Friday, August 24, 2007

Princess Complex

I always swore I'd never let my daughters get a princess complex. You know, the "me, me, me" attitude. Do things for me. I'm a princess.

But Emma's got one. And you know what? I'm totally okay with it.

Yesterday after a messy, messy Rice Krispie breakfast (um, no, not Rice Krispie TREATS, mind you), I got out the broom to sweep it up. First I made a mental note that they're much easier to clean up after they've been there a while and dry up. Otherwise they're just a gluey sticky mess on the floor. Anyway, as soon as she hears the sound of the broom coming out of the closet, she comes running. The girl LOVES to sweep. Addie's been infected by the sweeping bug as well, and usually a fight ensues over the broom. (This applies to our vacuum as well.) So Emma dropped what she was doing and ran over to the broom and I. Here's the conversation that followed:

Emma: Okay, how 'bout I sweep, Mommy?
Me: No, I'll do it really quickly because we need to go.
Emma: Well, you have a choice. [She may have heard this phrase too many times lately] I can be Snow White or Cinderella. You pick.
Me: Neither, Em. Just let me do this real quick, okay?
Emma: But Mommmm-mmmy! Princesses just love to sweep! How can I be a princess if I don't clean the house with you?!

Hmm. Good point. Princess away, Emma.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

My confession

I went to a pool party today, and the wonderful hostess sent me home with 4 Rice Krispie treats - 1 for each of my girls and 2 for me. They're my weakness.

In the five minute drive home, I ate every single one. I ate them quickly and secretly so the girls wouldn't notice mommy chowing down on yummies.

I feel guilty - not for pounding down so much crud in a matter of minutes, but because they were for my girls.

Am I a horrible mom? Probably.

But they were really yummy. The girls don't know what they missed.

I'm over it. ;)

Monday, August 20, 2007

The wonderful truth and the awful truth

The wonderful truth?

IT'S A BOY!!!

We found out Friday, and we were both so surprised! And I'm serious - if having a boy means being as sick as I was, I sure hope God blesses me with more GIRLS! I'm kidding... I'm excited to meet this brand new little boy and hope that someday he can have a brother. But for now, we'll take them one at a time...

I am a little nervous though. I'm a GIRL mom! I'm really good at ribbons and bows and dresses and dolls. I come from a family of girls and I don't know how to do boys. I asked Gary how I'm supposed to change his diaper - do I bend "it" up or down? He looked at me like I was nuts, but I'm still not sure if he knows the answer himself. :) I've got a lot to learn and honestly, I'm totally up for the challenge. This is going to be FUN! I did get a little emotional though... it suddenly occurred to me that I just might not have any more girls. That the last time Addie wears that one really cute dress, might be THE last time I dress one of my girls in it. Ever. I think I've moved past that though, because I have great things not far ahead. He's going to fit in so well with his rough-and-tumble sisters. Emma will LOVE having a buddy to search for bugs with, and Addie will love having another someone to put up with her "tackling" (although, I think she thinks they're "hugs").

Emma was so excited when we told her. She said, "I'm so so so excited for my new baby brother!" and she's quick to share with people that it's a BOY baby. She's still set on "Washcloth" for his name though, so we'll have to give it some serious consideration.

Now for the awful truth...

(and no, thankfully it's not baby-related, praise God!)

As we were waiting to be called in for our ultrasound on Friday, a very obese woman walked by us. As Emma watched her walk by, she said, "She's a big, fat girl!" Gary and I were mortified. We were quick to call her over and shush her before she repeated it. I'm not sure that the woman heard - if she did, she disregarded the comment completely, but Emma did say it somewhat quietly. Regardless, it was totally inappropriate and Gary and I were just stunned that she'd say something like that. We reprimanded her immediately and told her never to say something like that again and explained why.

The thing is, I honestly believe Emma didn't know it was wrong. I think she was just observing and stating a fact. And it sounds horrible, but well, she was right. The woman was very overweight. Maybe dangerously overweight. Of course, adults would never dream of just stating the obvious, but Emma is three. I don't think she even thought of it as malicious or judgmental or was intended to hurt anyone's feelings. Until we told her that saying that someone is fat is wrong, I'm don't think she saw anything wrong with it. So here's my struggle - by our saying something, have we opened her eyes to the fact that overweight people are well, overweight and that it's not to be discussed? We tried to explain that it might have hurt that lady's feelings, and Emma said, "Well, but she was!" She's right. We just told her that it's not nice to talk about how people look, and that God made us all perfectly. Emma has never said anything about different races, and I was half expecting it to come up, but I think before our little talk she saw everyone as equal (as everyone IS!). By making certain traits "off-limits" I really hope we haven't opened her eyes to people being different.

My thoughts are all jumbled, so I'm not explaining myself well, but I've been thinking about it since it happened. I just want her to stay innocent, loving all people no matter what. She's really good about that so far. It's one thing I love about Emma - she thinks ANYONE can be her friend. She's very compassionate when she sees someone who is hurt or lonely or sick. Just last week we visited Gary's aunt in a nursing home, and while Auntie Annie lay there on her bed sleeping and struggling to breathe, Emma just rubbed and patted her arm and quietly said hi to her. She even kissed her before we left. I love that she wasn't scared, and saw that Annie just needed a little love. Adults aren't always willing to look past the pain and suffering, so I was very, very proud of her.

So that's the awful truth. Emma said it out loud, which forced us to explore it further. Would it have been better to ignore her comment or just to acknowledge that she was right? It didn't make sense to do anything but tell her not to repeat that - ever - and I think it sunk in enough that she won't. I hope.

Random pictures

Get ready for picture overload! Don't let the cuteness overwhelm you. ;)




Emma's first fishing trip... (doesn't she look thrilled with her catch?!)



Fun at the park!


Lovin' those fireworks! Don't they look happy?


Another fishing trip... this time Mommy was invited!





Emma let her little sister help!


That's all for now. California vacation pictures are still on the camera, otherwise those would overtake my blog as well. :)

Friday, August 03, 2007

Over 2 months?!

Has it really been over 2 months since I posted?! Yikes. I've appreciated all of the "where are you?!" comments from some of my loyal readers. :) I've felt loved.

Well... I finally, FINALLY feel like I'm over this whole morning sickness thing. About time too - I'm now 18 weeks along! On one hand I feel like it's gone fast, but on the other hand (and both feet, for that matter) I feel like I've been pregnant for YEARS this time. My puking has finally slowed down (although I did toss my Cheerios just two days ago - ugh!), and I'd like to think it's officially behind me. Speaking of, um, behind me, some day if I feel brave, maybe I'll share what contributed to my feeling so sick. Suffice it to say that pregnancy comes with some lovely side effects, and I experienced several of them more than any woman should. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and my friends, I was DESPERATE. Let me just say this: if ever Colace, 2 dozen bing cherries in one sitting, and a little friend named Fleet don't do it for you, I've got quite the solution. Boy, do I!

My lack of posting is a pretty good reflection of my life in the last couple months, in that nothing earth-shattering has happened around here lately. I've got a ton of pictures to post, but I'll have to do that later. I got a new camera for my birthday and haven't taken the time to figure out how to upload them to the computer yet! That's next on my list. So... some random tidbits to share...

* I turned 30 since my last post. I didn't think it would be a big deal, and it sure wasn't! It was the most anticlimactic birthday ever. Gary was out of town so I was alone with the girls, and puked 2 or 3 times that day. I can't remember, because I really have tried to block it from my mind. It was THAT awesome. But to his credit, Gary celebrated with me the day before and we had fun. There's just something about the "actual" day... you know?

* We can find out the sex of our baby in 2 weeks!!!! Gary's pretty set on not finding out though, and I'm warming up to the idea. He did tell me today that I could find out if I didn't tell anyone. HA! That's a good one.

* Addie is a chatterbox! It's so weird because Emma was hardly speaking at all (literally!) at Addie's age (21 months). Emma's made up for lost time in a BIG WAY though, so you'd never know she was behind for awhile, so Addie has a good mentor.

* Big things are brewing for us around here... but I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Sorry to be cryptic... time will tell.

* We leave for vacation in CA in just a few days. I'm excited for a change of scenery, time to relax and see family, and have some fun... but... I'm SO, SO bummed that it coincides perfectly with Michelle's trip HERE! Argh! Seriously, Michelle. I'm so disappointed. :(

* Gary celebrated his birthday a few weeks ago, and Emma was INSISTENT that we buy him a fishing pole. (He doesn't fish.) But we have this little lake near our house that she sees all the time and asks if we'll take her fishing, so I thought I'd indulge her birthday wishes for her Daddy. So we took a trip to WalMart where she picked out the most perfect pink Cinderella fishing pole for him. LOL! I told her that maybe we could get him two, just in case he loses one, and she thought it was a good idea. So $25, a pink fishing pole and a black fishing pole later (oh, and one small jar of salmon eggs because "Oooo! These are cute, mom!"), we were set with his present. You know what? He was THRILLED! Being the generous guy that he is, he graciously gave one to Emma (yes, the pink one). They've been fishing twice now (I'll share those pictures later) and Emma just LOVES it. She's caught two fish now, and is just the cutest little fisherwoman I've ever seen.

Alright. That's enough to prove I'm still alive and among the living. Stay tuned for a pictorial account of the last couple months! :)

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