Good Manners or..... a Horse?!?

I'm trying to get Andrew to say "please" when he asks for something. Sometimes it feels like I'm beating my head against a wall.

Andrew: I wanna cookie.

Me: (smiling sweetly) What?

Andrew: (a little louder) I wanna cookie.

Me: What?

Andrew: (very loudly) I wanna cookie.

Me: What?

Andrew: I wanna cccc-uuu-kkkk-eeee. (slowly emphasizing each sound.)

Me: What are you forgetting?

Andrew: (Begins to frantically look around.) Oh....... my horse.

Me: (Loud sigh and a hidden grin:))

Andrew: (After retrieving the missing horse and quickly running back.)
I wanna cookie.

Today's Favorite Quote

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.... get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed."

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Roommate Reunion

Last week we had a fantastically fun Roommate Reunion of the girls of Mapleview Apartment Number 4 (or was it 6? I can't remember). At any rate it was so fun to get together. We lived together in different groups and different apartments (San Juan, Old Farm) but in the end everyone else got sick of us and so it was just the 4 of us the last 6 months before I got married. Here's a few secrets that you learn about people when you live with them.

From left to right:

Tawni: She makes an enormous mess when she brushes her teeth. She also likes to organize things .... like her files. Can I see your files? I've always wanted to.

Kim: She talks in her sleep and also she makes up LIES LIES LIES about other people. (i.e. I did NOT hold your foot with my hand while I was sleeping.)

Rachelle: Perfectly normal in every way.

Kristin: Loves to give people "prizes". Makes really wierd faces and is responsible for an awesome compilation of 101 Memories from Mapleview girls. I need to find that list. I need a good laugh.

I love these girls.
This is our attempt at getting the kids all in one picture. As you can see my statistics for getting the kids to smile/ look at the camera is 0 for 6. I'll have to work on that.

This Kid Melts My Heart.....

I don't know what it's all about... but when Andrew wears a baseball cap.... he is just so dang cute. I just can't stop taking pictures of him.
He's adorable.....
Try to deny it...

You can't.

Secret Hiding Places

You know what every kid needs?? I mean besides the basics like clothes, water and Goldfish crackers (very important!) No.... not those things. What every kid needs and will try to find throughout their childhood is a secret hiding place, a cubbyhole, a hut, a fort... whatever you may call it.


I can remember a few. My friend Kristin and I used to spend every spare minute crouched down into the top of the playset in her backyard. It was shaped kind of like a little house and it made a great secret hiding place. We liked to get two copies of the same book (usually Sweet Valley Twins) and read together, turning the pages at the same time. That way we would always be able to know where the other person was and we could talk about what we read. Sometimes we came across confusing words and needed to figure out definitions together. For example the word "pelvis" which we both thought was a naughty word until we got up the nerve to go ask Kristin's Mom.

Another favoritie hiding place was what we kids liked to call "the blanket closet". I know creative name. We used this closet to tell ghost stories, play hide and seek and I personally used it several times when I was crying and didn't want anyone to know. Since we've been staying here.... I decided to introduce this wonderful place to my kids. They didn't use it the same way I did. Instead... they hauled all of the blankets out of the closet and hid under them. They even take books and flashlights and burrow under the blankets in their own little holes. They don't like to go into the actual blanket closet because it's too scary. I liked our method better as their method seems a little .... suffocating.... but whatever. At least it's still a secret hiding place.Since it's quite a bit of work to haul out all of those blankets... we never put them away again without a good jumping contest.

It took me a long time to get a picture of Molly in mid-air since her jumps never got very high. They were more like face plants over and over into the blanket pile. But she loved it. Notice that she is missing one of her little shoes which may appear in a future picture.Lizzy catching some air. (Sorry about the underwear view.)

And last... Andrew and ........the missing pink shoe. (Do your little boys LOVE to try on other people's shoes?)

Guinea Pig

I'm really pretty into this Mom thing. It's important to me (priority numero uno). And I spend quite a lot of time doing it (like 24 hours a day 7 days a week). So I really really want to get it right but the problem is....

I never got any chance to practice.

And really is that fair?? Even in the Olympics they get a few times to warm-up and practice before their score really counts.

But I was just thrown right in and had to start from scratch and poor Lizzy has had to endure being my guinea pig.

She was with me while I figured out what in the world to do with a newborn.

And then together we stumbled through the toddler years.

But now we're at the stage called preschooler and I haven't a clue how to parent a preschooler.... especially such a stubborn, emotional, independent and fun-loving preschooler.

I found a talk recently written by Mollie Sorensen, a mother of eleven. Yes eleven. She writes about what she is doing differently in raising child number 11 than she did with number 1. I figured that I'd like to learn these lessons sooner than later and spare Lizzy as much of my learning process as possible.

It's called Love, Discipline and Tender Hearts. Reading it gave me hope and some great new perspectives on parenting. Amidst all of the psychology/parenting/behavior management books I've read .... the greatest truth was contained in this talk. Never Underestimate the Power of Love. Sometimes I forget that the greatest gift I can ever give to my kids is my Love. If I really really love them and everything I do is motivated by my love then it seems unlikely that they'll end up on Maury Povich talking about how their Mom ruined their lives.

But you never know....

I Need Chocolate!!!

I am doing a program called 8-weeks to feeling great. It is a healthy lifestyles type of program where you get points added or subtracted for doing different things that add to a healthy lifestyle. It's really been good, but I'm not sure if I can make it 8 weeks. I need chocolate. Seriously. I don't function quite right without it. Could I be an addict?