Another Steubie Trip!

Yep, this time it was for Aunt Katie's HS graduation in May. We had planned to come all along, but hemmed and hawed when she asked us if we could come, since we intended to surprise her. And surprise her we did! She shrieked when she saw us, which was very gratifying. :)

Her graduation ceremony was actually in the University Fieldhouse, where we graduated from! And since she's starting there in the fall, she gets to graduate in that building twice. :)

A slightly fuzzy pic of her receiving her diploma. She was one of the first students in the line-up, since she was one of the top ten scholars at the school. We're so proud of her!! And best of all (at least from Mr. Pickles' view), she's going to major in MATH!

The kiddoes were VERY good during all the speechifying. We came well supplied with coloring books and crayons. :)

MAXimum cool.

Katie with her best friend Lenore -- two lovely ladies! They've been best friends pretty much since birth. I first met Lenore when she was still "Nory," and our Katie-bear's age. And now they're going to be rooming together in college. Lenore has a GORGEOUS singing voice. I can't believe I didn't snap a shot of her singing the National Anthem!

Afterwards we went to Bucca di Beppo to celebrate. Guess which room we were in?

The littles found something to amuse them -- long stringy things! The room was also round, so after they got bored of sitting at their places they had fun chasing each other around the table.

The queen of the day arrayed in all her golden splendor! We love you, Katie2!

Girlie Stuff

A few weeks ago, while Mr. and Mrs. Pickles were painting the metal banisters (let me just point out that oil-based paint is THE most disgusting stuff on the planet. How did people live before latex??) the girls put on a fashion show. Dad B. might recognize some of their accessories as once belonging to their great-grandmother.

Very often I'll hear Miriam say, "Mommy, look at Katie!" and I'll turn around to behold Katie thusly attired:

QUITE the fashionable straight jacket.

And the crazy part is that Katie LIKES being tied up like a mummy.

Now that summer's here, it's time for.... (drumroll, please....)

...Summer toes!

Oh Shenandoah... I long to see you...

...since it's way too foggy to see much of anything!


We went for a hike in the Blue Ridge mountains with some friends last month (I know, I know, I'm really behind with pictures!). While we were standing in the parking lot getting ready for our hike, the sky just opened up and DUMPED on us. Fortunately the shower didn't last long, and we headed out while it was still sprinkling. At least it was cool. :)

Even though we couldn't see much of a view when we reached the lookout point, the walk itself was pretty. There were lots of dainty little wildflowers everywhere at our feet.

We bought an annual pass so now we HAVE to go back again! :)

Swim season!!!

First day in the pool! Yeah, I know, I'm a slacker -- this was taken a month ago, before I'd even got the girls swimsuits that actually fit. :)

This is where the pool lived all winter, so naturally all the grass died, leaving a lovely dirt patch. I was going to re-seed it until I realized how much the girls loved digging in the dirt. Or, as the case may be, the mud.

We've spent many afternoons in the pool already. We hope to get a patio umbrella this summer, which will greatly increase our enjoyment of the backyard especially in July. That and a lounge chair.

Manolo says, Super Fantastic!

Blinky Princess sandals. Can a 5-year-old BE more stylish?

quips & quotes

Some recent quotes from the little pickles:

CL, with the characteristic white upper lip: "Yook, I have a milkstache!"

ME "reading" a book about vehicles: "A spacer flies in a space shovel."

CL, singing: "The monkey thought alllll fun, pop goes the Liesl!"

ME trying to get a grasp of tenses for irregular verbs: "Mommy brought... she brought... she bringed the ball to me!"

CL: "Mommy, are you making apemeal for bweakfast? Mmmmmmm, sminnanim!"

ME: "Mommy, I'm very brave of thunder." [as opposed to "scared of," of course]


This is such a fun stage for language. I only wish I'd written down half the funny things they say.

Mother's Helper: Books on Tape

It's like TV, just without the brains-to-mush thing.

They would sit like this for hours if I let them. (or at least Miriam would -- Katie's too busy to hold still for long. I actually had to wait a couple minutes before she held still long enough for me to get this shot) And of course, their brains being the sponges they are, they're soaking up everything. Occasionally I'll hear a little voice saying, "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, I smew bwood of a Engismun!"

Maybe we should get tape recordings of the Summa or Shakespeare or something.

Much better.

I only wish I could convey to you how fabulous our house smells right now.

Our baby's growing up!

(caveat lector: non-parents may want to skip this one)

Yup, it's that time for Katie: that special time of a child's life when the parents are desperate to get them OUT OF DIAPERS ALREADY!!!! (ahem)

As you can see from her sticker collection, it's been quite a success. The collection should be even larger, but the Pickle Parents have been rather lax. The process has actually been kind of funny (in retrospect, of course). Katie was VERY attached to her diapers and was extremely reluctant to give them up. They were like a security blanket for her bottom. She was NOT interested in her brand new, pink, froofy, Big Girl Pants. The difference between our two girls has been amusing. Miriam, you may remember, was willing to walk across hot coals, or at least sit on the potty -- for her the same thing -- to wear her new big girl undies. Katie, on the other hand, was perfectly happy sitting on the pot but wanted nothing to do with the undies. I guess it just goes to show that you have to reinvent the wheel with each child!

I could tell that Katie was ready for toilet training -- she was just lazy. It was much easier to stand in the middle of the living room and play with her puzzle than to stop whatever fun thing she was doing and sit on a toilet and wait until something happened. I went through a lot of parental tricks before I finally found a system of bribery that worked.

We tried talking up the idea of what a big girl she would be if she could use the potty like her big sis, but that didn't seem to hold any attraction for her. She was perfectly happy sitting and reading a stack of books, but she never did anything. She always waited until 2 minutes after we put her diaper back on.

So, we tried Big Girl Pants. She pitched a fit when I suggested putting them on. She flung herself on the floor (her favorite protest position) and begged, with passionate tears, to have her diaper put back on. I told her that if she went to the bathroom, she could have her diaper put back on. (For Miriam, I would threaten to put a diaper back on her if she had an accident.) I think that worked maybe once.

Then I tried leaving off the undies, and just putting a pair of bloomers on her. I mopped up 2 puddles before I gave that up.

Next, I tried putting plastic pants on her to contain any potential mess (we DO have wall-to-wall carpeting, after all) but left the diaper off so she could feel if she had an accident. She happily walked around with a puddle in her plastic pants.

Finally I realized that any sensation of elastic around her middle felt too much like a diaper, so I just took her diaper off and refused to put it back on, and let her run around naked from the waist down (well, under her dresses). She was NOT happy with this, but Mommy was adamant. I decided it was going to be One of Those Things That We Do Regardless of How We Feel About It, like brushing teeth, or going back to bed at 5 am, or letting Mommy buckle her car seat. This worked for a while -- she didn't like making messes on the floor and so was more willing to try to use the potty since Mommy was being so mean about it. But then she decided it really wasn't worth the trouble and I started mopping up puddles again.

FINALLY I resorted to the big guns: what every girl would do ANYTHING for:

a big bowl of chocolate. sitting on top of the toilet. available to any little girl who successfully used the potty.

Wow, did that work.

I really don't understand people who say you shouldn't use bribery to get your child to do something they should be doing anyway. Obviously these people never actually had children.

Long story short, Katie is now officially a big girl, happily wearing big girl pants, and using the potty regularly without any coaxing, reminding, pleading, bribing, or any other form of parental intervention. She'll be playing in the living room, and then I'll hear a little voice singing in the bathroom, and then, "Mom! Mooooooom!" We've long exhausted the supply of chocolate (it would have lasted longer if someone who shall remain nameless didn't keep dipping her hand in the bowl from time to time), and even the application of Dora stickers has lost its appeal (I've still got 3 sheets left!); but very often after a success Katie will say, "My so pwoud of mysewf!" She'll be in diapers at night & naptime for a while yet, but still, this is a huge deal!

*sniff* She's not our baby anymore...

I think my bread machine is trying to tell me something

...something along the lines of "Get off your lazy butt and make some bread by hand already!!!"

So... anybody have any suggestions for what to do with a crumbly brick of otherwise delicious bread?