The Princess and her iPod

I have an alarm set to go off on each of the boys' iPods at 8:00 every night so that if we can't lay our hands on them, we can follow the sound and hopefully find them. (Everyone's alarm is different.) This came in VERY handy one night when Nick's alarm went off and we traced it to the recycling bin, where Amelia had thrown it. Twenty-four hours later with no alarm, that thing would have been curbside.

In addition to absconding with every family member's iPod or phone at some point, Amelia also successfully reset my password-protected work iPhone to its factory settings, erasing all of my emails and contacts. Twice.

So after months of this, Grayson and I finally decided to buy a used iPod for her. And while the boys typically whine, moan and groan about any one of them getting something at an earlier age than any other of them did, THIS reveal was met with cheers.




And she hasn't looked back since. (And yep, the very first thing I did with hers was set an alarm.)

Here's what it's like on a daily basis now:

"Oh, this Doc McStuffins episode is so funny. She does the cutest things!"

"I mean, Mommy, she's just darling."

" ... "

"Hee hee hee hee hee! Just cracks me up every time!"

"Oh no. Lambie's stuffing is coming out. I hope Doc can fix her up ..."

"Oh yeah, Mommy! Doc sewed her up and everything's good. No worries!"

"You should've seen how they resolved that scene. HILARIOUS."

"What? What do you mean, 'We need to go?' "

"Oh, good one, Mommy! Yeah, I want to finish this episode first."

"You're so funny. Good one, Mommy."

[mutters] "I mean, not so funny that you should try that again, but ..."

"Okay, yes, I'll fast-forward through this part so I can get closer to the end. PUSHY."

"Got my purse!"

"You ready? I thought you said you were ready."

"I mean, if you're not ready to walk out the door, don't tell me it's time to go. Shoot. I can't keep this bag on my shoulder."

"Alright, while you grab your stuff, I'll just throw my iPod in my purse."

"Oh wait. Just remembered something I need to get while we're out."

"I'm just gonna add a Note to my list here."

"How do you spell 'diamonds'?"

OH YOU KNOW I KID. I can't imagine any daughter of mine being into diamonds. But I suppose you never know. Also, she doesn't say more than eight intelligible words, if you were wondering.

And since this post doesn't have enough pictures of her, here are a few more for good measure. You're welcome, family.

High Country 5K

I realize that the vast majority of you aren't interested in what we did more than a month ago. However, there are like 11 of you who are. Family people.

And you 11 people have been denied the story of Nathaniel's run in the High Country 5K for six weeks now. As it turns out, when one's mother goes to Hawaii for a week, one's mother's blog gets turned upside-down for an indeterminate amount of time and may never catch up again.

What's that you ask? How does one week in Hawaii equate to suddenly being six weeks behind on blog posts?

Shut up.

Although I ran the 5K with Nathaniel and Nick last year, my lack of training this year led me to the decision that I might die if I did it this year. Like actually die. But Nathaniel still wanted to do it on his own, and he was thrilled that his friend and classmate Alex was doing it, too. So they decided to run together.

"Isn't Alex a regular runner?" I asked. "Isn't Alex really physically fit?" I asked. "Doesn't Alex run pretty fast?" I asked.

Yes, yes, yes, Nathaniel answered.

Uh-huh.

There were lots of runners out there bright and early as Jake and I stood on the sidelines to cheer them on at the starting line that crisp Saturday morning in April.

When the cap gun went off right at 8 a.m., they took off at a brisk pace.

Funnily enough, I took two random pictures of the runners up close as they took off. In this one I happened to catch the 5K's eventual first-place finisher (whom I don't know), #151 in the blue tank.

And in this one, I happened to catch Nathaniel, just to the right of the girl in the neon yellow shirt. I had no idea where he was in the crowd, so that was just dumb luck.

Jake was really excited up to the point where the runners got out of sight. Then he was like, "What do we do now, Mommy."

He was not terribly pleased when I answered, "We wait about 45 minutes for Nathaniel to get back."

I spent the next 30 minutes answering him when he asked, "How much longer NOW?"

I was utterly SHOCKED when Nathaniel appeared over the last hill at about the 32-minute mark. Last year he finished in 41 minutes, which I thought was pretty good. This year he was so far ahead of that time that I almost missed him coming in!

My surprise at seeing him immediately changed to concern when I saw how exhausted he looked. I wondered why in the world he'd pushed himself so hard ... he looked like he was going to collapse or be sick at any second.

He may not look ill to you, but he looked really ill to me. I was yelling encouraging words to him, running alongside him as he jogged the last 50 yards to the finish line, hoping he wouldn't fall down.

I had assumed he wouldn't stay with Alex -- THE SUPER-RUNNER -- the whole race. But he did.

That's Alex in the citron shirt right in front of him.

As it turned out, Alex slowed his own pace down to stay with Nathaniel, and Nathaniel sped his pace up to stay with Alex. Awww.

That led to Nathaniel finishing eight minutes ahead of his 2012 time, and to Alex finishing who-knows-how-much slower.

As Nathaniel crossed the finish line, he veered sharply to the right, leaned against a telephone pole, fell to his knees and threw up in the grass for over a minute.

I'm sure that was super-healthy.

But within three minutes he was up, smiling and ready to rehydrate.

Crazy kid.

Here's proud Nathaniel (and I'm just now noticing he's still holding the baby wipe I gave him to wipe the spittle away from his face) with perturbed Jake.

Jake really expected balloon animals and a free breakfast. Not 30 minutes of standing around waiting, only to watch his brother throw up.

But, good times! See? This is what you waited six weeks for.

Fine. Form a line over there behind Jake.

Amelia's new shoes

Amelia and I made a Girls' Trip to the mall last Sunday afternoon to buy her second pair of shoes. We went to the store where we bought Jake's first pair, as well as MANY others over time, but this was Amelia's first visit to this store.

She measured as a 5 XW ... no surprise, since our kids have all stayed in XW shoes until they hit elementary school. (We have juicy feet in this family.)

They only carried three pairs of shoes in her size in extra-wide, so we were a little limited. The first pair she tried on was a pair of sandals.

They looked really cute on her, although I personally thought they might be a little tight. (The salesperson disagreed.)

At first I thought Amelia was going to be okay with them ...

But she wouldn't even walk to me in them. I couldn't convince her to take two steps toward me.

Strike one.

Next up was a pair of high-top white shoes with pink flowers around the top and pink accents on the soles.

STEEE-RIKE TWO.

She couldn't get them off fast enough. She started untying those laces before I could make a move to do it for her.

Our last option -- shoes that will coordinate with approximately 0.04 percent of her wardrobe -- was a pair of navy blue sneakers with hot-pink flowers on them. And velcro straps.

Not only did she WALK in them, but she scrambled up on top of the nearby bench and jumped up and DOWN on it. I knew we had found our shoes.

They may not go with her clothes, but they certainly suit her personality. She was beside herself.

She jumped and jumped and jumped -- see the blur? And she squealed with delight.

I have no idea how many more trips to the mall I have in store with this little girl over the next 18 years -- I'm guessing more than two. I'm already worried that this completely non-verbal one was perhaps the most pleasant one I'll have.

Moms of girls? What say you?