So there are some details that don't exactly apply, such as just how much I love my job ;) But for the most part, this writer sums it up pretty nicely!!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Favorite moments
Favorite moments throughout a typical day:
- I wake up to the sound of Emily shutting the microwave door, either to heat her butter for 7 seconds or to cook Audrey's oatmeal for 3 minutes. I hear the beeping and the door opening, and I smile and laugh to myself about my independent little Emily
- When Clara wakes up, she squeaks for me to come get her, and on my favorite days, Travis is still in the shower so I get to bring her back to bed with me, and we snuggle in the super-warmness of my covers. She lays on my chest with her little fuzzy head under my chin, with her hands on my arms, scritching her fingers back and forth. She never wants to get up; I'm not sure how long we'd stay there if I didn't have to eventually get up myself. :)
- Audrey is my watchdog throughout the day. As soon as someone arrives (especially Amanda), she's peeking out the garage door, or flat-out running into the garage for a greeting. It's my very favorite thing about coming home from work, is her peeking through the door and then bouncing and smiling at me. She might have rough moments here and there, usually at bedtime, but that girl never has an entire bad DAY. What a ray of sunshine! She always surprises me with something she's learned, something new, each day.
- Clara's bedtime is special because of how much she likes to read books together. She knows her routine and loves it! She especially thinks Goodnight Gorilla is funny because of the hilarious page in the middle with the surprised expression. She turns her little head and looks up at me to see my funny surprised expression too. And then she lets me lay her down in her crib and snuggles off to sleep, usually singing.
- Then I go into the girls' room, and Travis has usually tucked them into their beds and they are waiting for me. Audrey has on her nighttime chapstick and gives me chapsticky kisses and very wiggley, emphatic hugs.
- And then, my very favorite moment, I think, is when I climb the ladder to hug Emily, and she says, "Mom, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Something about it makes me feel like an adequate mother... and there aren't many moments that actively confirm that. there are some moments where I feel inadequate, and most moments where I just keep grooving along with things, but then there's that moment where I get the sense that I'm doing something right. This girl likes her life enough to look forward to the next day, every night. She's content with the day she's had, and ready for another. And I love talking with her about the things we'll do, because there IS so much to look forward to. I don't know when else in our life that it will be so clear that the future holds so many good things for us. It's just a simple little question but I love it.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Clara just gets awesomer!
Finally, a post about the wee one!
In the past few months, Clara has really started becoming her own person. I mean, she always has been, but now she has very strong opinions on things. She knows when it's time for things, she knows she gets string cheese after Emily gets off the bus. She knows we hop in the bathtub after we get upstairs to go to bed (except when we don't, and then it's upsetting!). She climbs into her carseat on her own, and you know, I don't know why people are so anxious to turn their kids around forward-facing, because it's just as easy to leave it rear-facing and she doesn't care one bit! When she cares, it'll probably make sense to turn it around anyway.
One of the most fun things has been Clara learning to sing. She can sing Baby Beluga, and Teddy Bear, and she'll bring me the book, turn around and back herself up and plop into my lap. She's so insistent - you WILL read this to me now, because I'm already singing it and I'm in the right place, so, start singing, lady!! and i just kiss her cheek over and over and over again. :) Her first song was Twinkle Twinkle, of course, and she would sing it back to me at bedtime as I sang to her in the dark. Her sisters are so obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Trouble" that when I laid Clara down the other night, she was humming and ended up mixing the two songs, and I could definitely hear it was more of the latter. *sigh* goofy girls!!
She loves to imitate her sisters, whether it's wearing their shoes and clonking around the house, or sitting at the piano, turning pages, touching the notes on the page and then playing more pretty notes with her fingers. She also LOVES books now. She'll flip by them herself or insist on being read to. I have to be careful not to get board books flung at my head - she's pretty insistent!! And it makes bedtime a bit of a struggle because she wants ALL of her bedtime books read to her. I try to limit it to three! After we left Goodnight Moon at Jenny's house one weekend, she started branching into other books, and she loves it. All three girls have developed an obsession with the printed word since we gave up satellite TV, and hardly ever have it on anymore (not like we ever did much anyway!). It's pretty cool!
And Clara is a total crack-up, too. Amanda asked her this afternoon if she had pooped, cuz she smelled bad, and Clara shook her head back and forth quickly, in her typical adorable little fashion. And Amanda said noooo, you smell bad, did you poop? And her response, whether coincidental or purposeful, was a little shrug and expression of "eh, you got me!" And off she went to the bathroom to get changed. Hilarious!! She actually did poop on the potty one time, which we haven't even tried with her for months but it was AWESOME. it was during Emily's birthday party, while she was opening presents, and I did NOT want to be missing out due to changing a disaster diaper. And I didn't have to! best baby ever!! And of course she hasn't since, but who cares?? that rocked!! And I deserve it, too, cuz her tummy appears to still be sensitive to everything. I gave her two wheat-thins crackers yesterday to see if gluten still gives her trouble, and whammo, this afternoon her system announced that yes, it does. It is such a drag to operate with such a strict diet, but if Audrey outgrew it around 2.5 to 3 years, maybe I can do this for another year? or two?? ugh... Cuz now she really knows if her sisters have something that she can't, so I'm trying hard to not let that happen too often. Like tonight, she got her own gluten-free noodles while the rest of us feasted on the real thing, and no apples or pears or onions or tomatoes for any of us (except me, cuz I MUST have tomatoes this time of year! :) ).
She's getting to be more coordinated now, getting up AND down stairs pretty well, and getting faster and faster. She's had a few major biffs lately, resulting in a skinned-up nose and a hitler-mustache-style abrasion above her mouth. Guess she learned the hard way to practice running on grass instead of concrete! She's a tough cookie, though. Tonight she chipped a tiny bit off her bottom tooth because she slipped while climbing onto a chair at the dining room table. she cried a little, but not nearly as long as I would have if I'd chipped a tooth!
And all this, and her only real words are "Bup" (up) and "ahhdaaa" (all done). And maybe Mom and Dad, but it's hard to know. She is SO expressive and so busy listening to everything that's going on, that she doesn't really need words. Can't even get a "nana" out of her and she LOVES bananas. And I remember Audrey was a lot the same way, so I'm fine letting Clara learn however she likes. She's pretty lucky that I'm finally figuring out some things the third time around.
I sure like her an awful lot, and she likes me too. :) She's a bit less of a mama's girl than she was a few months ago, but I don't mind her clinging to me most of the time. When Amanda came one morning, Travis was holding her, and she wiggled out of his arms and went running through the kitchen, right past me, to greet her! Made me feel so good, that she feels so loved while I'm at work! But in my arms, it's such a good feeling, like she gets aboard and feels right at home, where she should be, with her mom. It's fun to be paired up with such a little beauty!
In the past few months, Clara has really started becoming her own person. I mean, she always has been, but now she has very strong opinions on things. She knows when it's time for things, she knows she gets string cheese after Emily gets off the bus. She knows we hop in the bathtub after we get upstairs to go to bed (except when we don't, and then it's upsetting!). She climbs into her carseat on her own, and you know, I don't know why people are so anxious to turn their kids around forward-facing, because it's just as easy to leave it rear-facing and she doesn't care one bit! When she cares, it'll probably make sense to turn it around anyway.
One of the most fun things has been Clara learning to sing. She can sing Baby Beluga, and Teddy Bear, and she'll bring me the book, turn around and back herself up and plop into my lap. She's so insistent - you WILL read this to me now, because I'm already singing it and I'm in the right place, so, start singing, lady!! and i just kiss her cheek over and over and over again. :) Her first song was Twinkle Twinkle, of course, and she would sing it back to me at bedtime as I sang to her in the dark. Her sisters are so obsessed with Taylor Swift's "Trouble" that when I laid Clara down the other night, she was humming and ended up mixing the two songs, and I could definitely hear it was more of the latter. *sigh* goofy girls!!
She loves to imitate her sisters, whether it's wearing their shoes and clonking around the house, or sitting at the piano, turning pages, touching the notes on the page and then playing more pretty notes with her fingers. She also LOVES books now. She'll flip by them herself or insist on being read to. I have to be careful not to get board books flung at my head - she's pretty insistent!! And it makes bedtime a bit of a struggle because she wants ALL of her bedtime books read to her. I try to limit it to three! After we left Goodnight Moon at Jenny's house one weekend, she started branching into other books, and she loves it. All three girls have developed an obsession with the printed word since we gave up satellite TV, and hardly ever have it on anymore (not like we ever did much anyway!). It's pretty cool!
And Clara is a total crack-up, too. Amanda asked her this afternoon if she had pooped, cuz she smelled bad, and Clara shook her head back and forth quickly, in her typical adorable little fashion. And Amanda said noooo, you smell bad, did you poop? And her response, whether coincidental or purposeful, was a little shrug and expression of "eh, you got me!" And off she went to the bathroom to get changed. Hilarious!! She actually did poop on the potty one time, which we haven't even tried with her for months but it was AWESOME. it was during Emily's birthday party, while she was opening presents, and I did NOT want to be missing out due to changing a disaster diaper. And I didn't have to! best baby ever!! And of course she hasn't since, but who cares?? that rocked!! And I deserve it, too, cuz her tummy appears to still be sensitive to everything. I gave her two wheat-thins crackers yesterday to see if gluten still gives her trouble, and whammo, this afternoon her system announced that yes, it does. It is such a drag to operate with such a strict diet, but if Audrey outgrew it around 2.5 to 3 years, maybe I can do this for another year? or two?? ugh... Cuz now she really knows if her sisters have something that she can't, so I'm trying hard to not let that happen too often. Like tonight, she got her own gluten-free noodles while the rest of us feasted on the real thing, and no apples or pears or onions or tomatoes for any of us (except me, cuz I MUST have tomatoes this time of year! :) ).
She's getting to be more coordinated now, getting up AND down stairs pretty well, and getting faster and faster. She's had a few major biffs lately, resulting in a skinned-up nose and a hitler-mustache-style abrasion above her mouth. Guess she learned the hard way to practice running on grass instead of concrete! She's a tough cookie, though. Tonight she chipped a tiny bit off her bottom tooth because she slipped while climbing onto a chair at the dining room table. she cried a little, but not nearly as long as I would have if I'd chipped a tooth!
And all this, and her only real words are "Bup" (up) and "ahhdaaa" (all done). And maybe Mom and Dad, but it's hard to know. She is SO expressive and so busy listening to everything that's going on, that she doesn't really need words. Can't even get a "nana" out of her and she LOVES bananas. And I remember Audrey was a lot the same way, so I'm fine letting Clara learn however she likes. She's pretty lucky that I'm finally figuring out some things the third time around.
I sure like her an awful lot, and she likes me too. :) She's a bit less of a mama's girl than she was a few months ago, but I don't mind her clinging to me most of the time. When Amanda came one morning, Travis was holding her, and she wiggled out of his arms and went running through the kitchen, right past me, to greet her! Made me feel so good, that she feels so loved while I'm at work! But in my arms, it's such a good feeling, like she gets aboard and feels right at home, where she should be, with her mom. It's fun to be paired up with such a little beauty!
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Audrey starts preschool
Audrey is now officially a preschooler! She was very cautious and quiet at the meet-the-teacher, but on her first day she put on a grin and marched into the school, and has loved it ever since. She sings new songs, and brings home new artwork. It's only 3 hours, two mornings per week, but it's enough that she has her own "thing." I got a newsletter from her teacher saying that they would be starting to learn colors, numbers, and letters, hopefully learning enough that they will be able to identify their own names. I wanted to reply, "... you know that Audrey can read, right?" It ought to be an interesting parent-teacher conference coming up.
When Emily is at school and Clara is napping, Audrey and I have two afternoons each week when it's just the two of us. I usually try to be productive then, but we spend a fair amount of time reading books. She's started reading Dick and Jane books, and is doing an amazing job!! Emily overheard Audrey reading it to me one time, and got a little bit offended that Audrey was actually reading a story, and Audrey's been known to help Emily with her Word Ring. It's pretty weird. I was even doing a math activity with Emily yesterday, following up on some things she was asking me while I got dressed in the morning (Doesn't everyone ask you to count by 11's as you brush your teeth?), and Audrey jumped in and tried to do it too. I was giving my attention to Emily, but when I looked back at Audrey, she had followed along exactly. Her mission in life seems to be to catch up to Emily, and she's doing it with a flare that says, "What? Was that supposed to be hard?" She plays with Emily and Hope and all the other neighborhood kids, and fits right in!
As I type this, Emily is being the teacher in a "really fun game" they're playing, which looks an awful lot like school! Audrey is a willing pupil. I'm glad she has her preschool experience to have to herself so not everything is dominated by Emily's whims!!
Audrey has been singing Taylor Swift's "Trouble" song all day today. She and Emily were singing it in the car together the other night, and it's hilarious. I've tried to capture videos but it doesn't do it justice. Audrey's dead-on on the pitch, and Emily's got more of the words and rhythm. They've sung it so much that Travis even heard Clara humming it today. Crazy girls!!
Emily learned to play "Mary had a little lamb" on the piano, reading the notes out of the piano book. Audrey can play it too, playing it by ear, and even figuring out how to go up to G instead of just C, D, and E like in Emily's book. And she can do it on the black keys. And on the toy keyboard. And singing along with it.
Audrey colored a flower yesterday that is seriously a work of art. She colored with all the markers in the rainbow, making one stripe of each color repeating over and over, with no empty spaces. It's really beautiful, and it took her all day to do, patiently adding one stripe at a time. So we add artistry to the list of amazing things about Audrey!
Her little red and yellow tricycle (big wheel) has gotten a lot of mileage this fall. Emily's bus stop was at the corner with 50th until we got it moved to in front of our house, so for a few weeks we'd have to walk down to the end of the block to meet the bus. Audrey always rode that tricycle!! It'll be fun to see next spring if she'll be able to put pedaling together with balancing. She's been zipping down that hill all summer.
Audrey also has a good time with Amanda. Last week, Audrey and Clara both had some kind of stomach bug, so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to leave them with Amanda while I went to work. But Audrey managed to puke in the bucket every time and never have an accident, which seriously helps cleanup!! It also meant that it was fine for Amanda to handle, which was good because Audrey would have really been upset at staying home with me all day and missing an Amanda day. It's fun to see how much Amanda enjoys Audrey. They watch YouTube videos about doing make-up and styling hair, they paint nails and go shopping - Amanda said Audrey was really very helpful helping her pick out new boots!! I feel pretty good about heading off to work when they're both so happy to see each other.
It's so funny to realize who Audrey has become as a person, and compare that to who she was as a toddler, when potty training, when watching her learn to walk and talk. If I had known back then who she really IS as a person, man, it would've been so much less stressful for us. :( She's like a little adult in a child's body! If she doesn't have the language skills to protest (either a few years ago due to age or last night due to tiredness) she completely shuts down. The worst thing you can do is offer physical interaction at that point, even if it's a well-meaning hug. She will FREAK. Now that I know who she is, I can totally understand it, but it sure was hard to figure out in a 18-month-old.
I bought her new chapstick because she actually used up her other tube from last winter. I bought a package of 3, which had strawberry, cherry, and mint in it. I gave her the strawberry, thinking that would be enough, but she showed me this morning that she had opened up the mint kind, and declared that to be her "morning chapstick," while the strawberry is her "nighttime chapstick." She really does look good with glossy lips, I'll admit. :)
So yeah, on the verge of turning 4, my kid is sure amazing. She's beautiful, she's carefree and happy, she's got friends, and has fun and is comfortable wherever she is. She's enjoying the luxury of learning because she wants to, and she's happy to go to bed and greet each new day. We should all be so lucky as her!!
When Emily is at school and Clara is napping, Audrey and I have two afternoons each week when it's just the two of us. I usually try to be productive then, but we spend a fair amount of time reading books. She's started reading Dick and Jane books, and is doing an amazing job!! Emily overheard Audrey reading it to me one time, and got a little bit offended that Audrey was actually reading a story, and Audrey's been known to help Emily with her Word Ring. It's pretty weird. I was even doing a math activity with Emily yesterday, following up on some things she was asking me while I got dressed in the morning (Doesn't everyone ask you to count by 11's as you brush your teeth?), and Audrey jumped in and tried to do it too. I was giving my attention to Emily, but when I looked back at Audrey, she had followed along exactly. Her mission in life seems to be to catch up to Emily, and she's doing it with a flare that says, "What? Was that supposed to be hard?" She plays with Emily and Hope and all the other neighborhood kids, and fits right in!
As I type this, Emily is being the teacher in a "really fun game" they're playing, which looks an awful lot like school! Audrey is a willing pupil. I'm glad she has her preschool experience to have to herself so not everything is dominated by Emily's whims!!
Audrey has been singing Taylor Swift's "Trouble" song all day today. She and Emily were singing it in the car together the other night, and it's hilarious. I've tried to capture videos but it doesn't do it justice. Audrey's dead-on on the pitch, and Emily's got more of the words and rhythm. They've sung it so much that Travis even heard Clara humming it today. Crazy girls!!
Emily learned to play "Mary had a little lamb" on the piano, reading the notes out of the piano book. Audrey can play it too, playing it by ear, and even figuring out how to go up to G instead of just C, D, and E like in Emily's book. And she can do it on the black keys. And on the toy keyboard. And singing along with it.
Audrey colored a flower yesterday that is seriously a work of art. She colored with all the markers in the rainbow, making one stripe of each color repeating over and over, with no empty spaces. It's really beautiful, and it took her all day to do, patiently adding one stripe at a time. So we add artistry to the list of amazing things about Audrey!
Her little red and yellow tricycle (big wheel) has gotten a lot of mileage this fall. Emily's bus stop was at the corner with 50th until we got it moved to in front of our house, so for a few weeks we'd have to walk down to the end of the block to meet the bus. Audrey always rode that tricycle!! It'll be fun to see next spring if she'll be able to put pedaling together with balancing. She's been zipping down that hill all summer.
Audrey also has a good time with Amanda. Last week, Audrey and Clara both had some kind of stomach bug, so I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to leave them with Amanda while I went to work. But Audrey managed to puke in the bucket every time and never have an accident, which seriously helps cleanup!! It also meant that it was fine for Amanda to handle, which was good because Audrey would have really been upset at staying home with me all day and missing an Amanda day. It's fun to see how much Amanda enjoys Audrey. They watch YouTube videos about doing make-up and styling hair, they paint nails and go shopping - Amanda said Audrey was really very helpful helping her pick out new boots!! I feel pretty good about heading off to work when they're both so happy to see each other.
It's so funny to realize who Audrey has become as a person, and compare that to who she was as a toddler, when potty training, when watching her learn to walk and talk. If I had known back then who she really IS as a person, man, it would've been so much less stressful for us. :( She's like a little adult in a child's body! If she doesn't have the language skills to protest (either a few years ago due to age or last night due to tiredness) she completely shuts down. The worst thing you can do is offer physical interaction at that point, even if it's a well-meaning hug. She will FREAK. Now that I know who she is, I can totally understand it, but it sure was hard to figure out in a 18-month-old.
I bought her new chapstick because she actually used up her other tube from last winter. I bought a package of 3, which had strawberry, cherry, and mint in it. I gave her the strawberry, thinking that would be enough, but she showed me this morning that she had opened up the mint kind, and declared that to be her "morning chapstick," while the strawberry is her "nighttime chapstick." She really does look good with glossy lips, I'll admit. :)
So yeah, on the verge of turning 4, my kid is sure amazing. She's beautiful, she's carefree and happy, she's got friends, and has fun and is comfortable wherever she is. She's enjoying the luxury of learning because she wants to, and she's happy to go to bed and greet each new day. We should all be so lucky as her!!
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