Playing house, ninja-style

My kids like to play house. They call it "playing Mommies and Daddies" or "Mommies and babies." Their version also involves the baby crying all. the. time. Recently Elijah and Rose were playing on their own. Rose told Elijah it was his turn to be the Mommy, and that she would be the baby. It was pretty hilarious to watch and hear him spend the whole time running around, fighting imaginary "bad guys," and have him run in and tell me he had to "get the bad guys away from the baby." Ha ha. He still insisted that he was the "Mommy," but he definitely had a different handle on how to get the job done.

Library Legos Lab

Because we don't have enough Lego bricks at home (hah!) Jack begged me to sign him up for the Saturday afternoon Lego lab at the library. You reserve a spot on the sign up list, arrive that afternoon to bins of loose Lego bricks, pick up a name tag and mat, and then build away. Rose wanted to go, too, so the three of us went to see what it was all about. For some reason Rose wanted me to help her make something, even though she is completely capable of making all kinds of creations at home. They built, had their pictures taken, had a snack, and then we went home. After the second Lego lab I realized that the real motivator was the snack. From the moment we got there, Rose and Jack were talking about what kind of snack would be provided and when.

So...

I think we'll be sticking to playing with Legos at home and leaving the library Legos to the other kids.

First Friday Spanish Story time

When we were living in Lubbock and I was adjusting from working and teaching full-time to being a mom full-time, I made friends with the children's librarian at the public library and volunteered to lead a story time in Spanish once a month. It was a lot of fun, good for me, good for the kids, and so I finally decided to work out something similar where we live now.

The children's librarian and I worked out a schedule at the beginning of the year, and First Friday Spanish Story time was born. Our last story time had a cinco de mayo theme since it was at the beginning of May. We are taking a break through the summer and will start up again in September. 

The library has a lot of great resources in Spanish, including a bunch of big books someone donated. I sometimes supplement with my own books and music, and for the cinco de mayo party I brought along my neglected guitar and entertained the preschool set and their moms. Rose and Elijah don't understand much of the Spanish, so they can get a little distracted or more interested in drawing attention to themselves, but for the most part it has been fun.

Little swimmer

This year I traded piano lessons for a friend's daughters for swimming lessons for Rose. She has loved it.

And I have been a total slacker at getting her the right kind of goggles and letting her practice with her "diving toys" in the bath tub.

Rose had a birthday!

Rose turned five. She has grown several inches, cut her hair several times, changed her clothes many times, decided to be a clown, a teacher, a mom, and an artist when she grows up, and then changed her mind.

She loves preschool with friends, playing at the park, participating in Primary at church, and going to speech classes at the school with Mrs. Powell. She can't wait until she grows up so she can have unlimited access to money, car keys, and screen time. Help.






















We love our Rose. She gives the best hugs, makes us laugh, and has enough energy for everyone in our family combined.

The boss and the baby

So when I wrote the title, I was thinking Elijah was the boss and Rose the baby in these pictures.

Sometimes Rose is the boss and Elijah is the baby.

Most of the time, though, the baby is the boss. And he wants it his way, even though he doesn't always get it.

He keeps on trying though. Everyday he tells me, "I not take a nap today." He tells me every time I change his diaper, every time we have a drink, and every time I sit down to read him a book or pick him up. In other words, at any moment when he thinks it's possible that I might be getting ready to take him into his room and put him in his crib. He still takes a nap almost every day, and he still cries every time. What can I say? He is definitely my child. I was always worried about missing out on something good. So I tell him all the fun things we will do after he wakes up from his nap, sing him a song, get him a drink, and tell him I love him. Then he cries and screams as I shut the door, and then he falls asleep.

Thanks for pushing the stroller down that hill. Now if you'd just grow tall enough to sit on the toilet by yourself!

Breakfast with Santa

A friend gave us tickets to the Waco Junior League's Breakfast with Santa event.

I made a huge effort for once and made Rose wear something "Christmasy" and accessorized with pink shoes and skirt.

I put on make up, fixed my hair and wore a skirt and jacket.

I'm so glad I didn't just show up in jeans and a t-shirt. Most of the other kids there were wearing matching Christmas pajamas and giant hair bows, and accompanied by entourages of parents and grandparents.

We had a fancy catered breakfast. Rose loved the little sausages.

There were fun life-sized decorations.

They gave each child a huge jingle bell, and then asked them all to hold the bells still while Santa read The Polar Express. Ha.

Rose visited the hot chocolate bar several times, mostly for the sprinkles and marshmallows.

They made a craft while waiting for their turn for a picture with Santa.

Rose was all over the photo ops.

Elijah kept his distance, but the whole experience was an 11 as far as Rose was concerned. Everything a kid could want in a breakfast party. Thank you, Amber!!!

Crazy

Jack Jack asked me today why some kids we know (including some in our own family) do crazy things.

This led to a discussion about growth and development and the part of our brain that helps us make "safe" decisions.

I'm just glad that after Rose took my keys this afternoon and showed them to the assistant principal and he asked her, "Are you driving home?" . . .

she said, "No. I can't drive."

Choir practice

So when I tell the girls to stay on the bench and not move during choir practice, this is what I get.







Pretty sweet. And they stayed on the bench. Awesome.

Why _Olivia_ books may be banned from our house

We recently picked up Olivia Saves the Circus at the library, and as I read it through for the first time with Rose, I did have a little thought that we might have trouble later if I didn't stop and clarify one point of the story and our family's expectations. But...I just kept reading the story and forgot all about it.

The next morning Rose came out all dressed and very excited to show me tiny blue stamps that she had carefully made all over her hands and feet with a stamp marker. Then she proclaimed, "look! I'm Olivia, the Tattooed Lady!" (I knew that book would be a risky choice for her!) Then we went to church. I am so glad she limited the "tattooing" to her hands and feet, and we had a very productive and interesting conversation over dinner after church about how we treat our bodies like the gift they are from our Heavenly Father who loves us.

That evening our home teacher came over for a visit. Rose disappeared for a few minutes, returned in her swim suit and announced, "And by the way, Beach Party!!" And she danced around a bit. The home teacher was cracking up. I was cracking up, too, just in a different way.


Rose, Juliet, and me on my birthday!

Pixie

Rose was recently happy to serve as a model for a haircut how-to at a Relief Society activity. We checked out pixie cuts online with LaDonna just before so Rose knew what to expect. She had done most of the work herself, so LaDonna was just trimming it up for us, bless her.

It's a good thing Rose likes to wear girly dresses, because from the neck up she is the cutest boy you've ever seen.

The best part about short hair, apparently, is using mousse to make it "spiky like Sister Odahlen." And that's how she wore it last Sunday.

Inevitably I get asked how Rose gets her hands on scissors. The implied question is what kind of mother am I to let my four-year-old anywhere near scissors, and if she's done this before, why haven't I taken drastic measures to stop it? I gathered up all the scissors in the house and put them away so well that I don't even know where they are. You know the story of Sleeping Beauty? How they burned all the spindles and spinning wheels in the kingdom? And she still managed to prick her finger? That's Rose. Briar Rose.

She's looking forward to beauty school some day, but when I told her she has to be 18, her immediate frowny face response was, "18 is a long way from four."

Girls' Day

I took the girls to their first ever Baylor Women's Basketball game. Rose looked like this for most of the game. When I noticed she looked a little concerned about something, I questioned her and she told me, "Mom, there's a bear." She wanted nothing to do with the mascot, and kept her eye on him at all times.


We were up in celestial seating, a.k.a. nosebleed, a.k.a. far from the bear.


The bus ride to and from the parking garage was fun! The girls counted buses. We had to wait for the fourth bus to get to the game, and we had to wait for the eleventh bus to get back to our car.


Following the game, the girls voted for Chick-fil-A for lunch, playing, and ice cream cones.
We loved our girls' day!

Haircut

Rose has been playing beauty parlor again. After I found her taking several huge chunks out of her (finally) long, curly hair, I had to trim it up myself. I still need to take her somewhere to get it fixed right, but is it worth it?

She's happy with her short cut, which is not combed and fixed here because we were just on our way to pick up the kids after school.

And I can still put her hair up in a little pigtail on top. She loves getting gel and mousse in her hair, and fixing it, and she'll sit still for me, too. Too bad there's not much of it anymore.

She just told me that her favorite part of her short hair is the front. Usually I comb the top layers forward so you can't see where she hacked it off right on the hairline, but she definitely does not have to worry about hair in her eyes.

Thankful for spirals and being a mom

This is my week to host preschool for eight little three- and four-year-olds. We learned about the color pink, the letter G, and spirals today. When Jack looked over my spreadsheet for the semester, he said, "Spirals aren't a shape. Wait. . . didn't you write some big paper in college about the fibonacci sequence in nature?" Close. It was fractals. And spirals may not be your average pre-K shape, but they are much, much cooler.

As one mom was picking up her son today, she said, "You're such an awesome mom." It was because I took the kids in our back yard and let them look for snail shells and take them home. (Side note: When we first moved into this house, Ellen declared that she was starting a snail collection, and proceeded to collect dozens and dozens of snails and empty shells and keep them in a box on the back patio. I know where all the good places to find snails are in our yard.)

Said mom followed up the awesome comment with "I always tell my kids not to touch the gross, dirty snails." I was surprised, and . . . surprised. This is me, the same mom who took the kids to the park after school for a kindergarten class play date and felt itchy and dirty the whole time we were there. Just looking at all the dust and sand on my kids was giving me a mild panic attack. I just never thought of snail shells as being dirty before.

I learned today that if you bring them inside and step on them or crush them up on the table, they make a big mess. And there is dirt inside. Or maybe that's dried up snail guts.

We read the book Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman, which I found browsing the "To Be Shelved" shelves in the children's section at the library. It's really neat and explained spirals perfectly.

I'm really grateful for the reminder today that even though I often don't feel like my mothering practices are up to scratch, in fact, I do have some awesome moments.


My awesomeness of late does not extend to remembering my camera, so here are a few pictures of the very first day of preschool way back in September.


My kids ask to see this one of Elijah over and over because I said he looks like a bobblehead, and they think that word is ridiculous and hilarious.


I love this picture for so many reasons.


Shortly after acquiring this Lightning McQueen t-shirt, Elijah developed an obsession for all things Mater, coinciding with his ability to actually say Mater intelligibly. It was probably also fueled by our summer car trip movie of choice, Cars 2, which he watched more times than I want to admit here. Thanks to a generous friend, he now owns several books and his very own Mater socks, which he wants to wear everyday.

On an unrelated note, Elijah is a pro at hide and seek. If you count hiding in the same place every time. After he was the last to be found (hiding in his closet) I told him it was his turn to count, and he proceeded to count in a language as yet unknown, and then say something like, "Here I come!" in complete gibberish. It was super cute, and also made me happy to be his mom.