Life as a Girl...

Well it's official, we have a little girl growing up in our house. A full-fledged, pink-dressing, doll-toting, drama-stirring, shoe-loving, hug and kiss-giving, giggly, pouty, GIRL. I knew it was coming and that she would be this way...what I didn't know was that well before the age of two she would have a preference over what shoes she'll wear or that she absolutely MUST wear her piggy pajamas to bed or the world will most certainly come to an end. She is so playful and loveable, and while she demands to be loved, she also dishes it right back at ya. If anyone in the room lets out a little yip she'll be right there rubbing your head or shoulder with her cute little hand and head cocked to the side saying "you okay mom? es okaaaaay mama, shhshhshh..."  So nurturing.  Ben to this day could care less about what clothes he wears, although some days does have a preference for what shoes he'll wear. But once he makes up his mind, we're set and out the door. Brooke...she usually has to try on at least 3 different pairs before being certain that THESE are the ones. Where she gets this I don't know, little old MOI would never be so indecisive (wink wink). Oh well, I've been told that giving them choices and letting them feel like they have some sort of control over their lives is important. So I wait. I take lots of deep breaths, help when asked, and wait. :)

Our little hockey player in training!

I took Ben ice skating today while Grandma played with Brooke and he did so awesome!  As we know, Ben loves hockey and just saw some kids play this weekend, so has been begging to go ice skating.  We've tried twice while in McCall...once last summer and once the winter before that, neither time did he last more than about 10 minutes.  Well today some nice man brought us this little "walker" thing when he saw the two of us clinging onto each other and struggling.  I hung onto it for the first little while, but after about 20 minutes he just took off on his own and in total we skated about an hour!  He fell down a few times, but would pop right back up with a "I'm okay Mommy".  It helped that there was a little boy his size there decked out in full hockey gear, he informed us he plays for the mighty-mites for the Steelheads and he was practicing his skating.  Ben knows he has to skate before he can play hockey!  He loved it and we were both so proud of him, he can't wait to go again!!

A day in the life...

Okay so a few things happened today that have left me chuckling, which I've decided are the little things I really should be journaling about. Well, I don't journal, so...blog! First off we had a really great Christmas and New Year, maybe I'll come back to that if I get a chance. :) Well Brooke is still high maintenance yet hilarious, and very motherly to her 2 babies and the dog. Case in point, as I was getting ready this morning and brushing my teeth, she insisted on doing so as well. She wants to do everything Mommy does. We're brushing away, and I look down and she has her toothbrush in doggie's mouth. "doggie brush". I dart toward her fearing what may come next and you guessed it, she's quicker than me and yup, back in her mouth. Yummy. Well, I just convinced myself that whatever they say about dog mouths is true and washed it off and tried to move on with my day. Next story concerning hygiene...Ben has become very private about using the bathroom, always closing the door and never wanting help anymore. Fine by me! Well I hear this sloshing sound coming from in there and go peek in. The kid's got the plunger and is plunging away like a pro. "what are you doing?" "all that toilet paper plugged it up mommy"....NOT of course the poop I'm sure. Brooke is of course right on my heels and before you know it everyone's involved and grabbing at the plunger and the toilet as I shudder at the water splashing around everywhere. Luckily it's true...all I see is paper and I swear to God the kid used half the roll. Finally I got the kids to BACK away, and everything DOWN the john, and we had a little chat about how he needs to ask for help next time. "no I don't mommy, I can do it, I don't need you". Obviously. Next story is SO sweet...not at all about dog breath or toilets. We needed to go to the grocery store BAD I mean BAD today and I just refuse to take both kids. I'll take them both a lot of places but NOT a big grocery store trip. So as soon as Mike got home from work I was armed with my list and my coupons, and Ben begged to go with. Mike refused, saying..."every time you take the kids you make me swear to not let you do it again" but after Ben and I both begged and swore we wouldn't complain, the two of us were off to the store. And I have to say, it was one of the most pleasant grocery store trips I've ever had! We strolled along and chatted about what we needed, he gave input usually only when asked, like "do you do want strawberry or raspberry jam". Then came the stroll down the toilet paper aisle (told you he used a lot), when out came the completely unsolicited gaze up at me and "I WUV you mommy", just as the middle-age woman walking past us stopped. She and I both teared up and she said, "oh my WORD that is so sweet". I scooped him up and told him I loved him too and we were all on our merry way again. He doesn't say it much, but when he does it makes it that much more special and heartfelt. He insisted I needed his help unloading the cart and loading up the bags (Winco...ugh) and we chatted on the way home about how yesterday his friend at school got in trouble because he broke his promise that he would NOT eat the garbage ever again. Ewwww....what? Who knows. Thus is life with toddlers!!

A Gift for Mommy

Something magical happened at our house on Saturday night. And no, it's nothing about Christmas...it's all about poop. If that is TMI for your eyes, then please feel free to stop here. As I say all the time, Brooke is changing and growing by leaps and bounds, and her vocabulary truly amazes me. Saturday evening we were playing and she "passed gas" a couple times, saying "toots" and giggling. So I asked her, "Brooke do you need to go poop?" Her reply, "Uh-huh....potty?" Mine was of course, "well SURE we can try the potty!" having ZERO expectation of anything actually happening. Brooke has been interested in the potty for weeks and occasionally will ask or just agree to sit on it with no results. She sat down on her little potty, started making her little "push" faces and sounds that I'm sure she sees "other" people do, and after about 10 seconds stood up. I started my typical "goooood try Brookie" praise until my eyes wandered down to the potty. Is that...could that...WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! There was poop in there. She had pooped in the potty. My 19 month old baby actually ASKED to use the potty and actually WENT POOP in the potty! I screamed. I freaked. Mike and Ben came running in and we all jumped around and hollered, hugged her and told her what a great job she did. She was the least excited...she played it all cool like, "what's the big deal guys, I do this all the time" with just a little smile on her face like we were all going crazy. I carried on and on, finally remembered to clean her up and put her pants back on, and after washing our hands went to walk out of the bathroom when Brooke called to me. "Mama!!!" pointing at the potty. "Yuck. Trash." I'd forgotten to dump out the poop! Again, I was so amazed at the fact that my 19 month old was so much more aware and responsible than I was in all my excitement....I will point out that we don't actually put poop in the trash but flush it down the toilet but still...she totally GETS it! Once again I am made well aware that my kids are totally capable of more than I give them credit for. Now, even after many attempts on the potty and much encouragement, she wasn't successful at going on Sunday...but still. The fact that it happened at all is one great first leap toward a diaper free home. Yaaaaaahhhhoooooooo for Brooke!

Our own little Spice Girl

I really should be waiting until tomorrow so I can post actual Halloween pictures but well, I just happen to have a few minutes right now! The kids are changing and growing so fast, and as we have always known but are realizing more and more, we have a little girl with lots of "personality" and "spice" as we like to say growing up in our family. It makes for some good entertainment and most times we just can't help but squeeze her. A couple weeks ago Mike had to fly to England and Germany for work for 8 days, and wouldn't you know it the kids both came down with some nasty feverish crud. It was not fun for me, and that's when the "spice" really comes out. We survived though, and I really think that sometimes being away from each other really makes us appreciate each other so much more!

We still hear more of the phrase "Uh-UH" (with pouty face and arms folded) from Brooke than anything else, but she really is expanding her vocabulary every day. She's said dada, doggie, juice, shoes, and a few others for a while now. But she's just added book, outside, bye, and....drumroll please....MAMA! I was mailing some stuff at the post office this week, holding her and getting money out of my wallet. She saw my driver's license picture, pointed and said "MAMA!" I think the clerk thought I was crazy for how excited I got. "You don't understand...for like nine months she's been saying dada and calling us both that, this is HUGE!" Ummmmm okay crazy lady.

We found out this week that Ben has been moved out of the pre-school class with all the youngest kids and has been spending half the day with the Pre-K group for reading, and half the day with the kindergarten class in the mornings!! I won't go so far as to say he's BRILLIANT (even though we think he is), but Miss Patty the owner and kindergarten teacher said she's just been so impressed with his "small motor skills, curiosity, and listening" that she wanted to include and "mentor" him with the bigger kids. Sniff, makes his parents so proud. Maybe it has more to do with leveling out class sizes, who knows...but I like the sounds of challenging him! He brought home a book they've been working on at school that's just short 3-letter word sentences, probably about 15 pages, and he read the WHOLE thing word for word! I about fell on the floor. It may just be memorization, but still at the age of 3 1/2 I was pretty impressed and so happy that we've got him going to pre-school. And he really likes it now, as opposed to the first 2-3 months where he cried every day at drop-off. I'm so glad we powered through that!

Well here are a few pictures, I'm sure I'll post more from Halloween festivities!