Lulu was kicked out of Camp Fire this week. She wouldn't listen to the camp counselors giving directive on Tuesday (putting her hands over her ears to ignore them further) and Wednesday, after being given a stern talking to by us about listening to the adults before camp, was overseen taking (stealing) dessert from the older kids lunches that day and then, the piece de la resistance, she vanished during pool time. (Wednesdays, they take the kids out to Camp Namanu for the day.)

It's safe to say that for a good five minutes, panic ensued amongst the grown-ups at Camp Namanu when Lulu was discovered missing.  She was found, in a shower, in a restroom area outside of the pool facilities.

Not good, Lulu, not good.

When the camp director was telling Eddie the days events at pick-up on Wednesday night, she stressed that the safety of the campers is their utmost priority (which we totally get and agree with). Eddie told me later that the director kind of did one of those, "I guess we can see how things go tomorrow, you know..." to which Eddie allowed her to save face by announcing Lulu wouldn't not be back for the last two days of the session. "Oh, I think that's a really, really good idea!" she agreed, relieved that Eddie said to her what she wanted but couldn't say to him.

The frustrating part of this story, is that in all of it, Lulu really didn't seem to care that: she'd been naughty and caused a lot of trouble at camp, or that she had lost her television privileges and wouldn't be going to the beach with us this weekend.

What to do, what to do?

Stick to our guns.

Lulu is going to stay with Grandma while the three of us go to the "apartment at the beach" as Lulu had dubbed it last summer. This stay with grandma is not going to be like the usual, though. No special cereal, no television, no cinnamon rolls or special waffles for breakfast. This isn't going to be the usual fun at grandmas. And I'm giving grandma instructions to put Lulu to work out in the yard. It's penance weekend for her.

And to really drive things home, I bought a My Little Pony toy for Bean to have in the car on the drive to the beach. Boy, that's really going to hit a nerve once Lulu finds out. (Oh, the unfairness, the inhumanity!!!!)

I can't wait.

Bean constantly surprises us. When Lulu was her age (Bean will be 3 on October 1st!) she had quite the vocabulary. Bean on the other hand, knows a lot of words, but prefers to be the keen observer. When she does speak, Eddie and I are constantly surprised by what words and phrases she knows. A sampling:

"No, Lulu, I'm getting napkins, you're being stinky!"

"Is Lulu being naughty, again? Lulu's being naughty." (Bean learns quickly.)

"No, no! I will do that!!!"

"Sesha, look! My mommy is here!"

"Leave me alone, I'm being quiet!" (said to Lulu this morning)

"You watch grown-ups movie?"

The other day, Lulu went into what is now their shared bedroom and closed the door to keep Bean out. Bean kept knocking on the door trying to get in, saying, "Lulu, this our room, let me in, this OUR room!"

For the most part,however, Bean is really hard to understand. She talks like she came straight out of the Bronx. I wouldn't call it a lisp, per se. "Livv me alone! Livv me alone!!" is how she sounds. And then she has a tendency to drop either the first letter of a word or just the first word of two words.  'Snuggle' became 'Nuggle' from her lips. 'Snack' became 'nack'. Referring me to as Wonder Woman is just, "You Woman. You Woman!"

I suspect speech therapy for her will probably be in our future. More often than not, Eddie and I cannot understand a single thing she says.

Where is a voice translator box when you need one?

Bean colored on a picture Lulu had drawn for Great Grandma's birthday today. What ensued was a temper tantrum of the purest kind, where Lulu didn't censor how she truly felt:

"I just wanted to be the only one who was your daughter, I didn't want a sister. If I had known before she was born she would get into my things and smash them to pieces...I just wanted to be your only daughter so I could be spend more time with you. I don''t want a sister, I want to be alone!"

Oh, boy.

I know that it's only going to get worse as they both get older. Someday, they will be best frenemies. For us, being an only child was never in the cards for Lulu. (In my experience, I only know one only child who turned out healthy and well-adjusted for not having siblings and she now oversees the empire that is the beloved Powell's Books.)

I finished my dress over the weekend and plan to wear it to a work event in a week. Here is the pattern and the fabrics I purchased...

The finished dress...

The wrap-around, looped, waist-cincher in coordinating linen.

Fun star-shaped buttons for the neck and a matching fabric frog-closure.

A close-up of the pattern, again. My belt/waist-cincer loop doesn't flair out dramatically like the illustration. Bummer...

Sunday morning, Bean and I awoke early and went up the street to a fab new bakery in our 'hood, BAKESHOP. It's been in business for nearly a year and features (delicious!) whole-grained pastries.

Bean and I bought a nice assortment for Sunday morning including a croissant and ginger berry muffin:

A figgy buckwheat scone (my favorite!)

and two fresh peach handpies. Eddie loves these, they are tasty!

Bean ate a petite chocolat croissant on the walk home, her reward for being my early morning pastry run buddy.

Early morning weekends are nice in our neighborhood!

Friday night found us enjoying a rare evening free from our little girls. The girls spent the afternoon and night with Grandma, and Eddie and I did the date-night concert thing.

First stop, dinner. We went to Frank's Noodle House, a local institution that I recently discovered a few months ago.

It's a family-run business. Here is Frank and his wife. His wife is the chief noodle maker...

Their food is delicious, though, and inexpensive to boot. Eddie and I both had the homemade noodles with pork.

Frank's Noodle House touts themselves as the cleanest restaurant in town. I agree, that place is IMMACULATE inside.

Then it was on to the Wonder Ballroom to see Franz Ferdinand perform.

Eddie and I had tried to see Franz Ferdinand in Las Vegas seven years ago. They played at the Hard Rock Hotel and one of the opening bands was TV On The Radio. However, I was about four or five months pregnant with Lulu and standing on my feet for that long, with cigarette smokers all around me, proved to be unbearable. I started feeling faint half way during the TV On The Radio set and we left so I could sit down. We never got to see Franz perform.

So, we were both looking forward to this concert, as I'm sure you can imagine! And Franz Ferdinand did not disappoint. Eddie captured great shots of the show with his phone camera:

 I think I know why three out of the four band members are so skinny. They sweat the pounds off in their shows! Portland loved them something fierce and Franz returned the love.

Great time out, great music, high energy performance with a long encore. Then home to bed so we could wake up early to pick up those rambunctious girlie-girls from grandma's.

Next month, after nearly ten years of longing and wishing, we finally get to see The Shins!!!

I don't have a Facebook account and have no plans to sign up anytime in the forseeable future. But when I saw this recently on the internet, I laughed outloud.

Eddie tells me it's the truth (and he does have a FB account so he should know)!