Good Morning Sunshine

I was awoken by the faintest touches on my arm. It felt like a butterfly's wings. I opened my eyes and looked into the wide awake, shining eyes of Lydia. She grinned and whispered, "Hey there mommy."

"Hi baby," I sleepily yawned wondering where the sun was. Lydia fell asleep at six last night after a busy day without a nap and I knew it was early!

"I missed you, Mommy," she whispered into my ear. What beautiful sweet nothings to wake up to!

She then rolled over and whispered good morning and love you to Daddy. Now that she had us up, it was time for her to start talking. She asked us the whereabouts of her favorite toys (figurines from the show "Little Einsteins") and when told they were in the car and we'd bring them in later, she said "I can't WAIT to have my brothers inside with me (two of them are girls, though). I will have Quincy and Leo and Annie and June"

Next on the list of discussion was how angry she was at two of her friends from Grandma's daycare. I asked, "Why are you angry with them?"

"They got sad, so I am angry at them"

"Well what made them sad?" I wondered.

"Grandma did."

"What did Grandma do, honey?"

"She was helping everyone wash their hands and then they got sad at her and that makes me ANGRY"

Ah, the lightbulb clicked, she is mad at them for being upset with her Grandma. Wanting to be sure I understood, I asked "So you are angry that they got upset with Grandma for trying to help them?"

"Yes, I am"

"Well, can you forgive them?"

"Ummm...yes I will forgive them balls!"

"You'll forgive them BOTH?" I asked trying to decipher what I'd just heard.

"No, I will forgive them BALLS mommy."

Another lightbulb. Oh forgive. For GIVE. Give them balls. I see. Time to explain the concept of forgiveness, it's very early in the morning for this, I think.

"Forgiving someone means to stop being angry at them and become happy with them again." Maybe I missed the boat on this one, but how do I put this in words a two-year-old will understand? Hopefully that will be enough.

"Oh okay....so I'll forgive them balls."

"Well, no, if you forgive, it means you're not angry anymore, can you stop being angry with them and be happy with them?"

"Yes I can do that. Then I will give them balls, okay mommy?"

"Yeah, that would be nice to give them balls and to forgive them. God wants us to forgive our friends."

"I don't want to remember God."

Uh-oh, yet another philosophical discussion with a toddler at six-thirty in the morning.

"It's good to remember God, sweetie," I explained. "God made each and every one of us, He made puppies and trees, leaves and rocks, all the wonderful things you love, God made them. And God loves you very very much. You should always remember Him and love him."

"I don't like God" (a new thing with Lydia is to say she doesn't like things to see what the reaction is. I think this is "normal" child behavior, so we just talk about why it's not very nice to say things like that).

"Oh honey, God would be very sad if you really didn't like Him."

We continued to talk about how God made Mommy, Daddy, Lydia, and Charlotte and He has given us such wonderful gifts it wouldn't be fair not to love and appreciate Him. We talked about how much He loves us, how He put Lydia together in my tummy just like He is doing with Charlotte.

She then decided that she DOES love God because He is pretty nice. Whew.

Our next topics of discussion were not as deep, Lydia went to hug Daddy and noticed his nipples. She looked at me and said "Mommy, Daddy's nahs are not nahs (nahs is the word she made up for nursing and the breasts of lactating women)."

"No they are not nahs, what are they?"

"They are just nipples for pinching."

"What are they for?"

"Pinching," she answered plainly

"No! Don't pinch Daddy's nipples, they're not for pinching. They're not for anything."

Then Daddy and I said simultaneously, "They are for decoration"

We then discussed how Lydia was "scary" (or so she says). When I feigned fear and hid under a blanket, she gently pulled the covers back and said "It is okay Mom, 'One Man Band' can't get you. I'm here." "One Man Band" is a Pixar short that is the current source of her newfound fears, but that's for another blog.

Weekend mornings are my favorite times. I love laying in our family bed together and talking about all the things on her mind. It's really amazing the level of understanding a two-year-old can have and how much she can make me think. She's definitely already been testing my ability to teach her our Faith and how the world works. She's testing my ability to explain abstract concepts in a way that toddlers can understand. It's amazing how my toddler has helped me grow in my understanding of interacting with others, my Faith, and as a person in general. What a little blessing!!!

An old observation, still true

I wrote this quite some time ago (while pregnant with Lydia, so about 2 1/2 years ago). I sent it out as an e-mail and posted it on a parenting forum. I was thinking of it last night as I was trying to get comfortable (a futile attempt).

Have you ever noticed that the bigger you get, the more animalistic your movements get? Here is my list of the "pregnant lady moves"

1. The grizzly bear. This one is done when we are trying to get comfortable in bed. The baby is pushing on our lungs, our significant others are happily snoring away next to us, and we're grunting and shifting around trying to get comfortable for our hibernation.
2. The turtle. When you roll over from one side to the other by going on your back first. Even though we're all told that laying flat on our backs after the fourth month will surely kill us, the baby, and the rest of the world (so maybe that's a bit dramatic, but really, a few seconds won't kill us like they seem to think). You roll over, hoping that you'll land on your other side, but what happens is, you get stuck on your back. Then you have to kick and flail your limbs about to try and tip to the other side. You forgot you had a boulder in your belly!
3. The puppy dog. This is when you don't want to suffer through the turtle and you decide to roll over through your belly. Of course that boulder is in your way, so you have to get up on your hands and knees, move all your pillows around, paw at the bed, chase your tail (okay I made that part up!), then finally flop down to sleep. (usually only to have to get up and pee mere seconds later).
4. The beached whale. This is when you have to get up and pee. You roll to the side facing the edge of the bed. You have to push yourself up to a sitting position, then scoot your butt as far to the end as you can. Finally you lug your big ole butt off the bed. Every once in a while your significant other needs to help you and give you a push.
5. The penguin. This is the one we all know about. You're walking around with a watermelon between your legs, loose hips, and a sore back. Of course you look like a penguin. Waddle away!!!

Spring is in the air

I love this season!! Lydia and I have been outside the last few days for a few hours a day. She has been wearing her "castles" and for those of you who don't speak toddler-ese that means sandals.

The changing of seasons is always a little rough in Michigan though. We have had days warm enough lately that we don't need coats and our windows are open. This weekend it's supposed to snow. Lydia is trying to get over a sinus issue and ear infection from the changing weather. She's almost 100% but the cough is hanging in there for now.

I feel like this is sort of where our lives have been as well, in a season of change. Don's working long hours and going to school. I appreciate him so much for this I can't even begin to put it into words. We haven't seen him as much as we'd like and that's been hard. We're making some changes to try and adapt to our new schedule. Daisy, our dog, is trying very hard to be good. Some days she is the best dog in the world. Some days, I'd like to find her a new family. We're trying and I'm hoping in the next couple of months she will settle a bit as she matures. She's a year old now! We're working hard getting the house ready for Charlotte's arrival. We've still got four months, but I know they'll go quickly. I can't believe the last five have gone by so fast! It really goes by faster with an older child at home.

Speaking of Charlotte, that's one of the biggest changes we're going through! It's a wonderful change though. Lydia loves to talk to her sister and rub my belly. We've been reading some great books we got from the library. I probably have one of the only two year olds who can tell you what a uterus, umbilical cord, and placenta are. It's very exciting to have her along for the journey of pregnancy this time. She's very interested in all of it and can't wait for our baby to be here.

Daddy's Girl

Lately, Lydia has been getting more and more attached to her Daddy. A couple weeks ago, at the store, she asked me to buy a car so that Daddy would have one to play with, too.

The other night, when her ear was hurting, only Daddy could calm her down.

This morning, she woke up crying for him because he was getting ready for work.

I thought that it would be a good day to put on her shirt that says "Daddy's Girl" today since she has been very attached to him lately. We have the funniest conversation about this shirt EVERY time she wears it.

Me:"You want to wear your daddy's girl shirt?"

Lydia: "Daddy is a boy"

Me: "I know honey, but the shirt says 'daddy's girl' it means you are his girl"

Lydia: "I AM a girl! Daddy is a boy"

Me: "I know, but the shirt doesn't say he's a girl it says you are his girl."

Lydia: "I.......AM........A.......GIRL"

Me: "okay honey."

Today the conversation took an interesting turn. After the normal going back and forth about what "Daddy's Girl" actually means, this is what she said.

"Hey Daddy, my shirt says you're a girl."

"No, I'm a boy"

"I know, but my shirt says you're a girl. It says 'Daddy's a girl' haha"

"That means you are MY girl"

"Nope, it means you are a girl, but you're a boy."

Maniacal laughter at the thought of Daddy being a girl ensued.

No wonder she argues about it every time, she's hearing us wrong!!