Last Monday my sweet little Thing 2 started preschool. I have such mixed emotions about this event. Today I finally got a picture with her brother (Thing 1) as she left the car and totted off to school. They are growing up too fast.
There are a couple of things that my children saw that had never been seen before "to them"
One was snow. That is a new concept. They kept looking out side and saying "lOOOK it’s Christmas TOWN!"
So I had to let them go play in the fun five inches or so that they got that week.
Here is our Cally version of FROSTY.
He looks pretty warm 
and physically impaired! But he is ours!
Some of this….
Mixed with this (Red contact paper sticky side out Masking taped to the wall)
Usually at our house we are looking for ways to get messy. I found a cool website that helps mix things up around here without the true mess of everything.
You get this….
It was extreamly fun times.
The site I found this one at is www.familyfun.com
Today I am finding….
Little socks, finger prints, and smudges of unknown substances. I see little pants wadded into a heap forming two perfect circles where their little legs left them. Small treasures inserted carefully into the VCR opening. Shoes separated and haphazardly scattered. Bath tubs that are littered with toys. Kitchen rugs sprinkled with "Rich Chocolatey Ovaltine" so they can fill up the flat bed of the tractor with "DiRT". I see hersey kisses wrappers along side fishy crackers that have been ground into the carpet. One giant green bulb suringe, perfect for sucking out the noses of sick kids. I see the stack of diapers that have yet to be taken to the back porch for morning removal. Small doodles of things they want for Christmas on their letters to Santa.
Today I am hearing…..
"Stop Talking back there! Mommy is lost and she needs to think!" Me (driving in the car)
"Oh no If you are lost Mom that means I am lost too!! OH NOOOO! Don’t go the wrong way anymore OK?" Thing 1
"Mom, Santa has a strange voice. He says, "HO HO HO!" Thing 1 (In his deepest Santa-esk voice)
"You just gotta stop kissin me Mom you’re givin me the Hiccups" Thing 1 (For him Mom Kisses means you’ll get the hiccups. Thanks Higgley Town heros, for that one!)
"ABC DEFG HI JK TUV Now I know My BBCs Next Time won’t you sing with MEEEE!" Thing 2
Giggling finally from the Fish! He has been so bogged down with the winter plague he has lost all his little funny personality.
The other day I ran dead into a wall of reality. Just a small fleeting thought passed through my mind. "This is temporary." I won’t be doing this everyday?? This changes. Instantly I started sucking in those precious little hugs with tiny arms that only reach to my shoulder blades. Or the ones that squeeze the ever living love out of your neck. I want those everyday! Like I get them now. So now it is different, the focus, I mean. Now I am not staying up late to just remind myself what silence sounds like. I am resting so I can hear what my children’s cries, laughs, and conversations are like. Instead of reading my books I am listening to the kids read me their books. Sucking down every last bit of them while they are this little. And hopefully recording all the funny things they
Who knows the answer to "Mom just can’t I stay awake all night?" Maybe a resounding "You go right ahead!"
I am a Pen, organizer, journal, paper goods….Freak. Thing 1 his obsession is Trains. Sleeping trains, plays, and works on trains. I am trying to bring other aspects of trains into his line of site. He can tolerate trucks but there is nothing like Trains. He will watch anything with a train in it. His eyes light up and his voice goes up 4 octaves when he even sees track. Christmas is easy. Polar Express. Christmas trains. GEO Trax. And all things trains.
He just pulled all the drawers out of his dresser and lined them all up and is calling it his bedroom train. HELP. He is so sick with this Crupe/chest cold. He has been avoiding naps and going to bed to play trains.
La-La not so easy. She likes things but not to the extent that Thing 1. This year’s challenge is her gift.
Ok so Thing 1 easy for Halloween. Doesn’t care what he goes as long as he can go around and get candy. Thing 2 TOTALLY DIFFERENT story.
Let’s set the scene….
One Day Ago
6:34 am JD enters store to make costume purchases.
8:00 am JD Begins donning said costumes.
8:45 am The battle stills rages Thing 2 refuses to wear her Cinderella costume. Won’t remove Crown and earings.
8:59 am JD throws two year old Cinderella into car to drop off at Preschool Halloween Party.
9:03 am Thing 2 sees fellow preschooler dressed as Belle. All hatred for costume dies and life is grande.
Seven Hours Ago
I refused to battle the same dress battle.
4pm a fight between Thing 1 and Thing 2 breaks out over spectacles. I was at my wits end. What do you want to be? Small girl big glasses. Here is what we came up with. Last minute mind you.
In my head This was to be this….
this was to be this 
Ok I am so excited for this post. Cause it means somewhere I did write it down.
The Dethrowning of Thing 2
We are all sitting around the dinner table eating. Thing 2 is eating out of a bowl that Thing 1 wants. So he is pushing her out of her seat.
I told him to get his bowl and sit in the seat next to or across from her. He proceeds to pat the seats of the other two offered chairs. Turning up his nose at the first chair he states,
" No Mom that is too HARD!"
He proceeds with care to the next chair and quickly rejects the second chair and says,
"No Mom this one is too SOFT!"
Then he goes over to the chair his sister is in and says, "This one mom is AHHHH JUST RIGHT!"
One more thing….
My small boy loves to avert bedtime. Stories, Books, more prayers, something to eat, drink, toys, monsters, more stories, are all the "postponers" he likes to use so he can put off going to bed. One night he was at the top of his game. And when he had exhausted all of the excuses he pulled out a new one….
"Mom do you want to Talk? Let’s just talk."
Backfire and Empathy
I could be called a control freak. But in this case I would like just a little control back. For the last week I have had a sinus infection. Sneezing, coughin’, and blowing my nose, all sent my legs pinched together running for the nearest toilet.
My Band who is normally a sensitive and kind person when others are suffering, would laugh and taunt me while I ran.
One evening I was running and the Band started to laugh and taunt. Behind me I heard little thing 1 hollering "What happened? What happened?" My Band quickly informed him that "Mommy peed her pants."
He looked at me as I sat and emptied my bladder. And then in his best Mother imitating voice he said, "Oh, Dat’s awe wite, Mom dat is OK."
You see my potty training model has been "No stress and no Humiliation tactics". The model title has been a montra for me mostly. When he has an accident I say. "Oh ok we can try again in the potty next time" all the while I am thinking "oh man that is more laundry, he just peed in the carseat, that is more laundry, he just peed the bed , that is more laundry". Durring the Christmas break he has been neglecting to go to the pot at all. And he strips himself down and says "MOM, I peed in my pants. But It’s ok mom, it is easy to go in my pants. That’s all right!"
My no worries attitude has officially come back to bite me. Now we are trying shooting cereal in the toilet approach. More fun, more times to go on the potty. It is working but, he still prefers playtime instead of pee time.
Between the two of us the pile of underpants is huge every night.
Body parts that are HUSH HUSH.
I was getting into the shower and noticed I had forgotten my towel. Running to get one I was stopped by Thing 1 who had a question.
"Mom, is that your bo*bies?" (Pointing to the extra round belly of mine)
"No that is Mommy’s tummy, there is a baby in there"
"These are the bo*bies."
He looked thoughtful and said, "Oh you have two bo*bies? those are big, those are too much bo*bies!"
(My sentiments exactly) I have gone from negative A to a full sized D cup. And I haven’t started breastfeeding yet. I don’t even know what comes after D. I am really pretty nervous about nursing bras. For someone that didn’t need a training bra until sophmore year in High School this is completely foriegn soil to me.
Don’t we all
Instead of saying "hold me" Thing 2 in her small little voice says "hope, hope!" I guess it is a combo of hold and up. So today I heard her say to her dad who was napping. "hope, hope, hope!" then exasperated says. "I need HOPE!"
I am pretty sure I don’t know who had more fun. Thing 1 who’s favorite things are trains and tractors. We were thrilled to ride both.
We got Pumpkins off the vine, ate carmel apples, and saw farm animals including piglets. We couldn’t have had a better day.
Here were some highlights……
My Thing 2 thinks it is funny to put her finger in her nose. I love the introduction to new people. Hi I am JD and this is my Daughter "finger-in-her-nose". Lately she has been putting it up there just so I can take it out and say ewe! Over and over again. I am trained rather well now so I keep the game going for a mere half-laugh after the fourth or fifth time. She has an amazingly polite,-that-is-almost-worth-a-real-laugh-but-not-quite-thanks-for trying-anyways-laugh. And still I keep trying. She is a lot like her dad or, so I have been told, when he was little. She is shy and quiet. He is anything but shy and quiet now, but when he was younger he was reported to be a tender youth.
Thing 2 has been toning down her super sonic high pitched scream that insects come crawling out of the ground to move away from. In church we especially love when she shows us this talent. Last week in our meeting Pat wasn’t feeling good so I said I would go and he could stay home and nap with the kids. I looked around the congregation and found that there were many sets of parents wrestling their children. It instantly reduced the anxiety I felt over the disruptive behavior that only mine seem to display.it usually starts…oh yeah as soon as we walk in.
Yesterday was tranquil and relaxing and I just laughed as my boy wandered from family to family towards the exit doors placing his train in the hands of any one who would take it. Of course he reclaimed it as soon as they had it for a five second count, and moved onto the next row of pews.
It was a nice balance between freaking out and spending the entire meeting out in the hall, and disrupting the entire meeting with screaming children. Loved it.
3 Things That Scare Me
Being in my bed alone.(This is new),Falling over things, Thing 1 when he pulls me by the head.
People That Make Me Laugh
Thing 1 , Random small children, Daddy
3 Things I Love
Push Toys
Cheerios in Yogurt
Going anywhere outside
3 Things I Hate
My Daddy not being with me when I go to sleep
Being tired
Thing 1 taking toys away from me and trading for a pink pig.
3 Things I Don’t Understand
Why I have to share, Why my mom doesn’t speak Wookie like me, Why I ever have to go to sleep.
3 Things On My Desk/Table
Books, books, more books
3 Things I’m Doing Right Now
Sleeping, snuggling with my blanket, sucking on a "ginki"
3 Things I Want to Do Before I Die
What is DIE??
3 Things I Can Do
Dance, Say the word Shoes Perfectly, Play with playdo and not eat it.
3 Ways to Describe My Personality
Pretty serious, Shy, All Girl
3 Things I Can’t Do
Run, eat with a spoon well, put her shoes on by herself.
3 Things I Think You Should Listen To
All my ramblings in Wookie, How I describe a Puuh-puuh,
3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To
Criticism, Naughty words, any thing starting with the phrase "oh you can’t do that…."
3 Absolute Favorite Foods
Anything with sugar, Dried Fruit,
3 Things I’d Like to Learn
How to swim, How to read, How to talk in full sentences.
3 Beverages I Drink Regularly
Milk (Chocolate if She can get it), Apple Juice, Grape Juice
My good friend and I have been planning a birthday party for out little one year old’s for-ever. We both didn’t have it planned for either of the girls’ birthdays so we kept putting it off until the weather was friendly. In my small town the weather has been down right nasty. Up until this week. We have had some rather "Springish" weather.
So we.threw a party! A huge bash filled with pinatas that were not in the shape of a tiger, pin the crown on the princess, and side walk chalk drawings. We hosted the party at the park where minimal clean up was required, and I was sugar full by the end of the two hours. My children were all played out and tired really tired. I couldn’t have asked for any thing better.
Were some of the highlights….
Thing 2 has officially got the connotation down for the word "NO". Like a pro she uses it for many different things such as "full", "not sleepy thanks", "not the correct object I wanted", and various other phrases that express her preference to something other than what I have in my hand.
She says it while ***regaling me with this face……
I have learned to love that Thing 1 never gave me that look. I am sure he is saving those for a future date and time. (Thirteen to nineteen probably) Oh happy day!!
*** 1: to entertain sumptiously; Feast with delicacies.
2: To give pleasure or amusement < regaled us with tall tales>.
Today you are one. This year you have had many names.
"your legal name"
"La-La", Du-Du, Sue-sue, Thing 2,Bubbies, the girl, Da-da, and the list continues.
You have your dad’s face, your mother’s smile, and a pure heart that is all your own. You smile and the sun shines brighter. You are selective about letting go of the laugh. You save your biggest laughs for your brother who only needs to look at you funny before you shudder with belly laughter. You are patient with him and me as we venture out to parks, libraries, petshops, and the occasional duck pond.
Your eyes can communicate so much more than your two word vocabulary (Da-Da & Hi). You hate mashed potatoes, and tolerate everything else that I place on your tray.
You are accustom to having your brother tug from your hands any object you touch. And have developed a Kung-fu grip that rivels chinese handcuffs. I find you a great companion while shopping for anything. You are so content sitting in a shopping cart just looking at all the pretty colors. I don’t fear toy isles with you.
You do not fear water in any of the seven orifi of your head. Your legs are just being put to good reaching-up-to-grab-everything-your-brother just-got-tired-of-grabbing use.
You have the Band, and your g-pa wrapped around your little finger. You show me what "slow to anger" means. You however are not slow to worry. Especially if your brother is crying.
My sweet Thing 2. We have always felt like you were always here with us and can’t imagine our lives with out our little La-La. Today is your first birthday in a year full of firsts. Thank you for sharing and loving us despite ourselves. Happy Birthday.
Here we Goo!!
I would like to call this post Ode to Band and his color photo class. Thanks to the modern miracle of photography I can look at this face. Thing 2 has not decided if her eye color should be brown or blue. They are in an inbetween stage. I think that there will be a definate change to brown eventually.
But for now I am taking advantage of great shots like this with her eye color. She is so serious and maybe this is why……. 
When she smiles her eyes disappear. I would keep a straight face too if I went blind evertime I was giddy.
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