Did I Just Say What I Thought I Said? XI

Aug25

I was busy doing things moms do when not attending the immediate needs of their children, (Yeah, I was totally on the internet.) when Jane ran into the room…

Me: “What is that?”
Jane: “It’s a knife.”
Me: “A wood knife?”
Jane: “No. A KNIFE!”
Me: “Oh- go play with your sisters with it then.”

Then Jane took her “knife”(which looked an awful lot like a piece of kindling) and ran off making her gun noise, (which sounds an awful lot like a chicken) to find her sisters and I turned back to what I was doing. Jane

Then I stopped, looked around in time to see her heels disappear up the stairs after her sisters thinking, I didn’t really…

…No, I did.

I did just say what I thought I said…

For a moment I was almost sucked into the guilty mom trap. After all, I basically just told my two year old to go play with knives- not my best parenting moment.

Then I listened to Jane’s strange chicken/gun/knife noises mixed with the happy squeals of three sisters at play and mentally shrugged. There were no actual sharp objects in play, the girls were happily (and imaginatively) playing and I had a bit of time all to myself in the middle of a lazy summer afternoon, life was good.

Unorthodox perhaps, but good!

This Moment – Bedtime Story

Aug15

A Friday ritual.

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Magic

Aug14

We were invited to a friend’s house for dinner and a magic show. Masterminded by their oldest daughter, (who is a few years older than Ivy) it was quite a show. There were tickets, colored lights, card tricks, assistants, disappearing quarters, costumes, rope tricks, audience participation and small red balls that seemed to have a life of their own, all delivered with a remarkable amount of showmanship.

Needless to say my kids were enthralled and amazed. The entire drive home I heard about the magic show and this morning I was pulled upstairs to be treated to Ivy’s first ever magic show.

There were play-mobile figures that appeared and disappeared.There was a trick “wand” that, while clearly copied from a magician we had seen early in the summer, was executed hilariously.And there was a lot of under the table work and closed eyes from cooperative audience members.

At the conclusion of the show Ivy admitted to me that she was just hiding things under the table. I suggested that perhaps she could ask her friend to show her a trick. Ivy was quiet, then said with a sigh, “Yeah, maybe one day I’ll have a real magic wand.”

And there she had me speechless. Wishing for a Wand

Unsure whether to find an easy sleight of hand to teach her to bring a smile back to her disappointed face or support her belief in the magic of it all, I simply thanked her for a great show. My decision was promptly rewarded with a big smile and news that she’d be performing again tomorrow, when Dad was home from work.

Poor Jane

Jul22

As John braved the chilly evening, swimming out into deeper water with the older girls, Jane and I ran in and out of the shallows.

But before too long the two of us were chilly and had moved on to playing in the sand. Digging holes, building castles…

Me: “Look Jane! Now it has water all around it, like a castle with a moat, or an island.”

Jane: ” NO! It’s a LIBRARY!!!”

Soon Jane was cold, not even a sand library could keep her by the water, and off she went to the play structure at the edge of the beach.

Jane was happily playing on the slide.

Ivy, Clara and John were happily swimming out in the cold water.

A young park employee was happily(?) using a tractor to haphazardly move picnic tables about.

I was happily sitting on the sand.

And then Jane erupted with screams of terror.

“MOM! MOM! I scared! MOM! I scared!”

I ran to her side.

Jane pointed one little, shaking finger at the park employee, who was still bouncing about on a tractor, curly hair tucked under a bandanna, and cried:

“I scared of the pirate!!!”

Poor Jane.

She was so scared of the pirate.

She was so scared and I, her rotten mother, could hardly keep it together long enough to calm her down before dissolving into a fit of giggles on the beach.

Poor Jane.

Shake It Off

Jul7

How was your holiday weekend?

Were you as lucky as we were and able to turn it into a weeks vacation?

A trip with family and friends, canoeing and fishing,

swimming, and running,

kite flying and picnicking,

Yup, we picnicked with our Foosball table- cut the grilling operation out of the picture- everybody knows what that looks like!

fireworks and all?

Are you still in the habit of lazy days, afternoon drinks and delicious dinners?

If so, take a deep breath, savor the memory of reading in the sun and shake it off.

Because, if you are like me, you are home alone with kids used to constant company and entertainment and there’s nobody else around to help with dinner.

The vacations over – Trip shaking -just shake it off!

Let’s Go Fly A Kite

Jul2

When the kite wasn’t in a tree,

or a power line,

or being rehabilitated after such an event…

When kids weren’t fighting over it,

and a certain someone wasn’t falling out of a tree after rescuing it… Kite flying

Then, it was nothing but perfect windy day fun!

A Cup of Tea

Jun23

If you wake up a mom, she’s going to want a cup of tea.

While her water is heating, she’ll get herself some yogurt.

But, a kid will see her yogurt and want it. So she’ll give it to them.

Feeding a kid will remind her that she needs to check on the baby ducks. So she’ll leave the dad in charge of breakfast and go outside.

Once she checks on the baby ducks, she’ll decide to do the rest of the chores.

After she does the chores, she’ll run the dogs and water the plants.

Then she’ll come inside and remember her tea. She’ll take the warm water out of the microwave and put in a tea bag.

While her tea steeps, she’ll clean up the kitchen.

Cleaning up the kitchen will remind her that she needs to change the laundry.

When she piles the clean laundry on her bed she’ll pass by the bathroom.

That will remind her that she needs to brush her teeth.

Brushing her teeth will remind her that she still hasn’t eaten her breakfast, so she’ll head back to the kitchen.

Her kids will be off playing so she’ll take her yogurt to the computer and check her e-mail.

Checking her e-mail will magically alert the kids to her presence and they will all come crying about the rampant social injustice within her household.

Crying kids will make her grumpy, and when she’s grumpy, (and tired) she’s going to want a cup of tea.

But when she goes in the kitchen to get it…

… it’ll be cold.

This is not always how it goes. Many days John makes my tea and thrusts it in front of me somewhere in the middle of this progression – he’s a good man!

The Third One is the Loud One

Jun19

In my experience you teach the first child manners.

You teach them how to sign please before they can speak it. By the time they talk they ask for things with complete sentences and when they tell stories, (so many stories) it is done in a fairly normal, if excited, speaking voice.

The second child you try. But the first child is “helping” by making up pretend signs that change minute to minute so the sign language thing never really catches on. And your hands are so full with the first child’s polite, but attention seeking stories, that so long as the second child says what they want instead of sitting and wailing until you figure it out, you no longer care exactly how the information is presented.

The third child, the third child is loud.

As the first child continues to jabber on night and day, the second continues with her demands and the third is left with only one option -loud.

Polite, but loud.

Granny tries to tell Jane that you should be quiet when you go fishing.

Full sentences, at top volume.

Stories, just as many stories as that first child, but louder ones.

Songs, all sung at top volume.

(Yes, I know the video is sideways, please tell me if you know how to fix it!)

And you try, you really try to pay attention to them when they ask for something the first time, when it might be in a nice normal voice. But, you are the mother of three and, inevitably, you miss it. The over shadowed and ignored third child defaults back to loud and you finally respond. The behavior is rewarded, you sigh because you know what you just contributed to, again, and the third child continues to be loud.

Granny’s advice is ignored.

Happy – but loud.

Yes, in my experience, the third one is the loud one.

Once Upon A Monday

Jun9

Once upon a Monday, a lady was going to do things.

They were going to be real, adult things that involved leaving the house and seeing people.

Ivy and Clara butterfly faces and "planies"

Once upon a Monday a lady was stuck at home. So she went into her garden to admire her flowers…

There were plans.

It was exciting.

There she found two butterflies flitting about…

Then the reality of life with three young girls came and smacked her upside the head and she instead played Barbies at a car repair center.

They were remarkably cute and well behaved and so the lady spent an enjoyable afternoon following them from flower to flower while taking pictures.

The End.

Twenty Pounds of Asparagus

Jun3

I’ve heard it said that you have to try something at least ten times before you can truly decide if you like it. Therefore, as parents, we should just continue to offer new foods to our kids and eventually, after trying it enough, they may like it.

I’m not buying it.

In my experience, kids predetermine if they like things based on color, texture, smell and what their siblings say. It doesn’t matter how many times they try it, if it’s green, or slimy or the older sister says it’s gross, nobody likes it. Case in point, asparagus.

John is a huge asparagus fan. So much so that when road construction started on his asparagus guy’s road, making it inconvenient to drive by and see if he had any available, John stopped in and got his phone number. Now we can call ahead for all our asparagus needs.

John also is the kind of person who will buy much more of something than he was planning on because it’s such a good deal. Marketers must love him. So I was shocked but not surprised when he called me in great excitement to tell me he bought twenty pounds of asparagus.

Yes, I said twenty.

It was a good deal.

I had been out of town for the weekend and was happy to see that by the time I returned home we were merely left with about ten pounds. That giant bag only took up one shelf of the spare fridge.

In the last week, we’ve had grilled asparagus, and broiled asparagus, and asparagus pasta skillets, and asparagus pizza and asparagus soup. If cooking was happening the asparagus was in it.

Now, when it comes to the kid eating it, even my pathetic math can figure that with twenty pounds of asparagus, the kids would have to try a bit once every two pounds that crossed the table to make it to the mythical “ten tries”. And that’s assuming that they had never tried it before, which of course they have because John has the asparagus guy’s name and number taped to the fridge. Every meal the kids would dutifully try it, reject it, and painstakingly pick it out of the rest of their food. Every day I found myself feeding piles of asparagus shinnbles to my chickens.

Ten tries, my assparagus!

My chickens should work on upping egg production this week. After all John could use a little thank you for the five pounds of nice fresh asparagus he bought them!