How's that working for you?

I am learning, oh, so quickly, that for better or worse, your children are little reflections of you. I know I am blessed to have fun and silly children who are quick to smile and laugh...and usually make everyone around them smile, too. As a baby, Cole smiled a lot and instantly whenever he established eye contact with someone, well, anyone! Molly, now, has the sweetest smiles - even sacrificing sucking on her pacifier - and if you watch closely, you can see the smile reach her eyes and raise her teeny, almost invisible eyebrows. I smile every time I look at them!
Sunday night I took advantage of Molly cat-napping and Cole watching a new "kids" movie - The Sandlot - with Daddy. I put toys away and actually gave the Dyson a whirl around the living room and kids' room. (I have to admit, I am still in LOVE with the sucking ability of the Dyson, by the way, and am both disgusted and awestruck every time I vaccuum...what a nerd!) When Cole did go into the living room and noticed - immediately - the cleaning, he said "good job, Mommy, good job." Here's to hoping he picks up on all the other ways we encourage and guide him...with Maggie and Kip's help, he is currently working on using"thank you" and "you're welcome"!
I have friends (Salwa...and others, I know!!) who would be shocked and appalled to hear the sound of Cole's laughter past ten o'clock at night! I, however, would be sad and miserable if I put Cole to bed two hours after I got home with him after a long day away at school. Oh, I know, one day I will be a fierce proponent of early bed times so they are ready for school the next morning but for now, I wouldn't trade the fun of nighttime pillow fights, books, snuggling, and silly voices for anything in the world.

How sweet is that?

I might have the sweetest son - and cutest daughter - in the world! Last week, I was crying and thinking about Granny McDonald...how she gleefully says "oh, look, she (or he!) is laughing at me!" whenever one of her grandbabies is smiling at her sweetly. (Granny McDonald is still in Oklahoma, hanging in there, and enduring the necessary surgeries.) Cole looked at me and started saying some word we couldn't understand so I asked him to take daddy to help him. As it turned out, he took Keith to the FREEZEE to get Elmo, his little freezer pack for boo-boos. He brought it back to the bedroom, climbed into bed next to me, and placed Elmo on my forehead. His sweet, concerned little face was inches from mine as he said "feel better" over an over again as he moved it from one cheek to another. Of course, more tears!
I had to laugh the next day when I realized Cole thinks crying = head injury! Too many falls for Cole!
Last night, I resisted the urge to quickly protect my little sitting duck when her big brother plopped down next to her as she played on her blanket on the floor. I watched from the kitchen as he took her hand so they could "hold hands, seesee" and then he put his arm across her tummy as he put his nose near her nose and talked to her. Such a special moment - and, of course, I thought that image could be used for protesting one-child policies!
Ah, what a wonderful world!

What time is it?

Time. Punctuality. I have been forced to turn over a new tree - not just a leaf - to address the matter of arriving on time, having everyone dressed, packing bottle and pumping necessities, extra clothes, and remembering a special blankie, DVDs, and food. Despite my mastery of being late, I do not like being late. I am not late because I don't have much regard for such matters, I just always seem to have one more thing to do.
This leads me to my three-little-bears-moment this morning...you know, too soft, too hard, too hot, too cold, etc. since my baby bear was wearing the wrong diaper when we left the house. Since Keith was in Oklahoma, I was on my own this morning (which explains why the kids left the house in pjs) but was doing great. After Molly ate and played, I changed her diaper one more time and put her in her carrier. I then needed to change Cole's diaper but couldn't find the diaper...it had just been on the bed. Not on the floor...oh, yeah, Molly was in the carrier, in footed pjs so correcting the big diaper switcheeroo was not going to happen but I did warn Kip about Molly wearing a "big girl diaper"! As a side note, Cole LOVES long pjs - since it was going to be just, plain chilly this morning (60s!), I put Cole in fun pjs and put Molly in footed pjs. Cole thought it was so silly... "SeeSee, toes hiding, other one, toes hiding." Pjs are a big hit!
Cole's newest hilarious word is snickeedoodoo. (Snickerdoodle to you and me, but again with the "er" sound!) Yesterday, Cole did not want a snickeedoodoo, "Maggie, gingerbread man." You would think Maggie's willingness to supply such treats would keep him from saying "dock your pay, Maggie!" Silly boy!

Ah, who needs "er"?!

My thoughts this morning involve Ike and praying my friends in Houston are ready to weather the storm. I truly appreciate Kristi's blog to let me know her parents are safe with them in Brenham and they are prepared.

The absence of postings reflects the craziness of the week - Molly's four-month checkup Tuesday was three weeks late - eeekkk - but her sweet pediatrician assured me that I was not a failure but we will have to delay all checkups now to space out the vaccinations appropriately. She does not do well with shots and when my baby girls cries, things are bad, really bad. Crying for a couple of hours Tuesday night eventually woke her big brother and daddy (but, you know, must be a good time to make a sandwich and have a snack!) She is still off a bit and we are having one to two-hour sessions about four a.m. I do enjoy the special time with her and was thinking how beautiful she is by the light of the oven's little lamp...

As for Cole, he is hilarious. Just plain hilarious. Mimi and PawPaw gave him the movie Milo and Otis (pronounced together as milo-otis) for his birthday since it was a favorite of Hunter's- and Cole now LOVES milo-otis. When I called to check on them yesterday, I heard "hang up, Kip. milo-otis" and learned that Maggie had been sent to watch her shows in the other DVD-less room so as not to interrupt the repeated showings of milo-otis. The part of me that has reservations about young children watching TV is beaten down by how excited he is and how he talks about what is happening during the animals' journey...definitely better than the fascination he had a couple of weeks ag0 with "watch kids, daddy." which meant the kids in The Goonies and, as we figured out, the source of "sut up" since the kids use the expression A LOT!

One of the cutest things about Cole's pronunciation of words involves replacing "er" with "ee" so he says "my diapee" and "SeeSee's diapee", "my razee" and "daddy's razee" when it is time to shave, we have Alley Cat and Sneezee instead of Sneazer. The funniest one yesterday was opening the Hercules DVD case and finding the Blues Clues DVD. I said it was a switcharoo and Cole now has a new word: "switcheeroo"!

So, the things I cherish this Friday are tiny, dimpled hands that touch my face in the early morning hours and the sound of Cole's voice as he learns new things and makes connections. (Even when he says "listen" in a tone a small boy should not use with adults - add to that getting the stick and waving it a Maggie!!)

What a world!

How do parents survive "two"?

No, really, how do they survive? I teach and can work with a classroom full of ninth graders for ninety minutes at a time. So, how is it that one small, two-year-old boy can stir up crazy feelings in my world? In a word, it must be the "no"... as in "no, Mommy". Also heard in "no, Daddy", "no, Kip, "no, Maggie, no, Maggie, no." (In his defense, Maggie does say a lot more than others so more "no"s are required.) The word "no" is usually accompanied by a small hand being held up in a "stop" position to emphasize Cole's own position on the subject. We are starting to hear so many "no"s, in fact, that when he said "no, mommy" to his daddy this morning, his daddy replied "I am not your daddy, I am your mommy." Cole, though sleepy, found that to be hilarious!
It's time to find that issue of Growing Child - months ago I saw an article devoted to toddlers and the use of the word "no." In the meantime, I will try not to take his tiny words personally and will continue to remind him he is not the boss of me. Or, is he?