Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Kids are Stampin' Up!

This was taken by my camera-phone, so it's not the best picture, but it was really her very first ponytail!
Striking a pose out on the porch as we were playing outside one afternoon.

Laney's first boat ride up at Grandma Gloria's cabin.


Alan and Laney chillin at the cabin.

If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my recent status: "No matter how awesome anyone says it's going to be, don't take your kids to one of those Stampin Up parties." And how true it is. As you may have guessed, I tried it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, the party was at my friend Carol's house, and she has kids. Brady is 9 and Peyton is 6, and they have been at Fran's Day Care with Alan, so they all know each other. Carol assured me that her kids would play with Alan, everyone would think Delaney was cute, and that our friend Michelle would also be bringing her 2-year-old and infant along. "And there's free food!" she said, and that sealed the deal. I decided it would be fun.

The day arrived, and as happens many times with small children, we were running late. We arrived at Carol's house about 15 minutes late . . . but the woman running the party was already in full swing with her presentation. To my dismay, we entered Carol's living room to find two tables of calm, silent women who were beginning a small project while they politely listened to the salesperson speak. Not. One. Child. The Stampin Up rep smiled and invited me to have a seat . . . of course the only one left was across the room and in the middle of all the women . . . but what choice did I have? So I hoisted Delaney's baby seat above all the heads and convinced Alan to (loudly) follow me over there. I figured once we sat down, he could "help" me with my project and hopefully it would keep him happy. Where were all the kids??

Well, we were sitting there for a whopping two minutes (just long enough for Carol to offer us something to drink) when Alan spilled his water all over my project and Carol's too. This was when I began to realize that this might not have been a good idea. So poor Carol is frantically cleaning it up while I am whisking Alan away to another area of the room hoping to find something else for him to do. Carol said maybe he would have fun in the basement with her kids (so THAT's where they were!), so we tried that, but of course he had no interest in being anywhere except right by me.

Meanwhile the poor lady is trying to present every cute project and "retiring set of paper and stamps" that she can amidst my "Oh am so sorry about your project" and Alan's broken record of "Mommy come play please!" and pretty soon even a little whining from Laney, who had been forgotten under the table in her car seat. And I began to realize that Michelle and her kids were not there. She had had the sense to stay home with her 2-year-old and baby. Good for her.

I did get the kids to both join me on the couch across the room - I even grabbed a catalog and tried to listen along as the lady was presenting - and we managed to keep an even keel for about 20 minutes. (This involved a truck, a fuzzy doll, and many repeated conversations in fervent whispers with Alan explaining that I was not going to come play right now.) Then Laney started shrieking . . . so I paced with her until the lady finished speaking. I am sure she was hoping I would buy hundreds of dollars of stuff to make up for the disturbance, but I will need to win the lottery before that's gonna happen. We just grabbed the project my sweet friend Carol made for me and headed home. Chalk it up to experience. But no more Stampin Up parties for my kiddos. Not ever.

Some of Laney's other adventures include:
  • First trip to Grandma Gloria's cabin in Akeley, MN
  • A couple of Wednesday afternoons with Grandma Lucy while mommy went to work
  • Clapping for the first time
  • Saying "mama" for the first time
  • Trying to pull herself forward with her hands while she is sitting up
  • Cousin Aiden Frommelt's 1st birthday party
  • First ponytail
  • Started eating puffs (well she mostly just spits them out)
  • Visited Fran and played all morning
  • Received a visit from Cami, Micah, Cassidy, and baby Gail
Check back again soon!

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