Previously: The rants and ramblings of a stubborn, sarcastic, opinionated, romantic cynic.
Now basically: Little snippets of my life with a preschooler and a school-aged kid.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Stupid, stupid mistake
Our family is sneaking away for a little mini-holiday this weekend. We just feel that with everything that is going on in our lives we need to get away and relax and not have any responsibilities. We take off right after work on Friday. I figured, it's Wednesday, we can probably tell Abby now. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I KNOW! I'm new at this, I wasn't thinking.
Her response (no big surprise): She wanted to go swimming NOW. My response: "No, sweetie, in two more sleeps we'll go swimming." Her next response: Well, she then needed to go have a nap (at 7 o'clock in the morning I might add).
Oh dear. It's concerning that my 2 year-old is smarter than I am, no?
All of her own accord our little girl has started saying the prayer before meals. Here's how it goes:
God Thanks for my feet. Thanks for my head. Thanks for my back. Thanks for family. friends. food. Amen
And every time she says it I could just eat her up. Incidentally, she also says "good supper, Mom" and "thank you, Mom" of her own accord at least 2 or 3 times per meal. I should likely record some of those for her teenage years, hey?
It's funny how money works. If my husband were to ask me* if we had $220 for him to buy an ipod or a new program for the computer I would probably guffaw in his face. And yet, suddenly, when our mechanic tells us we need a new cooling fan for our car (so that I can be warm for the drive to and fro work) we can fairly easily come up with the money.
* No, I don't rule** our finances with an iron fist, just an aluminum one. ** I don't actually "rule" our finances at all. Please don't take my husband for a pansy, I just do up the monthly budget because if I do say so myself, I'm frickin' good at it.
There is an old testament story about Jacob and Esau. To give the condensed version: They were twins but Esau was the oldest and therefore got more inheritance. One day, Esau returned from hunting and saw Jacob cooking some stew. Jacob offered to give his brother some stew in exchange for his birthright. Esau was okay with that and sold his birthright to Jacob .
I've often wondered how desperately hungry WAS he that he was willing to give up a chunk of inheritance for some STEW?! I just don't know that I've ever been that hungry.
This morning my heater went out on my car. No fan, no heat WHATSOEVER. I'm cold on the best of days. This morning was not the best of days. I mean, it's only -17 Celsius but it's windy as well so it felt MUCH colder than that. And I realized at one point that I would give just about anything to be warm for a moment. That's right, even my birthright*, for some warmth. Heat is my stew.
*Keep in mind that's really fairly easy for me to say since (a) I'm the youngest of 4 and (b) My father's inheritance to me was an old farm cat.
Abby watched some tv at daycare today. Apparently a show that sounds a LOT like "doo-bops". And yet, when she says that and I say "Doo Bops?" she loudly proclaims "No! No! DOO Bops". I am obviously getting something a little wrong. Does anyone out there have any guesses as to WHAT she's talking about? (I know basically nothing about toddler tv.)
Abby has a song that she learned somewhere. It's a song that she uses while cleaning up her toys and one of the lines is "Clean up, clean up. All the people clean up." Except, in her toddler voice it sounds a lot more like "Other people clean up."... which is probably what she's hoping for anyway.
You'll understand why we needed it to be separate from this one when you go read it.
I'll likely have the guilty mother feeling eventually and create one for Abby too (don't need her being jealous) but that will have to be for another day - one with more energy.
3. Maybe we'll even find out if we need to paint the room blue or pink.
4. Except of course that we WON'T paint the room blue OR pink.
5. Last night in pretend-land: Abby's friends were over. When I asked who was over she announced that it was Dight, Norna, Caba and Map. She was quite excited and we needed to let them in. She then came running up the stairs to tell me that they'd brought cake. Which, incidentally, was really kind of them but makes me question what she thinks of my hospitality if others bring food over. Oh yeah, it was a Happy Birthday cake. We enjoyed it with a glass of milk. Thanks, guys!
6. Today some more friends are coming over (in real life) and apparently Auntie Pam is bringing toast. Again with people bringing food over. What is up with that, Abby? I'm starting to get hurt.
7. Today's a good day.
8. It’s a big blessing to have a good day after two very, very rough days.
9. Some days I really want to come on here and spill everything that rages in my head during the bad times. And yet, it’s a difficult thing to share. I don’t want to burden anyone else with it and I don't want to draw too much attention to it.
10. And so I just keep trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
11. The 20 week tunnel.
12. Thankfully, there are many, many things to look forward to between now and then.
13. Like the toast Auntie Pam is bringing tonight.
Because I need to record the cuteness as it happens or I'll forget
(1) We are having a very hard time choosing a boy's name for our unborn child. (For some reason we've had no problem with a girl name - last time nor this time.) We thought we'd let Abby choose. We presented 2 names to her and asked her which boy's name she liked best. Her first response: "Daddy!"
(2) We are forging ahead with potty-training. (She's pretty much trained herself on the pooping side of things but the peeing might actually take some work on our part. Shucks.) Since she's got a sweet tooth we've decided she can have a candy every time she's successful. Thing is, as much as she LOVES this she also feels that Mommy & Daddy should have candies every time we pee and poo too. Who am I to argue?
There are lyrics in a favorite lullabye of mine (Baby Mine) that go like this:
If they knew sweet little you They'd end up loving you too All those same people who scold you What they'd give just for The right to hold you
And that's pretty much how I feel when I watch Abby serve tea to people. How could they NOT fall in love with her? She is so deliberate in her adding of sugar and milk and in the stirring and she watches as they drink it to ensure they have seconds when they've completed their first cup. Just sitting on the sidelines watching her serve brings a smile to my face. I don't want 2 to end.
A coworker retired at the end of December 2007. Her last day was December 21st. We had a party for her and sent her off with best wishes. Her husband hadn't retired yet but she was hoping her retirement might tempt him to do the same.
For her first 6 months of life Abby went to quite a few movies. She was such a quiet baby that I never worried about her disturbing other movie-goers. And, let's face it, her mom is too addicted to movies to STOP going.
So, I guess it's no big surprise that for her first movie as a toddler she acted like it was completely old hat. It was very familiar and enjoyable to her. (Nearly 2 hours of sitting when the kid hasn't sat for more than 24 seconds (other than when strapped in) for the past year.)
That's my girl.
Updated to add: It was Bee Movie. Frankly, she remembers very little of the movie but she'd certainly be able to list off who all was at the movie with her and what she had for treats there. ;-)
