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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! 

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