The kids (and the parents, we'll admit to it) enjoy watching iCarly - a show on Nickelodeon about a girl, Carly, and her two friends who have a web show and all the wacky fun things that happen.  To add to the humor is Carly's older brother (who she lives with) who quite frankly, makes me look like quite the normal person. 

I'll admit it - I like the theme song.  Miriam and I go around singing it.  It gets stuck in my head...but in a good way.  Not in a bad way...oh, say...like the Dora the Explorer theme song, which makes me want to take a metal bat to my head. 

So here is the full version of the iCarly theme song - feel free to get it stuck in your head as well!

Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:49:45 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Summer has indeed arrived here.  Kids are out of school now, the temperatures have shot up, and we keep getting thunderstorms.  Not that we have anything to complain about - the worst of the storms have missed us.  We've only had a few downed branches and lost our Internet for a day. 

Last weekend was one of those interesting weekends.  Josh spent all Saturday building a pen for Lucky the Duck only for Sean to accidentally set Lucky free, who of course raced into the woods.  Sean was horrified, terrified for Lucky, and was so heartbroken, I had to promise him we would find the duck.  Amazingly, we did.  Collin spotted Lucky hiding and grabbed him.  All those years of grabbing a racing little hamster have paid off.

Right now the children are supposed to be working off the stuff I bought for them at Target yesterday.  This of course is involving lots of wandering back and forth, some drama on Miriam's part, and minor whining.  Ooo fun. 

Thursday, June 12, 2008 8:30:28 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Miriam is leaning over the duckling's container, singing the "Five Little Ducks" song.  She sings it to him daily. 

Lucky Duckling is doing well.  And after comaping baby duck pictures to baby goose pictures, we're certain he is a duck.  Thus, we don't have to change his name from Lucky Duck to Lucy Goosey. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 4:28:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

So it's Friday already.  Wow.  Fast week. 

Maura's officially five.  She had a fun birthday, loved getting to open presents that were for her, and actually getting to blow out all five candles (with some help.)  Her favorite gift has been the Wonder Pets Flyboat toy.  Miriam and Sean have been having fun with all the wooden playfood I got for Maura's kitchen...though Maura did feed some imaginary mac and cheese to a Wonder Pet.

Lucky the Duckling is still with us.  I spent an hour on Monday searching for duck food that did not come in a fifty pound bag.  I'm half Irish - buying that much duck food would ensure that he'd die the next day.  However, the feed store in the next town sold duck food by the pound.  So for eighty cents we left with a pound of duck food. 

The kids still love the duckling.  Josh and I have become mom and dad duck.  He's gotten pretty used to us to.  Oh sure, he tries to attack the Big Hand when it reaches into the cage to pick him up, but once in the Big Hand, he settles right down.  He likes napping on one of us as well. 

Of course, putting a duckling into the family mix has made for a couple interesting moments.  Like when Sean was cleaning out the duck bin, cut his finger, needed a band-aid, but meanwhile, I'm holding the duckling as the cat watches, trying to figure out what this peeping thing is, and Maura's smearing frosting on the storm door while trying to get outside. 

Yep, all normal.

Friday, May 23, 2008 7:58:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

Here she is, all big girl at school this morning.

Monday, May 19, 2008 9:34:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

In honor of Maura's birthday, this week's SotW is one of her absolute favorites - "The Old Black Rum" by Great Big Sea.

Yeah, there's nothing like having to explain to the preschool teacher that if your daughter happens to say "rum", it's because of her favorite song...uh...it's traditional music...really, we're not alcoholics.

FYI - the video is from the Great Big Sea CD/DVD set - which I highly recommend - and has the closing credits on it.

Monday, May 19, 2008 9:32:03 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

what?  You don't have a duck?

Okay, we didn't mean to get a duck.  We just found it.  A little duckling in a shopping center, all by his lonesome.  We searched around for parents, thought we actually found them at one point, but no suck luck.  Josh said our choices were to leave it there and hope it made it, or take it home.

Good thing we bought Collin new sandals today and had a shoebox handy.

He has been named Lucky...you know, Lucky Duck.

Sunday, May 18, 2008 7:19:56 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

You cannot keep your hair from your haircut to clone yourself.  We're Catholic  We don't clone.  Besides, if God wanted two of you Sean, you would have been twins.

Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:10:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1] 

Tonight, I made Maura a tutu and worked on the hedgehog I'm crocheting.  Yes, that's right, I'm crocheting a hedgehog.  Why?  Well, because it's cute!

"Empire Records" is on tv.  Love this movie.  Great music in it.  You've noticed I have a thing for music, have you?  How astute of you.

Ooo...I used a fancy word.  Astute.  I hope I spelled it right.  Twelve years of motherhood has taken me about twenty-four years away from that English degree I worked sort of hard for.  They say motherhood makes you smarter.  Well, it does.  Only in motherhood facts and arts.  The rest of your brain oozes out one ear from watching too much Nick Jr. Seriously, I often question what is considered "educational" children's programming.  I mean, how many times do we have to watch a guinea pig, a duckling and a little turtle save other baby animals who find themselves stuck in various places.  The trio sings a song, put a flying boat together, go from Maine to China in the space of several seconds, save the baby panda, eat some celery, and are back in their little cages within the course of fifteen minutes.  There, I've summed up every episode of "Wonder Pets" for you.

So why do I even let this on my television?  Because Maura laughs hysterically at them, loves Ming Ming Duckling and if you sing "What's gonna work?", she sings "Teaaaaaaaamwork."

Yes, motherhood has also lowered my "what amuses me" standards.  Not that those were very high to begin with.

I do sometimes feel like I'm getting dumber with age.  I used to write down quotes from Shakespeare, just because I thought they were good.  I found Russian history fascinating.  I had posters of Monet hanging off my walls.  Okay, in thnking about it, I haven't changed too much.  I still like a good quote.  I am still fascinated by Russian history.  I'm sitting under a Van Gogh knock-off. 

Change is inevitable.  You won't be the same person you were twelve years ago, children or not.  The other day though, I was reminded that the core of who I am hasn't changed too much, when I was picking violets in the yard.  I've always loved violets.  And music.  And kids.  And books.  And art.  Some things don't change I guess.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 11:11:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

This song takes me back to Oak Lawn, Illinois, 60453.  It's the town I grew up in.  I grew up in the big light blue house on 52nd Avenue.  Though it's no longer light blue. 

I loved that house.  Heck, even now I think it's a great house.  It had built-in bookcases, lots of windows, good closets.  It also had quirks like the former owners son's name carved here and there and the shelf in the upstairs bathroom that had been a window before the addition, which still had the window frame around it.  And the two attics, neither of which we ever managed to get into.  Oh sure, it also had mold in the bathroom and drafty windows and the basement that was great and scary at the same time.  But I've learned that no house is perfect...well, none I could afford.

I used to sit on the stairs and stare out the front door.  Watch it rain or just the cars go by.  I spent countless hours bursting out the back porch, down the stairs, out the gate, down the sidewalk.  We never really used the front door.  No one ever had a key for it. 

We moved into that house when I was 6 months old.  I left to go to college from it.  When I was twenty, we moved from it to a new house a few blocks away.  I would go back to Oak Lawn a lot to visit family, until they all moved away.  The last time I was in Oak Lawn, a few years ago, I realized that it had completely changed from the town I grew up in.  It was no longer that place.  Too much had changed, in both it and me. 

It was a great place to grow up, but as the song says, "Some had to leave it."  Turns out I was one of those who had to leave.  And it turns out, that was okay.

"Photograph" by Nickelback

Monday, May 12, 2008 10:26:17 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] 

#315 - You may not tie one end of the jump rope on the hand rail on the stairs and the other end around your waist.  I know what you're up to.  Don't try it. It will only cause you pain.

No, not Sean.  Miriam.

#316 - Please keep your feet off the wall.  I know you're just trying to see how far up the wall you can climb up with your back against the table Sean, but I don't want to clean off footprints from the wall.  Or worse, have to explain why there are footprints on the wall.

Saturday, May 10, 2008 10:32:11 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]