Simply Mother

Would you like to take a glimpse into our lives at the moment? Come on in, relax, pour yourself some hot cocoa. (We do quite a bit with our new Cocomotion machine.) (Seriously, a whole separate appliance. For making hot chocolate. I know.)

Miraculous, if a bit Bizarre

First up, a lovely gem from two-year-old Jade, who said to me at breakfast one morning with a mouth full of food and completely out of nowhere:

“Babies come out of ba-GINAs. Can YOU do that, Mama?”

Why yes, yes I can.

You would think I must sit down with my 2-year-olds and have these lengthy, in-depth conversations with them about where babies come from or something because Sarah did essentially the same thing when I was pregnant with her first little sister.

I was holding the video camera at the time, so we have documented for all eternity that when I, with my uncomfortable humongo belly asked very clearly, “When is your baby sister going to come out?”, she replied,

“From your vagina.”

(Cue end tape quickly.) (But not before letting a little laugh escape.)

I don’t, though, I promise. Yes, I do believe in answering questions frankly and honestly (and CALMLY), and sure, these things come up when you’ve got an enormous bump on your tummy and you keep talking about how a whole ‘nother person’s gonna come out of there.

Of course they want to know how.

Apparently the answer is bizarre enough to leave an impression.

I’m Truly Pitiful, Mama

Jade has character, this is for sure. I’ve told you about the nap thing, and anyone who has had their toddler go through this stage knows it’s sometimes not very much fun, especially for the little one: When they still really need a nap, but if they get one, they don’t go to sleep till about 1 am. Yeah, so not happening.

Add to the mix that when she DOES get a nap lately, she has a really hard time waking up. I mean, she is sad and mopey and, er, a bit . . . difficult . . . for upwards of an HOUR after waking some days.

Recently during one of these episodes, nothing else seeming to be helping, I got my camera out.

In an effort that was halfway designed to pull her out of the mood, and halfway designed to capture for you this perfect little pouty face she does, I told her I wanted to take a picture of her sad face.

She was happy to oblige!

The first one turned right into a laugh but I did get several of her making the exact face she makes when she’s trying to make sure you know how pitiful she is:

Strangely enough, she DID come out of her mood and was happy and on to the rest of the day’s business ever after.

Answer to the Nap Problem

By the way, we have come up with a working solution. As long as she’s not acting tired before 1:30 or so, we skip the nap and just put her down for bed between 6 and 7. She falls asleep quickly and will sleep until 8:30 or 9 the next morning.

So far, she seems to be happy with this arrangement, and the 4 o’clock weepiness seems to have disappeared.

I lay down with her in my bed, since it’s darker in our room. And also since she’d invariably come in there in the middle of the night anyway. When we’re ready to go to bed, here is what we find:

Usually we move her to the daybed that is in our room. But sometimes we are lured by the sweet, deliciousness of her warm sleeping body and choose to just snuggle in next to her. And get rewarded with the joy of that sweet toddler tummy perched across our heads all night. (It’s usually a few days before we allow ourselves to be tricked into that again.)

More Sewing

Next up, besides making a nightgown for myself, I made one for each of the girls too. Jade is modeling hers in the first shot above, and here’s Sarah. (They picked out their own fabric. Sarah has dubbed pink, and Jade is happy to claim purple.)

Sarah’s been in on the sewing action a little too. We recently got out all the teensy, cute little newborn-sized clothes (which the girls now use to dress their dolls. Who require at least 16 different outfit changes A DAY.)

We also pulled out and organized the newborn diapers. Somehow, we’re pretty low on wipes so Sarah made us a few more.

Reading & Writing

Over there on my sidebar I try to keep the books we’re reading up to date, so maybe you’ve noticed, lately Sarah and I have been devouring Lemony Snicket’s fun series. (Also note the picture book about a homebirth. And the book I have been trying to get through FOR-EV-ER and is really quite good but only finally, finally–200 pages into it–grabbing my attention enough that I’d rather be reading it than all you wonderful ladies with so many compelling blogs to read!)

Sarah is reading a ton on her own now too. At night she takes an enormous pile of books with her to bed, and sits there reading through them until she’s too exhausted to read anymore and then pretty much just collapses in the heap.

I honestly have no idea how she learned to read, but she somehow has something figured out because she’s really doing it.

I just stand by and watch her in amazement, as usual.

Writing hasn’t been as big of a draw for her as reading, but she has recently started writing little notes and cards here and there. Like when I’m apparently taking too long putting little sister to sleep:

She’s still concerned about spelling everything properly, so she asks us how to spell every word she doesn’t know.

I’m wondering if this will change and she will go through the period of “inventive spelling” where they kind of just make it up the way they think it should be spelled before adopting conventional spelling simply through seeing the words in books enough.

Five-year-olds Are Weird

Of course, she is also a typical 5-year-old. And by that I mean:

Silly!

Nobody tells you about this stage. I am learning to enjoy it though, and mostly, to roll with it, rather than trying to get all serious with her and try to figure out what exactly she means by “Bleahbitty blahabhitty that stool is on your head boooohhh hahahahahah!”

Oh, and about that Cocomotion. It was a gift from my husband’s company. Because somebody else thinks he’s pretty neat too.

And really, it’s lovely. I don’t know that I needed another appliance just to help me heat water and stir around a bit of cocoa mix . . . but it’s fun.

Filed in: child development • cuteness • family • home education • parenting | February 10, 2009