Bits and Pieces

I know, I know. I have been really lax with postings lately. Please forgive me. It's been a hectic few weeks. We opened our show The Ghosts of Treasure Island at Adventure Stage Chicago (if you are local, check it out - Emma and I loved it!) and I've been performing in The Crucible, which finally closed last night. Yay! But now I've got some catching up to do.

These are some recent Facebook postings about the girls that I want to make sure and get down so I don't forget...

• Overheard as Emma struggled to dress herself this morning: "Things aren't going well with you today, clothes!"
• While helping Em with homework, I finally hit my limit at her lack of focus. "I'm sorry, Mama," she said. "My brain just isn't completed enough."
  
• Sophie just put on her "pretty" sandals and told me she'd be "right back." Next thing I know, she's halfway down our apartment building's front stairs. When I caught up with her, I asked where she was going. "To Lazytown. My get ice cream with Kai Lan."
• Emma: "When is Earth Day?" Me: "It was yesterday." Pause. Foot stomp. Large sob. Emma: "How come you didn't do something to SAVE OUR EARTH?!"
• Sophie's only been up 1.5 hours and has already had three full-throttle tantrums. When I asked what was wrong, she screamed, "My body hurts! My leg! My ear! My nippens! My evy-where hurts!" Then she added in a whisper, "And the monster kicked my teeth. Vewy scary."
• I asked Em why she wanted to go to a birthday party in celebration of a girl she does not like. "Because I like cake. If someone gives me cake, I will be their friend. I am very nice like that."
• Out of the blue, Sophie came up to me and asked, "How's your butt, Mama?" "Um...fine?" I answered, perplexed. She gave my bottom a couple of pats and declared, "There you go, Mama. All better!"
• After repeatedly responding "No" to Emma's increasingly louder requests for cotton candy, I finally asked, "Why do you keep yelling at me? Do you really think that's going to help?" Through gritted teeth, Em replied, "I keep YELLING at you because you keep answering my question WRONG, so you must not be HEARING me right."
• Sophie smiled at a woman about my age on the street and said, "Hi-iii! You vewy pretty lady!" The woman beamed, and I felt so proud that my little girl could make this person's day. Then Sophie continued, "You look like my grandma!"
• Emma: "I hurt my elboooooow, Mom! I think I need a sling!" Me: "Um...how about a band-aid instead?" Em: "Oh no! Oh no! I'm gonna fank!" Me: "What?" Em: "Fank! Fank! I'm falling, falling..." Me: "Ohhhhh...you mean faint." Em: "That's what I SAID!" Me: "You seem to be gaining your strength back." Long pause. Em: "You don't appreciate my pain, do you?"

And here are a couple images of me as Elizabeth in The Crucible. (Heavy wool dress + heavy scratchy wig + heavy draining sobbing + 24 nights = one T-I-R-E-D mama.)