"Making up" with Lillie

As a mom I am confused, exasperated, perplexed and exhausted! Lillie... the girl who every morning pesters me, bothers me and hounds me to put my make-up on her. She will wriggle and wiggle herself into my lap each and every morning while I apply my make-up and want lipstick, mascara, blush and foundation put on her as well. My 10 minute morning routine has turned into 30 minutes! At the young age of 1 1/2 she is addicted to lotions and moisturizers and knows that Sweet Pea is the scent of my lotion rather than a nickname for her. She has make-up radar and even if she is sitting in the stroller with her back to me she knows when I am applying chapstick and will whip herself around so she can get some.

I say all this as she is sleeping out of pure exhaustion from the biggest and really only tantrum she has ever thrown...NOT wanting to wear my make-up. I thought she would love the idea of me using my black eyeliner to put a little kitty nose and whiskers on her for her Halloween costume. I was sooo proud of myself and excited for coming up with a creative costume that would allow her to wear make-up! So, much to my suprise when this morning I pulled my makeup out to put it on her and she started screaming and crying and going hysterical! Is there any rhyme or reason to this thing called parenting? Not only did she cry but she threw herself on the floor behind the couch, burried her face in her hands and stayed there for a good 10 minutes. When she came out, I innocently asked her if she wanted make-up to which she ran into the bathroom and laid on the floor until she heard me put the make-up back in my room. Much to my dismay instead of looking like a cute little black kitten in her black shirt and pants, she looked more like a toddler experimenting with her goth roots.

Things like this confuse me beyond my mothering comprehension. I am going to blame it on the time change since at 9:30 this morning she was trying to climb into her crib and begging me to read her a book and put her "night night". Still, a handbook would be nice in situations like this one...

Problem solved

Parker is in a HUGE dinosaur phase right now. Everything is about T-rex and wanting to know all the facts...What he ate? How tall he was, how much he weighed etc... This morning Parker kept asking me all these random questions which I really had no idea the answer and so I told him so. To which he replied. "Oh, mom it's ok just type in T-rex .com you can find out there.

I know it's ok. Thanks for the reassurance Park. But is it ok that .com is apparently the answer to ALL our problems?!?!?

(oh, and for all you curious folks, www.t-rex.com is not a site about dinosaurs)

Solving the mystery of dissolving...

Parker recently received those little capsules that when you put them in water they turn into little shape sponges (in our case he got dinosaur ones). For the past few days, him and Lillie could be found hovering over a cup of warm water in eager anticipation wondering what the little capsule would turn into. Maybe a T- rex or maybe a prehistoric lizard of some kind. They would be all giddy and sit there waiting the 45-60 seconds it takes for the capsule to dissolve and a dinosaur to appear.

So, this morning after breakfast I hear Lillie in the bathroom under the assumption she was brushing her teeth or something. After a few minutes I don't hear anything (as you know from this blog... silence is always cause for alarm). So I walk down the hall to the bathroom to find her sitting on the floor with a cup of water and her Dora vitamin dissolving into pink mush. She was intently watching and waiting for an apparent dinosaur to come out of her vitamin and to her disappointment all she got was a wet vitamin!

Ode to Summer 2006

I am in mourning over the fact that warm temps are gone and fall/winter is upon us. It was such an awesome, memorable summer and I feel a need to record the memories so I don't forget... This blog entry is really more for me than anyone who reads it (the 2 of you out there). Feel free to just skip over this entry and read the next one. I just need something therapeutic today as I sit here in my fleece hoodie drinking a cup of hot coffee, washing our flannel sheets and missing the comfort of my favorite pink flip flops... (sigh)

Things I will miss, cherish and remember about this past summer (not in any particular order):

1) Going to the pool EVERYDAY (even when the sun wasn't shining). The pool was a blast this summer. Parker was able to go down the slide by himself and he learned to swim so I didn't have to be with him every second. Lillie loved just sitting in the water, surrounded by all her toys and sharing them with every "little person" that came over. Several times we went to the pool even though there was a threat of rain and b/c our pool has a 2 hr weather refund we got our $$ back since it rained an hour after we got there. Then there was the day that we were swimming and all of a sudden it got really dark and it started to pour. We were there with my friend Heather and her 2 girls and they made us go inside. Once we got inside the lights went out and the tornado sirens went off and they made us then take the kids in the hallway and stay there until the storm passed. B/c it all happened so quickly and abruptly the kids were all confused and crying so we raided the vending machine for icecream to calm them down. We were still sitting in the hallway at the community center when the icecream was gone so then we raided our bags for lollipops, goldfish, gummi fruits and anything else edible to eat. I can laugh now but at the time I just wanted to get home.

2)Backyard bums- We had a series of weeks where the kids had viral sicknesses that they couldn't kick. It was not the way I wanted to spend the long hot summer days but we did make the most of it. We set up the pool at home so we could swim here and we caught butterflies and then there was the wolf spider that Parker had in a jar for 2 weeks (that creature was HUGE!). We would go out to the garden and pick peas and cherry tomatoes and eat sooo many that there were none to put in the bucket. We also enjoyed picnics and impromptu tea parties on a quilt and I don't think I have ever made or eaten soooo many icepops. Seriously, I made trays and trays of orange juice and gatorade icepops and we would eat them as soon as they froze. When they were gone we would take out the snowcone machine and make juice slushies and eat them all afternoon! SOOO YUMMY!

3)Watermelon overdose- I lost count but I know for sure we ate at least 13 seedless watermelons this summer and that's not counting the ones that Trev grew. We ate them as a meal, as a snack, in our smoothies... we couldn't get enough watermelon. I even tried to freeze them to see if they were any good frozen (ick! I don't advise it) They were a staple in our house like bread and milk but instead we had watermelon and ice...

4)Disney World- I mean, what can i say it was Disney?!?! Of course it was awesome. We were there with my inlaws and sister in laws and their families and I don't think a day has gone by since our trip back in June that I haven't thought about how much fun we had and what a great time it was for us as a family. Everything from the airport to the house we stayed in to Disney to the parks... it was all new, exciting and adventurous for the kids. It was amazing and wonderful to see it all through their eyes...

5)Jeep Power wheels- Sounds funny but it may be my favorite toy the kids have and the most useful. The people next door threw away one of those $300 Jeep Powerwheels when they moved out. I used to look at them in the store and think "Are they kidding? 300 bucks for a toy and it's just going to break or my kids do not need to be over indulged with a toy like that!" Now I look at them and think" That's still a pricey toy but it very well could be the best $300 a parent can spend." We took it out of the garbage and wouldn't ya know all it needed was a battery charger. $19.97 later and the kids had the coolest ride on the block. Parker rode Lillie around in that car everyday until the battery died out and needed recharging. She would just sit there as he reversed, drove in circles, went down little hills... it was sooo cute and the best babysitter a mom could ask for. I mowed our entire yard while he drove around and raced me, I washed my windows, picked weeds, did my gardening, painted furniture... all while they rode in the jeep around the house. I'm not ready to stash it away for winter quite yet. I am thinking on cold days, they can still bundle up and take rides. However, nothing beats riding in a jeep thru a sprinkler on a HOT day!

Of course there are a million other things I can write about. Catching frogs and Lillie trying to kiss them, the stray dog that came to stay and ate anything I gave it including peanut butter sandwiches, watermelon, and left over chili, thunderstorms that had us all awake at 2 am and hanging out in the livingroom until they passed, chasing after a jr higher at the pool who stole Lillie's pool toys and then tried to throw them away in the garbage and deny the whole thing, going to all 6 playgrounds this KY county has and being chased by 2 wild dogs at one, trying to get a pound of sand out of Parker's eyes with my water bottle that was almost empty at another, taking early morning runs before the temp hit 95 and the humidity 100% and trying to be polite to the old man who stopped to talk to us every morning but finding it hard to concentrate when i was overheated, sweating like a pig and out of breath , following the garbage truck and then having the garbage man recognize me in the post office as "the crazy mom who follows garbage trucks", reading a book about snakes to Parker and telling him we probably don't have any here and then finding 2 that week while out on our runs, climbing in the kiddie pool with the kids one day when it was so hot I thought I was going to overheat (and wouldn't you know the meter reader guy shows up in our yard that day!)...

I LOVE summer! I LOVE my kids! I LOVE my husband who works long hard hours so that I can have all these memories and be able to share in every second of everyday with my children! I LOVE my God who has blessed me more abunduntly than I could have ever dreamed or imagined! I resolve right now to embrace these next few cold months and make memories for me and the kids even if they do not include suntan lotion, water slides or snowcones!

I didn't get the memo

This morning while making my bed I overhear Parker on the monitor go into Lillie's room and say good morning to her. I then hear him ask her if he can join her in her crib (to which she must have nodded yes),and hear him climb in. After a few minutes I don't hear much so I go into Lillie's room to check on them. Parker had made a tent with a blanket over the crib and they were sitting under it. When I asked them what they were doing Parker tells me, "Oh, we're just having an important meeting. Do you want to come in too?" When I asked him what the meeting was about his answer, "It's just a meeting about Lillie and about me... oh and about you too."

Maybe I should have joined them. Trev always tells me spontaneous early in the morning meetings are never good. Usually its to report bad news. So far I still have my job but it's also only lunchtime.

Brain-iac

Last night after saying something profound and insightful for a 4 year old I said to Parker, "WOW Park! That was soooo smart!" To which he replied,

"Yeah it's my brain. It thinks smart things sometimes."

Taking a lesson from my son

Lillie has been quite the pesky little sister lately. The second she gets out of her bed in the morning she runs (not walks) to Parker's room, goes straight for his toys and basically causes mass destruction. We have sat her down over and over again and explained to her that she cannot destroy Parker's lego creations and block towers and we have had to apologize profusely to Parker for his lil' sis's antics. This morning was no exception. The minute she stepped foot into his room she tore apart the cool airplane Parker had made from his blocks. As angry and upset as he was, he didn't do anything violent and said rather calmly to her thru his tears, "Lillie! I am mad. You messed my plane!" She right away came running over trying to kiss him to make it all better.

As I put him to bed this evening I told him how proud I was for not yelling at Lillie or hitting her when she messed up his room. Disclaimer: It's not always like this. Sometimes he gets quite angry and raises his voice at her but this morning he was extra patient. He was quiet and listened and nodded his head while I praised him and then says to me, " Lillie is so cute Mom. I wanted to get really really angry but she is the cutest girl in the whole wide world."

Yet, another glimpse into his gentle and tender spirit. God is doing something in his little life. We're not sure exactly what but we see it unfolding more and more each day. I know that just being around him, I am learning to forgive more easily and never to hold a grudge.

Colossians 3:12
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Sweet Dreams

While sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office:

Parker: "Last night I had some dreams."
Trev: "Oh yeah? What did you dream about?"
Parker: "Golf."
Another Dad in the waiting room: " Yup, we all dream about playing golf...just like Tiger Woods"