pictures to save for future embarrassment

adeline has a slight knack for fashion & accessories. she immensely enjoys picking out her clothes in the morning & also picking out her pajamas at night. throughout the day she changes her pants or her top, or she just loses both throughout the house & goes around naked. the other day, monday to be exact, i was out having some no kid alone time & come home to find this picture: adeline's clothing choice of the day. it conjures up to thoughts: college spring break (go-go boots topped with 'hot pants' a la diaper, bling, & belly shirt); the other thought is mardi gras, of course. the shirt is actually amelia's & she somehow squeezed herself into that 9 month top. she's a hoot.

another funny addy story: we are using correct anatomy terms for reproductive organs (just in case they get hurt or something of that sort & are not home & go running to the school nurse & say "my hoo-hoo hurts" & it is also very helpful to use this to pick up on sexual abuse earlier.... as a social worker, this is important to me!). anyway, so i was giving adeline her bath the other night & as she was washing each body part, i would say it aloud. this can be a long & tedious time: chin, ear, nose, behind your ears, arm, elbow, armpit, knee, toes, etc etc etc. this time she pointed to her 'privates' as some call them & i replied 'vulva'. & the girl who rarely says anything except mama looked me stone in the face & said "vulva" & then smiled & nodded. she seemed very happy to have an official name for this area of her body. i gave her a high five for saying a word, of course, so now i'm sure we'll be at the mall playground & she'll just walk up to some poor unsuspecting kid & say one of her few words out loud, in front of all the other moms: vulva. of course! i'll let you know when it happens.

& this is another classic look: knee high socks, shoes, & diaper.

this is amelia's first official destruction of property. she was sitting in her bumbo on the counter while i was getting dinner ready. i was turned around & heard a big crash & my heart STOPPED thinking that she had fallen off the counter somehow...but nope, she had just reached behind her & pulled her bottles & equipment off. she has such an intense look on her face & she seemed VERY proud of herself. adeline & i cheered for her & her accomplishment.

yesterday my parents came for a little visit. my dad is still recovering from his ileostomy surgery in december & just started physical therapy this week. they haven't seen a lot of the girls this winter, so this was a much needed visit. as you can see, they had much fun: my dad is, YES, wearing adeline's pajama bottoms on his head & pretending that his head is running as he flaps the legs. there's adeline gobbling up this whole silly-silly situation, as we call it. then in the background you see millie sitting with gram-mum observing how silly-silly her sister & pop-pop are. addy didn't stop laughing for about 4 hours straight today & actually, amazingly took a nap.

this is addy attempting to put her pj's on her own head...she didn't quite understand that she should leave her eyes uncovered.
my dad snuggling amelia.
& here is the sad news we are dealing with right now:
wes is a structural engineer, as most of you know, & he works for weyerhauser (spelling is wrong, i'm sure). wednesday, he got to work & was told that he was to go with the office manager to a nearby hotel. once they got there, he saw his boss & other higher-ups who are not from columbus... at this time wes thought he was losing his job. long story short (aha! the short north version is useful again!), he still has his job & is only one of the 5 engineers out of 20. so he had to stand in the same room as 15 of his co-workers & even some work mentors were let go (& that's just in the columbus office; there are 3 other offices, all of which laid off the same amount of workers). these lay-offs are all due to bleak financials & the economy tumbling which is greatly impacting their construction market.

we are very thankful that he still has a job. very very thankful. he will be moving offices to delaware, ohio, which will be about a 35 minute commute, one way. again, still thankful to have a job (good thing he drives a car that is 15 years old & still gets 37 miles to a gallon!), but that commute is going to be a bummer. wes loves to come home for lunch & hang out with his girls, ya know! & we are having some severe 'survivor's guilt' here. today, as i shopped at trader joe's & then costco & picked up some extras that we really don't need to survive (okay, it was mostly cheese, but you have to understand my love affair with cheese) & i couldn't stop thinking about how these other 15 people are going to have a hard time paying for the basics of food & the stress they will be under trying to find a job right now.

i was nearly sick to my stomach when wes called to tell me what was going on. he could only talk for about 2 minutes, so i was left to wonder what he was going through. i mean, we know these 15 people, wes better than i, but we know them; they're not just some number being rattled off by a news anchor. we know some of these folks are newly pregnant & single, that another is in a master's program & so is his wife, that another has a toddler & a new baby & his wife may lose her job soon, that others feel this job defines their life (which is sad to begin with, but now even more so b/c it's gone). apparently, wes' military trained boss had a hard time telling everyone & wasn't able to get through the scripted speech before turning to stop himself from crying several times. it had to be a lonely & horrid experience to go through, as the person being fired, the person firing, the person who made the cut....so, survivor guilt is real & alive, even if it's just over a job kept compared to many jobs lost.

it just sucks, this economy sucks & the whole situation sucks. & i just saw on cnn news this line of bankers from wall street who act as if this economic collapse is the every day worker's fault, that they couldn't predict this would happen. i am so glad that they received that tongue lashing from d.c. folks; it probably won't get through to them, though. when i learned about the great depression, i always felt for the bankers who threw themselves out of windows & off of buildings...if that happened now, i'm not so sure i would feel as bad for them & their demise.

anyway, the mood in our house is depressing. good thing we have these hilarious girls around to keep us laughing.