Orianna and Lily

You must forgive me. I am having a blah day. It is grey outside and sort of grey inside. Maybe I should turn on some lights.... These sort of days are annoying, since there is nothing wrong, nothing sad, maddening, scary, anything. Just blah.

Lily just took a break from jumping on her bed to the rhythm of Wee sing and came out to ask for a pretzel while wearing her pink polka dotted tutu swimsuit and a hot pink headband. Blah is not in Lily's world view. She has been doing okay with Orianna being gone during the day. She checks for the bus about 10 times and thinks any big truck going by is Orianna coming home and runs to the door, but otherwise, she has been being pretty okay. It is interesting to see her personality come out. When Orianna isn't here, she doesn't play with Pollys or Barbies as much. She has been coloring a lot, as well as messing around with magnetic letters, and trains. Apparently Orianna is the one with Pollys and Barbies on her brain, although Lily joins in with gusto.

Justin and Orianna leave about the same time in the morning, so he waits with her outside. I have been realizing how lucky we are to have her picked up at 7:30. As I was walking yesterday, I passed a new kindergartener and his Mom a block away who were waiting out for the bus at 6:35. Yeesh. Orianna was still sleeping. The one thing we don't have though is wiggle room. Orianna has to be at school at 7:50, so this is one of the last stops for her bus. If we aren't ready for the bus, we are going to have a difficult time getting to school on time.  Keeps me on my toes!

This morning was in the 50's, so while Justin and Orianna were waiting outside, Lily decided she HAD to have socks on to wait for the bus adequately. She got out Orianna's skating socks, big thick black ones with snowflakes that go up to the knee and proceeded to pull them up over her pink heart jammie pants and pull on her rubber boots. But it was worth it because she got to say hello to Mr. Trickey, Orianna's bus driver, which made her tremendously pleased with herself. Yesterday, Dad was subbing for a bus driver and Mr. Trickey told him Orianna was doing pretty good, but she would still rather ride her bike to school than the bus. Which is funny considering she has a hard time getting down Grandma and Grandpa's driveway on her bike. Also, I wonder how Mr. Trickey knew that Orianna would rather ride a bike, walk, or be driven to school than ride the bus. I suspect Dad. Orianna is a bit too shy to volunteer that information.

Yesterday, we saw the bus coming up the road, so Lily ran out to wait for it, in her too long blue dress, two braids, and two startling bright red shoes recently unearthed from a closet that she is terribly in love with. By the time the bus got here, she was hopping up and down with excitement. Orianna came off the bus with her face pinched into her I-am-terrifically-pleased-but-trying-not-to-show it grin. They ran into each others arms and hugged for a full minute before walking hand in hand up the steps. I am so glad they are such friends.

See? Just writing all that has made me less blah and more capable of conquering laundry and kids rooms!

pulling her boots on. She pulled one pant leg over the sock and left the other one as is.

 Gilbert with slicked back hair in the bath this morning

Lily took these next few

This is how I look after walking and sitting down to check my email. Except for the wide open mouth. That is not typical.

These crates were $1 at Wal-mart yesterday. I am not sure what they are good for yet, but they must be good for something at $1.

Lily just came out to tell me that she had the purse that has Orianna's money in it. For some reason, she has the jumping rope tied around her as a belt and a purse on her head. She is standing on top of their train. See? $1 crates are good for trains!