Today's Achievement

My Dearest Jennie is an excellent cake decorator and was contracted by me to bake an Angelina Ballerina cake for Lauren's 4th birthday in November. The cake was absolutely FLAWLESS and beyond my wildest expectations. In exchange for making the cake, Jennie asked if I would make a set of blank cards to give to her cousin as a Christmas gift.

It seems like I've been procrastinating on getting these cards completed, but in reality, I find if I let a card idea come to me in sort of a vision I am more inspired and motivated to work on the project. The inspiration started to appear over the weekend when I made one card using a gorgeous stamp set I love called "Pretty Peony" and then stamped a quote on top of the flower. I wanted to try to use various flowers on all the cards but wasn't sure how I was going to tie them all together so that the set wasn't just a hodge podge of random cards. The finally "tah-dah!" moment came yesterday when I found myself staring off into space trying to envision the cards...

What if I use the same flower stamp over and over and only change the color scheme and quote...?

Today I whipped out all ten of them. I'm in love. Whattya think?

What about Bach?

Lauren enters the room where I'm fixing her lunch...

L: Mom, Johann Sebastian Bob is a show.

M: Johann Sebastian Bach? Well, he was a composer. He wrote classical music.

L: No, Johann Sebastian BOB. Not BACH silly...

M: No, it's BACH.

L: *sigh* No Mom, it's BOB. Like BOB THE TOMATO.

Exit Lauren.

Conversations in a Car

There's really no back story to this entry, just a normal day with Lauren. She and I were in the car running errands. The following are three separate (yet somehow all strangely linked - you wait, you'll see the connections) conversations we had during our drive.

L: Mom, Mrs. Claus is Santa's Mommy.

M: No, she is his wife.

L: No. Mommy.

M: No Lauren, she is Santa's wife.

L: No MOM, she is his MOMMY.

I proceed to attempt to straighten out all the confusion by making comparisons.

M: Who is Granny?

L: Daddy's Momma.

M: Right! So is Granny Daddy's wife?

L: YES!

M: No! Granny isn't Daddy's wife. MOMMY is Daddy's wife. Am I Daddy's Mommy?

L: Your Daddy...

M: My Daddy what?

L: Your Daddy loves you...

M: *blink* *blink* Yes...yes...he does...

And that was the end of that conversation. It ended just as confusing as it began.

While she and I were at lunch together, we were taking turns telling each other stories. I was telling stories about a silly little boy named Finnegan and all the mischievious things he got into. Her stories seemed to always have monsters and scary things in them. We'll address that in some later post...

After lunch, she wanted to continue with the storytelling. Well, she wanted me to continue with my storytelling. She wanted me to tell a Christmas story. So I thought I would tell THE Christmas story. I'm describing Mary and Joseph and Gabriel and get to the part about the travel to Bethlehem... at this point, Lauren gets very excited and I'm excited because I know she's starting to recognize the story...

L: Bethlehem! That's like that boy...that boy!!!!

M: (I'm beaming. I'm so proud. It is like that boy. That boy Jesus...)

L: That boy...BUFFALO!!!

M: *completely flabbergasted* BUFFALO?

L: Yeah!!! Little Buffalo!!!!

All I could do was laugh. I laughed and I laughed and I laughed...

Third conversation...approximately 10-15 minutes later...as we were walking into the bank...

L: Mom, is Jesus real?

M: *pausing...thinking...* Well...yes...he lived a long time ago...

L: Where is he now?

M: He's in heaven. He's in heaven with God.

L: *nodding and understanding* OH! Jesus is God's wife I guess...

M: *puzzled* Nooo...(here we go again with the mixed up family relations) Jesus is God's son.

L: No...WIFE.

M: No Lauren, his SON.

She gets slightly distracted and announces that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. I'm excited because I think we're back on track. She tells me that Ms. Carrie taught them that at school.

M: Did you tell Ms. Carrie we have a birthday cake on Christmas morning for Jesus' birthday?!

L: Noooo...

M: Yeah! Remember? We have a birthday cake for Jesus and we eat it Christmas morning!

L: Mom. Why do we have cake? Jesus won't BE there. *exasperated*

Ahhhh yes. THESE are the conversations we have. Conversations that provoke deep thought and lots of confusion. Welcome to my world.

Mom! Do you know how pigs eat?

I'm sitting here enjoying a quiet moment to myself when Lauren comes bursting into the room shouting, "MOM! DO YOU KNOW HOW PIGS EAT?"

Oh this oughta be good...

M: How do pigs eat?

L: Their momma lays sideways...and the babies eat...they chew on these little circles on the momma...

M: (oh DEAR, I had no idea she was talking about how BABY pigs eat or else I never would have asked!) They are drinking milk.

L: *blank stare* Oh, like cows?

M: Uh...yeah. Those "circles" are their boobies.

L: *blink* (as she glances at my boobs) Yeah, well, that's how the pigs eat their breakfast. It doesn't hurt the Momma...at all...

And she gallops out of the room.

I'm sure this one will swish around in her brain for a bit and float back up at the most inopportune time.