Dash is blossoming.
This boy tries to communicate with me at every turn.
His most recent thing is my most favorite.
Every time I reprimand him, or he doesn’t get his way, or he is too tired to crawl across the room to me….I get a boy who drops his head in a dramatic fashion and fake cries.
I think it is hilarious.
Clearly he gets it from Navy who is a major fake crier.
(Although she has settled down on it because if she is “crying” and I don’t see real tears, she gets “When you have real tears, come talk to me.” And then she gets disgusted and storms off.)
But my mom thinks it can somehow be traced back to his dad.
I don’t know if he is a fake crier, but he is a little on the dramatic side.
I am not clear where Dash got the original idea of fake crying, but it provides SO much entertainment for us, I am glad he picked it up.
I am also glad I can fawn all over my little sad boy.
I know it just perpetuates the problem, but it is the cutest little problem this side of the Mississippi.
A recent quote from my three-year-old daughter:
“Mom, you are SO annoying!”
I was WAY more annoying when I got her in trouble for trying to be a sassy teen.
After getting in major trouble for leaving a huge mess in their room, Scout and Icka spent about twenty minutes cleaning up. At first it was slow going, but then I told them there would be random checks to see who was helping. Once they knew there would be observation on my part, they put their rears in gear. Somehow, when they want to be, they are the best workers around. But after listening for a minute, I realized that Scout took charge. He became the head honcho, and started to rule his roost. He was still working — you know, putting one toy away at a time. But no fear, he had Icka working like a dog. And to appease me, he reported to me every time he had to come out to put something in a different room. Each time it was, “Wow mom, Icka is finally working so hard”, or “Icka is working every single second” or “Mom, Icka is a ten on a scale of one thru ten.”
Then he went in to challenge her to complete a task in ten seconds, and he did the counting. And when she did it, you would hear, ” ee er ee er sen ee er sen suh….ho hay! Do you know what that means in Chinese? Good job Icka!”
Looks like we have a task master on our hands….maybe they are studying communism at school, and Scout is the self appointed dictator.
-
(Truth be told, I don’t mind a little dictating towards Icka. If that what gets her motivated….so be it.)
I was taking Navy to school. Like I do with Scout, I tell her hero stories on the way. Somehow, she wrecks the experience a bit. I usually tell the story, and then Scout/Navy picks who they think the “hero” in the story is. But instead of patiently listening to the story (the whole reason I tell the stories is to display that being good is heroic), she just guesses a thousand names. I tell her to just listen up and see if she can find clues in the story. then she appoints me a hero to talk about. Anyone from Cinderella to Bella to Nephi. I usually get some sort of point across, but it isn’t quite the experience I have had with Scout these past years. Oh well. I have a boss on my hands.
-
So today as I was taking her, she noticed a plastic container in my car. It was from a container of cookies the doctor gave her after my mom’s dr. appointment. It was a Costco sized thing — full. Apparently she charmed the doctor and nurses so much, they gave her the whole thing. Figures.
Anyway, as I was trying to start in on the hero story, and she noticed the empty container, she said, “Mom…did you eat all of my cookies?” I told her no. then she proceeded with:
“Are you telling a lie?”
“No.”
“Are you telling a Trick?”
“No.”
“Are you telling a joke, then?”
“No Navy, I didn’t eat them.”
Mom, are you telling me a fib?”
“No you little weasel. I got this empty container in the house with a few left for Dash — and if I remember correctly, you ate a whole lot of them yesterday.”
“Well (her latest favorite word), are you telling me a lib? A lib is not a lie. It is the truth.”
“Fine then, I am telling you the lib.”
“Ha…I tricked you….that means you DID tell a lie.”
What a little weasel.
I then dropped her off at school and told Miss Dianne — good riddance!
My little Dashy is going to be smart! He has been stuck for months at the top of the stairs when I am downstairs. But today, he decided to change all of that. We watched as he climbed the bottom stair, then would turn around and climb down. He did it about 6 times. Then he went up the two bottom stairs. When he got to the top, he turned around and climbed back down again. After doing that for a while, he went up more. Micah ran to get the video camera, because it was the cutest and smartest thing I have ever seen. But then B intervened to show him that crawling down each stair very uneasily — and face first — was not the best technique. So she and I worked with him a few minutes on how to get down the stairs safely and easily. We’ll pick up tomorrow where we left off.
See — isn’t he smart!?!
“Starts with nnn, nnn, nnn and she has earrings.”
“Nonnie?”
“Yes….good job!”
When I tried to snap a shot of Navy in timeout, she was trying to be mad, but look at that little smile creeping up her face.
I love Sunday afternoons. I love the quiet, the family time, the meals together and the Sunday activities.
Tonight’s meal ended with Nonnie’s famous chocolate cake with rum frosting.
Look at Scout’s clean hand and face at the end.
And then there is Icka.
What a pig.
(And Dash is proving to be more like her than Scout in the cleanliness department.)
But nothing a bath can’t clean up pretty easily.
And just in time for our new favorite past time with our kids.
Games.
I love that Scout loves games easily as much as I do.
And Icka looks like she does also.
And for selfish reasons, I am glad that they seem to be pretty good at games.
Because a girl needs some stiffer competition around these parts!
It happened last year, this year, and I expect that it will happen every year until all of my kids are 18. The first few weeks of school are a nightmare. The kids are beyond tired. They think they are both hot shots and are the biggest teases. They are naughty beyond belief.
So lately, I have come down really hard on them. I am keeping them on a tight leash. And because they know my lack of patience on the matter, there has been a lot of negotiating going on.
There is a lot of “please don’t tell” and “if you tell, I am going to tell on you”.
Just the other day I heard Scout say, “Please, please, please….I’ll give you all my money if you don’t tell.” And as she kept walking, he yelled, “Icka, I’ll give you a million dollars!”
Icka usually doesn’t go for it, and enjoys getting her brother in trouble. Whereas Scout falls for her antics hook line and sinker. She teased/hit/took something away above. And as soon as he got upset (because he usually follows the rules of no retaliating), guess who came as the caretaker. All I have to say is that because I witnessed the event, she was in big trouble. Because if I hadn’t been there, he probably would have accepted her pseudo apology and moved on.
-
And in all honesty, I like that way of being. But until Navy doesn’t think she can get away with stunts like that, I still have to stay on top of it. This girl is still in training. And I don’t see an end in sight. But maybe one day. Hopefully one day.
Scout has the Kindergarten vibe. I can see outside influences in his talk, and I think it is funny and scary all at the same time. Here was our conversation tonight at dinner:
S: “Mom, I was playing Ka in tic tac toe. And like, she put an X on the bottom. And dude, I put one on the top. And you know how Papa plays where he tricks you. I told her, like, ‘you little scoundrel, you are going to like win if you put an X anywhere!’ And like, she put her X on the bottom, and then I said, ‘HAH! YOU LOSE!’ And like, I put my three in a row, and BAM….I won!”
L: “Wow Scout, pretty good. You are funny. But who is the valley girl at your school?”
S: “Huh?”
| DESIGN BY