Favorite Expressions from a Five-Year Old

I haven't been as good at documenting my favorite sayings from my youngest child, as I have with my first born. Isn't that always the way of things? My mom, after all, cannot find her photo album of my baby pictures, and I'm the third child.

And so, here are some of my favorites...

1. Mama, I'm listening to yu-zick (music).
2. Can you warm up my feety-feet and piglets? (feet and toes).
3. I have an ouch-y (ouwee).
4. Itchy mama, itchy (when clothes are too small)
5. DADDYYYYY, Bring mama her coffee! (When I'm still in bed)
6. Mama 4 more minutes okay? Then I can come in and snuggle wif' you. (At bedtime)
7. Do I have school today? No? Then I'm staying in my pajamas.
8. Do I have bow-yay? (ballet).
9. Look daddy, a noogie caw! (Smart Car - no one knows where she got that name).
10. I miss Tico (Tico was what Lily nicknamed Assante, our dog. We put her down a few weeks ago).

My princess

Kids Say the Darndest Things

My little Lady Bird, the 4-year old, comes pattering into my room one morning at some ungodly hour to snuggle. She nestles in close to me and then says, I brought my bunny to snuggle wif' us. I named her Valentine, cuz she has a heart on. I tried not to laugh because she is at that stage where she is extremely sensitive to ANYONE laughing at her. So I asked her to repeat it. Why did you name her Valentine? Because, she says, she has a heart on her. Oh, I say. A heart on her. (On her tummy, to be precise).

Lady Bird with Cujo

This evening, she earned two smiley face stickers on her chart for sharing her leap frog game with her sister. After adding her stickers, she asked for her pencil to write her "support". I watched her as she began to scribble a couple of lines with her pencil on her chart within the small box just above the sticker. That's her support. I have no idea what she thinks it means, but I believe she says it because it sounds important!

Renewal

I just got the first Anthropologie catalog for 2012 and it said "Renewal" on the cover and featured a beautiful, young, vibrant woman surrounded by nature. Her hair is blowing in the wind, she's wearing tight fitting capri's and a grey knit sweater.
She embodies everything to me that doesn't need renewal. She's young - doesn't need new boosts of collagen to appear more youthful. She looks well rested, NOT sleep deprived and in need of caffeine in copious amounts. AND, judging from her figure, she doesn't have an addiction to chocolate.

Yet the entire setting is so believable, I suppose we'd all like to renew ourselves by shopping at Anthropologie if we can believe we'd feel as good as she looks.

Having just endured a third night in a row of little sleep to the point where 7:00 a.m. is a painful wake up time, I've done what every frazzled mom would do. Find ways to cope. I had to get Elle ready to walk to ballet, drive Lily to the pediatrician and Paul left early for a regatta so it was a solo-deal for me. I have had 5 shots of espresso and about five chocolate kisses + 1 kinder schokolade (from Torsten) and 1 Emergen-C to ensure I don't get sick. Perfect diet of champions, especially for those of us who need about 24 hours of solid sleep to rejuvenate.

In order to survive this year, I have not made any new years resolutions to add extra pressure. However, I hope my 1-year old has made hers – to sleep through the night for the next 11 3/4 months.

Rejuvenating - Sleep!

Then I'll finally look like new, talk like new, and might even try to be a yummie mummie for my 2013 resolution!

Blue Steel or Magnum?

Parenting has it's joys AND challenges. Especially when you have dark circles under your eyes from sleepless nights due to nights of gas or night mares or... who knows why they won't go to sleep.

But here's the beauty of 4. One book on childhood development says that my child is so happy to communicate at this age, that she will be testing all of the boundaries and will become extremely difficult. Great. The book further explains that I'm supposed to embrace it, not fight it, in order to make MY life easier. Yeah, right. I get the pouty look, fainting princess frown and scrunched face when Ms. obstinant is working me over. And my least favorite is when she mirrors what I say and scolds ME with a consequence in response to my warning.

The baby can't express herself so we have another host of issues (mostly in the form of emotional bursts when things don't go her way). Her latest expression reminds me of Ben Stiller in Zoolander - but I can't recall if it's Blue Steel or Magnum. Anyone?

Sometimes BEFORE she does something questionable, she looks at me and frowns, expecting me to say no or grab her before she puts herself in danger.
The looks are priceless and, although it's a daily double on attitude, boy are these two monkeys (well, one monkey and one lady-bug, I'm told) adorable.

Just one more book, pleasssse?

Don't you dare take my toothbrush.

Blue Steel Expression (Zoolander)

French or Chinese?

My daughter is learning French at the very young age of 4 and she now believes she can speak other languages including German, Spanish, "Jewish" and Chinese fluently. Why? Just because she's 4 and, at that age, they still believe they are the best at everything. Although, not everyone out-grows this philosophy.

Tonight she asked me if we could play restaurant. So I said yes and she took my food order. To be funny, I ordered "poop cookies" (which are the animal cookies from Safeway and were incentives for her to go #2 in the potty). These are now their branded name in our household. My "fluent in Chinese" waitress told me that poop cookie in Chinese is Clish. She left and went to her kitchen, then came back to give me pretend "clish".

Next on the menu? Poop-things (Another incentive, tic tacs, which she pronounces poop-sings).

Storytime

This evening I was reading a story to my darlings as they were perched on my lap. The eldest was trying to get comfortable on one leg, complaining that it was too soft, while the baby, on my other leg, was pushing the open book with her feet and covering the words as I was trying to read them. Then the other one grabbed the baby's legs, and was moving around again trying to get comfortable on mama's 'soft and squishy' leg. I can't imagine life any other way - squishy mama bathing them, reading to them and putting them to bed (with skinny dad).
How frazzled I feel. I'm a frumpy Grump and tired. And soft in the middle. But I enjoy every tired moment reading to my two peanuts. Mom-hood is such a wonderful thing.

Hey Hey, We're the Monkeys!