May 2, 2012

School’s Out For Summer

Lily is a university student. That’s right, my 4 year old goes to college.

It sounds really impressive when I put it that way, but in reality she attends a preschool put on through the university to train its early childhood development students. There are so many great things about Lily’s preschool, but there is one major drawback: It’s on the same schedule as the university.

Often staying on the same schedule on the university is really nice. Lily gets the exact same breaks from school as her dad does. If we ever want to take a spring or winter break trip, we don’t have to worry about conflicting schedules like we will when she starts public school.

It’s not so great, however, when college breaks for nearly four months for the summer (or 6 weeks for Christmas if you count finals week and orientation for the student teachers) and Lily’s left without stimulation from school for nearly that whole period of time.

There are summer programs available, but almost all of the start at 8:30 in the morning. Lily WAKES UP at 8:30 in the morning, so making it to a program like that is really difficult for us. Yes, someday she will have to get up for school earlier than that, but we aren’t there yet and I’m a night owl and don’t feel like worrying about it quite yet.

This summer we are left with an endless abyss of no real plans. The new baby is due June 9 and almost every single summer activity available seems to fall around that date. I can’t commit to anything for the entire month of June. I have no idea what our schedule will be like once Violet gets here. So we are stuck.

Maybe having a new baby around will be enough stimulation for Lily? Maybe Lily won’t drive me up the wall this summer? Last summer I signed her up for a bunch of preschool programs through Parks & Rec and we ended up being overscheduled and needing a break. I actually ended up canceling one of her summer camps because we were exhausted (and ridiculously tan) after two weeks of daily swim lessons. This summer, not one.

We’ve already been on break since Thursday. Will we survive this summer? How will I do without a nap in the afternoon at almost 9 months pregnant and later with an infant waking me up all night?

Also, I need to potty train Rose this summer. Will I lose my mind completely?

Stay tuned to find out.

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May 1, 2012

Mom Failure

For two weeks, every time I looked at the calendar, I reminded myself that on Friday the 20th we were going to Lily’s preschool art show. It is one of my favorite events at the preschool and I couldn’t wait to see what Lily made this year. All week long, I would list the things we were doing “On Monday, we have dance. On Tuesday, we’re meeting our friends. On Thursday, Mommy is going to the doctor. On Friday, we have your art show!”

Well, Friday came and I didn’t think of her art show all day. My husband came home from work and we went out to a fancy dinner at Arby’s. On the way home, a friend called us to see if he could come over to play board games. We said sure, but our house was upside down, I hadn’t showered and the kids needed a bath before bed. We rushed home to get our lives in order before our friend walked in the door. Our friend was bringing a date we hadn’t met before, otherwise we might have allowed our true habitat to be seen. Strangers can’t know what slobs we are. Actually, we’d prefer friends not know what slobs we are, but they’ve probably figured it out by now. This friend used to live with Dr. Toy Warden, so he truly knew of our true nature, but it was the date we were trying to impress. Or at least not disgust.

We got the house in order as fast as we could. I showered. Dr. Toy Warden took the kids up for a bath while I vacuumed the FINALLY toy-debris-free floors. While I was vacuuming at 7:15, I looked up at the calendar and saw the words “Lily’s Art Show, 7-8 pm”.

I still don’t know how we could have completely forgotten about it. I’d been reminding us ALL about the show for two weeks, but the day of the actual show I dropped the ball.

I felt like the worst mom on earth! How could I just forget?

Luckily, Lily didn’t mind too much that we were missing her show. In fact, she got out of the tub before her sister so I offered to rush her over to her school. She actually said no! She thought she couldn’t go to the show and see our friend. I told her she could do both, but she just wanted to stay home.

So we did.

I’m sure it’s not the last child event we’ll completely space out, but it’s the first! I hope we can get our act together when we have THREE kids with special activities. I fear blowing off performances and big games. Please let me remember. Apparently the calendar and talking about it constantly was not enough.

Maybe I can get a pregnancy brain pass this time?

Oh well.

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April 30, 2012

A Break From the Ordinary

Life has been so much better since I bought Rose a wardrobe entirely composed of blue dresses. We used to go to battle every single morning when I tried to get her dressed. She’d fight me, kicking and screaming, not wanting to put her clothes on. She wanted to dress like Cinderella every single day and if she couldn’t, she let us know she was unhappy.

Now that she has all blue dresses, she is happy to pick out a blue dress each morning and change into it from her blue nightgown. Mornings are so much more pleasant. The investment in a blue wardrobe was well worth it despite the presence of a completely lovely hand-me-down wardrobe from her big sister. Perhaps this was her ploy to make sure she got clothes unique to her instead of just wearing the things her big sister passed on? Whatever the case, I thought we were cemented in blue for the summer.

Imagine my surprise– half horror, half joy– when Rose ASKED to wear a yellow dress last week. Instead of her usual blue like Cinderella, she wanted to be yellow like Belle. We didn’t even own a yellow dress in 4T, but Lily’s 5T yellow dress fit the bill. Rose was happy. I was astounded to see her in a different color and terrified that she’d demand yellow dresses every day.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. If she wants yellow dresses every day, this girl is stuck. I’m not buying anymore dresses. She has a blue dress wardrobe and whatever else she already owns from her sister.

The next morning I cringed when I asked which dress she wanted to wear. I was so scared she’d say yellow and then throw a fit when I couldn’t comply. We only had ONE yellow dress in the whole house.

Well, she didn’t want a blue dress. She wanted a white dress like a bride. I happily dressed her in one. It was so refreshing to see her in another color. Blue may be her favorite color, but it’s not her best color by far. Some variety would be nice. She matched her Woof Woof for the day.

The next day she wanted to wear a brown dress. Miraculously, I had a brown dress. How many dresses do we have?! I don’t know what inspired brown. There are no brown-dressed princesses… unless she’s thinking about Cinderella in her maid outfit? Hmmmm… I should ask.

Just when I thought we’d broken our blue dress streak (and feared she’d never want to wear one again), she switched back. Phew. But she happily donned a pair of jeans (JEANS!) and a purple shirt when I told her she had to wear clothes that could get REALLY dirty when she helped us garden the other day.

I can’t even get the girl to wear pants or tights under her dresses without a fight usually, so I was thrilled to think that maybe our clothing battles were over. At least we’ve reached a point where I can sometimes rationalize with her WHY she needs to NOT wear a blue dress. The last time I attempted to get her to wear jeans and a shirt, she was moody all day.

Despite the improvement with allowing something as tacky as jeans to touch her highness’s body, the second we finished gardening she asked for another blue dress. And this morning, she came downstairs naked demanding a blue dress.

Until the next color whim strikes, I guess we’re stuck in the blue. That child knows what she wants. At least there is some recent hope for other colors on the horizon. I’d really like to dress this girl in red sometimes.

Thank goodness Lily’s favorite color is “rainbow”.

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April 25, 2012

Evolution of an Engineer

Last year at Lily’s preschool art show, we were amused when we discovered that Lily labeled her creative project as a “decorated cereal box”. All of the other kids were calling their equally unimpressive decorated cereal boxes as things like “food and drink machines” and “bat caves”, but Lily insisted her decorated cereal box was a decorated cereal box.

And it was.

But I was never more sure that she was going to be an engineer than at that moment!

This year, I was very surprised when I saw her art projects and saw THIS explanation next to her “invention”.

WHOA. I guess the future engineer DOES have some creativity in there after all. Perhaps she even has quite a bit of creativity. Although when I pointed out the difference between last year and this year to her preschool teacher, she told me that Lily had originally said she “didn’t know” what her “invention” did. After Lily heard some of the other kids describe their inventions, she came up with this elaborate description. Even engineers need some creativity. I mean, they do invent new machines and stuff, and that’s exactly what our little engineer did here.

Lily's "wall" invention

I’m trying to decide which answer a like better– the run-on sentence “wall” machine or “a decorated cereal box”.

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April 24, 2012

Kids Say: Thank You

Lily *hands Rose a piece of fake food*: Here, my baby. Here’s some chocolate soup. What do you say?

Rose: I say thank you.

Lily *hands Rose another piece of fake food*: Here, my baby. Here’s a strawberry. What do you say?

Rose: I say thank you.

I love that she said “I say” before she said “thank you”!

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April 23, 2012

$10 bear

Dr. Toy Warden runs about 3 miles a day if the weather permits (and sometimes even if it doesn’t). Lily sees him come home from work, put on his running tights or shorts, and race around the block nearly every day. These days when we go for walks with Lily, SHE races around the block. Our block is about 1/2 mile around, so this weekend when a Kids Marathon was offered as part of the pre-race events for Dr. Toy Warden’s half marathon, we signed Lily up to run. We thought she could easily do a 1/2 mile run. There was also a 1/4 mile run available. It was recommended for 2-3 year olds. We thought Rose might want to get in on the action since if you run the race you get a teddy bear, a medal, a backpack and a water bottle. We didn’t want to deal with the repercussions of only one kid getting a teddy bear, so we paid $10 for each kid to run.

Lily didn’t want me to take a pre-race picture.

Rose immediately declared her disdain for her race bib. She refused to let us put it on her. Every time we asked her, she’d scream “NO!” This was probably our first hint that Rose would not be running the race.

Then when we got to the field, we asked Lily if she wanted to run one lap or two. The 1/4 mile race we had wanted to put Rose in was one lap. The 1/2 mile race we thought Lily should do was two laps. Lily is no fool. She knows one lap is easier to run than two. So she said she wanted to run one lap. We were about to have two kids in the 1/4 mile race and I was worried I’d have to “run” with Rose while 8 months pregnant with major hip issues, but when we tried to take Rose out of her stroller, she said no.

"There's no way in hell you are making me get out of this stroller in run when you just gave me a new teddy bear."


Rose would NOT run the race. Or even walk the race. Or even get out of the stroller to watch her SISTER run the race. Basically, we paid $10 so she could get a teddy bear that said “Glass City Marathon” on it. Because there were refreshments at the race, my husband claims we paid $5 for the bear, $3 for a pack of Oreos and $2 for a Capri Sun. I say we paid $10 for the honor of holding a teddy bear faking the fact she ran this race.

Lily DID run the race. She insisted she hold Dr. Toy Warden’s hand for the whole run, because that’s apparently part of running a race.

They ran so fast, I could only get blurry pictures of them! Faster than a speeding of bullet, I tell you!

She ended up doing fairly well for her age I THINK based on the height of the kids finishing when she did. The winners were about a minute before her, but they were some cheating 7 year olds. Why does a 7 year old need to run a 1/4 mile race? What a wimp! ;) Lily finished with a 2:57, toward the front of the main pack of kids.

She immediately told us she was a big girl now because she could run a race. We agree.

One thing is for sure, her $10 entry fee was WAY more worth it than her sister’s!

Maybe next year, Rose. Maybe next year.

I’m a little disappointed that there weren’t t-shirts for the kids, but I guess the $10 teddy bear will have to do.

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April 20, 2012

Do Your Job, Dog

Dear Lumpy,
I don’t understand you. If I leave food on the counter or the table, you eat it. You wait until we’re not looking and eat sausage, cookies, brownies and cereals right off of surfaces that SHOULD be too high up for you to reach. It’s gotten so bad that we’ve had to lock you away when we leave the house, otherwise you will eat something off the counter or out of the garbage.

And yet, if I spill a bowl of popcorn, something I know for a fact you love so much that you will sit there begging for it the entire time I eat it, you won’t eat a bite of it off the floor. I will be left with a mess that will sit there for hours until I give up and realize you aren’t going to eat it.

What point is there of having a dog if he’s not going to clean up your major food spills? You love people food and sneak it constantly unless I actually WANT you to eat it.

WHY, LUMPY, WHY?

If a bowl of cereal or a bunch of popcorn falls the floor, EAT IT. This is how you earn your doggie keep.

Love,
Your adoptive mom

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April 19, 2012

The Most Exciting Thing in the Backyard

We have a fantastic backyard for kids. It’s big and grassy and fenced. It has a swingset with TWO clubhouse areas, three swings and a slide. We have a sandbox, patio set and toddler playhouse. We have an endless supply of bubbles, baseball supplies, soccer balls and footballs. Consider all of this before I tell you what Lily finds to be the MOST exciting activity to do in our backyard. It probably has something to do with the swingset, right? The bubbles?

Nope.

Lily gets hysterically excited whenever her dad starts to pick up dog poop. Dog poop is so exciting that she runs all over the yard with him on a hunt for it. Whenever she find some, she shouts for him and jumps up and down while he comes over with his baggie to clean it up. Whenever he finds something, she screams with joy and comes to watch him pick it up. After the poop has been scooped (or, you know, grabbed with a hand wrapped with a plastic bag), she takes the baggie and throws it gleefully into the pile.

Picking up dog poop is seriously the most fun backyard activity when you are 4 1/2. Yeah, we don’t get it either. Rose also finds the joy of this confusing and spends most of the poop hunt in her swingset tower yelling about how someone needs to save her in her castle.


Lily gave me that thumbs up all by herself to portray what she thought about picking up dog poop: Funnest outdoor activity EVER.

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