New Heights

We joined our gym a little over five years ago, when Lydia was almost two. One thing we really like is the pool. It has a zero-depth entry and equipment for the kids to play on. It also has a water slide. You have to be 48" tall to go down the water slide. Lydia has been looking forward to the day when she would be tall enough for quite a while. Every time we went swimming, she would check her height, and when we shook our head, she would be disappointed.

Then Sunday night it happened. She went to measure her height and stood as tall as she could, and she was tall enough! Well, almost. I think she was a little short, but it was close enough. Then she wimped out and decided she didn't want to go down the slide. Finally, Jayson went down first and then she followed and she loved it. She spent the whole rest of our time there going down the slide and telling us how awesome it was. It was so fun to see how much she loved it. Now she keeps asking when we can go back.

Shower Shaming

I debated blogging about this conversation because, well, pubic hair. But, I decided it must be blogged because it made me laugh a lot. This occurred when I took a shower with Audrey the other day because we were short on time and, well, she stunk. Kid needed a shower, but so did I, and time was tight, so two birds, one stone.

A: what's that? 
Me: My belly button. What else would it be?
A: Your penis?
Me: Girls don't have penises.

A: your belly is very big.
Me: I know. But I've seen bigger.
A: Yeah, but you eat A LOT. 

A: Why is your vagina hairy? 
Me: That happens when you get older. You get hair in your armpits and on your vagina.
A: Can I see the hair in your armpits?
Me: You can't really see it because I shaved it.
A: You need to shave your vagina.
Me: Yeah, I will soon.
Audrey: you're going to have to be like SHAVE SHAVE SHAVE SHAVE (as she is saying this, she is waving her arms around like I'm going to need a machete to do it.)

A: I didn't notice your big boobies.
Me: You didn't?
A: No. I just saw those little things.
Me: My nipples? You have them too.
A: These are my nipples? 
Me: Yes. 
A: Some day will I have big boobies like you?
Me: Yes, some day.
A: I'll have big boobies when I'm 13!
Me: Probably not that soon.

Birthdays

Birthday season is upon us! Lydia turned seven on Saturday and Charlie turned three today. Audrey will turn five in June. I feel like we have moved beyond the baby stage and into the solid childhood years. The years where they will go from diapers to training bras in a blink of an eye. I'm not ready for it. Jayson has started to try to get Charlie to stop sucking her thumb, and I will have no part in it. The way her thumb migrates to her mouth and her fingers migrate to her earlobe, which she holds when she's tired, just melts me. At the same time, I don't want to deal with the stress of a newborn. I love the freedom and independence this new stage is bringing. I'm looking forward to our first summer without daily naps, so we can go on afternoon excursions whenever we like.

Lydia is such a girl now and it scares the shit out of me. I want to do everything I can to protect her. My heart beats extra fast thinking of her going somewhere without me. At the same time, I don't want to shelter her. I want her to have new experiences and be able to do things on her own and develop her own ideas and thoughts and know what it feels like to miss me, but also to be able to have fun without me. I try to ask about her feelings, her friends, her thoughts, without making it obvious that we are going to sit down and have a conversation. She has had a very interesting social experience so far. She has had few close friends and the relationships have been complicated. She has many friends, but has yet to find that one or two true best friends. She gets invited to parties, is well-like in her class, and plays nice with other kids, but I think she is very unique in the way she approaches relationships and it's interesting for me to watch. She especially seems to get along with kids who are younger than her and kind of takes them under her wing. She also responds well to kids who are several years older than her.

Audrey is the kind of kid who everybody loves, but she doesn't seem to realize that. She's smart and funny and just constantly happy. Other parents of kids in her class have commented to Jayson and I how much they love Audrey or how much their kids love Audrey. She loves school too. She can't wait to tell us about her day. She loves to eat and would eat all day long if we let her. Her favorite food is brussel sprouts. When we brought a dish to pass to a football party, she insisted on brussel sprouts, so we brought microwavable steamer bags and she ate most of them. Don't worry, we brought other food too. She refused to wear jeans. She picked out the perfect birthday gifts for her sisters without any help from us and watched with joy as they opened them. She's also very sensitive. Any time we raise our voice or her sisters leave her out, she gets very upset. When she's crying the "don't you laugh!" trick doesn't work for her like it does for most kids. She will even at times tell me, "I just need some alone time," and will disappear into her room and talk to her stuffed animals.

Charlie is incredibly goofy. She imitates her sisters and tries to repeat her jokes but usually gets mixed up. She loves to snuggle. Most kids her age want to walk everywhere by themselves. She wants us to pick her up and carry her. Since she's my baby, I usually do. She has a belly laugh that fills a room. She laughs when she farts. She picked yogurt with blueberries for her birthday dinner. She likes to sing songs and dance, but if you catch her and ask her to do it again, she won't. She loves the water. She can count to 30 and knows all her letters. She can spell her name and a few other words. Her favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus," and she loves Yo Gabba Gabba and America's Funniest Videos, which she will tell you is AFV.

As we move towards summer, I'm planning on writing more. Before the time is gone and I wonder what the hell happened.

A 4 Year-Old Love Triangle

Jayson usually volunteers in Audrey's classroom once a month. This month he's insanely busy with taxes, so I took a personal day to volunteer. Audrey asked me for weeks when I was going to teach her class. I kept explaining that I would be a helper, not a teacher, but she still asked every day. When the big day finally came, her teacher and student teacher told me that Audrey had been so excited every day and counted down the days to me coming in.

Audrey has twins in her class, Ethan and Preston, and she is constantly talking about them. She walks around the house singing, "Audrey and Ethan and Preston sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." I keep trying to explain to her that that's not quite how it works, but she insists it's fine. It just so happened that Ethan and Preston's mom was also volunteering on the same day I did. She immediately told me that the boys talk about Audrey constantly at home and I told her we get the same thing about Ethan and Preston in our house. I got the pleasure of working on a dinosaur puzzle with Preston, and I have to admit, Audrey has good taste. The kid was smart, polite, and very sweet.

Ethan and Preston's told me a story about how they Skyped with some of their family and they asked Ethan (or maybe it was Preston?) if he had a girlfriend. He immediately told them that Audrey was his girlfriend and they all laughed and thought it was sweet. Then they asked Preston (or Ethan?) if he had a girlfriend and he got a little flustered and said, "Well I like Audrey too!"

I was just cleaning up some papers the girls had left out and came across this gem:

Charlie is Insane

Charlie is now just a couple months shy of turning three. And she is completely and totally crazy. She walks around the house saying completely goofy and unexpected things. She growls at people. She yells at her sisters. She gives the BEST hugs and then quickly transitions into digging her fingernails into your face. While growling. She is a maniac at the pool and flops herself into the water head first and hangs out beneath the surface until she needs a breath. Then she jumps on you and forces your head under the water while growling, "You lay down in the water now." She pees her pants and then walks around like nothing happened and she isn't leaving huge wet spots behind her. She pretends our foam roller is her boyfriend. She freaks out and says she absolutely does not want that book by her and when you move it, she cries because she wants the book. Right by her. She makes silly faces and her favorite is one where she rolls her eyes up into her head.

Oh, it's 2013

So, Christmas and New Years happened and I didn't post anything. I always look forward to winter break. I love Christmas. I love spending a ton of time with our family and getting to see them in the morning. Today was my first day back at work and it was so hard to leave a sleeping house. Here is a recap of some of the things we did...

We visited Santa. Some enjoyed the visit more than others.

Santa came!

We played in the snow.

Friends from Madison came to visit.

We visited friends in Green Bay.

Charlie was overserved.

I redid our bathroom cabinets!

Peculiar Audrey

All three of our girls have their quirks. Lydia hates socks. Audrey refuses to wear jeans. Charlie sucks her thumb and holds her ear when she's tired. However, Audrey seems to have a few more quirks than the other two. As mentioned above, she hates jeans. I think she's worn jeans only once or twice in the past two years. She asked me to get rid of all her jeans. She will occasionally cave and wear corduroys, but she prefers leggings and sweatpants. Audrey also asks to be alone when she's upset. I don't blame her. We have a small house and I frequently want to cry and be alone too, but I'm 33. She's 4. It's a little different when a four year-old asks for some time alone.

This is Audrey's diamond.

It's currently on our Christmas tree because its previous spot was hanging from a nail on the wall that is now behind the tree. It is currently on the black side. The other side is blue. When it starts to get dark at night, she turns it to black. In the morning she turns it to blue. She does this every day. She has bee doing this for a couple months. As soon as it starts to get dark out, she runs to change her diamond. I have no idea where she got it. She either made it at school or at home, but I don't remember how or why it appeared. But, she must change it every day.

This is Audrey grocery shopping.

Audrey loves brussel sprouts. She has cried at the grocery store when we bought frozen brussel sprouts and wouldn't let her eat them immediately in the store. When she was allowed to bring a snack to school because she was Star of the Week, she asked to bring brussel sprouts. We talked her out of it, but I still think it would have been funny and I like to imagine Audrey cheerily eating her brussel sprout snack while the other kids looked at her with disgust.

This is a picture Audrey colored.

It's creepy. You can say it. It makes me very uncomfortable. She gave it to Charlie and Charlie was very pleased with her gift.


Now, not despite, but because of Audrey's little quirks, I love her so much. I love that she's goofy. A lot of her goofiness is rooted in her intelligence and individuality and I just love that. I can't wait to see how this quirkiness manifests itself as she grows up.