Blog Layout Poll

Hi all,
Like usual this time of year, I start to get bored with things. I want to totally reorganize my office! I'm ready to purge, purge, purge from my closet! And, I'm totally bored with the way the blog was looking. So, blogger has these new-ish dynamic views, so I thought I'd give that a whirl. I'm not completely sold yet, but it is kinda cool. So...head to the dropdown menu up in the top left where it says "Classic," Switch it to "Magazine" and see what happens - ooh la la! Now you can see loads of content all their on one page. Or want the full shebang, scroll to "Flipcard." There's every post! Hover over it to see the date and title, then click on it to read the blog. All the normal pages are in the other dropdown menu up above and all the other links and goodies are over there in a panel along the side.
I haven't totally committed yet, so let me know what you think!
Thanks.
C

Quick Quotes: Bea-isms

Bea getting her slide on at Eden Park

Bea cracks us up with her little sayings (even the ones delivered with an evil grin).  Here's a list of some classic Bea-isms that I've been building. Enjoy!

"Hey Now!" 

 As in "Hey Now" don't touch that, or "Hey Now" that's mine, or "Hey Now" I was using that.

"So Funny."

Commonly delivered immediately after something super naughty that is so naughty it is funny but we shouldn't be laughing because that just encourages her. Translation: "I'm so funny."

"Where Daddy Be?"

This is one is generally used anytime she wants to know where something or someone is. "Where JoJo be?  Where airplane be?"

"Oh-Tay!"

Yup, OK = Oh-Tay all day, day everyday around here.

"So Sorry."

We hear this one A LOT.  I'll give it to Bea. She can be naughty, but her little violations are always quickly followed by a "So Sorry" without being prompted.  Usually, the last two are combined. "Bea, please don't draw on the wall."  "Oh-Tay. So Sorry."

"Beep, Beep Coming Through"

...any time "excuse me" would typically be used.

"Bye, Bye, See you Later!"

...pretty much any and every time she is leaving a room.

"BOO-YA-YA!"

For whatever reason, this became Bea's version of "Peek-a-boo" when she was teeny tiny, and it stuck. She's been known to jump out of hiding spaces, yelling BOO-YA-YA!

"Alrighty-Roo!"

She picked this one up during one of her days with Grandma, and we hear it quite a bit!

"Foofa, Muno, Brobee, Toodee, Plex" (and any combination of the 5)

Bea loves all things YoGabbaGabba, even though she doesn't actually watch the show much. She loves her stuffed versions of these guys and just generally refers to them as "the friends." She always wants to know where they are "Where Big Foofa be?" and is known to just generally talk about them all day long in different contexts.  It's adorbs!

"Beba-Triss"

This is how Beatrice refers to herself. For a long time she referred to herself as "Baby" but that's starting to change (although still pops up time to time). The hilarious thing is that she thinks "Triss" is the end of everyone's name, so she refers to us as "JoJo-Triss, Mama-Triss, and Papa-Triss." How cute is that?

"Chetchy!"

Bea's obsession with kefir continues. There is no doubt that she replaced breastmilk with kefir when she weaned back in the fall. She has kefir every night before bed and wants it first thing in the morning.    Unless you know her, you'd have no idea that "chectchy" = kefir.  Since she can't articulate the "k" sound well, she's called it "chechter" for a long time, but decided to personalize it a bit and start calling it "chetchy." And, yeah, it's true, we all call it "chetchy" now, too.

Here's a story: ScissorGate 2013

This is how it all went down.

The Scene: A quiet Sunday morning. Lou & I were cleaning up breakfast in the kitchen while Josie & Bea were playing quietly in the den. 

Josie (yelling): "Moooom! Daaaad! Bea just cut her hair!!"

Me (running...praying....): "How bad is it?"

Lou (also on the scene): "Where is the hair?"

We immediately surveyed the damage. At first glance, it didn't look like much. It was obviously the bangs. They were pulled over to the side in a barrette.  Josie looked a little horrified. Bea looked a little confused. Lou & I were equal parts amused and frustrated (we left then alone for 3 minutes!) but definitely not surprised.   As we continued to survey the scene, things started to not quite add up.  There was the missing hair itself. There was the fact that it was cut perfectly, just under the barrette at an angle that would be nearly impossible for Bea to reach herself. And...there was the fact that Bea hasn't yet mastered how to use the scissors that appeared on the scene. Hmmm...

Lou (gently): "Josie, did Bea cut her own hair, or..."

Josie (interrupting & doing a total "clutching her pearls" move): "Well, I would NEVER...."

Me (gently): "Bea, did you cut your hair, or..."

Josie (equal parts terrified and ready to die laughing): "I did it!"

We all four cracked up at this point. It was downright funny for so many reasons - the fact that they tried to play it off, the fact that Lou had just said in the kitchen that they were being a little too quiet in there alone, the fact that we had totally jumped to the conclusion that Bea did it.  All told, it is funny. We had the obligatory chat about safety and telling the truth and we're trying to get used to Bea with bangs.   They still need serious professional help, but it could've definitely been MUCH worse.  We've had to lock up the scissors for awhile after we caught Bea trying to return the favor yesterday by going after one of Josie's ponytails! Can you imagine? (*pearl-clutch*)

My girls!

I've been having fun with a new app lately.  More and more I'm growing away from my bulky DSLR and moving deeper & deeper in love with the ease of the iphone. (@Afterlight + @Over)

Two visits from the tooth fairy!

It happened. Josephine crossed one of the most significant milestones of childhood -- checking off another box on the log that records the journey from babyhood to adulthood.  Louie and I, sentimental folks that we are, tried hard to celebrate the occasion with a beaming Josie and fascinated Bea when both of us just wanted to hug and cry and lament the passage of time. But, alas, there were teeth to be tucked away, tooth fairies to visit and blogs to be posted.

Josie lost her first baby tooth on March 26th and lost the second one yesterday - just shy of a month later. 

The first little guy was dangling like crazy for days! Neither adult Schneider is a huge fan of wiggly teeth, so (after an informal Facebook poll) we decided just to let it wiggle and to encourage her to pull it herself when it was totally ready. Finally, at piano lessons one night, Josie was doing the good old tongue wiggle and her teacher had to convince her to stop for fear that it would fly out and hit the piano!  We weren't home for 5 minutes when Josie came out of the bathroom wiggling her tooth with her fingers when she gasped "AHHH, It's in my HAND now!"  Out it popped, just like that.  It was a big 'ole deal, complete with a call from grandparents to mark the milestone.

She couldn't take her eyes off of it!

And she felt so proud:

We found a special envelope (that held the jewelry from the wedding of a childhood friend) and tucked away the tooth. Poor Josie was devastated at the thought of the tooth fairy actually keeping her tooth and even asserted that she'd rather "keep the tooth and forget about the money" pleading that she wanted "to be able to hold it and touch it" whenever she wanted.  We worked out a special deal with the tooth fairy to keep the tooth and get the cash. Lucky girl.

The second tooth (or "the neighbor" as we've been calling it) fell out yesterday when Josie bit into a plum at school.  I was SO surprised to come home to another lost tooth, after being in Arizona all week for a work trip. I was also really happy to learn it happened at school and not at home, because then I technically didn't miss it.  Josie was pretty darn excited about this one, too!

Josie is really excited about losing teeth.  She's most excited about biting into apples again. She was missing that like crazy. And so she grows...

"Right Here"

I really need to get back into blogging in real-time. I'm starting to find the new rhythm of working with some still pretty new-to-me devices, but I'm getting there. Thankfully, there are some snazzy new things making it easy.  Vine is fun. I used it a bunch when it first came out, but shelved it when I realized how hard it was to embed onto the blog. But, that's fixed now, so brace yourselves for the flood of viney-video action.  This first one is little Bea who has a hilarious little accent cropping up from somewhere.  I love how she says "Right here." Enjoy!

T

Spring Break Part 4: MSI

It's grainy, but we're all four in it. That counts right?

Even though we were looking forward to some "slow time" back home to end Spring Break, we were just having too much fun on the road to head straight home from Madison on Thursday morning. Add to that the fact that Miss Josie has been begging to go to a science museum and the stars aligned for a day-trip to the Museum of Science & Industry (MSI) in Chicago on the way back home. (So I guess our 3-part spring break turned into a 4-parter.)

We've been to Field and Shedd, and while they're both great for their own reasons, I think MSI is going to become a regular event whenever we are in or around Chicago.  (Especially with free admission thanks to reciprocity with our Cincinnati Museum Center passes. Holla.)

MSI is super interactive and GIGANTIC! We worked with one of the employees to map out all of the "must-sees" for our four hours there, and I bet we still didn't even cover half of it.  Here are the pics from what will undoubtedly be the first of many MSI visits.

Real-life eye spying:

"Floating" in the space shuttle exhibit:

Feeling spooked in the giant sub exhibit (super cool, but WAY eerie):

 Touring a train:

Touching a real "tornado":

Blowing little minds with Foucault's pendulum:

Watching new life unfold before us:

Splashing around:

Testing our strength:

Pondering science:

Shutting down:

Getting a second wind:

Practicing patience & skill:

Doing something crazy (yes, all 4 of us piled into a flight simulator):

Daydreaming about her Grandpa flying across the globe in United plane just like this one:

Mega-plowing (truth told, we weren't huge fans of the "big-agro-biz" farming section):

If you live anywhere near Chicago or you're simply passing through - get your buns to MSI.  For reals. We'll definitely be back.

Spring Break Part 3: Madison

Madison was actually the nucleus of our Spring Break plan. Everything else radiated out from that, starting with "let's go to Madison!" as the impetus for the whole road trip. (Thanks to a "hey, you know you could come to Madison" from that lovely gal holding that other lovely gal up in the photo above.)  If you know the history of the eldest two of the Four Schneiders well, then you know we love us a road trip.  And we would never miss an opportunity to visit Molly. Madison, Wisc here we come!

After the morning at the Water Park, we hit the road with the Lake at our backs and headed in to Madison. The last time we were there was for the wedding of our dear, dear friend Molly to sweet, sweet Dave long before perfect, perfect Jane showed up on the scene.  (Coincidentally, if anyone wants to do the math, 40 weeks before Miss Beatrice made her arrival comes darn close to that last trip to Madison...if anyone wants to do the math.)

We were all really excited to meet Jane! And, you know what else, I was really excited to see Molly with Jane.  It is really fun to see a friend transition into motherhood and Miss Molly Moore, you are a natural!  Our family had a great time hanging around a house so obviously filled with love. It was truly a thing of beauty and a special trip we can't wait to repeat!

Even though the playtime at "Jane's house" got the blue ribbon from our girls as the best part of Madison (and Molly's "homegrown Wisconsin strawberries"), we did venture out.  I love visiting a city with local guides. We had the BEST meals, hit the BEST parks and had the BEST time.

Here's the proof.

Insanely good garlic bread, ice cold beer and all things Italian here:

Scenes from a morning at the zoo:

Ice-cream at the Chocolate Shoppe then lattes on State Street (before dinner - hey, it's vacation):

Delicious dinner at The Weary Traveler - where the girls shared a rootbeer (vacation - remember?), and we ate our weight in Acorn Squash with goat cheese and avocado and enjoyed our first Lake Louie beer.

Like I said, the adventures were great, but my favorite part of the trip was definitely watching our three girls play together. We are worlds away from 1995 in Reid Hall at Miami U, or our visit to Molly in England when Lou & I were barely dating.  Life is beautiful. Truly.

Before leaving Madison and heading back South to Cincy, we did one last tour of the Capitol. What a trip it was!

But, we weren't heading home just yet....