Rare Footage

If anyone out there can explain this footage, please reply.  It appears to be that these two sisters are cooperating all for the good of the smaller one.  I have heard of this in other families and seen movies where this happens, but wouldn't have believed it to be true, except I witnessed it with my own two eyes.        

Smell the Blubonnets

 http://www.youtube.com/embed/FhNrrrCCTdA

I have been joking around that I feel a mid-life crisis coming on as I approach the big 40.  To clarify, I am not longing for carefree, kid-free days and I'm not plotting to buy a sports car and I'm not wishing for anything different than my current state.   In fact, my life is so much happier, and just plain better, than it was in my teens and twenties.  What I am missing these days is life with a baby in the house.  Oh sure, if you'd of asked me about baby-life back then, I would have probably complained about diaper changing, sleep deprivation, lack of adult conversations, and all the things that can wear a mama down.  But I feel like I blinked one day and now it's all over.  What happened?  Where are my little babies?                              
                                                  


  

These pictures were taken right before we moved to Oklahoma so Madi must have been 5 and Mo was 2 and a half.  We had sold our house and had been living in a small two bedroom apartment for over a year.  The worst part of this togetherness was  when a virus made its way through the family.  The best part was everthing else.  We did not have home remodeling projects distracting us, we did not have stressful jobs, and we did have a beautiful pool, that someone else cleaned. 


The focus of most days was to just get up
and watch them wonder at the world. 






       

But life is about change, right?  Oh Stevie Nicks you were dead on: 


      Can I sail through the changing ocean  
      tides?
      Can I handle the seasons of my life?
      Well, I've been afraid of changing
      'Cause I've built my life around you
      But time makes you bolder
      Even children get older and I'm getting
      older too...




I guess it's about acceptance and gratitude.  I must accept that a field of bluebonnets will probably no longer blow their minds and that Dad's games of airplane, clown dance, and pirate are in the past. 




And I must be thankful for every fleeting moment, because one day soon, I will look back and long for the sweet days of their childhood again.    

Chico and the Man

Chico dropped into our lives on Mother's Day 2011.  Mollie and I were drinking sweet tea on the sun porch, enjoying the view of the neighbors manicured lawn when we saw a falling mammal of some sort and then heard a dreaded thud.  I knew the animal had to be dead and decided to break the news to our dear neighbors as they were coming in from church.  "Hey John, something fell out of your tree, and it's laying on your lawn - maybe it's a squirrel?"  


We all came together to check out the little brown fur ball, and surprisingly, he started to wobble around.  More surprisingly, he went straight to John and crawled up on his boot.  It was a baby squirrel and his nest was located at the very top of one of the tallest trees in all of B'ville.  How the little guy was even alive after a fall like that had us all thinking it was a Mother's Day Miracle.  And it was obvious he thought that John was his new mama.  This left our neighbor in an interesting dilemma as he explained how he had witnessed a squirrel rip up his patio furniture cushions in order to make the very nest from which Chico fell.  To "thin the herd" or to save Chico, that is the question.  Along with many, many, more questions: 


Aren't squirrels naturally afraid of humans?  Will his mama come get him if we leave him alone?  Could he have brain damage?  Do you smell something?  At our house, when we have a situation full of perplexing questions, we girls will get on-line, or begin long conversations about what we think we remembered from Discovery Channel.  However, The Man goes to his garage.  When he emerged, he had on his leather gloves.  He picked Chico up and decided that he would put him back on his tree to see if he could climb up to his nest and advised that we should all leave and give Chico a chance to call out for his mama. 


The day continued with everyone, but mainly Mollie, watching and waiting and hoping little Chico will somehow be saved.  He climbed about half way up at one point, but the next thing we knew he was curled up right under the tree, trying to take a nap.  Mollie was obsessed with him and her entire day was spent trying to feed him milk (a big no-no, we found out later), and petting him with a stick, and worrying over him.  


As the day was coming to a close, we felt sorry for Chico.  He would not make it through the night with all the hawks and raccoons around here.  What to do?  The Man decided it was only decent to put him in our empty rabbit cage for the night, and maybe by morning he would "get his feet under him."  


By morning, Chico was declining and by the time we got home from school, Chico had passed.  Mollie took it harder than expected, but planning a funeral for him seemed to slowly shake her out of her funk.  Some tears were shed over who gets the honor to do which part.  Just like any funeral - emotions ran high.  MC insisted on being the one to stick him in the hole, right after her sister spent a good half hour digging it. But in the end, it was all worth it.  Chico has a nice brick tombstone and is buried under the trampoline next to a frog that we used to know.


RIP Chico...

Name That Tune

I have heard every song on Madi's I Tunes and am baffled by what this is supposed to be.  So glad I found it on the Flip and am now curious what other videos Mollie-Claire has produced.  Love that she obviously had applied her bright red lipstick, and then decided to tone it down a bit for the video.  I think it's safe to say that a singing career is not in her future. 

Softball, on the other hand, is looking pretty bright these days.  She went to  Camp today (as if she had a choice) and hung in there with the big kids.  Even got a strawberry from sliding and took care of it all on her own.  At one point, we were on a break, and I asked the kids to say their first name, a food they like, and a place that starts with the same letter.  As it neared Mollie's turn, she said, "I've got the best one," and then gave me a smile that said she could not believe no one has thought of this place. 

She proudly announced: 

Mollie ~ Mac & Cheese ~ Merica 

(as in the good ol' U S of A) 

http://youtu.be/VDSCy4-tnZI

UPDATE: Thanks to my all knowing-Disney loving friend,

she easily "named that tune." 

Click the link above to compare these two videos....I still prefer MC Hamer's.