Things to Do - Grateful List (April 2012)

ENTERTAINMENT
*Reading the short story First Love and Other Sorrows by Harold Brodkey (part of the collection - My Mistress's Sparrow Is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekhov to Munro)
*Reading America's Women : Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines
*Reading The Tiger's Wife
*Listening to the new Andrew Bird album
*Listening to This Beautiful Life(book on tape)
*Watching Raising Hope on the flight back from Denver (this show is HYSTERICAL, I can't believe I never saw it before)

FOOD
*Vesta with old friends
*Returning from a weekend away to homemade strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream
*Paleo bars

PLACES
*Great Lakes Science Museum (Cleveland, OH)
*F meeting her goose by the beaver dam at Cuyahoga National Park (Cleveland, OH)
*Our backstage tour of the Puppet Co. (Glen Echo, MD)
*Pedicabbing to the Black Eyed Peas (Denver, CO)
*Pedicures with C and drinks outside (in Denver)

STUFF
*Our new grey wall
*Kaleidographs
*Fallen flower bouquets from our evening walks

ETC
* The kids playing with Murphy (my mom's dog)
* "mommy how do you know if you're being kidnapped or adopted?" - P
* me - "Kids go upstairs and get dressed." 5 minutes later T comes down crying "mommy, I not know how to get dressed."
* Smelling the lilacs on our walk to school
* "Mom, I know it's too early to tell and i know you don't compare but maybe . . . maybe . . . i think i might be a better bike rider than F. just because i tried harder and i didn't fall. and just because i tried. i know you can't say, but i just maybe think i'm better. i am." - P
* "T, I have to tell you something - if you don't like anything then you'll never get something you like" - P (to a fussy, tantruming T)
* "I wish we were so rich we could go to Chuck E Cheese all the time" - P
* "me - "F can you tell me about your day?" F - "well it started like a lamb and ended like a tiger."
* "Mom, you had a playdate too because talking is how adults play" - P
* "Mom, what's the most popular number?" me - ??? F - "it must be one hundred because everyone wants to count to 100" - F. "or 21" - P
* The kids and their friends making birds' nest stew in a tree stump at Alcova Heights playground
* A weekend away and time to myself
* Watching T drive cars at preschool
* No training wheels
* Me - "F, where are you?" F - "outside starting an American Girls' club. P's dolls couldn't come, they have the flu."

The Kids' Lists:

F - art, Cybil Lily, Murphy, grandma, going on vacation, the American Girl store, a goose flying next to me, swimming, vacation [Cleveland], the Boxcar Children, studying

P - planning our vacation, dollies, art projects, going to the American Girl store, matching outfits with my American Girl, Murphy, the swimming pool, meeting the puppets [after Pinnochio at the Puppet Co.], riding bikes, playdates with my friend P, going to friends' houses

T - my camera, my family, our vacation, the museum [Great Lakes Science center], dollies [i think he says this because P always says this], walking Murphy, the train ride, walking F to school, going for walks, putting on my jammies, taking pictures, cuddles