No School

Yesterday at homework time as we were working on The Boy’s reading sheet he kept point at the bottom of the page and reading “no school.” It was a little reminder that next week is Spring Break and there is no school. All The Boy could focus on, though, was the “no school.”

Fast forward to this morning. After ignoring the early hour he woke up doing is vocal tests. And ignoring his knocks on the bathroom door.

As a side note I have to say that I’ll never figure out why they must petition me while I’m in the shower when their dad is ten feet away and totally available.

Back to this morning I sent him to his room to get dressed. Without skipping a beat he shook his head and said, “no school.” And back and forth we went until I was finally able to convince him that there was indeed school today.

These kinds of exchanges make me smile. It’s not so much that The Boy was trying to get out of going to school. It was more the fact that he read the note, he knew what it meant and he applied it at the first opportunity.

I know there are words he can read. And I know he comprehends some of what he reads. But when I see him put it all together on his own it blows me away.

The kids a genius, I tell you, genius.

Before I Forget Part II

• Her favorite song is “Wheels on the bus”
• She is not happy about having her diaper or clothes changed
• She pushes the chair or bench up to the counter and says/signs “banana!” on a frequent basis
• She just got hearing aides
• They have to be remade since they cause a lot of feedback
• She thinks she can run, she really just starts swinging her arms back and forth fast
• She plays a game with her dad where they spread their arms out wide and give hugs. Over and over and over…
• When we ask her if she’s ready to go she lifts one arm and says “hey!”
• She has a favorite baby that I keep seeing more and more of
• When it’s naptime she insists that I give her and the baby kisses
• If she sees a door open she closes it
• When she’s done she’ll get herself down, from wherever she’s up, and say “bye!”
• She uses the handle bar on the stationary bike as a microphone, it’s the perfect height

Before I Forget Part I

• She has one loose tooth
• She doesn’t want it to come out because it will hurt
• The new tooth is already coming in behind it
• She frequently forgets to put conditioner in her hair
• During the dry winter her hair is always trying to float away
• She is currently getting over impetigo
• It’s taking forever to go away
• She was in tears this morning because she wants to be able to help people and her brother always beats her to it
• She’s a budding photographer
• She frequently will come to me and says “can I be with you?”
• She has a very hard time with changes in plans
• She is almost always in the kitchen when I am and tells me that she “really needs to learn how to cook, so I’ll know how”
• Every now and again she says “you’re the best, mama!”

A Question of Ownership

This ball came into our home a few weeks ago.

It was not by accident. It was in a package from Aunt Cherie. Not a random package, even, as some Aunt Cherie Packages are. No this one came as a birthday present for the dad of the house.

As he opened up the box and pulled this puppy out one particular boy gathered close. Immediately upon seeing this little beauty he pointed to himself and said, “Me!”

Then the conversation between dad and son went as follows.

dad: No, it’s for dada

boy: No, me

dad: It’s dada’s

boy: No, me

dad: It’s dada’s, for my birthday

boy: No, me

And back and forth they went for some time.

dad: It’s for dada but I’ll share with you

boy: Me….and dada

So in the end The Boy finally conceded to share his father’s birthday present with him.

And now the ball lives out of the view of both parties so as not to repeat the above conversation all through out the day.

For the time being.

Conversations

Lately this girl has been big into numbers. She always wants to know what time it is. What time we’re going some place. How long it will be before we leave. She likes to know how many of whatever it is we’re looking at.

Lately she has also been big into telling me what and how to do things. I’m not a fan. But I do try my hardest to remain cool, calm and collected.

A week or so ago as I was making lunch and I was quite certain I had enough peanut butter to make the required sandwiches these kids consume. She did not believe me and proceeded to tell me about it and then to get me more peanut butter out of the pantry. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Miss Thing how many peanut butter sandwiches have you made?

MT: One

Me: How many do you think I have made?

MT: Two thousand

Me: That’s exactly right. Now who do you think has more experience?

MT: You

Me: So do you think I know what I’m doing?

MT: Yeess

End of conversation. And by the way I had plenty of peanut butter and didn’t have to open a new jar.

Then yesterday the whole thing started again. This time with macaroni and cheese. I was in the midst of multi-tasking. That’s kind of what I do. When I didn’t get the ingredients out at the moment she thought they needed to be out she started telling me everything I needed for it. And not in a nice sweet way. More like a hello-you-idiot-haven’t-you-done-this-before kind of way

Me: Miss Thing how many times have you made macaroni and cheese?

MT: None

Me: And how many times do you think I’ve made it?

MT: One thousand and eleven

Me: That’s exactly right. So do you think I know what we need?

MT: Yeesss

End of conversation.

Words We Live By

The other day Over a year ago I started writing this post about the things that Miss Thing says. I never finished it. I don’t know why. But I recently remembered it so I decided to finish what I started. Here it is…

A long time ago my mother had an experience. Her third darling child, yours truly, said the cutest thing. She was quick to share the clever girls' words with others. Someone suggested she write it down. How could she ever forget it, though? It was the cutest thing ever! What were these cute words? We'll never know. She didn't write it down.

This isn't meant to be a story of heartbreak. I've decided to take the above mentioned advice. I've been making mental notes of things that Miss Thing says so that I can make a nice long cozy list. This may take me a few days (I've already started forgetting stuff!) but it will be worth it! **HA! Who knew that it would take me 365+ days more than a “few”**

I smell my nose! Said when she smells something yummy coming out of the kitchen

Jesus said you go ni-night. Said to me the other day when I was trying to get her to lay back down after being woken up from a power nap

Dada, your lucky. We never got out of her why he was so lucky.

William hit me! This had been said more than once. Although on this particular occasion he had his sword while she was holding hers. It was meant to be a duel that she chickened out of. My response to her was to turn around and hit him back!

I need some privacy. Interesting

I do that, no or, I like that, no.

Present day

A year later her speech has evolved more into conversations than one sentence gems. Here are a few we’ve had as of late.

MT: While I’m at school I want you to take your glasses off.

Me: I don’t know if I’m going to get that far

MT: Okay, just think about it

 

Me: What are you doing?

MT: There’s panties in my bum! Her first experience with that particular sensation, I presume. And of course its happening as we’re walking out of school. I should also note that she, like her father, isn’t good at whispering

MT: I’m having issues today. With a look of great sadness.

Me: Time for bed

MT: I don’t want to go to bed

Me: Go in and go potty, please

MT: I’m not tired so I don’t want to go to bed

Me: Time for bed

MT: I don’t want to go to bed, my eyes won’t close

Me: Go to the bathroom!

MT: What are we doing tomorrow?

That girl notices and remembers just about everything.  She likes to know the time and sometimes the temperature. She knows the names of everyone in her class, and how old they are. She knows whose birthdays come before and after hers. “She knows, she knows, she just doesn’t know what she knows!”

She keeps me on my toes, that one.

The Boring Life

This is how our conversation went this morning as I was working like a mad woman in their bedroom. I've been working on the clothes change out of 2010. Not for the faint of heart...

Miss Thing: What do people do in their house?

Me: I don't know. Read books. Watch T.V. Do stuff around the house.

Miss Thing: Oh

Me: What do we do in our house?

Miss Thing: "Noffing!"

Duely noted

Be boring

General Cuteness

Lately, it seems, I'm becoming obsessed with "filming" Little Miss while she is chatting away. It is just so darn cute, I can hardly stand it. Her voice. All the sounds she makes. Gets me every time.

More to come...much much more.

Be chatty

Happy Tuesday

Nothing much happening around here, lately.

I'm somewhat shocked at myself. Looking back at my picture files I haven't been taking very many picture lately. I'm not sure what that means. I have been busy sewing like a madwoman. We've settled nicely into the routine that is the school year. We have our aerobics class, playgroups, PT appointments and all the little extras thrown in there was well. It's been quite nice and a little, dare I say, relaxing from the craziness that was our summer.

The Boy seems to be doing well with school. I got a piece of paper home the other day where he wrote out the first 4 letters of his name. I'm completely amazed at the progress he is making. At yet every few days we get word that he is exercising his stubborn muscles and refuses to do what he is told. It's frustrating for me since I'm not there and can't take in the whole situation. I talk to him at home a lot about minding his teachers, keeping his hands to himself, etc. I'm not sure what else I can do. Sometimes I wonder if he is still "testing the waters" to see just how much he can get away with.

Miss Thing is starting to do some "schoolwork" at home. She is eager to learn, for the most part. So we try to set aside a little time each day to work on letters and numbers and the like. I've learned that there is probably a reason why I'm not a teacher. And yet I'm grateful that there are those who are, and seem born to fit that roll. Many days she makes me want to pull my hair out. And then she'll do or say something that is so funny we can't stop from laughing. Just yesterday as it was pouring down rain as David was about to leave for work, I suggested he take his coat to keep him somewhat dry as he headed out to the car. He headed for his closet to look for said coat. Miss Thing followed closely and got his closet door open for him and as she watched him start to dig for it she finally said, in exasperation, "Red coat, right there!" Pointing at the coat hanging nicely on the back of the door. Such a helper, that girl.

Little Miss is into more and more. Although she hasn't done any worse damage that has already been inflicted by her brother or sister. She gets around very nicely, crawling on all fours. She still pulls herself up to stand in her crib, and now at the tub, but hasn't quite mastered the couch yet. She loves to wave and clap. I've been signing a few things with her, which she loves, but she hasn't quite picked up on them as of yet. So far she has had four teeth that have finally cut. I think we're waiting on a couple more. She has, also, finally discovered the wonders that are the dog. Last night we were too slow to get a picture of him sitting practically on her with her arm around him. It's these kinds of things that prolong his stay here.

So that is us in a very small nutshell. Hopefully one of these days I'll pick up my camera. Hopefully.

Talk To Me!

It's been one month since Tube Day.

I really feel that Miss Thing has been improving on her speech. She tries hard to use correct pronunciation. She tries to use more words and tries to put more of them together. That being said she still can be rather hard to understand. I know that she gets just as frustrated, if not more, than I do. I know that I say all the time how I'm so tired of repeating myself over and over and over. You get the idea. When I sit and think about it, though, I realized that she does the same thing. When she is trying so hard to tell me something she repeats the same undecipherable phrase over and over and over.

This happened the other day and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell me. I kept asking her to show me, but it wasn't something she could show me. She just had to tell me. Finally at the height of her frustration she says, "Mom! Talk. To. Me!" I understood that plain as day. I tried hard not to laugh. Laughing at her when she is not laughing with you can be a really bad thing. It can get really messy.

I keep thinking about the whole encounter more and more. Sometimes I have the same reaction as my initial one. Then others I get just as frustrated as she most obviously was. Mostly frustrated at me. Me for not being able to understand her. And me for being the cause of her frustration. She gets a bit of a bad wrap with all the drama she flings around here. I wonder, though, if most of it stems from the fact that she spends much of her time repeating everything so someone, anyone, might pick up on what she's trying to get across.

I think the irrational side of me. The loudest side, and the side I try not to listen to too often. That side thought that once she had the tubes in her ears the next day she would be speaking in crystal clear sentences. That the charades we go to to understand her would all come to an end. Obviously this hasn't happened, yet. Someday it will, though, that's the beautiful thing. As frustrated as I know I can get at her I know that she won't be speaking her native tongue, Ruthese, forever. For now I'm trying to relish each little thing she tries to say with a little more clarity. We're closer than we've ever been!

The Rock of All Trades

This is no ordinary rock. Well to you it is, and to me too I suppose.
You see, this girl. This girl right here. Loves rocks. If I let her she would probably bring everyone that she found inside and save it from the weather conditions that exist on the outside.

She found this one last week. It took me a minute to catch on. As soon as I did, well let's just say the fun began.
First it was a camera. "Cheese," she kept saying. I think here she is taking a picture of a cat.


Then it served to paint our toenails.

While we were at it, we might as well add some lip gloss.

Then she had a phone call to make.

My mom always said, "You can never have too much imagination."

You rock, girl.

The Pie Dough Thief

The other day I was making these tasty treats. Miss Thing was, of course, "helping" me in my efforts. After my first batch I realized I would need to make another batch of pie crust dough as I cut the rounds too big and I seemed to have a Dough Thief in my midst. I even have proof.




Given the look on her face if she was charged with these accusations she would probably say that she did indeed steal the dough, but she had no other choice. Then she would look at you with her big blue eyes and flash a huge grin and tell you how hard her life is, after all she is only 2 and has it harder than anyone at her house. She is the middle child, for starters. No one ever does what she wants them to do. Her brother is constantly taking her toys, and books and blankets and then keeping them far out of her reach. Her baby sister always pulls her hair, whenever she is in range. Her mother never lets her eat enough cookies and snacks and ice cream and her father is always teasing her. And you. You would probably just go along with whatever she said!

On A Noisy Note

Little Miss is all kinds of noisy these days. She sits and yells no matter where we are, at home, in the car, at church...I've learned to tune it out for the most part. Some peopel find that harder to do than others. Then there are those that think it is the sweetest sound and have to come and see what sweet thing is making such sweet noises. Sweet, that's her alright.
For the most part I don't mind it, at least she is talking and has an obvious opinion about things. Really there is no way to be in this family without an opinion about something! I am learning to tolerate her yells more and more, especially when she started doing this...

The da-da-da's, la-la-la's and na-na-na's started up within this past week. It is the cutest thing to listen to. And makes all that yelling worth hearing when she throws a few of those in.

The Next American Idol

My name is Kimberly and I'm not a fan of American Idol.

The past two weeks, though, I've been in my mother's home (a home that is a fan of American Idol). Tonight I was flipping through channels to find something to watch while I waited for the real show I wanted to watch (The Office, of course). Somehow I landed on American Idol, then Miss Thing started to join in on the action. I couldn't not capture this. She just might make me an Idol fan yet...

For a half hour she did this. I kept taking pictures of her until she started running at the camera "No!" No pictures, mom. I've become the paparazzi.

Language Barrier

I've been a mom for five years and yet I haven't been able to have a real conversation, with two active participants, with any of my children. I feel like they all communicate with me in their own way. And many of the times we can get our feelings conveyed to one another. I am always talking to each one of them, about what I'm doing, what they are doing. I'm constantly ask them questions, knowing full well that they will go unanswered. Most days I feel like I'm doing all the talking and all the listening. Those are the days that I feel the language barrier is stronger than others. There are days when I get easily frustrated that they cannot understand the messages I'm trying so hard to get across. And I know they get equally frustrated at me for not understanding the feelings they don't totally understand how to express.

But then I have little moments, glimmers of hope really, that remind me we are on the right path. I had one such moment happen yesterday at a very unlikely place. The girls and I had just dropped The Boy off at school and were beginning our long list of errand running. One stop included a bite to eat at Sonic (I needed a Cherry Limeade Slush to get me through the day). I had asked Miss Thing if she wanted chicken strips, "yea!" was her response. Then just as I was about to order she said, "No I yant hot dog." "Okay," I said and then I ordered her what she requested. While I sat there and waited for our food to come I couldn't help but think back to our little exchange. It was so pleasant, for lack of a better word. There was no screaming, no one was getting frustrated and everyone got what they wanted. It isn't as if I have never heard her request something. Daily I'm woken up with her standing at my bed, "I yant ma!" (Translation: I want milk). I suppose the thing that struck me was that I had offered her one thing, that she agreed to, then she changed her mind and communicated what she really wanted (that was also available). It was my own little personal slice of heaven...right there at Sonic.

A Week In Review

It's been more than a week since I have blogged and somehow in my head I think that qualifies me for taking a "blogging hiatus." It makes me sad in a way. My mind keeps drifting back to October when I blogged every day. I kind of miss it. Perhaps I will do better this week, after all tomorrow is always a new day...
Over the past week David has been gone to Texas for work. Not my favorite time. When he is gone. But it's for the job, right? It was a chance for me to take one for the team, so to speak.
And then Sunday happened. When I started this blog I had no idea that the dog, the dog I chose to co-exist with, would make so many appearances here. But here is he is again.
I miscalculated how long it would take me to get us all ready and out the door before 10. Then I was having some technical difficulties in printing something for my lesson. Needless to say, next time I will follow the prompting to print things the night before. When I had everything and everyone together I rushed us out the door. The Boy was straggling along, I think he was trying to get my heavy bag he saw was left behind. He finally came out and got in the car, I rushed back inside to get my bag and a couple of other things I thought I needed.
We made it to church during the opening song. Whew. Church was wonderful. My lesson was wonderful. It was one of those lessons where I felt like I was the recipient, I needed to hear that lesson. It was on the Savior and during the segment on the Atonement I just kept talking and I realized (light bulb moment) that my experiences in the past year have taught me more about the Savior's Atonement than any other in my life. He suffered for our suffering. That includes childbirth, four hours of surgery and weeks of recovery. All of it. That is what I learned at church that day. I am so grateful I didn't miss that.
Unfortunately when I came home everything changed. The dog was gone. At first I thought he was just out of his kennel and I started a search (which my followers helped me with). That took all of 2 minutes, my house isn't that big. My heart started pounding and I could feel panic settling in. My house was locked so I knew there was no way some one could have come in and let him out and left. I finally settled down enough to make some calls. First I called David, which was useless as he never answers his phone (sorry, hun, but it's true). I called my mil who called someone from the ward to go out looking. I called the police and animal control. These were all big deals for me as I hate making phone calls, that's under David's job description. I felt like I needed to at least go and look for something (also David's job) so I grabbed something for the kids to eat, bundled them up and got back in the car. We didn't look long, I had one girl falling asleep and another one fussing, but something happened while we looked. This is why the dang dog is making it into my blog, again, in the first place. As I slowly drove through streets looking for him I had told the kids to look for Jefferson while we were driving. Miss Thing was quite content just to sit and eat her cheese and crackers, but The Boy refused. He just kept patting his leg (the sign for "dog") and calling out "Duh Duh," what I can only assume means, "Jefferson." So, you see, I learned something in all of this. William understood exactly what was going on and he was doing his best to find his dog. When we got home, without the dog, I had to physically remove him from the car. He did not want to be home, without his dog.
We all went inside to take naps and have quiet time. Eventually the dog was found and returned home. It was an exhausting day and I feared it did not bode well for my week as a single mother. Fortunately, as you are a witness of, I lived to tell the tale. I had a baby throwing up most of the week and kids that woke up before 7 every day. I was well spent by the time David walked in the door Friday evening. And then Saturday morning (well and Sunday too) I slept in. And seeing as David has tomorrow off I just might do it again tomorrow...

The Interview Chair

It seems as if I have rediscovered taking video clips of my Yahoo's. I have been wanting to do a little "interview" with The Boy for some time because I was pretty sure I knew what all his answers would be (and he didn't disappoint!). Unfortunately he is getting pretty sick of me sticking a camera in his face all of the time (oh the price of fame!). If I involve Miss Thing or Little Miss he usually complies. So here is my interview with The Yahoo's...

Earrings and Umbrellas

Last night I called my sister, Amy, to wish her the happiest of birthdays. As is customary towards the end of our conversation one of us said, "Well I should let you go..." which leads us into a slew of last-minute-quick-stories to really end the conversation. One such story was "Evelyn picked out something beautiful for me." Then Evelyn gets on the phone and our conversation went something like this:
Me: What did you get your mom for her birthday?
Evie: Earrings.
Me: What do they look like?
Evie: They have diamonds.
Me: Wow! Where did you get them?
Evie: Target.
(Now this isn't too surprising. A love affair with Target is something, in our family, that is passed down from generation to generation. Some people pass down things like dishes, recipes or dresses, we pass down Target. It began with my mom and as is right and good Amy is passing it on to her daughter.)
Me: Oh you love Target. What is your favorite thing about Target?
Evie: They have umbrellas there.
At this point I was giggling so much that I did not get to hear what else Target offered besides earrings and umbrellas. Well, Amy I hope you enjoy your diamond earrings and that Evelyn gets her umbrella! Happy Birthday Sis!