Skip to main content

Toddler Moments: the Cute and Crazy (May)

I took Kate on a special 1:1 trip to the local ice cream parlor as a treat after we gardened together all day. It's situated so it's on a pier over a lake. Kate's eyes went wide and she was enthralled with every moment of it.
-Oh! Water!
-Oh! Fish!
-Oh! Boats!
-Oh! Ice weam!
But the best moment came when we were in the car driving back and she looked out the window and sadly said good-bye to everything.
-Bye wake (lake)
-Bye boats
-Bye ice weam


Earlier today she had another cute moment. I was gardening and I guess things weren't going too well because after awhile I heard her muttering, "Shoot! Darn it! Ohmygooodness!" as she stabbed at the dirt with a stick. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Mama say bad words...I helper!"

She is obsessed with being right next to me all day long and announces, "I heppuh" (helper) all the time. She cries if I go upstairs and she can't follow fast enough. So I guess she thought that being my helper was saying all the bad words that I'd apparently been saying without noticing! It's a good thing that that's the extent of my bad words!


The kids are playing outside nonstop these days. I love that they love to be out--less mess in the house. But I'm now feeling obligated to give all three baths every night. They are sweaty-headed, muddy-toed, might've-peed-my-pants-a-little-cuz-I-was-too-busy-playing toddlers. I usually give baths once a week and then it's James by himself one night and Jane and Kate together on another night. Now, it's all three in for a quick dunk and scrub, then out one-by-one to brush teeth, put on pajamas and get shooed off to bed with a book while I tackle the next one. And then I seriously have to wipe out a nasty ring around the tub. Leaves, twigs, berries, flower petals, and so very much dirt...wow. Toddler triplets are no joke.


I just realized that Jane has stopped saying "her/them" when it's grammatically correct to say, "she/they". When she first arrived she only said things like, "Her is my sister." I did nothing for the first three months because it was clearly not important and I hoped she'd begin to mimic our speech patterns naturally as kids do. Then, for the next month I gently corrected her. Didn't make a big deal--just parroted back the correct phrase. She said, "her is my sister" and I said, "she is my sister" and the conversation went on. (I do this all do long correct James' and Kate's pronunciation anyway so it wasn't a big deal.) Jane still wasn't shifting her speech (and by this time I'd noticed that grandma and aunt say her/them exclusively). So, about three weeks ago I gently pointed out to Jane that sometimes we say "her" but other times we say "she" and I gave her a few examples. That was all it took. She is now using she/her and they/them correctly. She is incredibly observant and wants to please.


Every morning I go in to get the kids up, send them to use the potty, get dressed, etc. Lately I realized that after I say, "James, let's get you dressed." He will look around as if looking for something and say, "Where is my dress?" I know neither Seth nor Gus ever even knew the word 'dress' at that age! How different for James to be raised with sisters! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Family Visit Success!

Last weekend we did a family visit that was a return to how we'd first begun doing them. Theo and I drove the girls down and stayed and hung out with the family the whole time. The visit was just 1.5 hours long. Aunt made the lovely suggestion that good-byes would happen in the house and not at the car. She even coached grandma to do them quickly. So, we did a quick but sincere good-bye then left. No drama with grandma climbing over seats or Jane wailing from her car seat. And it all worked! Girls were cheerful and chatty on the way home! No nightmares for Jane that night! Kate was even okay--one day of extreme clinginess but then she returned to usual level of attachment-bonding cling! I'm so incredibly relieved! Because what would I have done if this hadn't worked?? I could not bear the thought of telling them we were stopping visits completely not least of all because I truly don't believe that would be the right path, long term. But now I don't have to f...

Halloween Hell

 Tomorrow the kids will do a daytime Trunk or Treat event with Grandma. I suggested the outing about two months ago, chose the event, coordinated a meeting place with her, bought the kids costumes, prepped them for it, and now it's happening. I did it all. And I am dreading it with every fiber in my being. All this week my mood has been sliding downhill the closer it gets.  I hate meet ups with Grandma. There was a time when I hated them less, now I hate them with visceral dread. Why? Because I don't want Grandma to know where the girls are in school.  It was a huge mistake to tell her our home address and last name. A few weeks after we did that I got a phone call from a relative telling me about Grandma sneaking her son back into other grandchildren's lives. The relative warned me to "look in the back seat of her car" in case she was hiding him in there when she came to visit us. Needless to say, she was never invited to our house again.  So, what do I do? Yes, ...

Turning Two in a Tutu

Kate turns two this week! After sixteen years of boys I'm going a little over the top with the pink and fluff but I just can't hold back. And with pictures like these, even minute of planning and prep was worth it! She loves to play dress up and have tea parties with her stuffed animals. She's so adorable! Jane and James are 3 and a half so I decided we needed to celebrate their half birthdays, too. Any excuse for a cupcake!