An Appropriate Dessert

Yesterday after dinner, Kyra asked if she could have dessert today. I told her that I was going to cut up an apple for Siana and myself, and she was welcome to have some of that for her dessert. She responded, "Nooooo, I mean an UNHEALTHY dessert." Hey, at least she knows the difference.

Future Archeologist

As I sat in the living room this morning, Siana exited the room and I heard her little footsteps padding down the hallway. Soon after, I heard a drawer open and shut in my bathroom, then a minute or so later, I heard another drawer open and shut. I decided to investigate, and as I rounded the corner into my bedroom, I see Siana arm deep in one of my bathroom drawers. I asked her, "Siana, whatcha doin'?" Her reply: "Diggin'."

From my hallway to yours...

This was the girls' activity the other afternoon: they both donned as many headbands, rings, necklaces and scarves as they could support on their little bodies and ran up and down the hallway in clunky play shoes, announcing, "We are glamour girls!!!" They would load up on bling in their bathroom, run down the hallway to me in the kitchen, show me, run back and change out some of it, run back down to show me, etc. This went on for quite some time and they were quite entertained by it. The funniest part was Kyra running down the hallway with Siana, calling out to her in an extra fabulous voice, "Come on, glamma girl!" and Siana responding in her tiny little voice, "Comeeeeeeng!"

Angie Bruce, NickJr.com Official Member

Well apparently Ms. Kyra has now learned my email address. The other day, I was going through my new emails and found one from Nick Jr. thanking me for joining their club. Sadly, I had to think back to recall whether or not I actually had been to Nick Jr.'s website and signed up for something, say a sweepstakes maybe, and inadvertently signed up for a newsletter. I came to the certain conclusion that I had done no such thing, so naturally, I called my sweet daughter into the room and asked her if she knew why Nick Jr. was sending me emails. She matter of factly replied, "Oh yeah. I put in your email address so we would get the Nick Jr. newsletter. All you have to do is click the link in the email to complete our registration." I think not. You may have commandeered Daddy's blog for a few days, but my email account is mine, sister.

Drive By Mooning

My parents are in town, so this post is a conversation as reported by my mom:


Driving in the car one evening:

Mom: Kyra, look, there's the moon...

Kyra: Oh yeah!

Mom: It kind of looks like a toenail...

Kyra, confused: Huh???

Mom: repeats statement.

Kyra, still confused: Huh. It just looks like a crescent to me.

Wind Control

Our area of the Texas Panhandle is ridiculously windy somedays, and today is one of them. The wind was rattling the doors to the fireplace in the living room, so Siana pointed in that general direction and said, "Wind." I verified that yes, it was wind, to which she replied, "Turn off."

10/17/98

9 years today...Happy Anniversary, Mr. Brcue! =)

Tired...

For all of you wondering where I've been and if I've fallen off the face of the planet, the answer is no, but just barely. The last month has been utter insanity at the Bruce house and I am tired. We are not busy people. I purposely make our routine such that we are not running around like mad all week, barely seeing each other. I prefer that we spend most evenings at home, having some family time together before the girls' 7:00 bedtime. However, the last month has been so far from our nice little routine it's not even funny. First, Steven went to Nashville for a conference for 4 or 5 days. No big deal...I can handle single parenthood for a few days, no problem. The following week, I started a new job that would eventually be a once or twice a month deal. But in the inception of the business here in town, they were severely short-staffed and severely overbooked. So I agreed to help out for 2 weeks until they could get some new people trained. The company is one that is just beginning a new contract with CPS to take over many of their supervised visitations between children and the parents they've been taken away from. Difficult, yes, but I can handle it. So Steven and I finessed our schedules so that I could work quite a bit those first 2 weeks, and I became a working mom for a short time. At the same time, my transcription work was still booming and thriving, so I would come home and write the reports for the case I'd just supervised, then work on whatever transcripts were due that day, pushing off the ones that weren't. After those first 2 weeks, more employees were hired and I got a bit of a reprieve, at least from that job. I spent the next week catching up on all the transcripts that previously were not due immediately, but had now become due. The week after that, Steven left again for a different conference in Nashville, one that I usually accompany him on, but this time for a week and a half. And although the girls were great, it's just hard being the only adult in the house for that long. I am glad that he got to go, and got to go see his mom and sister for a few days after the conference...he really needed that, but I also am grateful that he's back home. During the time he was away, I continued to get transcription work, as well as adding 2 new clients during that time. So needless to say, it has been a loooong few weeks. I need a massage and a nice long nap!

5-year-old Blogger

Well, Kyra has decided that she wants her own blog, like Mommy and Daddy have. So Steven showed her how to use iWeb on our Mac, and she's been building her own blog site for several days now. She's pulled pictures from iPhoto and put them in, written about the things she likes, and chosen her favorite colors for each section. Well, she was ready for school early this morning, so she sat down and worked on her blog for a few minutes. This afternoon, Steven called me from work, and apparently Miss Kyra published her blog all by herself. The problem is, she completely overwrote Steven's blog in the process. HA! So for the time being, if you go to http://web.mac.com/brucefamily/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html, right now it's Kyra's blog creation instead of Steven's blog. She's got stuff on the 'About Me' page and on the 'Blog' page. If you can get past the spelling and words with no spaces, it's actually pretty darn good for a Kindergartener! =) I particularly like her Design Star section...she's got all the names of the contestants and judges, except some of them are just their initials! I don't know how long it will be up, so hurry over and take a peek. I'm sure Steven will reclaim his web space before long, but Kyra's blog will definitely have a home on the internet very, very soon. Move over, Chris Crocker, here comes Kyra!

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra at the dinner table: "Mom, you need to sell our car and buy a Mercury Mariner. Or a Milan."
Me: Why?
Kyra: "Because I saw them on a commercial on TV and they look really nice."

Heeheeheehee Wipe Out!

280 wipes to be exact. You know it's bad news when Siana comes running into the room exclaiming "meh! meh!" and pointing down the hall. I calmly replied, "Did you make a mess?" She giggled and said, "meh woom." Me: "Oh, you made a mess in your room?" Another giggle, and then "wahp." "You made a mess in your room with wipes?" Ok...doesn't sound too bad...maybe it got a little cleaner in the process? So I go to her room to investigate, and sure enough, she had discovered the gargantuan refill package of wipes next to her changing table, gotten it open, and painstakingly removed each and every one of them from the package. So much for "Works in your pop-up dispenser!"...nothing is going to be popping up out of that pile anytime soon. So I ever so delicately shoved them all back in the package, squished it as tight as I could to make it zip closed, and called it a day. It could have been a whole lot worse...she could have run down the hall saying "meh woom dahp," which would have meant she'd found a way to get the Diaper Genie open and remove all the nasty "dahps" from it. So I'm choosing to count my blessings!

Mental Mambo

Kyra was sitting across from me at the dinner table a couple nights ago when she started doing a funny little dance, waving her arms around with her eyes closed and her face scrunched up in the air. I chuckled and said "What kind of dance is that, Stevie Wonder?" She said, "I'm thinking of a song in my head and I'm dancing to the thinking."

Mommy's a mess

Siana was sitting on my lap today while I was putting on her shoes, when she grabbed my hand and looked closely at my fingernails. They were in pretty sad shape, with the nail polish chipping and desperately calling for complete removal. She then grabbed my other hand, looked at it, and then turned to me and said this with a concerned look on her face:

"Mommy, han, meh...mommy meh...han meh." Which translates to Mommy, your hands are a mess, Mommy mess, hands mess."

I laughed and said that yes, Mommy's hands did look like a mess.

She then looked me straight in the eye and ordered, "Wah." Ok, maybe I do need to wash them. I'll get right on that.

Design Star

I know I've blogged about this before, but Kyra is still obsessed with HGTV. She is particularly a fan of Design Star. (Her favorite contestant this season is 'Josh Sparkle' because he's soooo funny...) She was making a collection of drawings to give to her friend for her birthday, and as she sorted through the papers she'd drawn, she came upon one that apparently didn't belong. She exclaimed, "Oh, this one doesn't belong in here...that's a picture of Vern Yip...he's a judge on Design Star." Funny thing is, it actually kind of looks like him:

Sound the Alarm

We decided to try an alarm clock for Kyra, now that she's started school, so that maybe she'll have an easier time waking up in the morning. So I found a cute Disney Princess clock at the store, bought it, brought it home and plugged it in. That thing made the most hideous noise I've ever heard coming from an electronic appliance. I immediately decided it was going right back to the store it came from, because anyone woken up by that awful of a sound would be crankier than they would've been otherwise. So I was telling Kyra about the clock and that we were going to find a different one, because this one made such a horrible ruckus. Her response: Maybe the noise was the sound of the Princesses arguing. Hmmmm...maybe so.

First Day of School!!!

Well, my sweet Kyra started Kindergarten today. The day went well, once she got to school. She loved her teacher and all the things she got to do. However, the morning, in true Bruce style was a comedy of errors. Doesn't matter how well we plan, it never fails to be drama some days. *sigh* I got up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. which I haven't seen in many, many years. I got myself completely ready by 7 and went to wake Kyra up...she was resistant to say the least. It took over 35 minutes to actually get her out of bed. I had to give up for a while so I could go get her lunch made and fix the breakfast she'd asked for the night before. Steven finished getting ready and went in to take another shot at getting her out of the bed. Once she was up, she didn't want to wear the outfit she'd planned to wear for weeks now. But by that time, we were running late (of course) and we didn't have time to find a new outfit. So we shoved her into her clothes, I picked her up, carried her to the kitchen, screaming in my ear, mind you, and plopped her into the chair in front of the special breakfast I'd made for her (that she had requested). She decided she didn't want that after all. I wanted to pour it over her head by that point, but refrained, since she'd just had a bath the night before. She finally settled down after about 10 minutes or so of sitting there watching her food get cold. Then she had time for about 3 or 4 bites before we had to go. Siana had woken up during all the hubbub, so we changed her, dressed her, and strapped her into the car. We drove the 2 minutes to school, and since we weren't as early as we'd planned to be, we had to park down the street and walk. Naturally, we parked in front of the one house who happened to be watering their lawn at the time. So as I walked in my thin-soled flip flops, carrying Siana, I hit a patch of exceptionally slippery mud and down I went with a loud, painful thud. And a screaming baby who thought the world had come to an end. Once everyone figured out all was ok and that I was actually laughing, because, honestly, what else could I do at that point, the tension was broken and Kyra seemed less nervous and cranky, and more amused. So in we marched to the school: one flustered Dad, one nervous 5 year old, one baby who didn't quite know what was going on, and one mom with a soaking wet, muddy rear end. We walked her to her class, with Steven and Kyra forced to walk behind me at that point. As we were walking, occasionally a giggle would erupt from Kyra, and as we got to her classroom, we got one final look of terror, a big kiss, an I love you, and into her class she walked with her teacher. And standing there with mud all over my butt, I thought how much worse the day could have been. She walked into her class with her own 2 feet and no screaming and crying occurred at the door. Mission accomplished. Now on to some clean, dry clothes.

Intercessory Intermission

Siana has become quite the little prayer warrior of late. So much so that she is starting to demand an impromptu prayer at all kinds of random places. All 4 of us were picking up some school supplies in Target a couple days ago when Siana, out of the blue, started saying "han..pay...han...pay!" and then bowing her little head and peeking up at us to see if we got it. We knew she wouldn't give it up until we did it, so as we walked through the store, holding her hands, we said a quickie "Thank you God for Siana...amen." Well, that wasn't enough. She wouldn't let go of our hands until we'd thanked God for each and every member of our family. Once we did, she declared us finished with a loud and enthusiastic "Meh-men!"

My own prayer is that my sweet little Siana remains always open to instant conversation with the Father, no matter where she is, and no matter what she's doing. Meh-men!

This little light of mine

I was rocking Siana this evening at bedtime, and shortly after I heard a car rumble by outside the window, I noticed an odd flash penetrating the darkness sporadically. I thought nothing of it at first, but then a few minutes later, when I was still seeing something flash occasionally, I started to wonder what it could be. As I sat there, rocking my sweet baby, I wondered what could be going on outside her window...perhaps it was the car that drove by a little bit ago...was it a police car...is something going on out there...should I open the blinds and take a peek...but if there is something going on out there, I don't really want to open the blinds, just in case...what could that light be...it does kind of look blue...but there's no red...that's really strange. So as I sat there with this random barrage of thoughts running through my head about this odd light, I began to sort of look for it. I watched the window for a minute and when I saw the flash, I realized it didn't appear to actually be coming through the window. It appeared to be coming from something inside the room. So then I started searching for any random toys that could be flashing, yet still turned up empty. I looked behind the chair I was in, thinking that just maybe I could be rocking onto some poorly positioned toy and making it flash each time I rocked back on it. Nope, nothing there. Although the light was really bright when I turned my head back that direction, so it had to be something really close. Then, like an idiot, I finally realized what it was...I had forgotten to take my bluetooth out of my ear before entering a pitch black room and was seeing the blue standby light flashing and lighting up the entire room. Good grief. What a waste of brainpower.

Kyra Quote of the Day

From the living room, I hear Kyra call this out down the hall:

"Hey guys....? I'm in the bathroom all alone...can somebody come entertain me?"

I'm afraid the answer to that one is always going to be no.

I'm a slacker

I know it. Therefore, that makes it ok. To all of you who have been giving me a gentle nudge that has turned into a solid shove, sorry for not posting in a month. =) I've got a backlog of blogs in my head that I just haven't pounded out yet. I won't bombard you with 40 posts all at once, but here are a couple new ones for you. =)