Should Have Known

You would think that after having two 15 month olds before her, I would have EXPECTED this from Adelaide. You would think, but apparently, one doesn't always learn from their mistakes.

Yesterday we went over to Aunt Becky's to have some school time and cousin time in the park. Adelaide had on a little sundress with cute bright green pants on under it because I'm trying to protect her little knees from getting scraped all the time. After lots of fun in the park (Sadie had a good time running Lexy the dog on her leash, hanging upside down on the monkey bars, and racing bikes with James, & Josie tried her best to pedal her bike with her short little legs and had a good time climbing and 'tandem-sliding' with Teagan) we packed up to go home. Adelaide's pants were covered in mulch and dirt, so I stripped them off of her and loaded her in her carseat. When we got home, it was naptime, so I plunked her down in her bed, turned on her lullaby CD, and closed the door. Seems routine, right?

I FORGOT THAT SHE DIDN'T HAVE ON ANY PANTS! SHE ONLY HAD ON HER DIAPER UNDER HER DRESS! 15 MONTH OLD BABIES CAN TAKE OFF THEIR DIAPERS!

Veteran mothers are probably shaking their heads and laughing here, since they know what happens next. Heck, I knew what would happen next, too, but I totally didn't even think about it. Yep, Poop. Poop, and lots of it. I went in to get her up from her nap, and WHAM! The smell hit me in the face as soon as I opened the door, and there she stood... poop from one end of the crib to the other, ON THE CRIB SLATS, on her hands, on her HEAD, EVERYWHERE. I just left her there, called Jesse for backup (I yelled, "JESSE! Come downstairs RIGHT NOW!" He didn't ask any questions... just ran down the stairs to the poop bomb. I started the tub, he grabbed the screaming wailing poop-monster and started the first round of scrubbing, and I (yuck) began the long, Clorox-ridden clean up of the crib. Sadie and Josie didn't know WHAT to do with themselves, except run up and down the hall and point out poop that fell off Adelaide on the way to the bathroom.

It was not pretty. After I finished the crib, opened the windows, and turned on the air purifier, I accepted the stinkpot from Jesse and ran her through the bath again. Ugh. I think she could've stood a third round.

Saturday Here in the Park

Adelaide has begun talking quite a bit in the past few weeks. Her favorite words, up to now, have been "Mommy Mommy Mommy," "doot," and "Tat du" (thank you). Recently, she's begun expanding her vocabulary, which now includes "Buh-booooooo," "dirt," "duice," and "DadDAD!" She's never said "Dada," but always seems to use an exclamation when she says it, maybe because she's always so happy to see Jesse. It's cute... "DadDAD!" she yells when he comes home from work or when he gets her up from her nap. Love it. I also love the way she puts her little head down on my shoulder when she's tired or just wants a good snuggle... I don't remember the other two doing that, and I just eat it up!

Last week we went to this cool safari park place where you could drive through a big enclosure full of deer, moose, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, etc. It was an experience! Sadie and Jesse were fearless, letting the animals stick their heads RIGHT INTO THE CAR and eat from their cups of carrots and grain. Josie and I took a different route...dodging, yelling, hiding, and trying to keep the windows rolled up. It was a little scary, especially when a big old moose grabbed my cup of oats and ran away with it. Well! I wasn't going after him! Adelaide was in the back with Grammie, and she was a little scared at first (Adelaide, not my mom :) but then she got all excited and REALLY liked it when the giraffe stuck his head in. I have to admit that was pretty cool. At one point Jesse had TWO buffalos' heads stuck in his car window at the same time, not to mention disgusting buffalo slobber and other drainage smeared all over the windows and the rest of the car. Ick.

Yesterday we had a Saturday when we actually had nothing to do. It was a gift! Usually there are people to see and places to go; you know how it is. Yesterday, though, Jesse's & Sadie's fishing plans fell through and so we had the whole day off together. Jesse slept late (I tried, but it just didn't work out), the kids got to watch 2 cartoons instead of their usual one, we made pancake men and turkey bacon for breakfast, goofed around the house for a while, then went to ride our bikes at the park. We took a picnic and Josie's owl kite and it was a gorgeous day... I seriously had to use serious leg muscles while trying to pull my two younger children in the bike trailer, though. I think they've both hit a growth spurt, because it felt like I was trying to haul two buffalos behind me or something. Sheesh. Sadie stomped around in the river a while, and Josie pushed Adelaide in the baby swing... it was just a nice day. Then Grandma picked Josie up for her special "Josie Night" with Grandma and Grandpa (she got to eat at Cracker Barrel, get a giant sucker, watch Tarzan, and take a bath ALL BY HERSELF), and Sadie and Adelaide went with me and Jesse to a little festival where Sadie played a fishing game (with real fishing poles and real fish) and caught the biggest fish they'd had all day. Everyone applauded for her!

I found out today that when Sadie went to Illinois last weekend with Grandma, Aunt Lyd, and Teagan, she was an excellent cousin, traveler, and example. I was so proud! Aunt Lydia told me how Sadie shared and shared without complaining (she had a backpack full of snacks and activities for the 8 hour trip) and was very kind and loving to Teagan... except for the end when she said, "Hey, why don't you eat some of your own snacks?" But, it WAS an 8 hour ride; no one is perfect. Her Grandma told me that the girls had a little tiff and Teagan spluttered in Sadie's face because she was mad. Later Grandma found a distraught Teagan sobbing alone in the bedroom. When asked what was the matter, Teagan confessed that she had spit at Sadie and that she wanted to apologize. When she hugged her and fell against Sadie's chest, crying and saying she was sorry, Sadie very graciously said, "That's okay. Want a piggy-back ride?" What a forgiving spirit! I'm proud of both of them for acting so kindly toward each other. Ahh... the love of cousins. I don't know what I'd do without mine!

Skunky

Usually I get up around 7:15 in the mornings and bring Adelaide to our bed so she can nurse (it's our favorite cuddle-time, too) and sometimes (not often) go back to sleep. Sadie usually follows, asking, "Can I snuggle and play with Adelaide?" (she likes to hold her hand and make faces at her while she's nursing) then Josie, whose first words are always, "Can I watch Tom & Jerry in your bed and will you get me some chocolate milk?" Last week, this very scene had materialized, and we were laying in this order: Sadie, Adelaide, me, Josie, Jesse. Jesse had his back turned to Josie, and while we were all snuggling and being very quiet, Jesse had a morning, 'ahem,' "Toot," we shall call it. A LOUD one. Right on Josie! Adelaide laughed, because she thinks that sound is SO funny; Josie said, "AAAHH! Daddy tooted on my leg!" And Sadie said, "Well, Mommy, I guess you'll have to give Josie a tomato juice bath."

Birthday Re-evaluation

Soon she won't be asking me to play Candy Land with her
Soon she'll be too big to want a piggy back ride
Soon she won't be grabbing my legs and holding on for dear life

Soon she'll want to be alone in her room, not wanting me to rub her back and sing to her
Soon she'll forget all about sitting in my lap or asking for "special Mommy time"
Soon other things will be far more interesting than my face, my smile, my laugh

God, give me wisdom to be a good mommy.
Thank you for the tremendous opportunity to be in their lives. I surely do not deserve them.
Remind me daily that giving of my time is more important than a clean house or a fancy dinner.
Help me to be a good example to them... help me be who You want me to be.

I'm So Excited I Can't Stand It

We've had a couple of very exciting weeks around here. Last Tuesday, Angela, Cameron, and Caleb flew up to visit us for 5 days. The kids were SO excited that they could hardly stand it. We made a paper chain with links = number of days till The Day, and they were very diligent about making sure a link got taken off every morning until The Day. Josie actually jumped up and down and yelled, "I'm so excited I can't stand it!" Roy took me to the airport to pick them up (I still hate driving to the airport) and it was all very surreal when they got here... I don't know why. Angela thinks it's because we've always known each other (well, she's known me since she was 4 months old, and I've known her my entire life) and yet she was never an actual part of my life here - or at least she didn't know what my life was LIKE here. Anyway, the boys and girls got along famously from the very beginning... we were expecting that they'd get tired of each other, but nope. They played and played and played some more. On Wednesday, we had a beach day (which was also Adelaide's very first "play in the sand" at the beach day. She tried to eat some of it, but she mainly wanted to walk out in the water until it was up to her nose. That night, Jesse bravely babysat all 5 of them while Angela and I went out for sushi and a night on the town... it was the first time we'd been out ALONE for YEARS, and it was great. My favorite part was sitting in the cheapo massage chairs in the mall, watching people and making fun of ourselves and the pickle in the floor next to my seat.

On Thursday we went to the zoo with an entourage of people - Becky and her kids, Sarah, Aunt Cindy, Grandma, Melissa and Caroline, Jessica and Haley... the list kept growing and growing! But it was fun. Hard to stay together, but fun! The giraffes were a big hit (they came right up to the fence) and the dinosaurs were too (for all but Caleb - he was not impressed). We took pictures of him with Ireson, and the similarity was AMAZING. I've been saying all along how much they look alike, but having them stand right next to each other was really weird! Later we went to the "Mariachi Band's House" for supper and then over to Mama's house. On Friday, we stayed home all day then went to the Village Market for facepainting (again, Caleb was not impressed - he got a balloon penguin instead... but I was called an Old Lady for the first time by a 7 year old) then we headed to Beth and Roy's house for Teagan's birthday party. Angela said that hanging out at their house was probably her favorite part of the trip - I think it's so cool that she likes my Ohio family so much. :)

Saturday we left on a very long, somewhat eventful car ride... Caleb and Cameron got the carsick gene from their parents (Angela was AWFUL in the car when we were growing up... I still point out places on the side of the road when we're in NC - "Oh, hey... there's where Angela threw up once!") and we had one 'incident' on the WV Turnpike; of course, those curves could make anybody sick. Anyway, we stopped 4 times, we ate, we went to the bathroom, we cleaned up the car, we took our time. It took 11 hours to get home, but I used some meditation techniques and didn't get all freaked out. :) Plus, the kids really were very good for the most part and Angela and I got a lot of talking and "Millionaire" playing done.

The week in NC was fun... Chass and I had a birthday cookout, Grandma fed Adelaide so much that I found biscuit crumbs in her belly button, we got to swim in Papaw's pool, Mamaw told a gazillion stories to Sadie (Sadie just cannot get enough of her stories - Sylvia's going to have to write a book!), Adelaide was scared of Bayleigh at first but then Bayleigh gave her a toy and said, "Here go" and Adelaide said, "Taint Tu," and they were big buddies. Grandma took us out for a birthday lunch, we ate chicken and dumplins', played with Kimmie, Noah, Dalton, Hailey, and Lauren, went up the mountain and visited the cheese factory, Daddy worked on my car for me, and my Girls (not the kids...my grown up girls) took me out for my birthday, where I proceeded to get cake smashed in my face by a bunch of laughing Hispanic waiters. Ahh...good times.

My Favorite Part was the Bus

Last weekend we went with a group of people from church for a 7 mile canoe trip. Sadie had been once before and loved it, and Josie was especially looking forward to her first time in a boat (and on a bus - they take you to a drop off spot in an old school bus). We were all looking forward to it, since it was supposed to be sunny and around 84 degrees. Weeelll... that did not happen. Dressed in our shorts, tank tops, and donning our bug spray and sunscreen, we were dismayed to be about 2 minutes into our trip when the downpour came and proceeded to pelt us with water for the remaining 6 7/8 miles. Josie was pretty much freaked out the entire time. She was terrified of tipping over (she said, "I did not think it would be so tippy!"), even though the water was pretty shallow through most parts of the river (and by shallow, I mean we could use our paddles to push with instead of using them to row with). She cried because of the rain, because of the rocks, because she was cold... you get the idea. Here is a quote for you: "I do not like the rain! I do not like this boat! I do not like the cold! I do not like this water! I do not like this trip! I want to go to the party! How far is the party!? How many more minutes?!" And from Sadie, when Josie was whining and squealing from an 'almost tip' incident: "It's okay, Josie. Even if you fall in, you can stand up, and you can't get much wetter than you already are anyway!" Good point. She was so calm and helpful and great to have along!

Jesse decided to prolong our suffering by trying to FISH in the rain, and so we had to just float along instead of paddling as fast as we could and get it over with. Twice we had to turn around because he got his line snagged... Let me just say that he is lucky to come home with his poles intact. :) We passed the time by counting water lilies (we ended up with 61) and looking for snakes, muskrats, and cranes. FINALLY, we got to the dock area (about an hour behind everyone else) and ate the leftovers while we tried to dry out by the fire. Sadie had a good time burning sticks and leaves and everything else she could get her hands on while she thawed them out. On the way home we asked Josie if she liked the trip and she answered emphatically, "NO! My favorite part was the BUS!"

Jokers

Sadie: "Mommy, what do tweezers do?"
Josie: "Silly. They TWEEZE!"

Josie: "That lady had 3 babies in their, in their stroller. Three babies and they are all the same!"
Sadie: "Did she have a litter?"

Doot!

Adelaide's favorite word (aside from the obvious, "Ma-ma, which she says at least 300 times a day) is "Doot." I'm not really sure exactly what it means, but it can be used as a noun, verb, exclamation, question... whatever she feels like using it for at the moment. You might hear her chanting "Doot, doot, doot," as she chugs down the hall on her chubby little legs, or yelling "DOOT!" at one of her sisters when they tick her off. Whatever it means, it is funny. I'm beginning to think of it like "smurf." You know, "A smurf in the hand is smurf two in the smurf."

A few weeks ago her inner clown came out when I was bending over next to her crib to turn on her CD player (she listens to a lullaby CD when she's napping). Already in her crib, she snuck up behind me and poked me on the butt as hard as she could. I said, "Whoo-hoo!" and she nearly fell over laughing at her own cleverness. Ever since that day, the poking has been a much-looked-forward-to part of her every day routine. Her other new thing is blowing raspberries on me wherever she can get her mouth on naked skin. This includes my arms, shoulders, chest, head, chin, wherever. Then she laughs and laughs and is thoroughly pleased with herself. So am I, for that matter - she's such a goof.

Splish Splash

We went with Jesse on a business trip Monday night and we ended up having a little impromptu mini-vacation. It was fun because with 3 little kids, you rarely do anything that's spontaneous! We stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool, then we visited a gigantic waterpark (I mean, GARGANTUAN) and the kids had a blast. Sadie was an inch too short to ride the big rides (I was a bit relieved, to be honest) but she went on EVERYTHING that they'd allow her on, and Jesse had fun taking her up the stairs and down the slides... she's not afraid of anything. I'm glad he took her, because I am and always have been PETRIFIED of water slides. Too much can go wrong, I always say! I remember getting flipped around and whacking my head on the side of one of those curly slides when I was a kid, and that was on dry ground! Josie was mad because she was still too short to go on many of the slides, but the ones she could get on, she loved. She didn't like wearing a life-jacket, though... and I didn't blame her because you had to hook the bottom strap between your legs and boy, did it look uncomfortable!! Adelaide had fun splashing around in the baby pools and play area, and we all liked the giant indoor wave pool. Jesse's favorite part was room service, I think :) Anyway, the kids were great in the car... it's so nice having kids that don't fight and yell "are we there yet?" the whole time you're on the road... I'm glad we started traveling with them early and training them well from the beginning!

Josie is Four!

Having a child like Josie is both a blessing and a curse. She completely cracks me up, but that is not a good thing when discipline is involved. Sometimes she'll be in trouble and I'll be trying to reprimand her and I'll have to leave the room so she won't see me laughing. Does anyone else have this problem? She loves life. She lives more deeply than anyone I've ever known! When she's happy, her joy is complete... you can see it in her squinchy-eyed grin and hear it in her goofy 'oyoyoyoy' laugh. When she's sad, LIFE IS OVER and she sobs her heart out and is inconsolable (ie: "I am going to my room and to my bed and I am just going to cry and I'm going to STAY THERE!"). When she's mad... well, just watch out. I honestly don't know what to do with someone that has a temper like... um... like... well, like mine.

We celebrated her birthday all week. On her actual birthday, Grammie came over and we had a special birthday breakfast. Then we went to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant, aka the "Mariachi Band Singers' House," where she got to wear the giant sombrero. Sadie was extra nice to her all week, which she thoroughly enjoyed, and Jesse took her to Toys 'r Us to pick out anything that she wanted (within reason, of course). On another night, I asked her if she wanted anything special for dinner and she picked dinosaur chicken nuggets and organic fries. :) Funny. Anyway, she decided she wanted to have a "water party" at home, so we swam, played on the slip-n-slide, jumped in the bouncy house, had a water balloon fight, and roasted marshmallows in the backyard. My favorite quote of the party: "So, are you going to bring out my cake or what?"

Funny things since turning four:

Josie came into the kitchen in her fancy dress-up clothes, gave me a sly look, raised her eyebrows, and said, "Hey, Mommy... Guess what? I'm naked under my clothes."

Josie has decided that the new restaurant down the street is is going to be either "Shaker Slick and Doob," "Ducker Lick and Toob," or "Quaker Dick and Lube." I don't know what that last one means, but it does NOT sound good!

Wedded Bliss

Ha ha... that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one! :) Just kidding. Adelaide, my mom and I went to NC last weekend for my cousin's wedding. My BABY cousin. I cannot believe that he is old enough to get married. Sigh. It seems like just yesterday we were playing the fishing game off his front porch and he was pretending to be a Japanese chef, throwing plastic knives in the air. Time flies! Anyway, the wedding was beautiful... outside on the top of a mountain in Blowing Rock, right in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I miss those mountains so much... when I drive those winding roads and feel the cool air on my face, it's just like coming home again. We had a great time at the wedding (I got to spend some time with my Angela), and Adelaide had a great time with Amanda, who saved me by babysitting ALL DAY (the wedding lasted a good six hours). The best thing about it was that the minister's last name was "Hitch." Perfect!

Life with Sadie

-Sometimes living with Sadie is like living with Randy Jackson of American Idol. She ties a leash around Josie's waist, yanks on it, and says, "Come on, dawg."

-I asked Sadie who the first president of the United States was, and she answered without hesitation: "George Pilkington." (This is probably only funny to my immediate family :)


-We're getting a new restaurant in town, and I asked what the name of it is going to be. Sadie is convinced that it is Quaker Steak and Loo Hoob.

-I had a long talk with my Daddy last week in NC and I was telling Sadie about it. She listened for a while, then said, "And exactly when did all this talking start, anyway?"

Something Stinks

The other day I had to take the trash out because of Adelaide's poopy diaper. I put a new liner in the kitchen trash, then lit a candle because let's face it: poop stinks. Then I tossed the match in the trash and turned to leave the room. Suddenly I hear a WHOOSH! I turn around, and a FIREBALL IS COMING FROM THE TRASH CAN. I know, I know... run the match under water before you throw it away - I don't know what came over me. Maybe I just have too much on my mind or MAYBE the cheap trash bag wasn't fire retardant! Anyway, the smoke detector's beeping, Adelaide is crying, and Sadie is running down the hall yelling, "Do we need to use The Plan!?" and Josie screams, "Mommy is burning the house down!" Jesse was no help at all since he was in the shower and did not hear me yelling for help. So I kick the flaming trash can over to the kitchen sink (luckily Jesse installed a pull-out faucet for me not long ago) and stupid me turns the water ON before I pull the handle out, so I spray down a couple of the walls and the floor before I actually put the fire out. Dripping, shaking, and out of breath, I threw the smoldering trash can outside and came back in to sop up all the water. Of course, after all the commotion, Jesse comes in the kitchen, wrinkles his nose and says, "Something stinks."

Goed Crazy

Try to sing this in your best Cookie Monster impersonation and you'll hear Josie's latest rendition of this Steve Green favorite: "In my fadder's house are manee man-shuns, manee man-shuns in my fadder's house! In my fadder's house are manee man-shuns, manee man-shuns in my fadder's house!"

While eating our favorite vegetarian sushi (avocado with cucumber and cream cheese), Josie decided she wanted to use some chopsticks, too. She said, "Hey, Mommy... can I have some of those... those... those rice tweezers?"

After going potty, Josie always says "I goed pee." I always say, "You went pee?" and she always says, "Yeah, that's what I sayed. I goed pee."

Keeping it Simple

I taught the girls the secret knock "Shave and a Haircut - two bits" and they say it all the time now. Apparently, their cousin James taught them a little hand game that goes "Skunk in the barnyard, P.U.! Somebody ate it, that's you!" Josie got it a little mixed up the other day on the way home from our bike ride... she sang: Skunk in the barnyard, two bits!"

We love listening to Little House on the Prairie (we have the CDs in the car) and, as a parent, you'd think that nothing could be more wholesome, right? Imagine my surprise when Sadie came in from swimming lessons and said, "Well, the only good Indian is a dead Indian." Needless to say, we had a little history lesson. Then they both shucked corn for lunch :)

I like the way Sadie and Josie keep things simple. For instance, if they're playing pretend and need to name something, like a herd of My Little Ponies, they'll go with the simplest way: The blue one is Bluey, the green one is Greenie, the yellow one is - you guessed it - Yellowy, and if they need names for similar looking ponies, they just switch to added adjectives, ie: Bluey-Greenie or Orangey-Purpley.

Marshmallow Soup

Yesterday Josie asked me when it was going to be cold again, and I told her not for a while, since it's finally summer! She said, "But I want it to be cold again! When is it going to be cold enough for you to make me some marshmallow soup?" After some digging, I realized that she meant HOT CHOCOLATE. How cute is that?

Why Babies are Babied

You know how you always hear things like, "Well, she's the baby of the family..." and "She always gets what she wants because she's the BABY," and "She's the baby, she can do no wrong...." Well, I have figured out this phenomenon. It's not BECAUSE she's the baby... it's not because the parents LOVE the baby more. It's because by the time the baby comes around, the parents realize that their other kids have grown up WAY too fast and they just want the baby to STAY a baby for longer. I am loving Adelaide's 'babyness' so much right now that I want her to stay just like she is!

It Just Doesn't Pay

Today at church, Sadie came out of Sunday School and showed me her "boat," which was made of that green foam you put flower arrangements in, popsicle sticks with paper sails, and drawings of little stick people. She said, "We learned about Jonah. He disobeyed God and he was REAL stubborn and he got swallowed by a giant fish which is also a whale!" As I was admiring her project, I noticed that her boat only had 4 people on it. I said, "Who are these people? Is that one Jonah?" She said, "Oh no... that's you, and that's Daddy, and that one is me, and the other one is Adelaide." I said, "Where's Josie?" She answered, "Well, we had to throw Josie off the boat because she is stubborn like Jonah."

Just a-Cleaning

Yesterday we got the pool out from behind the shed and proceeded to clean it up. Well, I squirted dish soap in it, got out some rags, and squished some spiders, but Sadie and Josie carried buckets of water back and forth and had to climb in and scrub out all of the winter grime. I decided to make them do it themselves so they could see what it feels like to complete a "job well done!" I think it was worth it, because they were so proud and THRILLED to be able to play in their pool all day yesterday (including Adelaide, who climbed in and out, in and out, in and out). It's hard to not step in and do everything for them, since it would be so much quicker (and easier) for me to do it, but I know that's not very character building. I really don't want my children to feel "entitled;" to become people who think that the world owes them a living. I just can't stand people like that!

Adelaide is One!

I can't believe how fast this past year has flown by. I can't believe my sweet little Adelaidey-Who-Dee is already a whole year old. Let me just say that I have thoroughly enjoyed being home with her this year. I didn't have the opportunity to stay home when Sadie and Josie were this small, and I feel very blessed to be able to enjoy this time with Adelaide - well, with ALL of them. She is such a joy to me... I love seeing the little changes in her every day, the little things she learns, the new looks she comes up with, the new words she makes up (my favorite is "ticka-ticka-ticka," which sometimes morphs into "ducka-ducka-ducka." It's like she is really tasting the words almost... like she's rolling them around on her tongue and experimenting with them to see what might come out! She's so developmental! I love it. I love her sweet personality and how she's so jolly and chubby and CUTE. The definition of cute baby is what she is!

We had her birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa's house last Sunday afternoon, and we had a great time. We let her open presents first, then we had dinner (roasted turkey, yum!) and then the cake. Apparently, I let the elastic strap on her pointy birthday hat flick her on her chubby chin and so she was screaming while we sang to her and brought the cake over. It seemed all was lost and she was just going to have a tantrum, but I had the presence of mind to stick my finger in the cake icing and plop it in her mouth. The crying, shall we say, CEASED. She forgot whatever was bugging her and went straight for the cake... "Hmmm... let me poke my finger in here, and here, and oh, over here... and I will eat this, and that, and oh yes, this! Yummy! How much of this is Mommy going to let me have, anyway!? All of this? For me? I can't believe it! Joy of joys!" It was hilarious to watch her pick away at the cake, especially when she put one palm completely on top of the cake (to protect it from thieves, I guess) and continued sticking her finger in the other side and cramming it in her mouth. Thank goodness Aunt Cindy was there to give her a bath! It was not a one person job! She had icing in her ears days later, and you don't want to know about the poop issues... but I think it was worth it! :)

If You Can't Say Something Nice, Don't Say Anysling at All

Sometimes I wish Josie would be quiet and not say "anysling!" But usually she succeeds in cracking me up. Once we think something is funny, then she hangs onto it and uses it FOREVER. There is no new material with this comic. If it works once, that's good enough for her. For example, "Yoy-yoy-yoy-yoy" is a goofy way that she likes to laugh... she does it every time, if she thinks anyone is listening. Another thing she says is "Ahwahmen, Ahwahmen" at the end of her prayers. Then she laughs and says, "Hahah! I said AhWAHmen." This does not ever get old for her. She also knows most of her shapes, but the pointy thing with 3 sides is forever going to be known as a "Trianganal." Just as Grandpa is now always going to be "Poor Old Grandpa," since he no longer has a minivan. :)

Sadie and Josie were playing outside and sharing a bag of Natural Cheetos (if you haven't tried these, try them! They are so much better than the fake flourescent orange ones!). Suddenly a fight broke out and I heard Sadie yell, "Well, I'm going in! And I'm taking the Cheetos with me!" Later when Adelaide broke one of her puzzles apart, Sadie said, "Hey! You know better than that! You're one!" She pretends that she's wearing a nightcap like Laura Ingalls, only Sadie's nightcap is usally her underwear. She scared me into thinking I had somehow created an anti-Semite the other day when I heard this from her room: "HAhah!! Now I'm going to get those Jews!" I walked in and looked around, wondering what the heck was going on and WHO she had heard this from! Then she explained that she was pretending to be Hamaan, and Josie was Queen Esther, saving the Jews from the evil Hamaan. Thank goodness!! I should've known she wasn't saying anything bad... after all, the other day she reminded me when I asked her if God makes good things AND bad things happen, or if He's only in control of the good things. She answered, "Well, Mommy, God turns the bad things INTO good things. From the mouths of babes.

Give one to me, sir!

Today we had a huge yard/garage sale, and Sadie and Josie ran their first business venture - a Lemonade/Cookie stand. Lemonade was $.25 and cookies were a steal at $.10... they made almost $15! They were great saleswomen... they would follow customers around and look up at them with big eyes and say, "Excuse me, ma'am, would you like some lemonade?" Who can resist that? Not many people, it turns out. They finished with a huge profit margin. The funny thing is, neither of them know how to make change yet, so they ended up with a LOT of tips. Some people thought they were so cute, they just gave money to promote "free enterprise." Josie got the cups ready, Sadie poured, then Sadie took most of the money (she also tried to swipe some of mine:) and Josie would say, "Thank you! Now you can give one to me, sir!" Once a lady said she had to go to the car to get a quarter and Josie said, "Oh, you don't have to do that - you can have one of mine to buy some lemonade with!" There were about a dozen people here and they all laughed at her because it was so sweet and cute. She ducked her head (I think she was a little embarassed) but I told her I was proud that she was so generous! Adelaide spent the morning eating raspberries in her high chair outside, surveying the landscape and yelling "Dad! Da Da DAD!"

Rats, Teeth, and Pig-Pickins

We left for NC on Wednesday last week and we got home around 2am on Monday morning. It was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun while we were there... the girls got to go to their very first pig-pickin (at Louis & Brenda's house) but Josie was mad that she didn't actually get to PICK the pig. I think she wanted to pick it out herself. Anyway, they got to hang out with their friends Kimmie, Noah, Dalton, and Hailey, eat a lot of BBQ, and swim in the most freezing water I've ever felt in my life. Then we went to my cousin Adam's Honey-Do shower and played with Cameron, Caleb, and Bayleigh. The girls stayed with Papaw and Mamaw while I went to Girls' Night at Melanie's new house, and they had a good old time feeding fish (carp in the Marina) their leftover grilled cheeses (Sadie said Papaw got grumpy when she tried to feed the fish her WHOLE sandwich... he said he didn't buy the sandwich for the fish - he bought it for her!), then Sadie held one of their renters' pet rats. Josie wouldn't touch it, but Sadie thinks she is Steve Irwin, so she thought it was fabulous. They also got to play with Lauren and Sydney, but the baby and I didn't get to go because she was crying for her bed. Josie got launched off the see-saw, landed on her head, and Papaw had to pick her up... later, she got launched off the wagon INTO the garage, but she just jumped up and said, "I'm Okay!" Like mother, like daughter, I guess. :) Adelaide learned to play peek-a-boo by putting her hand over both eyes at once... she was a teeny bit S-P-O-I-L-E-D to her mother, but we don't say that out loud. She didn't want anyone to hold her but Grammie and Amanda, but strangely, if she couldn't see me anywhere, she was fine. I think she's going to be a great actress some day. Talk about your over-reacting. Anyway, Great Grandma spoiled them as usual, but she wasn't feeling as well this time so we had to be careful with her! She was still traipsing around through the garden and bushes with them, though... nothing will keep her down when she wants to be up. The most interesting thing happened when I wasn't even around. Thomas, Elizabeth, and Josh came over to Grandma's to visit and Elizabeth asked Sadie if she could see her loose teeth (she had 2 that were ready to fall out, but she wouldn't let anyone near them). She talked to Sadie the whole time she was "inspecting" her teeth, and Sadie was answering all of her questions, and she didn't even notice when Elizabeth pulled not ONE, but BOTH of those loose teeth! Sadie didn't even know it! Amazing! Sadie said that from now on when she has a loose tooth, we have to go and visit Elizabeth. :)

Wrath of Grandma

Sunday we went over to Grandma Beth's for her birthday celebration. Josie decided to have some alone time outside on the little deck off the front walk (about a foot off the ground). She said, "I think I'll just go have myself a little snack at the red table out there," and out she went. A few minutes later, I heard a little voice call "Mommy!" very softly. I looked all around, and then movement from the window caught my eye. All I could see were Josie's feet sticking up in the air and an upside-down red chair tumbled on top of her. I raced outside to make sure she was okay, but when I got there and asked if she was hurt, all she said was, "Help Mommy... I'm squishing Grandma's flowers!" You have to know Grandma and her love of gardening, but apparently somewhere along the line Grandma put THE FEAR into Josie! Poor Josie. I had to laugh...it was like she was scared to even call for help (loudly, anyway) because horror of horrors! Grandma might come and catch her in the flowerbed!

I Think it was a Moose

Jesse found my "Lowe's List" in the floor of the van, but he wasn't interested in the list. What caught his attention was the "DIE" scrawled on the back of the list in giant 2 inch letters. Hmm. At first, I thought I was getting death threats (not those again! :) then we realized at the same time that the list was written on a piece of paper that Sadie had written her name on... the SA had just been torn off. Thank goodness for her distinctive "i"s...there is no space between the dot and the letter - she just sticks the dot right on top so they look like lollipops.

Yesterday on the way to school, we were talking about death (again). We heard about the Indians wearing loincloths on our Little House on the Prairie CD, and this sparked a long conversation. "What are loincloths? Why were they wearing them? Was Tarzan an Indian? Who else wore loincloths? Adam and Eve wore loincloths, but why did God kill animals to make them? Why didn't He just give them some clothes? (I thought this was incredibly insightful and a great opportunity to talk about blood sacrifice... had I not been talking to 2 preschoolers). And what kind of skin was it? Was it a moose? I think it was a moose. How did God kill those animals? I think He just zapped them." Josie asked when she was going to die, and I told them that maybe we'll be lucky enough to still be alive when Jesus comes back and then they won't ever have to die. Sadie said, "Hey, we would really have everlasting life! Just like John 3:16!" Then she proceeded to spout off the entire verse AND give me a lecture on the word perish, which means "to die, you know, like in Esther when she says 'if I perish, I perish.'" Sometimes I am seriously overwhelmed at what these children absorb. I pray that I keep giving them the right things to fill their little brains, because they are SO SMART and they remember EVERYTHING. It's such a responsibility.

Cuteness

Adelaide just seems to get cuter and chubbier by the minute. I've started calling her my little linebacker. :) I know that once she starts walking, some of the chubbiness will come off, but I don't want it to! I love how squishy and soft and yummy she is, with her poochy little belly and her jelly rolls on her legs. She is so cute that I can hardly stand it! Today she tried to climb into the bathtub - and she would've made it, too - but Sadie and Josie sounded the alarm just in time. She's pulling up on everything now, and she's practicing climbing up and down the stair into the kitchen...thank goodness we only have one step up there into the family room or I'd be a nervous wreck. Every day I am reminded of how wonderful and fleeting these baby days really are. I thank God that I'm able to be here for every minute of hers.

Sucker!

Josie's version of a classic:

"Get outta the way, Old Dan Tucker! You're too late to get your sucker!"

Sunday after church, Sadie said she was thirsty, but the only thing we had in the car was a bottle of blue Gatorade that Jesse brought with him. I passed it back to her so she could have a sip, but apparently the blue dye in it somehow reacted with her skin - she's had a Gatorade mustache for almost 4 days now. It's funny, though -it's so perfectly symmetrical that she kind of looks like Fred Flintstone or Homer Simpson with stubble. She's taken to talking with her hand over her upper lip when she thinks about it, because I can't stop giggling.

What'll it Bee?

Yesterday, Sadie went on a field trip with James and Aunt Becky to learn about baby animals and bees. Today, we wrote a story chronicling her trip. She learned quite a bit about milk, lambs, plowing, etc., but when we got to the "bee" portion of the story, I began to wonder if maybe the teacher was just making stuff up (or maybe Sadie was :)...

"We learned about bee pupa - eggs of bees. Beekeepers spray smoke on the bees so they will gobble up the honey fast so it won't get burned up and they'll get a tummyache." Interesting.

Safety Troll

The other night Josie asked me if I would read her "the book about Choke-a-pontas. I mean, Hocus-pontas. Um, Poca-chantas. You know, that Indian."

She has also decided that her role in the family is that of Chief Safety Officer. Her main job is to police who is or who is not wearing their seat belt in the car. One day I mentioned that she was the Safety Patrol; yesterday, she said, "Daddy! Put on your seat belt! I am the Safety Troll!"

Jesse taught Adelaide to nod her head on Saturday. I know that doesn't seem like a big accomplishment, but it is SO STINKING CUTE to watch her nod her little head in response to you nodding YOUR head. I'm loving it. She's also pulling up on everything and feeling all proud of herself for standing there, seeing the world from a whole new angle. I confess that I am not very encouraging at this point... I want her to stay a baby just a little bit longer. :)

Yesterday, we (and by we I mean Jesse, Sadie, and Josie while Adelaide and I watched) planted 4 trees in our front yard. Hooray! I love getting new trees, and these are the same kind that are at my Daddy's house in NC, so they make me feel at home, too. :) Anyway, Sadie is beginning to have what I always called a "smart mouth." She doesn't really understand what this means, though, and I have tried to explain in vain. I think she's too smart to NOT say "smart" things, but I don't think she really gets the connotation that it sends to people... she doesn't want to be "sassy," but sometimes she says things without really meaning for it to be sassy and it just IS! So back to the tree planting thing... she hit the tree with her shovel, and Jesse told her to stop because it was a baby tree and she might hurt it. He said, "Would you hit a baby with a shovel?" Later, as he was shoveling dirt back into the hole around the tree, Sadie looked at him and said, "Daddy, would you throw dirt on a baby?" Sigh. I'm in for it.

That's Just Ducky

Adelaide was having a very verbal moment the other day. Just when I got excited, though... well, look what happened.

Me: "Say duck."
Adelaide: "Uck."
Me: "Say Quack."
Adelaide: "Cack."
Me: "Say dog."
Adelaide: "og."
Me: "Say woof."
Adelaide: "uff."
Me: "Say cat."
Adelaide: "at."
Me: "Say Ma-Ma."
Adelaide: "Cack."

Looking for Work

I was trying to explain the importance of being a good mommy to Sadie and Josie, ie: I have to feed them healthy food, not feed them a lot of sugar, I have to be careful what they watch on TV, I have to make sure they say their prayers, etc. Josie said, "What will happen if you are not such a good mommy, Mommy? Will you be out of a job?"

Worm Condo

Today, we planted lettuce borders around our flower beds. I'm thinking that if we keep the veggies closer to the house, maybe it will keep the bunnies farther from the veggies. We shall see. We used this stuff called Deer Scram, which supposedly works on rabbits, too... my tulips are still there (last year they were chewed off to a NUB) so I think it may be working. It smells HIDEOUS, though. Oh well, at least it's organic. The kids lost interest in the planting shortly after they discovered 5 worms in the dirt (it would've been 6, but Sadie accidentally pulled one apart when she was trying to get him out of the ground) and proceeded to "relocate" them to the worm condo currently under construction on the other side of the driveway. The worm condo consists of a big pile of mud, 2 watering cans, a hole, 4 muddy croc shoes, and 2 disgustingly dirty little girls wielding garden tools. Ick.

This afternoon, we made our semi-annual trip to the dentist for cleanings (for Sadie & Josie). Josie insisted that Sadie go first because she was "afraid that MY teeth will fall out, too." We love going to the dentist. The kids think that the moving chair, the tiny mirror, and the spinny brush that tastes like vanilla ice cream are THE BEST. I'm a lucky mom, I know - some kids would have to be tied up and bribed, threatened, and smacked to get them in the chair! Anyway, the hygienist once again recounted the evils of thumbsucking to Sadie, who just smiled and nodded and pretended that she was going to try to stop. Hah! I could tell what she was thinking - "Get me out of here so I can get my Snoopy and I'll show you how evil sucking a thumb can be!" Oh well. She can't suck it forever, right?

Pa! It's Easter Day!

Yesterday was Easter Sunday and we had a nice church service and then a fun family lunch at Aunt Cindy's house. Well, it was fun for everyone but Adelaide, who skipped ALL her naps and was a bit of a grouch. Lydia and I hid our Easter eggs for the kids, and then we kept forgetting where we put them. Apparently, we're better "hiders" than we thought we were. When the kids took a turn and hid them from US, we realized that they really are smarter than we are! Their eggs were much trickier to find than ours were!

This morning we were playing "ponies" in the girls' room while Adelaide crawled around getting into mischief, eating plastic snakes, and busting her top lip on the floor. Suddenly, something smelled STINKY. It turned out to be Adelaide, but I didn't know that at the time, so I said, "Josie, I think you stink!" Meaning to say that she AGREED Sadie piped up instead, "I exist!"

Today at lunch, Jesse asked Sadie if she lost her other tooth yet (she has another loose one on the bottom). She said no, and then he asked Josie if she'd lost a tooth yet...she said no, and then he said, "Well, did you lose any hair?" She looked right at him and said, "No, did you lose EVERY hair?" Oh man, I laughed so hard. I don't think that she meant it in a mean way at all, but the way it came out was so stinking funny.

We've been listening to the Little House in the Big Woods on CDs that Sarah got Sadie for Christmas last year. The kids (especially Sadie) LOVE these stories. As soon as we get in the car, Sadie asks to start the CD, please! It's amazing how she sponges up these stories (along with the ones that Grammie, Mamaw, and Papaw tell her) and can repeat them to you almost verbatim! Today, when I asked her to call Daddy for lunch, she yelled up the stairs, "Pa! It's dinnertime!"

Who is it?

Adelaide is all over the place now, and she is really asserting her newfound sense of independence. She wants to eat only things that she can pick up, she refuses to let me change her diaper or her clothes without a HUGE fuss, and she flails her arms at any given opportunity to show her disgust and annoyance. Sunday at church, she actually smushed her face into the carpet and kicked her legs while she screamed - her very first temper tantrum, I think. I had to laugh, but I'm kind of concerned about the tantrums to come! She's pointing at everything now, which I think is SO CUTE! Her favorite things to "point out" are birds, Daddy, pictures on the wall, and magnets on the refrigerator.

Jesse told the girls about serving papers downtown and how the men always yell through the door, "WHO IS IT?!" So when we were on the way to the library the other day and I asked Sadie who her Storytime teacher was going to be, she yelled (in a low, growly voice like Daddy's) "WHO IS IT?!" I nearly had to pull off the road it made me laugh so hard.

This morning as Josie was drinking her cranberry juice and eating her yogurt, she said, "Mommy, how do they mash up crayons (she pronouned this as 'crans')to get cranberry juice?" A good question, I thought!

5 Years and Counting

I can't believe that I am now the mother of a 5 year old. It always seemed to me that FIVE seemed like such a big number... like it was a milestone that was so far away for us. But now, as of around 10:00 this morning, Sadie is five years old. Sigh. I have mixed feelings, as usual. She acts so grown up, sometimes, that I forget she's so young. Being such a tall little bean-pole doesn't help matters, either. Tonight before bed she said, "Oh well. I don't think I've grown ANY since I was four. I am exactly as tall right now when I'm five as I was yesterday when I was four!"

Today she got to go up to the birthday box at church, and I just watched her, smiling and proud that she's my daughter (she was so cute and ladylike in her special black & white birthday dress with the red rose pinned on the skirt), but also a little teary-eyed... knowing how fast the past five years have flown by and knowing how fast the next five will. Sometimes I hug her so tight - not wanting to let go, but knowing that one day I will have to. I have to remind myself that she's on loan to me from God - that she's really His and not mine at all, but He certainly knew what He was doing when He created this whole mother-bonding thing. It's like the saying "Being a mother means to forever have your heart walking around outside your body." When I have time to actually sit and ponder the meaning of life, sometimes I think about how I am HIS child, just like Sadie is MY child. And if God loves me even more than I love her... how much must that be! It isn't even fathomable to my fragile, limited mind. We are so undeserving... especially me. Undeserving of His love, undeserving of these precious babies and these precious years. Undeserving, but incredibly grateful.

Alert the Media

A funny thing about kids is that they like to keep you in the loop. They want you to know what's going on in their lives. For instance, you might be standing in the kitchen, minding your own business, when a four year old zooms in and yells, "Mommy! I gotta go poop!" then runs back down the hall in a blur. I love how no matter where I am or what I'm doing (or what they're doing, for that matter), they BOTH have to let me know about their bathroom activities. Sometimes I tell them that I'll alert the media, but usually I just say, "Okay! Thanks for telling me!"


Another thing that I love is that when they have a sudden feeling of love, they just HAVE to let you know. I love sudden hugs for no reason, slobbery kisses when I've just fixed my hair or put on make-up, and (most of all) when someone comes in and yells, "You are the best Mommy in the woild!" "Mommy! I love you so much as the stars!"

Missing Tooth

On Wednesday afternoon, Sadie said, "Mommy, my tooth is wiggly." When I went to look at it, I yelled, "Holy cow!" and immediately called the dentist because it was REALLY LOOSE. I didn't think you were supposed to start losing your teeth until you were 7 or 8 years old! The dentist set me straight, though, and said that it was perfectly normal to be 5 (in 2 weeks), suck your thumb, and lose your bottom teeth first. Whew. I was seriously scared at first. Sadie climbed on my lap to cuddle and said, "I don't think I want to lose my tooth! I want to stay a little girl." She seemed a bit sad, so we snuggled and I told her that even though she's growing up, she will be a little girl for a long, long time... and she will ALWAYS be MY little girl.

She walked around messing with her tooth for 2 days, and it looked so funny - it was literally just hanging by a thread in her mouth. She was kind of snaggle-toothed and it was hard not to laugh because it was almost sideways in her mouth. We made a special trip to the library to get books about losing teeth, and she talked to her grandparents about it - Papaw said to look out for the Tooth Fairy, because she's a sneaky one; Grammie tried and tried to get Sadie to let her pull it, but Sadie said NO THANK YOU!; Grandpa said, "Hold everything! Turn off the TV! I have to see this!"; Grandma said she knew a story about Mole and Troll and a string and a doorknob - Sadie said, "Well, I am NOT going to do THAT!" and Grampie said, "Poop? Foot? WHAT is loose? Your what?" Sadie yelled, "My TOOTH! My TOOTH! IN MY MOUTH!" (Grampie can't hear on the phone).

So Friday night, tooth barely hanging on, we brushed teeth and went to bed. Saturday morning came and Jesse asked Sadie where her tooth was. She said it was in her mouth - but it wasn't. They tore her bed all to pieces, searching for the missing tooth, but they couldn't find it anywhere! Sadie decided to write a note to the Tooth Fairy. It said: Dear Tooth Fairy, I lost my tooth and I can't find it. I looked everywhere but it is gone. From Sadie.

She put the note under her pillow and this morning, she had 5 whole dollars under her pillow! Wow! The Tooth Fairy must be trying to keep up with inflation. I only used to get $1. She woke me up and said, "Hey! Mommy! Do you want to see what the Tooth Fairy gave me? A note! And a TON of money!" She showed it to her daddy and to Josie, and then, without any coercion on our part at all... she said, "I'm going to give part of this to God at church today. And here, Josie - you can have one too." We were so proud of her!

Baby Fonz

Adelaide officially started crawling on Saturday while we were in NC. She was trying to get Josie, who had a hat with a ball in it, and suddenly everything came together for her! Now she's getting faster by the day! My favorite thing that she does these days is "tweedle" her OWN ear while she's nursing, much like Sadie tweedles Snoopy's ear when she's sucking her thumb. I wonder if she learned it by watching her big sister.... I also love how she waves her hand in the air and chirps, "HEY!" like the Fonz. Yesterday I went to get her up from her nap and she was sitting up in her bed, looking at her elephant book (Mommy Loves Me) and having a good old time all by herself. I guess even babies need some privacy, but in this house, that is a rare treasure.

The Longest Name Ever

Josie said when she grows up, she's going to name her baby Rainbow Child Necklace Beauty Flower Jewelry Bracelet Snowflake Hairclip Heartbeat. My only question is that with TEN names, can't just one of them be Mommy?

The other day Josie asked me (quite logically, I thought) if since God can hear everything we say all the time, "Does God have really big ears?"

As we were driving to town, Josie informed me that she did NOT want to take the highway. She wanted to take the low way.

Yesterday, she said, "Mommy, do you remember that time a long time ago when we snuggled with Daddy on the couch and we had a blanket and it was night and Daddy made a fire in the fireplace and we watched the Crocodile Hunter and it was cozy? (Sigh) That was a wonderful special time."

If You Axe Me...

Highlights from our trip to NC in March:

"What the? This is the cook on the table place Papaw and Mamaw always take us to, but where's the cook on the table?" We ended up staying there anyway, but only because Papaw said we could go to the playground afterward.

"Where's Scotty? Dag-gone! We want to ride on the 4-wheeler!" I had never heard the expression "Dag-gone" from Sadie before... she must've picked it up on this particular trip.

Sadie lost her shoes in the sandbox while she was playing with Noah and Dalton... it was so nice to be where it was warm enough to TAKE your shoes off.

They both had their first lesson in football with Adam - hopefully they will improve as they get older - heehee! I was later informed that Adam is a FUN older cousin to have.

"Tiny pancakes, Grammie! We want tiny pancakes!"

We played at Heather's house one afternoon, and before we could turn around, Sadie, Josie, and Sydney were all naked and heading for the dress-up clothes.

Great Grandma Genevieve stayed up with Josie just about all night one night when she was having an earache. Grandma excels at over-nurturing and being a GREAT great-grandma. :)

They loved climbing trees this time... especially Sadie, who must be part monkey. Once when they were pretending to be woodcutters, I heard Josie say, "You axe this side and I'll axe that one."

When Amanda came over, Sadie said, "I like Amanda. She's nice. And pretty. AND pretty cool!"

Josie informed Uncle Thomas that "Our family's baby has SIX teeth." I think she was feeling competetive with Bayleigh, who can already stand, but has less teeth than OUR family's baby. :)

There was lots of holding hands with Caleb (Josie) and wrestling with Cameron (Sadie) and Bayleigh kept trying to get Adelaide to stand up like her, to which Adelaide replied, "BLAH blah ble blah!"

Baby Days

I know that Adelaide is still a baby (she's 9 months now), but she's SO close to crawling; she's eating finger foods; she's singing little squeaky songs to herself; she's growing every day! And that makes me kind of wishful for the little tee-tiny baby days again. You know, the snuggly soft sweet whispery cuddly baby days, when she would just lay in my arms and stare at me for hours (or until she drifted off to sleep).
Now she's just busy, busy, busy. So am I! But it just goes to show you that no matter how busy mommies get, there is still room in their for hearts snuggling a newborn. Adelaide is already older than Sadie was when we got pregnant with Josie... this saddish feeling just makes me wonder if we should have one more, or if I would feel this way about my youngest no matter HOW MANY babies I had. I'm obsessed with watching "Kids by the Dozen" and the Duggars these days - don't get me wrong... I would never have a dozen children, but I can kind of see where they're coming from now!

Jesse's Girl

Lately, Sadie has been asking some really good questions. Like, "When Jesus comes back, will He be the king of the earth or will GOD be the king?" She also wants to know about levers, pulleys, how plants grow, if fish sleep, what kind of foods bats eat, why do teeth chatter, how many minutes are in a day, if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, etc., etc. But, she's still her father's daughter: last night, she came upstairs where I was working in the office and passed some STINKY gas. Instead of saying, "I Tooted!" and laughing like she usually does, she turned around, walked out, and said, "I'm gonna leave that one for you to enjoy, Mommy."

Bad Morning to You

Adelaide has had an unexplained high fever for the past several days. At first, I thought it was because she was teething, but then the fever kept getting higher and higher. When it went up to 104, I gave up and took her in to the doctor on Saturday morning. After checking her out, he said the good news was that her ears looked great (we assumed a fever meant an ear infection; it usually does with our kids), but the bad news was he had no idea why she'd had such a high fever for so long. Since girls are more apt to get UTIs, he thought that was a possibility... unfortunately, the only way to get a sterile sample to check for it is to catheterize. I fought him on it, because I had to go through that once with Josie and I knew it was awful... but he finally talked me into it, because I didn't want her pain to persist if it really WAS a UTI. Anyway, it was torturous. I had to hold her little arms down while she screamed and cried and looked at me like, "Why are you letting them do this to me, Mommy?" I cried and cried. THEN, I had to take her to the lab for bloodwork (the ladies were super nice there and let us go in front of everyone because they felt so sorry for Adelaide) and I had to hold her while they dug around in her little arm with a needle to try to find a vein. THEN, we had to go BACK to the doctor's office and they gave her two shots full of this gluey-like high powered antibiotic (which they said really hurts as it goes in) in her chubby little thighs. Needless to say, it was NOT a good morning. The only redeeming thing about having a sick little one is the thankfulness that you get when you realize that some parents have to go through things like this on a daily basis - God help those people. That, and the pitiful snuggling of their heads into your shoulder because that's all they feel like doing. The snuggling is not so bad.

When You Talk to Little Girls...

This is what you might hear:

From Adelaide: "Foof. Goog! FFFFfffff.... baboo! Gi! Gi!"

A few weeks ago after their baths, Sadie put a toy in her mouth and dropped it in front of Adelaide, who thought it was SO FUNNY that she laughed until she THREW UP in the bathroom floor.

From Josie: "Daddy took us to McDonald's to play on the playground, but he took some vegetables to eat while we were in there." - Which was NOT TRUE. She just didn't want Daddy to get in trouble for feeding them fast food!

When we were eating lunch the other day, Josie said, "Is this supper? Dinner? Lunch? I get infused."

After we read "The Little Bitty Raindrop," Sadie informed me that when rain goes back up into the sky, that means it "EVAPORATES," which she learned at the Natural History Museum last week. I asked her what it's called when it falls back down. I was looking for condensation, but Josie surprised me when she piped up, "That's called GRAVITY!"

From Sadie: "A bad stranger that's a GIRL? I guess you'd kick her in the ...!"

When we saw a little girl at the store who still had a pacifier (and she was probably 5 years old), Sadie and Josie both laughed. I asked them why they were laughing, and they said, "because she's a BIG girl, not a baby!" Later that day, Sadie, after some deep thought, said, "I think it might be time to stop sucking my thumb, because I don't want people laughing at ME."

When talking about praying to idols, I showed them Adelaide's "snozzler," just because it was sitting there on the table and it was handy. I said, "Can you imagine praying to something that isn't even alive? Like this thing?" They both said, "Ha hah! That's just crazy! Oh great and powerful snozzler...!"

The girls locked me in the bedroom and set a "trap" for me. I heard Sadie yelling outside the closed door: "BEHOLD! The hamster is trapped!" I guess I've graduated from "mean old witch" to "hamster."

When we were watercoloring at the kitchen table, Sadie said, "Huh! Well, look at that! The paint is being insorbed!"

Sweethearts

I love how when Adelaide is nursing, she'll grab on to the strap of my nightgown and yank on it like it's her lifeline, or rip cord, or air horn (if she was a truck driver). I also love how sometimes she'll see something she thinks is funny (while she's eating) and she'll laugh these explosive little laughs, WITH her mouth full. I can't believe how much I love this whole breast-feeding thing - especially with my past history of giving up! I almost gave up with her, too... thank goodness I didn't.

Last night we had our first annual Sweetheart Supper for church (which I coordinated). It seemed to be a resounding success - especially the "Not So Newlywed Game. The girls stayed home with some teens from church (Keylah, Alissa, and Chloe) along with 4 other little ones. They had their own Valentine party while we were having ours. Sadie said they had a good time playing hide and seek AND they got to watch Bambi. Josie loves having people over, though usually she forgets their names and just calls them "That Girl" or "That Boy." Today, Jesse gave them their little Valentine surprises - heart socks, little stamps, and tiny flowerpots with seeds - lavendar for Sadie and strawberries for Josie. He told them it was because they are his sweethearts and they just lit up... they thought it was great. So do I. My daddy always gave me a Valentine's gift or sent me flowers to school, and it really made me feel special as I was growing up. I'm glad Jesse's decided to continue that tradition.

Thunk

There I was, minding my own business, trying to get the girls ready for preschool this morning, when I heard it -- the dreaded THUNK, followed by crying and screaming. The crying? Adelaide and Josie. The screaming? Me. Adelaide rolled off the bed and landed with the back of her little head up against the dresser. She was fine, but it scared her - and Josie, who was playing with her when it happened - to death. Poor Josie was all to pieces and couldn't stop crying about it; later she told me that God came down and gave her a hug and that made her feel much better - but she was still sad that Adelaide "got hurted."

I'm kind of relieved that it happened, honestly, since all babies are supposed to hit their heads before they're a year old (an old wives' tale, I know), and I was responsible for both Sadie's (the awful car seat incident) and Josie's (the phone dropped on the head trick) thunkings. At least Adelaide's is over with!

Josephine-y Jellybean-y

Today, Josie and I had special "Mommy/Josie" time. We went to the Christian bookstore, and she picked out a tiny little Bible that she carried around in her pocket and showed to everyone who would look at it. She also made up lots of stories that she "read" to me in the car on the way home. She's so funny and personable, but she worries about talking to strangers. I tried to explain to her that it's okay to talk to strangers if Mommy or Daddy is around, just not when she's by herself. She asks me what's okay to do ALL the time, like she's constantly trying to figure out boundaries and rules in her little head. I'm glad she's always trying to do the right thing, although she still tries to get out of any wrongdoing by saying, "Sadie did it!"

The other day, I was trying to tell her that she needs to be still and quiet sometimes (she had talked without ceasing ALL DAY LONG) and I said, "Even the Bible says to be still and know that I am God." Of course, she replied, "YOU? YOU are God?"

She's been using some awfully big words lately, but my favorite things that she says are: "As a fatter-a-mattley," and "A-wah-men, I said A-WAH-men!" closely followed by "It goed away" ie, "my knee hurt, but it goed away."

Josie and her "Monkey-phone."