Dave and Beth were in Richmond from late Sunday night until early this afternoon, and we had an orgy of food and beer while they were here (in true Del Bueno/Kimler/Tom fashion).  Mom made her awesome flank steak on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday, after a day of insanity with the girls, we had dinner at Amici.  Sara’s husband Tim is the chef there, and he REALLY took care of us. I seriously can’t remember eating that much food ever.  He kept giving us complementary appetizers, salads, and desserts to try.  Of course we had to!  It was an amazing dinner and I felt so fortunate to know him.  Dave and Beth really enjoyed themselves as Italian is hard to come by in Hawaii. 

They bonded with the girls as well. Yesterday they took the girls to Target for a toy shopping spree.  The girls were almost peeing their pants with excitement when they got a Lite Brite and some other fun stuff, including two huge Care Bears.  Dave kept tormenting Arden by asking her, “Arden, can I hug the Care Bear?” She would squeal in mock fear and run like hell through the aisle at Target to get away from the Bear snatcher.  Beth had never met Arden, and Arden took a major shine to Auntie Beth.  She even kissed her without prompting. In Arden’s world, that’s a big, major deal.  She is fickle with her love.  Heck, she barely kisses me.  In fact today she broke my heart into a million pieces by informing me that she wants to go back to school. I said, “Do you want to visit your friends?” She said, “No, Mommy. I want to eat snack with them, go to the playground, do art, eat lunch, and nap with my friends.”  I said, “So you don’t want to stay home with me anymore?”  She calmly answered, “Well, you can pick me up and drop me off.”  Gee, thanks.  I’m so glad she loves having me home with her!!! She really does miss her friends and her teachers, and apparently I’ve done a sucky job getting any other stay at home moms to go on a playdate with me.  I swear, being a mom is literally one slam after another.  If you work, you get yelled at for “other people raising your kids for you”.  If you stay home, you get the whole “you aren’t socializing your kids properly.” Sheesh. 

Yesterday I registered Lily for Kindergarten.  I was proud of myself for being one of the only moms who had all of the paperwork necessary.  I flew through the registation process, then realized I was leaking saltwater from my eyes as I left the parking lot.  It just seems like a big milestone and while both Lily and I are ready for it, I’ll risk the cliche and say that the past 5 1/2 years have flown by.  It’s insane how fast it has gone. 

I continue to struggle with Arden and learning how to make her listen to me and be respectful.  She’s a handful, to say the least.  It’s so weird that one minute I can be ready to throw myself through a window from sheer frustration and then the next minute, I am melting because she is showing me momentary tenderness by stroking my face and telling me she loves me, or whispering, “Mamamamamamamama” at me in her soothing, “don’t hate me for being so cute” voice.  I’m hoping she magically gets better when she turns 4.

We had a little excitement when Dave and Beth were here - a huge turtle/tortoise (I don’t know the difference, but my dad says it was a tortoise) was in our front yard.  This thing was LARGE.  It looked like it should have been in a zoo.  It was so large that Arden kept screaming, “I WANNA RIDE IT, MOMMY!”  After Dave tried to pick it up and it hissed at him, we decided no one would be riding Mr. T.  I took som pictures - they are in my Flickr photo set along with a couple of pictures of Dave and Beth and our time with them.  If you can’t see the badge, click this link.