Sunday, we celebrated my nephews 23rd birthday. So weird, I cannot believe he is so grown. Anyway, B also had a mate's birthday party to attend. Here is what she wore:
Can you believe it? The pose too? I swear, she never want me to take her photo. Anyway, she is cute. These kids, they make me crazy. They make me want to leave for Miraval and only come home when I forget why they make me crazy. But then this morning, when I was running errands, I thought about squeezing them and loving them and wishing they were with me to sing Christmas songs. (And yes, I am already listening to Christmas music. I have a love hate relationship with it. I love the zippiness of it, but like I told Mike, it depresses me at the same time. Crazy right? That's my middle name, don't you know.) I think if I got a bit more time to make things, and a little more sleep I would be a good Mom instead of the sub-par one I am right now.
**(Cue the paragraph where we skipped swimming lessons - bad mom, bad mom.)**
Yesterday morning, we were supposed to go to swimming, but with the lack of sleep and the last couple of nights being late, we skipped it and stayed in our pjs all day (well, the kids did - I showered and dressed). We ate breakfast, turned on a movie we half-watched, made art, cleaned up.
While Charley slept, I worked in my office/craft room. What do you think about the word "craft?" Does it have a good connotation? You say "craft show" to my husband, and he equates it with an afternoon that will age him 30 years. Another way to look at it is a craft is something learned, be it knitting, welding or wood-working. So, segue into B wanting to learn to knit. She found a set of knitting needles in my craft room and asked if I would teach her. "OK, let em find some yarn and needles," I said. I found the stuff, and tried to cast on. HA! I didn't remember. It has been at least two years since I have picked up knitting needles. So, I pulled out my trusty Stitch and Bitch book, with illustrations, and cast on. I showed B how to knit, but it is hard when your hands and fingers are little. So, we worked together. This is how far we got before it got boring to her.
So, I picked up the yarn and B found some books to occupy herself.
Charley took a nice nap and afterward we played in the toy room. The only bad thing about a playroom upstairs? I have to go up with them. They want to be around me (us). So, up I went. We played tea party and cars and dolls. YEAH! or not. I am not much of a player. I am a puzzle doer, or a book reader, or I do Teach me Toddler on the iPad with Charley (who, by the way, knows her shapes, colors, some letters by site, one or two by sound, and her numbers). She is working on counting, using three and four repeatedly. She is also talking a lot more. Lots of new words. Some she just says, without a prompt. It is great. Some two word statements too. She says "read book," "ready set," "love you," "thank you," and she said something else this morning, but we were super late, and my mind was elsewhere. I remember congratulating her on her language (I hate the saying "use your words") but I cannot remember what she said. However, we had school conferences today, and Charley's teachers let me know that she should be able to dress herself - including her shoes. Whoops. Funny, I potty trained her, well almost a year ago, and I never even thought that she could be dressing herself.
Charley's does have excellent fine motor skills. I love to watch her use a pencil or paint brush. Charley loves to paint.
And sometimes she even paints paper instead of herself. I would have never let B paint herself. Poor B. Back when she was little, I know a woman with a child B's age who's kid always had dirty finger nails. I hated seeing that kid's fingernails. If B's nails got dirty, it was straight to soak in the bath. I never wanted her digging in the dirt. Now? I still hate dirty fingernails, but kids learn so much by touching and digging and getting dirty. Charley gets a lot of joy painting her hands and stamping them on the paper. Same with stamp pads. These days, my kids have stained hands almost all the time. Sometimes even though they've had a bath.
B was making little impressions in paper with an embosser, then cutting them out. I had B's conferences today too. Turns out, she likes things her way. HA! That and she doesn't like to work on things that challenge her. Great. Total underachiever coming our way. Doesn't get that from me or her father. Double HA! Still, they say she is a good girl. Polite and everything. So, I did something right.
Then B wanted to paint with Charley. Then are playing more and more together. Not so much toys, but they chase each other around, jump around. Wear each other out. And they hug and kiss and worry if the other is crying (unless B made Charley cry).
The nice thing about the art room is the lack of carpet. Mike and I knew we were not carpet people before we moved in, but it has been beat into our head this last couple of weeks. I cannot imagine the type of people who have carpet everywhere (they must be so neat without kids and pets). I was worried about the dogs dragging mud onto the carpet. That hasn't happened - yet. But everything else has happened. It is crazy. I cannot wait until it is all gone. It is bad enough it stains, but it also holds smell. And even if it isn't smelling like cat urine, it still smells like the cleaner, which is almost as bad. YUCK!
Life in the Brady house is becoming a little more "regular." You know, just in time for the Holiday revelry. Charley is spending more and more time in her own bed. Mike went and bought a mattress, so she will be in a twin bed as opposed to a toddler bed. Isabel, our cat, had another round of radioactive iodine for her thyroid, so she is also keeping us up all night. Since she is radioactive, she cannot sleep with us - for another week and a half. She meows all night long. Tries to open the door. Arg! I am hoping sleep comes to our house soon. I am an angry mother to begin with, add a lack of sleep and I am a beast. It would only be worse if I ran out of green tea and chocolate.
Well, this post reads wonky, since I have been writing it for the last 24hrs. Oh well, you get the jist. I should go back and edit and move around, but dinner is almost ready. It is chicken noodle soup. Perfect for the rainy day we are having.
No comments:
Post a Comment