorn, ice cream, and Elmo balloons (!) came out, I feared the ultimate meltdown from Gizmo.  (I was not prepared for something like this - we NEVER went to Sesame Street when we were kids.  That would have involved going north of Joliet.)  I held my breath as I watched Gizmo take the whole scene in.  Luckily, when she asked for popcorn she fell for my excuse of "we just had a lot of lunch" hook, line, and sinker.  And that was that.

She was tired through the second half of the show (we didn't get a rest time that day), and had a meltdown in the bathroom before we left because she claimed she didn't have to potty.  I don't think she made it out of the parking ramp.

But she had a great time and was singing the songs for the next week in the house.  It was a fun day, just my Gizmo and me.  Thanks Katie and Boston for a great day!

Your Greek Mythology Lesson from a Three-Year-Old

We have a new obsession in our house, and his name is "Hercules".

Several months ago, Mitch brought home the Disney "Hercules" little golden book from Half Price Books and the girls started reading it.  When shopping for Christmas, we found the movie and thought that the girls would like it.

Like it would be an understatement.

Almost every night since Christmas, the girls have watched parts of "Hercules" while dinner is being made.  They don't even ask to watch anything else.

Mitch fueled the obsession when he found Hercules action figures on eBay and bought them.  They arrived yesterday, and the girls have been playing with them nearly nonstop.  Imaginary Mount Olympus and Underworld areas are popping up all over the living room, most recently in the form of Legos.  Some of the things overheard in our living room recently:

• After telling Gizmo she couldn't have the underworld on the side table, she decided to have it be on top of the chair, because, "that other underworld is out of power".

• When Hercules saved Meg from the underworld, in my Hercules voice I said, "Now I know where I belong - with you Meg, on Earth."  Gizmo said, "Yeah, so let's go pick some blueberries!"

• Gonzo consistently yelled out "ZEUUUUSSSS" and "HERC" and "Ha-deez" while holding the toys.  Another favorite is "Peg-a-dus".

• After a while, the two boxes that were to be the homes of all of the figures became Mount Olympus and the Underworld.  Gizmo would then set up the figurines on the corresponding boxes.   When someone fell off Mount Olympus (because really, more people want to be there than the Underworld anyways), she would yell, "Oops, everyone into the rowboat to rescue Zeus!", and then she would pile all of the figures into the box they were mailed in and push the box until they could "rescue" Zeus.

I could tell you more about it, but it's cuter when they do.

New Year's Resolutions

Last year at this time I decided it would be a great idea to create a bunch of resolutions to make 2012 the Year Of Tina.  (Mitch tries to call every year the Year of Tina, where I finally get my shit together, but last year was FINALLY going to be the year!)  I had to laugh as I thought about this, because here is what I had mapped out for myself:

January: Weight-loss will be a recurring theme in my resolutions. Now that we are done having kids, it is time to get my body into shape. This month, my goal is to record my eating in an online food journal, make healthy food choices, and work out twice a week.  (I did start a journal, which I wrote in exactly one time.  Workouts were sporadic, at best.  Who has time to work out when you have an infant and a toddler?)

February: In my birth month, I have two resolutions: 1) to keep my purse more organized, and 2) increase workouts to three-four times a week.  (Workouts - nonexistent.  Purse cleaning - I think it's possible that I became more messy with purses.  When one got too full, I got a new one out.  And the cycle continues...)

March: This month I will focus on my car, which is always full of old napkins, random school stuff, kids' books, and other crap. I will work on keeping a more tidy car.  (I feel like I did make a little headway in this, but it always seems the messiest when Mitch needs to use it.  Ugh.  I did empty out a few used Kleenexes tonight, though.)

April: I would love to be more organized with my coupon clipping. I will also be admiring my newer, skinnier self by this time.  (Well, I do coupon, but they usually get tossed into a drawer and I rifle through them before I shop.  I did organize the drawer a little today!)

May: I will begin to experiment with new fruits and vegetables in my cooking, trying to incorporate a new one into our food every week. I also plan on running my first 5K.  (I did have grand plans for the 5K, but one of the kids got sick.  Not that I could ever survive running the whole thing.  Did I train?  Of course not.)

June: During the summer, I want to be active outside every day with the girls that the weather cooperates.  (This we did - we were outside a lot.)

July: I will work on being more organized in my bedroom, which seems to be the dumping grounds for the rest of the house.  (This was another disaster area.  Before I cleaned off the desk tonight, it had several layers of crap on it. Right now it only has a little bit of crap on it.)

August: Run another 5K.  (Nope.)

September: As I return to work from the summer, I will work on being more neat and tidy in the house, putting things away as I use them and picking up after myself. I also plan on holding my kids accountable to this resolution. (Mitch is the clean one of the house, I am clearly the messy one)  (Seriously, what was I thinking?  Mitch will attest, though, that I have improved a little on a few things after he nags me about them enough.)

October: Buy Halloween candy that is not my favorite. (This one will be hard, since I have not met candy that I don't like. Let's just say I won't be buying Snickers.)  (I bought Snickers.  I did not eat many, though.)

November: Continue to be committed to my workout routine, even as the holidays near and things at work become busy.  (Lie.)

December: I will be more proactive about my holiday budget - planning purchases, and staying within my means. (This year I was not so successful.....)  (Totally blew this one.  While Mitch and I did have our shopping done early and wrapping completed before Christmas Eve, the Discover bill was quite frightening when it came.  Oh well.)

So, I'm bad at all of this resolution stuff.  

I did have a breakthrough in September.  After frustrated with my weight all summer long, and after looking at pictures of myself from Gizmo's birthday party, I decided enough was enough.  We moved the treadmill into the basement and I started running at 5am 3-4 times a week when school started in September.  It was painful, more so to get up, but I started to love being up and ready before anyone else was, enjoying my coffee in silence after my run, and I really started to like the results I got.  I also signed up for a Zumba class through our community education program in town, and started getting my groove on every Saturday for an hour.  It kicks my ass, and I love it.  I was more careful about portion size, and cut out my nightly glass of wine (with the exception of Friday night).  

I lost 15 pounds, and while I wasn't great at keeping those 5am appointments (the girls seemed to be sick a lot and were up at night, and I'm not about to get up early after being up half the night with them), and things got REALLY bad in December, I'm still proud of that weight loss.  I'm not where I want to be yet, but now that I'm back at work I can get back into routine again.  

So my new year's resolution for 2013?  Stop making resolutions.  Take one day at a time.  Spend more quality time with Mitch.  Watch my girls grow and learn.  Have fun.  

This one I think I can stick with.

Christmas

The series of videos I have is from tonight, when the girls were dancing to "Linus and Lucy" (their new favorite Christmas song), and were overtired from short naps and a trip to church for Christmas eve service.  Add in some sugar cookies for dinner, and you have these three (nearly failed) attempts to wish you all a Merry Christmas:

In church on Sunday, our pastor talked about Jesus' Wish List.  On it are hope, love, faith, joy, and peace.  May you all have a blessed Christmas where you can give these gifts not only today, but all year long.

And THIS is Why I Love My Husband

A few weeks ago, Mitch had told me that he had booked massages for us and arranged Katie to come out and sit with the girls so we could have a night out.  Shocked and excited, I anxiously looked forward to Date Night, as we had not been out for a very long time.  I had lots of questions - what else would we do?  where would we eat?  how late would we stay out? - but Mitch was not very forthcoming with any details.  It was a surprise, he said, and so I just had to wait.

Yesterday, after my marathon week of concerts at school, I came home, scribbled some last-minute notes to Katie for the girls, and walked out the door.  Mitch had picked up Katie at work since she and Boston share a car, and so as we pulled out of the driveway I asked Mitch if Katie was just staying the night so that we would not have to drive her into Minneapolis at a late hour.  To my surprise, he said yes, and that we had a room booked at Hotel Ivy in Minneapolis for the evening.  Mitch not only booked a beautiful room right in downtown and arranged massages in the spa at the hotel, but had packed my bag (he had never done that before) and taken care of every detail for the girls.  Changed the sheets for Katie?  Done.  Made pancakes for the girls for Saturday morning breakfast?  Done.  Packed all of my makeup, which was in several places in the bathroom?  Done and done.

I was completely overwhelmed with love for my husband.  In our crazy, busy life, where most of our lives focus on our work and the girls, it was so nice for us to have a night to focus on ourselves and give attention to our own relationship.  And I was completely surprised, as Mitch has never done anything like this before.

I can't decide what I liked the best from our night out - dinner out at Hell's Kitchen, where there was a jazz group performing, or the massage, or the champagne we had in the room, or ordering room service for breakfast and lounging in the hotel robes and drinking coffee while watching the news.  I think I just liked being with Mitch.

Thanks, honey.  I am so lucky that we have each other.