waaaaah

Betsy started school last week, and thank you so much for rubbing it in. Why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it? GO AWAY, WE'RE CLOSED.

But seriously though, she does really seem to be enjoying it. This week they learned about snakes (they have a snake in their classroom. On purpose.) and made the old lady who swallowed a fly. Also, I found out that Porter will probably be able to have the same preschool teacher that Betsy had (and adored) last year. Yeah, like my kids need to be any smarter.

Oh, that is SO much better.

Got the new scanner today!

Greasy food and goats

Must be State Fair time again!
We've done the fair so many times now that Matt and I don't even need to look at a map or consult each other to plan out the day. It goes: kill time in Pioneer Village until Little Hands opens; Little Hands on the Farm; the rest of Riley Fun Park; mini golf in the FFA building; look at fish in the DNR building; ride a midway ride or two; eat some greasetacular foods for lunch; Mom hits the used book sale in the Home and Family Arts building; then the animal barns and finally the exhibits in the Grand Hall.

We sure do love us some fair food. Elephant ears, cheese fries, pulled pork and as always the delicious milkshakes from the Dairy Bar (which are only $2.50 and worth every brain-freezin' penny).

New this year, Porter got to go on a ride with Dad, and Betsy is big enough to ride all by herself. We let each of the kids choose one - Porter went with the bumblebees while Betsy chose the faux-hot-air-balloons before we even got there (don't ask me how she remembered them from last year). Because the tickets are only sold in fours, Betsy got to go on the bees too. Yes, this is fundamentally unfair; fortunately, Porter hasn't cottoned on to the fact yet.

Also, this year I availed myself of the 'Lactation Stations' thoughtfully provided by the Indiana Milk Bank and La Leche people. They set up a few tents scattered around the fairground with fans (although it wasn't too hot yesterday - I think it only got up to 82) and a changing table and rocking chairs and FREE BOTTLED WATER, because as you may or may not know, nursing makes a person KILLER THIRSTY. And while I'm not shy about nursing my baby wherever it needs to be done, I do appreciate the thought. Although I still think that they need one inside of the Dairy Barn.

I let Amy have a few tastes of vanilla milkshake - she really seemed to like it.

I always look forward to the used book sale - I have no idea who sponsors it or whom it benefits, but there's always a smallish room full of shelves and it's a quarter for paperbacks, fifty cents for hardbacks. I always find something good - I've gotten Hannah Fowler and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn and All The Trouble In The World and a lot of neat vintage sewing books. (I seem to have inadvertently started collecting old sewing books - goes along nicely with my old chemistry books. Or actually, has nothing at all to do with my old chemistry books.) This year I found the 1960s revision of a really cool 1950s sewing book that I got last year, and also The Bishop Method. And some novels which I'll read at work, although I'm only four chapters into Breaking Dawn so I really have no business reading anything else (except for the scriptures OF COURSE.)

I also got A LOT of scrapbooking done this weekend. Only for some reason Blogger won't let me add any more images to this post, so you'll have to wait on my creative genius. I think we're getting a new scanner later this week, anyway, so I will have lots of pages to share!

Happy

Amy knows how to laugh now. She was looking at me the other day and just busted out chuckling. It's the best sound in the world, is it not? Actually, science needs to find a way to bottle babies' laughter, because in pill form I'm pretty sure it would actually cure cancer.

I'm glad that Amy is happy, because she's had a pretty rough week. She pretty much refused to take any bottles from the sitter, so she was RAVENOUS by the time I got home each day. She's had a pretty nasty diaper rash so maybe she was too upset to eat, or maybe it's my newfound love of onions that's the problem. I've recently discovered that I can make caramelized onions in my own kitchen - the trick is to use a lot of butter - and I can't get enough. The other day, for example, I did the onions and tossed in some black beans, cut up chicken, barbecue sauce and cilantro and made it all into quesadillas. YUM. But I don't think Amy enjoyed it so much.

I finally took the plunge last week and got all my hair cut off. SHORT. I will post a picture as soon as I figure out where I left the camera, but I also need some blonde highlights pretty badly. Porter told me that it looks "horrible" (did he mean adorable? I don't know) but Betsy was more diplomatic. "I love you..." she says, all serious-like, "but I don't like your hair." Personally, I'm a bit on-the-fence about it. I was going for the Mia-Farrow-in-Rosemary's-Baby cut, which would look really cute but I seem to have the wrong hair for it - it keeps trying to poof up in the front, early-nineties style. Maybe it will look better when the front is longer. At any rate, it's much, much easier to deal with when getting up at four-thirty in the morning.

Porter has actually started to use the potty a bit - many of his compatriots are already fully trained but he's light years ahead of where Betsy was at the same age, so I feel all right about it. We went to Target today - because it's a Friday and that's what we do on Fridays - to pick him out some big boy underpants. Porter chose Buzz Lightyear, same as his Halloween costume (that I bought him in January).Of course it wasn't until I got home that I realized, due to a grave design flaw, our favorite space ranger only appears on the BACK of the underpants. Seriously, what genius thought of that? So, Porter has to wear them backwards and with no pants on, so that he can see Buzz, and he looks really funny running around that way. The whole backwards-underpants thing could cause a real wedgie problem, if he had a butt, WHICH HE DOESN'T.

And Betsy? She starts kindergarten in TWO WEEKS. How is that even possible? And we still haven't gotten her supply list - we don't even have her class assignment, I have no idea if she'll be in the AM or PM class - so I have been deprived of the eraser-sniffing fun of back-to-school shopping. Only in Betsy's case it's not BACK to school but I'm pretty sure you catch my meaning.

Allow me to take a moment to share my newfound love for "Snacktime," a new album of kids' music by the Barenaked Ladies. Sheer brilliance. We got it from the library but I will - nay, I must - own it soon. And the answer to the question "That's all very well and good, Joni, but is there a song about ninjas?" is Of course there is.

And squee! It's only one more week until the Olympics start.