royal wedding recap

I'm sure there is very little to add that hasn't been said: lovely bride, gorgeous dress, happy groom, cool carriages, handsome military men, pomp, Anglophenia Overload...

I wrote out the following blog post, but forgot to make it live :)-
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It's 5:04 am here. I got up at 4:45 to watch live streaming on BBC. 

Watching the guests arrive...

Love their musical choices for the arrival of the guests. The ensemble is playing a particularly lovely arrangement of Greensleeves right now. Beautiful. 

This Anglophile is in a state of Anglophelia Ecstasy...

THE PRINCES JUST ARRIVED!!!! Squeee!!! I feel like I'm 11 again, watching the wedding of Charles and Diana!

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I'm back... it is now 8:13 am. I went upstairs at 5:45 and woke up Ingrid so that she could make a memory :)  She was pretty groggy, but woke up quickly. She wasn't quite as interested as I thought she would be. She is only 7 after all. But she had a lot of questions: 

"Why can't the people in the church see the wedding?" 
"Why are the bridesmaids so little?" 
"Why are they kneeling?" 
"What's with all of those huge hats? They are getting in the way." 
"Why didn't the Prince and Princess kiss each other after they got married?" 
Then a declaration: "But I wanted to marry Prince William!"

Post-wedding reflections:

Glad to see Kate wearing such a beautiful, classic and cathedral-appropriate dress. Stunning. Perfect. Memorable. Timeless.

The order of service was lovely. Beautiful Bible readings. Perfect hymns. Loved the John Rutter anthem written for the occasion. (I'm a choral music snob.)

I don't understand all British traditions. Why would Prince William wear the uniform (even honorarily) of an Irish Guard colonel when he is neither a colonel nor in the Irish Guard, but in the RAF? British friends, please explain. Not that he didn't look spectacular, though.

Well, off to take Ingrid to school. I'm sure she'll be dozey today. I don't care. This will be one of those memories of a lifetime, even if she doesn't think so right now.

what Ingrid learned at school this week...

"Boys go to Jupiter

To get more stupider."

And the second verse which we came up with at home:

"Girls go to Mars

To eat candy bars."

I tried to explain the grammatical error of her first poem, but she didn't think that my grammatically correct version had the same ring:

"Boys go to Jupiter

To get stupider."

And then Chad had to chime and tell her that if girls went to Mars too often to eat candy bars, that they, in fact, were the stupider ones because they would have to go on a diet.

one dream I hope doesn't come true.

Last night Ingrid dreamed I had 200,000 babies, well toddlers because they could talk a bit. They were all being mean to her, so she told them to, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" They didn't stop, so she hid them in the closet. That must've been a big closet.

anglophelia

On the way home from picking up Ingrid from school the other afternoon, she announced that she wants to move to England.

I said, "Ingrid, did you know that the United States used to be a part of the British Empire? We used to be English." We do live near quite a few key Revolutionary War sites, after all, and we remind the girls often of our great nation's history.

She replied a bit petulantly, "I don't want to be American anymore. I want to be English!"

Perhaps I have her watch one too many BBC costume dramas, Doctor Who episodes, or left too many Austen and Dickens novels laying about.

Then she asked, "How long does it take to drive to England?" I suppose a geography lesson is in order.

PS I thought this photo was a bit Twiggy (with longer hair). Those are my boots, by the way.

does she know something we don't?

Just a few days ago, the girls' little neighbor friend shared her Cheez Whiz in a Can with them...Ingrid has been talking about it ever since. While we don't usually buy a ton of processed foods, to prove I am not a complete grocery shrew, today I brought those little Ritz crackers sandwiches with "cheese".

The girls were SOOOOO excited when I opened the box for their afternoon snack. Ingrid exclaimed, "Mommy! MMMMMM! It's the cheese wax like my friend [....] had the other day!"

ingridism, sleeping arrangements & death

This morning Ingrid asked me, "when we die, do we sleep in Queen Victoria's bed?"

"Huh??? Explain please, Ingrid," said Mom.

"She's dead, so when we die, do we sleep in a queen-sized bed? A Queen Victoria bed?"

I was laughing so hard (silently) I turned away so she wouldn't see me.

ingridism & motherhood

"Mommy, you are the best mommy in the whole wide world. Except for Mary who is up in heaven."

I received this highest compliment after I told her that I would bake some chocolate chip cookies. Maybe I should make them more often.

desert hike

This morning the four of us went for a short hike -- about an hour round-trip. The saguaro and prickly pear cacti are blooming (a once-a-year show) and we all missed it last year, as Chad was traveling in South America, and the girls and I were up in Washington State. It was 97 degrees when we hit the trail at about 10:15 am. The girls did remarkably well. After the hike, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones from, as Ingrid puts it, "that Q is for Queen Ice Cream place".
Ilsa was pretty warm and "done" by this point. Ingrid was tired, but not wiped out.

The prickly pear cactus has a beautiful flower that blooms for only one day; they bloom yellow, purple or red, even among the same species. They remind me of those paper flowers we made as kids in grade school art class. The flower dies, and the edible and very sweet fruit then ripens. The juice and pulp from the fruit is widely available here in Almost Mexico, and the prickly pear cactus fruit candy we tried last year (similar to Aplets & Cotlets, you Washingtonians) was delicious.

wagon train 2

The train has grown to include an engine, a passenger car, a boxcar and a caboose. It took a little bit of assistance to turn the thing around.

Ingrid said goodbye to her best friend here in Tucson, Faith. Her family is moving this week. The part of military life we just don't love: saying goodbyes too often.

I took Ingrid and Ilsa to The Mall aka, the Temple of Doom, yesterday after church for Santa pictures. We're not a Santa family per se, but we have done this every year since Ingrid was a baby. The pictures are often humorous and do create a sense of continuity for the girls. This year, Ilsa decided, "NO!" She ran away crying. I think she has the right idea. To paraphrase Linus, "That's not what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Finally, a new Ingridism: Hippobottomus - a big bottom. Maybe she has seen me eating too many Christmas cookies.

funny

Yesterday, Ingrid asked me this as we were eating donuts:

What would you call a donut if it was a cat? . . . . .
A bob-a-que.

I have no idea what it means, but it's awesome...

no eyes

Chad went on a long bike ride this morning, and I am home with the girls. As is our Saturday morning custom, I like to provide some kind of special breakfast treat such as cinnamon rolls (the girls actually refer to Saturday as 'cinnamon roll day'), a fruit smoothie, etc. This morning I made a cinnamon coffee cake loaf. (It didn't turn out so hot -- broke in half in the pan.) Anyway, while I was cleaning up the kitchen, the girls were watching Bob the Builder. We repeatedly have told our girls that they can not lean on the TV cabinet, put their feet on the TV cabinet, kick the TV cabinet, touch the TV cabinet. Now I realize we should have nipped this in the bud a long time ago with a hard and fast rule -- you touch, TV is off. Period.

I had already reprimanded Ingrid 3 times about the cabinet this morning (2 too many...) but I was honestly being lazy. Upon the third warning, I told her "do it again and the TV is off." Well, the 4th time (3 too many warnings) came and off the TV went. You can guess Ingrid's response. Not happy. I reminded her of the warning and here was her response:

I wish you didn't have eyes!!

Here's the verse I quoted back to her:

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good. - Proverbs 15:3

She said what we often wish, didn't she? But we KNOW it isn't true. The Lord does see our every little deed, but not as a malevolent dictator waiting for us to slip up. I think I was "waiting for her to slip up" a little bit, because frankly I wanted the TV off. My motivation was wrong in the first place. The Lord watches us for His purposes, I often watch my girls for my own selfish purposes instead of wanting to shepherd their little hearts. The warning after warning after warning was actually doing my girls a disservice. It wasn't showing patience, and ultimately just showed them that "I got my own way".

Shots

Ingrid had to have shots today. Apparently I was not on the ball, and didn't get them administered when she turned four. I was positive I had, but looking back, she was only given a flu shot before her birthday, and I didn't go back after her fourth to have the actual four-year shots given to her.

She doesn't like shots.

I have never seen her soooooooo angry before. I had to hold her down and pin her arms down. Up in Nearly Canada, when more than one shot was to be given, the immunization tech would call in a backup and they would do 3-2-1-tag team! It was awwwwwsummmmmm. Not so awsome here. Four pokes. Separately. With a generous break in time between each poke. Poor girl. I was sad for her. But then she got a dum-dum (lollipop) and a My Pretty Pony sticker, and life was better.

Does God have an opinion about coloring books?

Ingrid got a really cool coloring book yesterday of reproductions of stained glass windows from European cathedrals. The pictures are printed on vellum so you can put them up on windows to let the light shine through the colors. There are pictures of apostles, Mary and Joseph, a rose window...

and....Satan (or as they called him, Fiend). She was really interested in this picture at first, wanting to know all about his pointed teeth and horns. We explained that Satan doesn't look like that really, but probably is beautiful because he is the Father of Lies and an Angel of Light to try and deceive people. She kept saying, "hey, look at Satan, look at Satan."

After church today she could hardly wait to paint a page. She announced, "God wouldn't want me to color this picture, so Mommy, will you tear it out and throw it away? Thanks, Mommy."

Mwafwamayyy

This reminds me of that Jodie Foster movie where the girl lives alone in the woods and speaks her own language. And spins around dancing a lot.

After blueberry smoothies...

"My chest is bleeding for joy! - Ingrid

I guess that smoothie was good.

Gamisch & Rody

The girls were out on the patio by the wading pool today. I asked them what they were doing because they kept coming in and getting kitchen tools. Ingrid told me they "are making gamisch." I asked what "gamisch" was. She said, "it's a chemical that is very dangerous. It can kill you. It's like Satan, but it's not." I find that very humorous for some reason...

I wonder if this is a safety-police approved use of the Rody???

Recent Ingrid-isms and Ilsa-isms

"Arrrrrr!!! We're princess pirates and we are going to knock your house down!!!!" - Ingrid

Ingridisms:

• Disney film, "The Fox and the Hound": "Fox in a Box"
• "Mommy, for Halloween I'm going to be a Princess Jasmine Ducky Bunny"
• "Mommy, for Halloween, can I be those guys on the spaceship? You know, the ones that look like the Wiggles, but in space?" (This took a while to figure out -- she's talking about Classic Star Trek!)
• Star Trek: "Star Tricks"
• Guitar: "biolin" (like violin, with a 'b')
• Tinkerbell (the fairy): "Tinklebell"
• Bellybutton: "Bellybutt"

Ilsaisms:

• Bathing suit: "babysoup"
• Hug: a "hawg", as in, "Mommy, can I have a hawg?"