A Brief Synopsis, or a Rambling Blather

School has begun. The summer was too short, and that first full day of school I sorely missed my two big school girls. It almost felt as though I'd been thrust back to those early baby days with no adults to talk with during the day, because even though they're only in grade school they can at least hold a conversation.

E1's teacher is an art-lover and likes to incorporate lots of art into their class work, which is just up E1's alley. She's also looking forward to girl scouts starting up again.

E2's teacher is just all-around-awesome, and E2 is all "Finally!" that she gets to go to school. Today is orange day, the last color of the Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? book that they've been reading and dressing along with as the days have passed. She punched her fist in the air this morning and said, "YES! Today I get homework! WOOHOO!" Tomorrow, she's the leader of the day and gets to bring a show & tell item. Friday is an early dismissal day and her class is putting on a nursery rhyme/color program for parents, grandparents, babysitters, etc. She's also having a good time with soccer. She makes noise about not wanting to go, but then has fun when she's there. Rob is coaching her team, and they've got two games under their belt so far.

E3 is relishing being the boss of the manor (HA!). Every morning when F arrives the two of them have to re-establish their hierarchy. I think I've seen too many episodes of The Dog Whisperer, or whatever that show is on National Geographic, because I've been mentally comparing them to dogs. They go through a little routine that could seriously be compared to the butt-sniffing and posturing of dogs. E3 seems to usually win out as the Alpha-dog - at least it seems that way, because F spends his day mimicking everything she does. On Monday, when she sneezed (for real), he fake-sneezed. It drives me a little crazy to hear every boop, blip, and word she utters repeated in echo form, but she seems to enjoy it and tries to see how long she can keep him going. When they finally get past this phase it won't be long before they're mimicking one another for the purpose of being annoying - that should be fun.

Her allergy blood test wasn't as low as we'd hoped, so we continue to keep the Epi-pen at the ready lest some renegade peanuts leap out at her when we least expect it.

E3 is also at 'GO' in the potty learning process as things have recently seemed to click for her, and she's been keeping herself dry and getting to the potty on time with great success. It all kicked in the day before my birthday last week, so I'm totally taking it to mean that she loves me so much that she's willing to big-girl up and ditch the diapers JUST FOR ME.

She and F watch Wonder Pets on Nick Jr each morning, and it serves as inspiration for their play the rest of the day. F is Tuck, E2 is usually Linny but sometimes she likes to change it up and be Ming Ming. Oh? You have no idea what the Wonder Pets are? It's a show about three classroom pets - Linny the Guinea Pig, Tuck the Turtle, and Ming Ming the Duckling who venture out into the world/universe, after everyone leaves their classroom, to save baby animals. They use teamwork, and always end each mission with a celery snack. So, E3 and F construct the "Fly Boat" out of various things, or declare the wagon or van their "Fly Boat", and they drag out piles of small stuffed animals and rescue them, all while calling one another Linny and Tuck. Sometimes E3 forgets and calls F by his name, to which he corrects, "I'm not F, I'm Tuck." Usually their snack is something other than celery, because after one taste F declared that he didn't like celery.

It sure beats the alternative, which is them pushing, shoving, not sharing, and shrieking and wailing over various perceived...whatevers that almost-three-year-olds perceive.

There are secret plans to camp by the pond at The Farm (a.k.a. WWR's Parent Company) should the weather cooperate.

We're making plans for E2's upcoming 6th birthday - she wants us to plan a surprise party..."I'll just play outside and then when it's time for the party I'll come in and you can all yell 'SURPRISE!'"

I'm getting the itch to start squirreling things away for Christmas, which means I should probably make a more concentrated effort to write down the gift ideas I have for the girls...and to remember to keep some of those ideas for myself.

Rob,as mentioned above, is coaching soccer, being a worker-bee for our humble village, and continuing to educate the world about the beauty of metal.

We're all wondering what is up with the Cardinals.

We leave for Hawaii in 5 months. I told both of the school teachers that we'd be gone during school time and neither one bitch-slapped me or called me crazy. E1's teacher seemed to be mentally flipping through the school calendar to determine that there won't be any conflicts (thinking of state testing, I'd guess). E2's teacher immediately asked if she could go too.

The ALS walk is coming up soon, and I just realized I never came back to announce our Team Name. It's Amy's Army: A Boot in the ALS. Our original thoughts were Amy's Army and Amy's Angels...then I suggested Amy's Army of Angels...but that night as I was brushing my teeth I had a vision of us walking dressed as Hell's Angels and decided that wearing leather while walking outdoors in Illinois' September weather would probably be hot and result in a lot of chafing. So, we went with Amy's Army, adding the boot comment to resemble 'a boot in the Ass', because we're clever like that.