Bookworm

She was never particularly behind in reading, but certainly wasn't "accelerated" either. Now she is smitten. What's softball, or even breakfast, when you have Harry Potter? I have to stop her from taking books in the shower with her.

Mamism #259 - Attractive qualities

The other morning, Mam and Smunch mercifully occupied themselves by getting out their kiddie cameras and going around the house taking grainy photos of various things. The cat had quite a photo shoot. Daddy and I didn't escape either. The fish tank, the backyard, rain-spattered windows. They all got the photographic treatment.

Of course, this means that I was also treated to a slide show of all of Mam's photos when she was done. As she flipped through her photos, she paused on her shot of Daddy.

Mam: Daddy's pretty cute.

Me: Uh, yes, Daddy is pretty cute.

Mam: Look at how sparkly his eyes are!

Mamism #247 Expectations

Mam: Mamma, next time, put water in my lunchbox!

Me: What? Oh, there was no water in your lunchbox?

Mam: No. Next time put water in there.

Me: Well, Daddy packed your lunch, so you should talk to him about it.

Mam: Oh...well, he did a pretty good job.

The Big Day

Well, I thought it was a big day. We turned on the TV early to watch the presidential inauguration this morning. By the time Obama and Biden left the White House and got to the Capitol, Aretha Franklin sang and Joe Biden was sworn in, the kids were bored to tears. They squirmed, they whined. They left. I let them go.

But at some point, it crossed my mind that although they may not remember today, there's a chance they will...well, at least they might if they actually watched the inauguration...you know, if they were nailed to the floor and forced to watch. It's hard to communicate the import of such things to kids who really just want to go play with Legos or whatever. But if it wasn't important, what were all these people doing there?So, like a good mommy, I went and corralled said kids and insisted that they sit their bottoms down on the sofa and WATCH. They saw Obama sworn in as president...doubtlessly failing to notice their teary-eyed mother who couldn't even sit down. They heard his whole speech, although they probably understood little of it.I particularly appreciate President Obama's instruction to foreign leaders that their people will have greater appreciation for the things they build than the things they destroy. Mr. President, would you like to come to my house and explain that line to my first grader? He might listen if it came from you.

CNN had some kind of "inaugural album" where you can submit pictures of yourself or your family watching the proceedings. I'd like to submit mine, but I'm afraid the President wouldn't take the request above very seriously if he saw how seriously our children took his inauguration.

Stereo Wars

When you were a kid, did you ever turn the music in your room up really loud, only to have your sibling try to drown you out with his/her own stereo? Hey, wasn't that fun? What were you blaring? How crazy did you drive your parents with your air wars?

I was a really boring kid. I got snapped at for playing my Enya too loud once. That's embarrassing, now that I think about it.

Anyway, if you ever had this kind of obnoxious, wordless argument with your sibling, just imagine the battle in my house. It starts with Mam's new compilation of Disney princess songs, playing none-too-quietly in her room...usually accompanied by copious singing and naked dancing.

Then, Smunch retaliates by blasting the CD from his CD player (pictured above). It's the lullaby music he's listened to since he was a baby. Then the princess music gets going full blast.

As if this couldn't be cuter, here's the CD player blasting "A Whole New World" from Aladdin or "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, or the new princess medley, called "Dreams", er...whatever.

What's wrong with this picture?

This year, Smunch's Cub Scout pack went to sing Christmas carols at an old folks home nearby. Some little sisters like to be the center of attention ALWAYS. Some big brothers don't always appreciate that.Who can blame him, really?

Notes from a Winter Wonderland

I've got all sorts of things from the holidays that I'm still planning to post here, but for now, this little Mamism will have to do. Yesterday, we arrived at a somewhat famous ski resort. The kids have never seen more than a few inches of snow, so it was a momentous occasion and the kids were very cute.

Me to Mam: I love you more than anything!

Mam: I love you more than anything except the snow.

Tooth Fairy Envy

The other day, Daddy and I found that Mam had stolen Smunch's dollar bill from the Tooth Fairy and hidden it under her own pillow. It brought out a whole conversation about how it's wrong to take things that belong to other people. (This conversation was repeated with more force today when I discovered she'd pilfered six pencils from the Boy Scout store. I made her take them back. The nice, but misguided guy who runs the place gave her one for her "honesty"...she was so embarrassed that she wouldn't even say 'thank you'.)

"I'm never going to get anything from the Tooth Fairy!" Mam complained loudly.

"When you lose your teeth, you will get things from the Tooth Fairy too," we soothed.

And then came the bedtime conversation...

Mam: Mom can I talk to you for a minute about the Tooth Fairy?

Me: Uh, yes, Mam. What's up?

Mam: I need to tell you what I want her to bring. I don't want baseball cards.

Me: Oooh.K.

Mam: I want more ponies.

Me: Uh-huh.

Mam: And I want a Barbie.

Me: (sigh) Alright.

Mam: And I want my own CD player.

Me: You want music at night, like Smunch?

Mam: Yes. And I want a Hannah Montana CD.

Well, her knowledge of technology is a little outdated (Is that what you call an old soul?), but her taste in music is, well, just disturbing, frankly.

When inanimate objects fail...

You may remember a while back, I wrote a post or two about the strange things we'd found Mam sleeping in, or with or around.

Sometimes, it turns out these things just aren't enough...and big brothers prove their true worth.

Chop!

Here's my beautiful little girl and her lovely flowing blonde hair. This morning it was reaching for her waistband.But she'd been constantly requesting a haircut. "Up to here," she demanded, hitting her ears with her hands. I'm not quite sure what a haircut up to her ears would look like, but I'm absolutely positive I know what it'd look like if we lopped off eight inches and gave her some bangs. It'd look something like this:I'm absolutely certain this is going to be a more practical haircut and that it'll save some of the hassle I have with her in the morning. And the long, long hair really didn't look that good except right after brushing. But it's hard to get used to...

The center of the universe is in my house!

A little more than a week ago, I packed up the family and the mommymobile for a trip to visit Aunt Karen in San Diego. The kids couldn't wait for another opportunity to see their little cousin, Spencer, who is finally mobile and verbal enough to really play with them. Or could they?

Friday morning, Mam had the sudden realization that we were leaving for San Diego the next day. Her comment?

"Spencer is going to get to see me again!"

Smash!

I decided that maybe the beans would stop falling out of my beef and bean burgers if I let Mam smash them up first. I couldn't have predicted just how much enthusiasm she would bring to the job.

Happy Bunny Day!

Now that I've finally gotten to blogging about our day, it's nearly over. In most respects, it's been a great one. The kids got up painfully early this morning, but when Daddy came out to check on them, they were watching Reading Rainbow. When he told them not to eat the candy in their baskets, Smunch said, "Oh, it's Easter, isn't it?" Duh.

It took them no time to work themselves up into an excited frenzy after that. So, Daddy and I were out in the backyard giving helpful suggestions and hints where to look for eggs well before 8 o'clock...an hour I consider barely civilized. I tried to take pictures of the egg hunt, but the kids were running around so fast, it looked like a blur, even in real life! Fortunately, I think it still captures their unbounded enthusiasm pretty well.
I think they must've found at least two dozen eggs. Probably more if you count the half dozen real eggs (as opposed to candy-filled plastic) they found. But it was all over in a flash. Phew. And then it was time for the great pouring of candy...out of the eggs, into a big bowl where it could be adequately oggled.
Gram and Grandpa joined us for the wonderful cinnamon rolls with waffles, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, coffee and orange juice. Once breakfast was over, I felt the need to get out of the house. Daddy felt the need to do taxes (are you kidding me???) on this beautiful day, so I piled the bikes in the mommymobile, lured the kids into the car with promises of crossing a big bridge. We took off just before noon.

And guess what we did? Oh, right. Like you didn't know already, huh? This time we got to get out on our bikes on paved trails. Mam had kind of a hard time on her little bike with training wheels. The trails may have been paved, but they weren't flat. It was a lot for a tiny pair of legs to handle.Here's the teeny tiniest letterbox I've ever seen. It was attached by magnet to the bottom of a bench. So cool.

Then we headed over to a historic farm in the area, which naturally also contained a letterbox, but of greater interest (at least to you), it was also beautiful and had a bunch of new lambs tottering around on their gangly new legs. Very, very cute.
I wish you could tell that Mam was skipping in this picture. And yes, that's her Easter dress. Yes, she went bike-riding in it. No, I couldn't get her to take it off. Whatever.
Around 2:30, we headed back over the big bridge...made even more interesting by having to stop and pay the exorbitant toll. Then we stopped at a wetlands preserve and walked around there for a while. The kids were surprisingly game for all of this. On the whole, there was very little whining. They got to see some jack rabbits, lots of small aircraft landing at the nearby airport, flocks of geese, billions of ducks...oh and a couple of runners who walked past as we were walking out of the restroom. These two guys were shirtless and Mam loudly declared, "They're NAKED!!!" They didn't seem to notice. It probably wouldn't dawn on them that a four-year-old might refer to them that way. They did, after all, have shorts and shoes on!
They had a terrific time tromping around. We didn't get home until 4 o'clock. Sleep came easily tonight!

Runaway Peas

During a particularly crabby dinner.

Mam: I can't eat all these peas.

Me: You will, or you won't get any cake and Daddy and I will finish it.

Mam: They keep escaping! (As she throws a pea over her shoulder.)

She's So Shy

Mam has largely recovered from her ear infection. Back to sleeping through the night and enjoying time away from Mommy. Thank goodness. Of course, Typhoid Mam gave her disease to both Daddy and me, so I haven't been quite up to par this week.

On Wednesday, in the wake of my newfound (well, not really) inability to get motivated to cook, we went on over to our favorite downtown pizza spot for dinner. Daddy and I love this place. Mam professes not to like it, but always eats dinner, which is an improvement over eating at home. Smunch loves it because they always have sports on the TVs in there. Wednesday's match-up was college basketball between Texas Tech and Kansas State. And yeah, I had to look up the final score for him the next day. It's that important.

Anyway, both kids know that this pizza place includes a tiny glass-fronted freezer full of ice cream sandwiches. They both did a great job of eating dinner and they also know they can have an ice cream sandwich if they do. Smunch was still eating (and glued to the TV) when Mam declared herself done, walked over to our side of the table and loudly announced

"I want an ice cream sandwich!"

shortly followed by:

"I want the money!"

Yikes. Trying not to laugh, Daddy handed her $5 to take up to the counter. Naturally, she dragged her big brother with her and made him order, which was no mean feat since he couldn't get the first word (which was 'two') out due to the stuttering. So, he stood there in front of the puzzled, but gamely patient clerk, struggling with the 'T' until the whole sentence came tumbling out..."Ttttttttwo! Ice cream sandwiches, please" (OMG, he was totally polite!).
I wonder how long it's going to be before he realizes his sister is not too shy to demand money and doesn't stutter, so should be forced to order the ice cream for him, not the other way around!

This just in...

Mam has just informed me that one of her preschool teachers likes to get hugs. Cute. But this is far more worrisome...

Mam: I'm almost out of hugs.

Me: You run out of hugs?

Mam: Yes. I only have 10 left and that's it! When I give a lot, it makes me run out of hugs.

Yikes, guess I'd better get mine in before school today.

The Lip

There may be kids who can rival Mam's talent for producing "the lip" at will, but I don't think anyone can beat it. Nuf said.

Dancing Queen

A comment by Mam to Smunch and the mommymobile at large, while strapped into her car seat and "dancing" to "Missing" (And I miss you...like the deserts miss the rain) by Everything But the Girl...

"This is something called talent. These moves are kind of pretty, but yours are not so pretty."

Just because...

I ran across this scene while letterboxing yesterday and how often can you capture a hummingbird with a regular ol' point and shoot camera?

And, this from Mam this morning:

Mam: Are we going letterboxing?
Me: Do you want to do more letterboxing?
Mam: I want to find more letterboxes!

The Forgetful Mommy

Today, I took Mam to a Trader Joes that we usually don't go to. I had my grocery list, but discombobulated as I was by the different store layout, I kept forgetting to pick things up. The store was busy and I kept driving my cart around in circles. Mam was safely ensconced in the front and we chatted our way around the store several times. The following was the highlight of the trip:

Me: Remind me if I forget to go get your fig bars, O.K.?
Mam: O.K.
Me: Thanks
Mam: Tell me when you forget and I'll remind you, O.K.?