The Family Snowles

Our Valentine /Presidents' Day adventures captured on film.

Rough life on the road, answering so many Valentine prayers.

Slide up, slide down

When Dad wasn't immediately available we made a substitute...

And then another friend.

Wouldn't it be nice.

Blue Face FaceTime Blues

We looove to facetime with Grandma. Unfortunately, if we can see Grandma then Pippa believes we should be able to touch Grandma. When I tell her we can't touch Grandma on the iPad, then Pippa believes we should drive to Grama's hoooouse. When I tell Pippa that Grandma's house is too far away, she pouts and starts to demand we go to Grama'a hoooouse now!

I think she finally knows we won't drive her to Grandma's house. Clever girl that she is, she decided today that she could travel through the iPad. While talking to her cousins, who happened to be at Grandma's house, Pippa asked to go over to Grama's hooouse once more. When I starting shaking my head she turned and tried to back into the iPad with her shoulder. I asked what she was doing and she stated, "I'ma goin to Gramma's hooouse!"

Forging Phobias

Hello humiliation, it's been a week since we've last met.

Sometimes your daughter has an obsession. And you feed that obsession until you can no longer blow up balloons, or you lose the Super Bowl. Then you chide yourself and think that a Valentine Balloon will be the perfect solution. It pre-inflated, helium filled, and features cute animals. And your daughter giggles with delight holding the string shouting, "I got it! Pippa did it! oohhhhh!"

Never you mind that you just watched the Curious George movie and George was carried away by a balloon. Or that your daughter's favorite book tells the woeful tale of a baby that is wafted away by a bubble and plunges through the air (he lands on a patchwork quilt and giggles-good ending).

No, when you leave the store in the bitter cold and wind, you'll say, "Do you have a hold of that, because it might not end well for us" Then it's gone. The string will snap in that frosty air. Your daughter will exclaim, "Oh goodness! Oh gosh!" Your husband will run back inside at the sight of her crumbled face. While he's gone you lose your mind and remind your daughter that it's just like Curious George and the balloon flew away. She'll repeat this. Again and again and again. Then daddy appears and tells her he found a better balloon.

She'll reach for it timidly. You'll pull out of the parking lot and terror sets in. Soon your daughter is crying and tearfully asking for you to hold the balloon. Not an easy task with a stick-shift, but sure. Then once you have it, she shrieks, "No mama, no!" So you give it back and she cries harder. Your husband will look at you dumbfounded and ask what happened in the time that he was gone. You tell him that you explained the balloon flew away, like in Curious George. He'll stare at you like your crazy (rightfully so) and say, "Great so now she thinks that balloon is going to fly away with her...or you."

Yes, yes she does. The balloon is now in our house and she stares at it and cries. She doesn't want to hold it, she doesn't want to be near it. She's pretty sure our house is going to be uprooted (like the movie UP) and we will all fly away, out of reach. This day may be a parenting fail. Cheer up, the balloon will be here tomorrow.

Keeping the Peace

 Leading up to the Super Bowl...when I still had hope and spent plenty of time trash talking Skip...I also committed to converting Pippa to the Broncos cheering section. I failed to realize that the two times she'd watched five minutes of football the Seahawks had won her love. Every time I instructed her to say, "Go Broncos!" she'd pump her fist and yell, "No! Go Seahawks!" And like every class A parent I'd wear her down with a Bronco-Seahawk cheer-off until she'd finally wimper, "Mommy! Go Seahawks too!" 

That fateful Sunday, you know the one where Skip missed his team battling my team because he was flying home, I showered Pippa with orange and blue balloons and pom pom ribbons. All for nothing as she continued to insistent on something green. Green, the color of Tinkerbell and the Seahawks. Green a color that had not been picked two days before by her BFFs. She referred to all blue balloons as Kent's and all orange balloons as Owen's. Therefore she could not play with them and needed her own green colored balloon. She tore off her orange sweater and demanded the blue, purple, and green sweater instead. She chanted Seahawks until I cried in the second quarter, quickly said Broncos too, and continued with that Seahawks nonsense. 

No those weren't happy tears I shed. But I was eerily aware that Pippa had called the game. Hall boys, if you have a chance please send Pippa some game day apparel. I only have six months to get this straightened out!

Lay-ee Bug

Welcome to Land of the Ladybugs...if ladybugs were Asian and beetles.  When we first moved to Illinois Skip told me to climb a tree so he could play photographer (I later learned he had a tree obsession).  After I climbed to a very nice posing branch I noticed a 'ladybug' had landed on my elbow.  Thinking it would be a sign of the bliss to come I excitedly motioned for my photog to zoom in  and then it bit me. Three years later the bite mark (possibly just a pinch) has finally shrunk to nearly invisible. But the emotional scar remains. 

During the holidays we left the Land of the Asian Lady Beetles and in doing so removed all food, water and heat sources. So upon reclaiming our home a couple weeks later I spent a day vacuuming a large number of dead asian lady beetles. Yet I still find many of these bugs in the most random and middle of the floor places. Each new sighting brings a shriek of joy from Pippa, "LAY-EE BUUG!!!"

Really it is adorable and heartbreaking to tell her not to smash they dried carcass. So I have been quickly kicking the bugs into a corner for later removal.

Then one day the receiver of such kick moved out of the way. We grabbed a glass jar, a fancy red cling wrap lid, and scooped up our first pet. I'm not saying this is a moment Pippa will remember forever, but I was elevated to Coolest Mom Ever status (and am now documenting it). She talked to her pet Lay-ee Bug for a forty-three minutes straight. These forty-three minutes happened to overlap with bedtime so Pippa may have outsmarted me. Then every morning we would check on our ladybug, offer some new sticks, lettuce, water. Pippa would also do this without me at any moment I would come to learn. Which is how we lost our ladybug. Twice.

The first time we lost Lay-ee Bug, she flew right by my nose and landed on the curtains. I suppose the mauve hue resembled a bright flower. Sadly for her, but happily for Pippa who came bounding across the room with the glass jar, the escape lasted all of thirty seconds. 

The second escape occurred days later. The bug had been nestled into some bark for a few days. We hadn't seen it move and I was certain it had died. Then one day, "Lay-ee Bug, where are you?" Pippa could not see that ladybug and the lid had a suspicious opening in it. I pulled all the sticks out and confirmed the ladybug's disappearance as well as it's life. 

Two days later wouldn't you know that I found that silly little thing stuck on it's back, legs wiggling in the air, next to a box of markers. I'm not saying I know what happened, but I'm not saying I couldn't guess either (or that this may be just another of the many Asian lady beetles hibernating in my house). Lay-ee Bug is safely back in her jar with fresh leaves and water. Really I can't put her outside to a certain death. 

Dangerous Minds

It is official, I am outnumbered in my house. Concern came with the rather large head that incubated in my tummy. Only a head like that could house a brain that thinks exactly like her Daddy. Exactly folks.

 Example A: Skip stashes duck and goose calls in every corner of the house. Why? So he can practice and simultaneously quiz me on nature's pitch at the most inopportune moments, bed time, nap time, six in the morning. I shouldn't have to explain how I feel about this. Pippa hears the call of the wild though. And she answers. As Skip practiced seducing a duck in the basement I was attempting to cuddle a groggy little girl (refer above as to why she was groggy). Upon hearing the Quaack Pippa yelled, "Dadda! Comig Dadda! Comig Dadda!"

She scrambled off my lap, ran to the stairs and smacked into a locked gate producing massive tears because she couldn't get to daddy fast enough.

Example B: She has never met a word or letter she wasn't fascinated with. Hours of books, magazines and Abcs. For weeks Skippa have been watching India Arie sing Elmo the alphabet. I didn't know. But I did buy Pippa magnetic letters to entertain her. While trying to sing and play I was met with resistance and a high-pitched Abcs Abcs. She kept saying no no no to my singing and then mimicked Elmo from the video clip.

Example C: Pippa and Skip giggling at what the other does all the time. Most recently Pippa decided that Skip saying 'dangerous' is hysterical. Thirty minutes of "dangerous" "bwahahahahahaga"... "dangerous" "bwahahahahahaga."

Example D: This video. It is not nearly as funny when she tackles mom.

Fall Leaves Memories

"This chair is too big," said Pippa Sandilocks.

Ohh...you wanted to hear about the Pippa Sandilocks and the Great Pumpkin, Princess? Here goes.

Pippa Sandilocks grew tired of posing as the Great Pumpkin for Knowlesville so she decided to find a substitute.

As she walked along in search of her replacement she stumbled upon a pumpkin patch.

There hidden was a small round pale pumpkin that felt suspiciously familiar, like looking in a mirror. 

Perfect! 

But when she held it to her head it was too small. 

So she looked some more.

Then she found a colossus of a pumpkin. But it was too heavy!

Her next find had a stem that proved way too long.

Poor Pippa held her head in pure self pity. She would never find the perfect pumpkin.

Then suddenly she looked to the left and there it was.

She heaved and she hoed and she nearly face planted trying to lift that plant.

So she summoned her maidservant to lift the plump sphere and carry it home.

And that dear Princess Pumpkin is how you were bestowed your crown here in Knowlesville.