Wednesday, September 28, 2011

my musings on work

Kiddo talks on a regular basis about what she'll be when she grows up. Sometimes she says she'll be a singer when she grows up, but then informs me that she's a singer now, which is true.

While visiting Grandma she told us some other thing she wanted to be, and I said "you could definitely do that." And Grandma added she could be anything she wanted, as long as she was willing to work for it. That idea really resonated with me, and so I've been pushing the idea to Kiddo whenever possible. Now she tells me, she can be anything she wants, all it takes is work.

She sang a song about this the other day, it listed all the things she could be, a dancer, a doctor, a nurse, a carpenter, a mama, a missionary, and some other things. Then the chorus basically said "all it takes is work, work, work."


Which is why I've decided that I may never accomplish anything else in my life, because the work of it is just so daunting. This idea of work may explain why I am still not in shape. Apparently reading articles, and wanting to be fit, and exercising once every six weeks for five minutes is not enough. I'm pretty sure that those activities do not count as work.

Also while visiting Grandma, I spent a lot of time bouncing my baby, trying to get her to sleep, and read the one thing posted on the wall, which says something to the effect of "Without dreams nothing happens." And as I read it over and over and over and over I started to struggle with the idea, and finally decided that it bugged me because things happen with work, not dreams (e.g., I still don't play a wind instrument). (Note to brother in law, who posted the thought about dreams: I think they're important. I'm sure I would have been bugged by any sentence that was the only thing I had to read to take my mind of the monotony of rocking and rocking the ornery baby hours every single day.)

But, I do work on raising my children well. And so far that's turning out okay, but it's still pretty early in the process, and they have agency too, so I can't really judge my success there.

And I work on keeping my covenants, and so far that's a success too.

So I guess I do some work. And I surely have worked in the past.

I plan to do more work. I'll let you know how it works out.

Monday, September 26, 2011

days of the week

Kiddo, with a little help from preschool, has learned the days of the week. She's also learned that on certain days, we do certain things.

On Sunday we go to church.

On Monday she has preschool. (She came down the stairs this morning singing a little song about preschool and how much she loves it, and she really does.)

On Tuesday she has "BALLET LESSONS!!!" (that's how she says it).

On Wednesday there is more preschool!

And on Thursday, as she told her grandma tonight, after dialing her phone number with only a little help from me, "Well, we just hang out and go to the grocery store and stuff." (In other words, it's really boring to talk about, but she seems to enjoy it just fine when it actually happens.)

her two moms

Although I always refer to my mom as "grammy" when I'm talking to the kids, apparently my example speaks louder than my words. When I'm talking to her, or more specifically looking for her, I say "Mom" (after all, that's who she is to me).

Babs calls Grammy "Mom" with the exact intonation I use. It's pretty funny to hear that come out of her little mouth.

She calls me "Mama," so there's no confusion.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

blindsided

Grammy plays the organ in church. Kiddo wanted to sit on the stand with her, so we let her. During prelude I had sufficient opportunity to go over the rules. She could sit in one of four chairs, or on the floor in front of them, only. She could not lead the music. She could not stand near where someone else was leading the music. She could not wander around the stand. She could not play the organ. She could sit in one of four chairs, or on the floor in front of them, only.

Soon it was time for the meeting to start, and my husband and I and Babs sat in our pew, hoping for the best, but staring intently at her, suspecting the worst.

As the first notes of the opening hymn started playing, I saw Kiddo slowly push off her chair. I was sure she was heading towards the music stand. I was wrong.

She instead stepped lightly to an wide open expanse of the stand, closed her eyes, raised her arms out, and started to twirl.

I whisper/shouted: Get her! With a shocked look on his face, my husband made a start for her, but my dad was quicker out, and collected her, and helped her sit down. The eventual compromise was sitting next to grammy at the organ, but not playing the organ.

We weren't surprised by what she did. We were surprised we didn't anticipate it.

***

Babs has always been my rough and tumble baby. During Family Home Evening last night, she was wandering around the room, carrying the phone. She wandered near Daddy, then before anyone could even anticipate it, she raised it in the air and hit his cheek, hard.

He had time to cry out and cover his cheek before she hit again, this one luckily landing on his hand. There was one more good smack before we got the phone removed from her little hands.

This is not the first time she's done this, but never with something with more substance than a plastic magic wand. And usually to Kiddo, who just laughs and laughs. I think the cry of pain and immediate attention of three adults was an unexpected reaction to her usually fun game.

Friday, September 16, 2011

pretend

As we were playing this morning, Kiddo opened her pretend suitcase and exclaimed,

"All my pretend things are broken! It's junk!"


In other news, my husband and I got to the temple this morning, while the kids enjoyed the morning with Grandpa and Grammy.

An enjoyable time for everyone.


p.s. with the help of her pretend animal dog, all the stuff has been repaired.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

bike!


Daddy went out and bought Kiddo a bike today (courtesy of Grandma). She's been asking for a while, and when it came up again a day or two ago, we decided to make it happen.

She was so excited when she got home from the store, with her bike, helmet, and bell. She had a great time with Daddy acquiring the bike.

And tonight she got to ride it. We think she enjoyed it. It's a pretty monumental day for us. I feel like I should have more to say about it, but I don't.

So instead I'll share what I don't want to forget. As she tried to bike through the alley to get from the garage to the sidewalk, she highcentered. The ditch down the center (for drainage) is deep enough that the training wheels kept the wheel from actually touching down, so she was pedaling really fast, but not going anywhere. It made me laugh.

It was a perfect little suburban scene. It was nice to be part of it (even if my role was to stay out of the way).

little growler

My sixteen month old is really frustrated a lot these days. (Consequently, we are too.) She has so many ideas and demands, and just can't communicate most of them, even with her 25ish signs and words. For example, she wants to listen to music all the time. But she gets mad when we start the iPod up, because we don't let her hold the machine, but instead plug it in to speakers. (I finally figured this out today, and then let her hold my iPhone while music was playing. As the music played, she kept looking at me and grinning, so pleased to be holding the player.)

She likes to pull things out of the trash, go outside, takes toys from her sister, be held all the time (up, up, up) and do the things a small toddler likes to do. As is common with someone her age, she gets reprimanded often. "Babs! Don't do that!"

Today she started growling back. If we get mad at her, she growls at us. This is not a positive development.

***
On a much sweeter note, she is very concerned with the location of her family. She checks in about every half hour with a "Dada?" so I can tell her his whereabouts. (Apparently she does the same when I am gone, except it happens more often, and there is crying involved.)

After dinner, she climbed up the stairs, realized no one was there, and called out for her sister repeatedly, until my husband and I understood her. She loves playing with Kiddo. I then got her and brought her to Grammy's room, where Kiddo was playing (nursing her sick pretend animal back to health).

what she looks like, part 2

My mom was also there for the conversation about Kiddo's sister.

She had a different interpretation of the comment. She thought Kiddo was talking about a future little sister. I basically ignored her interpretation.

And then, for three days straight, Kiddo asked me about her new sister. Babs' little sister. What was her name?

You don't have another little sister, I insisted.

Yeah, but what's her name? she wondered.

She does not have a little sister, or a little brother, or even one in waiting. But she sure thinks she does. Her description would still be spot on though, for either one.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

what she looks like

We were running some errands on Friday, and Kiddo was keeping up a steady stream of conversation. I make efforts to always listen, and was amazed, as always, at all the things she had to say. Then she popped out with this comment:

"Hey, I know what my baby sister looks like."

"Oh really, what does she look like?" I asked.

"Well, she has a head, and two ears, and two eyes, and a two little baby hands, and a nose, and some feet, and, oh yeah, she has two lips. And she has some hair."