life at 5

My daughter is now five years old and she absolutely amazes me and cracks me up all in one breath. Here are a few examples of some recent conversations we've had:

We're driving down the road discussing trees and leaves. I'm trying to get her to understand the connection between the name of the season, Fall, with leaves falling off the trees. I'd heard her say something about leaves falling off the trees so they can feed the trees.

5 yr old: The leaves make chlorophyl, right Mommy?

Me: Chlorophyl??? Oh wow, I remember learning about that...way back when...

That Pre-K tuition is money well spent!

*****
This one is from a few months ago, but is one of my favorites. We were driving along-we do a lot of our "heavy" talking while in the car-and we passed the place where we had her 4th birthday party about 6 months earlier.

4 yr old: Those pictures in your head, what are those?

Me: Ummmm...that's your memory, how you remember things

--long pause--

4 yr old: Those pictures in your head, is that your brain??

Me: Well, yes I guess it is

Maybe we'd watched Wizard of Oz a few too many times!

*****

Once again driving down the road, talking about different types of cars-Minivans, SUVs, sedans, sports cars, etc. We had just seen a little two seater convertible sports car that she thought was pretty cool.

5yr old: But where do you put the sweeties???

Apparently I call her sweetie a lot and that is her term for children....

There are more, but my brain is far too tired to remember much more right now.

Where has that picture gone???

I started trying to post an adorable picture of my son holding our baby on Friday. It kept saying it was downloading it, but it was lying! I really don't know what the trouble is. I'm not overly gifted with this computer stuff, but I'm not completely ignorant either. It's my most favorite picture of him to date. He's so angelic and tender hearted and it really shows here. Of course he's not always that way, but wouldn't life be boring if he was?? I admit, sometimes I'd take boring. But then he gets this goofy smile on his face and nods his head laughing his silly laugh and I remember how fun this parenting stuff really is. Watching your children grow from such tiny little lumps to walking, talking little people is just so much fun. I'm so thankful to be able to be home with them to watch it all happen!

Anyway I give on this whole picture thing. Maybe my husband can help me out. We'll see. We had a nice weekend enjoying true fall weather. We got a new soccer ball so Jeff can start teaching the kids some soccer moves. I'm trying to get our house under control, the mess that is. My sister and her kids are coming in town Thursday and I need to get busy cleaning. I still don't get how some people keep their houses clean all the time. I really would like to be one of those people. Maybe some day I will realize that it just isn't a reality for me, but I'm not ready to give up yet.

Well, the kids rooms are calling me upstairs to put away the toys and all those summer clothes I pulled out of my daughter's armoir. Better get to work before the baby wakes and wants to eat...again.

Picking your battles

This is a concept I learned a lot about in my 5 years of teaching junior high math. It is probably the most helpful thing I learned, especially when it comes to parenting. I had not had my children yet when I was teaching so I didn't have that maternal experience to rely on. One of the most important things of picking your battles is understanding that what seems like a battle worth fighting one day might not seem so worth it another day. I don't think this automatically means you are being wishy-washy. I think it means you are evaluating your methods and understand that this parenting thing is not a rigid set of rules but instead a living breathing entity (namely your kids). You have to step back every now and then and see if your methods are working or if your just spending all your time yelling with no one listening. That's what I've been doing these last few weeks. I have thought many times "I know they hear me because they look at me when I speak, but why aren't they listening to anything I say?!?!?!" So here is a list of battles I've chosen not to fight today, at least for now, and some I'm still fighting.

I give...
1. Not allowing my 22 mo. old son to sit in the bouncey chair. He loves it and I feel like my limiting him was only making him love it more.

2. Keeping my daughter away from the baby so she wouldn't spread her cold germs to her. Ok, this is definitely a temporary lapse but when my son, the baby, and I all woke up this morning with the cold it's hardly worth it anymore.



Still fighting...
1. Not allowing my son to pick up the baby by himself. I almost had a heart attack yesterday when he tried to pick her up off the sofa!! I will not back down on this one.

2. Not allowing my son to feed the baby cheerios or any other food. I knew it was only a matter of time before the sweet boy tried to share his food with the baby. I will stand firm, at least until she's old enough to eat food.

3. Not allowing my son to rip my daughter's hair out by the handful. I've got this pretty well handled at home-send my daughter to another room to play until he forgets why he was mad-but I haven't quite figured out the best way to deal with this in the car. Cramming all three kids across the back seat of our car isn't a good situation for anyone but it will have to do for quite a while longer.

Wow, it sounds like my son is a little hell raiser. Really he isn't. He is a very sweet little guy normally. The onset of "terrible two's" and the birth of our baby have happened all at once for him and it seems to be a bit more than he can handle. He still gives the best hugs ever and snuggles with me in the cutest little way. The transition from 1 kid to 2 was really pretty easy for us. The same cannot be said for going from 2 kids to 3. But I wouldn't trade my sweet baby girl for anything and I know this will all pass in time...until she learns how to crawl.

My first real post!!

Silly me for thinking my dear husband was writing some sweet note as my first post...Why do I torture myself with this kind of thinking??? Alas, he got me up and running on this site and for that I am very grateful. Now we'll have to wait and see if I have anything useful, or at the very least funny, to say. In case you don't know this already, I am now the proud mommy to 3 beautiful children ages 5, 21 months, and 2.5 weeks. So if I do stray from topic or take a few days between posts, blame it on the baby. I figure that should cover me for at least a few more weeks. After that it's all me! Anyhow, happy reading and I do hope to make you smile, laugh out loud (for real, not this silly lol computer stuff), and maybe even cry on occasion. Thanks for reading!!

This Is A Test

This is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. The quick red brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their contry.