Holiday Portraits Are Up!

Hmmm. Which one should I send to all our family and friends? Place your vote! 1, 2, or 3!

She Sees You When You're Sleeping

I caught Lexi's cold and feel just plain blah. Rayna was napping in the crib, Lexi on the computer playing a trivia game, and Mia was watching tv next to me on the couch. I dozed off for maybe 15 minutes or so, and woke up to see Mia standing on the back railing of the couch over my head. She looks down at me and goes, "Shh Mom, don't look at me. Just close your eyes." Yeah, because that's what I'm going to do after seeing you balancing on a couch railing high above my head.

I obviously wake up fully and say, "Mia, get down, you'll get booboos!" Mia replies with, "Mommmm just don't look! Look, watch tv," and points to the tv. I say more sternly, "Mia, get down." Mia says, "But Mommm, I made it safe. Look, I'll land on the elephant over there. I made it safe." Anytime a kid says, "I'll land over there" is a big clue that they won't land over there and it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Kid's gonna give me a heart attack. That'll teach me for dozing off on the couch again anytime soon!

Really?

This is what happens when you send your husband to the grocery store.  Maybe this makes him qualify as one of the stinkers too. I'll have to do a Meet the Stinkers profile for him next.

Scary Monsters

Bragging Moment

As you may or may not have read in my Meet the Stinkers post, Rayna has a history of drawing on the walls. At first her drawings were random scribbles. I would get extremely mad, as most parents would, and yell, "RAYNA MAKENZIE!!!", dragging out the middle name, as most parents would, and Rayna would throw part of the evidence (usually a marker or crayon, but sometimes a permanent marker or pen) across the room and then run screaming and crying like her world came to and end and hide in the hallway closet.

Then somehow, overnight, things changed, and talents evolved. I caught Rayna scribbling on my bedroom walls, and started to yell, and she did the whole toss and run routine yet again. This time my husband came running to catch her in the act as well, being that he was sick of staying up late each night to paint over any new drawings, and he paused, then said, "I know you're mad, but look at what she drew...She actually DREW something!" She had drawn smiley faces all over the wall.

To many people this would seem like no big deal, but to anyone that remembers the repetitive drawings their children would hand them proudly to put on the fridge when they were toddlers, or the millions of trees that were chopped down the year their children were in preschool/VPK to support the need for a backpack full of drawings sent home each day, this would seem like quite the opposite. A 2-year-old usually draws random scribbles. A 4-year-old usually draws random scribbles in the shape of a circle and calls it a dog.

So instead of freaking out and banning all coloring and drawing utensils from the house, as I often thought of doing, we gave her a notepad and pen, and sat with her on the couch. She just went to town drawing, and telling us what she drew. We couldn't believe it. Her drawings actually looked like what she was trying to draw! Since I'm still stick-figuring it up, she must've inherited the artistic talent from her father and his mother (whom she calls Daddy, and NayNay).

And this abruptly concludes my bragging moment.

 

Mommy and Baby Monster

 

 

Mickey Mouse x 4

Moms Can Be Shallow Too

Mia and Rayna were fighting over who got to have their lunchable handed to them first. The argument was getting pretty intense as I peeled open the lid, with lots of screaming and "Me first!!!"s.

Then Rayna turns to me in a panic and yells, "Mommy! You're bootiful!!!!!"

Guess who won? :)

The Amazing Potty

I only have one child left in diapers, and she'll be 3 in February, so I think it's time to start pushing her to use the potty a little bit more. She's definitely interested in the act of "peeping" in the potty, as she calls it.

Mia still needs a little help when she's on the potty, especially after number 2, so I hear from a distance, "Mom, I need your helllllppppp!" I say, "With that Mia?" Mia yells, "I POOPED!!!!"

An excited Rayna goes running towards the bathroom, pushing me out of the way and tripping along the way, uttering over and over again, "Let me see it, let me see it, let me see it." Rayna beats me to the bathroom, so she can get a frontline seat to this potty training action.

Mia stands up and while I'm wiping her, I notice Rayna's face is getting awfully close to the toilet bowl. I say, "Rayna, what are you doing?"

Rayna responds, "I see it! I see it!" and rushes to flush the toilet. Mia used to get mad when Rayna would flush the potty for her, arguing that that was her favorite part and Rayna ruined it for her (with me replying that it would happen again tomorrow and she'd have many other chances to flush), but now I think she's gotten lazy and almost relies on Rayna's bathroom attendance.

The best part is after they wash their hands, Mia yells, "HIGH FIVE!" like it was a team effort on their part, and they both high five and walk happily out of the bathroom.