My Favorite Seasons by Miss M

I love to play in the snow because it is so fun.  I like to make tunnels and snow angels and also, I like to go sledding.  In the summertime I like to go to the beach with my mom, my dad and my baby sister.  We like to play in the sand and make sand castles and go into the water.  At Thanksgiving time, I like to go my MaGa's house, which is my Grandma's house, and play in the leaves if there is any on the ground.  I like to eat a lot at Thanksgiving time!  But in November I also like to eat some hot chocolate.  This year (for Christmas) I got a Barbie Camper and an iPod, and a Darth Vader Ornament and a Pillow Pet and other things.  I also Santa ate all of our cookies and fed our carrots to his reindeer.  In autumn I dress as a kitty cat for Halloween.  And in Halloween I like to jump in the leaves when my Mommy rakes them.  And my baby sister likes to put her knees in the leaves which is very very fun.  January which is right now I got to go to a birthday party, my Aunt's party.  We got to dance with the Kinect and eats lots and lots of birthday cake.  I like all the seasons but my favorite is October.  Because that is my birthday!  That is all.

Make sure you enter our giveaway if you want to.  It ends tonight!

(Dictated to AEK by Miss M age 6)

Miss M at the Movies

On Sunday, J and I took Miss M to see Tangled while C stayed home and slept.  All alone.  Not really, Grandma was kind enough to come over and sit in our house while she slept.  Anyway, this is only the second time we have taken M to see a movie.  The last one was Wall-E and she was, I think, 3 1/2.  She doesn't ask to go to the movies and we haven't really been asking her either.  As a part of our public library's summer reading program, she received a coupon for a free movie at one of our local budget theaters.  We asked her if she wanted to go and she said sure.  She has the Tag book on Tangled, so she knew the general idea of the movie and I think was intrigued.

We get to the theater and while J goes to get popcorn, M and I settle in for the previews that were already starting.  Back up a second, I let her pick out her seat and she choose the seats in the last row...near the door.  Not a good sign.  Luckily the preview they were showing was the last one, because already M was having some problems.  It was a preview for Nutcracker (I think) and had quite a few action scenes.  Granted this preview went on for only a couple minutes, but in that time M had her fingers firmly plugged into her ears and her face turned away from the screen.  Too loud and too scary in her mind.  And this was just the preview.

The movie then started and we settled in with our popcorn and special treat for M, root beer.  In the beginning of the movie, the narrator starts off by saying this is the story of how he was killed.  M heard those words and pretty much from then on all bets were off.  She was very nervous that any scene was going to be the scene where the narrator dies.  Any time that there was a chase scene or any sort of conflict going on, M put her fingers in her ears and hid her face in the seat.  At one point, I held her on my lap so that I could help her cover her face.  She told me she just didn't want to get any bad dreams.

We tried to lighten her mood by laughing extra hard at the silly scenes and showing her that it is not all bad.  She did laugh at those points and thought they were fun and silly.  Overall, she said she liked the movie, as did the rest of us.  It was just difficult for her to see the violence (and the anticipation of it) on screen.  This experience made me wonder, why does a cartoon have to be so tense?  Why isn't there a movie for kids that is full of light hearted silly moments?  Or are the movie makers so motivated by money that they want to make sure that they will get the greatest box office and the only way to achieve that is by making a movie that will entertain both kids and adults (with perhaps a greater focus/concentration on the adults)?  Or is it something else?  Does it not bother other kids?  Is it just mine?

I am not saying that M's reaction is the most healthiest but I do think her reaction is normal for a 6 year old who is not exposed to anything on t.v. that does not come from PBS or cartoon shows.  She loves the silly and doesn't like it when even Arthur gets into trouble.  I worry about those kids that aren't bothered by the semi-violent/tense times in a movie.  Are they desensitized by other things that they watch/see in every day life?  What does this say about "kid-friendly" programs?  What does this say about society?  What kind of adults are these kids going to be if they don't find something wrong with people getting stabbed or people resolving conflicts with violence, etc.?  Yes, it is a cartoon, but if they see it enough and no one tells them otherwise, are they going to know the difference?  Are they going to care?  Are they going to do nothing and turn away?  That scares me.  That bothers me.

I think the answer lies in awareness.  Be aware of what your child is watching and help your child to understand what they are watching.  Television and movies should not be a passive activity, make it an active one.  The power is in our hands.

Here are the words...

Right now, C is experiencing a growth spurt in communication.  She is sprouting new words left and right. I thought it would be fun for me to see how many words she can say at almost 20 months old.

Here's what I came up with:
Mommy                                                      
Daddy
M____ (for Miss M)
apple
church
sock
shoe
choo choo (for train)
bow-wow (for dog)
kiki/meow (for kitty)
piggy
quack quack (for duck)
moo (for cow)
roar (for dinosaur)
milk
this
hop

baby
cracker
bye
hi
sit
bowl
cup
eat
book
car
color
yuck
lights
nose
ear
mouth
teeth
sleep
ho ho (for Santa)
Ernie
Bert
La La (for Elmo)
dress
Pop
MaGa
birdie
all done
please
thanks
yes

and her absolute favorite.....
NO!

I came up with 48 words total.  There are probably more that I am missing, but as you can see, she is becoming quite the talker!  Watch out world....


Don't forget to enter my giveaway found here!  Ends on January 13th!!

C and the elevator

Here's what happened today.  While I was checking out our library books, Miss M and C were playing with some toys within eyesight but are also close to the elevators.  I usually bring C in our stroller but today it wasn't in our car for some reason.  Anyway, as I was checking out the books, a boy probably about 10 years old or so went to get onto the elevator.  The elevator doors open, he goes on and...so does C!  I heard Miss M say "No C!" which made me run to the elevator quick.  I got there just as the doors were starting to close and see C standing next to this strange boy with a big smile on her face!  I managed to stick my foot in between the closing doors but the doors did not reopen!  I then asked the boy to press 1 (the floor we were on) and he did.  The doors then opened completely and I grabbed C.  She didn't cry at all.

Crazy!  How was your day?

Randomness

a new style trend

sightseeing

Our Cooking Stars

Me and C by Miss M

C loves to hug me!  I don't know why, but she is cute!  And she is the best baby sister that I have ever had. Babies are cute.  Babies can bite, but my baby sister is so strong!  She looks small but she is strong.  Because I really don't know why she is so strong but that is probably the way she is made. 

Today I went to Waterford.  Waterford is a computer lab where people go on computers.  We go on certain days.  I'll tell you how to get there.  You go out my classroom and then you go through the hallway, you go past the principal's office and then another hallway and then you see an open door and that is the computer lab.  There are a lot of computers there.  We go straight and then we take a turn and then we see our computers.  If you see another door open in the computer lab, that is the library.  That is kind of a shortcut.  If you go through the library, I picked out a book there on Monday because that is my day to go to the library.  I found a book in the M section because the letter starts with my name and I found a Star Wars book!  It was so cool that I had to show my daddy.  Inside it it has Darth Vader, Princess Leia, the droids and in one part it shows Darth Vader shouting "Take Her Away!"  and that's it.

[Dictated to AEK by Miss M, age 6]

Taking a Toddler to the Doctor or things I wish I didn't have to do

Today was C's 18 month check up at the doctor.  I dread taking C to the doctor.  She screams and cries the minute we enter the office.  Today I brought along her book Going to the Doctor by Anne Civardi and read it to her as we were waiting.  That seemed to calm her down a bit.  Then we entered the examining room.
The minute the doctor opened the door, she screamed and cried.  We couldn't weigh her without me holding her and then subtracting my weight alone from the weight holding her.  Her measurements are, of course, not the most accurate because she wouldn't lay down for more than a second.  She refused to sit on the examining table so I just held her.
Then came the shots.  She received two today plus a prick on the finger to test hemoglobin.  She HATES the finger prick the worst.  We managed.  She then received her shots and I swear she cries the most when the doctor puts the bandaids on!
This was all before 10 this morning.  Fun.  And we get to go back in another 3 months.  At least it wasn't as bad (yes, it has been worse) as when I had both C and Miss M at the doctor's office for Miss M to get her shots for kindergarten.  Miss M screamed when she received her shots, which of course set off C.  Real Fun.

For the grandmas and any one else curious, here are C's stats:
At 18 months old, she is 32.5 inches tall (give or take an inch) and weighs 23 pounds.  From her last visit three months ago, she has grew an inch and a half and gained three pounds.  She is still tiny, but as we like to say, she is small but she is mighty!

A Week of Firsts

Curious?  Here's what has happened in our corner of the world:

* C had her very first haircut!  I was so nervous that she was going to scream at the stylist, but she did great!  She sat quite still (for an almost 18 month old) and hardly made a peep.  According to her sister, it doesn't look like she got it cut....but believe me, it looks so much better and neater!  Take a look:

*  Miss M counted to 100 for the first time all by herself!  This is quite an accomplishment and something that she has been trying to master for sometime.  She is now working on adding up numbers in her head.  This is all her doing...

*  We met with Miss M's fabulous kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Sombeck, this week for our first parent-teacher conference.  She said that Miss M is doing splendid and a joy in class.

*  From their aunt and uncle, the girls received a box of Scooby-Doo tattoos... C saw her sister getting one put on her arm and she of course had to have one too! 

I Love My Baby Sister by Miss M

I love my baby sister because she is so cute!  I like her because she is the cutest baby ever except when she has a really runny nose.  It is so like so I say "Yuck!" when she has a runny nose.  I don't really like when her nose is all stuffed up.  Once I told my teacher, Mrs. Sombeck, that when I was trying to pick up my baby sister she wiped her nose on my shirt!  It was the grossest thing ever!  I showed my teacher and she laughed.  It looked weird when I looked at it.  It was so weird that I had to tell her assistant, Mrs. K.  And it was like the best day at school because I have two girls at my table and two boys, Brody and Yousef.  Brody sits across from me and Yousef sits across from the other girl that I don't remember her name.  Sometimes people get moved to yellow but the only person who got moved to yellow is my friend, K.J.

Somethings are weird at school.  Like last Friday when I was a cat for Halloween and my baby sister was a pumpkin.  And at our party I still was a cat.  And both my teacher and Mrs. K were both Cat in the Hat!

And that's all.  Thank you!  Bye Bye!  Boo! Ha Ha!

[Dictated by Miss M (age 6) to AEK]

I love MaGa's by Miss M

This summer, I went to my grandma's house.  Her name is MaGa.  She is very nice.  I like to visit the kitty cats.  One's name is Panda and one's name is Rocky.  They are very nice.  Baby C like them.  I like going there because it is so fun.  Sometimes we go where my grandpa works.  It is called Cahokia Mounds.  They have fun stuff there and I like to press buttons.  I love museums because they are so fun to visit and you get to learn new things. 
We went to the Butterfly House.  I saw butterflies of every color.  I even saw some silly ones that looked like a man wearing a bow tie around here!  They are so fun that I love 'em.  Their colors are exciting and beautiful like rainbows, unicorns and dolphins.  I love dolphins they are so fun.  It is so fun to look at lots of colors.  I kinda imagine that I am a part of a butterfly.  One day I might study butterflies so I might be a butterfly discovery.  That would be so fun.  It is fine if I don't make the job but that would be fun.
Thank you, please come again to Queen of the Snot Princesses.  Love, Mommy, Daddy, Baby C and Miss M.  I love you all!  You are the best!  Thank you all! XOXO


[Dictated to AEK by Miss M]

I Love Kindergarten! by Miss M

My sister is cool.  She cries all day like in the morning and the afternoon.  I love my sister as cute as a tune!  She is the best girl I know.  What she does every day is just play, play, play the things that she loves.  All she loves is just doing fun things.  She is a wonderful baby.  That is because she is my best, best, best sister!

I love my school.  I go everyday.  I am in the morning kindergarten.  My teacher's name is Mrs. Sombeck.  Sometimes we get moved to yellow or red but we want to stay on green! I have always been on green.  I am five.  I have gym class with Mrs. Shoey.  We like to do things that are kinda silly.  Some days we go to art class.  My teacher is Mr. Bolognio.  I also have library.  At library, we go in a castle.  We don't get to check out books but I am sure later we will!  I have a very best friend.  Her name is Hettie.  We like to play all day long.  Sometimes we do stations, which I love.  I like drawing, library and kitchen stations.  I also do sometimes just my work and sometimes we go out to the playground.  And that is all.


[Dictated to AEK by Miss M]

An interesting conversation with a 5 1/2 year old

Yesterday, Miss M brought up the concept of bad brain.  She told me that she has a bad brain that resides in the middle of her forehead area.  She said that this bad brain gives her thoughts like "this is dumb" or "I don't like you."  She then went on to say that she has a good brain as well, which makes up the rest of her head.  This brain (the good one) makes sure she doesn't actually say what the bad brain wants her to.  It stops her mouth from saying those "bad" things and instead replaces it with good things.

I thought this was an interesting take on the idea of good conscience and bad conscience.  We discussed this with Daddy last night at dinner and he told Miss M that his grandmother, the awesome Mumie, would always tell him as a little boy that he had a "bad man" on his back when he was misbehaving.  I told her as well that you could also look at her "bad brain" idea as being the devil and the "good brain" is God.  She didn't totally agree with our added comments.  She simply said "It is just your brain, Mom!"

We are the best girls EVER! by Miss M

Baby C is a silly girl

She likes to fall down on the ground 

She is very sweet.

I like her because she is very cute!

Cause I like to play with her and 

Me, Miss M,  because we all like to play all day

When she sees bigger kids she wants to play with them.

Today she is sleeping right now and I am staying up because I don't need naps anymore.

Later we are going to listen to music and C will get really excited.

She is mostly very exciting girl.

I think she is a very wonderful Baby C!  She is so lovely.  She is as lovely as a beautiful flower.  Because then she is so beautiful because I very love her! 

That's it.

[Dictated by Miss M age 5 1/2 to AEK]

Happy 1st Birthday Baby C!

One year ago, on May 14th, I gave birth to this little bundle of joy and craziness! We are so happy to have you in our lives Sweet Baby C although you do make your parents quite tired a lot of times and try our patience most of the times. Still we can't imagine how our lives were before you were around. Oh wait, on second thought, I do remember. I could sleep a lot more and wasn't awakened at horrendous hours that I thought (wrongly) only other people's children woke up at such times. Oh yes, I have been wrong about a lot with you but that is part of your role on this Earth...to make sure your mother is reminded time and time again how little she actually does know. I am so blessed to be the parent of both you and your big sister and I thank God every day that I get to spend time with both of you and your father.

Happy Birthday to you! We Love You!

Accomplishments

So this past weekend, Miss M learned to ride a 2 wheel bike all by herself!  She tried it for the first time this Saturday and by Sunday she was going to the park with no problem!  I am so proud of her.  It took me a looooong time to learn to ride a bike and I had many accidents along the way.  One quite memorable and especially painful one was when I accidentally fell into the thorn bush that was in front of our church.  I was just learning to ride and was just starting to get the hang of balancing and then I fell.  Needless to say that pushed me back a bit in my desire to learn to ride.  To this day I am not one to really ride my bike that much.  I really hope M doesn't have any bad falls like me or if she does she will have the tenacity to get back on and keep on riding.

What about Baby C, you ask?  Well, she learned to do peek a boo! all by herself!  She is fully on table food now and can literally eat us all under the table.  Not walking on her own yet but that will come.  She is a super fast crawler so that is all she needs right now.

Between M learning to ride and C learning to walk, my husband and my backs are definitely not what they used to be!