Hayden should start working on his stand up routine. This is from the last week:
“I’m a fan of Phineas and Ferb. I have been since I was born.”
Discussing weather appropriate attire: . . . “Short sleeves, which I’m wearing, and short pants, which I’m not wearing. . . .”
“I’m a fan of monkeys.”
“Why do you always have to go putting the brakes on my fun?”
But I don’t find this funny at all—I find it adorable:
I had someone say that to me about one of my kids this last week, but I think it might apply to all of them. Yes, even the one with a twenty-word vocabulary.
This week, Hayden told Ryan (AKA Daddy) that he wanted to work on his birdhouse this weekend. Ryan agreed, but that wasn’t good enough for Hayden.
“Put it in your phone, Daddy.”
Ryan said, “Why do I need to put it on my phone?”
“Because,” Hayden replied, “your phone is smarter than you.”
Ouch.
Last night while we were finishing dinner, Rebecca picked up a picture of Jesus and pretended to read the information on the back, as if she were delivering a talk in Primary (which she hasn’t done yet—she keeps volunteering for prayers). About twenty minutes before, she discovered Rachel had absconded with her milk cup and finished it off. I finally appeased her tears—or so I thought.
After introducing her subject, Deezus, she continued on about Him for a while before I realized what she was saying:
“An’ he wants us to be nice . . . and kind . . . an’ not d’ink ouw big sistay’s d’inks. . . .”
Not on the subject of talking, but last week, Rachel was playing with her baby doll when she suddenly ran into the kitchen, opened the silverware drawer, and ran back:
(She actually got the baby’s mouth most of the time. She also shared some cereal later.)
Rachel is still working on words in general, so we applaud any of her efforts, even “yah” and “suh.” Unfortunately, her latest phrases have taken a sharp turn toward the negative:
When she gets upset, she flaps her hands like a floundering flightless fowl and wails, “No waaaaaay.”
And last week on a road trip, she realized we all found it hilarious when she answered any question with “Ummmmm no.” It’s a lot less cute the 45th time.
What’s your favorite precocious moment?
A flashback from three years ago when Rebecca was a baby.
I’m not really going to get into a theory of evolution debate here—really, the more appropriate headline would be “Natural selection works.” I totally believe that and I see evidence of it in my everyday life (“natural selection” is just a lot longer than “evolution”).
Genetics at work: my mother and my daughter
As a mother of very young children, I can tell you exactly how demanding and frustrating babies and toddlers can be—but I’ve come to believe that a babies’ cuteness is, in fact, an inherited defense mechanism against some of their most motherly-frustration-inducing behaviors. My evidence:
What other naturally cute behaviors have you seen that totally take the wind out of your frustration?
Rachel has really taken to Nursery at church. Although she’s still just learning to talk, suddenly she has a whole new kind of vocabulary: songs.
Although she only knows one word of each song (okay, two words for three songs), she knows all of the actions.
This first one I didn’t realize what song she was doing at first until she added the little toss of her hands at the end. It was the “Bee!” that confirmed it:
Her other two favorites from Nursery are another “Bee!” song (“Itsy Bitsy Spider”) and “Dow!” (“Ring Around the Rosy”).
This reminds me of a dinnertime last fall, when Rebecca was talking about a song from her Nursery about an octopus. We don’t know any octopus songs, but Ryan jumped right in to adapt “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”: “Head, arm, arm, arm, arm, arm, arm, arm, arm . . . .”
“Mouth and beak,” I finished.
Rebecca was not amused. She gave us a very three-year-old glower. “You awe des makin my Desus [Jesus] song siwwy.”
We (okay, it’s just me) are trying to make sure their cultural education is broad in the classics. Witness exhibit 1 (it’s long and mostly sideways):
And exhibit 2, just Rachel:
I swear, parenting seems to age me faster than anything else—in more ways than one!
Pregnancy, etc.
Aside from the fact that pregnancy brings all kinds of aches and pains that you’re not supposed to get until you’re much older—persistent heartburn, perpetual lower back pain, high blood pressure, etc.—your body then has to 
bounce back from the stretching and the pounds—while possibly getting used to nursing, needs and next to no sleep. I swear, every pregnancy adds like 3 years to my body’s age. Three kids—that’s like ten years!
I want to be HOOOOOWD!
My 3-year-old, a classic middle child, has a favorite wail: “I want to be hooowd!” (Hold). (Sometimes I really think that even if she were an only child I wouldn’t be able to give her all the attention and affection she wants!). Whether your kid is fifteen pounds or fifty, the constant carrying wears on your back and arms and hips. All. The. Time. You’d think the exercise would help burn of those persistent pregnancy pounds. Ha. Ha. No.
Now I want to be HOOOOOWD!
Hello, ER!
Basically about the time they decide they don’t want to be held constantly, they start getting into everything dangerous you can imagine, whether that’s the stuff under the sink or jumping off the couch—or the roof. When you’re on a first name basis with the ER staff, you know you’ve earned every one of those gray hairs.
And you thought your blood pressure was high during pregnancy? Ha.
*Scoff!*
Perhaps even before they finish the I-have-no-idea-what-safety-means! phase, they move on to the I’m-waaay-too-cool-for-you phase. As if the attitude weren’t grating enough, even subconsciously they remind you that you’re so out of touch with what’s cool you seriously can’t tell hip from hokey. (But seriously, they think they look cool? Maybe you 
should pull out pictures to show them what was “cool” when you were 14—if you stand the eye rolls and “Mom/Dad, that was never cool.”)
Fortunately, by now you’re usually old enough not to care about the “cool-o-meter” of a fourteen-year-old . . . but that doesn’t make you feel less old.
Time doesn’t stand still
And probably the most bittersweet of all, children become a measuring stick for how much time has passed. You might feel like you’re the same age as when you started having kids, but now they’re six—or sixteen—so obviously your math is a bit fuzzy if you still think you’re 22 or 32 (or 16!). In this crazy time warp of parenthood, it feels like just days or mere weeks since you held that new baby, taught that toddler to walk & talk, or helped that kindergartener to read (and each time, wondered if this phase would ever end). And now they’re finishing high school or college, becoming adults, getting ready to start families of their own.
Every day, I swear parenthood makes me older and older—but I know that all too soon, this phase of parenthood will be over.
And then I’ll be a lot older.
What do you think? How does parenthood make you feel older?
Photo credits: tired mom—Jason Sewell; baby rolling eyes—nerissa’s ring
In the month of October, my children threw up 17 times in 17 days. This is one of their stories.
DUNK-DUNK!
Once upon a time, I decided to take my kids out on a fun trip all by myself. Usually, I try to avoid leaving the house . . . ever, but every once in a while, I’m overtaken by this idea that I should, you know, try to expose my children to fun learning experiences.
Actually doing this, especially with some small amount of forethought and planning (like making them sandwiches to eat in the car!), makes me feel like an incredibly good mom.
Amazing how much three little sandwiches can lull a mom into a false sense of competence, isn’t it?
But how hard could it be? It was a place geared for kids, so it couldn’t be as difficult as, say, visiting the dentist, grocery shopping, or walking down the street.
My kids believe they’re bored and living in near-prison conditions by the end of the average commercial break, so naturally they rejoiced, especially when they realized we weren’t, say, visiting the dentist or grocery shopping—because, hey! sandwiches! Oh, and the dinosaur place.
All until we got inside.
Which was, of course, Mommy Code.
Naturally, once she got out of the stroller and played with the exhibits, she loved every minute.
But when it was time to leave, she began complaining again.
Rebecca had already complained over 12,000 times (approximately) that she didn’t wike dis p’ace, that the dinosaurs scared her, that she didn’t like the noise, that world peace was taking so long to achieve, that gravity was a cruel mistress, &c.
Having exhausted all her logical arguments, Rebecca devolved into vowelless mumbling arpeggios in the key of whine.
Being the kind, understanding mommy that I am, I’d kind of had it.
I was unprepared for the sight that I found waiting.
I’d naively assumed that because it had been four days since the last time anyone had vomited, we were puke free.
Not so. Not so.
After wallowing in the horror! the horror! for a minute, I leapt into competent-mommy-mode. (If you’re counting, that’s mode #3 after spontaneous & fun and fed up)
Unfortunately for competent-mommy me, rather than using a floorplan with flow-through to the lobby, this museum had funneled us into a closed circuit, hiding the exits to the lobby behind doors with ominous warnings, like emergency alarms were going to screech if we came too close.
Rebecca, of course, is still crying, now covered in cold puke. I’m trying to reassure her, and yet get her to remain completely motionless—because she’s sharing this stroller with Rachel who has miraculously remained clean so far.
After running through the same tracks about three times, I finally gave up and opened the surely-alarmed doors that were about ten feet from where we started.
Who’s doing the pleading? Oh, it’s me.
And hello lobby (with no emergency alarms).
Finally, I can move into Mommy phase four of the day:
Two hours ahead of schedule!
But I think the real punchline came just after dinner that night. Rebecca was convalescing on the couch, until round 2 began. Hayden ran to tell me—and mid-shout . . . well, that should probably be censored, too.
Have you been through Pukeageddon? Share your war stories!