but MoM!

a few days ago greta came to me wimpering about a scratch on her face. i looked at her check and saw a line that was welting up and blood was showing. i asked greta what happened and she said, "calla scratched me." when i asked calla about it, she responded with, "but mom- i didn't scratch greta, i was just trying to pull her hair!" once again, at least they're honest!

fierce determination

greta is a girl who sets her mind to something and doesn't stop until she accomplishes her goal. case in point- about a week ago she decided she wanted to learn to snap her fingers. she started with "snapping" her thumb and pointer finger. we showed her the right way to do it and she practiced...and practiced, and practiced, and practiced...and after a week of practicing she did it! seeing the satisfaction on her face was priceless, she was so proud of herself. after reaching this goal we were driving to school while she practiced her new-found skill of snapping, making sure she had it just right to show her friends. now we have the - "it's fun to share these things with your friends, but be sure you're not bragging..." talk. i have a sneaking suspicion that while at school there might have been some bragging going on!

yellow tooth

the girls have developed this habit of waking up together and climbing in bed with us in the morning. it's their "wake up" call to mom & dad (usually by 7am every morning). a few days ago we were in this morning routine and greta suddenly said, "mom- you have a yellow tooth. dad, look, mom has a yellow tooth!" she proceeded to point to my canine and said, "see, it's yellow." looks like all my coffee drinking is catching up with me. time to break out the crest white strips. nothing like a 5 year old to tell it how it is!

moving, the willamette, and mary

we have had a whirlwind several months, which all culminated this past weekend with our move from corvallis to portland. mike got a job in portland and we are staying with my folks until we figure out a house. we spent the past weekend moving all of our things to a storage unit & then cleaning up our cute little bungalow- oh, how we loved that little house on 7th street. even though we were busy moving & cleaning, we had a wonderful time with friends- we are SO thankful for our corvallis community & will MISS it (we're glad it's driving distance!!!). so that is the story of moving (a brief version- there were lots of tears shed, frustrating moments of "what the frick are we doing!?!?!", and of course the task of packing- i so hope our next move is into a house which we will live for a long, long time!)...now come the funny stories.

as we were pulling out of corvallis last night greta started yelling, "GOOD BYE CORVALLIS!" "we will miss you corvallis!" "we will come visit soon corvallis!" then as we were crossing the bridge over the river she said, "Good bye Willamette River" then quickly, "wait a minute, i don't need to say good bye to the willamette river, it travels all the way to portland!" hello smarty pants!

today's story is one of my all-time favorites though. calla and i were at tj maxx buying some gifts and as we were checking out in line calla says (keep in mind, she has no indoor voice), "mom, look, it's mary." i look back in line and there is a woman with a blue head covering, her whole face showing, who did look just like a 3 year old version of mary from the bible. the woman clearly could hear us so i said, "yes calla- she is beautiful." and calla responded, "mom, she looks like mary. she looks beautiful." i was pleased to look back, smile at the lady and see that she had a huge grin on her face- no offense taken. whew. much better than last week when calla saw a woman with rather long, big, puffy gray hair walking down our street and said (again, loudly), "mom- look- she has CRAZY hair." and then she proceeded to laugh hysterically. that- not so sweet, today- very sweet, both totally innocent. i am daily reminded how much i love this age, both the good & the "bad."