The Brattychick

Thomas , David, & Melanie were raving about the movie Where the Wild Things Are . So last night I went to the movies all by myself, for the first time ever, I think. For those of you that are not familiar, Where the Wild Things Are is a well loved children's picture book by Maurice Sendak. The book is certainly less than 100 words long, and so Max and The Wild Things are not given their full personalities by literature alone. The pictures, and what your imagination does with them, fill in the gaps and reach places that words cannot. I was really curious as to how writers Spike Jonze and David Eggers were going to go about stretching this short book into a movie. Especially a book that wasn't theirs. Not one of The Wild Things in the book says anything that isn't in unison with the other Wild Things. I would be terrified to expand on a character that was another writer's vision with only illustrations to go by. And they had to create several in addition to fleshing...

Dad: I was gesticulating. Heidi: The word 'gesticulating' sounds gross. Dad: I know. Heidi: Like a cross between genitals & testicles. It's like the name Celeste. Suh-lut & incest. Dad: If you have melanoma of the hands is that like, gesticular cancer?

What is something your mom always says to you? I will kill everyone! What makes your mom happy? When I finish my routine and when I give her a kiss and a hug and a hug and a kiss. What makes your mom sad? When I go in time out. That REALLY makes you sad. That, and also when I don't clean my room and it's so messy that you can't walk in and give me a goodnight kiss. How does your mom make you laugh? When she does that laugh that you "uh huh huh huh" (dorky laugh) and maybe you can put that on youtube. You can put a video of it where you go "uh huh huh". What was your mom like as a child? She liked when her room was clean....maybe. And she liked thinking about what her children would be like, maybe. How old is your mom? 30 How tall is your mom? She is as tall as 7 and a half of Daddy's Winnie the Pooh toys. What is her favorite thing to do? Saying "I will kill everyone! " and give me a goodnight kiss and a hug and give me hugs and kisses, tec...

Cole : Can I poke you with a foam finger? Thomas : Only if I can lick you. Heidi: Oh no... Miles : Thomas licked my tip nose. Cole: That's insanitary. ... Dad: Cole, give me the finger.

"Mom said 'It's a great day to walk today!' but she didn't take into account that it's blowing like a crack ho out here."

2/18/2008 From age 5-18 I lived in a little gray house in McLean, Virginia. We moved there almost exactly 24 years ago after my mom and dad married. The house was old, but roomy. It was a corner lot with a huge yard. There was a plum tree, three crabapple trees, an apple tree, 2 evergreens, at least 4 dogwoods, and plenty of other trees I can’t name. I climbed all the climbable trees. The evergreen in the back wasn’t climbable because it had thorny leaves, but it was so large that the branches made a canopy that you could go under and be alone. There was a little hill near the house in the front. At night if you stood at the top of the hill, you could see the buildings in Tysons Corner. Sometimes when we came home at night I used to run over there and wish I were doing something exciting over there with all the lights. There was a large area along the side yard where there weren’t any trees. There was a patch of wildflowers that grew there. There were white and sometimes purple clover...

Mom: Babies can be very expensive if they’re not born healthy. Dad: They can be really expensive even if they are born healthy. Mom: Well the insurance company doesn’t care about putting them on the plan after they’re born as long as they’re healthy. Dad: That’s because they don’t have to pay for college. In case you’re confused: My parents sell insurance. My mother is explaining why people can’t get approved for health insurance if they’re a woman who is pregnant or if they’re a man who has impregnated someone. I have two brothers in college. My dad’s hobby is worrying about money.

I have now been tagged thrice ( Jennifer , Jeramie , Kelly) for this little exercise, so I suppose it's time to do it. I'm struggling to think of things that I haven't already written about, especially since I did something similar to this a while back, but here goes. I usually care more for people than they do for me. This is hard to swallow. I would probably be a lot more devastated if you died then you would be if the tables were turned. So you can rest assured that when you think no one cares, that I love you to pieces. Part of it has to do with... ...the fact that I have an incredible memory. I remember a lot more than most people do about each relationship, no matter how insignificant it was. Ask me what I remember about you. You'll be surprised. Sometimes I can even remember conversations verbatim. I am very candid and forthright. I do have some things that are secrets from most people, but I have told all of my secrets to at least one person. Just not the sam...

Nikki: This traffic is ridiculous. I think we should relocate the office to [my mom's] house. Heidi: I'm not coming unless there are tortilla chips. Nikki: Heidi's so fickle, but all it takes is tortilla chips. Dad: Yup. Give her chips and salsa and she'll follow you anywhere.

Top 10 Important Things (Good, Bad and Ugly): Increased spirituality as a person and as a family. A close second is that my relationship with my Dad became much stronger than it ever was, an unexpected benefit of lots of working and lunching together. Worst episode of depression ever ...gained 10 pounds, horrible wisdom teeth extraction (see below), broken washer. Still struggling. All three boys are making huge strides in areas that are hard for them, and were all placed with excellent teachers. Cole and Miles started new schools. I am the Parent Of A Middle-Schooler. I learned to like animals. Jamie said we can get a dog if the house gets cleaned, so the house is cleaner. 10 year anniversary . The "State of Our Union" improved. Halloween at Disney. Thomas left for college and never spoke to me again. David made the cut at DePaul's Acting Conservatory , seems happier....and brought us Melanie !!! Who I love. America pleasantly surprised me. Minorities and women ca...

Dad: I have two squawkers and one bobble-head. Heidi: Yeah, me too...except mine are my kids.

I fished with Daddy yesterday. Mor Mor brought me some cards. And at the fishing place I made a friend. And I saw a huge turtle, I think it was a snapping turtle. This friend's mother and father were getting married at a fishing pond. I went to the beach for a week. It was very great. Every adventure I go to, I'm the person who will help the person who calls me and make them not lonely by going with them. My days that I have are very grateful. I love my mother and father (Jamie and Heidi) as much as their favorite stuff. I love my family so much. I went to church today. I was a little reverent and I hope everyone gets this message. I played on a video game for an hour with Granddaddy. He helps me by helping me play the game. It was a great day.

This movie theater near us is playing free kid's movies on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at ten. They're all old, but we sure don't care. We went to see Fat Albert last week. This teenaged girl cries a teardrop onto the remote control while watching a Fat Albert rerun and the characters all come through the TV to help her out. Initially it seems that she is upset 'cause she doesn't have any friends and because her foster sister is cuter and more popular. Then the movie took an unexpected turn. We find out that the girl's grandfather has died and she hasn't been the same since. Then Fat Albert visits Bill Cosby who tells Fat Albert that his character is based on her grandfather. At this point the movie starts hitting a nerve inside of me that I wasn't prepared to protect with my Walls That Defend Sensitive Things. One of these Sensitive Things being that when all the pieces go together to make up me there's one missing where fatherly love goes. I ...

Dexter recently got potty trained. This is a HUGE EVENT. I have been changing diapers every day of my life for 8 years now. For many (if not the majority) of those years I had two children in diapers. Now, all of a sudden, I don't have to change diapers. I do still have to wipe butts, though. That's another blog altogether. On our third day at Disney, I had arranged for a surprise for my family. I chartered a private boat to take us to go see the fireworks. We had to meet the boat at Disney's Contemporary Resort . There was a huge mix-up. It's a long story and not enough time has elapsed for it to be funny, so I won't get into it, but Dexter wet his pants. We didn't have a change of clothes and our hotel was a good 15 minutes away and the boat was supposed to be there any second. So we took Dexy's pants and undies off, and put an over-sized fleece on him. No one could tell he was going commando under there. The boat was awesome and so were the fireworks. T...

I've finally decided on a name for my Apple iBook. Peaches. Peaches is white, shiny, quiet, and 12" (just how I like my men). The iBook love started about a year ago. I had a broken leg and couldn't get to our computer upstairs. Jamie was using our laptop to work from, and so my brother Jonathan lent me his iBook. I loved it so that I tried to buy it from him, but it turned out that he also loved it. Psst...by the way, have you ever noticed that no one ever loves their PC? Anyway, Jamie and I were sitting in the living room about five months ago and we had a conversation that went like this. "I would love to have an iBook." "Geez Heidi, those are really expensive." "I know. I'm just saying that I would love to have one." "You are such a gadget girl." He is referring to the tremendous cravings I have for various gadgets and my intense love for my pink Kitchenaid mixer, pink flip phone, pink glittery electric guitar, pink iPod, ...

Cole, 1 year My firstborn son Cole turned eight today. Around midnight last night I climbed in bed with him and kissed him on the cheek to say good-bye to the seven-year-old Cole. He is so amazing. His current fascination is chemistry. We got him a periodic table of elements and some sort of rector set that he can build molecules with. Jamie promptly built a benzene molecule with it, which Cole recognized immediately as such. Not only can I not build any molecule, I couldn't even figure out how to make an equilateral triangle with the thing. Last night we arrived home from a week in Orlando with my parents and my brother, Thomas . We spent five days at Disney and one at Seaworld. This was very tiring, but my children were so taken with everything that it made all the exhaustion worthwhile. Every solitary thing at Disney is to make children happy. Highfive. Dexter loved the parades. He just kept waving and saying "HEWWO!!". Occasionally, he would turn around and say ...