Caroline is tromping happily about in red sparkly shoes with kitten heels, calling "Hoohhnneeeee?" She is calling Layla. The two of them like to play Mommy and Baby, and Caroline is the mommy and calls her baby "honey". Layla likes a chance to be the baby, I think. They also like to play Mama Kitty and Baby Kitty. oh my goodness.
Another one of the things Caroline says that I love is, "Oh, fine." She says this in all sorts of inflections, from cheerful agreement, to reluctant acquiescence. So sometimes it's chirpy - "Oh, fine!!" (smiley and quick) and sometimes it's "Ohhhhh, fiiiiiinnnee" (slumped shoulders, dragging feet).
I am loving summer and it's lazy days. It's properly hot and the kids spend plenty of time thrashing happily around in the pool in the back yard. Yesterday I was hanging up clothes on the line and listening to my three boys and three neighbor boys playing so boisterously and boyishly in the water that it made my heart smile. They were so intensely being action figures and involved in their game, and I just loved them for it.
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Disney Memories
Israel: (flatly, while watching his fourth night of Disney fireworks) I am not amazed.
Aubrey: (animatedly, while watching the same fireworks) I feel SO SORRY for all the people who are NOT watching this!!!
Layla: (handing me a shirt to turn right-side out) I know it's long sleeves, but I want to wear it anyways because it looks cool. Sometimes I want to look pretty and sometimes I want to look cool. When I want to look cool I put on my black sparkly shirt and my black sparkly pants and my black sparkly boots and I get my pink purse and I put my phone in my purse. And then I look really cool.
Aubrey: (who loves Caroline, and stuck closely to her side, conspiratorially to me while I was getting Caroline dressed) I am good at helping Caroline. I bet you are glad we are staying in the same room since I am so good at helping. (I was indeed. ;) )
Aubrey: (with innocent relish as we were leaving for Magic Kingdom) I think I know a little bit more about Disney than you...because I saw Disney on ice...just a little bit more...I think. (trailed off a little uncertainly)
Layla: Mom, can I have a golden? (A rolo from her "treasure bag" after a St. Patrick's Day activity arranged by Melody.)
Memories:
The warm soft air, the perfect temperature of pool water, the music playing from the speakers, the palm trees blowing in the breeze. I was immediately over winter and full on ready for summer.
Caroline's delighted chatter on the rides at Magic Kingdom.
Layla being in a surly funk almost the entire day after looking forward to Disney for an entire year. The combo of walking, heat, tiredness, and over-stimulation was just decidedly NOT her friend. She has eagerly anticipated Disney for an entire year, but the reality was TOO MUCH for her. Her favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear, and she chose a Little Mermaid necklace and matching clip-on earrings as souvenirs.
Aubrey: (animatedly, while watching the same fireworks) I feel SO SORRY for all the people who are NOT watching this!!!
Layla: (handing me a shirt to turn right-side out) I know it's long sleeves, but I want to wear it anyways because it looks cool. Sometimes I want to look pretty and sometimes I want to look cool. When I want to look cool I put on my black sparkly shirt and my black sparkly pants and my black sparkly boots and I get my pink purse and I put my phone in my purse. And then I look really cool.
Aubrey: (who loves Caroline, and stuck closely to her side, conspiratorially to me while I was getting Caroline dressed) I am good at helping Caroline. I bet you are glad we are staying in the same room since I am so good at helping. (I was indeed. ;) )
Aubrey: (with innocent relish as we were leaving for Magic Kingdom) I think I know a little bit more about Disney than you...because I saw Disney on ice...just a little bit more...I think. (trailed off a little uncertainly)
Layla: Mom, can I have a golden? (A rolo from her "treasure bag" after a St. Patrick's Day activity arranged by Melody.)
Memories:
The warm soft air, the perfect temperature of pool water, the music playing from the speakers, the palm trees blowing in the breeze. I was immediately over winter and full on ready for summer.
Caroline's delighted chatter on the rides at Magic Kingdom.
Layla being in a surly funk almost the entire day after looking forward to Disney for an entire year. The combo of walking, heat, tiredness, and over-stimulation was just decidedly NOT her friend. She has eagerly anticipated Disney for an entire year, but the reality was TOO MUCH for her. Her favorite ride was Buzz Lightyear, and she chose a Little Mermaid necklace and matching clip-on earrings as souvenirs.
Two bonuses today:
1. No school, so I got to sleep in!!
2. Woke up to a surprise snow, with snow still falling in big flakes for a large part of the day.
I went out and measured a little while before it stopped and it was 3 1/2 inches on the road.
The kids woke up and played video games, and then out to play in the snow. The boys played hide and seek, the girls took a long bath and played in the water, we lit the pellet stove, and I happily spent the day straightening up from the weekend.
Zion, showing me a knit hackeysack ball whose little styrofoam balls had spilled out through a leak before he taped it shut. "Mom, I wish this could grow back together. (Pause.) And I wish that gardens could grow in the winter. (Pause.) And I wish that when it was snowing, we could pray and ask for God to make it warm, and He would make it warm and the snow wouldn't melt."
*********
Zion: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Layla: To get her eggs?
Zion: (pause) Because the farmer had all the eggs and she wanted to find out which one was hers...ehhh heh heh heh!!!
Mother in front seat: forehead wrinkle
Zion: Knock knock
Layla: Who's there?
Zion: You
Layla: You who?
Zion: It's fun - it's a joke.
Layla: appreciative laugh
Mother in front seat: confused blink
The evolving of a child's sense of humor is a mysterious thing. Especially knock knock jokes. What. At certain ages, all of my kids over the years have roared with laughter at knock knock jokes that...just...they're just not getting the point yet.
************
I had a really fun day yesterday. Zion had a doctor's appointment in Brooklyn, NY to consult with a doctor there regarding some lingering effects that strep has had on him. I had never been to NYC before this, and to me, Brooklyn classifies as close enough! :) We left a little before 8 in the morning to get there for our 12:00 appointment, and drove in through a section that was obviously a ethnically chinese area, with blocks and blocks of stores with signs in Chinese, to get to the area where we wanted to go, which was a doctor's office in an orthodox Jew area, I loved seeing all of the cultural dynamics, all the people around, and was fascinated with what it's like to drive in a place where cars are double parked everywhere on the street. It was an issue finding a place to park, and after several tries and some helpful people, I successfully manuvered our little car into a little tiny parking spot, fed the parking meter, and Zion and I took off for our appointment with a very nice doctor a few blocks away.
When we returned to our car, Zion wanted to check out a comic book and video game store on the street next to us, because...obviously. :D He got some souvenir Pokemon cards and promptly divided them in half and gave me half to play a game he made up using points on the cards.
1. No school, so I got to sleep in!!
2. Woke up to a surprise snow, with snow still falling in big flakes for a large part of the day.
I went out and measured a little while before it stopped and it was 3 1/2 inches on the road.
The kids woke up and played video games, and then out to play in the snow. The boys played hide and seek, the girls took a long bath and played in the water, we lit the pellet stove, and I happily spent the day straightening up from the weekend.
Zion, showing me a knit hackeysack ball whose little styrofoam balls had spilled out through a leak before he taped it shut. "Mom, I wish this could grow back together. (Pause.) And I wish that gardens could grow in the winter. (Pause.) And I wish that when it was snowing, we could pray and ask for God to make it warm, and He would make it warm and the snow wouldn't melt."
*********
Zion: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Layla: To get her eggs?
Zion: (pause) Because the farmer had all the eggs and she wanted to find out which one was hers...ehhh heh heh heh!!!
Mother in front seat: forehead wrinkle
Zion: Knock knock
Layla: Who's there?
Zion: You
Layla: You who?
Zion: It's fun - it's a joke.
Layla: appreciative laugh
Mother in front seat: confused blink
The evolving of a child's sense of humor is a mysterious thing. Especially knock knock jokes. What. At certain ages, all of my kids over the years have roared with laughter at knock knock jokes that...just...they're just not getting the point yet.
************
I had a really fun day yesterday. Zion had a doctor's appointment in Brooklyn, NY to consult with a doctor there regarding some lingering effects that strep has had on him. I had never been to NYC before this, and to me, Brooklyn classifies as close enough! :) We left a little before 8 in the morning to get there for our 12:00 appointment, and drove in through a section that was obviously a ethnically chinese area, with blocks and blocks of stores with signs in Chinese, to get to the area where we wanted to go, which was a doctor's office in an orthodox Jew area, I loved seeing all of the cultural dynamics, all the people around, and was fascinated with what it's like to drive in a place where cars are double parked everywhere on the street. It was an issue finding a place to park, and after several tries and some helpful people, I successfully manuvered our little car into a little tiny parking spot, fed the parking meter, and Zion and I took off for our appointment with a very nice doctor a few blocks away.
When we returned to our car, Zion wanted to check out a comic book and video game store on the street next to us, because...obviously. :D He got some souvenir Pokemon cards and promptly divided them in half and gave me half to play a game he made up using points on the cards.
Simple Pleasures
Burying my nose in a soft two year old's neck as she affectionately hugs my head, and giving it a smooch.
A two hour fog delay on a morning after a night I've been up a lot with a child.
A fire in the pellet stove on a cold day.
Teva flipflops, fuzzy pants, and and my warm bathrobe.
Age nine, with a face sprinkled with freckles, soft thick hair, and a wide smile.
The pure beauty of age four, with spiraling curls, perfect skin, bright eyes, squeezy limbs, and belly laughs.
A perfectly mixed cup of hot good coffee when you are thirsty for it.
The narrow window between the last "Mooooooommm!!!" from the kid's room and where weariness starts to lay heavy on my limbs, where I can sit on the couch and eat food and watch Netflix all to my very own self.
A big cup of cold iced tea when I'm thirsty.
A two hour fog delay on a morning after a night I've been up a lot with a child.
A fire in the pellet stove on a cold day.
Teva flipflops, fuzzy pants, and and my warm bathrobe.
Age nine, with a face sprinkled with freckles, soft thick hair, and a wide smile.
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