Finding Mommy

Santa Claus in April??

So, it's April, and the girls are already talking about Santa Claus. I tried to explain that Santa won't be coming until December which is 8 months away.  For a 2-year old and 4-year old, this is difficult to grasp.

I love the idea of Santa Claus!  The idea that no matter what, every child has a good heart and deserves a gift at Christmas time.  Every child deserves to be thought of and loved, every day, but especially at Christmas.  And to me, that's what Santa represents.  I did a ton of volunteering in high school and our church always did a Giving Tree.  You took a paper ornament off of the Christmas tree and bought one of the gifts listed for a child whose parent(s) couldn't afford it.  One year, I helped deliver those gifts and the look on the kids' faces, the sheer happiness, was something I will always remember.

I want my children to believe in this idea too and for them that's represented in Santa Claus.  It's something they can "see" which is much easier for a child to understand.  Princess asks a ton, A TON of questions every year at Christmas (well, really all year long, but especially about Santa).  

One year we bought toys to donate and she just didn't understand why we would need to buy toys for other kids since Santa brings them.  It was this year that we instituted the "Santa brings one toy" rule in our home. As in, I've told our child that there are so many kids in the world, and since every child gets a toy, Santa can only bring one toy to every child, so that's what we're going to do. And then I went on to tell her, that not all parents can afford to buy toys for their kids and wouldn't it be nice if they each got two toys, so sometimes other parents help to buy those toys.  

Next up, the mall Santas.  Princess noticed that there were two different Santas at two different malls. I didn't feel right about telling her that one was fake and one was real, so we went with they're all fake. Because obviously Santa is too busy making toys for all of the boys and girls that he can't really go to every mall.  So these "friends" of Santa's dressed up like him, came to the malls for pictures, and then took their wishes back to Santa so they would get what they wanted for Christmas. One day, I'm sure all of this will backfire on us. 

Today was a close one.  I was totally thrown when she asked why elves are short and how do they grow bigger. Um, they don't???  They're just like that, they're short? Hopefully she'll let that one slide and not ask again. Ha! Then we again talked about Santa's friends at the mall and she said "maybe that's why that old guy was smelly because he had rubber on him.  You know because he was dressed up as Santa!" That one made me giggle.  Mouse chimed in by informing us all that Santa will be bringing her a Princess towel (Tanta Caus bing pincess towel).  And no, she does not want one when/if we go to Disney World, Santa will be bringing it!

 

It's not there!

I'm amazed at how quickly these little ones pick up everything!  Princess is trying her hand at various phrases these days...some cute and some not so much.  

Here are a couple of my favorites:

When she doesn't like something I have to say or ask her to do, she'll tell me "It's not there!" instead of "It's not fair!"  I try really hard not to giggle every time she says it, but really, it's cute!

She's also been dressing herself in the morning.  Almost every morning, she'll sit in front of her row of dresses and say "Meanie, meanie, miney, moe. Bite a bite a bite a toe. Meanie, meanie, miney, mo." I've tried correcting her, but she's insistent that I am wrong.

My not-so favorites:

"I'm not your best friend anymore!" when she gets a time out or occasionally when mommy says no. Although she has gotten better about not using this phrase after I explained that we don't use our friendship to get what we want.

"Just leave me alone!" She tells her sister this a lot and it's always in a sassy tone. Drives me nuts!

Mouse's language skills have also advanced tremendously over the last couple of months. She mimics pretty much anything you say to her. And it's all so cute in that little 2-year old voice!  She's want us to say choo-choo phrases when we feed her lately. And yes, we feed her. She refuses to eat anything (including ice cream) unless we "help." So we have to say "chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo" followed by a phrase of her choosing, such as Mickey Prince, Minnie Masquerade, and my favorite, Goofy find a shoe.

There is never a dull moment in this house (or quiet for that matter), but I love every minute of it!

 

My new laminator

My life is an oxymoron really.  I'm fanatical about germs, but our house is messy.  I have list after list of things to do, buy, create, but again our house is a disorganized mess.  (And half of the time I can't find the lists I took time to create!)  So I've been doing a bit of research and have come up with a few ideas to create some organization in our house and schedule.  So, of course, I first had to buy a laminator, because really no new idea of mine is complete without some sort of purchase.  

Don't worry "control my spending" is on a list somewhere too ;)  Well I finally found time and space to set up my new laminator and here's what I did with it:

Checklists:  As I mentioned before, I love lists of any sort, but checklists in particular.  I also thought it would be great to put together a few checklists for Princess so she could get ready more independently.  I made a morning routine and bedtime routine checklist a while ago and she loved it!  Before I had the laminator, I would print one out, have her mark it for a couple of days and then print a new one.  Now I've laminated one copy and she uses a dry erase marker to make her check marks.  And it has helped tremendously in getting her ready for the day (and night)!

                       

Flip books:  I made these today.  For Princess, I made a "fill-in-the-blank" flip book.  On all of the pictures, the first letter is missing and she can use a dry erase marker to fill in the missing letter.  It's pretty simple, but I thought it would be appropriate for a 4-year old.  Turns out, not so much.  She ran through the book in a matter of seconds and knew every one of them.  Guess it's back to the drawing board!  I think I'll experiment with longer words or missing vowels, etc.  For Mouse, I put together a colors book and a shapes book.  I made all of the pages small enough that I could fit 4 in one 9x11 laminating pouch.

I'm planning to make some additional flip books, writing pages, and other learning resources for the kiddos.  I'll post those as I finish them.  Have an idea of other projects I can make with my laminator??  Please leave a comment.

PE flip book

It's the dead of winter and the girls have so much energy!  I desperately needed some ideas for things we can do at home to help.  I've been doing a bit of research on schooling options (I'll get in to that in a later post) and came across a blog (Homegrown Mom) with this nifty little PE flip book.  I'm currently putting our own version together and planning to try it out next week with the girls.  I think they'll love it!  I used some of the ideas from the Homegrown Mom blog and added in some of my own.  The activities I've included are:

Wii sports (this should be interesting with little ones, but worth a try)

Dance party (they love to dance!)

Bubble party (blow bubbles with music on and let the girls run around popping them)

Soccer

Balloons (blow up some latex balloons and let the girls toss them and kick them around)

Go to the park

Go for a walk

Practice gymnastics (hey, I used to be a coach, I should be able to teach them something)

Play catch

Animal parade (we walk around the house and act like different animals)

Yoga (don't worry, I have a DVD for this and Princess loves it)

Open gym (at our local gymnastics club...an hour of trampolines, what could be better??)

Go swimming

Go for a bike ride

I think I'll have to get a bit creative with a few of these since it's been well below zero here the last week or so.  Maybe let them ride their tricycles around the house, go to the mall for walks, and hit up an indoor playground.  Sounds fun and I can't wait to see what the girls think!

Mouse is talking so much lately! She can now say mama, dada, nana, pa, papa (grandpa), pup pup (puppy), mo (more), my (mine). She'll sing along with Princess and dances around like crazy! She is so much fun!

We had Nana over tonight for dinner and when I told the girls she was coming, Mouse said "Pa?" It's amazing how she's starting to make those connections!

conversations with a 4-year old

Here are a couple of conversations I've had with my 4-year old recently.  These pretty much always occur at bedtime because that's when she's suddenly ready to talk about anything and everything!

Conversation #1 (from Sunday night)

Princess: I love the purple dinosaur.

Mommy: Oh, you really like that dinosaur train show, don't you?

Princess: Yeah.

Mommy: Should we have a purple dinosaur party for your birthday next year?

Princess: I don't really like dinosaurs...I mean, I would like a purple dinosaur party, but not dinosaur toys.

(Long pause.)

Princess: Can you just tell people not to get me dinosaur toys?

Conversation #2 (from tonight)

Princess:  I wish that there was only a sun and no moon because I don't like to sleep.

Mommy:  Well, we all need to sleep.  It gives us energy and if we didn't sleep, we would all be cranky all of the time.

Princess:  Not me.

Mommy:  Okay.  (Said in my whatever-you-say voice because I've learned that arguing with a 4-year old over something I definitely will not change her mind about just doesn't make sense and will only prolong bedtime).

30 seconds later, she was sound asleep!

This age is SO fun and I love these little chats with Princess, I just sometimes wish they would occur in the middle of the day rather than at the end of the night!

i'm old

So apparently I'm old now.  As we were driving along this morning, Princess pointed at a building and said "that's where your class is."  I questioned her as to what class she was talking about. 

Princess:  "You're class you take when you're old." 

Me:  "Oh, I'm old?" 

Princess:  "Yes, you're old when you're not a little girl."

Me:  "Is Grandma old?"

Princess:  "Grandma is just a grandma...and she's special and pretty."

Somedays, even when she's unknowingly insulting me, she still manages to melt my heart.

bikini, please?

After watching my 3-year old prancing around in a hot pink bikini, I've decided that she is definitely not wearing THAT this summer!  She's like a little teenager strutting her stuff around our house and so excited about her little tum showing.  Seriously!  Then she had to go potty and I realized that aspects of the bikini are not so bad, like the fact that she doesn't have to completely undress to go to the bathroom AND she can do it all by herself!  Tankini, here we come!

Oh did I mention that the bikini she's wearing is the one I had planned for her little sister (rethinking this as well) and that she wore it when she was smaller.  It's a size 12 months and it fits perfectly.  Hmmm...

ranned me

Princess: "My teacher ranned me all over, and my friends."

Translation:  My teacher and my friends wore me out today. 

Sounds like she had a good day at school!

do i look like Grandma?

When Princess woke up this morning, she called me over to the stairs and said "Mommy, do I look like Grandma?" As I looked at her standing at the top of the stairs in her undies sticking her tummy out, I was extremely confused and thought "because your naked?" but instead said "how do you look like Grandma?." She twirled her hair and said "my two curls." Oh,... that makes much more sense!!  (For those of you that don't know Grandma, her hair is permed.)