"Sleeping in a thousand star hotel"

Title credit goes to the okiedokie brothers.

Alternate titles:

soccer game is cancelled, now what?

What should we do today?

The weather is perfect- let's go!

The great outdoors is calling, we answered

Cutie pie

At breakfast this morning:


Amelia: Hi there cutie pie! Mom! When you moved over, I saw Gemma and I said "hi cutie pie!"

Mama: that was sweet Amelia !(continues to eat cereal)

Amelia: Gemma is a cutie pie.

Mama: she is a cutie pie, isn't she?

Gemma: Numna! Aik a coo pie.

Mama: what?

Gemma: Numna! Aik a coo pie! Cu pie!

Mama: did Amelia call you a cutie pie?

Gemma: Yeah! (It is still so exciting to be understood. She is so happy and usually laughs/claps when we finally get what she is saying)

Mama: are you a cutie pie Gemma?

Gemma: Yeah! Yeah! Cu pie!


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William's field trip

Over a week ago, I was lucky enough to be able to go on William's class field trip. We went to an nature reserve nearby and hiked the woods, learned about the process of metamorphosis, and dug around in the pond for critters.

I was assigned 2 other sweet boys in addition to William. At the end of the day, I couldn't get over how well behaved two of my boys were. They listened carefully and stayed by my side for the entire day. My son on the other hand was so busy running between friends and checking out what EVERYONE else was doing that I hardly saw him!

Other than missing William, I really enjoyed putting my science teacher hat for a short period of time. We talked about trees, rocks, clouds, pond animal life and other science topics near and dear to my heart. Another mom caught me in full science teacher mode in a photo she shared with me.

It was a delightful moment when 3 little girls walked up squealing about the yucky stuff in their nets that they had captured in their nets. I took the opportunity to get down to their level and asked them to show me what they found. So we looked and poked around together. For several minutes we all poked around in the dirt water and tried to find evidence of the animals that live there (we found beetles, the hugest tadpoles I've ever seen, snails and fish eggs). It was the most amazing feeling until another little friend ran up to us while waving their net around, causing a shower of pond water to splash all over me.....

Gemma is Silly

Last week, I went on William's school field trip on Wednesday.  This required quite a bit of juggling as there are not siblings allowed during school events.  Our regular sitter watched the girls in the morning and John picked them up at lunch time.  I had to work the following day and I drop the girls off as normal.  When I went to pick up Gemma and the sitter's house, I didn't get the big smile I've come to expect.

When I put my hands out for her, she didn't run into my arms.  No.  She pushed my arms away, took two steps back and said, "No, Mama.  Dada. Broom, Broom."  This is essentially toddler speak for "Go away mom.  I want to go home with Daddy."  I'll admit it, my heart was a little sad!

Sadly for her, waiting for Daddy wasn't an option and she had to come home with me.

This isn't the end of this story.

On Tuesday when I picked her up from the sitter's house the SAME THING HAPPENED.  She told me quite forcefully, "No, Mama.  Dada. Broom, Broom."  And then she laughed.  Because she is hilarious.


______

Gemma still naps every afternoon.  Getting her to her bed has become more difficult, but once she is there, she usually sleeps for 2-3 hours.  Her latest stall tactics include:

Running away (while laughing)
flopping over on the ground
flopping over while in your arms (so much so you have to react quickly to keep her from throwing herself completely backwards)
demanding toys/books/blankets (book!  Bunny Book! Kitty!  Baby!  Baby diaper!  Kitty blanket!  Pillow! More books!  More baby!)

The most recent tactic is also my favorite.  I always try to read her a book before putting her in her bed.  Most times, she turns this option down.  She would rather play.  That is until today.  I offered to read her books, which she answered with a resounding "NO!"  However, once I started gathering up her sleepy time items, she suddenly changed her tune.

"Ree boos?" she politely asked.


How can you turn that down?  Once she found success, she played that stall technique again. "Ree mo boos?" (Read more books?).  It only worked a few times, but we may be in trouble!

Hoppy Easter!

We had a full family kind of day! We were up early hunting out the eggs left by our bunny friend and destroying the Easter baskets before mom and dad got up.

We took some pictures, a few of us went to church, had a special lunch, played and played and played before having some Easter pizza with friends for dinner.

Mama squeezed in a run, daddy worked on the patio project and mowed the lawn....pretty perfect if you ask me!

Even the weather cooperated. It was sunny and about 80 degrees. Wonderful!

How to make your kid happy

(100% not guaranteed)


A few Fridays ago, I was out running errands with the girls.  While we were running around, I realized we were going to be arriving home at lunch time.  I also realized it had been awhile since I/we/someone had lunch with William at school.  In order for this to work, I was also going to have to feed the girls or I would have serious meltdowns on my hands.  The quick food options along the way were very limited and didn't include anything I would typically consider as it was almost all fast food (see backstory below).

However, the pull of seeing William at midday was now stuck in my head.  I was going to make a sacrifice and pick up some McDonalds.  As much as I dislike McDonalds and go out of my way to avoid going there, I knew that William would be overjoyed.   Overjoyed child won and I hit up the drive through window and got a Happy Meal (hey, if you're going to go all out, go all out).

As expected, William was super excited to see us (Gemma, Amelia, Mom), but he was beside himself about the McDonalds.

William: MCDONALDS?!?!?!  MCDONALDS?!!?!?!?  WOW!!! MCDONALDS?!?!?! (turns to kids on either side of him with an expression of disbelief) My MOM brought me MCDONALDS!  Can you BELIEVE IT?

Other kid: Huh.  Yeah. 

William: MCDONALDS!  I can't believe it is MCDONALDS!  This is the first time I've ever had MCDONALDS before.  YOU GUYS I'M SO HAPPY.

At this point people are starting to look at us funny.  There are two other kids at the table with McDonalds happy meals who aren't even blinking an eye at their meal.

Eventually, William ate his lunch and occupied himself with the toy inside the meal as well as the box it came in.  He is insisting on keeping the Happy Meal box itself in his box of special treasures...




Boring, but necessary backstory:  I have a thing about fast food.  I don't especially like it and it doesn't especially like me.  My stomach usually doesn't handle the fast food burgers and fries very well.  Sure, I will eat it from time to time, but I'd usually rather eat something else.  Slowly over the years, we have cut out most fast food.  I think the last time I ate at McDonald's, William was three years old*.  As a result, William has not ever had a Happy Meal.  Every few months it seems like we cycle through an increased interest of the fast food places that have a lot of conversations like this:

William: Mom? Why don't we eat at McDonald's today?
Mama: That isn't my favorite place to eat.  They don't have very many healthy choices for food.
William: But, they DO!  They have APPLES!
Mama: They do? How do you know?
William: My friends told me.  They also have vegetables.
Mama: They do?  Which vegetables?  Which vegetables that you would eat?
William: Ummmmmm.....
Mama: Hey look!  A bird!

--and the conversation is usually dropped for a short while--










* We eat at home most of the time and when we travel, I pack lunches whenever possible.  If we do end up stopping, we usually choose a sandwich shop.  If we are going out for dinner, we usually pick a kid friendly restaurant in our area.

Gemma

Tonight I gave the girls a bath. Despite my efforts, Gemma managed to drink a large portion of the bath water (as usual).

I pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her up in a fuzzy towel. As I jostled her around to snuggle her up, she let out a very extra large burp.

At first Gemma appeared startled by the noise. However, so seconds later, she was trying to repeat the noise. She wriggled this way and that way. She made a variety of noises with her mouth. None were what she was exactly looking for.

Mark that one down for the baby book: baby's first fake burp.

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