Not so curious about Curious George

Last Saturday I took both my girls - 16 years and 16 months - to the local mall to get their photo taken with Curious George, who was there for a promotional reading event. While Madeline would point excitedly to the large monkey when we were standing in line, her curiousity ended when she got near him. She buried her face in her sister's shoulder. It was a miracle I got a photo of her facing toward the camera.

Crazy girl.

It's shaping up to be a great week

So I was asked this week by my editor if I'd like to become editor of HealthWatch, our quarterly health magazine - and I jumped at the chance.

I'm starting to get pretty excited about it, actually. I don't have much layout experience, but I'm thrilled to get the chance to learn more. I have been writing for HW for years and I do enjoy writing health-related features. Actually, in a former life I think I was a doctor because, thanks to my buddy, Mr. Google and his nurse, Ms. WebMD, I love, love, LOVE diagnosing people and their various ailments.

I've decided to "go green" for my inaugural edition, featuring environmentally-friendly health-related stories. Should be fun.

And today I found out I won a cool children's book from Frantic Mommy. 

Awesome.

Sweet 16

Whenever someone asks me about my daughters, I inevitably get the same response:

"Wow, that is quite the age gap!"

Um, yeah. I realize that.

My girls are 15 years apart. When we've been out and Erika is carrying Madeline, people often think she is her baby. She's usually not too thrilled about this, either. Last fall when we were school shopping, Erika brought Maddy with her into a shoe store while I was paying for something in a nearby shop in the mall. The sales clerk asked Erika if she could help her find shoes for her daughter. Erika quickly informed her that she's her little sister and no, she was shopping for shoes for herself. I can just picture the look of horror on her face. When I walked into the store she quickly handed Maddy off to me so she could find shoes in her size.

On Monday both my girls will be Sweet 16.

Madeline turns 16 months tomorrow and Erika is 16 years. I'm not sure if their ages sort of match up like this again in their lives but to me, it's worth commemorating. I've having my husband take some nice photos of them together. I'll post them here if I can. Sometimes Erika's hard to pin down. She's playing Mrs. Darling in our community theater's production of "Peter Pan," and she's very active in speech, in addition to taking college and online courses at her high school. She's rarely home and when she is, she's doing homework before she goes to bed.

Madeline adores her big sis and always cries when Erika leaves for school or, like tonight, when she's watching a movie with her boyfriend downstairs. Ugh.

A couple friends of mine recently asked me how I deal with the whole dating scene with my teen daughter, since their daughters are preteens now and really, like I told them, I have no good advice on that. I hate it. It drives me crazy knowing that they're making out in my basement.

But she's a high school junior and in 1-1/2 years she'll be away at college. I've got to allow her to date, be with her friends and basically have to trust her. She's a good kid and actually, her boyfriend is a nice guy.

Fortunately  I have plenty of time to worry about Madeline making out with her boyfriend in our basement.

My girls' age difference wasn't planned but I think they may be spaced out perfectly. I had long forgotten how painful childbirth was when I had Maddy, and by the time Maddy's 16 (years, not months), I'll have forgotten how painful these teen years are. Shoot, I'll probably have Alzheimers by then I'll be so old. :-))

It's a win-win, really.

Message from above

So I was at a local, friendly neighborhood grocery store - one of my faves - yesterday to pick up some whole milk and fruit for Madeline on my drive home from work. I walked quickly by the aisles since it was after 7 p.m. and I wanted to get home.


As I was thinking about what other types of food I should get for Maddy I look above and saw this sign:

I found out exactly what our baby needed, right in Aisle 5.

Baby Needs Candy.

So I got some gummy worms. For me. 

'Cause Momma Needs Candy, too.

Fishing with Grandpa

Nels took Maddy down to the Norquist Clan fishhouse - the Taj Mahal of all fishhouses - to see if my dad was catching anything Friday. This fishhouse, which is owned by my husband, his two brothers and their cousin, is huge. It has a stove, Lazy Boy recliner, couch, CD player and speakers, etc.

Maddy had so much fun! She loved holding the fishing pole and got mad when anyway tried to take it away, I guess. Plus, she liked playing with the minnow bucket, swirling the scoop around the bucket. Nels had to take it away when she tried to lick the scoop...so gross.

But my little girlie had lots of fun with her grandpa and daddy and I know she'll be hanging out in the fishhouse with them for many years to come!