I Feel the Earth Move, Under My Feet

Okay, so it wasn't so much under my feet that I felt the Earth move as it was under my butt since I was already in bed.  But the point is we had an earthquake, and I felt it.

I was lying in bed with Maggie watching the debacle known as the Oscars when I felt my bed start to move.  I thought it was strange and honestly, the first thought maybe my house was haunted.  Yes, that is where my mind went first when the house and bed started to move: rather than the obvious process that would lead me to realize we were having an earthquake, particularly since we live super close to the New Madrid Fault line, I went with the haunted house option.

In my (meager) defense, I  was scarred by watching Nightmare on Elm Street at a Halloween party when I was in fourth grade- you know the one, where Freddy Kruger is under the water bed and stabs Johnny Depp up through the mattress- and have since been afraid that a ghost would attack me in the same way.

But then Keary came downstairs and said "Did you feel that?  That wasn't wind.  My computer and computer chair were just swaying and moving on their own."  So I hopped on twitter to see if anyone was saying anything about it, but they weren't yet.  Keary and I had already come to the conclusion of EARTHQUAKE!, but sometimes it is good to have the confirmation of twitter.

Now I am thinking that we need an emergency plan and supply kit.  Not just knowledge that we have plenty of first aid supplies upstairs and enough of canned goods in the pantry but an honest to God kit and plan.  Do you have one?  What all does it include?
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The photo challenge at I Heart Faces this weeks was Anything but a Face.  Almost all of the pictures I take include faces, but I found this one of Maggie from September.  I love the chubby baby legs and arms, how she is balancing and still a little wobbly, and her shadow stretching in front of her.

Shopping with kids

I don't know what happened this week.  It feels like it flew by, and I don't think I have gotten a single productive thing done.  The piles of laundry and messy house confirm the barely anything has been done.  I'll play catch-up and get almost there, then do it all over again next week.  
Keary's birthday is tomorrow, so the girls and I went shopping today.  *See above, I haven't been on top of things this week. I asked the girls what they wanted to get him.  Gwendolyn shouted "socks!"  I tried to steer her to other ideas.  "Can we go look at girl toys?"  "We are shopping for your daddy," I reminded her.
You see where we wound up though: Maggie looking at leapfrog toys and Gwendolyn looking at princess stuff.  It is hard to shop for others when you are a kid.  It isn't that you don't want to get them anything, there is just so much other stuff at the store tempting you.
Honestly, I was surprised when we made it out of there with only the headset gift for Keary... There were a few thing I was eyeing for myself.  I can't very well set an example about how to shop for someone else for the girls though if we come out of the store with more stuff than me than the birthday boy.

Maggie, the scavenger

Maggie doesn't care much for Gwendolyn going to school.  Gwendolyn being gone means Maggie's partner and playmate is gone for the day.  We had hoped that her going to school would entice Maggie to start talking, but for the most part, all it has meant is Maggie is a little extra clingy and only wants me to hold her the entire time Gwendolyn is gone to school.  Luckily, she is only gone two days a week and one of those days, Maggie has a standing date of story-time at the library.

Maggie waits for time to go get Gwendolyn. I can ask if she is ready to go and she will hop off my lap and try to leave.  Then when we get in the car, she grunts and points at Gwendolyn's car seat, making sure I know who is missing out of the car and where we are headed.  Once Gwen gets in the car, the girls hoop and laugh and dance all the way home.

You might think as soon as we get home, the girls would start playing.  I mean, clearly, Maggie has missed Gwendolyn terribly all day.  No.

As soon as Gwendolyn sets her backpack down, Maggie runs at it and pulls her lunch box out.  It seems Maggie is part scavenger.  She pilfers and eats the rest of whatever Gwendolyn leaves in her lunch box.

I feed her I swear.  Most days we even eat for lunch the same thing I have sent Gwendolyn.  It must just taste better if it is out of a princess lunch box that her big sister has broken in for her at school earlier in the day.

I don't have a picture of her scavenging so here is one from Halloween when she was a gnome.

Dental appointments and backwards pants

I took Gwendolyn to the dentist today and she was given a clean bill of health: no cavities and clean teeth (not going to lie, the clean teeth surprised me.  It feels like a constant battle to get her to brush her teeth and not just walk around with the toothbrush in her mouth.)  Yay!  The staff bragged on how well she behaved too, so I was pretty proud.

While we were there, I looked down at her and saw her pants were on backwards.  Obviously backwards. Slit pockets on her hiney kind of backwards.  Nothing to do about it there then though. And it wasn't hurting her, so no reason to say anything out loud to her and risk embarrassing her.

I sent Keary a message and his response was "Yeah, she was bragging this morning that her pants didn't have any buttons or snaps this morning.  I thought that sounded funny."  I probably would have checked or looked at the pants after that proclamation, but that is me.  I think it is a fine example of the differences between moms and dads: dads nod and go on, while moms check things out further.

At the end of the day, the backwards pants didn't hurt anything though.  Gwendolyn has clean, healthy teeth. And the dental hygienist gave her a little timer to help with the "Mo-om, how much longer do I have to brush my teeth?!"