Mary Elizabeth (a/k/a Michigan J. Frog)

Do you remember the Looney Tunes episode where the man finds the frog in a box, the frog gets up and does a whole routine of singing, dancing and entertaining, so the man, seeing hoards of money in his future, rents out a theater, sets up an opening night and takes his frog to perform? The frog is perched and ready and the curtains open up and the frog promptly sits on the stage and says "ribbit". This is what Mary Elizabeth is like.

When we are in the car, or at home with just the family she chatters on and on.

In the car

M.E. -- Mommy, there's the choo choo train. Daddy is on the choo choo train. Can I go on the choo choo train, too; bye, bye choo choo train.

When I come back in to the room after doing something, anything else around the house:

M.E. -- Mommy, where you been? Can I go with you? I want to help, I need to see

and so on and so on. She always lets us know what she wants, what she is thinking and what she has to say.

When we go somewhere and anyone tries to talk to her: "ribbit"

I'm afraid people are going to start thinking my daughter is mute (no, I promise, that is just the cat). She will smile pretty, point, nod, and act coy but hardly a word! And the worst part, she has an amazing vocabulary. Sometimes I cannot believe the things she comes up with, but no one will believe me unless I get her on tape, because all I can get out of her in public is, basically, "ribbit"

Family of entertainers

Apparently the need to entertain runs in our family. This past fall Jason participated in the Montgomery County Honors Orchestra -- what a wonderful experience for him and a night of very fine music for us;

Mallorie is getting ready for this year's junior high musical -- it is next weekend. She is Peasant #2 and has some small solo parts;

This past Christmas season Mary Elizabeth's pre-school did a "Dancing with the Littlest Stars" production. There was really quite a lot of work that went in to the planning and execution of this event which featured children of all agest from about 16 months up to 12 years singing and dancing their little hearts out. Each class did two numbers with complete costumes and the whole bit. It was really quite a lot of fun.

Hannah...

The many wants of Hannah

So, for many, many months, perhaps even years, Hannah has asked for a pet in the form of a hamster or a guinea pig. Now, please understand that for most of this period we already had in our house not only five and then six people, but also two dogs and two cats with one of the cats being a rodent assassin. I explained to Hannah that bring home a hamster, or even a guinea pig, would just be unfair to the rodent who would either die of fright, or actually be hunted and murdered by the cat. In addition, it would be just teasing the cat who I’m sure would have viewed the rodent as being similar to the lobsters in a tank at a seafood restaurant, and who could blame him.

At any rate, we are now down to one dog and one cat in the house (and one who only comes in once in a while) and the rodent assassin has apparently moved in with another family. I still have said no to the guinea pig, because the one dog we still have gets such a kick out of chasing the cat, that I’m sure the guinea pig still would have not chance. So, the other day Hannah announces to me that she no longer wants a guinea pig.

Okay, I know something else is coming, I don’t even have to ask. Nor do I have to wait long to hear what’s coming next.

H – "I want a pot-belly pig!"

Oh brother

Mornings...

There are six people in our house. There is one bathroom. That really could be the preface to so many of the stories of our lives.

Our normal (if there is such a thing) days is something like this.

5:25 a.m. – P’s alarm clock starts to go off – followed by a varying number of hits on snooze.
6:00 ish a.m. – P gets up, has coffee, attempts to shake cobwebs from head and begin day – take a shower.

Now, I try to get in and out of the shower before I need to wake the kids at 6:30. I try to get up on time so that I don’t look like a headless chicken getting ready to leave.

After shower (this varies by what time I actually got up, what time I actually got in the shower and how long a shower I took) – P gets dressed, makes baby’s lunch, wakes up baby, dresses baby, tries to do something to hair and face (remember to brush teeth); have son start car; rush out of house before making everyone late for school (7:15-7:20)

Drive older kids to high school and then junior high, back track and drive back by the house, (wave) drop baby off at day care, back track and arrive at train station in enough time to park, pay parking and stand on platform before train whooshes by.

From there most of the rest of the day is a breeze – take the train to work, work all day, catch a train home and enter the madness that is my homelife in the evening.

Now, let’s just think about what happens if P oversleeps by, say, 25 minutes or so, then let us add to the mix dear husband who normally sleeps until well after P has left with older kids, but on this day of the oversleep decides to catch the train just prior to P’s train – on a day such as this consideration is given to sharing showers, digging an outhouse and even head clubbing.

One should not mess with the existing morning routine, as it is barely hanging by a thread as it is.

Misc...

Frequently I wonder if there is a hidden camera in my home, kind of like the movie The Truman Show because someone MUST be getting a good laugh by watching my life. Sometimes it just causes me to scratch my head and go hmmmm.

Last week the girls traded off being sick. Mallorie first, then Hannah. Mind you, the day after Mallorie stayed home from school Hannah woke up and let me know she had been sick through the night.

H - "I got sick last night. I don’t want to go to school."

Now, as far as I am concerned, the three older children are each old enough and responsible enough to determine how they feel. Each one of them likes going to school, so there is no attempts at skipping school from any of them. They are good students and participate in things at school that require them to attend, so my "Only you can determine whether or not you are sick enough to stay home" is certainly not abused. So, back to Hannah.

I got three calls between the time I left with the older kids (7:20 a.m.) and the normal departure time for Hannah (8:15 a.m.) I’m going to school, I’m not going to school, I’m going to school. At the time of the first call I told her – only you know how you are feeling, but if you do not feel well, stay home. I do not want to get a call at work telling me that you don’t feel well and I have to come home (from the city) to get you from school. I was quite clear about that, I thought. Free pass, mom approves, STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK.

Needless to say, Hannah starts school at 8:50 a.m. – I got the call at 9:41 a.m.

"Mrs. Keys, this is the health suite at Copper Beech Elementary. I have Hannah here, she threw up in the bathroom."

UGH!!!!! Urge to strangle!!! Now mom gets to scramble and find a way for Hannah to get home from school without me having to (1) take an entire day off work, thereby losing a vacation or personal day; (2) spending two hours back and forth to go home, get Hannah and try to get back. Just as I thought for sure I would have to jump the next train I reach Kevin as he was walking out the door and he was ale to get Hannah before he caught a train. Whew.

This drama, however, did not stop Hannah from calling me at about 3:45 p.m. to ask if she could walk to the mini-mart with her friends. NO!!!! If you were sick enough to have to come home from school you will stay in. You’re lucky I’m not making you stay in your bed!

First Crush

One might think that because I have teenagers, this post would be about one of them, no, you would be wrong. Apparently Mary Elizabeth has her first crush. Today our computer guy from work came out to my house to set up all the computers in my house on a wireless network. I know I probably should have been able to do it myself, but the best way to make sure it is done right is to have a professional do it, right? So anyway, Alan came out to set us up. Well, Mary Elizabeth, who tends to be rather shy around strangers, and even some people she has known for quite some time, took to him in a New York minute. "Where's Alan?" she kept asking. When I made lunch she wanted to make sure that there was a sandwich to take to Alan and, now here is the kicker, she announced as Alan was almost done "I'm going home with Alan." WOW! This is the same kid who will hardly let anyone else other than her parents and siblings even hold her. Luckily for me, Mary Elizabeth had fallen asleep for a nap before Alan finished and was still sleeping when he left and I didn't have to try to explain to her why it really would not work for her to go home with Alan, otherwise who knows what kind of fit we may have experienced. It was quite cute and I'm sure I'll never convince Alan that Mary Elizabeth is shy, and I'll probably never convince anyone who has experience her that Mary Elizabeth was ready to leave us all to go home with someone else.

She never stops surprising us.