More Kid Related Anecdotes

I looked over at Tralee in her Sunbeam class on Sunday. She was sitting on her teacher's lap, cuddled up to her, and I noticed that Tralee was blowing bubbles with her spit. It didn't look all that attractive, but I had to laugh a little cause I remember doing the exact same thing when I was about her age. I probably looked just as silly doing it as she did. Although, at the time I remember thinking what a neat trick I had figured out. After church I told Tralee I saw her blowing bubbles with her mouth. She kinda looked at my sheepishly and I continued to tell her that some people don't think that kind of thing is very polite, and we probably shouldn't do it at church. I gave that a minute to sink in to her little brain, and then confessed that I too was a spit bubble blower when I was about her age. When I said this Tralee's ears perked right up, and she looked at my mouth as if to say, "prove it!" So. . . I showed her how talented I was at spit bubble blowing. We sat for a minute comparing techniques. After a few moments I reminded Tralee once more that, "when we're at home it's okay to do this, but when we leave the house we swallow our spit." She agreed. Hopefully she'll keep her saliva talents home bound from now on.

Yesterday evening the kids and I were playing Wii Fit together. Tralee was on the board and Hunter stood next to her waiting for his turn. I didn't hear it, but I guess Tralee let one rip, cause I heard Hunter say, "Nice toot Tralee! Good one!" I asked Tralee if she had just tooted and she slyly answered, "Yes." I'm glad Hunter's so supportive of his big sister's triumphs. . . big and small.

Yesterday was the first day of summer. The kids and I spent a good portion of it outside. We had learning time out on the patio. We jumped on the tramp. When lunch time came around we had a picnic out back, followed up by popsicle. Both kids were a sticky icky mess after downing about two or three popsicle each, so I turned on the hose and let them play in the water. We sprayed down the tramp and jumped some more with it all wet. It was a perfect start to the summer!

That's all.

Today's Prayers

This morning in Tralee's prayer she said,

". . . and please help me have a real unicorn."

I'll let you know if that one is answered.

Tralee Cracks Me Up

Here are a few Tralee moments that had me laughing:

Everytime I ask Tralee who she's going to marry her answer is always, "Prince Charming." She goes on to explain, "and I'm gonna marry him in a palace and we're gonna have a baby girl and I'm gonna name her Strawberry and she's gonna drink milk."

The other day we were running some errands and I heard a little voice from the backseat say, "Mom, I sure wish I could live up in the clouds with Jesus."

Along those same lines I've also heard, "I wish I could fly like a birdie," and "I wish I could live up in the clouds with the ponytails!" (Tralee calls unicorns and My Little Ponies ponytails).

Jim and Tralee like to watch Phineas and Ferb together. I'm not a huge fan of noneducational television for the littles, but this is something Jim and Tralee like to watch together, so I don't mind so much. If you're not familiar with the show, there's a villain on it named Dr. Doofenshmirtz who invents things like, shrinkinators, uglyinators, or any silly thing that ends with -inator. So, the other day Jim wouldn't do something Tralee wanted him to and she goes, "Daddy, I'm gonna invent an inator and make it come over and bust you!" Jim was in stitches.

Today at Joann Fabrics Tralee tooted and when I smirked at her and asked, "What was that?" Tralee (very loudly) announced, "It was my stinky fart!" I laughed and Tralee goes, "What? What's so funny? It was my fart! My stinky stinky fart!" I'm sure the little old lady we were next to didn't find this moment quiet as hilarious as I did.

And because we're already on the potty topic I'll share this next tidbit. Tralee and I were playing pretend with her stuffed animals. I was a veterinarian and was tending to Ellie the Elephant. She had a tummy ache and I decided it was because she ate too much junk food. Tralee piped up and said, "Yeah, Ellie. You need to poop it all out and then you'll feel better." I took the lion I was playing with and sat it next to Ellie to comfort her, but that wasn't the right move. Tralee said, "No. Get away, or you'll get poop on you." She then began making grunting sounds for the elephant who, apparently, was takin' care of business. I giggled. . . a lot. A few grunts later and Ellie the Elephant was as right as rain!

Tralee names most of her stuffed animals herself now. Most animals have names like, Twinkle Nose, Rainbow Scrumptious Sparkle, Sparkily Barkily Gorgeous, you get the idea. However, there is one stuffed animal who wins the prize for the best name. Tralee has a little stuffed cow that she named (are you ready for this?) Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Milk. Yes, that many cows, and she says them all each time she talks about it. For instance, "Mom! I can't find Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Milk! Will you help me find him?" I also enjoy the random Milk at the end of this cow's name. When I asked Tralee what Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow Milk's nick-name is she told me, "It's Bluey for short." I usually go with Bluey, it's a big time-saver.

I know there are other things I'm forgetting about. But for now, at least these moments won't be forgotten. I love having a four-year-old. She's hilarious!

Good Mommy Bad Mommy

Hunter shoved a bead up his nose this morning. This is not the first time he's felt the need to stick something up there. The first time he loaded his booger-blaster with the smallest Russian stacking doll of our set. To get it out, Jim closed Hunter's opposite nostril, and then blew into his mouth (as in CPR type blowing), and the little devushaka came soaring out. I like to imagine her flying through the air with the greatest of ease -- like she was bursting out of the cannon at the circus. It was her moment.

Today's nose moment didn't go quiet as smoothly. Hunter meandered up to me already whimpering, pointed to his nose, and said, "Nose! Stuck! Ow!" I looked up his shnozzola and sure enough, there was a little green bead. I attempted the CPR blowing trick to no avail. That little green (appropriate color, huh?) bugger was S.T.U.C.K. I also tried to blow into the opposite nostril, once hearing about how that worked. The bead didn't budge. I really didn't want to take a trip to the ER over something so silly, so I made one more attempt. My eyebrow tweezers came to the rescue. The only problem was getting Hunty to sit still long enough to let me operate. Luckily for me, he obliged after I explained what was gonna go down. Thankfully the bead came out in two tries with my tweezer (kinda like two shakes of a lambs tail) and we were bead free! I gave myself an A+ in motherhood for this feat.

Onto my next mommy moment. . .

Tralee has been peeing in her pants lately. She gets so busy playing that she doesn't want to take a moment and visit the little ladies room. The accidents happen the most when she's outside playing, or someplace that isn't familiar. I've told her (lots) that if we're somewhere new and she has to go to the bathroom, to ask me or whichever adult is around where the potty is, and we'll show her. She and I have had MANY talks about this issue. I've explained nicely, harshly, medically, and every other way I can think of why it's important to go to the bathroom as soon as you feel you have to go. Lots of happy fuss has been made when I see her using the bathroom, hoping the positive reinforcement will encourage her to use it more often instead of resorting to more accidents. But, the accidents continue. So, when she had another accident yesterday I was out of ideas. I told her the first thing that came to my head.

"Tralee, do you know what will happen if you keep peeing you pants?" I asked.

"No." She answered, looking at me with an inquisitive yet cautious look on her face.

"Well. . . You'll start pooping frogs."

Tralee's eyes grew big, tears welled in her eyes, and she ran into the bathroom screaming, "I don't want that to happen!!!!"

Not wanting to damage her for life (and feeling like a crummy mom), I went in after her and explained, "Mommy was just kidding. That won't happen. I just want you to use the potty like a big girl every time you have to go." A few sniffs and nose wipes later, Tralee calmed down and promised me she would use the potty as soon as she had to go. I apologized for lying and gave her a big hug with more reassurance that her bathroom experiences wouldn't go all sci-fi on her.

So, in summary, today I felt like a star mommy with the whole bead extraction, and then like a horrid mommy for generating so much fear in my daughter with my outrageous lie. Hopefully she's not scarred for life. I'm also hopeful that the accidents will stop (so far so good!).

Also, out of curiosity, has anyone else ever lied to their kids to get them to start/stop doing something. Or am I alone here?

Breakfast with Lions

Last Saturday Jim and I took the kids to the zoo to have breakfast with the lions. The breakfast was so-so, mostly the kind of food you find at a gas station (breakfast burritos, sausage, bagels, muffins). There was a nice selection of fresh fruit and yogurt though, so that was good. Mostly, it was exciting to to see the lions from the large windows, and watch them interact first thing in the morning. They were pretty lively after being kept inside overnight!

Hunter's the little dude in the middle, checking out the big cats!

The lady lion was up on the rock for quite a while, and along came Papa lion to nose in on her resting place. She didn't appreciate his presence, and after letting him know how annoyed she was--as you can see in the picture above--she took off to find another place to chill.

The zoo keepers brought in a joey for all of us to pet. He was our special guest. The kids liked it. Confession: so did I! So cute!

Lastly, Tralee wanted to wear these sunglasses most of the time we were at the zoo, even though it was an overcast day. She's pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself!

We had a fun morning together. Thanks lions!