Sore

I went to a workout/playgroup yesterday for the first time. I'm no stranger to exercise, but it's been awhile since I've done any serious type of strength training.  I wasn't thinking about that as I was lunging and squatting with 10-pound dumbbells (and occasionally a 21 pound toddler) for an hour as the kids ran around with their friends.

So obviously I woke up extremely sore and have been feeling progressively worse throughout the day as all the lower muscles in my body have been stiffening.  Then, to top it off, this evening Edee climbed  leapt onto my lap .

Me:  "Argh!  Ow ow ow, Edee get off, please!!!  Mommy's legs really hurt"
Edee (looking at me with eyes full of sympathy, and starting to stroke my cheek):  "It's otay, Mommy.  Yanta always comes."

If that's true, I'm asking Santa for a massage package and some heat packs.  Maybe even a bottle of ibuprofen to toss in the stocking.  

Bath Time

We love bath time in our house.  The kids enjoy playing together in the water, and for me it signifies that the day is finally winding down, and I can relax.  Sometimes I just sit in the bathroom and read while they play, but I also love watching these joyful, naked kids of mine and often reflect on how much they've grown up and changed since being born.  It's generally a pretty peaceful time....generally.

A few evenings ago as I was contently watching the kids laughing and playing together in the bath with these sentimental thoughts, Edee looks up at me--

Edee: "Mom, I love your happy face."
Me:  "Aww."
Edee:  "Yeah and I love Chicken, too."
Me:  "I'm glad you love Chicken, too."
Edee:  "Yeah, we gonna get married when we get growed up."
Me:  "You and Chicken are going to get married?"
Chicken (chiming in excitedly): "Yeah!!"

Then we all start laughing and Chicken starts barking like a puppy.  Edee chimes in and they have a little doggie conversation.

Me: "You guys are so cute."
Edee:  "Mom, Chicken is the best little brother I can have in dis house."
Me (stifling a giggle):  "He's the best little brother you have... in this house?"
Edee:  "Ya he has lots of fun toys dat I can pay (play) with."


Oh the inner workings of the mind of a three-year-old.  I love it.

Tickle

Chicken recently has learned how to "tickle".  He'll come up to us with a huge grin on his face and start "tickling" any exposed skin he can get his claws on.  He'll say, "Tid-dit-tid-dit" (tickle-tickle) and start scratching relentlessly.  I'm not going to lie--it hurts--but  it's so funny that I crack up every time.

Yesterday he climbed up on a large, empty cardboard box with Daddy, Edee, and I watching.  Realizing he had an audience, he bent over and started "tickling" the box.  We were all in tears from laughing because it was obvious that he thought he was so hilarious.  Funny little dude!

Daddy

Edee and I were making pancakes together on a snowy Saturday late-morning.  We heard the door open and shut from Daddy getting out of the shower.

Edee:  " I fink Daddy is pretty handsome, to me."

Me:  "To me too, Edee."

:)

Growing Up

There are some things Edee says that just sound too mature for a three-year old.  At least to my ears.  Which makes it cute and funny, but also makes me realize how quickly these kids grow up.

My favorites are when Edee comes up with an idea or suggestion and follows it up with:

"How dat's younds?" (How does that sound?) or "What you fink?" (What do you think?)

Or when I ask her if she wants more to eat and she says, "No danks, I'm wine (fine), Mommy."

Ponytail

Me:  "Edee, hold still.  Let's put your hair up into a ponytail."
Edee:  "Ponytail??!!!!!!  My hair?  What da heck?  Lemme see!"

Now this definitely is not the first time that Edee has heard of a ponytail. We've been pulling her long, wild hair up since she was a few months old, so that's why the reaction was a tad bit surprising.  I'm pretty sure it is because 'My Little Pony' toys are all the rage to her now and she finally made the connection.  

Fingers

Edee had pulled some silverware out of the kitchen drawer, and was starting to close it.

Daddy: "Watch your fingers, Edee."
Edee (looking down at her fingers):  "One.......two......seven.....eight."

Daddy DID say to watch them.....so she was just checking to make sure all were well and accounted for while doing so.

Little Brothers

Edee: "Chicken is my yittle broder.  I'm da big yister."
Me:  "Yep.  You are a good big sister.  And look at cute little Chicken.  Aw, we just love little brothers, don't we?"
Edee:  "Not me."

Not surprised.  The intensity of the sibling rivalry between them astonishes me sometimes.

Edee actually said at Target yesterday,  "I hate Chicken."  My heart went cold and we stopped in the middle of the store so I could give her the sternest, most disappointed lecture I think I've given to date.   It was  a sad parent moment.

B-words

Chicken, the 15 month-old, loves B-words:

Binky.  He is still very much attached to his binky, AKA "Bee-Bee".  Whenever he's looking for his binky he calls out "Bee-Bee!  Ah--ooo? ('Are you', for 'Where are you?')"  It's adorable.

Book.  When it's naptime Chicken points to a "buh".  Distracting me to read to him is his way of getting out of a nap.  It usually works.

Ball.  Chicken loves to play with "bahs" more than any other toy to date.

Bubble.  Oh "bubbo".  I hear this one over and over--he LOVES bubbles.  I don't like blowing bubbles with the kids as much as I used to because it usually turns into a fight over who can hold the wand, but it's fun to see how excited he is about them.  The other day he pointed to the bubbles above the fridge and yelled "bubbobubbobubbo!!" over and over until I gave in and got them down.

Banana.  Oh the beloved banana, which he lovingly refers to as "Na-nah", leaving his mouth open with tongue slightly sticking out to the side, usually with a little grin.  He loves them, eating two or three a day sometimes; always at least one.  I tell him that he must be half-monkey....and that he definitely gets it from his father's side.

Nightmare

In the car--just Edee and I.  Chicken is at home taking a nap with Daddy.

Edee:  "We going to da store?"

Me:  "We're just going to the grocery store and then to the pharmacy."

Edee:  "NO!  I don wanna go dere!  Dat pace is a  NIGHTMARE!!!!"

Me:  "Whaa..?  A nightmare?  The pharmacy?  No it's not!" (Nightmare? Where is she getting this from....?).

Edee:  "Yes it is, it sooo crazy!  I don wanna go!  NO way!  No way, Mommy."

Me:  "What are you talking about? Are you thinking of when we were downtown going to the museum?  Did I say it was a nightmare? I probably did.  We don't even have to get out of the car at the pharmacy."

Edee:  "No way, not da museum! I don wanna go a dat oder pace.  It too crazy and too many cars an I don yike it.  GRrRr.  It make me SO MAD!!  GRRR. "

Me:  "We're just going to the pharmacy, the place to pick up my medicine."

Edee:  "NO!  You not SICK Mommy!!!! You don nee medicine, you not sick.  NO.  You NOT sick."

Me:  "Uh....okay...you are right, I'm not sick but I still need to go get my medicine.  We're going." 

Edee:  "OOOOOh, is it your chocolate blueberry kinda medicine?  Or the pink kind?  I YIKE the pink kind, yum, yes, mmmmm the pink kind, let's go get some a dat kind, otay Mommy?"  

My mind is still reeling about this.  I don't know whether to be more perplexed about the pharmacy being a nightmare, or about this mysterious, delicious pink medicine..... or that Edee thinks that I'm using the chocolate-covered blueberries stashed in the cabinet to self-medicate.

New Pants

I'm on the floor, stretching from finishing a three mile run.  I had just announced to Daddy that I've already lost all the "weaning-moving-stress-and-holiday" weight since I've started running this year.  I'm pretty pleased with myself.  Then Edee enters the scene in all her animated glory.

Edee (grabbing the leg of my pants):  "Mommy, dese pants are tight!"
Me:  "Yeah...it's okay."
Edee:  "No Mommy, dese pants are REALLY tight.  You need some new pants now Mommy, dey are tooooo tight, yet's go get you some new pants.  We can go to da store, an buy you new pants....otay?  Yet's just go to the store and get new ones."

Suddenly, I'm not feeling as good about myself.

Potty

We've been working on potty training (again, after many failed attempts).  Fortunately it's going awesome today, which is a miracle!  And it's probably because we had this conversation yesterday:

Me:  "Do you want to sit on the potty?"
Edee:  "No...I scared of da potty"
Me:  "You are?  Are you scared of falling in??"
Edee: "No.  I'm scared dere's alligators."
Me:  "Oh!  Don't worry about that, there's no alligators the potty.  They can't fit and the only thing that's ever in the potty is the water, and the poop and pee you put in it!"
Edee:  "But alligators in da water?"
Me:  "No, they are not in the water in the potty.  I promise."
Edee:  "Otay."

Like I mentioned, she's doing great and has been dry all day without a single accident.  If I had only known that I needed to address the whole creepy-creature-in-the-toilet scenario in the first place, this girl may have been potty-trained a year ago.  <major face-palm>

Oh My Gosh

Edee's newest phrase  extremely dramatic exclamation has been "Oh my gawssss!"  (inhaling for the "s" sound...poor girl is going to need speech therapy). I hear this over and over again.

In fact, I just left the room for a moment, leaving my computer screen up on a link I had been looking at of 3D tattoos (I'm not the tattoo type, just thought it was interesting and the art was amazing).  The picture in particular I had left up was of a more gory-looking one; it was of a shoulder tattooed to look like the muscles were exposed.  When I came back into the room a few seconds later Edee was sitting in front of the screen with her hand over her mouth, saying over and over "Oh my GAWSSS! Oh my GAWSSS!  Oh my...."

And I'm thinking that should scare her away from tattoos for life.  My work here is done.

Soup

I recently made a huge batch of chicken and vegetable soup.  Whenever I get a Costco rotisserie chicken, and after we've had a few meals off of it, I boil the remaining bones and skin for a tasty broth and add all sorts of veggies along with the remaining meat.  It's one of my favorite things.  That or making jambalaya with the leftovers/broth.

Chicken and veggie soup isn't exactly something Edee gets excited about.  She might tolerate one bite. She doesn't "yike tomadoes" (no matter how many times I try to correct her, potatoes are "tomadoes" and she doesn't like them and won't eat them; but she insists she really likes the "real" tomatoes but still won't eat those).

Anyways.

The next day after having soup for dinner I asked Edee what she wanted to eat for lunch.  I shouldn't have been surprised to hear her answer: "chocolate chip soup".  I mean, this is Edee we're talking about and it makes perfect sense that chocolate chips should replace any food she doesn't like.

In case you were wondering, I googled chocolate chip soup and found this; and yes, in case you were also wondering, I am considering making it.  The apple doesn't fall all that far from the tree, you know.

Ducky

Again....I think I may let Edee watch too many videos.

She likes watching "The Land Before Time" series.  Those familiar with the shows know that the little dinosaur named Ducky is notorious for repeating words an unnecessary amount of time.

The Ducky way has now become the Edee way.  Now when Edee is adamant about something she doesn't want, it doesn't warrant a simple "no".  Instead it's a "NO No no no NoOo", just the way Ducky says it.  Cute and slightly irritating at the same time.   The BEST part is that Chicken has recently started understanding to how correctly and emphatically use the word "No"....so yesterday when we were driving in the car Edee said a string of Ducky "no's", Chicken agreed by repeating.  It's one of the many moments when I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry.

They were both upset about going to the grocery store instead of the Jelly Bean Store, in case you were wondering (Yes, there actually is a Jelly Belly Store nearby with ginormous jellybean sculptures, a trapeze school, and liquid fireworks).  It's hard to make a trip to the grocery store sound cool when they know such a place exists.

Me-Moe Addicts

My kids get addicted to the T.V. between 12-15 months. I wish I was one of those moms who never lets their kids watch T.V., or at least holds off until they are two.... but I'm just not.

 I remember how it went down with Edee--she was just a year old when she got hit with a stomach virus and couldn't keep anything down.  She wouldn't eat or drink anything.  I sat her in front of a movie because it was the only way to keep her still so I could slip a few milliliters of Pedialyte at a times with dropper in her mouth.  She hated the taste so it had to be incremental and as unnoticeable as possible.... a slow, painful process.  We watched quite a few "Edee moo-wees" through that week of sickness. It was around that time that I got pregnant with Chicken, and movie time became a crutch so I could get another nap in.  So it began.

I've been really good at keeping Chicken away from the screen until now (at 15 months).  We slipped one night last month by putting a Santa Baby Einstein DVD in when he got really whiny and I was just spent.  Those DVD's really are evil...they reel young babies in with those ridiculously cute puppets.  Chicken could have cared less about the T.V. before that Baby Einstein DVD.  It was a whole new world for him.  Unfortunately a whole new world for me, too.

Now, along with the words "Up", "ME!" (please or "I want"), "No", "Yeah", "More", "Bye-Bye", "Nigh-Nigh","Mommy", and "Daddy"; "Me-Moe" (movie) has become a regular in his vocabulary.  I now deal with two kids begging to watch a Me-Moe all throughout the day.  I really try to limit it, so I've been pulling out all the tricks Pinterest has to offer to entertain them, but Me-Moes are so beloved around here that it seems to be all I hear about lately.  

Don't repeat after me.

Edee was playing with some of her "water toys" that we made yesterday in the bathroom sink.  They are just foam sheet cut-outs, which when wet stick to the side of the tub/sink.

Edee:  "Mommy I nee more water!"
Me: "No you don't--look, just dip it in the water, then stick it to the side of the sink.  See?  Dip, and stick.  Dip. Stick.  There you go!"

I didn't realize my error until I hear Edee repeating over and over "Dipstick, dipstick..." as I walked out of the bathroom.  I can only hope that never leaves the house.  Just another unintentional mommy-fail to add to the list.

My Little Ponies

Edee's big Christmas wish was to receive her very own My Little Pony toys.  Santa was notified; Santa (and Grandma) delivered.   Edee was blessed with an abundance of My Little Ponies come Christmas Day.

The Sunday following as we were getting ready for church:

Edee:  "Can I bring My Yittle Ponies to church, peeeeeaaase?  They WON"T poop on the floor.  They won't.  Okay?"

I couldn't argue with that.   Though I admit it wasn't a primary concern I had had.

Handsome

We were getting ready to leave the house to go on errands, and I put a new sweater on Chicken.

Edee:  "OOOOOOoo.  Chicken yooks sooo handsome!"
Me:  "I know, look at him!  You are so handsome buddy!"
Edee:  "Yeah SO handsome.  Like Eric!!"

She's referring to Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, which is currently her favorite movie.  The best part was Daddy's reaction when I told him what she said.  His eyes slightly bugged out of his head and he murmured something about "having no idea that this stuff started so young." Ha ha.

....For a cartoon, I'd say Prince Eric IS pretty handsome :)  That could be my preschool-self talking though!