Tag Archives: kids

Fishing with Tinkerbell

This weekend we spent some time in Pewaukee and Grandma Mary took Ivy down to the bait shop to pick out her very own fishing pole. Ivy is now the proud owner of a purple and green Tinkerbell fishing pole and I am once again left wondering how I got a girl who’s favorite colors are pink and purple!

After dinner that night Ivy and her Grandma went down to the lake with Granny and Great Gramps to go fishing. I popped down for a quick visit after Clara was in bed, to find that Ivy had everything well in hand. Grandma had been instructed where to hold the pole, Great Gramps was holding the line, and Granny was in charge of the spare bobber.   As soon as I showed up, Ivy showed me the fish they already had, a perch that she had caught and a bluegill that Grandma caught. Then I was told to take a picture, that was my job.

Along with all the instructions she was reeling off Ivy was also in charge of reeling in the fish. Shortly after I got there she pulled in a big bluegill.

Grandma Mary: “Ivy it’s a monster!”
Ivy: “No, it not a monster, it a bluegill!” … “A BIG one!”

Little Helper

I like to teach Ivy how to do things.  Right now Ivy wants to help, and is old enough to actually do it herself, if a bit slower and messier. So I try to squash my impatience and teach her how to do whatever it is she would like to learn. She learns, we have fun, it’s all good!

For instance:

Ivy saw me folding laundry, she wanted to know how, now she folds her own laundry.

Ivy saw me sweeping the floor, she wanted to know how, now she sweeps up my dust piles and throws them away.

She’s learned how to get dressed by herself (which makes for interesting outfits some days), navigate in the kitchen better than perhaps she should (When you wake up to your kid bringing you a breakfast of Swedish Fish candy in bed what is the proper response?) she helps feed the ducks, dogs and chickens, etc, etc.

The other night she saw me taking clothes off the line and wanted to help. We’ve done that together before and her job is  taking the clothes out of and putting them back in the laundry basket. But not this night, this night she wanted to do the clothespins.  I did that squashing thing with my impatience, tried to ignore the dew settling on the clothes, and helped her.  She took every pin off and then would yell “Catch it!”   I would catch it and put it in the basket. We had fun, she getting good at the clothes pins by the end of three loads that were hanging, but I’m hoping for the sake of my shoulders that next time she’ll be happy being the laundry basket girl again!

The Up Side

Over the past few days I told people that one of the things I have enjoyed about blogging is that it gives me a chance to focus on something positive that happened in the day. Lately Clara has been having some trouble and a little positive focus has made a bit difference!

Today was yet another challenging day because Clara looked like this:
She spiked a fever, didn’t nap well, hadn’t slept well last night, and didn’t want to be put down when she was awake.

But as I went through my day I thought about all the things I could write about that made me smile.

First I found Ivy “reading” out loud to herself:
Next I saw more new leaves on my Tulip tree:
I considered writing a post about laundry. To explain that while I hate doing laundry my favorite part is when it is hanging on the line:
Then I saw Piper NOT causing trouble and remembered that I would like to elaborate on her craftiness one day:

And at the end of the day the sight of broiler chickens on fresh pasture made me smile:
All in all it was a tough day. When Clara needs more attention Ivy gets less, causing her to act up more, and to top it off John got home hours later than normal. But when I returned from moving my chickens, just in time to sit down to dinner John looked at me and said, “You seem happy.”

And he was right!

Thank Goodness for Sunshine!

After a string of rainy days I was happy to see the sun for a bit this afternoon. I will admit a good part of the reason is that that little voice I keep hearing, went out to play!

-what follows is an actual conversation between Ivy and I recorded for you’re pleasure-

Me: Let’s go upstairs and put on your pink vest.
Ivy: Hey why you run up the stairs? There used to be a bug here. What pink vest? The pink vest that used to be by the dresser? Hey I don’t have any socks on! You get me socks please? I put this on like a jacket? I did it! You zip me up please?
Me: Sure
Ivy: Hey I put on those socks? Look I balancing! You put those socks on for me? Hey where are you going? Hey you stay here and play with me for a couple minutes?
And no I did not stay because, yes that all came out in 45 seconds or less, yes she can talk like that all day, and yes I am so glad the sun is back!

If/Then

The other day Ivy and I had a conversation that went like this:

Me: If you can put all your clothes away in your dresser, you can have a cookie.
Ivy: That OK Mom, I watch you eat a cookie.
Now you a probably thinking, wow she is clearly bribing her daughter to do things, and it’s not even working! But I don’t really like to think of many of our conversations as bribes, I like to think of them as those If/Then statements I learned about in high school.

For example:

If you put your clothes away, Then you can have a cookie.
If you brush your teeth, Then I’ll read you a book.
If you eat dinner, Then you can have dessert.
If you throw that at me, Then I will take it away.
If you scream in the house, Then I will stuff you in the garbage can.
If you wake your little sister up one more time, Then my head will explode.

Ivy put her clothes away, all by herself, for the first time ever, about fifteen minutes after our conversation. Then she came down stairs and asked for her cookie. I happily handed it over, mentally added one more chores to Ivy’s list, and thought about thanking that math teacher in high school. Then I remembered the grade I got in that class, figured I probably have the whole premise of the If/Then statements wrong, that he was one of my least favorite teachers ever, and decided bribery is a fine thing to call it!

Mother’s Day

Lately I have been saying that I want to be the Dad. This is a comment I could elaborate on, but for fear of offending some of you (the Dads, sorry John) I’m not going to. I’ll know that all the Mom’s will know exactly what I mean and the rest of you will just have to use your imagination. I’m sorry about that but I like my husband and I want to keep him. Anyways where was I? Oh yes…

I want to be the Dad.

And that is the great thing about Mother’s Day. It’s like the Mom’s get to be the Dad for a day, with the addition of flowers and chocolate, what could be better?? And again, I could go on and elaborate, but for the sake of my marriage, I’m not going to. I’m just going to say that today was almost (couldn’t get John to nurse Clara today no matter what I did) like being the Dad, and it was wonderful.

It was not a picture perfect Mother’s Day. I got breakfast in bed, but Ivy started out crying then dried her tears and ate most of my food while she told me what my present was before I opened it. We didn’t get to do quite what I had hoped for the day, but we got needed projects done and had some fun too. It was a day of spending time with my family, (including my Mom, Happy Mother’s Day Mom!) while dealing with a normal days up’s and downs.
The part that made it different – it was almost like I got to be the Dad.

Thank you John for helping make my day special!

New Respect

When I was little I often remember trying to “help” my dad. While I have many memorys of watching dad work in his work shop I also have quite a few of being told he didn’t really want my “help” any more. If memory serves those were usually the times he was fixing cars, lawnmowers and the like. At the time I didn’t understand what could possibly be unhelpful about my presence.

Today I understand.

Today I put the cutting deck back on the lawn mower. This is something that I’m sure would have taken any of my male relatives 5 minuets tops. It took me about three hours.

Three hours in which-

-I made a makeshift ramp to get the lawnmower out of the barn
-I put kid number two down for a nap
-I tried for way too long to “slide” the stupid thing back under like it says you can do
-I called John to find out that that doesn’t really work and that they had to lift the mower off the deck when they took it off
-I made a ramp
-I drove the mower up on the ramp to get the deck under it
-I pulled it back off the ramp and smashed my fingers
-Then enter help of Ivy
-I got handfuls of grass
-I got rocks
-I got a phone
-I got sticks set on my back courtesy of Storm
-I got a pto engager shift thingy smashed into my knee so hard I couldn’t feel part of my leg (that wasn’t due to the kid or dog, that was just me being a klutz)
-I got a diet coke (I needed a diet coke)
-I called my dad to find out what to do with a random part I couldn’t figure out
-I went up to the barn for wire to fix the part
-I was given more grass
-I was given flowers
-I was given a screwdriver (but I asked for that one)
-I got it on!
-I turned it on!
-the belt fell off
-I started putting the belt back on
-Kid two woke up
-I changed a diaper
-I made lunch
-I cleaned up lunch
-I nursed a kid
-I changed another diaper
-I went back with two kids and two dogs in tow
-I got the belt on
-I turned it on
-It worked!Then we all sat down and made dandelion crowns in the grass, because we only had 20 minutes before nap time.

So today I have a new respect for my Dad’s grumpiness when I wanted to help. And all those male relatives of mine who could get the job done in five minuets, I’d like to see them do it in five minuets with “help”!

crawling?

Hey look at me!
I can crawl like… like… ..like an elephant? a puppy? a kitten?
Ivy says we are gorillias!
I have no idea when or why Clara decided to stop using her knees to crawl, but it’s strange…and Ivy is right, it is sort of gorilla like!