The Sport Authority

We were eating dinner last week and we had another memorable conversation with none other than our Amelia.


Amelia: Okay everyone! (the look on her face is not....natural.  This tells me she is most likely impersonating someone)

The family:...... (silence)

Amelia:  Who knows what happened with the Rams' team?

The family: ..... (silence.  no ones.  Seriously.  If our lives depended on it, we couldn't tell you one single thing other than they play football and are from St Louis.*)

Amelia: (dramatic voice, holds up her hands over her head):  Welllllllllllll, the Rams have won 1 game and lost 3 games (demonstrates by holding up fingers).  Do you think the Rams have won more games or lost more games (dramatic pause)?

The family: Lost?

Amelia: YES!  The Rams are SO sad because they lost more games than they have won!  The Rams have to work really hard to win the next game!

The family: Hmmmm....(John is particular is impressed.  He pulls out his phone to verify this information)

Amelia: Now!  What about the Cardinals team (she is still talking in this false voice, waving her arms when she talks and making odd facial expressions)?

The family: .......

Amelia:  The Cardinals are winning!  They have to win one more game!  It is so exciting!

John: (whispering): Holy cow!  She is right!  (a stricken look comes across his face)  Our 4 year old knows more about current sporting news than we do.....Should we be worried?

Kelly: Nah.  We know where the information is coming from...

* I am not kidding when I saw we don't follow sports.  This fact is incomprehensible to several of our neighbors** and friends, but we literally do not follow sports.  At all.  Ever. 

**Our poor neighbor is super friendly and has been trying for YEARS to engage John in sportstalk.  He talks about all the St Louis teams (baseball, football, hockey, soccer) and when that doesn't spark a conversation, he will easily switch to the Minnesota teams (baseball, football, hockey, basketball).  Every single time he is completely baffled that John and I don't have anything to discuss.  Nope. Didn't catch the game.  Or that one.  Or the other one.  Yeah.  Not that one either.

Hmmm...

William just did this...should be easy, shouldn't it?

16 months old!

Gemma was 16 months old yesterday!

I feel like this month has really produced a toddler child living in our house rather than a baby. I suspect this may have been true for a few months, I just wasn't ready to see it before now.

Gemma is taking and adding new words constantly. She is independent a d prefers to feed herself. She knows what food she wants and she will point to where EXACTLY on her tray she would like you to put it. She'll point to the bag of cheese on the counter, say "cheese" and then point to where she would like it on her tray.

She adores her red shoes more than anything. She will pitch a huge tantrum if you dare to put another pair of shoes on her feet. So, lately she wears just socks to the playground. Once we reach the playground, she still doesn't want tennis shoes, but the excitement of playground! is enough distraction she won't put up a huge fight.

Yesterday, she got up and decided it was time to change her baby's diaper. This required a huge number of wipes (10+) and a diaper. Also, a great deal of concentration.

You'll also notice she had a cute little ponytail yesterday for about 45 minutes before pulling it out.

Gemma feed herself potatoes

Gemma is the earliest of our crew to master the silverware. Maybe it is because the standard is lower and I don't care if she gets super messy? Maybe because she has to fend for herself at mealtimes?

Whatever the reason, she loves to feed herself with a fork and spoon. Right before John started recording, Gemma would feed herself a bite and the point for some more. If the food wasn't immediately forthcoming, she would bang and yell. Somewhere along the line, we gained another spoon and I'd load one spoon while she fed herself with the other. Then we'd switch.

She had already consumed a huge portion of potatoes and she had slowed down considerably at this point. In the background you'll hear William singing Take me out to the ball game.

Baseball!

We went to our first baseball game as a family last night. The son of our friends had a game and with such gorgeous weather, how could we say no to 1.free 2.local 3. A great kid we all love?

The funniest part?

Gemma was totally mesmerized by the game. She sat quietly for most of the game and just took it all in with short pauses to point out where the ball was on the field.

The other two were interested for about 3-4 minutes until they realized it was way more fun to run around chasing each other while screaming.

Gemma loves

...mashed potatoes! She loves to feed them to herself even more.

We love that she loves them because she is currently our only child who does not cry when we put the potatoes on her plate!

She moves like...

At dinner last week, we got to talking about what day of the week William has his "specials" (library, music, art, PE).  For the life of me, I cannot remember what day of the week is what special.  Even if he tells me what he did when he gets home, 15 minutes later I cannot remember.  To combat this, he always wears tennis shoes in case of PE, always has his art shirt with, keeps his library book in his backpack and wears play clothes that can get dirty in either PE or art or at lunch.

On this particular day, Amelia had preschool and her school has PE one day a week while she is there.  As I was asking William if he had PE at school that day (for the 40th time in five minutes), Amelia jumped in.

Amelia:  I had PE today!  I had PE today at school with Coach K_______ (seems unfair to put her name on the internet)!

Daddy: You did?
Amelia: Yes!  Yes I did!
Mama: What did you do in PE today?
Amelia: We listened to music about a silly guy!
Mama: You did? (I'm envisioning Raffi or the Wiggles or other preschool set type music)
Amelia: YEAH!!!   Did you know that Jagger is a funny guy?  He LOVES to dance and so do I*!

(((John and are looking at each other, participating in a silent volleyball game.  I am insisting he handle this one by raising my eyebrows.  He is slightly shaking his head and staying silent. We are also both struggling not to laugh)))

Mama: Really??? (this is all I can manage without laughing.  Laughing or ranting because my 4 year old is listening to music about a man who is.......perhaps not the role model I would want to expose my child to at this moment in her life.  I'm thinking more along the lines of when she is 30.)

Amelia: Yes!  He does lots of kinds of dance moves when he sings!

Mama: (the horror....they've taught my child how to dance like Mick Jagger.  I don't want to ask....) He does?

Amelia: Yes!  He dances like a choo choo train when he dances (circles her arms around).  He also climbs a rope (climbing move with her arms).  Then he walks like a duck (a very authentic duck waddle follows).  He also likes to point at people when he sings (pointing follows).

Mama: ........**
Daddy:......huh!  Wow Amelia!  That is a lot of dancing!


*Likely, similar to this version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0__W-02oU

**I want to ask about this at school.  I really do.  I just haven't yet because I worked so hard to find the right preschool for her and spent so much time researching and comparing......I cannot find out this kind of information and not feel a little disappointment.....



Which, I have to say I prefer this song over William coming home and singing this one last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRsK9VKDoK8