Who needs snack cakes of any sort when there is this kind of goodness in the world?
I ate this constantly while I was pregnant with Caroline and then, suddenly, they quit making it.
There was much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments.
But, lo, it is back on my grocer’s frozen goods shelf.
Just in time for bathing suit season.
Perfect.
Our weekend was full of nonstop activity and, as a result, Caroline didn’t get anywhere near the amount of sleep she requires to maintain her sunny disposition. But, because she has the energy level of a hamster on steroids fueled by a pure diet of sugar, she didn’t really crash until yesterday.
She woke up around 8:00 a.m. yesterday morning and then was content to just snuggle up in my bed and watch T.V. for the next hour and a half. I kept checking her forehead for fever because, while I have heard of children who are content to just rest and relax, I have rarely experienced it firsthand without some type of virus being involved. I just knew she was about to throw up in my bed, because I always look for the bright side of any situation.
But it never happened. No fever, no throw up, no phantom virus. Just rest and relaxation.
I did not see that coming.
So we stayed in our pajamas until 2:00 p.m. I kid you not. It was fabulous. And we watched “101 Dalmations”, “Monsters Inc.”, a few “Charlie and Lolas”, and “Tom and Jerry”.
Here’s the downside to a day full of watching television with a four-year-old. She is a sucker for the commercials. It started off with asking if she could have the My Little Pony Teapot Palace (which she already owns by the way) because “LOOK AT IT MAMA! IT’S BEAUTIFUL!”. Then as the day progressed she asked for Lelli Kelly tennis shoes with “ALL THE SPARKLIES!” and Furberry Friends because “THEY’RE SO CUTE!”.
We had to have a discussion about why she will never own any Bratz Dolls and what the word “trashy” means. She informed me that they were not trashy, but were “FASHION!”.
Heaven help me.
Now I’m going to have to take her shopping at Lilly Pulitzer just to infuse some All-American fashion goodness and modesty into her brain.
So, it was inevitable that by noon she was begging for those vacuum-sealed storage bags. You know what I’m talking about? The ones where you can put an entire bedspread, three king-size pillows and a set of pots and pans in a bag, suck out the excess air with a vacuum, and shrink it down to the size of a pea. What child wouldn’t want one of those? How on earth will her childhood be complete without the ability to store things in such an efficient manner?
Between the storage bags and the Bratz dolls, I’m afraid I’m raising a child who may aspire to be a tawdry Martha Stewart.
I told her we didn’t need them and she looked right at me and said, “But Mama! You can buy them on T.V. for only $19.95!”
Awww, my little baby is learning about capitalism. They grow up so fast.
Last night, right before I put her to bed, she put her little hand on my face and looked at me for a long time. Finally she said, “Mama, you can get some lotion for your face that will help it not be all spotty like it is now. It’s only $29.95.”
The T.V. will remain off all day tomorrow.
I know, I know. You’re thinking we just did a podcast but, no, that was about eight weeks ago. It just seems like yesterday.
Anyway, we’ve actually recorded a few other podcasts, but they were either extremely boring or had sound issues or both. My personal favorite of the podcasts that will never see the light of day is the one where Boomama and I actually answered questions for Travis the way we thought he would answer them.
I bet he would have loved that one, too.
We feel fortunate to have Frydaddy joining us again. We weren’t sure his busy schedule would allow him to be back, not to mention an unfortunate trip to Puerto Rico where he almost met his untimely demise in the form of severe stomach flu.
But, here we are, back again. As usual we cover topics ranging from musical influences to shoes to March Madness. I’m sure you’ll be enthralled.
So, now that I’ve got y’all over here, I guess I need to say something interesting. Of course, why deviate from the norm just because I’m in a new location?
I’m all about living up to your expectations of random content.
P and Caroline celebrated Good Friday by heading to the ranch to do some fishing. With this move, he singlehandedly trumped all my big Spring Break activities, including the trip to Target and the $1.00 popcorn.
He even bought minnows to use as bait. Seriously, I can’t compete with the minnows.
And I certainly can’t compete with this.
Those huge catfish? Caroline caught those.
Not only did she catch them, but she also touched them. With her hands. With her little baby hands that used to smell like a combination of lavender and Cheerios all the time.
Friday night she went to spend the night with Mimi and Bops and they brought her home Saturday morning after a stop at Shipley’s Donuts.
She brought me one. Slightly used.
Tasty.
She’d been home exactly five seconds before she begged to start dyeing Easter eggs. Did I spell dyeing right? It doesn’t look right but, frankly, I’m just barely coming out of my baked french toast hangover and haven’t the strength to look it up in a dictionary.
So, I boiled us some eggs and took the whole dyeing operation outside because I know the limits of my sanity and Easter egg dye in my house clearly exceeds those limits. Especially when the chief egg dyer uses a technique called PLOPPING THE EGGS right into a full cup of vinegar, dye and water.
And look what kind of egg dye we bought.
Disney. Those folks have got themselves quite the marketing department.
Don’t think they wouldn’t emblazon DISNEY PRINCESSES right across the Easter Bunny’s rear end if given half a chance. Or try to incorporate Snow White and Sleeping Beauty into the Resurrection Story if they weren’t afraid of going to hell.
On Saturday night, P fried Caroline’s catfish for dinner and she was so proud. Then it was time for bed and we put out carrots for the Easter Bunny. She asked me if the Easter Bunny came down the chimney and I just mumbled something under my breath.
I realize that Santa is also make believe, but the Easter Bunny just seems like a ridiculous concept. I mean, really? A huge bunny that carries around eggs for kids? That doesn’t even make good sense.
Clearly, an elderly gentleman who lives with elves and travels with reindeer is much more realistic.
Then I had to watch the Aggies lose a heartbreaker to UCLA. It was so close. I could see us in the Final Four. With Duke out of the tournament, we’d have such a great shot. But, alas, ten minutes of no offensive production doesn’t really win games and bad calls by refs don’t help either. Boomama instant messaged me (is that how you say it? IM’d me? Ichatted me?) when there were about five minutes left in the game and offered to start vacuuming because that strategy has helped Mississippi State win some games.
A friend who offers to vacuum in your NCAA tournament time of need is a friend indeed.
You can embroider that on a pillow if you’d like.
Caroline woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to see if the Easter Bunny had made it to our house. Sure enough, there were eggs to hunt and candy to eat.
We got dressed for church and even made it on time which, in and of itself, was some sort of Easter miracle.
Mimi, Bops, my sister and her family all came over for Easter brunch. We put a serious dent in the baked french toast and the sausage and egg breakfast casserole and then watched Caroline and Sarah hunt for Easter eggs.
And this is where I would love to wrap this up all neatly with a big Easter bow but, like I said, the baked french toast combined with the Cadbury Egg chaser isn’t for amateurs. I’m going to need to really sleep this off before I’m able to function at full capacity again.
So, I’ll just end with this.
Easter. It was good.
Caroline and I were lying in my bed, watching 101 Dalmations and just resting after a busy morning full of church, Easter egg hunts and too many chocolate eggs.
“Mama, I’m bored. Let’s go somewhere.”
“Baby, everything’s closed today.”
“But I want to do something fun. Can we go bowling?”
“No, the bowling alleys are closed.”
“Can I go to the park?”
“No, it’s Easter. We’ve had a busy morning and now it’s just time to relax. That’s what you do on Easter.”
“Can we go to another town where they don’t celebrate Easter?”
WELCOME TO THE NEW HOME OF BIG MAMA.
I decided to change the site because of multiple technical issues, but from here on out this will be home sweet home.
There were multiple problems with my former webhosting service, but I’m now being hosted through Webex Domains and I cannot thank them enough for all their help.
And, as for my fab new look, it’s by the lovely and talented Jules at Everyday Design. I adore it. In fact, it made me clap my hands when I saw it for the first time.
So here’s what I need from y’all. Please re-subscribe to the new url which is thebigmamablog.com. Also, if you link to me on your blogroll I will love you forever if you’ll take the time to change the url there as well.
I promise I’ll never put y’all through all these changes again. I was just in dire need of a total blog cleanse.
As a reward, here’s Caroline singing an Easter classic.
Well, it’s not really a traditional classic, but it’s Caroline’s idea of the perfect Easter song.
Happy Easter from Big Mama on Vimeo.
And in case you’re wondering, the hippo’s name is Butterfly.
Apparently all the cool hippos are wearing hot pink, velour jogging outfits these days.
Who knew?
And remember, don’t forget to re-subscribe and change the link on your blogroll. Y’all are the best.
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