A while back (pre cast-off) Micah took the kids on a run in the double BOB. On their way home, they saw some caterpillars crossing the street, and they wanted to keep them. Fortunately, we have a little cage for them to create their cocoon in and we made a nice little home for them. Unfortunately, Scout and Navy liked to have those little suckers out and about as much as possible.
Navy was constantly holding one or both, and called them her “friends”.
I was particularly impressed at how much Scout handled his, as he is usually a little hesitant about creepies and crawlies.
Here is Scout impressing Icka with letting one of them crawl under his sweatshirt.
Of course, they wanted Dash in on the caterpillar action, so I set him down to see what all of the fuss was about.
And a few seconds later I looked back to see this scene.
Although Navy looks like she is the culprit in the photo, they are both to blame.
Poor third child was doing what he does best — rolling with the punches!
Poorer me — after we went to show our “friends” off to someone, we left with both caterpillars in the cage. On the drive home, Icka got into it. Once home, I put the cage up high, and realized that we were less one caterpillar. I looked around to find nothing. But if I magically have a beautiful butterfly in my car one day, I have that second weasel to thank.
This girl has been getting scared lately. There has also been a lot of talk about “bad guys”. In fact, I have heard, “Mom…hate is a bad word, but I hate bad guys” many times over the last few weeks. I tell her that it is okay to hate things and bad guys. The other day when I asked her to go upstairs, she was scared of the walk. When I asked her why, she said she was worried about bad guys. So we came up with a perfect solution. I handed her the phone, and she called Bella upstairs, to meet her half way. Too bad Bella didn’t answer — probably because she is on to us. And because Bella is so swift, I had to stop what I was doing and became the escort.
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Speaking of phones — every time the phone rings, this girl runs to answer it. I know it must be ridiculously obnoxious to whomever is calling, but I find her hilarious. Not only does she answer, but she banters back and forth with the other person. Is is priceless when it is a sales person calling. But the very best (only according to me) is when Navy pick up the phone while Nonnie is on a phone call. She just interjects and it drives my mom MAD! I can hear her saying, “Icka, get off the phone RIGHT NOW!” and I just crack up. My poor mom who has a LOT of jokes made at her expense is most often a really good sport.
Scout’s best bud in preschool is Riley. They have clicked from day one. The excitement level for Scout to return to preschool was palpable on both sides. So when I picked him up the other day, and Scout was REALLY somber, I asked why. The conversation was this:
M - “Hey Handsome, what’s wrong?”
S - “There is nothing to play with at school.”
M - “Sure there is — there is a ton of stuff to play with.”
S - “Nothing fun.”
M - “Well, then it is up to you to use your imagination to make it fun….what did you end up doing?”
S - “Miss Dianne gave Riley and me permission to play puppet show and nobody would watch.”
M - “That isn’t a big deal — you should watch Riley, and he should watch you.”
—massive pause—-
S - “And then when we were cleaning up, we fought over the things.”
Oh — now I get it.
M - “You and Riley got in a fight?”
S - “Yeah.” (In a super sad voice)
M - “Well, what do you think we could do to make it better?”
S - “I don’t know…what do you think?”
M - “Why don’t we figure out something to take over to Riley at his house and you could just say you were sad you guys got mad at each other, and that you are glad he is such a good friend.”
S - “Yeah — maybe I could give him that dinosaur drink we have at the store.”
(The store he has to use his CTR bucks to buy from.)
So we went home, and after I gave him a discount, he bought his good bud a dinosaur sippy cup. We took it over the next morning, and they were tight as thieves within seconds.
And it is a good things — because these two were made for each other!
Because pear smiles –
…aren’t quite as cute solo.
From the time this girl was born, she has bitten her nails.
She even graduated to biting her toenails on a regular basis.
My mom wanted it stopped and made me get yucky nail polish that would prevent her from doing it, but it didn’t really work after a few weeks when I misplaced it.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t totally opposed to the biting for one major reason — her nail care was REALLY easy.
There just wasn’t any.
But when I saw my sweet little girl eying other people’s toes and fingers, and then go over for a nibble, I knew I should probably put a stop to it before she became “that weird girl”.
I would love to say that something I did was magical — and in a round about way, it kind of was.
What I did was…..
NOTHING.
It goes back to my potty training days.
I can force the issue and make my life miserable, or I can wait until the kid personally takes action.
I figured, one day and some how or some way, Icka would stop.
And if she didn’t, I would take full responsibility.
Well, the transformation came when Bella was painting her nails and Icka wanted matching ones.
Bella told her she couldn’t because she barely had any nails to paint and it was ugly that way.
Cold turkey — my girl stopped biting.
I literally hadn’t seen her slip up even once, and I was amazed!
Navy was even more enticed when she heard that Bella had painted Rosie’s nails and they looked so cute.
Icka let hers grow and grow, and the second Bella came home from Utah, she showed them off.
And first thing the next morning — Icka had beautifully painted fingers and toes.
And then as I tucked her in at night, I said, “Let me see your beautiful fingers!”
To which she showed me 8 polka-dotted pink fingers and 2 that were bare.
I asked what happened, and she said, “I ONLY bited off two of the polishes!”
It was true — the temptation came back a bit, but she stopped at the polish, and the nail stayed long.
I’ll take it, and in the meantime…you know what I will do?
NOTHING!
Who is who?
Apparently I make cookie cutter kids.
(Answers — I put them in order — Scout, Navy, Dash, Scout, Navy, Dash, etc.)
There is something about seeing your child in all white that is to die for. Maybe it is because he looks like an adorable abominable snowman. But more likely — it is because white is my favorite color (yellow was until I was an adult — but now it’s white like the temple).
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There is also something about seeing your third child in something your first two used too.
When I put him in the jumper for the first time, it was almost nostalgic.
He is liking it. He isn’t up to Scout’s utter love of it yet, but I am sure he will get there. He likes the lights, the music and that he can move around a bit. But technically, I think he is still a bit too small for it since the only thing that touches the floor is his itty bitty toe.
But that is how Scout started — and he grew to be a jumping maniac.
And Ickity Dickity started out on tippy toes also.
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WOW….these three kids look pretty similar.
But do you notice of the three — who is grinning from ear to ear?
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