BabyBug + Applesauce = She's not ready to feed herself

Happy Second Birthday Baby Girlie!

Oh babyGirlie, how you have grown!  This was just a year ago...

 Happy Second Birthday to the most sweet and sassy,

Messy and Mischievous, 

 

Smart and Stubborn,  

 

Strong and Silly,

 

Fierce and Determined 

 

 Two Year Old I Know! 

I love you, silly monkey!

Tooth Fairy

She was brushing her teeth and out it tumbled... I was super proud of her -- no tears.  Just a matter of fact, "Mom, my tooth came out!"

The tooth fairy pays big bucks for the first tooth.  And of course, the money is sprinkled with fairy dust.

And the tooth fairy wants to promote good brushing habits in the future.

The tooth fairy wrote a note to introduce herself.  Girlie's fairy is Twinkle Toothy.

The letter was Girlie sized, but it was folded up so a fairy could carry it.

She was so proud of herself.

Where did my baby go?  I can't look at this picture without bawling.

Camping!

My kids have been begging to go camping.  They think it will be "so much very much fun, Mommy!"

Yeah, I know it won't.  I grew up camping.  I remember the dirt, the bugs, the sheer work that went into a "vacation."

Still, though, their constant pestering asking has worn me down.  

And a friend mentioned that our city does an neighborhood campout at a nearby park, so I caved and said okay.  One night at a park can't be that bad, right?

Here's the thing though.... we don't have any camping stuff.  And I don't want to break the bank to buy new stuff for a one night event.  Then I remembered our earthquake kit. 

 There is a tent in there.  

A tent that I bought on clearance for $20 at Walmart. 

 I figured that we should set it up before the campout to make sure it was functional.  

I told the kids we were going to have a campout in the living room.  I was immediately awarded "Best Mommy Ever" status.

Everyone got involved in setting this tent up.

It was bigger than our living room.  Sigh.

She was fascinated.

BabyBug taste-tested the stake pin before I could stop her.

I was informed we needed lanterns for camping in our living room -- Dollar Store, here I come.

No sleeping bags?  No problem.  Pillows and bean bags work great.

He was worried about bears coming to eat them.  Polar bears, to be exact.

He didn't even make it until 9pm.

She made it to 10pm.  At that point, I said screw this and carried them both to bed.  Their daddy is doing the campout with them.

Wordless Wednesday: I'm not sure what is funnier....

Boyo strangling the penguin, Girlie getting ready to swing from its beak, or BabyGirlie plotting world domination off to the side.

Gardening!

I recently set up my garden.  Okay, in April.  I'm a bit behind on my blogging. 

I had the cutest little helper....

Who was more interested in watering her shoes...

Green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, oh my. 

My new/old potting table...

Because everyone needs a pretty spot...

Yum!

I don't see this happening... but the kids wanted to try...

I don't see this happening, but my husband wanted to try...

Pretty!

My yield.  This seems pathetic.  Maybe I did something wrong...

These Two...

I love all my kiddos equally -- differently, but equally, because they are all different people. 

BabyBug is my little lovebug -- she is all squishy fat and a huge, toothless, drooly grin.  

BabyGirlie is an exhausting joy -- everything is so new and wonderous.  She takes such delight in the world around her. 

Boyo is my intense guy -- he doesn't handle change well AT ALL. He is also the one who comes running downstairs in the morning shouting, "I need my daytime hug!!"  Everything he does, he does with such PASSION and ENERGY.  If I could bottle and sell that, I would be a billionaire. 

Girlie is my angel baby.  My first.  My sweetheart who is so eager to please.  Who stalls bedtime by demanding extra kisses.  

I love them all so much.  I enjoy them too -- even when it seems like I don't.  But once a day I find myself stepping back, watching them with a big goofy grin on my face because they are so cool. 

But I do have to say that these two.... 

 

.. when they get together, WATCH OUT.

They spark off of each other.  Sometimes that's bad.  Sometimes that good.  I can't decide if they are honing leadership skills or cultivating criminal behavior in one another. 

But I know that of my four, these two will be the death of me.

What We Learned on Wednesday....

I learned that expression "My blood turned to ice" is an actual, physical ailment.

I also learned that I cannot run across a room in .10 seconds.

And BabyGirlie learned that she cannot fly.

 I asked BabyGirlie what would make her feel better.  She said, "I want cake."

Why I'm Exhausted ... or 5 seconds with BabyGirlie

I wanna see the water!

Closer...

Closer...

Almost got it...

Yah!

Not listening to Mommy is exhausting. 

Riddles

My daughter wants to tell me riddles all the time.... the problem is, she is the WORST riddler ever. 

For example:

"Mommy, guess what is green, has petals, and grows in the ground?"

"What?"

"A flower!"  

Or this happens:

"Mommy, guess what has a trunk and four legs?"

"What?"

*hysterical giggles* "I can't tell you!"

So I've tried to teacher her what a riddle is.  I've given her examples. 

Q: What has 4 legs but can't sit down?
A:  A table!

Nothing has stuck.  And then today I thought she finally got it.  I got this:

"Mommy, what is all around us but we can't see it?"

"Um, air."

I got the riddle right.  However, I was wrong about her getting how to tell riddles, because her response was the funniest answer I've ever heard: 

"MO-OM!  It's not fun if you get it right the first time!!"

Someone needs to catch up...

Hubs: The baby is really starting to hit all kinds of milestones.

Me: She should, she's almost 6 months old.

Hubs: That can't be right.

Me: Why not?

Hubs: Because I just accepted the fact that you are pregnant with her. 

A Loss of Innocence

"Mommy, what's Boston?"

S#$t.

That was the first thought that ran through my mind when my almost six year old asked me this question two days after the Boston Bombing.

And the thing is, I would have sworn I was prepared for this moment.  I don't watch the news when the kids are awake/home.  I don't listen to talk radio when they are in the car.  Their father and I are very careful not to talk about scary things when they are around.

That being said, I had read the parent articles and blogs about "How to Talk To Your Child About ____."  I had thought about what I would say when the question came up -- even as I was praying it wouldn't.  Still, I know that as Girlie spends more and more time away from me, as she is exposed to more of the world, she is going to learn more about the world -- things I may not want her to know about.

But when she asked the question, I must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights.  I could remember nothing that I had read, could recall nothing that her father and I had decided to say.

So I stalled.

"Boston is a city," I said matter of factly, hoping that would end it.

"Are there bad men there?"

Double s#$t.

"Where did you hear about Boston?" I asked.

"At school."

Of course. 

"What did you hear?"

"That there are bad men.  And they had a bomb.  And they hurt runners.  You run, Mommy.  Are the bad men going to hurt you?"

Hell.  Thanks so much, school. 

"No," I said immediately and firmly.  "The bad men are not going to hurt Mommy."

"So there are bad men?"

"Well," I stalled.  "There are bad men -- not like in your TV shows but bad men in real life. But Boston is really far away from us.  You don't have to be scared of them, you know that, right?"

"But I'm a little scared of them," Girlie said.

"I know," I told her.  "Can I tell you a secret?  I'm a little scared of them too.  But then I remember something that makes me less scared."

"What?"

"I remember the helpers.  There are always way more helpers than there are bad men.  Did you know that?"  Thank you, Mr. Rogers.  Thank you.  

"Who are the helpers?"

"Helpers are people like policemen and firefighters and doctors and nurses.  Sometimes helpers are just  people like you and me who decide that they need to make good choices to help others."

"Oh," Girlie said, cuddling up to me on the couch.

So we sat there, quiet, her little blonde head under my chin while my heart ached with sorrow at her loss of innocence -- her realization that bad guys are not just in TV shows and books; that they are real and dangerous.

"Mommy?" she said a few moments later.

"Yes, Love?"

"I want to be a helper."

And then my heart ached with love. 

Sentence Structure

BabyGirlie is beginning to understand the concept of sentence structure. 

She has moved from "No" being her favorite word to "I WANT IT" being her favorite phrase. 

And last week she realized that "I want it" actually means something. 

So she screams, "I WANT IT" as often as possible, while pointing to the object of her desire. 

And if I say no, because I'm a mean mommy and don't want her to die from a penny, Lego, knife, or whatever else she has decided she wants, the tantrum starts.

It begins with her face slowly crumbling, while she watches me with knowing eyes.

When I don't fall for the face crumble, one or two big, fat tear drops settle on her cheeks.

When I still don't budge, she begins to shake her head violently, screaming, "NO I WANT IT! NO I WANT IT! NO I WANT IT!" This part of the tantrum normally lasts for five minutes if I can't distract her.

Side note - five minutes is a very long time when you are in a grocery store and people are watching you.

After the face crumble, crocodile tears, and five minute scream fest, she stops, gains control of herself, and then puts her sweet little arms up and says, "Mommy up?  Mommy up?  Mommy I want up." 

So I pick her up and soothe.  She snuggles in, gives me a kiss, and pets my face.  And then she says, "Mommy, I see it.  Mommy, I want it."

And round two commences. 

Legoland!

We won tickets to Legoland last month.  It was AWESOME.  Fun family day.  And exhausting.  We'll go back in about 2-3 years when everyone is tall enough to ride all the rides :)

Hurry, Hurry Mommy!

Lego Mom greeted us when we got there.  Lego Baby was creepy.  So were Lego Mom's boobs.

Girl's got sass.

Her favorite Princess who "doesn't live at Disneyland."  She does now, Girlie.

Legos and Star Wars.

My son was in HEAVEN.

Peek A Boo! 

Explaining the scene to the "girls"

BabyBug was not impressed.

One of THREE temper tantrums.

BabyGirlie is so short you can't even see her over the ride!

She fell asleep 5 minutes before we left the park.

Building our new Legos!

For someone who didn't do anything, she sure was tired!