OMG AWESOME BOOK!

I just finished Midwives by Chris Bohjalian! Wow! That was one captivating novel. I was absolutely hooked and found myself making more and more time to read because I couldn't get enough of this book. It was shocking but not in a soap opera/appeal-to-the-lowest-common-denominator kind of way. It was a very relational sort of shock....realistic and understandable. The courtroom scenes were brilliant. Normally if I hear that something has a lot of legal/courtroom scenes I expect it'll be slow and boring. But this was fascinating! The mind games that lawyers play, the small details that can sway a jury....really fascinating stuff. The whole story was just excellent. I highly recommend this book!

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McKenna had school today and there is a little boy that she keeps having problems with. His name is Symon and every day he either makes fun of what she brings for share time or makes fun of her for being short. I know that this won't be the last mean kid she has to deal with so rather than talking to her teacher about it, we've been trying to teach her the appropriate responses. We've told her that even if Symon is mean, she should still always do her best to be nice. We told her that she doesn't have to play with Symon but she can't be mean to him. When he tells her that she's too short, we told her to respond by saying "I'm just right and I can do anything you can do!" She has said that she's sad that she's short. Since I've always been short, I told her that I am just like her and that there is nothing wrong with being short. She'll even find that being short can be fun. I told her that sissy is gonna be tall and she will probably be short and that one is not better than the other. The world needs both. So then we were reading Thumbelina and I told her that she was tiny like Thumbelina. She thought that was neat and when she went to school today, she told Symon that she was tiny like Thumbelina. He told her that no, she was not. So I told her from now on when Symon says something mean to her, she should just tell him "Well that's YOUR opinion." And then she can ignore him. I told her that just because Symon says something doesn't make it so. *sigh* It is not easy teaching my daughter to stand up for herself in an appropriate way. I hate that part of sending my kid to school .... knowing she'll have to deal with things like mean kids. : (

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While McKenna was in school we took Kyla to the lab to be tested for the allergies. It was PACKED. We knew we wouldn't be seen for several hours and we had to pick up McKenna at 1pm so we decided to skip it today (Erick will take her in the morning). Instead we went shopping for Erick's new work wardrobe since his first day is Friday. He has to wear slacks, a button-down and a tie every day. He's gonna be so cute. ; ) But please someone explain to me....he says that no one at his work wears a white button down. They only wear color INCLUDING pink. HUH?? You're telling me that in a law enforcement job where an intimidating presence is necessary, the supervisors are not wearing white but they ARE wearing pink? I cannot wrap my mind around this. We did not buy pink today. Blues, greens, tans, greys....fine. But no pink for law enforcement. That's just crazy.

Kyla was quite the social butterfly while we were out. She says hello to everyone! And not just "hi" but "Hi-looooow!" And always with a mischievous grin so that whoever she's saying "hello" to knows she's trying to engage them in a game. She had fun shopping for Daddy's clothes and kept pulling items off the shelf and handing them to him. Apparently she thinks he needs 6 pairs of black slacks.

After we picked up McKenna, had lunch and the girls had "rest time" we went to Toys R Us to pick up a birthday gift for Alexis (just 2 more sleeps until her party!) We got her a fairy princess dress-up set, a Disney Princess vanity set and of course...a pink bunny! And I knew we wouldn't get out of there without something for McKenna and Kyla so we got them each a bubble gun and a princess puzzle for McKenna and an elmo book for Kyla. McKenna put together the puzzle almost entirely by herself:


And then she insisted on dressing up exactly like Cinderella for a picture:


So it was a productive day. Tomorrow during "rest time" I need to just devote a few solid hours to some DST work. The end of the month is quickly approaching and that's always a pretty busy time. I have a ton of email to catch up on. We've got so much going on in the next week so I've gotta really manage my time well!

Before I go, one cute picture I took of the girls the other night when I was getting them ready for bed. They both decided to "accessorize"!


And here's a little stunt they like to pull. When it's time to get Kyla ready for bed, she likes to run and hide between her crib and her wall. And as if that's not sneaky enough, her big sister blocks the space so that we can't get her out!!


Sneaky, sneaky little devils!!