My two year old

Little Lamb is becoming quite the funny little girl.  She loves her older siblings so fiercely.  She has only just recently adjusted to them being away from her some during the day.  The way she talks about them when they are away at school brings a smile to my face.  She loves her Daddy, too, and insists that he do things for her (instead of me!!) like buckle and unbuckle her in her car seat whenever he is available.  Neither of the other two have done that.  In fact, we’ve had quite a few talks about how crying when Daddy buckles you hurts Daddy’s feelings and is really quite silly.  
She plays with boy toys and girl toys equally and likely has the least gender bias of any of the three.  Belle had a firm grasp of boy vs girl stuff well before her third birthday, but I never understood how she knew it.  Little Bear seemed to know about boy vs girl stuff but didn’t seem to care.  But LL flows so easily between it all.  I guess I thought she’d have the firmest grasp of boy/girl things, what with having a brother and sister to watch.
When it comes to playing Barbies, LL prefers the boy barbies.  There was a time when she carted them everywhere with her, and you dare not touch one without making sure to grab an extra for her.  She has a serious case of the “I want what you have, just because you have it” syndrome.  Originally she called the boy barbies guy boys, then she called them doosh boys (we never really figured this one out), and now she calls them Jonas Brothers.  A few things still remain true: they must be completely naked, you must carry them around by either an arm or a leg, and you must have a hair brush handy for taming their boyish locks.  The funniest part, which I almost forgot to mention, is how she uses her best “low” voice when she plays with them.  She says things like “Hi, there” tilting her head down low and sticking out her precious little lips just so.  It’s quite a sight to see!  🙂
She still provides the greatest challenge to keep happy, but she’s come a long way since those dark and dreary 4-10 month days.  She knows most of her colors, she loves to sing, and she’s growing to like her Bible School class.

But I’m dreading the throw yourself down on the floor tantrums that I KNOW are coming.  If past behavior is any indicator of the future, I better buckle in tight ’cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!

[She’s started them a little at home, but hasn’t escalated to public display…yet!]

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I think I’ve mentioned here before that Little Bear doesn’t quite grasp the notion of phonics like Belle did.  I’m hoping I haven’t already shared this funny LB story already, because it makes me smile every time he says it.

Since Belle had a firm understanding of phonics at an early age (thanks to Letter Factory, not me), I was able to say things like puh-puh-popcorn to correct her from saying cawcorn.  I’ve tried this some with Little Bear, but it just isn’t working.  As evidenced by two recent interactions between he and his sisters:  

First, when teaching Little Lamb the name of one of his super heroes he said “Listen!  Juh-juh-Green Lantern!”  And just now, when talking to Belle about his drawing he said “It’s my wuh-wuh-picture!”

I’d only heard him say “Juh-juh” and then some completely unrelated word before, so maybe we’re getting somewhere.  Ha!

Happy discovery

We have a few unpacked boxes downstairs in the basement and now and then I find myself digging through them in search of something.  They’re mostly just my craft stuff that I haven’t taken the time to organize, but there were a few things we simply couldn’t find.  Like our checks.  Sure we needed to order new ones with the new address, but I knew I only had a couple of books left and I generally only write checks for rent and Little Bear’s preschool, so the address didn’t really matter.  But no matter how hard I looked, they seemed to have disappeared.  

That’s what I thought anyway.  Until yesterday, when I was breaking down the big mountain of empty boxes, and I found one on the bottom of the piles that actually had stuff in it!  All kinds of stuff we’ve been looking for: the other telephone, the stapler, the drawer organizer from the upstairs office area, and the aforementioned box of checks.

We’re still missing the slats for Little Lamb’s crib-she’s sleeping in the port-a-crib.  At least it’s wooden, but it’s the size of a pack’n’play.  I really have no idea where they could be-two long, skinny wooden pieces should be sort of difficult to lose.  They’ll surely turn up the day we give up and buy her a toddler bed.

We’ve survived the first half of this month so surely we’ll survive the second.  But it sure will be easier once J gets back on Anesthesia!  Have a good weekend folks.

Right now, avoiding the radishes

I’ve been concentrating on living in the right now.  Taking time to enjoy the amazing weather we have here in the fall.  And the leaves.  Oh the leaves!  And the mushrooms!  Bigger than any I’ve ever seen before.  I have so many pictures I want to share with you guys-cute kiddie pics, a farm down the road with Texas Longhorns on it, and oh so many nature photos.  The thing is our computer and camera are having a bit of a disagreement and there’s some program J has to buy to fix it.  His paycheck went in yesterday and I told him last night he better buy it tomorrow while the money is there or it will be spent somewhere else.  I’m hoping it’s a quick fix because there are some 160 photos on the camera waiting to be downloaded.  And I NEED to share them with you!  No, not ALL of them.  Don’t worry!

And so, instead of pretty pictures, I share with you some nice anecdotes about my favorite little 7 year old.  I firmly believe that 7 is going to be “her” year.  Seeing her blossom into this amazing young girl is just so much fun to watch.  And though she’s becoming more and more comfortable with around other people, she still saves her best stuff for us!  

We decided last week to finally try Sunday School.  We’ve attended this church for about a year and a half.  It was quite some time before Belle was willing to go to Children’s Church (during the actual service) by herself.  She always resisted Sunday School and I decided it was not an issue I wanted to push.  This year, however, she wanted to try it.  I picked her up from Sunday School and she declared it the Best. Thing. Ever!!  

She’s doing so well on her soccer team.  She’s no soccer stud, but she’s really thinking while she’s on the field.  I’m trying to get her to be aggressive.  It’s funny to watch 3-4 girls stare at the ball, unsure of whose “turn” it is to take it, none of them wanting to hurt the other’s feelings.  She told me today after the game, “I kept thinking ‘I want the ball.  I want the ball’ everytime I played.”  You know what?  I could totally tell that was what she was thinking!

We went on a nature walk today, spotting even lovelier signs of fall with every step, when she brought up the subject of camping.  She said you have to be sure to have a shovel and a bucket of water with you whenever you camp.  My thoughts immediately went to a lack of a bathroom, but I knew that wasn’t what she meant.  I asked if she meant you needed them if you  have a camp fire.  She said, “Yes.  You have to poor the water on the fire when you are finished because the radishes can make another fire start.”  “Do you mean ashes?” I said.  “Umm, yeah that’s what I meant,” she replied.  “Yeah, because radishes are vegetables, honey,” I added.  “Oops.”

And here’s the last story I have to share today.  She decided to draw in bed tonight before going to bed.  She came into the living room a few minutes later with a drawing of a girl in a dress and the words “Eney size 1 2 3 or evin 4 5 6 or 7 just eney”  [Eney=any] I wasn’t sure what it meant at first, until she explained that it is a dress she’s designed and who could we take it to to be made into a dress?  Hmmm, well I don’t really know.  I told her we could hold onto them for a while and maybe we’d figure something out.  She’s added a few more drawings to the file.  And believe me when I say she has every intention of sending them somewhere to be made into dresses.  Sometimes it can be difficult to walk the line of reality and dream squasher.

Drowning

Life has a tight grip around my middle, pulling me ever deeper in the water.  I’ve been in a bit of a funk, mostly because we spent too much last month and I’m playing the never-fun game of catch-up.  You know where you pay bills from last month with this months check, but that doesn’t leave enough behind to cover this months.  So you borrow from the next check to cover this month, leaving something else not paid.  It’s a vicious cycle to be sure.  It’ll all even out before long, I’m sure.  But it’s sucking the life out of me right now.  If I could give up eating it’d be taken care quicker.  Unfortunately, I need that food to keep up with the three kids and husband.

Speaking of J, he’s just started a Neuro ICU month which will certainly kick us all the butt before long.  It’s Q3 which means that he spends every third day and night on call.  Doesn’t it sound healthy to you to stay up all night every third night?  He showed me his paper that he used the other night to keep track of all his patients.  It was completely insane!

[MB-if you could ask your J to send up some good Neuro thoughts for my J, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.]

As it happens, J has tomorrow off so we’re having Belle’s party after the soccer game.  It’ll be a great girlie time with dolly hair styles, pin the purse on the Kit doll game, and making (and eating) pretzels.  I’ve performed somewhat of a miracle in the house today.  Sorting piles, scrubbing floors, filling bags with trash.  It’ll feel so good tomorrow to have it all done.

Unfortunately, I’m not yet finished and I still have a cake to frost tonight.  Back to work for me!  Have a lovely weekend!