Tag Archives: kids

When Parents (Want to) Sleep In

12 Mar

This is what Andrew and I woke up to on Saturday morning:

Crib or Toy Box?

We all heard Nate wake up – Nia was just quicker than lazy old mom and dad who decided we didn’t need to really rush in to him since he wasn’t screaming his head off.  It turns out that that morning he probably wouldn’t scream his head off since Nia brought toy after toy to him, filling up his bed until mom and dad finally came in.  We just had to know what was causing all that giggling.

No Room for Nate

Thank heavens for big sisters.  Because of her, everyone woke up in a good mood.

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Our Own Linus

9 Mar

Special Blankey

It doesn’t matter what Nate is doing – whenever he sees his blanket he immediately puts his thumb in his mouth and reaches for it with his other hand. I can barely get it washed – in fact, this picture was taken right after he grabbed at a small part of it that was sticking out of the hamper.  He knocked the hamper over and kept pulling until he finally had it in his grasp.  All of that pulling must have worn him out because as soon as he had it he flopped over and plugged his mouth.

It’s so sweet how powerful and comforting a favorite thing, like a blanket or doll, can be and it seems it provides a feeling/memory that stays with you forever.  I know I still miss my blankey (it was lost during one of my many visits to the hospital when I was little) and Andrew’s sister (I hope you don’t hate me after this) still is lucky enough to have a piece of her childhood blanket.  Did you have something you cherished too?  What happened to it?

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Hello, my name is…

6 Mar

Ducky? Quakers? Party Duck?

I thought it was a question that would get a simple answer.  I asked Nia what she named this tiny toy duck – instead of hearing something obvious like “ducky” here’s what I was told…

“I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water.”
Me – “That’s right, but what’s his name?”
Her – “I just told you.”
Me – “You’re naming your duck ‘I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water?”
Her – “Uh-huh.”
Me laughing – “That’s a pretty long name don’t you think?”
Her – “No  Well, we could call him Hat?”
Me – “Honey, whatever you want to name him is fine, I just thought “I Live on Land and He Lives in the Water” was a pretty long name to say.”
Her – “I could call him Cream.”  (I think this was because I was putting lotion on her at the time.) “Or how ’bout “He likes to fish when he’s on land?”

I just love listening to her mind work.  It’s so sweet and entertaining – and unpredictable. I just hope she’s not quite so original when it comes time to name her babies.

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My Little “Big” Girl

3 Mar

In these past few weeks I’ve caught glimpses of our little baby girl becoming a little big girl. It just seems like she’s growing up so quickly now and while I’m excited and anxious to see the person she’s going to become I’m also so sad and scared.

Part of my fear is that I wonder if I’m teaching her the right things. I’ve been trying to explain the Golden Rule to her because it’s what I’ve always tried to live by but now I’m worried I’m teaching her to be a push over and I’m afraid it will hurt her in the long run. She’s not even 4 yet and I can already tell she’s going to be a kindhearted and sensitive person – I just need to make sure she has the tough side too so she’ll be able to handle all the a-holes out there.

The other reason why I’m afraid is because I hope I can be a good parent to a pre-teen and teen.  I know all of our parents had to go through it with us but when I think about how annoying some pre-teens/teens can be (I know I was!) I get a huge headache.  I can’t even imagine how much I drove my mom crazy when I obsessed about the New Kids on the Block.  I mean I was a FREAK about NKOTB and some days it was all I could talk about with anyone.  It seems only fair that my daughter will do that to me – I just hope it’s a group that I like too!

Just so you understand how much she’s growing up I want to share a few things she can do now – it’s not to brag and say “look how smart my kid is” because frankly I’ve never raised a kid before so I don’t know if this is smart or just normal – I just wanted to let you know the kinds of “grown-up” things she’s doing now.

  • She knows the words to music that Andrew and I listen to.
  • She can read entire books based off of memorization even if you’ve only read it to her a few times.  She even can pick out the picture in the book that matches the one on the cover.
  • She can write her name and other letters of the alphabet.
  • She says please without being coached (I started crying the other day when she said it to me without me asking for her to say it!)
  • She makes her princesses and princes kiss!
  • She’s getting to be a super sweet big sister.  She helps me with Nate in a lot of ways like picking up his bottle for him when he drops it or by screaming his name to get him to stop fussing for a second (it startles him just enough to get him to realize he’s being unreasonable).   Granted there are the times she pushes him or tries to sit on him but for the most part she’s been so loving and caring – even telling me when he’s doing something he’s not supposed to do.  Tonight she even cuddled him as they watched television and then told me to “take a picture momma.”

    • Loving Brother

  • She goes potty all by herself – but tonight she didn’t quite make it there in time and instead of screaming for us to come help her in the bathroom she took care of it herself.  She came out of the bathroom and told us with hand motions, “I went on the toilet seat and the floor but it’s ok because I cleaned it up – I got some paper and put it in the water and then wiped up the floor and the seat.”  Me – “You used toilet water?”  Her – “Uh-huh but it’s ok because it’s all clean now.”

At least that last one proves we still have some time with our baby girl Nia – even if it means I have a mess to clean.

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Swingin’ in Savannah

2 Mar

Whee!

Swinging Boy

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The Kids

22 Feb

Watching Sponge Bob

Peaceful Boy

What Patience?

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I Broke Her Heart

18 Feb

The other day I accidentally broke a little Snoopy/Charlie Brown frame that Nia had on her dresser.  As she held Snoopy’s decapitated head in one hand and the rest of his body and frame in the other, she told me through her tears, “Momma, this breaks my heart that you broke my Snoopy.”

As if I didn’t feel bad enough now I’m getting guilt-tripped out by a 3-year-old and then she (of course) tattled on me as soon as Andrew came home that night.  “Daddy, look what Momma did – she broke Snoopy.”

Later the next day I super-glued his head back on and even though she was so happy when I gave him back to her all doctored up, she still reminded me how I broke her heart. All I could tell her was that I was sorry and that I loved her with my whole heart.  I think that healed hers because she gave me a sweet smile and told me it was okay and thanked me for fixing him.  I don’t know if Snoopy will be that forgiving though…

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In Case You Ever Ask…

11 Feb

Notes to Nia about what she was like as a 3 and a half year old:

You are a wonderful big sister.  When Nate cries you try to do things to make him stop (either by giving him toys or his bottle or by yelling “NATE! BE QUIET!”  (The yelling usually works best!)  You also try to soothe him.  When he got his shots the other day you gently touched his head and told him it was going to be OK.  On the flip-side though – you are definitely making him tougher.  You are constantly chasing him around the house and that usually ends with him falling on the floor and you falling on him.  Amazingly, he hasn’t been hurt yet.  He actually seems to think it’s fun – in fact, that’s what you tell me when I tell you to stop…”But he likes it.”

You have a GREAT sense of humor and love to make others laugh.  You make me laugh a lot – sometimes you make funny faces and sounds to be silly and other times you say something you think is silly and then you ask me with a smile, “That was silly huh Momma?”

You love books and are super perceptive – always pointing out the little things in the pictures and which picture matches the one on the cover.  I still am amazed at how you do that and how you can read the books by memorization and looking at the pictures.

You are extremely particular.  Whether you are playing or getting ready to go to sleep, you like things a certain way and you will not let it slide.  For example, for night-night time I have to read you books in bed and then you have to drop a purple crayon on the floor like “Harold” does.  You wait to hear the sound of it hitting the floor and if the sound is different than it hitting carpet you want to know what it hit. (It seems like you really like it when it hits something.)  I then have to wind up three music boxes and you will sometimes tell me one is playing just to keep me in the room longer.

You love laying on the arm of the couch as you watch your nightly fix of “Harold.” You are so tiny that you fit perfectly on it – you lay on your belly and let your arms hang down on either side of the arm.  You make it look so comfy.

When you want to make me happy or show me you love me you give me what we call an “extra special” hug where you hug me so tight that I can let go and you don’t budge.  We call it “extra special” because I tell you all of your hugs are special but that one is my very favorite.

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Doctor Appointment Agony

9 Feb

Two freaking hours!  That’s how long Nia, Nate and I were held hostage at our new pediatrician’s office today.  I can understand that if the waiting rooms were packed or something but there were only a few of us in there.  What’s worse is there were no toys/books to entertain the kids, there were signs everywhere that said “No food or drink” and “Take your soiled diapers home,” the fluorescent light was flickering and the boy had to spend an hour walking back and forth on the examining table in nothing but his diaper only to win 3 shots at the end of the torture!

I was losing it!  Nia even said (twice) “This is taking FOREVER!” (Wonder what bad-attitude adult put that phrase in her vocabulary?)

It was so hard picking a new doctor for the kids – we all really like the doctor we had in Savannah.  I mean, sometimes we wondered about a diagnosis or two but overall we never had a horrible experience with him.  This one makes me want to send him a thank you card or something.

(By the way – the boy is fine – just a well visit – it confirmed he’s healthy, small and angry. And if you were wondering – I did have to take a “soiled” diaper home with me since their trash cans were apparently too good for a little baby poo.)

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Pre-K Pressure

7 Feb

This fall our baby girl will be prekindergarten age.  It’s something that has me stressed out beyond belief.

I just can’t believe how hard this is!  I mean, when/where I grew up there was really only one place where every kid went to “nursery” school and after that there was really only one private school so it was pretty much a given that I would just get educated at the school that served my address.  With Nia, there are several choices – from religious to public to private – from half-day schedules to full-day schedules – how am I supposed to know what’s best?

I’ve heard great things about the one religious school and the person in charge of it has been super nice to me on the phone (but like Andrew says – everyone’s nice in this town).  At that school your child can either attend 3 days a week or 5 and the school days only last for 3 hours.  In comparison, the public school pre-k is (of course) 5 days a week and those school days last for about 6 hours.  The other difference – we’ll have to pay a tuition for the religious school but because the public school pre-k is state funded your child is not guaranteed a spot.

So far, the plan is to apply for both schools and see what happens. I just filled out the religious school application and got a little dizzy and nervous when I was asked to describe my child’s personality and abilities.  What the heck do most parents write there?  My son throws a tantrum when he doesn’t get his way – has a tendency to put food in his mouth, chew it and then spit it out – he picks his nose and eats it and continually tries to play with poop.

I just think Nia is such a remarkable little girl and I think she is so super smart – but don’t most parents think that of their kids?  I tried to be as proud and descriptive as I could be without sounding like I was just bragging about my genius 3-year-old.

I hate to think what I’ll be like when her brain really depends on what school we pick.

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