what a day.

 so i held onto my statement from the last post & did a little knitting. turns out i remember how to do it all but my neck & shoulders were screaming at me after just 20 minutes...which was fine with adeline b/c she just wanted me to finish this scarf i started for her a year ago. she was so overjoyed about it, when i did the last stitch, tied it & put it around her neck. she didn't want any fringes or other fancy-sparkly yarn attached to it like i had planned. she said she wanted a short scarf that her mommy made for her. so here it is, a very short scarf indeed!

 but look at that proud smile! she's worn it every day since then...

& here was last friday at this house of ours--4 kids, just me. it was crazy! i think i'll try to keep all other play dates on days when the nannied baby boy isn't here. not that anyone in particular made things bad, it was just crazy. but fun! all the kids played well together & *wow* do these little girls love a real baby hanging around.

amelia dressed up as a busy woman in blue on her cell phone. everytime she imitates talking on the phone she sticks her hip way out--sassy.

 & yea, at this point, amelia picks out her clothes...half pajamas (top) half not (bottoms). this little creature still fits into her 12-18 month pants; however, she looks like she's ready for a flood (too tall for them). but maybe it's more that she loves them so much that every time i put them in the 'too small' bag, she finds them in her stealth clothing-recovery missions to the basement, puts them on & wears them proudly. yep, just a wee bit stubborn.

so i've taught adeline how to play go fish & she loves the game. we play at least once a day, sometimes more. but this, folks, is a picture of her beating me. she's a card shark...it drives me crazy! i have to *cheat* to beat my 4 year old in go fish. she will just totally ask for the card i just drew...then if i happen to not have it, she'll suddenly sort through the face down cards in the fish pond & pull out what she just asked for. so our next vacation destination: VEGAS! they let young kids on the gambling floors with their parents, right? i'm thinking college fund...

***

which brings us to yesterday. the day of snow! (we only got 5 inches or so, though...but it's still snowing!) it was a day of the nannied baby boy (somehow he was only here for less than 2 hours though), a fun mommy play date with my friend from college & her 4 month old, then amelia's first ever swim class & addy's first ever ballet class. the girls were SO EXCITED SO EXCITED SO EXCITED for the classes to start.

addy's first words the past 2 days at school included her shouting 'my dance class starts tomorrow/today' & ending with her doing a pirouette for everyone. i'm not sure how she's picked up the ballet moves--except on the youtube videos we've shown her.

the thing is, i scheduled the girls in their classes on the same night thinking it would be easier to just divide & conquer on the same evening: wes takes amelia swimming & i take addy to her ballet class. the classes are half an hour apart, in different buildings within 10 minutes of each other. & it worked!

here's the girls waiting for amelia's class to start.

 so cute, eh? amelia in her bathing suit, addy in her very cute leotard & tutu (she picked it out--thank god for the used kids store nearby, eh?! the tutu was only $4! but sadly is only to be hand washed ??!)

 the super swimming daddy-man with the super excited swimmer

amelia apparently giggled & squealed, smiling through the entire class.

so then adeline & i dart across westerville to her class. i park in the wrong parking lot, the side of the building where the employees park, not the guests. who knew there was a difference?! so the door was locked, we banged on it for a few minutes & then a kind parent came to open it for us (key info to know in the next part of this long day)

then it is all dance class excitement. we were early yet addy still was bounding in her chair while i took her boots off & put the slippers from grandma sue on (they are silk ?? & red & perfect & allowed me not to spend outrageous amounts of money on ballet slippers). immediately addy went into the room--where parents aren't allowed! what?! so all the parents took turns peeking into the room. this is the best picture i could get! *sniff, sniff*

addy is in the middle, behind another girl--you can see addy's tutu puffing out around the other girl *smile*

(okay, so all parents except the mom of the girl who was terrified of the class in general. since addy was all jabbering away & dancing & then listening closely to her teacher, i didn't see the need to push my luck with the teacher). 

the class was half an hour. we were in & out within 40 minutes for sure. so we walk to the parking lot where no one else is by now (it was right beside the library, so not this creepy, unlit parking lot--it had many lights & is not in a remote area at all, just some info on that :o) & i open addy's car door & then my car door & SMOKE IS POURING OUT! thick, black smoke, in the car. *sigh*

i was totally stunned. addy was already jumping into her seat & i yanked her out. i noticed it was mostly coming from the front so i reached in & pulled my seat heater plug out of the cigarette lighter but i still couldn't tell where the smoke was coming from. so i call wes, coughing but calm & tell him the story. he's there in 10 minutes--addy is freezing cold (the door was locked behind us to the building-bummer) & addy is freaking out in general, ya know, smoke in the car. i somehow was pretty calm aside from the coughing from the smoke (i had to to dive in to grab her beloved teddy bear.

anyway, wes figured out that it was the actual heater, not the lighter attachment that caused the fire, pulled the heather off the seat to find this.

what you don't see is the bottom part is totally burnt through the seat--wes can stick his hand in there!

ugh. so now we're off on the adventure of finding a new driver seat. right now the car is totally drivable--if you want to inhale all that nasty smell. as i'm typing wes is cleaning it out with some extreme cleaning stuff, to get the smoke layer off of everything. i feel so stupid for some reason, like it's my fault. but it's not. a heater should not burst into flames or smolder or whatever it did.

later that night, after we pried little bear out of addy's hands (to wash it--little bear REEKED) i was laying in bed with addy, letting her ask all the questions she had about that day & night & the smoke, etc. she pointed to the smoke detector & asked what it was. i didn't even think & just said "a smoke detector". she started crying, shaking then asked if the house will start to smoke & be on fire like the car. i realized then that she was thinking things just suddenly burst into smoke & soon, in her mind, our house would too. so i went through how it's just to prevent fire & brought some humor into it (how the detectors go off often when we are baking) & then said that if she hears them go off when we're not baking, that's when she should go directly outside. she looked at me, wide-eyed brimming with tears--shaking again & said: "can you tell daddy to come in here? i need daddy."

apparently i'm only good for some things. i guess a good daddy embrace is what's needed sometimes.

so, that's our latest & greatest. DAGGIT will things ever not be dramatic?!