Tag: rebecca

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Kids/Parenting

Hayden’s Four!

It’s Hayden’s birthday! For someone who has talked about his birthday for six months, he’s not that excited. I told him he was four this morning and he said, “Wight now?”

When Rebecca got up, he told me to “Tell her what I have now.”

I correctly guessed he wanted me to tell her he was four. Hayden came to stand over her, and Rebecca grunted at him to go away, using her sign for “all done/all gone/no more.”

“See wants my fee years old back,” Hayden explained.

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Birthday boy needs a haircut

And to catch up with the kids:

Just a few of the inventions Hayden claims are in “his car” (the red Honda we haven’t driven in years, but still have):

  • wings, so it can fly to Nana
  • guns (that go “pew! pew!”)
  • a machine that makes purple monkeys with sad faces and happy faces
  • two ovens
  • [added later: bathtub]

Some words Hayden puts his personal spin on:
woo — you
wuze — use
Werbecca (still)
foon — spoon (and all other words beginning with sp-, sm-, etc.)
[added later: DVDV (“divvydivvy”) — DVD]

Words Rebecca can say (at 18 months, in the order she learned them as best I can remember):
des/dah (yes/yeah)
dat (that)
Dada (this was a long time before the next ones)
Mama, Nana, Papa
Beebe (baby, sometimes Pinky)
Deesa (Jesus)
oooh (no)
oosh (shoes or juice)
[added later: mmmmooowa (more, which came after Dada), boo’ (book), ba’/bap (bag), ba’ (ball), hi, bye]

Words Rebecca can sign:
more
shoes
cookie/treat
Jesus
milk
apple
cheese
Pinky
Hayden
baby
cracker
clean
no more/all gone/all done/FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY STOP CHANGING MY DIAPER!!!!
[added later: hi, byebye, please, thank you, bread, excuse me]

Body parts Rebecca knows:
Hair
Head
Eyes
Ears
Mouth
Nose
Chin
Tongue
Cheek
Neck
Knees (sometimes)
Feet
Toes
Fingers
Hands
Belly

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Kids/Parenting

Rebecca and Hayden take on the world

When you have a child, you want him or her to be able to succeed. To take on the world and win.

When you have two, you want them to do that together.

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And some other fun pictures from the park today:

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Shots 1, 2, 3

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Hayden dancing on the stage and singing his ABCs

What have you done to help prepare your kids to take on the world—including giving them a sibling to work side-by-side with?

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Kids/Parenting

The infallible logic of a three-year-old

This afternoon, I was struggling with Rebecca, who has recently decided that she would prefer not to have her diaper changed ever again. Hayden watched the writhing and screaming (from both of us) and offered some pointers (he’s already learning how to be a dad! 😉 ).

july-2009-025“Becca do not want to be wiped.”

I agreed with his astute assessment.

“You not wipe her?”

“I have to wipe her,” I explained. “She’ll get hurt if I don’t.” Apparently we’ve had the diaper rash discussion enough times before that he accepted this without argument. But after a moment, he offered one more piece of advice to help us avoid future encounters of the #2 kind:

“Becca, stop pooping.”

What incredibly logical arguments did/do your toddlers or preschoolers make?

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Kids/Parenting

Why #2 is easier

With Hayden, we had two people giving examples—me and Ryan. (And, let’s face it, most of the time it was me. That whole earning-money thing. Whatever.)

With Rebecca, she has two people with her pretty much all the time to model behaviors. She’s picking up signing probably about the same as Hayden did, and of course some things she hasn’t learned yet that he knew at this age—but some things she’s practically a prodigy at already.

Like this one:

She also does this whenever she sees me with my arms folded, and randomly throughout the day. I love finding her sitting on the floor, her arms folded and her head deeply bowed. She’s also done this while we were eating lunch or even out to eat, as if to remind us that we forgot to say our prayers.

I know there will be an equal number of disadvantages for her, of course—I just won’t have the same amount time I devoted to Hayden to give my singular attention to her—but I’m pretty proud of this one!

How were your later children easier than your first? What things did you notice them picking up on faster?

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Kids/Parenting

Big girl!

Rebecca is growing up! While she’s still physically quite small, every once in a while I’ll notice how long her legs are getting or how chubby her little belly is. (Especially after dinner!)

Last week, she finally learned to pull herself to standing. It took her a while to reach that milestone, but she’s really caught on! And a week or so before that, I pulled her hair back into pigtails for church—and she really looked like a big girl!

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The ten minutes of wrestling and screaming to get her hair that way, we haven’t attempted it again. But we will at some point.

Her first birthday is coming up quick—it’s hard to believe it’s only been a year, but it’s hard to believe it’s already been a year!

How do you celebrate first birthdays? Do you think the time continuum of early childhood (where the days drag but the months fly by) gets better or worse as time goes on?

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Kids/Parenting

I have a daughter (Or, alternatively, I am slow)

Maybe I’ve been a mother of a boy for too long. Maybe I’ve been out of school for too long. Maybe I’m just clueless. But this week, it suddenly hit me.

I have a daughter.

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What up, Mom?

Okay, really, I know she’s a girl. In fact, it was one year ago today that we found out we were having a girl. So I’ve had plenty of time to get used to that idea.

But I guess I hadn’t really appreciated the full meaning of having a daughter until this week. It happened gradually. First we ran out of everyday pants for Rebecca, so I went through the mass of 6-12 month clothes we finally got out for her (she also still needs a dresser). All I found were dresses and skirts. I settled for a denim play skirt.

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Look at those lashes!

We went through two denim skirts that day, and still the laundry didn’t get done (where is my laundry fairy?!). So the next day, I put her in a dress.

kids-feb-mar-2009-092smallIt was at this point that it hit me. I have a little girl. She can wear play dresses and tights—and I can buy frills and ribbons and flowers. She can play with dolls and pretend to teach them to read. She can play house, pretend to cook (if Hayden will let her take over those duties, of course), and dress up in my high heels. (No comment on doing her hair.)

But most of all: she can take dance lessons. Most instruments, most sports, most clubs, most other extracurriculars are fairly gender-neutral. But, let’s face it, dance lessons are they epitome of little girlitude.

This led me to a new dilemma: what kind of dance lessons? I did years and years of ballet, and a semester of Irish dance in college. I love lyrical; I don’t enjoy tap or jazz. We’re technically of Scottish descent, so there’s always Highland dance to consider.

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I’ve decided, however, not to worry about all that now. Even after she’s old enough to start “dance” lessons, it’ll be years before she’s old enough or required to choose among the various styles.

And considering it took me a year to understand that we have a daughter, I’m sure it’ll take me that long to figure out what kind of dance (if any) we want her in anyway!

What are your favorite things about little girls?