A Substantial Update

I have so many things to tell you! Which is a good thing because that means I've been doing better about staying off the computer. (And after I finish this post I'm getting right back off).

For starters I'd like to take a moment to publicly recognize the significance of this date*. It's our "dating anniversary". Before there was August 25, there was August 20. *smile* We've been together 11 years. Wow. I'm 33 years old so that means I've been with Dwight for one third of my life. Wow!

August 20 is actually a totally arbitrary day. After we'd been together a few weeks...even months, perhaps...it occurred to me that I didn't know when we had started dating. Back in those days, that was a date that mattered. So I conferred with Dwight and August 20 was our best guess. Things were a little murky in the first little bit anyway. We were friends. We started hanging out. I asked him on a date (which he declined so clearly *that* wasn't it). He told me he liked me. We kissed. It was hard to pinpoint what event was most significant since there were a couple of milestones along the way. But anyway, like I said, this is the anniversary we claimed. So happy anniversary to my most-est special guy! Who could've guessed that this is where we'd be 11 years later!?! WOW!

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So let's talk about some of our recent excitements. Kiersten got into nail polish yet again. You would think I would learn my lesson the first time. Nope. The second time? Nope. Third time *will* be the charm.



So now the door *will* be locked at bedtime with no exceptions. I had thought I could put her to bed with the door open and then lock it after she fell asleep but this last time she managed to sneak back downstairs long after we thought she was asleep and while we were still up. The nail polish was on the window sill behind the kitchen sink. She spilled it on the hardwood floor before carrying it up to her room and dumping the rest of it out on her Pottery Barn duvet cover (luckily not on her PB quilted bedspread). It was caked on her toes and fingernails. This was by far the worst incident. And we would never have caught it if she hadn't voluntarily come wandering downstairs telling us that there was a "mess" on her bed. Kiersten, Kiersten, Kiersten. What are we going to do with you?!

She begs to have her door open every night but now I tell her I can't do that because she doesn't stay in bed. I feel bad because I think she's scared of the dark. But I don't know what else to do (aside from giving her a bedside light, which we did). She crawls over gates and eve got herself wedged in between two of them. She wakes up earlier than anyone else AND even in the middle of the night sometimes. She'll sneak around quiet as a mouse and get into stuff. *grr* She's a great problem solver. I'll give her that!

Speaking of the door open thing, the other day she CRACKED us up with that. We were driving back from visiting Auntie Joy at about 8 o'clock at night. I told her to try to go to sleep [in her car seat] and her immediate response was, "I want my door open!"

Oskar is scared of the dark too. He likes to sleep in his sleeping bag with his head halfway into the hall. So last night we hear this loud banging upstairs and realize that he's trying to get his closet closed. He came downstairs and explained that he doesn't like to go to bed with his closet open because that gives him scary dreams. So I said, "Okay, Oskar, do you need a pretend weapon for the pretend scary things?" His eyes lit up and he said, "yes". So have gave him a bottle of 'Eau Minerale' that I had kicking around from way back when the airlines used to give Dad those nice little travel bags. I told him it was scary stuff repellent. He was very pleased with that.

This morning Annika comes running to find me and informs me that a monster with five teeth lives under her bunk bed. Oh my word! So now everyone wants scary stuff repellent. I think I have some Kitchen Spritzers that will do the job. Crazy kids.

Yesterday I was looking at photos on MyFamily.com. Annika saw the thumbnail of a photo of one of Paula's twins and said, "Hey! Dat looks like our baby." Then I clicked on the picture so she could see it big. She said, "Hey dat looks like someone else's baby. Whose name is her name? Whose name is her?" The "dat looks like someone else's baby" was so funny.

Oskar made this observation while playing "Age of Empirates" with Dwight and myself: "Your towns are little but not so much littler as mine." My favorite expression of his (which reminds me a little of Jonny's "incept") is "Is it fine unless..." That's how he asks permission for things.

I bought a new 'superzoom' lens for my camera. I haven't had much time to play around with it yet but I'm excited. AND I signed up for a class at the local camera store to learn all the ins and outs of my camera. I'm excited.

Alrighty, that's all we have time for today folks. I'm outta here!

*Today is also Dad's and Penelope's wedding anniversary. They've been married 8 years.