CATCH UP

time is flying by at the speed of light.

in the past month, as a family, we have flown over 12,ooo miles. ny to rome, rome to toulousse, toulousse to rome, rome to ny . this last leg was an excruciating 10 hour flight where the girls slept exactly 1 hour of the entire 10 hour flight.. you can imagine what the other 9 hours were like!

i really think the mind heals itself... it files those dreadful memories, pain, and things that scar in little happy places in your brain. otherwise women would never give birth more than once.. or in our case, we would never fly again....ever. i mean it. if this weren't the case, we would sit at home starring at one another, and someone would come along and offer us a full boat paid vacation to bora bora, and we'd say.. here! hold this knife, and i'll run into it, full speed, that's what i'd prefer to do, rather than get on a plane and take your "trip of a lifetime." i would rather be impaled by a utensil.

but our dreaded memories were "filed away" and we got on another plane.. this time, ny to madison wisconsin, and back again. this time around, we did it right. direct flight. 2 hour limit. lily and pearls addiction to dvd's and tv finely cultivated, so the laptop we brought was put to good use.

why madison, you might ask? i am interviewing for a job there.. yes, that's right. we are considering moving to a place where it snowed 110" last winter, and there is no actual beach that touches a real ocean. it's the land of cows, corn, and cold. another time zone in fact. i've never lived anywhere but eastern.. it'd be like some bizarro world. nothing quite wrong, but not quite right either.

and lastly... we're coming to a big day.. the girls' second birthday is next sunday. i'm so happy to have made it to this milestone. the girls are finally starting to find their words. they talk all the time, and sometimes in understandable sentences (albeit only 3 words long..."let's go outside!, i want cow!!, and finally "love you mommy!!!")

they are turning into artists. they sit for minutes (did you think i'd say hours!!) with their colored pencils, and crayons creating masterpieces fit for professional framing. they have their own little personalities. lily is so cunning.. always smiling when she knows she's in trouble. she knows she's cute, and she uses it for evil. and pearl.. my little girl. so sweet and smart.. almost analytical.

for the big day, we plan on cooking a big dinner for our immediate family. i'm going to attempt to bake a 2 layer old fashioned cake, which will hopefully become a tradition. before we get to that, we have our first official halloween, complete with trick or treat, which sounds like, "tick or teet." today we went to a halloween petting zoo/ pony ride /magic show/ hayride at my sister's country club where i had to bribe the girls with cookies to get them into their old navy lady bug and butterfly costumes. this week, we'll force them to watch IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN. and i'm quite sure they won't get that but hopefully this will become tradition as well.

for birthday presents, i have purchased the biggest, i mean biggest plastic kitchen that exists, and wonder what i'll have to do to offset my carbon footprint with that buy. they have also developed a love of "hot tea".. (the apples don't fall far) so they'll be getting a tea set which is made completely from recycled milk jugs(no carbon to work off there.) also, cow puzzle (they fell in love with cows in france), electric guitar (they love music), and a speak and spell (old school made new.) for a person who doesn't really believe in presents, who is unemployed at present, and believes buying second hand toys are always the best option, i've really gone for it this year.

i'm really looking forward to this birthday, since this year, they'll finally get it, (kind of.) do any of you remember your second birthday???

well, at least they'll enjoy the presents and the cake.