Natural Children

Dear God, make me love my child's natural response to life.

This was the "Prayer from a Mother's Heart" in my MOPS email today.

Here I sit...staring at my kids as one is watching a video and the other is testing his boundaries with markers....(sigh). "My child's natural response to life". I don't even have to think about what this means. I know what it means...it means that my daughter doesn't know that she shouldn't bite her toenails... she also doesn't know that she shouldn't eat what she finds in there...(we have since enlightened her on that subject). Those are just natural things...

Natural isn't the same as socially appropriate. This is what I need to remember. Of course your child is going to stick the smallest, shinyist object into the outlet on the wall.... that is what should be. Each hole has a cog to go in it. That is natural. Doors must be closed. Not with as much abandon as my son closes them, but needless to say.... Lights must be turned off. That is natural.

When my daughter cries uncontrollably when her 6 month old cousin is left alone in the living room (we were in the kitchen) because she thinks that we left her and forgot about her... that is natural. It broke my heart... but how pleasing it was to hear that your child's heart broke for another child.

When my son throws a wall-eyed fit when his shoes come untied....that is natural (maybe a hair neurotic, but that is for another time).

It will take specific prayer to love my kids natural responses to life.... I, in my war-torn life that I have led so far, don't understand these simplicities anymore... oh to have the innocence of a child again. But I guess it is my turn to be the parent. Lord, let me enjoy my kids natural responses to life.

It goes so fast

My daughter and I were invited to a "Mommy and Me Princess Tea" this past Saturday at our church. She was so excited. We went to the Disney Store and bought a new princess dress and found a matching Tiara and necklace. Every day last week she asked me what day it was and when Saturday would come. She was so excited.

Finally Saturday came. We dressed, fixed our hair, and like a teenager on her way to the prom, had the obligatory photo shoot before the big day!

The tea was really neat. She got to paint her nails and wear lipgloss. She made her very own tiara and scepter, complete with glitter. We took more pictures wearing boa's. We mingled with the very popular Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. We listened to stories about the prince who came before us and who was preparing a place for us for when we see Him again. We drank from a real life tea cups and She was in charge of pouring all the tea. She was a very big girl.

When I got home I downloaded the pictures from the event and prepared to send them out to family. I spied a picture of her taken last October at Halloween when she dressed as Cinderella...she was just a baby then... now look... she is a little girl.

I always seem to tire just a bit when folks see us in the Grocery Store or just out and about and while the kids are acting cute and behaving....I am inevitably told "Cherish these times.. they go so fast".

And sometimes... mid tissy fit usually... I pray that they will.

Looking back at the change my girl has made in the past 9 months... that is frightening and sad for me. She will never be that little girl in the pictures any more. She is so much more now. She has opinions and can communicate with me. That is good. She has feelings and can share them with me. That is good. Teenage years are getting closer... that is bad.

She is precious to me. I do cherish these days (I still pray that the bad days go faster though) but even the bad days are good when I give her good night kisses.

They do go fast. The time will fly by.

I hate hearing this.

It is so true.

Toddler-ese and Preschooler Mumbo Jumbo

I thought that it would be funny to post a glossary of terms that are currently or were previously prevalent around our home. This is mainly for my record-keeping (as several folks told me that I needed to put these in my baby books) but I thought that they were funny also:

My Daughter :
Ca-ca - "Sticker" Can get some interesting looks when your daughter says this in public
Cali-Doctor - "Helicopter" No matter how much we try to correct, it will forever be this.
Genius - "Jesus" - can you really argue with that one?
Crab - "Crocodile" - She was never convinced that the large green reptile at Rainforest Cafe was a crocodile... she kept calling it a crab.
Crabodile - "Crocodile" - When we finally convinced her that a crab and a crocodile were two different things, she still insisted that the crocodile was indeed a crabodile.
Chocolate Apple Sauce - "Chocolate Sauce" - Used by her Papa when he gave her ice cream.
Hair cuts -"Hair clip" or ribbon, tie, barrett, etc. Anything used in your hair.
Present -"Swing set" See earlier post. She still refers to it as her present.
Exercises - "YMCA" Mommy goes to "exercises" to work out.
Gave - "Gabe" - Her Cousin. b b b b b
Lobbypop - "Lolly Pop" The kid can pronounce "Spaghetti", yet has issues with this one...



My Son :
Mauk - "milk" Pretty basic
No - "no"
No - "yes"
No - "Can I have a cookie?"
No - "I am tired and need a nap"
JJ - "Any canine...no matter the shape, size or even whether or not it is in fact a dog"
Tank Tu - "Thank you". Yes he actually does say this... it was one of his first words. (mom is blushing)
Peas - "Please" (mommy is blushing again)
Bah - "Ball" or anything remotely shaped like a ball.
Bee - "Binkey" or Pacifier. He says it with such enthusiasm. I am going to have a fight on my hands getting rid of that one...

Gobbles

Some of you have read this one before, but I wanted to post it for posterity.

So, my daughter started her swim lessons tonight. She cracked me up.. she was quite gung ho getting into the water and pretty much stayed that way the entire time. Now, she is in a group with 2 other boys and they both had goggles... so, of course, we needed a pair too....

(On a side note, she is so funny when she is kicking with the kick board... she is grinning ear to ear... I pray that she doesn't go under cause she would drink every ounce of that pool water...I am taking my camera tomorrow and will send a picture of that soon).

So, I told her that we would go to Target to see if we could get some "gobbles".... it took several slow enunciations before she got it right....

Her heart was set on Ariel goggles...(where does this come from?)

We get to Target, search the pool aisle... but only find pink ones.... they weren't ariel, but according to my girl, they will do.

In a last ditch effort, mommy decided to head down another aisle where my daughter, with her insane detecting eyes... spots none other than ARIEL GOBBLES!

So, being the hero that I am (ha) I bought them for her and listened to an incessant "Can you open these? Can you open these? Can you open these?" in the car on the ride home.

When I was putting her to bed, she said that she was going to wear them... I thought...Sure, but goggles aren't fun to wear in bed, so surely she just meant on her head or arm or something.....

WRONG AGAIN MOMMY!

Why you shouldn't feed raisins to a toddler

A wise man once proved the following law of physics: what goes up, must come down. All of my years in the college of Engineering also taught me that what goes in, must come out... simple mass balance.

These are proven facts and non-negotiable.

What I didn't know was that what goes in ... sometimes comes out exactly as it went in. Case in point... give a toddler a raisin.... ha!

So one morning, my husband had a doctors appointment first thing, so he was here when the kids got up. So, I sent him to get my son up... he is really cute in the morning....He is cute all day actually... but especially so fresh off a good nights sleep.

Next thing I hear is "Oh-My-Gaw! Hon, you have GOT to see this".

This can't be good news. He is already walking...so that couldn't be it. He isn't running out of the room, so he hasn't learned to climb out of the bed...Can't think of any other amazing trick that he can accomplish in his 2x3 foot prison, so I brace myself and head upstairs.

Take a moment to picture (for lack of a better analogy) the aisle of a wedding that has been gently adorned with rose petals to guide the bride to the altar in the most gentle and caring way....Now turn the rose petals to raisins and the aisle to a nursery.

That is what greeted us that fine morning.

My son was a very busy boy.

Then I was a very busy mommy.

No more raisins for him.

Ballerina Girl

Little girls are so funny. My daughter and her daddy go on daddy daughter dates once a month. No mommy, no brother. I think that it is good for several reasons: it gives my husband a chance to hang out with her and bond and it gives my daughter a chance to see how she should be treated by men. (This will come into play later when she starts dating... in about 30 years or so...)

Anyway, my husband took my daughter to Build a bear to make a stuffed animal. That was interesting apparently. After initially wanting to name her new beagle "chowder" she decided on "Ballerina". Then dressed the beagle up in none other than a hello kitty shirt, pink skirt and of course the dog had to have hello kitty panties. (sigh).

When they got home I asked her what the dog's name was and she told me "Ballerina". OK. Random, (or so I thought). Cute.

A few weeks later, my daughter was given a box of dress-up shoes. In it were a pair of ballet slippers that lace up the calf. So, we wore those non stop around the house until Mommy "misplaced" them. (She wanted them laced up her calf... since mommy isn't a professional or even amateur dancer, I winged it and laced the ribbons up.... but according to Newton, what goes up must come down, so about every 15 minutes or so, I was relacing these things.... hard to get stuff done that way.)

When we went to Target, my daughter would always want to look at the "big girl" clothes... which meant the ballet section.... Her favorite line would be "I can wear that!"

The last straw was when she came down in her swimsuit and a dressup frilly skirt and those ballet shoes and started to dance for me.

(BIG GONG). Why don't we sign up for Ballet lessons??? Duh mommy!

So she starts next month. It is a trial version over the summer, so we will see how it goes. But last night at her swimming lesson, she saw lots of little girls who were getting ready for their recitals and were dressed in their cute outfits.... up from below my daughter speaks up..."Mommy... I can wear that!"

That was just vomit

You now how sometimes you feel like you are so overwhelmed that your standards seem to fall?
I was walking through my house today looking at the catastrophe that is my living room and I was noticing the stains on the carpet that my wonderful animal had placed on it just yesterday. I was thinking to myself..."Wow.. that spot is hardly visible...but that was just vomit"

"Just Vomit". This makes me chuckle to think about it. That is kindof like saying "it is just $39" or " It just takes 15 minutes" (which we all know in preschooler time is a LIFETIME). "Just fill in the blank" implies that there is something else... much worse. In this case it was diarrhea. Yes... that is much worse.... not necessarily the act (Whoa nelly, where am I going here) but the cleaning up.

So, I have become a connoisseur of fine carpet cleaners. I know what hype to believe and know what not to. I guess I can put that on my resume one day when I go back to work.

I can just see the interview: "Yes, I was a programmer for 5 years and have an engineering degree... oh and by the way, don't bother with Resolve... it just doesn't work... I would stick to Incredible or the Kroger brand... they really work."

It is funny the stuff that you learn when you become a mom. I know stuff now that I never knew that I didn't know. I know that children lick carpet (thus the journey to discover the best carpet cleaner). I know that circumcisions can heal over (YIKES). I know that the preferred method of nail trimming is by teeth... even toe nails. ICK. I know that if you tell your daughter that there are scissors in her nose that she will still continue to pick it, but she will also start to tell you that there are scissors in her nose.

I have learned so so many things... and my oldest is just 4!

Death and Taxes

I am a fairly laid back person, but I have this innate desire to file my taxes as soon as humanly possible.. which to me means as soon as the banks and the employer send me W2's and 1099's. On about Jan 3rd this year, I went ahead and started my return based on my husbands last paycheck and a few peices of random paperwork I had laying around. I set the framework. Based upon my calculations, we were slated to get quite a nice return.
Then reality steps in.
The stock we sold wasn't taxed. Down went the return.
The salary I thought we made was actually a hair larger. Down went the return.
The items I donated weren't quite the dollar value that I thought they would be...(who wouldn't pay $25 for a 15 year old T-shirt???) Down Down Down.

I probably shouldn't do this to myself (and my husband... I IM him the play by play too...one minute we are planning a cruise vacation, then I IM back and we are down to a camping trip...in the backyard.)

I talked to my accountant neighbor and she said that due to changes to some tax laws I won't recieve all my 1099 forms until mid March. UGH. (It is actually the 20th today and I am still waiting). Wouldn't it be nice if the IRS gave us the same grace period....you didn't get all your paperwork until 45 days late, so you have untul June 1 to turn in your stuff....)

never works that way, does it.

I think maybe in my 4th life, I may be a tax person. I love this stuff. I know, I am certifiable.