This and That

I'm not doing a very good job of blogging lately but I try to remember the especially cute things that Ryan says and Charley does. I need to do a better job of just putting down highlights of their days even if it's a few sentences-like what we did and what they ate even if it was a totally boring day. I wonder what I did with my mother when I was 1 or 3-years-old.

I wish I could just capture this age that Charley is in a bottle (I think I said that about her when she was younger). She is just so precious and it is hard for me to remember Ryan being this age because Ryan is Ryan now (does that make sense?). It really hits me with Charley how quickly time flies and how badly I want to remember because it's so hard to remember just two years ago with Ryan. I'm sure when Charley is 3 I'll be thinking I can't remember when Ryan was 3.

Charley is walking alot and is getting more coordinated and slowing down which helps her balance. She is so proud of herself. She's so funny and thinks that everything is funny. She'll point at things and laugh and look back at you to see if you see what she's doing. She likes to make you laugh by doing things like putting things on her head. She still LOVES Ry Ry very much. A few times they have spontaneously hugged and it is the cutest thing ever. They both put both of their arms around each other. Charley will pat Ry Ry while she is hugging her. When she is flirting or thinking she is really funny or when she sees someone she really loves she smiles this HUGE smile and throws her head back and keeps it there while she keeps smiling. She loves to dance. She moves her arms up and down and twists her torso back and forth to music. Pat has played "Who Let the Dogs Out" for them (don't ask) and Charley really can bust a move. You can ask what a dog says and she says "Ruff" in this deep voice. She seems to know everything that we are saying and will go do what we tell her (go get your baby, go find Ry Ry, etc). She started Mother's Day Out last week and did great. She didn't cry at all the second day she was there except a couple of seconds when Pat left. They said she has a great time playing and riding in the Bye Bye Buggy. Annette Castleberry called to tell me that she was so happy when she went to pick up Annaleigh

Ryan has said some really funny things lately. I'll just list....

1. This morning at church she had to go to the bathroom during Sunday School music and I went with her. After she went I decided I had to go so she was standing next to me "getting the toilet paper for me". She was looking back into the toilet and said "Mommy....your bootie is big....your bootie is big Ma Ma." I was laughing so hard. She is getting to where she says and does things that are really funny.

2. Pat said when he was changing Charley's clothes this morning she said "Why does she have boobies? She doesn't need boobies."

3. Today she was climbing on our stroller that was folded up in the dining room. She was sliding off of it saying it was a slide. I was in the other room and she was telling me this saying "we" are climbing and sliding on the stroller. I told her not to let Charley climb on the stroller. She said "I AM letting her climb on the stroller because she is my little sister." Then she started talking to Charley in a baby voice saying "yes you are my little sister."

4. Lisy said that on the day of the Christmas party one of the kids said something that was not very nice to another kid. She said it was not outwardly, obviously mean but subtle and something that an adult would pick up on but not necessarily a child. She said that Ryan told the child that they weren't talking very nice and that she always talks nice. Then she looked up to Lisy for confirmation.

5. Lisy also said that she has a stance that she calls a "Ryan Stance." Apparently when she lost her ponytail holder a couple of months ago during naptime she was disturbed and told Lisy "Mommy and Daddy will be worried." Then, she went to each child in the class asking if they had seen her rubberband. Lisy said she assumed the Ryan Stance each time (I still don't know what that is but will have her show me....she told me on the phone.)

6. Speaking of Lisy, she will be leaving next month to return to Virginia. We are so sad. Ryan doesn't know. I was actually teared up talking to her on the phone. She has been great for Ryan and I would love for Ryan to have another year with her. She's just the perfect preschool teacher.

7. Ryan was saying that she looked so beautiful the other day (funny in itself). I told her that it is more important to be beautiful on the inside than beautiful on the outside. I told her to be beautiful on the inside means to have a kind heart and be nice to other people. I told her I was proud of her because she was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. She said, "that's because God and Jesus help me because I want them to help me." I think that's profound for a 3-year-old because I wasn't even talking about God and she knew that He is the source for "beauty on the inside." She also knew at some level that He helps her because she WANTS Him to help her.

8. She is wanting to do things "all by myself." Today I have witnessed two funny events where she tells Pat or me that she wants to do it all by herself and then a second later is asking for help. This morning in the bathroom at church she wanted to go in the stall by herself and shut the door for "privacy." I decided to let her and no sooner than the door shut did she call me to come in and help her get on the potty. She said that since "we don't know them" she couldn't touch the potty to climb on. We've told her she can't touch the potty if we don't know the people....we will be a public bathrooms and she will say "do we know these people?" The second incident was tonight. She fills up the humidifiers and carries the water back to the unit. She was taking the tank from Charley's humidifier and told Pat not to come with her because she wanted to do it "all by myself....stay in here Daddy...don't come with me...OK?" Two seconds later she's yelling from the bathroom that she can't get the lid off. It's so much easier (and probably better for her too) just to let her think she can try to do these things by herself so that she will then know to ask for help because reasoning at this age doesn't work. Takes patience....Too tired to go into my metaphor about how this is really how we adults are...wanting to do it OURSELVES. Just like Ryan has Pat and me standing by knowing how her bad ideas are going to turn out and waiting for her finally to call us for help-we have the same thing in God. He is watching us make our own decisions without consulting him, He knows the outcome but His hands are tied until we finally ask Him for help (just like Ryan saying God and Jesus help her because "I want them to help me." So much of parenting reminds me of our adult relationships with God. I wonder if He knew it would be that way. Probably so.

9. Speaking of patience, she decided she wanted to wear footed pajamas from last year. Both Pat and I suspected she wouldn't like them just because they are so confining and she's so particular about her clothes. They are also sized 24 months. She has three pairs and tonight she tried on all three and then tried on two of them one more time each for a total of 5 times before deciding she didn't like them and wanted to wear her regular pajamas. Patience I tell you. Pat was in charge and because she ended up taking a cold bath he thought she deserved to take the time to figure it out herself instead of us telling her they wouldn't fit. She didn't have a care in the world. "I want to try on the Princess ones again...I like Princesses....I don't like how that foot feels....I like that one...I'm going to try it on...if I don't like it I'll take it off...I just want to try it on."

10. I just had add that the cold bath was because she and Charley had to take 2 baths because at the end of the first bath Charley grabbed a cup and choked on some water and then vomited in the bathtub. By the time it got filled up again it was cold. Charley vomits if you look at her wrong. God somehow thought it would be good for me to have a baby that really isn't a good sleeper and also vomits at least once a week due to crying or choking. Since God knows that I love and need sleep and am phobic of vomiting this must be part of the sanctification process. Am I sanctified yet?

OK, exhausted and off to bed only to be awakened I'm sure shortly by a little 14-month-old acting like a newborn in the middle of the night.

KK