At Least She Was Polite About It.

First of all, Cate was potty trained by the time she was the age Ava is now. I was changing Ava's diaper this morning and she kept rolling around and trying to get up. "Ava, be still."

"I no like diaper!"

"Well, if you go to the potty, you can wear your Dora panties instead of diapers."

She quit squirming, pausing thoughtfully, "No thank you."

Maybe one of these days...

I'm never quite sure what going through her little head...

#1
Cate: "Church is boring.

Me: "Who told you that?"

Cate: "Ta-Ta" (my sister)

I don't think she said that, but I imagine we'll be getting a phone call once she reads this.

#2
Cate: "Mama, I sure do wish you had named me Ella Grace. It's a long name and Cate's a short name. "

Me: "Cate, your whole name is Catherine Elizabeth. That's pretty long."

Cate: "Oh, that's okay then."

The Devil and Sue Ellen

We have had some beautiful weather lately- a nice change from the gray, overcast, windy, "brr rabbit cold" (as Ava puts it) days. Thursday was one of those days and all day long I planned to run when Joe got home.
At 7:30 pm I was standing by the door with my shoes on, I-pod ready, and watch set. I opened the back door and smelled a faint whiff of skunk, but they've come up to the house before and apparently they just leave stink wherever they go. With a burst of energy, I headed down the hill, motivated and ready for a great run.
There are several street lights on our road, but for the most part, it's pretty dark and there are a few areas that are overgrown near the road. So, I take a left out of our driveway, run about 1/10 of a mile and then loop back past our house and go halfway around the circle. This makes a mile and I stay out of the really dark areas and away from the dog that bites. Exactly 2 minutes, 24 seconds into my run the skunk came out from the ditch near our house and loped across the road, not 5 feet in front of me. Not quite 10 seconds later I was back in the kitchen. I was out of breath from sheer terror and don't know that I'll be back out after dark again.
So, instead of exercising, I sat down on the couch with a bag of pink and white iced animal cookies with sprinkles and a Diet Coke and did not move for the next hour.
Sue Ellen did send those cookies for the girls (I saved them plenty Mama Sue), but I swear the devil sent that skunk.
I may never get in shape!

Ava

Ava loves baby dolls. She gives them bottles. She rocks and sings to them. She feeds them play food. She reads to them. She puts them to bed. And recently she has begun to change their diapers. The only problem is, instead of using the cloth baby doll diapers we have, she sneaks into the pantry, gets one of her diapers, and puts it on the doll. Then she immediately takes it off, wads it into a ball and runs to the garbage can and chunks it. This probably went on for a few days before we put two and two together. She did not seem too concerned tonight when I told her that diapers were expensive and she could not throw a clean one in the trash.

"Abby needs new diaper. Abby is wet and stinky."

Ava will be in for a little surprise when she realizes the diapers have found a new home in the pantry- on the top shelf.

That's debatable...

Cate and I were getting her class Valentines ready. I was letting her eat some of the candy. She began to chew a Fruit Roll-up and said, "Mama, Fruit Roll-up is food, RIGHT?"

This and That

Here are a few recent pictures:

Ava loves to color and paint. She will spend time doing either of those for a lot longer than Cate ever would.

She did get bored with the paper though and started on herself. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.


Thank you for the chocolate cupcakes, Mama Sue. Ava climbed up in her chair and said, "I need choc-it!" this afternoon. She loved the icing and the "Calla-pilla" (caterpillar) on top.

Joe won a Wii at his CPA convention this summer. We are just finding the time to get it out and he got Cate a Disney Princess game for her birthday. She loves it. I love hearing them dress the Cate princess. Joe: "Do you like the crown or the bow better? What color dress? Pink or blue?" She's actually learning to control it pretty well and Joe will take any excuse to play a video game.

Playing doctor in their doctors' coats Granny gave them. Cate diagnosed her baby with an ear infection. We've heard that one a few times.

Cate and Nana made cookies. Cate loves to help cook.


WARNING: Never let your child take a nap with a Zhu Zhu pet. Cate was not actually asleep when this happened and she didn't cry, but those little wheels sure did take out a wad of her hair.


My current house project is recovering the dining room chairs. The previous owners left their china cabinet and dining room table and chairs. Daddy painted the dining room for us (twice, due to my poor choice of the first paint color). Thanks again Dad! So far I have #2 chairs recovered and #6 to go. Finding someone else to do it is looking better all the time.

Please don't report us to PETA.

Words are inadequate to describe the occurrence at our house several nights ago. I can hear Catherine right now, "Well then you shouldn't try." I probably shouldn't try, but it was so funny that days later I still laugh out loud when I think about it. So, I'm going to blog about it, not so much for all of you, but so Joe, Cate, and I will have documentation of years down the road.

Joe and I were getting the girls bathed, dressed, and ready for bed in our bathroom as usual. Their bath water was still standing in the tub. Molly Kitty has a water bowl that I fill daily, but she chooses to drink out of the toilets and the tub and clean her paws in her dish instead. Well, apparently she thought she was going to hop down into the tub and lick the droplets from a drained tub, but she hit about 4 inches of water instead. Her wet paws and the depth of the garden tub would not permit her to jump out. It was all in slow motion and neither Joe nor myself could move. She looked like a cheetah in a stretched out sprint and every time she would leap, water would spray all over the bathroom. This went on for at least 30 seconds and Joe, Cate, and I were doubled over in tears. I don't know what was louder, her "Mrrrows" or our cackling. Ava stood in the bathroom door repeating, "Kees in tu-ub. Kees in tu-ub" as though she was tattling on her, which made us howl even louder. A shamed Molly Kitty finally drug herself out of the tub and Joe did dry her off with a warm towel. She slept like a baby the rest of the night from shear exhaustion.

Our Bilingual Prodigy

Today in the car:

Cate: "Disgusting means gross in Spanish."

ARE WE DOING SOMETHING WRONG....

OR DOES BEDTIME TAKE 2 HOURS AT EVERYONE'S HOUSE?

A few days ago a friend posted a question on facebook and the gist of it was, any advice on getting a little one to bed? I smugly replied with our routine and then I really started thinking about our routine. Bath, Books, and Bed goes a little more like this:

Ava sits at the kitchen table in her plastic blue booster seat with the tray fastened securely faced AWAY from the table and the rest of the family, intently watching Dora and mindlessly putting bite after bite into her mouth. A nutritionist would probably have a field day with that alone. Cate sits on her bar stool at the table and takes a tiny nibble, jumps up to get a sticker, another tiny nibble, then she needs a different spoon, rearranges a few things on her plate, but doesn't take a bite at all and realizes she needs her polka dot socks, not he striped ones she's wearing and off she goes again. This lasts anywhere from 20-60 mintues and then I announce "It's bath time."

Before I leave to turn the bathroom heater and and hot water on (it takes a good 5 minutes for the water to get luke warm, I exaggerate not), I tell Cate to take her clothes off and please put them in the laundry room. I return several seconds later to a fully dressed Cate and Ava (still in her chair) clamoring, "Get Out, Me!" I take her to the sink to shake off all the crumbs and off we go to the tub. Cate comes tearing behind me, "I want to get out first." "I don't want Ava to have the blue cup." "I want the pink rag." "I want the bathtub Polly (Pocket)." And on and on and on.

Somehow we survive bathtime, getting jammies on, drying hair, and finding just the right pair of house shoes. Then the real feat begins. "Time to read books and go to bed." And the wheels in their little heads begin to turn.

Joe and I divide and conquer. We each take a child and the marathon begins. I'm not exactly sure what all goes on when he has them, but it takes him at least as long as it does me with either kid, so I'll tell my version.

Ava: Ava is on a daily medication for vesicoureteral reflux. I give it to her before bed since she's usually eaten a good meal. Ava thinks it is hysterical to run away from us when we call her to come here. So, after a short chase I give Ava her medicine, another short chase and I brush her teeth (Dora tooth brush of course). I change her diaper (a half naked chase if she gets away this time) and then let her pick out a passy. I take her upstairs to her room and we sit down in the floor to read. (Her room is not furnished as of yet.)
Ava: "I need blank-ey." She goes and pulls one through the slats of her crib and sits back down.
Me: "Okay, let's read."
Ava: "I need my lubb-ey (her lovie)." And she goes to pull it from the pile in the bed as well. Once there's nothing else to get out of her bed, she's ready. We get through the first two books easily. It's that "laasstt one, Ava" that is the problem. She throws a falling out in the floor fit if I don't announce "last one" and just drop her in her crib after three, so I always warn her. She goes to pick the last book. We get about 1/3 of the way through it and she slams it shut and goes to get another one. I think this would go on all night if she had her way. Once we get through that book I turn her humidifier and heater on and the lights off. She says, "Pet you", which means to pick her up and rock her back and forth (Joe really loves that I got that started.). She will not cry if I do this for 10 minutes or so. I drop her into her crib, with a few blankets, her Neigh Baby (a my little pony baby doll that talks and sings), Neigh Baby's bottle and passy, and Ava's pacifier. She doesn't need the passy. She throws it in the floor and sucks her shriveled, calloused thumb, but she has to start out with it none-the-less. She usually plays for a good 30 minutes before knocking off.


Cate: "I'm hungry, I want some apple." Apple, she has discovered, takes longer to eat than anything else. She nibbles it in mouse sized bites for at least 25 minutes. I get her #3 books in a timely manner. She occasionally strolls into the living room with three Dr. Suess books (the longest books in her shelves), only to be sent right back to her room to try again. This is probably too much information, but she holds it until bedtime so she can sit on the commode and stay up later. She has actually said in the mid-afternoon: "I can't poo poo right now, I have to wait until before bed." She rides her scooter around the kitchen, through the dining room, and parks it in the hall in front of the bathroom. After another 10-15 minutes, loud singing and several "No, I'm not ready yet (s)" , she's back on the scooter and off for a few more laps to our bathroom to brush teeth. She has to take her ponytail holder out and fold her glasses and put them on the shelf herself. She has to climb into bed all by herself. She makes Joe get at the foot of her bed on his knees, and says "Ready. Set. Go!" and they both have to dive for the coveted "pillow spot". She requires a story from Joe and a song from me- I don't know how we got started with that, but we have since learned not to do anything new or different, because she always remembers and adds it to the next night's routine. The closet light and night light must be on, her bear pillow, bunny blanket on one side, stuffed Build-A-Bear bunny on the to other, blue blanket "spread out and straight" with Greenie (green blanket) on top and Little Pink (small pink satin blanket) in her hand. She MAY have gotten a little of my OCD. We "Hug, Kiss" and she's ready to settle into a 20-30 minute playtime in the bed as well.

And that is really how we get our girls to bed without fits and wailing and gnashing of teeth, most of the time.