changes

She walked into the mall looking like this:

 After a fancy wash, and a fair amount of wiggling, we ended up with this: (Note the eyes to the side. Guess what! There's TV in the room!)

 Kiddo has been asking for a haircut, about since Babs got hers cut. We put it off, not sure if she really wanted, not sure if she understood that while haircuts are not permanent, you also can't just change your mind right afterward either, and not sure we were ready to lose her hair. But we did it. (Although honestly, I believe there will be at least one serious crying session of regret of this decision. We'll see.)

So far (three hours later), she's still okay with it. And she's adorable.

As is the other one, who also came with us. And also got her hair cut.(This is before I spilled chocolate milk all over her, the table, and the floor. Blegh.)

We went to a place that was geared towards children. I'm not sure I'll do that again. The lady who cut their hair did a great job with the not quite 1-year old boy before us. But she seemed really surprised and put out by Kiddo's constant wiggling and fidgeting. I recognize that makes hair cutting complicated, but she's four. Could Kiddo possibly be the only child who is a little nervous and a little ticklish? She also did a fair job with Babs, but Babs was more still. The stylist continued to look put out until I generously tipped her, when she immediately perked up. I feel like I may have been had... (Or maybe all parents are cheap, and this is the way she has figured out to make a living wage with the job she can find. I should not judge I guess.)

But the girls both loved the carousel we went on afterwards. Plus there was a toy store where we bought nothing. Poor Kiddo, it's been almost two weeks since she acquired a new toy, she's going into withdrawal.

essence of Kiddo

Kiddo was improvising a song the other day, as she often does. The chorus centered around the line
"because I'm a happy girl!"

That is truly who she is. She finds joy in life. She loves to laugh and be silly. She likes to say clever things and have fun. In fact, her set prayer, the one she prays five times a day currently, is simply "thank you that we can have fun. Amen."

And in case this wasn't enough to convince me that she's a truly happy child, we had the following experience at church: She was really acting up with another girl, and I told them if they didn't stop, they couldn't participate in the activity later, and that would make them sad. (Yes, I really told four year olds that. Like they understand that line of consequences...) Kiddo looked at me seriously, then sad, "But then I would still be happy." And I think she would.

hide and seek

Kiddo can be oblivious. The blessing of this is that she is less influenced by peer behavior than a lot of other kids her age. (She is still influenced by them, just not as much.) I hoping this means peer pressure will be a smaller presence for her...

But sometimes, it just plain drives me crazy. For example, can you see the crayons in this next picture? Kiddo couldn't. She just didn't.

It also took her quite a while to find Babs in this episode of hide and seek.

thoughts on preschool

I was recently visiting with a friend from church who has twin five year olds. They will be starting kindergarten in the fall. They are currently in the school district provided preschool. I thought about enrolling Kiddo, but determined that it was unlikely that we would make the cut, as kids who have special needs and then financial issues get first entry. Plus, it is five days a week, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

Any way, she was telling me about how they come home with packets to do with their parents, and how they can read simple words, and I thought "I want my kid to be able to do that, maybe I should get her into that preschool."

Then I thought: wait a second. Packets, as in homework, in preschool? No. I want none of that for my kid. In fact, I don't even want her in preschool five days a week (although she'd probably love it). We've chosen the three day route. This is upcoming year is my last to spend with Kiddo before she's gone all day, and I'm taking it.

Plus we've started to talk about reading, and actually learning some things, and she's already making excellent progress. So now I especially don't need her to have homework yet.

some of my thoughts

While we were in Texas I got chiggers. So did Babs. I've never attracted this particular bug before. I will be fine if I never do again. I am blessed that they only severely itched for two days, then moderately for two more. I still have scabs, but I think I may be finally done with them soon. Don't read up on chiggers unless you need to - they're gross. But if you ever get them, I believe the most important advice is Don't Itch!

Babs is sick again. While her fever has been kept in check by ibuprofen (and occasionally some acetaminophen), it's still a drag. It is becoming real to me what a blessing it is that I am at home with the girls, otherwise this week would have been very hard trying to juggle work and a sick kid. And this is at least the fourth time it's happened since we moved here. What a blessing that I'm home and can care for her. What I do have to deal with is a very social four-year old who would love to be seeing other people every day, and instead is quarantined to the house until her sister improves. I'm grateful she is self-entertaining a lot.


Our Family Home Evening lesson on Monday was about having a house of order, to make it easier for the Spirit to be here. It's taken me four days, but I finally got our living room (where we actually live, not where we entertain) clean today, mostly because Babs took a two hour nap this morning. One room down, seven to go. (But what a remarkable blessing to have 8 rooms!) But I should note, this is a real clean, not the junk pushed to the corners of the room clean (my personal default clean). The point of getting it clean (other than the obvious) is to have a starting point for my very serious push to get my kids to take more responsibility for their messes. Kiddo in particular is a big fan of play with one toy in a large messy way, and move straight to the next one. She will do most anything to avoid helping me pick up. But I've determined I am more persistent than her, so we will make this happen.

Happy Father's Day

The best way to wake up Father's Day morning:

Two hours early, to a cry, "Daddy, I need you!" over the baby monitor.

Lots of love to our favorite daddy!

please enjoy your flight

We went to visit my parents last week, which meant some time on some airplanes. Because we live far away from both our parents, my kids have been flying since they were very little.

Kiddo loves to fly because it means a new adventure. She has never shown any effect of altitude change, and just has a good time. She spends at least 20 minutes each flight studying the emergency information card. We both know it all by now. On this last set of flights, when the attendants have pointed out to me that I should put on my oxygen mask first, I was well aware, because I've had to explain the pictures to Kiddo a lot. I always hope the people in front of us are not afraid of flying, because while perusing the card, Kiddo has been known to say, at full voice, "This is what happens when the plane lands on the water!"

She also had the chance on one of the legs of our journey to watch the flight attendant presentation. She excitedly announced at each step, "I know how to do that!" And she does, because she's studied the card.

Babs does not seem to share Kiddo's affinity for flying. She actively fights when I put on her seatbelt (thank goodness for rolos, which are way more interesting than a seatbelt fight). She announced more than once that she did not want to fly today. (You may be tempted to discount such a comment because she's just barely two. She knows exactly what she's saying.) I think the major problem is that she is affected by the altitude change (that and she's bored silly by the end of an hour or two). Both going up and going down she will periodically cry out and rub her ears against me. I hand her the water, and after a drink she calms down. After the multiple ups and downs of the last week, she knows to keep the water close by.

But we weren't the screamers. We never have been. I'm so grateful for that.

problem solved

You may recall that Kiddo has some expensive tastes, as in a blow-up water slide for the backyard.

Last night at Family Home Evening, the topic was the golden rule, so my husband was trying to explain to her what gold is, and that it is very worthwhile. He showed her his wedding band, told her that it was very valuable, in fact, that small ring was worth more money than the water slide cost.

Her eyes lit up, and she announced, "You could get it for us!"

sensitive souls

Around here, "sensitive soul" is nice-talk for scairdy-cat. As in, our girls have sensitive souls.

As in, Kiddo plugs her ears when Barney (the purple dinosaur) tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood, because the part with the wolf will scare her.

As in, Babs literally jumped into my arms twice last night as we tried to watch Cinderella, the Disney version, the ONLY princess movie Kiddo will watch because it's the only one she doesn't find scary. (Although, I believe last night, when she watched it for the first time in eight or nine months, she found some of it overly intense.)

As in, we love Rapunzel, but will not watch the movie, because it is too scary.

As in, 3 years of Kiddo being desperately afraid of the Muppets.

There are so many great movies that we can't watch with our kids. Or at least not yet. I try to remind myself that they will grow up, they will not always be scared of these things.

And then we can start to tease them about it...

this is my life

Babs has been sick a lot this month. First strep, then croup, then ... well, I'm just grateful that we seem like we're almost done with this.

I was telling my sister about this, and said in passing, "given how sick she was, as you can imagine my life got derailed."

Then I realized that my life was not derailed. I've made my choices so that I can care for my children full time, they are my life. So if they get sick, then that becomes my life. Whatever else I had planned may not be accomplished, but simply caring for them keeps me actively pursuing my chosen life.

I hope to remember that next time.