Totally Cool Kid

Yesterday my buddy Alex and I braved the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with two toddlers and two crawlers; we had a blast! In the elevator my little redhead said, "This is amazing!" And you know what? It totally is! Elevators are amazing things, especially with strollers and toddlers and a serious dislike of stairs. My baby boy, J, had fun crawling all over their area for kids three and under, and I had a hard time keeping the toys out of his mouth. J gave sweet little baby kisses to his little counterpart, Alex's baby boy. It got even cuter when the other baby gave J baby kisses in return on his nose - adorable little slobber kisses! I snapped a pic of my cuties riding a life-sized plastic horse (the picture is not the best quality, it was taken with my phone... I hardly ever remember to bring my camera).

After the museum I grabbed some things from my favorite spot for groceries: Harmon's. They have awesome customer service and their produce is superior to what I can find at other stores nearby. I love their "Drive and Load" service; it's just what it sounds like, you drive your car up and they load in the groceries you just bought, which is just so great when I have a usually struggling toddler and a squirmy nine month old baby.

After the grocery store I just didn't want to go home (probably because my house has been neglected this past week while my wisdom tooth removal was healing over). So I took the kids to a clothing store to try and find a skirt for myself. Little Red was awesome, she was hiding under the clothing racks, but was great about not pulling clothes down and coming along with me when I went to another rack. In the dressing room she wanted to wear the skirts I had tried on after I wore them so that she could, "be a princess like mommy." She's so darling, she thinks that all dresses and skirts make girls look like princesses. When I told her it was time to leave the store she had her moment of defiance and was refusing to come along. A store salesperson said, "You wanna stay here and work with me?" And much to the lady's surprise, Red said, "Yes, I do." The salesperson gave her a little scrap of trash and had her throw it away in the trashcan behind the counter. After disposing of the scrap, Red put her hands on her hips and gave a satisfied grin as she surveyed the floor for more scraps of trash. What a great work ethic! She was convinced that Mommy should leave her at the store to work, so the kind salesperson said they needed to walk toward the front of the store to make sure no clothes were on the floor. When we got to the front of the store, Red told her, "Thanks for working with me." What a doll, right?!

Since she was being so awesome I decided to hit up the dollar store too. Red picked out a net and I got some good grossgrain ribbon for making hair clippies for my Etsy store (there's nothing much posted in my store right now, but I'm working on several things to increase my inventory).

And while it took me an hour and fifteen minutes to write this meager little post I feel good about it because I also did fed my kids breakfast, did laundry, worked on potty training with Red (I'm all about the bribery in potty training), nursed J, changed three diapers (stinky lil boy today) and ended up with J on my shoulder fast asleep. Sometimes I forget to take a moment to appreciate just how much I do get done; usually I'm focused on the things that aren't done yet and piling slowly in the corners. Well, let those things pile for now because Ruth Hulburt Hamilton had it right when she wrote this poem that first appeared in an October 1958 Ladies Home Journal magazine

Song for a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Sweet and Spicy Little Girl

My husband and I decided that we should write a book called "I Never Knew How Sad My Life Was Until My Toddler Told Me" and in it we'll note the little things about our sad lives that she points out to us. For example, at the age of one she could easily identify food by the plastic/paper bags that we brought take out home in; she could say "pizza" when she heard the doorbell; when we said, "It's time for dinner," she would go find her shoes... yeah, we didn't cook very much. Now that she's two the hints are just slightly more subtle, she put on a cape the other day and said, "I'm a man like Daddy, a BIG MAN." I don't know where the cape idea came from, but my husband was sad that she called him "big" because of his weight, though I honestly think she wasn't pointing out his weight so much as his general size compared to her short self. At two years old, she notes that all the pop belongs to Mommy (yeah... got a problem there) and that she needs cookies to help her feel better (she got that one from me too).

As a companion book we thought we'd also write a book called "I Never Knew What a Nice Person I Was..." that'll show the little things that she's learned from us that are rather endearing. At one she would gives hugs and gentle pats on the back to her friends/family that she saw crying; her first words were "tickle tickle tickle" and no, I'm not kidding about that one, and she gave kisses to her little friends when it was time for them to go. Now at two she loves to help take care of her baby brother; she cuddles her baby dolls by wrapping them up in a blanket and singing to them the same songs we sing to her (mostly Lullaby Brahms and A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief). She reads books to her stuffed animals and to her baby brother. She asks, "Mommy, are you sad," when I'm down and gives me a hug. When I smile she says, "I made you so happy!" And she's right, she did, her hugs always do make me happy. She talks to the picture of Jesus Christ in our living room, "Hi Jesus, I love your picture!" Just the other day she found a pamphlet about the Savior and said, "IT'S JESUS!" I said, "yeah, that's a little book about what he taught people about how to be good," and she said, "oh... I should give it to Him," then she placed it on the shelf below His picture.

I love my daughter. She's a fiery little red-head that is also sweeter than my favorite cookies. She can scream with the best of 'em, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She wakes us up at three in the morning to cuddle because she had a bad dream; she steals my kitchen utensils and my cellphone and hides them around the house; she loves to color and paint and sing. She's a darling and a challenge, and I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father everyday that I get to be her mother.