Car Conversations

Griffin's car conversations, when they don't drive me absolutely crazy, are the best ever.

Today:

G - "Mommy, why don't I have six fingers?"
Me - "Because humans have five fingers."
G - "But why not six?"
Me - "Evolution. Apparently 5 fingers was the most evolutionary advantageous number of fingers."
G - "But six fingers would be cool."
Me - "Then you'd have to buy new gloves."
G - "Yeah, I guess five is ok."

A few days ago:

G - "Mommy, why is the air up and the street on the bottom?"
Me - "That's a complicated question with a complicated answer. Let's just say it has to do with mass."
G - "What's mass?"
Me - "(sigh) Mass is kinda like weight, the more mass an object has, the more it weighs. Objects that have greater mass attract other objects."
G - "Oh, you mean gravity."
Me - "Well if you knew the answer why did you ask the question?"
G - "Because." (pause) "Gravity keeps us down, right? That's why we don't float into outer space."
Me - "Yes. Exactly."
G - "Can you turn off the gravity?"
Me - "Me personally? No. And well, no one can actually. Gravity is a constant."
G - "(sigh) That's too bad."

Also a few days ago:

G - "Mommy, why didn't your borned a boy baby?"
Me - "Because your sister is a girl and she's the last baby mommy and daddy will have."
G - "But I want another baby."
Me - "Sorry dude, but until you have a partner & the two of you decide to have a child, this baby is the only one you're going to get."
G - "Well you should have had two, I want one to take care of."
Me - "You help me take care of baby sister already."
G - "Moooooom (sigh) that's not the same."
Me - "I know dude, I know."

The Conversationalist

A conversation

P: Mama, I want a snack please.
M: Ok, what do you want? I have pretzels, nuts, apples, and bananas.
P: I want bats.
M: Bats? You mean the things that fly around at night?
P: Yeah, bats are spicy. (giggle)
M: What? Bats are spicy?!
P: (giggle) yeah, and they have claws like this (claw hands) and are like monsters. Bats are spicy monsters. (dissolves into a fit of giggles).
M: You are weird.

Apple - read this post

Apple needs to invent a devise that implants into my brain and allows me to record mental notes for review later.

Get on that now people.

Anyway, I'm trying to remember all the hilarious things my kids have said/done lately. Let's go child by child, shall we?

Griffin:
He's been talking a lot more - whenever Sissy lets him. His verbal vocabulary is well over 20 words. One of his favorite words is "fart" and he laughs hysterically and screams it. Holy hell is he ever a boy. He's also started saying "I love you" which comes out as "Uh-V Ooo". He demands hugs, loves making train noises, and over pronounces the ending consonants of words. Example: milk is iLKKKKKKK, dog is daaKKKKKKKK, and fart is faaaaaTTTTTTT.

He's also now jumping and actually making it off the ground. He's also doing somersaults, climbing on everything, and is obsessed with everyone's potty habits.

His sleep is... meh. Not nearly as bad as the week of Sleep Suck, but still not where I would love it to be. We'll get there.

Penelope:
The child never STOPS talking. A lot of it is hilarious.

Like when she chased Griffin around demanding "true love's first kiss". Or when she pointed to a picture of a little boy on a toy box and said "look, that was me when I used to be a boy!" Or "Mama, when I was baby Penelope I lived in your belly and ate your belly button" (I have no idea where she got that). Or "No! I'm your husband!" (Bryan and I were snuggling on the couch and she wanted to snuggle with me).

She's also a liar. She doesn't consciously lie, but she'll make up answers if she doesn't know the right one. And she's a fake crier. Ah, our little drama queen. THAT will be fun when she's a teenager.

How you know...

So, how do you know when your toddler has seen "The Little Mermaid" too many times?

When you're out to eat and the first thing she does upon sitting down at the table is exclaim "Look Mommy, a dinglehopper!" and the proceed to comb her hair with a fork.

Also overheard today:

"Hi, my name is Penelope and that is my mommy Jessica and I am two. What's your name?"

AND

"Mama, you're big and daddy is big but Bubby is little. (pause) And I'm little too"

Nice to meet you!

Pen's new trick is to ask to shake your hand. She then says "Nice to meet you!" Then she has you shake Woody's hand.

Over. And over. And over again.

It is HILARIOUS.

Tomorrow we take family pics. I'm not sure when I'll have finished products to share. We will get a CD of pictures so I'll be able to post quite a few on the blog.

Also? Molar #2 is peeking through. So we're up to 10 teeth. Neither molar is completely out, that will probably take a week or so at least. Possibly longer. Molars are the WORST (IMO) and it sucks that there's so many of them (well, for teething purposes, not for actual eating purposes).

Speaking of eating, we have discovered that Griffin loves bacon. So Penelope and I will be the vegetarians in the family and Bryan and Griffin can go on wild boar hunts or some other such nonsense.

Lasagne with half the noodles

Today has been productive. I finished the major edits of my Thesis, it's currently out for proof reading, and will turn it in Saturday at the latest. I also assembled a new walker-thing for Griffin (see video), did laundry, wrote 3 blog posts, and made lasagna (from scratch) for dinner.

Only I only had 5 lasagna noodles. I need 9. Noodles are like the spine of a lasagna. They are essential to the process. I don't know if I can technically call what I made a lasagna. Haven't tasted it yet... so we'll see.

G is experimenting with walking. So far the results are positive. He books with his mail-walker-thingy and took 2 naps today, one for TWO whole hours. So maybe walking will help him sleep. I also picked up some children's Calms Forte today. It's a homeopathic sleep aid.

So onto the video (which, if you're viewing this on Facebook you won't be able to see, so click here to come to the blog).



Also? Penelope said this today:

Mommy: Here, let me fix your hair. (put's Poe's hair into a rather messy pony). There.
Penelope: (looking at herself in the mirror) I'm a GIRL!
M: Uh, yeah.
----
Penelope: I have tiger blood, I'm winning!
----
Penelope: (holding up a balloon inflator-thing) Look, it's Buzz's spaceship!
---
Penelope: (drops a toy) Oh Monkeys!

Also? She's been saying "oh crap" lately. She didn't get that from me. I say "Oh Monkeys" or "Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln" (thanks Jessie doll). So whoever is cursing around my child needs to stop.

Funny things kids say

Leia is a motor mouth. Most of the time she talks just to hear the sound of her own voice. Maybe she'll go into politics.

Some of the things she says are funny. Mostly they're just funny to us. Often times it's a "you had to be there" kind of a thing.

But I want to record some anyway, because I'm her mother and it's my blog.

Sunday Vader got a new hat (Twins, his new AL team - the Giants are still his NL team). Anyway, every time she saw the hat she would say "Nice hat Daddy!" and then, because she felt the need to compliment me as well, she would turn to me and say "nice glass-eyes Mommy!" (she calls glasses glass-eyes. how literal of her). When bath-time rolled around and Vader was seen without his new hat she asked him "where's your hat Daddy?"

Today, after nap. "Mommy, look at me!" she then proceeds to run around the living room babbling in her unknown silly language.

She now calls Luke "Chewbaca"

She also unfailingly polite, after I fix her hair, or give her lunch/snack, or really do anything she says "thank you Mommy!"

She's also taken to handing out compliments in general. Whenever I dress in front of her or put on a hat or necklace she comes up to me and says "you're beautiful Mommy!"

I love her. Love.

Conversations and Imagination

I've been having conversations with my children since they were in utero (respectively). These conversations have been mostly one-sided, and any response on their part was mostly babble or in pre-speak (which sounds a lot like gibberish). After awhile you get rather adept at translating toddler-speak, so Poe and I have had many conversations in the past few months that have been quite fulfilling and incredibly amusing. Lately her lexicon and enunciation has markedly improved and we can have quite lengthy conversations about everything she sees... which is a lot.

Here are snippets of today's conversations.

P: Mommy, sing "Dinosaur Train" song please.
M: Really?
P: Yes please.
M: *sigh* ok. *sings DT song*
P: Thank you Mommy, that was beautiful.

(As an aside, I have become (remain??) a jukebox for my children. Penelope regularly requests her favorites and Griffin's car wailing is only stopped by certain songs. Poe's current favorite are the Dinosaur Train song, B-I-N-G-O (she calls it "mango"), the Kipper song, and the Caillou song. We haven't watched Caillou in ages - I despise that cartoon - so I made up new lyrics: "I'm just a boy whose 4, each day I grow some more, I'm so obnoxious I'm Caillou! So many things to do, each day is something new, I'm quite annoying I'm Caillou!")

M: Ok, pick out a new diaper.
P: Hmmmm... I think I want the polka dot diaper
M: You sure?
P: Yes. Please.
M: Ok. You know, Mommy made this diaper.
P: Good job Mommy! It's soft!

Often times these conversations will revolve around her quite vivid imagination...

P: Mommy, I'm Tiny Pteranodon! You're Mommy Pteradnon! (From the Dinosaur Train series)
M: Ok, SQUAWK!
P: SQUAWK! What's Bubba? Hmmm. Bubba is...
M: Don? Buddy?
P: Yes, Buddy. Bubba is Buddy! Hahaha.
M: Who is Daddy?
P: Silly Mommy, Daddy is Daddy Pteranodon.
M: Of course he is. Are we riding the dinosaur train now?
P: Yes. Whoa! That's fun. Whee!
M: Time tunnel approaching!
P: No mama, that's Mr. Conductor. I'm Mr. Conductor.
M: Oh, I thought you were Tiny.
P: I'm Tiny too!
M: Got it.

She cracks.me.up.

Oh! Griffin's 8th tooth has officially arrived! I'm hoping we get a few days before the next round. Although I hope it's not longer than a week. While I hate teething, I'd really like for him to get in a set of molars already - he really wants to eat everything and I can't give him some foods w/o his molars.

And his "yearbook" is almost finished. Once I have it done I'll post a link so everyone can look it over. I'll have it printed like I did for Pen and at his 1st birthday party people can write him notes :) I love how P's turned out and I'm liking the look of G's so far.

I should probably work on it now that I have a few minutes. Tomorrow I'll be writing my Thesis so tonight I'll give myself a little time for the yearbook.

And... I've lost 17 lbs since New Years Eve. Woot!

"That was the best ever!"

Penelope says or does something every day that makes me laugh. Today she was on a roll.

As we pull into the parking spot @ G's Pediatrician's office:

"Whee! Whee! Whee! That was the best ever!"

Waiting for the doctor:

P: "I'm a snake! Ssssss! (this was accompanied by an Axel Rose like dance) I'm a giraffe! (she continues to list other animals)"
Me: "Penny, pretend to be Lightening McQueen."
P: "Beautiful idea! I'm Lightening McQueen! Ka-chow! Ka-chow!" (this said while jumping around)

At 'It's a Pita' she was dancing to the music, but he dancing looked like she was miming cross-country skiing.

When she spilled something this morning: "Oh man!"

Putting on her seatbelt in the carseat: "I did it! I'm doing it!"

She's also taken to playing "monkey bars" which is when she stands on her bed and hangs onto the windowsill and then attempts pull-ups.

She's a weird one. But we love it.

Mommy, I love Jessie

Today while playing I said to Penny:

"I love you Penny."

She thought about it. Then she said:

"Mommy, I love Jessie"

brat.

Although 2 days ago we had an "I love you" contest. I was in the kitchen and she was in the living room. She would yell out "I love you Mommy!" and I would yell back "I love you more Penny!" "I love you more Mommy!", etc. For about 3 minutes.

So I'll let the Jessie thing slide.

Be Vewy Vewy Quiet

The last few days have been crazy, but tonight the house is eerily silent. I can't decide if I like crazy or quiet better. I think maybe crazy.

Early EARLY Thursday Bryan left for Oklahoma. His best friend's wife passed away and he went out to be with his friend for a few days. He comes home late Sunday and we all cannot wait until he gets back. I'm really glad we could make it work so B could go out there - I wish we all could have gone - but we miss him. I miss him. A lot.

And not just because the kids are super-clingy suddenly (although that certainly factors in). I miss him because, believe it or not, I really love that man. Good thing I guess :)

But until then I'm (mostly) doing ok. Tonight my parents have the kids for their regular Friday night date (it's move night, they're watching Aristocats) and so I am all by my lonesome for an entire night. That hasn't happened in over 4 years! I don't know what to do with myself... laundry is started, the living room is clean, the floors have been swept and mopped... I should probably get around to cleaning the bathrooms (ick). Maybe after blogging :)

I have a TON to talk about and I hope I remember it all. Every day something new happens with one or both of the kids and I feel like if I don't write it down I won't remember it. And I want to remember. I love these stages.

Penelope is a chatter box. She narrates everything! "Mama, see trees? Pah-pooh-pea see trees! I count them, 1, 2, 3, 4..." She can count up to 30 (which she calls twenty-ten), and is so very sweet. He big "bad" thing is hitting - she gets frustrated and hits, which we're working on. But afterward she'll come up and apologize and give you a hug. Griffin is usually on the receiving end of her swats and he tolerates them pretty well. He cry and bit and then grin at her when she gives him a hug.

G is getting very brave - he's ready to walk (mentally) even though he's not quite there physically. And we've decided that "mama" is indeed his first word. He now uses it only when he's talking about me, which is often. That child is one big mama's boy.

They're both big (in 4T & 18-24 months) and pretty much the most adorable children ever conceived. But I'm not biased or anything.

Penny sleeps with the following items: Her Jessie doll, a Buzz Lightyear toy, the Woody cake-topper, Kiki (he stuffed cat from Build-A-Bear), Cookie Monster, and her pillow pet.

When she's tired, she whispers EVERYTHING. When she knows Griffin is asleep she'll also whisper. Sometimes she talks in a high pitched voice when she's trying to mimic my "sing-song" voice or when she's calling for Griffin.

One of their favorite games is to chase each other up and down the hall. She'll say "this way Bubba! This way" and he'll crawl after her, she'll screech and he'll laugh.

His sleep is improving. He's only up 2-3 times at night and a few nights he doesn't need an extra bottle. WIC is setting me up with an LC next week to see what she thinks about my milk supply. We'll see. I don't have my hopes up that anything short of more domperidone will increase my supply enough to drop the 1-2 bottles of formula he gets a day.

I've been looking for a job since January and so far it's gone about as well as a hunt for the end of the rainbow. A lot of districts aren't even hiring subs. But I'll continue the search. Something has to turn up. Bryan and I are discussing out of state options, so we'll see where that leads.

Ok, that's all I can think of for now (kid related at least). I do have some Soab-box-y stuff I want to talk about, but that can wait. I'll end with some pictures (which are also on Facebook).


With the kids at the zoo today


Little man and I


I love the expression on G's face in this one.


The kids with my brother, Uncle "O-Nic"

Today's WIC experience

First: WIC is perhaps one of the most inefficiently run programs I have ever worked with - and I used to work in non-profit.

Today's appointment was a waste of time and going into the specifics only serves to piss me off. I'm tempted to write a letter to the director.

BUT, Penelope was hilarious while we were waiting. There was a little boy in the office who was probably around three. He wasn't much bigger than Pen, but his vocabulary was better. They were playing in the back area of the waiting room and Penelope thought he was hilarious. Some of her gems:

"Silly boy!"

"Robot shirt mama. Nice shirt boy."

"Boy funny!"

They were running around, falling on the ground, and laughing at each other. It was quite amusing.

Mamamamama

Griffin is getting to the age where we should start hearing some actual words instead of just screeching and grunting. For awhile he was repeating "uh-oh" after you would say it to him, but he never used it outside of repeating so it doesn't really count.

I've been working with him on the "mmmmm" and "dddd" sounds in the hopes that he'd get "mama" and "dada" down. It seems to have worked... he now says "ma, ma, mama!" But I'm not sure whether to count it as his first word.

A true first word (as I discussed in this post a few years ago) "is when a child uses a word consistently with meaning - so "mama" will count when baby is using it to refer to mom, and only mom." (Me, 2009).

Griffin, I think, is just babbling "mama". He will use it most often when I'm holding him or when he wants me, but sometimes he'll just sit there and "mmmmmmmmaaaaaaa".

So no first word yet, but we're close.

Spelling

Penelope loves to spell. She spells practically every word she sees. And everything spells "Pah-pooh-pea" (Penelope).

The other day in the grocery store she saw the word "beer". She said "B-E-E-R... Pah-pooh-pea!".

D-O-L-L-A-R... Pah-pooh-pea!
B-A-B-Y... Pah-pooh-pea!

The only word that doesn't spell Penelope is TOY.

T-O-Y spells "Woody"!

She's a goof.

One about the kids

First off, I wanted to thank everyone who commented or sent me messages/e-mails after my last post. It really does help to know that there are a people out there that have been in my shoes (or at least similar shoes) and that there are people who I can call if I need to talk or need a break. I feel better - getting it out there and publicly acknowledging the magnitude of my anxiety has helped tremendously. So thank you.

Now, about the kids :)

Griffin crawled yesterday! Well, it was a crawl. Singular. But hey, it's forward progress (haha, I'm so punny). I'm still hoping he'll be mobile by Christmas. For the last two nights he's also been sleeping better. Two nights ago he slept from 11-3:30 (in bed with us) and last night he didn't need an extra bottle. Bryan got up with him at 7:10 and I got to sleep in until almost 8:30. It was excellent.

Poe is stringing 5-6 words together and repeats EVERYTHING. I love her talking, especially the way she says her name "Pah-pooh-pea". She used to call herself "Penny" but now she just calls herself Penelope. I will endeavor to get it on video.

She has also now peed on the potty twice! And she loves watching her "Elmo's Potty Time" video so here's hoping "peer pressure" (from Elmo & crew) will help get her day-time trained by X-mas. We'll see.

She can also read. Well, sort of. When she sees "Penny" written she points to it and says "Pah-pooh-pea"! I'm counting it :)

I have more, but I also have pictures. So here they are... hopefully I'll find more time this weekend to blog.




Penny got this horse at a white elephant gift exchange with the mommy group... Jessica W made it and Poe LOVES it. So cute!


Poe & Jackson

"Mama, fuck jamies!"

Penelope needs to work on her "g" sounds.

She has these footie pajamas with frogs on them. Which she loves... and she loves to tell you about them. "Mama! Fuck jamies! See fuck!"

"Penelope, say froG"

"Fuck"

Sigh.

Also? I hate daylight savings time.

Conversations with Penelope

Today while grocery shopping:

P: Mama, nanas? (nanas are food)
M: Ok, we'll get some food. Do you want salad?
P: Yes! Mmmm.
M: With tomatoes?
P: Yes, matoes. Salad yum.
M: Anything else on your salad?
P: (thinking) Um. Cookie! Yes! Cookies! Yum!
M: (laughing) Maybe you can have a cookie if you eat all your salad.
P: Yum cookies, mama, some cookie please. Clap for cookies! (she starts clapping)
M: Oh goodness child.

Later

P: Mama?
M: Yes my love?
P: Some cake?
M: (laughing) No, we're not going to have cake, we're shopping.
P: Cookies?
M: Well, you did eat your salad so I guess we can get a cookie.
P: Yea! Cookie! Penny some cookie! Mama, cookie!
M: Yes, yes, Mama will get you a cookie. Actually, you and mama will share a cookie.
P: Mama share. Share cookie. Some cookie! Clap for cookie! (she claps)

So apparently we're raising Cookie Monster Jr.

This morning's conversation with Penelope

This occurred while we were putting on her shoes.

Penny: Go?
Me: Yes, we're going to go after daddy gets ready.
P: Daddy ready? Go?
M: Soon, who do you want to go see today?
P: (thinking) Ummmm. Orson. Orson and Kim.
M: Well honey, I don't know if they're going to be at Gus' birthday party. You might not see them until Tuesday.
P: Gus? Yea Gus!
M: You want to go to Gus' birthday party?
P: Gus birthday? Yea Gus!
M: And some of your other friends will be there as well.
P: Maddox?
M: Yep, and Lucy and Ava and Sophia and maybe more!
P: Gus birthday. Yea Gus!

So I guess she's ready for Gus' party. Yea Gus!

Because I was curious

Bryan and I counted some of P's words today and estimated that she had about 100. So instead of working on my "reflection" for school I decided to type them up in Excel and see just how many she had.

100 exactly (of the ones I remember and that doesn't include the letters of the alphabet). Imagine that! Some of her more complex words include "stegosaurus" and "elephant"

It seems like she got them suddenly... one day she wasn't talking much and the next she's forming small sentences and has a 100+ word vocabulary.

As for recognizing letters and counting to ten, I'll credit a combo of books, toys, and Bryan. We have a leapfrog letter magnet toy that Poe LOVES. She plays with it constantly and it hasn't gotten annoying yet (thankfully). It's actually a really great teaching toy. It says the letter and then makes the sound associated with that letter. It also "sings" the alphabet. As for counting, she has a few counting books here and at my parents that she loves to read. Plus Bryan will recite the ABCs or count with her when they're doing their bath/bed routine. It's an educational way to get her to stop wiggling enough to get her PJs on and brush her teeth :)

I'm looking forward to G-man's first words. We have awhile though. Next month he'll be 5 month though, getting big fast!

Next month I'll be 29. Getting old fast! But since Bryan turns 37 this upcoming February I don't feel quite so ancient ;)

The end of August

I have a few seconds so I figured I'd update.

Penelope:
She probably has a vocabulary of 100 words right now. She adds to it every day. Now, she doesn't use all those words everyday, but she's got a lot of them. About a dozen or so she uses *with* her signs which makes me quite happy. I want to get her into a signing program so she can use sign more often. One of my biggest hopes for both kids is that they're fluent in sign. I'd also like for them to be fluent in Spanish but I don't know enough to speak to them exclusively in Spanish... I use as many words as I know. I really should finish up my Rosetta Stone program.

Anyway, she's started climbing - but not Gus or Orson style (Gus & Orson are friends of hers). Just little climbs, and I'm ok with that. She's a little cautious, which I'm also ok with.

She loves loves LOVES to dance. She's got quite a few "moves" in her dance repertoire, and it's pretty hilarious.

She also loves to help. She enjoys wiping G's face with the burp cloth, covering him with a blanket, washing her hands, putting stuff in the grocery cart, etc. Yesterday we went grocery shopping and she spent the entire time helping me put things into the cart. It took a little longer than normal, but she had a lot of fun. She was also running between Bryan and I so she got in a fair amount of exercise, our grocery store is warehouse sized.

Griffin:
Still waking up 3 times a night, but since we're still cosleeping I can just nurse him back to sleep. He's going to be tougher to get to sleep on his own since he's not at all interested in trying to self soothe, but we'll deal. He's a cuddler which is both sweet and annoying. Sweet when we're falling asleep and annoying in the middle of the night when I want to change sleeping positions.

He's also a chatter. Man that kid can talk. "Squeak, squeak, squeak" all day long.

He loves to sit up, and attempts to launch himself out of his baby chairs (other than the Bumbo, he can't escape from that). He also loves his sister, most of the time when he laughs he's laughing at her.

No teeth yet, but he's teething like crazy. He's super drooly and still a spit up machine.

We're still nursing and we'll see what my supply does. We've made it to 4 month + some and that's a great accomplishment for us both.

My camera battery died so no pictures now, but I'll charge it and take some more. They're getting huge. G is in 9-12 month clothes and Poe is still 3-4T depending on the outfit.