Mister & Sister

Teachable moments

This morning, Sister decided to go sit on the potty chair. Not a big deal as she's been doing this for the past year. We're planning to get a bit more aggressive with her potty training in the days to come but for right now, it's still just a random thing for her. Anyway...Mister and I were in the bathroom with her when he said to her very sweetly, "You know, soon you're going to have to learn to go potty on the big toilet. And then you're going to have to learn to go potty standing up and just point your v_g_n_ at the toilet."

As we were getting ready to leave for church, I told the kids to get busy picking up the mess of toys downstairs. Mister called upstairs to report to me that Sister (as usual) was refusing to help. I told them BOTH to help again and this repeated a few times. Finally, I heard Mister say, "SIster, I'm trying to save your life here. Help me pick up the toys or you're going to get in trouble!"

Driving home from church, Mister asked me how old I would be when he is my age. "85", I answered. "How old will you be when I'm Grandma's age", he asked. "110", I replied, "but I'll probably be dead by then." I knew what was coming next as lately, he's been fascinated with the concept of death and heaven. "Awwww...I don't want you to get dead", he said. "Yes, I know but remember that as long as we both have Jesus in our hearts our whole lives, we'll see each other in heaven." After thinking for a minute, he said, "But how will I find you up there?"

I love this kid's curious mind. He's forever asking how things work and what would happen if and how do you know types of questions. He's so smart and quite often I'm stumped and can't give him an intelligent answer. Many times, I end up referring him to Dad or a teacher or other "experts". That last one, though, got me too choked up to even respond. I just looked at him in the rearview mirror and as our eyes met, he winked.

May 23, 2010 1:17:04 PM

Happy Mother's Day to me

And this is why I rarely take naps and leave Daddy in charge...

May 10, 2010 9:38:07 AM

What I learned on vacation

Spontaneity is fun.
I underestimate my children.
Kansas in April is much more beautiful than Michigan in April.
It IS possible for my husband to stay awake while he's driving!
Chex mix and chocolate chip cookies for dinner will not kill my children.
Indoor pools make 5 yr old boys incredibly happy.
One of the best decisions we ever made was buying this stupid thing.
Commuting to downtown Chicago, even by train, from the 'burbs takes For. Ever.
There is no bed as comfortable as your own.
It is possible to travel by car over a span of seven days with two small children and not lose your mind.
Bluegrass music and chorale music can blend together beautifully.
Our travels across the state of Illinois probably would have taken an hour less than it did were it not for the ridiculous number of times we had to stop and pay a toll.
Perhaps Michigan should consider following in Illinois' footsteps and implement a toll system to help pay for highway repairs.
There is never enough time to do all of the things you had hoped or planned to do.
Baby elephants are much cuter in person.
I still find pigeons to be filthy, vile creatures.
The benefit of being an over packer is that you can decide, the night before you are scheduled to go home, to stay gone an extra day.
Home less than a week and I'm already itching to pack up and go somewhere else!

Apr 26, 2010 12:29:42 PM

My happy things

Spontaneous vacation plans that have fallen into place so easily that it's almost scaring me. What started with a simple little Facebook status update from a friend has exploded into an almost week long road trip for the whole family. I love it!! We've been trying to take a family vacation for years now and we're really going to do it. Did I mention that we leave a week from yesterday? YIKES!
Glorious spring weather has brought our neighborhood back to life. It's been wonderful to get outdoors with the kids again and let them run and play up and down the cul de sac with all of their friends. It's so nice for us parents, too, to have extra eyes watching over the kids while we're chatting and having actual grown up conversations. Everybody's happy!
Sister seems to have turned a bit of a corner with her sleep in the past couple of weeks. (Knocking furiously on wood as I type this!) We are no longer having the nightly battles of keeping her clothed and in her bed and quiet. Bedtimes have been pushed back by about 30 minutes and with our outdoor play, she's naturally more tired. It's definitely working in our favor. And more sleep means she's far less contrary than she had been. Trust me, this is a really, really happy thing!
We have settled on a summer schedule for the kids. Mister, who has been going to preschool M-F, will cut back to going only on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. He's happy about it and so am I. I do miss him in the mornings and it will be nice to have him around to do fun things. The best part is that Sister will join him on those mornings at preschool. HALLELUJAH!! She's so ready for new challenges and I'm excited for her to be exposed to the Montessori way of learning. I think she's really going to thrive in that environment and it will be fun for her to be there with Mister AND her twin friends from our street. In the fall, her schedule will change to M-W-F. Very exciting!
Garage sale season is here!! This makes me oh so very happy!! I've already found some great stuff...some things to keep and some things to sell on eBay. The best find so far was the brand new, tags still on it, Dooney & Bourke wrist back that I found for $1. I sold it on eBay for $29.99. Not bad!
Baseball season is also here! Mister is super excited. He has a new glove and new shoes (he went up from a 13 to a 1 1/2!) and can't wait to get back in the groove. Unfortunately, his first practice got stormed out on Tuesday but we've been playing a lot of catch and hitting some balls. Should be a fun season!
Earth Day is right around the corner and I'm getting a birch tree! WOOT! We'll also be planting things with the kiddos again this year. Mister has already been asking about it. It makes me happy that he's aware of these types of things.

So what's making you happy? Leave me a comment.

Apr 8, 2010 2:32:50 PM

Anatomy lesson

Overheard by Dad as the kids were sitting at the table eating and watching cartoons...

Mister: Oh, Sister, watch! This is the part where he shows off all of his peni5e5. (edited to discourage creepy google searches)

Sister: Oh, yeah!

Dad quickly races to the TV in time to see a cow standing on her hind legs exposing her udder.

Mar 23, 2010 1:27:20 PM

Good night, sleep tight

Since we took Sister's "nite nite" away a few months ago, she's paid us back in spades by making bedtime a huge challenge. The girl will do anything it takes to stay awake and 99.9% of the time, what she's doing requires attention from either Daddy or me. It's frustrating beyond words, and frustrating to the point that all we can do now is laugh. Some examples of her antics are:

Singing various renditions of Twinkle Twinkle, This is the Day, Silent Night, ABCs, Jesus Loves Me over and over and over and over.
Screaming for us at the top of her lungs for no apparent reason.
Taking her pajamas off.
Dropping her baby, her dolphin, her nana, her blanket, etc. then yelling to us that she's dropped them. Repeatedly.
Getting out of bed, getting her hand held video game or her American Girl catalog then playing with them in bed.
Getting out of bed, getting one of her piggy banks, taking it back to bed and emptying all of the contents onto her bare tummy. See #3.
Sneaking out of bed into Mister's room next door, retrieving his backpack, sneaking back into her room, climbing back into bed, stripping, then calling sweetly, "Mommy, please come here" so that I will go in her room and find her hiding under the sheets with her pajamas and the backpack laying next to her, daring me not to laugh.

I did manage to hold my laughter until I got out of her room...after getting her dressed and removing the foreign objects from her bed. I don't even want to think about what #8 might be.

Mar 12, 2010 9:49:02 AM

Booger checker

The other day as we were driving together in the car, Mister piped up from the backseat and said, "Momma, what's that thing sticking on the thing you check your boogers?"

We had put a CD holder on the passenger visor/mirror.

Mar 8, 2010 10:48:52 AM

Round 'em up

On Thursday, we are taking Mister to Kindergarten Round Up. I can't believe it's time for this already. I mean, I know in my head that this is a great time in his life. He's so excited to finally be heading off to where his best friend has been for the past six months. He just about died when every single one of his neighborhood playmates started K last fall. We talked and talked and talked about how his turn would be coming soon enough and by gosh, it did. In fact, I believe it came not soon enough but too soon. Am I ready for this? I don't think I am. But Mister is, so Momma will take deep breaths and enjoy his excitement and confidence and set aside my sadness and feelings of helplessness. And once I recover from Thursday, I'll have exactly 170 days before you'll be reading a very similar post.

Mar 1, 2010 2:47:05 PM