Friday, July 31, 2009

When you only have one word to express your displeasure...

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


Partial list of things Penguin (age very much 2) has declared "yucky!" this week:
  • car
  • church
  • out car (getting out of the car)
  • home
  • eat
  • Mommy (!)
  • Daddy
  • [Pumpkin]
  • quiche (as soon as she saw it on the table)
  • go home
  • Ariel
  • breakfast
  • screen
  • diaper change
  • Dora
  • Dora shirt (only because she wanted a different one of her 4 favorite shirts*)
  • potty
  • bath
  • brush teeth
  • bed
  • Mickey diaper (overnight diaper)
  • bedtime
  • books
  • rocking
  • blanket
  • cover up (not a swimsuit cover up, but the act of covering her up at bedtime)
  • kisses
  • night-night
These are never just "Yucky!", they are "Yucky car!" or "Yucky cover up!" or "Yucky diaper change!"

*Penguin's four favorite shirts consist of two different Dora ones, a Blue's Clues, and a frog one Gramma Yori brought back from New Orleans. Good thing I do laundry a lot. :) She also has favorite socks - Dora, princess, Oscar, & Elmo.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Family Reunion

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I was getting these photos ready for tomorrow's Wordless Wednesday when I realized they did need some words! Here are a few shots from this past weekend's family reunion - my dad's side of the family. We were thrilled to have nearly everybody there! All 5 of my grandma's living children were there, as were 16 of 18 grandchildren, 11 of 19 great-grand children, and the only great-great-grandchild. Plus, of course, spouses, significant others, and such.

Grandma and her 5 living children


Our branch of the family tree


Five generations together

Friday, July 17, 2009

Bilibos are FUN!

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


These are our new favorite toys. Picked them up at an educational kid toy store two days ago & they've already been played with for hours. We love them so much already, the girls wanted to show you how fun they are...




Pumpkin says, "Bilibos are really handy. I like to play rolly-polly in it, and spin it around, and use them for sleds down the grass hills."

P.S. Cool Mom Picks reviewed it a while back. I'd have to say I agree - if you've got two kids, you'll want two. Definitely.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Did I mention the learning to read?

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


I just picked this book out at the library today, thinking it looked about right for her. And before we even read it together, Pumpkin picked up and and got started on her own. I came in to the living room and this is what I saw/heard....



Go, Pumpkin!

WW - Only in Wisconsin?

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


Saturday, July 11, 2009

Update on the dancing gig

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


I'm sure you'll all be glad to know I did my first paid BD gig, it went well, and my sword dance was super & very non-slippy-on-my-head! Yay!

We had to do some adjustments - tent had no sides & it was windy, so we asked & helped put up one side of the tent. That helped a lot, but there were still some wind gusts that played nuisance with our veil dances. The 5x7 stage was actually more like 3 1/2 or 4 x 10 or 12, so we had that moved to the back of the tent & just danced on our 5x7 rug on the (rather bumpy) ground. Better that way anyway, since we could go off it as needed without a 1" drop! :)

I was a bit worried about my sword dance in general & esp. with the windy. Practicing it last night & doing my one run-through today, I just wasn't finding the balance. Actual performance today though went really, really well. The sword felt very non-slippy on my head, in particular, and I even managed to do some floorwork successfully - I'd call it a sort of rolling over on the floor with a sword on my head and then standing up with it there, too, but that sounds stupid. Anyway, it looked impressive & I felt great.

Other songs were fine. My two no-prop ones were adequate, we didn't mess up our one actual duet (yay!), I think the one I zilled sounded cool, and my instructor's dances looked very fancy.

So, yay!

(Granted, glad to be done, but still, yay for it going well!)

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Remind me again why I said I'd do this?!

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


It's late. It's late & I'm trying to wind down. I just spent the last 4 hours in a dance studio, between belly dance class, our normal post-class troupe time, and practicing with my instructor for (argh!) our first paid belly dance gig. (GAK!!!!)

Yeah, I'm totally freaking out. As I might have mentioned before (once or twice...), I'm not big on dancing in public. Granted, this is "performing," so it's better, but I'm still feeling so very much not ready.

You see, in order to get more practice dancing with an audience, our troupe (as of the middle of June) is dancing during the first and third Wednesdays at the Green Bay farmers' market. Ok, fine, we did the drum circle with strangers, I can do a farmers' market, where people are mostly just walking by anyway. Ok. Fine.

(It's actually kind of fun. Plus, tip basket! Yay!)

We've done it twice now, and after the second time, my instructor was contacted by somebody from a festival in GB this upcoming weekend. Seems one of their performers at the second stage had a death in the family and they had a opening to fill. Would our troupe be interested in filling that 45 minute spot? For money?

So she said sure and asked me if I wanted to dance it with her, 'cuz 45 minutes is WAY long to dance by yourself. And, honestly, the rest of the troupe is not ready to be performing at paid gigs. (Not that I'm sure I am! At all!) And $ for dancing definitely = fun money I can spend on costumes or whatever, so I said sure.

And now I'm having a very small freak out. Ok, maybe not too very small, but not that huge.

Basically, she's doing 15 minutes, I'm doing 15 minutes & we're splitting the last 15 minutes. Tonight we decided she'd do 2 of her songs (1 veil, 1 not), I'd do two (1 no prop, 1 veil*), she'd do 2 (no props) & I'd do my last two (1 I haven't even picked yet!!!**, 1 sword***). Then she's doing a 4 minute song with Wings of Isis, I'll do a 2 minute veil song that's basically our spring recital number, we'll do a 4 minute routine together (from back in my GV days, those who know me!), then we'll end with her dancing to a song while I do zills.


That means I'm involved in 7 songs. SEVEN! Now, 3 I know pretty well & just need to keep fresh/review. One is improvisational, but I should practice a few times to have some ideas what I'm going to do with that sword, one I really need to review because I haven't done it since March, and one I should listen to a bunch of times so I can play the zills along with it.

AND ONE I STILL NEED TO CHOOSE, CHOREOGRAPH, AND PRACTICE! By SATURDAY!

THIS SATURDAY!!!

ARGH!!!!


So, now that I've shared that stress with the internets, and hopefully relieved it somewhat (I hope), I'd better get to bed. 'Cuz it's late, and goodness knows I've got a lot of dancing/practicing/choreographing to do tomorrow!!!




Now if people point and laugh, and the stage is covered with centipedes, and I'm naked, and I fall down and/or look stupid, and Brad Pitt, a younger Harrison Ford, and Johnny Depp are all in the audience to see my awkwardness and humiliation, then yes, that WILL be my own personal version of hell, thank you very much!



*Which I've been busting my @$ to choreograph the last 3 days and it rocks and I love it.
**Yes, that is a freaking out on my part.
***Mostly improv, but hey, what does the audience care, I've got a freakin' sword! And I'll be balancing it on my head!!!

WW - Pre-painting "Before" and a Very Red "After"

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com













(Thanks, Gramma Pet & Papa Pharaoh for the painting & kid-watching help!!!)

Cross-posted to House of 42 Doors

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Mmmmm.... protein!

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


We are in the process of making pizzas. I'm helping Pumpkin; Mr. Kluges is helping Penguin. Since I precooked the crusts a little, the pans are hot, so he's putting on her toppings for her.


Mr. Kluges: [Penguin], do you want some cheese?

Penguin: Uh-huh.

Penguin: Bwack owivves!

K: You want some black olives, too? [Pumpkin], please pass over the black olives.

K: How about mushrooms? You want mushrooms?

P: Uh-huh.

K: [Penguin]-y, these are green onions. You want some green onions?

P: Uh-huh.

K: (looking doubtful) You want onions?

P: Uh-huh.

K: (looking at me) Ok, [Penguin], how about some ground-up centipede feet? Do you want some of those on your pizza?

P: Uh-huh. Favorite!

And she almost got "watched," too!

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


My 4 1/2 yo just figured out the word "talked" completely on its own without any context, or story, or clues from me. Like, as in, on a little puzzle piece for a rhyming sentence game I was introducing to her.

Guess this figuring out how to read business is going even a little better/faster for her than I thought it was! Go, Pumpkin!

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Sorry, Pusher! aka Cute Toddler Dance Reprieve

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com


Sorry, Pusher! Here's a video of Penguin dancing from back at the beginning of May that should hopefully move that icky bug down so it's not staring you in the face when you click on my blog!

And fair warning to the rest of you - icky bug in the next post below!

WW - My personal hell is filled with these...

(c) 2009 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com



*shudder*