TSW?T: Back-to-School Style

They Said What? Tuesday:  Volume 18

My 3-year-old daughter...

"Can I have some more of those Tinkle chips?"

...you may be thinking this sounds like some type of potty training reward, but you, unfortunately, be wrong.  My daughter was simply talking about...

Clearly, she has not been around these delicious morsels nearly enough.  I have somehow failed her as a mother, and seek to rectify this wrong by keeping a steady supply of them in the house.  That I will probably consume myself.

My 5-year-old son...

"Maybe they will just take my tongue out and give me a new tongue!"
...his prediction, as we arrived at the doctor's office, for what might happen after he gets the bump on his tongue checked out.  Oddly enough, he had a huge smile on his face as he rattled this statement off.


And a little "back-to-school special" for your reading pleasure


My 3-year-old daughter...

"I'm going to have a sleepover with Miss Julie and Miss Deb!"
...telling her brother's teacher about starting preschool.  She somehow has gotten the idea that when she goes to Open House, she will be having a sleepover with her teachers.  I hope the time to play in the kitchen area and the sticker she gets for her shirt won't disappoint too much!

My 5-year-old son...


"Mom, can Mrs. K read?"
...while getting school supplies at Meijer.  He was choosing lemon-scented cleaning wipes, and wanted to be able to 'trick the kids' because they will smell like lemon instead of just 'cleaner.'

"What bus does Mrs. K drive?"
...during our conversation about getting on the bus and where it will pick him up and drop him off.

My favorite part of both of these quotes is that Mrs. K is his classroom teacher, who he already adores.  I can't imagine just how amazed he'll be at all the READING she can do, but that may be balanced out by the fact that while she is educating and caring for him all day everyday, she is not also DRIVING him to and from school on the bus.

Oh, how I love how the 5-year-old mind works!  Seeing school through his eyes for the very first time has been refreshing, funny and eye-opening all at the same time.
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No matter what they say, You Are a Good Mom.

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"Parent"dox: 'Bee' Tough

Sunday Night "Parent"dox #21:  'Bee' Tough

My daughter is very good at a lot of things.  

She loves to dance.  She has an infectious laugh and smile.  She rides her "big girl bike" like nobody's business.

But perhaps what she is best at is whining.

She has, without a doubt, mastered this skill.  She is a blue ribbon, first class, black belt whiner. 

Just about anything can set her off.  If she doesn't get the coloring book she wants, we hear about it.  If she gets the toy she wants, but then her brother picks up a different one and she instantly wants that one, we hear about it.  If she bumps into the cushy ottoman while walking through the living room, we hear about it.

I have passed out more Band-Aids to this child than most elementary schools go through in a year.  Nearly all of them are for "boo boo's" that have long been healed, or sometimes, don't even exist.

I love her dearly, I really do.  

She is just a champion whiner.

But here's the "parent"dox...my whiniest child is also by far my absolute toughest child.

This weekend, we experienced our first bee sting.  Considering we are 8 "kid years" (a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old) into this parenting gig, I figure it's pretty good odds we've made it this far without a bee sting.  When the sting happened, there was a moment of panic, as we weren't at our own house and I didn't have any Benadryl on me and I had no idea if either of my children were allergic to bees. 

(Thankfully, I know now one of them is not.)

The receiver of the sting was none other than my daughter.  She cried pretty good for about 73 seconds.  We put ice on it, sat on the couch with her and gave her a bite of ice cream, and honestly, that was the end of it.  We didn't hear boo about it from her for the rest of the night or the next day.  

No whining.  No Band-Aid request.  No crying.

Whenever this child has had an injury of any magnitude, she is absolutely, hands down, the toughest kid I know.  She came close to needing stitches in the back of her head, and let the doctor poke and look around like it was no big deal.  She scraped her knee pretty good when she fell running around outside, and was intrigued with how her Dad was cleaning up her wound and putting bandages on it.

Bee sting?  Piece of cake.

Had this been a hangnail, I'd still be hearing about it.

When they whine more than you can imagine; When they are tougher than you can imagine;  You Are a Good Mom.

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Just a Little While Longer

"Ahh!! Look out!  Look out!"

"Planes are going everywhere!   There's a big accident!"

"Ahhh!  Whoa!  Whoa!  Whoa!  Whoa!"

"Dusty Crophopper is coming through!  He's coming up this way!  Dusty Crophopper!"

That is the play by play I can hear coming from my son's bedroom right now.  My daughter is in there with him, and they are zooming their airplanes all over the place, and every once in awhile, crashing into one another.

Their teeth have been brushed, their stories have been read, and their little selves have been tucked in tight.  

They should be in their own rooms, quietly laying in their beds and drifting off to dreamland.

Except they're not.

I should be telling my daughter to go back to her room and telling my son to put the toys away and go to sleep.

Except I'm not.

I'm laying here in my bed.  I'm listening to them create their own imaginary world above the clouds.  I'm taking in an impromptu playtime of them just being brother and sister and actually enjoying one another.  I'm soaking up just one more night of them being 5 and 3.  

These moments will be gone much too soon.  

"Back-to-school" is just around the corner, and with it comes schedule and routine and consistency.  While I am a lover of all things schedule and routine and consistent, I know it also means no more 'extended' bedtimes or my little pilots 'sneaking' out of bed to squeeze in a few more minutes of play with each other.  Once school starts, they'll be passed out at the dinner table if I don't keep them awake with the promise of dessert.  If they do stay awake beyond a scoop of ice cream and their normal bedtime routine, I'll have no choice but to march their little buns to their respective beds when I hear their airplane dialogue begin.  

These moments will be gone much too soon.  

"Back-to-school" will come this year, and next year, and the year after that.  Elementary school will become middle school will become high school.  Before I know it, the toy airplanes will be packed away.  They won't need me to brush their teeth before bed or read them stories.  Sneaking out of bed to talk to their brother or sister will not be something they consider "fun."  All too soon, I'll be laying in bed listening not to their voices exchanging airplane dialogue, but for the sound of their car making it safely into the driveway.  

So just for tonight, just for a little while longer, I'll let them be pilots.  

I'll let them soar and crash and fly and zoom.  

I'll let them think I don't know they're still awake, and I'll listen in on their little world. 

I'll hang on to summer for one more night.  

I'll hang on to them at 5 and 3 for one more night.

"Dusty Crophopper...to the rescue!"

Even when you let them stay up just a few minutes longer than you should, You're a Good Mom. 

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TSW?T: You Need ID to Enter this Spelling Bee

They Said What? Tuesday:  Volume 17

My 3-year-old daughter...

"Mom, you can just start sleeping for me, OK?"

...her request from me as she was having a hard time falling asleep the other night.  

My 5-year-old son...

P:  "When I grow up, I want to go to the b-a-r.  That spells 'bar.' "
Me:  "Um, what does that mean?"  (while trying to not react at all)
P:  "You know...like a chocolate bar!"
Me:  "Huh.  Where did you hear that?"
P:  "On the show."
Me:  "What show?"
P:  "All the shows!"  (laughing...like he is totally making this up as he goes)
...where to even begin with this one?  The teacher in me loves that he is playing with letters and sounds and starting to figure stuff like this out.  The mom in me is terrified he is going to say stuff JUST LIKE THIS when he is at school in 2 short weeks.  Yikes!!
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No matter what they say, You Are a Good Mom.

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"Parent"dox: "Mommy, I Slept All Night!"

Sunday Night "Parent"dox #20:  "Mommy, I Slept All Night!"

C--r--e--a--k...  

The slow opening of a toddler's bedroom door.

Pitter patter, pitter patter.

The soft sound of running toddler feet into my bedroom.

Adorable big, blue eyes peek over the edge of my bed.

"Mommy, I slept all night!"

My 3-year-old daughter is nearly bursting with pride, excitement and joy as she proclaims these words.  She wears them as a badge of honor.  

What words could possibly be any better to start my day?

None.  Absolutely none.

The only thing that could make them better would be...well, if they were actually true.

How can I possibly break her little heart and let her know that no, she did not, indeed, sleep all night?  How can I tell her she didn't achieve the goal she thinks she did?  How can I tell her the truth, which is very different than what she perceives it to be?

(Well, considering I got about 43 minutes of sleep the night before, the task seems somehow easier.  I don't do so well on not so much sleep.)

"Nope, you didn't.  Do you remember crying last night?"  (Blank stare.)  "You were crying and yelling last night."  (Blank stare.)  "Did you have a bad dream?"  (Smile creeps across her face.)  "What was your bad dream about?" (Smile gets a little bigger and more mischievous.)

"Monsters!" 

Oh, if it were that easy.  She didn't really dream about monsters.  I think she thinks we're playing some sort of game, and that is the winning answer.  She'll smile and laugh and have no recollection of any monster or any dream or anything from the previous sleepless night.

Here's the thing...she really does think she slept through the night.  She is convinced she did.  She remembers getting her PJs on. She remembers brushing her teeth.  She remembers going to sleep in her bed.  She knows she just woke up in that same bed.  So what gives?

You see, my daughter has night terrors.  I used to think that name -- night "terror" -- was a completely over-dramatic title for a little bad dream.  That was until I lived with a 3-year-old who had them.  Now I think it is the biggest understatement in the history of the world.  "Night terror" does not do these things justice.  There are absolutely, horribly, dreadfully terrible.  

My daughter will cry and scream and thrash around in her bed, in such a way you'd think she's having an appendage ripped off or something.  And here's the kicker...she's not awake.  Not at all.  And if you make an attempt to wake her up (as I did when these first started...back in November...it just gets worse and lasts longer).  Apparently, they are just something my daughter will outgrow.  Someday.  I'm hoping before she goes to college?  She'll go through 13 roommates her first semester otherwise.

But for now, we are just waiting it out.  Most nights, I end up in her room, rubbing her back or singing softly to her or just laying next to her, but out of her reach.  What helps one night, fails miserably the next.  It's hit or miss like that.  It's unbelievably hard to lay there and not be able to help her.  I'll hear my husband from our bedroom:

"Come back to bed.  She doesn't even know you're in there.  Try to get some sleep."

I know he's right, and I know he's trying to help.  But it still breaks my heart.  She doesn't even know I'm there.  But it breaks my heart even more to lay in the other room and listen to her scream and cry.

The only part that is somewhat comforting is that while she doesn't know I'm there, but that means she also has no idea she's having a night terror.  And she'll have no idea when she wakes up in the morning.  Whatever was causing her to cry and scream and thrash in the middle of the night will be erased from her memory by morning.  

She'll open her bedroom door, run over to my bedroom, look over the bed and proudly proclaim:

"Mommy, I slept all night!"

For now, I just keep waiting for the blissful, rested, consistent mornings when those words are true.

When they think they're sleeping, but they're really not...and neither are you...hang in there.  You Are a Good Mom.

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Looking for a Good Read? A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

I ended up having an extra visitor on our family camping trip this year.  It was so nice that she could join me, especially on such short notice, and  I enjoyed the hours we spent together at the lake, around the camp fire, and on the beach.  I really appreciated her coming along!

(Ok, before you call the police about some crazy delusional woman, let me explain a little bit...)

This was my view for a good portion of the afternoons while on our camping trip.  How I love vacation, and getting to enjoy some of my very favorite things! Sunshine, an inland lake, my adorable kids playing on the beach, a comfy chair...

...and THIS BOOK!!

Yes, this tender, witty, insightful, beautiful book.

It was right up there on the top of my list of favorite things for that week.  

Well, days.  I suppose if I'm being honest, I should say days.  Because I read it in 3 days.

The very best part of this book was Sophie Hudson's warm writing style.  It truly felt like she was sitting right there next to me in a chair on the beach, telling me her family stories.  She has the ability as a writer to pull people in and make them feel like "her people" through the written word. 

After reading her funny, poignant, touching family stories, I felt like I somehow knew her or knew the cherished members of her family.  What an incredible gift she has; to tell a story in such a way that it brings the characters to life.  

I could hear the way Martha talked in how her dialogue was written. I could taste the amazing dishes she prepared for her parents' anniversary party.  I was sitting at the Western Sizzlin and Prayer Meeting and in the car the fateful night of "the toot."  I felt the love and admiration for Sissie from her entire family.

While I loved the entire book, the last chapter left a lasting impression on me.  The perspective on being with family and being "at the table" whenever you can, no matter the distance or no matter feeling needed in other places.  It was written about it in such an eloquent way, and it truly touched my heart.  It made me thankful for my incredibly close family, and thankful for the times we are able to gather together.  It made me realize the importance of being there, and just how quickly the years do go by.  

Summer is getting into that "mid-August" phase none of us really like to talk about.  The days are getting shorter and busier at the same time, which hardly seems fair.  But it is still summer.  If you can squeak out any more summer reading, I highly suggest picking up this book.  

When you feel "right at home" with a book, and like you've been invited in to someone's family through the written word, You're a Good Mom. 

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TSW?T: A Theory of "Rhyme"itivity

They Said What? Tuesday:  Volume 16

My 3-year-old daughter...

"This is a flying shooter.  It shoots farts and poops."

...describing one of the Lego creations she built to me.  She is so prim, proper and lady-like, isn't she??  I hear way more "potty words" from my darling daughter than I do from my son.

"But mom...."
...basically every other sentence out of her mouth lately.  I think she is skipping the "school age" years and heading right into the "teenage years."

"Let's rhyme...FLAMINGO!"
...her suggestion for our next word to rhyme while we were playing a game in the car.  Apparently, her brother's previous choices of "rock" and "frog" and "lay" were too boring.

My 5-year-old son...

"Grandma, I have a theory on how a car accident happened."
...in the car while we were driving to lunch together.  I blame this one on his dad, who taught him the word 'theory' a few weeks ago.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get 'lawyered' by this kid more than once before he moves out of our house.
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No matter what they say, You Are a Good Mom.

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If you haven't already, be sure to stop by and check out the "You're a Good Mom" page on Facebook.  "Like" it and any new blog posts will be delivered right to your news feed!  Thanks!

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