Cool, not cute

Michael said something to Rachel like, "come sit next to me cutie."

She responded with, "I don't want to be cute anymore. I want to be coool"

PeePee Power

Rachel decided that she wanted to wear underware one day in late January. Her potty training developed on a pretty good path. A couple of accidents along the way. When I was pretty sure that we could make it 25 minutes from work to home or home to work, I stopped putting the "traveling diaper" on. She was very good to tell me, "Mommy, I have to go peepee." The problem was that I wasn't sure how much control she had and how much time she'd given me to get her to a toilet.

I would find myself frantically calculating how much longer to the nearest gas station; did I know anyone along the route that would be home for a potty stop? Should I chance that she could hold it to our final destination?

A couple of times we stopped at a Stewart's gas station on the corner. After a couple of true stops, I noticed that her "I have to go peepees" would suddenly pop up when we were in sight of the Stewarts. Not wanting to be the parent who made her daughter pee in the car because I didn't trust her. We always stopped, rushed in, took off the snowsuit (yeah, winter) only to find out, "no peepee, mommy."

After one of these stops, I came out of the station to find my Pastor getting gas. He asked what we were doing (or something to that effect). I said, without really thinking it through very well, "Rachel was testing her PeePee Power."

Ah, what a parent will do when they hear the words, "I have to go PeePee!"

Sympathy

When Rachel doesn't feel like she's getting what she wants, and crying isn't working, she'll whine for someone else who I can only guess that she thinks will help her get what she wants.

Examples:
At Mary's she'll cry, "I want Mommy."
At home she'll cry, "I want Mary."
And when all else fails, she cry, "I want Santa."

2nd Tooth Lost (12/31/2008)

We went to see "Bed Time Stories" with a good friend. About 15 minutes before the end of the movie, Michael leaned over and said, "My tooth really hurts." The bottom middle one had been loose for a while. (not as long as the first, though) I said we'd pull it out when we got home.

About 5 minutes before the end of the movie, he leans over and says urgently, "I pulled out my tooth and dropped it." Oh, no. I told him not to move, that the movie was almost over and the lights would come on. We'd look for it then.

So, the movie ended. It was really good. The lights come back on, but not all the way. My friend is holding her cell phone with the light on down under his seat for me to see. I squatted down and was gingerly patting the floor (EWWWW) trying to feel the tooth. There were a lot of things that looked like a tooth. Each that I picked up ended up being a fragmented piece of popcorn. (EWWWWW)

After I'd given a pretty good effort to find my son's tooth. I was preparing the words of disappointment when I saw on his shirt, THE TOOTH! It stuck right to his shirt! PHEW!!!

What a mother will do for her kids: feel around on the movie theater floor for a tooth in the almost dark.

1st Hair Cut (12/31/2008)

Because I'm awful with cutting hair on a moving target, I finally brought Rachel to the hair salon to get a real trim. Her hair is super curly and it was thin in spots (older baby hair) and short and thicker in spots which must have been new growth. She did wonderfully and loved it. Now when her hair gets in her face she says, "I need a hair cut at the lady's."

Long Time

So many funny sayings have gone by and so many milestones have been passed since I last sat down to blog anything. I'll try to remember the best ones (the ones that I thought in my head, "I have to capture this somewhere.")

Adjectives

Rachel and I were eating yogurt for dessert. I asked her, "how is it?"
"Great!"
"no, cool!"
"no, good!"
"no, GREAT!"
Was her answer.

Nothing is for free

Michael had a friend coming over on Saturday. He decided to make the friend and himself matching Ben 10 watches.

They played well together all afternoon.

When his friend's mother was picking him up, the friend showed his mom the watch, saying that Michael had made it for him. She said that is was very nice. She extended an invitation to Michael to come over and play some day.

To my horror, Michael said, "ok, make something for me before I come over!"

Money

For some reason, my 2-year-old cares a lot about money. She will hold a coin tightly in her little fist for HOURS. She once held a coin through a bath, though toweling dry and until I noticed that she was having trouble putting on pj's. She's taken money to bed with her and looking for it is the first thing she does when she wakes up.

This might not seem so strange if money was a regular topic of conversation in our home. Or if my husband and I actually carried cash and paid for things with it (debit cards). Or if she had a piggy bank and we were encouraging her to save.

Could it be that Mr. Crabs, Sponge Bob's stingy boss, has taught her this?!

TOOTH!

Yes, it happened, THE tooth came out! It was on Monday, November 3rd. We'd been working on it for a good week. Occassionally Michael would bite down on something and it would jab into his gums. He would shreek how awful having a wiggly tooth was and how unfair life was that he had to have one. "There should be no such thing as a wiggly tooth!"

"To give away..."

This was the title of an e-mail I received from a great friend. The first line said, "I have a friend who would like to give away an organ that he has." And, for some reason I thought she was talking about a body part. That would be strange, right?

My favorite Tuna Vision

Go to Tunavision.com and watch "Cooking with Hickory" It's my favorite.

Videos on YouTube

I don't have anything worthy of Funniest Home Videos, but there are some cute ones of the kids.

http://www.youtube.com/yocat12

Pumpkin patch

I took the kids to a road side stand to pick out pumpkins. Michael picked out the biggest one (weighs more than Rachel) to bring to Sunday School for a contest. We bought a few little ones too. Rachel has been carrying one around calling it her "pumpkin patch."

Chicken Pox

I didn't think it was possible to get them after having the vaccine. Apparently I was wrong. I took Michael to the after hours care clinic last Sunday with a bad rash. It turned out that part of what I showed her was the chicken pox.

So, he couldn't go to school, but didn't itch and only had about a dozen very small marks. He stayed home with Dad and played Leggo Batman two days and went to Rachel's babysitter the third day.

At one point he turned to Chris and said, "I can't believe I have a runny nose and the chicken pox at the same time."

However, when Mrs. Eldridge sent home a book about chicken pox, he was really glad that he didn't have them very badly like the kid in the book.

You can tell by the scream...

whether the kids are playing, fighting or severly injured. Each scream has a distinct sound that mothers pick up on when their kids are very little.

So, I'm sitting at the computer earlier and I hear a scream. It wasn't a normal playing scream, then it got more frantic and it became obvious in milliseconds that someone was injured.

I ran to the back door and couldn't see Michael, Rachel or the neighbor boy. I yelled, "MICHAEL, COME HERE, WHAT'S WRONG!?" He came running and screaming from the woods. Thoughts of sticks puncturing flesh crossed my mind. Awful thoughts of what injury could cause this tribal scream to come from my son.

Then, he yelled, "BEES!!!" I worked frantically to get his clothing off of him when I realized that the bees were on his shorts, his sandals and they were being very persistent. While doing this I was looking for the neighbor and seeing Rachel had not been affected, I brought poor naked Michael into the house. He was able to tell me that the neighbor had run home.

I got Michael into the tub and let him run cool water over the stings while trying to calm him and assess his condition. He was terrified. Rachel was so concerned for him. She stuck right by us. We could find 10 stings from his buttocks to his ankles. I gave him a Benedryl and put Calidryl lotion on them. He was calm enough to sit on the couch with ice packs by this time. I called the neighbors who were going through the same thing with their son.

I can bet that Michael will never go into those woods again. We aren't sure where the bees came from since Chris couldn't find a hive. They could have been in the ground or in a dead tree.

He seems to be fine now. The boys are back together and playing Star Wars Leggos on the Playstation.

Frogger

I'm so grossed out at two times of year when the weather is raining and the frogs are on the move. It's usually in the spring (May ish and then now, Sept ish). The weather is muggy, there's been a little rain, and the frogs are just all over the road at night. Big ones, small ones, frogs of all sizes, jumping in all directions as my headlights pick up there light green bodies. I cringe as the jump toward my tires' path. I yell, "JUMP!" There was one that was jumping like 12 inches off the road. I was coming up behind him thinking I could probably straddle him, but if he jumped, he was sure to hit my van. I swerved a bit, he jumped the wrong way! BLEHCH! Then, the grossed one, this HUGE frog jumped toward me from the left. He made it passed my driver's side tire, but then jumped his last jump as I heard a loud THUD and he hit my bummer. ICK!!!!!

Impatient

God has really shown me that I have an impatient heart. I try to be patient, and always fail in the end, because he puts me in circumstances that bring me to that end. Like in the Dr. office where I waited with a 2-year-old for 1 hour and 45 minutes to be seen for a 10-minute check-up. And trips to Wal-mart with the two of them. Yesterday I told Michael emphatically, "THE GOAL IS TO NOT MAKE YOUR SISTER SCREAM!" after she'd screamed a couple of times. (didn't she do that in church Sunday, too?! when he grabbed her foot?)

So, I've given up on pretending that I'm patient. I'm NOT! The only patience I get is the grace of God and I'm so thankful for it. I just have to keep remembering to ask for it.

Swinging

Rachel talked her daddy into taking her down to the swing set and pushing her after dinner. He pushed her for a very long time. She noticed the moon, which she always announces, "THERE'S THE MOON, I SEE IT RIGHT THERE!" Then she said, "Watch out moon, I'm swinging high in the sky!"