For the last two weeks our modem has been in its death throws. It could only last about 10 minutes before dying a horrible death. Do you have any idea how hard is it to regulate your internet access to 10 minutes a day? This weekend, Kevin got it fixed (with a little help from Comcast) and we are back on-line. Yes.

During this internet blackout, I’ve been trying to explain to Leina that Halloween is over. Her sense of time isn’t so hot. When I tell her we have to wait a year until next Halloween, she thinks about that and says, “so, we can go on Friday?” I’ve trying showing her a calendar and explaining days and weeks but she just gives me this squinty look and tells me to stop teasing her.

So, to distract her from halloween, I decided to wave the flag of Christmas.

“Halloween is over honey. Now it’s time for Christmas! You need to start thinking about what you want to ask Santa for.” All thoughts of trick-or-treating were instantly wiped from her mind and visions of sugar plums danced in her head. She mulled the concept of Santa over in her mind for a while and then, last week on our way to Safeway, she announced the following.

“Mommy, I know what I want from Santa. I’ve been a very good girl, you know, and I have this great idea! I think Santa should bring me… a pair…. of…. SCISSORS! Do you think he will? I reeeeealy reeeeealy want some scissors!”

I was dumbfounded. She could ask for anything from Santa and she wanted scissors? I tried explaining that she might be shooting a bit low but nothing would dissuade her. She was adament. All she wanted from Santa was a pair of scissors. Amazed and bemused, I took her down the school supply aisle at Safeway and picked out a pair of kid scissors and handed them to her. Her eyes grew wide, she began wiggling with happiness, clutched the scissors to her chest and began beaming joy at me declaring “this is the best day ever!!!” For the next few days, she was a scissors maniac. She snipped, she cut, she loved every minute of her new toy.

And then it happened.

On Friday, she came downstairs and announced she had cut her pony’s hair. I expected to see strands of pink or orange My Little Pony hair clasped in her hands. But while she held plenty of shorn locks in her hands, they were not neon. Oh no, they were brown. Curly brown hair. My first thought was, “where did we get a brown horse toy from?” That thought was quickly wiped from my mind as my eyes rose from her hands…. to her head. Yes, the “pony” in question was not of the My Little variety. No, the hair in her hands had come from her own head.

The whole left side of Leina’s head was shorn. As far as I could tell, she grabbed chunks of her own hair and snipped and snipped and snipped. The mound of beautiful curly locks where her very own. She had butchered her own hair.

I was stunned. First astonished silence. Then I fell off my chair laughing. Through the tears, I tried to explain to a very puzzled 3 year old that you NEVER NEVER NEVER cut your own hair. Leina processed this and then asked me…

“What about cutting sister’s hair?”

“Did you cut Kulia’s hair?!?!” I asked with panic in my voice.

“Just a little,” Leina replied, “and she was very good. She sat very still and didn’t cry or anything.”

Kulia trotted around the corner at this point and low and behold, her bangs were noticably shorter on one side. After a long talk and a visit to the hair cutters, Leina has learned a very valuable lesson and is sporting a nice layered looked; scissors are only for cutting paper. And I learned that a 3 year old and sharp scissors should not be left unsupervised. Ever.

Halloween was a success. Peter Pan had everything but his belt. Tinkerbell had some rockin’ last minute wings. They also had runny snotty noses so there wasn’t much trickortreating. Sigh. I did get a bunch of pictures and some great video of the two of them playing together in costume. Beyond adorable.

But this weekend, I am cutting the strings. Kulia is 16 months old now and this weekend will be our first day apart. Yes, that’s right. For the last 16 months, I have spent every single day with Kulia. Leina we have farmed out to various relatives for sleepovers as needed. But not Kulia. She has stayed with me. Until now. Until tomorrow. For tomorrow, I hit the road with Kat for a much needed girl’s weekend. We are heading for the coast with the dogs and a car full of craft supplies and leaving the men-folk and small children behind.

Heaven!

Peter Pan is finished.

Tinkerbell is done except for the wings.

It is 9:30pm on October 30th and instead of diligently finishing off those darn fairy wings, I am here, surfing the net and wasting time.

Why?

Why is it that the final 10% of a project is so hard to do? It’s like I get the bulk done and thing, “phew, that was fun, what’s next..oh wait, I still have the finishing touches left. Grrr.” I don’t know what I have against the finishing touching but that last push just kills me. I have spent weeks and weeks and hours and hours over these costumes and now that the end is so near, I’m totally out of enthusiasm.

Do you think anyone would notice that Tink lost her wings tomorrow night?

Ok, ok, I’m going. But that kid better look back on the pictures of this Halloween and MARVEL of the exquisite craftsmanship if her fairy dress.

Bring on the candy ’cause I’m ready to kiss this holidy good-bye!

(Ooooh, did I mention all the very cool Thanksgiving projects I have lined up? Did I? Did I?)

I’m in over my head.

For whatever reason, things have gone crazy. I don’t do real well with changes. I like my routine. I like being about to predict what the next day holds. Unfortunately, my children seem to enjoy thwarting my nice routine. They insist on growing and changing and demanding new and interesting adventures. Drat them.

So, since last we met, Kulia has weaned completely and totally dropped her morning nap. One week she slept in the moring, then the next, nada. Gone. She’d look at me like, “nap? moi? please mom, morning naps are so 13 months old.” All I can say is thank god for Sesame Street. Now I park them both on the sofa with cups of milk and grapes for an hour and let the folks on The Street raise my children. I must say, they do a smashing good job.

Leina has potty trained during her awake hours. She’s in a big girl bed and free to stroll in and out of her room at will. This basically sucks. Convincing her to a) take a nap and b) take it when I say so is becoming harder and harder. We have yet to tackle diaper free naps but I figure lets rock one boat at a time, shall we?

Kevin has transfered into a new group at work and boy howdy is he working. And working. And working. And working. Did I mention the working? Add to that the first official cold of the fall season and you have a house in turmoil.

So, yeah, that’s where things lie right now. I have yet absorbed all of these changes into my life but I’m workng on it. I’m sure by the time I get used to this chaos my off-spring will devise some new coup to drive me crazy. Thank goodness they are the cutest children EVER. EVER.

I’ve just finished packing up most of our stuff for our trip home. I can’t believe how much we did and how quickly the time flew by. It was definately nice to have one last summer vacation before heading into fall. I think the girls are ready to go home. The were little troopers while here but lately Leina has been moaning about missing Artie. Dad? Not so much. Stupid dog who doesn’t deserve all the precious baby love wasted on him? A lot. I’m already getting mild panic attacks at the idea of having to restrain Kulia for two whole hours. Ugh. Maybe I’ll head to the drug store and pick up some baby Benadryl to “help” her sleep on the plane. Of course, with my luck she’ll be one of those strange kids who has an adverse reaction and gets even more hyper than she already is. Sigh.

Just think, at this time tomorrow, I’ll be home. I’ll be unpacking, and petting the dog, and trying to figure out something to make for dinner. It almost seems unreal. I hope a few of my tomatoes survived my absence. I have a barely started Halloween costume lurking in the craft room and I need to retire the tank tops and pull out the jeans. Back to the daily grind.

Home sweet home, here we come!

We had a fabulous visit with Uncle Dan and Auntie Suzy. The kids did great on the long drive down to SD and we arrived Friday afternoon ready to rumble. Leina, Sammy and Daniel were just perfect together. They all played and romped and enjoyed each other. Kulia? Well, she did a great job as the baby of the group. She toddled after them, determined to keep up, and managed to get in their way as all younger cousins do. Leina and Sammy weren’t too happy with her and I can’t really blame them. That kid can be a real pest.

But Daniel’s reaction to Kulia surprised me. Normally, Daniel likes his space but with Kulia, he seemed to make an exception. He let her crawl all over him, paw his face, and snuggle close. He sang her lullabies, stroked her cubby cheeks, and spoke to her in his sweet little voice. If only Leina would love her like that!

Sammy introduced Leina to the idea of “spies” and “bad guys” and she spent most of the weekend running around with Sammy shooting things. Daniel shared his Legos and all I could think of was, “too bad Kevin isn’t here”. Daniel has dozens of Star War lego ships constructed and is always willing to sit with you and build more.

Saturday morning, we grabbed the kids and headed to the Coronado ferry which took us over to Seaport Village where we rode the merry go round and ate ice cream. Nana Walls joined us for the adventure and the kids were totally wiped by the end. Undaunted, we woke Sunday morning and drove them all over to the SD Zoo where we walked and walked until we found the Spectacle Bear for Leina. There was no way we could see the whole zoo so we did our best and ended at the petting zoo. Leina ran right in to pet the sheep, pig and goat. She was doing great, until….

Did you know that goats will eat anything? Even, it turns out, little girls?

Yes, Leina was petting a particularly large goat who suddenly decided to try a bite of her skirt. He must have liked what he tasted because in a heart beat, he had pulled her over onto the ground and had begun pulling off her skirt when Uncle Dan came to the rescue. He had to forcible remove the skirt from the goat and by then, Leina was in tears. Of course, the rest of us where crying too…. from our laughter. Luckily, Auntie Suzy had an extra pair of shorts so all was well. The girls sacked out on the drive back to LA from the zoo. There were no major injuries, no hurt feelings, or melt downs. What a wonderful visit!

Today, Papa and Tutu are taking Leina back to Disneyland for one last hurrah. Tomorrow we pack our bags, and Thursday we head home. I think we are just in time because lately, Leina has been saying she misses Artie and wants to go home. Also, Kulia has pretty much destroyed Papa. I don’t think he can take much more of sister and her troublesome ways. He pretty much follows her around the house trying to stop her from destroying everything she lays her hands on.

But, we managed to squeeze everything we wanted in to these two weeks. Last night, Leina asked me if we could take the kitchen home with us. I told her no and she seemed quite disappointed. Where does she get these ideas? I don’t know if Kevin is ready for our return. I just hope he’s gotten lots of sleep ’cause I’m about to release Thing 1 and Thing 2 on him. Poor guy!