Showing posts with label conversations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conversations. Show all posts

Knock, Knock

Lily's new favorite thing is to tell jokes. She asks at least once a day, "Mommy, can we do some jokes?" I usually say yes, but I have to put a limit on the number I'm willing to listen to. Because here's the thing (and don't dare tell her I said this): She's not very good at them.

Knock, knock jokes are the variety of choice and the punchline usually consists of two random things said together, which is HILARIOUS, apparently. A better mother would probably listen to as many combinations as the kid could muster based on what's in the room at the time, but seriously...

Last night, I decided to write some of them down so later in life I can show her how far she's really come. (Unless she still tells knock, knock jokes like this. Then we'll have a serious problem.) Here's a few she came up with.

Knock, Knock!

Who's there?
Macaroni
Macaroni who?
Macaroni pizza! (insert uncontrollable giggling here)

Knock, Knock!
Who's there?
Number
Number who?
Number snowman!!! (more excessive giggling)

You get the idea. During this same session, we ended up with banana apple, pepper salt, book telescope, and banana helmet. At least the giggling was funny...and the cutest sound in the world.
 

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Changes

Lily has had a couple changes in the last few weeks. The first one was fairly major. After months and months of asking her to not stand on the couch while watching TV and standing super close to TVs other than ours, I decided to take her to the eye doctor. Turns out the kid needs glasses. In fact, she's more nearsighted than I am - which compared to Erik's prescription, isn't hard. But still...the girl's only 4. So I'm sure we'll be getting thicker and thicker lenses for the poor thing until she's old enough to handle contacts.

So after two trips to the eye doctor (once for the exam and once more for dilation), it was official. We looked at a couple pairs of cute frames at in their office, but good heavens! They were so expensive for something that she's probably going to break...even with the warranty, I found it hard to justify spending that much. So we checked out our trusty Wal-mart...much more reasonable. And considering that when we told her to pick one from a few choices and she told us, "But I don't want to wear the same glasses every day," I'm really thinking cheaper is the way to go. We'll probably end up buying at least one more pair so she can change it up when she wants to.

I really do think it's made a difference for her. Of course, she didn't know she couldn't see. But now she can, and I think she's much happier. The first couple hours were a little odd, I think, since she almost tripped several times and she was very fascinated with the floor while she was walking. And apparently, "Everything is so shiny!" But she will now sit on the couch to watch TV (it probably doesn't hurt that we rearranged the living room so standing on the couch wouldn't help anyway) and I know she's seeing (see what I did there???) an improvement because after her gymnastics warm up the other day, she changed her mind and decided she wanted to wear them. She's been really good about remembering to put them on, and other than the small mishap of leaving them on the floor to get stepped on, she's been pretty careful with them. A little tweaking, and they looked good as new. And she looks so darn cute!



The second change, you can see in that picture, too. Lily now rocks bangs. Yesterday, she was walking around with her hair completely in her face. And this isn't an unusual occurrence. Gone are the days that she will sit and let me do something completely cute with her hair. We've reached the point that we're lucky if she lets us brush it every day. Although since we bought a hair bean (highly recommended for anyone with a daughter), we can usually manage a brush-through with little resistance. But since rubberbands is now a bad word, the sides and front just fall in front of her eyes. It would drive me crazy, but she doesn't seem to mind. Which does drive me crazy. So I opted to make the most of the situation. The hair that normally falls in her face is now short enough that she can still see. Problem solved.

With a new hair cut and new glasses, she's adorable, as always. But she also seems so grown up. She turns 5 in January, and I can't wrap my poor head around that. She's sure fun and is just growing so fast. She's suddenly discovered descriptive words, so everything is beautiful or cool or fantastic. She told me the other day that she wants to be a parent when she grows up...instead of a mail carrier. When I told her she could be both, she was so excited! And when she gives me a hug, she tells me she can hear my heart beeping. I hope I'll always remember this stage when she tries to show all she knows and is so eager to learn more. There's rarely a day when she doesn't make me proud of her in some way. She's definitely my special girl.

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Lily and Santa

Yesterday, after Timothy was in bed, Lily and I sat at the kitchen table to do some coloring before it was her turn to get tucked in. Since it's November, Christmas is on the brain, and while I'm done shopping for Timothy other than his yearly ornament and some stocking stuffers, I'm having a harder time with ideas for Lily. So I posed the question: What do you want for Christmas?

She answered me in the most adult-sounding, I'm-so-superior-why-don't-you-already-know voice with, "A bike." Only it sounded more like,"A biiiiiike!!!" I reminded her that this was what she was going to ask Santa for, but wasn't there anything else she wanted? "From you guys, you mean?" Yes, I explained. From us. A puzzle was her answer. Which I already knew and have already purchased. But I needed another idea. She decided the only other thing her little heart could desire was a hurricane vase. Like the one I have on our table with miniature citrus in it. For her Tinkerbell table. Which lives in the closet under the stairs when not in use.

I decided I'll figure out something else on my own. But being the pot stirrer that I am, I decided to play a little devil's advocate.

Me: So you're going to ask Santa for a bike?
Lily: Yeeees.
Me: But what if he doesn't bring you a bike? (Even though I know he is since I happen to have an in with the man.)
Lily: If that's what I ask for, that's what he'll bring.
Me: So he has to bring you whatever you ask for?
Lily: Yes.
Me: But what if he decides he wants to bring you something different?
Lily: Well, we'll have to see about that. I'll have to talk to him.

If I were Santa, I'd just do what the girl says so no one gets hurt.

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Lily's View on Bugs

While heading over to our garden the other day, Lily noticed a bug crawling on the sidewalk. It wasn't a big bug...actually, it was pretty small and I'm amazed she saw it at all. But as soon as she noticed it, she went back to step on it. Now, I don't like bugs all that much either, but unless there is an eminent threat of it crawling on me or biting me or continuing to buzz in my ear, I leave them alone. It's a karma thing. (Ok...not really, but that sounded good, right?) So when she squished the bug, I told her that she doesn't have to step on every bug she sees. Our conversation went like this:

Me: Lily, you don't need to step on every bug. It they aren't bothering you, just leave them alone.
Lily: But I don't like bugs.
Me: I know, but some bugs are nice.
Lily: Was that bug nice?
Me: Probably. Now we'll never know because you squished him.
Lily: He was a mean bug, Mama. Just trust me, ok?

And that was the final word, apparently; how could I argue with that? So we continued our walk to our garden to see if Lily's carrot and radish seeds had sprouted yet. When we got there, I pulled a weed, and just as I pulled it out of the ground, a worm poked what I assume was its head out of the hole and wiggled on out. I pointed it out to Lily, and she asked if we could take it home. Uh....no. I explained that worms help our plants grow so he needed to stay in the garden. Then she poked him a few times, which she thought was fantastic, and we finished looking at our plants. Just as we were getting ready to leave, she asked one more time if we could take the worm home. After I told her no, she said:

I'm going to miss that little worm...

Moral of the story: Bugs bad. Worms cute and pet-worthy.

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It's hard being 4...

Yesterday in the car on the way home from dinner, Lily was telling us all about her internship with the mail lady (she helped her put all the mail in the boxes and then brought our mail in for us), and she declared she wants to be a mail carrier when she grows up. (Where she got the term "mail carrier," I don't know since I don't think I've ever said that in my life. How un-PC of me, I know, but knowing we have a female postal person, I've always just called her the Mail Lady. Anyway...) After she finished her story, she got quiet for a minute and then said this:

"When I grow up, everything will be so much easier."
Erik and I just looked at each other for a second, trying not to laugh - of course - since we know how un-easier life really is when you get older, and then Erik mentioned to Lily that, actually, she has it pretty easy now. "No I don't!" she protested. So I asked what's hard now.
The monkey bars! The pole! Lots of stuff!
So there you have it. Be thankful you're older. It's so much easier than being four.

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New Lily-ism

This morning, Lily wanted to go play at the park. This, of course, requiring getting dressed for the day. So we headed into her room to pick some clothes. I pulled her shirt out of her closet, but when I turned around, she was still most definitely in her night gown. So I asked her to get undressed. And she said to me....

Are you ready?

"It's not undressed, Mommy. It's UN-JAMMIED!"

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Let Me Count the Ways

This morning, we have a very grumpy Lily...for reasons we're not yet sure of. And when Lily's grumpy, any little thing will set her off into a stream of tears, whining, and writhing on the floor. From that point on, EVERYTHING, any perceived slight, will start the tears again.

This morning, the catalyst was when her two shows for the morning were over and it was time to turn off the tv. The next injustice was being told no when she asked to play games on the iPod (she's not very good about stopping when we say it's time or accepting that she doesn't need to play it all day, so we've severely limited the game time). The final straw, apparently, was that Erik was sitting on the ottoman in Timothy's room while I fed him a bottle and there wasn't any room for Lily to sit.

"You're MEAN!!!" It's the new phrase du jour, and we hear it at least once a day. How? we asked. She proceeded to tick off the ways on her fingers.

"You won't let me watch a show. You won't let me play games on your phone. You won't let me sit where I want. That's FOUR MEANS!" Like mean is now a noun and you can add up the number means in a day.

Wait a minute...wasn't that only three? So she ticked them off again.

"No, it's FOUR! You won't let me watch a show. You won't let me play games on your phone. Or the iPod..."

Oh....so the phone and the iPod were two separate transgressions.

So we're slowly working through the injustices of the world and trying to teach her that, no, sometimes she doesn't get to do everything she wants. What confuses me is that we've never let her just do everything she wanted whenever she wanted it. So where did this sense of entitlement come from? Where did the impatience and not wanting to wait her turn come from? Is it just her age, or did we wreck her somehow? I guess all we can do it be consistent (that's always the key, isn't it: be consistent) and hope that she's just testing the boundaries. And that usually works. I mean, right now, she's playing just as happy as can be with non-electronic toys. Remember those??? It's just the journey of getting her calmed down enough to remember there are other things to do. Man, it's exhausting.

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Ugly Babies and Old Maids

The thought process of a 4-year-old can be....interesting. Here are two examples from just the last week. For her birthday, Lily was given the card game, Old Maid. Most games we'd played up to this point had a single winner (Memory, Candy Land, etc.). Old Maid, on the other hand, is really more about not being the loser. So the other day, she and I sat down for a game of Old Maid. I dealt out the cards and we started. As we had fewer and fewer cards in our hands, I realized there was still an even number of cards in play. Now think about this for a second: Old Maid is all about making matches and the one with the Old Maid loses. An even number of cards means they should all match up. I knew I didn't have the Old Maid, so I cheated a little and asked Lily to see her cards.

Me: Lily, where's the Old Maid?

Lily: I took her out.

Me: Why?

Lily: If you have that one, you lose, so I took her out before we started.

So no loser means everyone wins, right? She's so diplomatic.

The second venture into Lily's mind is a little less diplomatic, and I hope I don't have to explain to some poor mother why my kid just said that. When we first brought Timothy home, we said something along the lines of "He's pretty cute. Do you think we should keep him?" The answer was always yes, of course, and now she says a variation of it at least once a day. "Should we keep him?" "Are we going to keep Timothy? He sure is cute." But out of the blue on Saturday, Lily confronted me with this question:
What do people do with the babies that aren't so cute?

Trying my hardest not to laugh, I asked what she thought people did with them. Apparently, they get rid of them. See where I could have problems if we run into someone with a not-so-cute baby? Luckily, there's no such thing as an ugly baby, right? Then again, maybe it's time to introduce her to the word, breathtaking.

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Miss Lily Tells It Like It Is

At just shy of 4 years old, Lily is pretty confident in her understanding of the world and is amazingly smart (at least I think so). As you have probably gathered, Dora is one of her favorite shows. But I'm beginning to think she might need to move on to more sophisticated programming. The other night while she watching it, this is what I heard:

Dora: We have to find the bridge. Can you help us find the bridge?

Lily: It's right there, dumbo.

Dora: Where's the bridge?

Lily: I said, it's right there, dumbo!

After I pulled myself together in the kitchen, I went in the other room and explained why we don't call people "dumbo," but I have to say I was a little proud of her for finally wondering why Dora has such a hard time finding things that are right in front of her... :-)

Then, this morning before leaving for daycare, she provided some insight into spiders:

Lily: Last time I went to Angie's, Zayners (Angie's son, Zayne, who is the same age) found a spider.

Erik: A spider? Oh no.

Lily: Yeah. And you know what spiders do? They will crawl up you and bite you and then KILL YOU. (Think Achmed, the dead terrorist when she says KILL YOU, because that's exactly what it sounded like.)

Erik: Well, spiders do bite sometimes, but they don't usually kill you.

Lily: No. It was a boy spider, and the boy spiders will kill you!!! (Who knew??!!??)

Erik: Oh, ok. You know what you should do when you see a spider? (He showed her how to squish a spider.)

Lily: I'll have to show Zayners that!!!!

It's so fun listening to her explain what's going on around her. She gets very serious and explains exactly what we should or should not be doing or how something works. It's often accompanied by a pointed finger for emphasis, making it hard to take her very seriously. How can you not laugh? But she's big enough now that if you do laugh, she is not amused. So you
just have to nod in agreement and hope she doesn't notice the smirk you're trying to hold in. 

I absolutely love her to pieces.

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Word of the Day

Our word of the day is brought to you by Lily, our resident lexicographer.

grawp*pi*ly adj
dirty, gross

My hands are all grawppily.

Expand your vocabulary and use it in a sentence today.

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No Filter

What kinds of conversations happen when you have a three-year-old with absolutely no inner filter and an active imagination? This one. As background - and warning - she'd just finished going to the bathroom. This is my life.

Lily: Everybody poops.

Me: That's right.

Lily: We poop because we have butts. But princesses don't poop.

Me: They don't? How come?

Lily: Because princesses don't have butts. Sometimes I pretend I'm a princess.

Me: But you have a butt.

Princess Lily: I know. That's why I poop.

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Up the Walls

Me: Were you a good girl today?

Lily: Yep. But Timothy was SOOOOOO sad.

Me: Oh was he?

Lily: Yeah. And he was driving Daddy up ALL the walls.

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Wherein Lily Completely Embarrasses Erik

Erik isn't easily embarrassed. He says pretty much anything that pops into his head, and he can put his foot in his mouth without being too disturbed by it. But apparently, Lily has the ability to completely embarrass him.

This is Dora:


Lily and Erik were shopping yesterday when a Hispanic family, including a little girl about Lily's age, approached the check stand. Lily paid for her books (she's very independent these days!) and when she turned around, she said, in a less than indoor voice, "Look, Daddy! It's Dora!!!"

From what I gather, they made a fairly speedy exit.

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And the Deception Begins

Because Lily doesn't fully understand the concept of time, she will unintentionally lie to us occasionally. Usually when it involves treats. When one of us comes home and she asks for fruit snacks or a yogurt or chips, we ask if she's already had some today because we don't know what the other one has given her already. Usually she says no. I don't think she says no in the hopes of scoring another round of whatever it is; she just doesn't fully understand the concept of TODAY. And sometimes she tells us yes when she hasn't actually had any.

But today, she showed me that she's starting to understand that the the full truth may not always work in her favor. While eating lunch, she asked for a glass of milk. No problem. One glass of milk complete with pink straw coming up. Then I pulled a slice of cheese out for my sandwich. "I want a slice of cheese." Because her milk hadn't been touched and I'm tired of throwing out untouched food after she asks for it, I told her to finish her milk first. She agreed and went back to the table to finish her lunch, including her milk. I headed upstairs for a few minutes.

Before I returned downstairs, I could hear the unwrapping of a cheese single.

"Did you finish your milk?"

A very timid "Yes" floated up the stairs.

"All of it???"

A pause, followed by another timid "Yes."

"If I come down and check, will your milk be gone?"

No response. I started down the stairs. I soon heard the pattering of Lily feet as she hurried toward the kitchen while quietly saying, "Don't let her see the milk. Don't let her see the milk."

When I got to the kitchen, I looked around. No milk. But no glass either. And there she was: standing in front of the fridge like a guard.

"Where's your milk?"

"It's gone."

"Open the fridge, please."

"I put it in there to save for later."

Ahhhh....the truth comes out.

She finally agreed to let me see how much milk was left. We settled on a compromise of two more big swallows and then she could eat her cheese. But I guarantee I'll still throw the rest of that glass away. But the best part really was, "Don't let her see the milk. Don't let her see the milk."

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Limber

"Mommy! Look!!! I can touch my nose with my toe!!!"


"Now you try, Mommy!"

Ummmmm......yeah. Let's just say my toe didn't quite reach my nose...

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Theme Song

Last night while driving home from dinner, Lily started singing. We soon realized she was singing her own theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Lily!!

Then, she gave Erik a theme song:

Do, do, do, do, do, Daddy!!

Finally, she did my theme song, only it was quite a bit longer than the others:

Do, do, do, do, do, Mommy!! And Laddie poops...and she gets a little baggie!!!!

Apparently our walk with Laddie earlier in the day made quite the impression. I'll bet you can guess what happened while we were out...

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On the way home...

On the way home from picking up Lily, this was part of our conversation:

Lily: Guess what, Mommy! We had toast for a snack today!

Me: Toast?!?!? How yummy! Did you put anything on your toast?

Lily: Yeah! Butter! And brown stuff!!!!

Me: Was it cinnamon?

Lily: Yeah!!! I LOVE SIMANIN!!!!

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Safety Advice

With the sun coming up earlier and earlier, Lily has also taken to waking up earlier and earlier. On days she goes to daycare, this isn't such a big deal. However, Erik hasn't been too trilled with the development on the days he's home to watch her. Usually, she runs into our room just as I pull out of the garage, but today was a little different.

This morning, I was fixing my breakfast and getting ready to leave about 6:45 when both Lily and Erik wandered down the stairs. Lily informed us she was very ready to be up and wanted her breakfast. Erik looked less than enthused.

As I was getting ready to walk out the door, Lily was prompted to give me the following advice:

Lily: Are you going to take the truck or the car?

Me: I'll be taking my car today.

Lily: But it's really mine.

Me: Oh it is, is it?

Lily: Yeah. So be really careful!

Me: Oh, I will.

Lily: Don't bump into any other cars, ok?

I'm still not sure if she was concerned about my welfare or her car's, but either way, I guess it was good advice.

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Continuing the Tradition


With a mom who liked to bake, I was usually involved in the process when I was little. And being the curious little person I was, I wanted to try everything. This included butter, pickle juice, vanilla, and on and on. Apparently, vanilla elicited quite the amusing face, and I don't think I ever wanted to try it again. Butter, on the other hand, was good enough that for years after, I would sneak a finger full when I could. Disgusting, I know.

Now, years later, I love to bake myself, and for some reason, I've been doing it even more than usual with the pregnancy. With Lillian, I craved spicy foods. This time around, it seems to be sweets. I've tried to keep my sweet intake in check since those pounds won't come off by themselves once the baby's born. But rather than deprive myself completely, I've allowed myself to bake something yummy once a week. This week's concoction was Banana-Chocolate Chip bars because I had an entire bunch of bananas that was quickly turning brown and squishy and I had just made banana bread last month. (Maybe we should stop buying bananas?!?)


Lily has figured out that once the mixer comes out, I'm doing something fun, so it's not long before she's pulled a chair over to the counter to help. She likes to help pour everything in and stir when she can. Yesterday, she also helped mash the bananas, which seemed to be a lot of fun. I've been waiting for the day that she asks to try the vanilla, just so I could keep the tradition alive, but I haven't had the chance. Until yesterday. Suddenly, she was very interested in what I was actually putting in the bowl. First, she asked what the brown sugar was. When I told her, she informed me, "I don't think I like brown sugar." I asked if she wanted to try it since I was pretty sure she'd find it pretty tasty given the chance, but that was a no go. She was SURE she didn't like brown sugar. Then came the vanilla:

Lily: What's that?
Me: Vanilla.
Lily: I think I like vanilla.
Me: You do? Do you want to try it?
Lily: Yeah!

After she licked the measuring spoon, I watched her face. No real reaction, so...

Me: What do you think?
Lily: I think I like vanilla. (very hesitantly)
Me: Really?
Lily: No. I think I need a drink.

So no funny face, but I think she said it all. Definitely a great addition to the family legacy of moms allowing their daughters to get the full experience of baking.

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Sewing Adventure

This weekend, while Erik was enjoying some guy time in Jackson Hole at the Snowmobile Hill Climbs, Lily and I headed down to Springville to spend some time with Nana and Grandpa Len and sew some baby kimonos. Lily spent most of the day with Grandpa watching Dora. I think he realized his mistake in introducing the Dora videos around the second hour, but he'll know better next time. But it must have worn her out. She fell asleep on the way home and was pretty groggy when I put her in her bed. This was the conversation we had as I tucked her in:

Lily: I want to read two stories.

Me: I'll go get your blankie and I'll be right back to read them.

Lily: Ok. But I'll fall asleep any minute, Mommy. So you better hurry.

She was asleep before I came back with the blanket. But don't think I got out of reading that story. I was woken up at 4 a.m. to read a story, put her jammies on, and get her two drinks of water.

While Lily was home with Grandpa, my mom and I headed to Joann's to pick out fabric and made a stop at Babies R Us to see about some monkey accessories for the nursery. Then it was back home to start the sewing. The pattern was from the Martha Stewart website, and looking at the picture, it couldn't be too difficult, right?


Oh, boy...was I wrong. The directions were pretty confusing and the visuals weren't much help. We had trouble with the very first step while trying to get our loop turner to turn the bias tape ties right side out. Then there were references to dots on the pattern that were nonexistent and some measurements were wrong. But about 8 hours after we arrived, I finally left with ONE completed kimono. I'd bought enough supplies for four. And of course, like most do-it-yourself projects, the cost of supplies for the project was probably far greater than if I had just bought four kimonos while we were at Babies R Us.

But looking at my cute little baby kimono shirt, there's a definite sense of accomplishment. It will probably be a little while before I decide to tackle the other three, but now that I know what I'm doing, it shouldn't be too bad. I hope.


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