memories...

It's finally a little cooler here, and the weeds in the garden are atrocious!  However,  I guess I've been on my feet a bit too much today, and Baby decided I need to put my feet up for a bit.  As much as I hate "wasting" afternoon nap time lying down, it's just about the only way I'm making it through this week, with Steve working so late every night!

So, instead of something productive, I've been enjoying looking back over my last couple months of toddler-isms, and laughing over the funny things they say.

Want to join me?

sisters

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Me: "Hi Sweetie! You're in a good mood, did you have a good nap?"

Ailidh: "Yes, I woke up at my bed at my side!" (on the right side of the bed?) 

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A serious conversation with James about hitting his sister....

Me: "Why did you do that to her James? Does it make you feel good to hear her cry?"

James, very honestly: "It makes me feel a tiny little bit happy and a little bit sad."

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being reindeer (yes, they tied themselves to the wagon)

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Ailidh, throwing her arms around the dog: "Wooster!  My only one!"

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James: "When I grow up, I'm afraid I might have Lydia for a wife."

Me: "Why do you think you might have Lydia for a wife?"

James: "Because I just like to BE with her, so that's why I'm afraid I might have her for a wife, but I like Lydia, so if I did I wouldn't mind."

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trouble

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Ailidh: "Where is my Bessie?"

Me: "I don't know. Maybe she went to the market?"

Ailidh: "I think she didn't. She don't have feets Momma!"

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James, sobbing: "I'm having a hard day! I just want something to be perfect, but nothing can be perfect!"

A frustrated perfectionist already?

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I always knew Ailidh was her Daddy's girl --

James: "All babies come from their mommies bellies, Ailidh. Joy came from Mommy's belly."

Ailidh: "I comed from Daddy's belly."

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James: "We're playing that I'm a wicked boy and Ailidh's a wicked girl; that means she's my wicked wife!"

Me: "What does wicked mean?"

James: "Um.... I don't know."

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taking the family for a walk

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I was playing with Horatio as James was climbing into bed -

James: "Hey, that's MY lovey!"

Me, sadly: "But where's my lovey?"

James: "DADDY is YOUR lovey!"

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At the supermarket this week, I called James, who was wandering a bit. As he came running up, Ailidh yelled from the cart: "What good obedience!"

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When you attempt to use 2-year-old logic...

Ailidh: "I need Bessie! Where's Bessie!"

Me: "I don't know. We're in a rush - Bessie can stay here today, you can get her when we get home."

Ailidh: "I need Bessie!"

Me: "Bessie has to stay here. She's tired. She needs a nap."

Ailidh: "Why she need a nap Momma?"

Me: "She's so tired."

Ailidh: "Why she so tired Momma?"

Me: "She was up all night... coughing."

Ailidh (with a look of scorn): "She can't cough Momma, her mouff don't open!"

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 sunshine girl

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I was listening in on a conversation between James and his friend yesterday...

James: "God is the only one who can hang in the sky."

A: "And people that die. They hang in the sky too."

James: "No, when people die they bury them."

A: "Well, on the first day Jesus goes to church, and after church is over he goes out to where they bury people and he unburies them!"

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J: "Daddy and I have blue cups because we're both boys!"

Daddy: "And Mommy has a white cup because she's an angel."

J, a little skeptically: "Yes, but she's also called a girl."

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J: "Mommy, come look, I caught a chicken all by myself!"

Me: "Oh? Where is she now?"

J: "I put her in the kitty carrier!"

Me, getting a little worried: "Then what did you do?"

J: "I pulled her in my wagon and pushed her on the swing. She loved it."

Hmmm. I don't expect we'll be getting any eggs from that lady for a few days...

 

who needs a parakeet?

Words of Wisdom

Here are AilidhDaisy Words of Wisdom for New Mothers

(or anyone contemplating beginning a family)

1)  Marry a man who needs a lot of sleep.  Especially if you don't.  This may be frustrating for a time, but it will all be worth it if the baby takes after him!  If it takes after you... pray.

2)  Pray anyway.  No matter what, all the time.

3)  God has wonderful design for pregnancy and nursing -- your body will give the baby whatever it needs, even at the cost of your own needs.  The same thing holds true for brain cells -- in fact, the dumber you get while pregnant, the smarter the baby will be!  I do not know if this has ever been proven, but it is a very comforting belief.  It's also why I laugh to myself whenever Steve talks about college savings.  MY children will be geniuses.  Full scholarships, here we come.

4)  Anything the children do that is annoying, frustrating, or downright strange comes from your husband's side of the family.

5)  DO NOT teach your baby to say "Mama".  Concentrate all your efforts on "Dada".  "Mama" may be so cute at 10am, but "Dada" is wonderful at 2am.

6)  Take a weekend getaway with girlfriends as soon as the baby is done nursing.  It will do wonders for your marriage!

7)  Along the same lines, go to bed at the same time as your husband.  Again, this may be frustrating if he needs a lot of sleep, but will do more for you marriage than a dozen weekend getaways.  But never turn down one of those either.

8)  The phone will never ring unless you are changing a diaper.  Not really advice, but I wanted you to be prepared.

9) The world looks better after a cup of good coffee.

10)  When you find out you are expecting, invest in a nice, cozy set of fleece pajamas for your husband.  This will help considerably to ease the tension when you are burning up in the night, and will not allow the sight of a blanket in the bedroom, much less have one touching the bed.  It also helps prevent surreptitious wandering onto your side of the bed during the night as he seeks out body heat under the arctic blast of 2 fans and the AC set on 65.

11) Don't edit your photos or videos too soon.  That 10 minute long clip of the baby rolling to his belly for the first time may seem tedious once he's doing it all the time, but in another 5 years it will be incomparably precious.

12)  Don't share your chocolate with your children.  It will just make them expect it.  Besides, it's bad for their teeth.

13) Remember, potty training issues are not a sign of serious flaws in your toddler's character.  However, they do probably all come from your husband's side of the family.

Thursday thoughts

Okay, this story was too good to keep to myself.

Yesterday morning got off to a rocky start a little before 6am, when Joy, who has just learned to climb out of her crib, proceeded to do just that and wake everyone.  So much for Mommy's shower and quiet time before the children get up.

So, finally about an hour before our morning Bible study meeting I decided it was late enough for a nap, (for Joy, not me, alas!) stuck her in her crib, and shut the door.  She can't open the door yet.  I waited outside the door, listening, but it sounded like she'd settled right down for her nap, so I dashed downstairs for a quick shower.

Coming out again, I could hear Joy howling in the nursery.  Oops, I guess she didn't go to sleep and wants to come out.  So I went up to get her.

And couldn't open the door.

Now, both the other 2 have their own "locked myself in the nursery" stories.  Don't ask me why we haven't removed that lock -- an antique latch is not easy to replace, and Steve just hasn't gotten around to jamming that awful little privacy latch.  (Don't worry, he did it the minute he got home last night)

But back to Joy's story.

Fortunately, the nursery window is only about a foot off the floor and opens onto the porch roof, as does the window from my room.  Unfortunately, the windows are both very small and I was pretty sure my belly was not going to fit though.

So I did what any rational mother would do with an 19 month old screaming in a locked room - I shoved the 4 year old out my window and asked him to go crawl in the nursery window.  (The porch has a very flat roof, and he's crawled out there many times with his Daddy)
Only to find he couldn't get the screen up to get in the nursery.  Of course, Joy has now seen her brother and is madder than ever at being all by herself. 

Here's where it starts to get good. Time running out before we're supposed to be at Bible study (I'm leading!), I decide NOT to call Steve at work and ask him to come home.   Looking carefully at my window and my belly I decided I might be able to get myself through.  If I could fit through the spaces in the metal work of the headboard, which was directly in front of the window. (Moving the bed by myself was out of the question!)

So I started climbing over the bed and through the window.

It gets better.   Having just come from the shower, I was wearing nothing but my underwear and a bathrobe, all my clothes being locked up in the closet on the other side of the nursery!  My pajamas had had oatmeal spilled all over them and there was no way I was going to risk getting oatmeal all over the bed sheets I had just washed. I was pretty sure the bulky bathrobe was NOT going to make it through that window, so out I went, bra and panties.  What a mother will do for her child!

There was one moment when I had most of me through but wasn't sure I would be able to bend the right way to get my head to follow.  The thought of waiting with the very pregnant lower two-thirds of me (in very little clothing!) sticking out of the window until one of the neighbors noticed and called the fire department was not exactly soothing to the nerves.  It was a wonderful motivator, and, with a little wiggling and squirming, I made it!  I helped James get the screen up on the other window and sent him on in.  A few moments later he had the door unlocked and the two of them were headed off for the playroom in the best of moods.

Leaving me, feeling very exposed, stuck on the roof.  The nursery window definitely did not open enough for me to get through.  However, going back in my window and through the contortions demanded by the bed frame was not a very appealing option either!  The thought of a neighbor looking outside again motivated me to quick action, and I gave it a try.

Actually, it was a little easier going back in.

When my midwife talks about the benefits of prenatal yoga I don't think this was what she had in mind.


Anyone else have any good stories about the awkwardness of a pregnant belly, or a child locking themselves in?  Please share!

Thursday Thoughts

I keep a little journal next to my bed, and sometimes at night (if I'm not utterly exhausted!) I'll write down the little funny things the kids do or say throughout the day.  Just one way I'm clinging to the baby-ness, which is already passing much too quickly!
I also sometimes include something that really tickles me here, (in the little box on the top right) but they disappear as soon as I put a new one, so I thought I'd have a little re-cap of the toddler-isms from the last couple months.

Enjoy!

 Summer Days

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Steve, singing to A (whose nickname is "ladybug"): "Ooooh, bug bug of mine!"

A: "I not buga buga mine!"

Steve: "What are you?"

A: "I just buga."

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Very early yesterday morning I was nursing the baby when I heard a little voice say from A's bed, "Is it morning Mommy? I get up?"

"No, sweetie, it's not time to get up yet." I said.

I heard nothing for a minute, then, with a little sob, "Mommy, I havin a hard day!"

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Picking beans last night:

Me -- "JL, you have leaves on your back! You're supposed to pick the beans, not the leaves!"

JL -- "I didn't pick them, they just jumped on me. I guess they wanted a piggy back ride."

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We have JL's best friend A (our neighbor's little girl) staying with us this week while her parents are in England. The conversations between the two of them are hilarious! Listen in on this one with me...

I was explaining to the children that when we got home, the piano tuner would be there, so they could either play outside or be very very quiet and watch. JL piped up, "I want to watch because when I get big I want to try very hard to know what I have to do to be a piano tuner! Do you want to be a piano tuner when you get big, A?"

A replied, "No, I just want to be a person."

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JL, running up to me and sobbing; "I fell on the patio, (sob) and hit (sob) my head (sob)!"

Me: "Oh sweetheart! Let me kiss it!"

JL: "My head doesn't hurt, my hand does."

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JL: "This is my gun. I shot fire in the sky with it. It just shots water at the fire in the sky and puts it out. Because if there's fire in the sky, it might burn Jesus."

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James, reading his Bible to Ailidh --

J: "That's Mary"

A: "She sad?"

J: "No, she's a mommy, she's not sad. She's just..."

A: "She dead."

J: "No, she's not dead. She's a mommy. Mommies take forever to die."

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James, after a talk with Daddy about hitting his sister: "I'm sorry for hitting you, Ailidh."

A: "No, you're NOT!"

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 Potty Training

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James, saying bedtime prayers:

"Bless Mommy, and Daddy, and me, the one that's praying."

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After going to another event at the church where our homeschool co-op meets, James was excited to tell Daddy all about it:

"We went to my school, but it turned into a Baptist church!"

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After helping me shoo all the chickens back into the coop, James ran up to his daddy and said: " I am better than Mommy at chasing the chickens in. That's because I have CHICKEN POWER!"

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James, on the way home from Classical Conversations last week:

"Eliza and I were playing that God just made her and dropped her right down with her whole big body!"

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Ailidh, to a lady who was visiting: "My brodder hit me wiff a stick!"

Me: "Ailidh, telling something wrong that someone else did, when it's already been dealt with, is very unkind. That's tattling."

Ailidh to the lady, whispering: "My brodder hit me wiff a stick."

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James, as he came running in, crying and rubbing his knee: "I feel down in the garden and hurt the elbow of my leg!"

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At our church's fall festival Ailidh fell in love with a couple of ducklings. Someone handed her a feather "to keep". "No!" she exclaimed, a very worried look on her face. "The duck needs to hold ALL his feathers!"

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James, explaining why he yelled at seeing a cricket in the hallway: "I thought it was a stink bug, but then I saw it had big antlers!"

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Ailidh: "Mommy, I need a ice pack!"

Me: "Why, Sweetie?"

Ailidh: "Because, my, my, my feelings is hurting!"

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James: "Mommy, my bottom was snoring!"

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Ailidh, after we went over a large bump in the car: "Mommy, please be gentle wiff me!"

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James: "I loved the train ride! I waved at everybody I saw! Even everybody that wasn't looking at me! But they didn't wave back."

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Daddy, as we were sitting down to dinner: "Do you know why we pray before we eat?"

James: " 'Cause it's hot!"

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Joy: "Gaaa ya yaaa"

James: "She's singing 'Halleluia'!"

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Watching for Daddy

Gift ideas

So, for those of us who are looking for some great gift ideas, here are a few I have come up with, which would be wonderful for anyone you know.

Especially if they like to sew and have a house full of toddlers.  (hint hint, family)

Perfume.  For those days when you feel like the smell of dirty diapers is following you around


Child sized dress forms.  For when you are trying to fit something on your 2-year-old (or 3 or 4... this set even includes a 6 month size!) and they just won't hold still!


  Warm cozy throw.  Because we all hold on to that hope that we might have time to cuddle on the couch with a good book, one of these days...

A Willow Tree figurine.  Because they're so beautiful!  And they might not break it, right?

A Tri-Fold Pattern Pinboard.  Because who doesn't need one of those!

This dress. I, I mean, she, could wear it while doing the dishes...




So, just a few ideas for those of you who are running out of time....

I wonder if my husband ever reads this?

Merry Christmas!