Sisters

My girls share a room out of necessity. That's what happens when you live in a 2-bedroom apartment with three children. They have to share.

But you know what? I think even if we did have more space I would still want them to share a room. There's just something about listening to your little girls giggle themselves to sleep that is priceless. And I would never want to take that away from them.

I know they probably won't remember it at this age, but I hope that they each have a whole childhood filled with memories of giggling themselves to sleep. And playing Barbies together. And dressing up in their best dress-ups for their all-important tea parties. And doing each other's hair and make-up. And staying up late to help each other with homework or to talk about boys.

I grew up with sisters and understand just how awesome all of those things are. I am so grateful that my girls get to grow up as sisters. Sisters are the BEST!!

Little Copy Cats

I remember when Makayla was between 12 and 18 months old I started having trouble with her throwing tantrums. I relied heavily on my friend Amanda's experience with running a daycare to help me navigate my way through these uncharted waters of parenting. Some of the best advice she gave me, advice that I continue to use 5 years later, is to provide her with the words that I want her to use.

At the time, it never occurred to me that she couldn't communicate with me because she lacked the vocabulary to do so. Makes sense, though, right?

As an example: when my children point and grunt, I supply them with the words, "May I have that, please?" Or when they get frustrated because someone is doing something they don't like, I have them say "I don't like that. Please stop."

I'm amazed at how well it works! But lately, I have been noticing that Makayla and Ellie use this on each other. I'm sitting in the living room, listening to them interact in the kitchen. I can't help but laugh as I hear this conversation between them:

M: Ellie, do you want me to help you color?

E: No. I can do it all by myself.

M: But I could help you cut it out, if you want.

E: No thanks. I can do it.

M: No, you are supposed to say, "Yes, please. I need some help."

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This happened another time that just cracked me up.

My parents were over for a little visit. After dinner we had root beer floats. Ellie asked my dad, "Grandpa, do you want a root beer float?" When he didn't respond immediately, she helped him find his words. In a whispered voice she said, "Say 'No thank you.'" When he countered that he did, in fact, want a root beer float, Ellie said, "That's not what I said. You are 'posed to say 'No thank you!'" It was classic!

I love that they are learning, but it definitely makes me very aware of the words I use with them.

Rethinking This Goal Thing

So, it turns out that going to bed before 10 o'clock every night is extremely difficult and I have not succeeded even once since I set that goal 4 days ago. *sigh*

I am, however, getting closer. Tuesday night I didn't get to bed until 12:30. Wednesday night was a little better at 11:45. And last night (Thursday) I would have been in bed by 10 if I hadn't been on hold with my cell phone company for over 2 hours trying to get the problem with my texting ability resolved. Can I just say that going from texting over 100 times a day to texting not at all is really difficult? I'm very grumpy about it. But I digress.

A few positive things have come from my attempts at an earlier bedtime. 1. I have infinitely more energy in the mornings and, consequently, throughout my day. 2. Because I'm not willing to give up my "me" time after the girls go to bed, I am getting better at doing my housework during the day. I used to just wait until the girls were asleep to do dishes, fold laundry, etc. But now I have found that cleaning is not nearly as difficult to do with children awake as I had always thought it was. (It helps that Kimberly is walking a lot now and can keep herself semi-occupied for a short while with the help of these two amazing toys.)

I want to keep going with this goal, but getting to bed by 10 o'clock is kind of pushing it for me. So I am giving myself a small allowance. The revised goal is to start getting ready for bed at 10 and to tuck myself in by 10:30. I think that extra 30 minutes will be just what I need to accomplish this goal.

Goals

I've been thinking about goals a lot over the past few weeks. I'm really good at thinking of things I want to accomplish. What I am not so great at, however, is writing them down or following through.

I have read on several blogs lately about other people's goals. (It's the new year. Go figure.) What I like most about what I have read is a weekly goal. I love that idea. A week is such a manageable time frame. For one week I focus on something very specific that I want to do or learn to improve myself. Seems easy enough.

So that is my resolution for this year: set a weekly goal and work my hardest to accomplish it. I know there will be weeks where I will probably fall short. In that case, I will extend that goal into the next week.

By doing this, I hope to become a better version of myself. More self-disciplined. More learned. Hopefully, I will become a happier, healthier person. That's the goal, at least.

My goal for this week is to go to bed before 10pm every night. This one will be a hard one for me. I have a bad habit of staying up way too late. Especially when Kasey is gone. Last week I only got to bed before midnight one night. Three of those nights it wasn't until after 2am. Yikes! I have felt extra tired and extra grouchy. And my brain is processing information at a sluggish pace. I am hoping that by getting more rest I can remedy some of these problems.

Wish me luck!

Pledge of Allegiance--Crazy Kindergartener Edition

I hope people don't find this video of Makayla reciting the Pledge of Allegiance disrespectful. I love it because she was so excited to show me that she could say it without help, and because it shows off that crazy side of her personality. She is 90% crazy, 9% sweetness and 1% stubborn.

Reality Check From a 5-Year-Old

Having Kasey work out of town for 2 weeks* at a time is no picnic. It's really hard to have the full weight of taking care of our three girls resting on my shoulders. There are no breaks. There are no quick trips to the grocery store by myself. There is no one else here to help with baths, story time, or diaper changes. The weeks when Kasey is gone are physically exhausting and emotionally draining.

And honestly, sometimes the strain is too much and I break. I brush their teeth a little too aggressively. I shut the door a little too forcefully. I speak a little too loudly and a little too harshly. In short, I turn into the mother I never wanted to be.

On one such night a while back, I was tucking the older girls into their beds. Ellie sat up urgently and said, "Mom! We forgot to say our prayers!"

At this point in the evening I seriously did not want to pray, but I knelt down anyway. Makayla volunteered to say the prayer. She was just about to finish when she said, "Oh, and please help my mom not to be a bully to us anymore."

Talk about a sucker punch to the stomach! Wow!

Although I cried myself to sleep that night, I am actually really grateful that Makayla said that. Whenever I get to the point where I am discouraged, or angry, or completely stressed out and ready to lose my temper, I think of her praying for me "not to be a bully" and it helps me to take a break. To breathe. To show a little more patience and a little more love.

*I was recently told by a person in the know at Kasey's work that his crew will no longer be working out of town. Although he will still be working 14-16 hour shifts (possibly longer?), I am so excited that I will get to see him at least once a day. I can hardly wait!

One Year Old

Kimberly is one. It's hard to believe that just one year ago she looked like this:

So here are some things about Kimberly at one.

• She loves her sisters. She frequently crawls or walks over to them and gives them hugs and kisses. She gets so excited when we pick up Makayla from school. It's the sweetest thing!
• Her favorite foods are marshmallows and yogurt.
• She is still a total mama's girl, but is now more willing to allow others to hold her. And she will even give an occasional snuggle to the grandparents.
• She has a mischievous twinkle in her eye. I laugh when I see that spark in her eye because I know she is up to no good.
• She loves to be around when I do Makayla's and Ellie's hair. Every morning she is right there next to me with a comb "helping" to comb their hair. She loves it. Them? not so much.
• I can tell that she is the third child because she has reached many milestones and yet none of them are written down. She is slowly starting to get the hang of this walking thing. She has taken as many as 20 steps at once. Go Kimberly!
• She is still toothless. Her little gummy grin is adorable. (see picture above)
• She equates the phone with her daddy. Whenever she hears my cell phone or the house phone, she quickly heads that direction saying, "Dada! Dada!"

We love our little Kimmy Bear. It's hard to imagine our lives without her!

New Skills: Reading and Writing

I discovered my favorite thing about Makayla being in kindergarten: hearing her read. I absolutely love it. I love how excited she gets when she reads a whole sentence by herself. I love to hear her sound out the words, one letter at a time before she molds them together into one complete word. I love when she stops dead in her tracks walking through the grocery store and yells, "Mom! I see the word 'the'!"

It's fascinating to see this new world that has opened itself to her.

At the beginning of the school year, I had to read to her 15 minutes a day. Now that she can read, and is starting to do so quite well, I have her read to me for 15 minutes every day. It's quite possibly the most entertaining 15 minutes of my day. Not necessarily because of what she is reading (really? some of these books actually got published?) but because of the reactions that she has to what she is reading.

These are my favorite one-liners from tonight's reading of "The Red Car."

--"I don't want to read this book. It's Bo-rinnnng*!"

--"Uh, Mom? We have a problem. I can't really put these sounds together."

--The words on the page read, "But the red car did not start." Makayla read "but" and stopped short. She looked at me and said, "This says "but" and it doesn't mean your bum** so it's not a bad word."

--"Uh, Mom? We have another problem. These sounds DO NOT make a real word."

--"Mom? Why are you shaking?" And when she discovers I am shaking because I am laughing so hard, she scoffs disgustedly, "This is not a funny part."
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My second favorite thing about Makayla being in kindergarten is getting 50 notes from her every day. They pretty much all say the same thing: some variation of "I love you, mom." It's so sweet, and I love her crooked, phonetically spelled words.

The best note from today read, "MoM I Mis Yu"
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*I don't think she really knows what boring means because she also called our van boring. And our spaghetti dinner boring. And the boy at school who is mean to her boring. See a pattern here?

**We don't say "butt" at my house. We say "bum." Saying "butt" could very well land a little person in time-out sitting on the offending word.

My Little Squirrel

I was sitting at my computer snacking on some crackers. Kimberly crawled up so I gave her one. She disappeared into the kitchen and came back with no cracker. Assuming she had eaten it, I gave her another. When she came back a third time, I followed her into the kitchen to find out what she was doing.

Well, apparently Kimberly is part squirrel because she created a cache of crackers in my cupboard.

Just look at those cheeks! She's definitely got some squirrel in her.

The "I'm Running Out of Good Titles" Post

I drive a mini van. And I love it! It is the most mom-friendly vehicle:

• Low enough that little kids can crawl in without too much trouble.


• Ample storage. (Thank you, Dodge, for creating Stow-n-Go!)


• Doors that open and close with the push of a button.


• Cup-holders galore! (I'm a huge fan of cup-holders. Whenever I look at new cars, it's the first thing I check for.)


• Room to bring along a friend or two for the ride.

This last thing has not escaped Makayla's attention. She frequently points out to me that we have 2 empty seats in our van. "Mom we have room for two more kids in our van."


"Yep. That's so we can bring a friend with us sometimes."


"No I think it's so we can have two more babies in our family."


"Well, I don't think we are going to have 2 more."


"You have to! We have that many seats!"


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Makayla seems a little more eager for a new baby than I am. While driving home one day, she and I were re-visiting the conversation above. Except it took an unexpected turn. "Mom, I think it's time for daddy to put another baby in your belly."


"Yeah, I don't think so."


"But you have to! I need another sister!"


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I'm sure this post will generate some rumors. So let's just put a stop to those right now. I am definitely NOT pregnant. Doing the single mom thing is hard enough with three. I don't want to try it with four. Thank you very much! I just think it's so funny that Makayla is dead set on filling every seat in our car.