The scene: The Anderton Kitchen Saturday Afternoon
(Peyton and Josh (his cousin) are sitting at the bar eating a piece of toast that we cut in half for them to share. Josh finishes all of his quickly and watches Peyton carefully eat every crumb except for the crust of the bread. Peyton says he "hates the crunchy part.")
Josh: Peyton, are you going to eat that?
Peyton: No
Josh: Why?
Peyton: I don't like the crunchy part.
Josh: I like it. Can I have it?
Peyton: No.
Josh: Why?
Peyton: I'm a little bit sick. I have a little runny nose and you will get my germs.
Josh: That's okay. I'm a little bit sick too.
Peyton: No Josh, you will get my germs and I'm a little bit sick.
Josh: That's okay.
Josh picks up the crust and begins to eat it. Peyton begins crying a little bit.
Peyton: Dad, Josh is eating my toast.
Dad: That's okay Peyt. You said you weren't going to eat it.
Peyton begins crying more.
Peyton: Dad, Josh is going to eat all my germs and then I won't have any left. That's not fair!!!
Uhhhhh....okay. That makes a lot of sense. The great thing is, Peyton has been eating the crusts of his bread lately. I guess he's afraid someone is going to come along and eat them along with all his germs and he won't have any left.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
HUNDREDS!!
We awoke on Sunday morning to the first snowfall of the winter season...yuck for me...YEA for Peyt.
Our poor trees...Paul went out to try and rescue them, but they are still pretty saggy.
P wanted to build "lots of snowmans all over the whole yard", so Paul built him two and called it good. In between building snowman #1 and snowman #2, P asked Paul if they could have a "snowflake fight." That sounds like my kind of fun. I've always been scared of getting pegged by an icey snowball, but a snowflake to the head doesn't sound so bad.
During lunch, it started to snow again. I was sitting with my back to the window.
Our poor trees...Paul went out to try and rescue them, but they are still pretty saggy. P wanted to build "lots of snowmans all over the whole yard", so Paul built him two and called it good. In between building snowman #1 and snowman #2, P asked Paul if they could have a "snowflake fight." That sounds like my kind of fun. I've always been scared of getting pegged by an icey snowball, but a snowflake to the head doesn't sound so bad.During lunch, it started to snow again. I was sitting with my back to the window.P yelling at the top of his lung: HUNDREDS!! HUNDREDS MAMA!!
Me: Hundreds of what?
P (still yelling with absolute joy): HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF SNOWFLAKES.
Me: Oh you're right. That's great.
Me (thinking in my head): Hundreds? Where did he get that from? We have a hard time counting to twenty without skipping any numbers around here.
I'm going to need another shoulder...
Going from no kids to one definitely had its challenges and joys. Going from one child to two brought new and different challenges, along with happiness never before imagined. I am starting to wonder how on earth anybody deals with three children. Peyt and The Little Boxer always have to have exactly the same things - same size - same amount - same time - or it's the end of the world for one of them.
Just this morning, Peyt was eating his cold cereal. I was making a piece of toast for The Little Boxer, and we were almost late for preschool. I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off (never actually seen this) responding to the requests of my children while trying to gather up the keys, Peyt's backpack (which is pretty much pointless for preschool, but again, it is the end of the world if we don't take it). P wants a drink of milk...get milk for P...run upstairs and grab P's shoes...The LB sees P's milk and wants her own...get clean sippy cup out of drawer and fill with milk and give to LB...the toast is done...put butter on it and give to LB, who by this time is crying watching P eat cereal and starving for her own food...realize P didn't get socks on like I'd asked him to...run upstairs to get socks while yelling over and over "hurry, we're going to be late. we don't want to be late for preschool. take a bite of your cereal. stop staring outside and eat. leave LB alone!! get off her highchair. eat your cereal. we don't want to be late! take another bite of your cereal"...P starts crying because in the midst of me running upstairs to get socks and yelling about how we are going to be late for preschool, I didn't hear him tell me that he wanted a piece of toast just like LB..."stop crying and ask nicely and I'll get you some"...I rip LB's toast in half (I can make her more when we get home from taking P to preschool)...give half to P...run upstairs to put on my own shoes and socks...P comes after me..."Why mama (this is what he calls me these days, I don't know why), why did you give LB the bigger piece. Her toast is bigger than mine. That is not fair. That is not fair. That is not fair!"..(We've been teaching about sharing and being fair. Why do well meant lessons always backfire? It seems like everything is "not fair" around our house these days.)...I deal with this unfairness in the best way I know..."LB is smaller than you so she needs more food, and we are going to be late for preschool."..(This argument also works very well in reverse - "I get more ice cream or a bigger cookie because I am bigger" - The only problem with this is then I get told how that is not a nice thing to say. I am being very mean and I need to say I'm sorry and not say that anymore. Whenever P used to have friends over to play, he would bombard them with statements of "I'm bigger than you...I'm older than you...my feet are bigger than yours" which would cause the "friend" to retaliate, "no, I'm bigger than you...I'm older than you...my feet are the biggest" and inevitably someone ends up crying. I've been trying to teach him to say things like "I'm big...I'm old..my feet are big." He figured it out, but like I said, all well-meant lessons backfire. Now if I say anything about something or someone being bigger or older than something else, (i.e. that cookie is bigger than that cookie), I am not being very nice and get a lecture from my three year old.) Anyway, to make this impossibly long story a little shorter, I'll summarize by saying, we got in the car, I brought LB's blanket because she was still in her jammies and didn't have a coat on. P cried because we didn't bring his blanket. I gave him a book that we had in the car to pacify him for the 23 second drive to preschool. LB started to cry because she wanted a book - at least that is what I am assuming as she can't yet talk. We dropped P off at preschool and I went back to the life of one child for just a few hours. I gave LB both the book and the blanket and another piece of toast with absolutely no calls of "UNFAIR," and finally sat down to eat my own breakfast.
And again, I seem to have gone way overboard in the explanation of one simple picture. Besides battles over food and treats and toys and clothes and shoes and books and vacuums and brooms, every day is also a battle of who gets to sit on mommy's lap and lay on mommy's shoulder. At least for now, we have figured out a compromise that sort of works. After all, I have two shoulders and two legs. Aside from LB shoving P in the face every few minutes to try to get him away so she can have mommy all to herself, it is the most wonderful feeling in the world to have these two little angels fight over me and eventually be happy with their own shoulder. This is one of the those moments I never imagined could bring so much joy. I just don't know how it's going to work if I have another baby.
"P, I promise, my knee is just as soft as my shoulder."
Thursday, October 2, 2008
What does random mean?
I usually avoid this whole talking about my 'special' qualities or filling out surveys or responding to tags where I have to answer searching questions about myself. Anyone that knows me also knows that I dislike being the center of attention (a lot), but in this case, I feel I must acquiesce. My beautiful cousin Catherine specifically wrote in my comments that I must respond (and then also sent a message to me on Facebook). It is not just something I can pretend I didn't see. I'm supposed to write 7 random things about myself, but I hardly know 7 non-random things about myself, so this will have to suffice.
1- Calculus was my favorite class ever. English - I hated!! I wish I would have paid more attention in English, I never realized how powerful writing can be.
2- I get scared very easily. Scary movies and books are not allowed into my house, I frighten myself enough as it is. Anyway, for the times when I get really scared and I am alone, I have mastered the ability to sing a Primary song (usually "I Love to See the Temple"), read a book, and say a prayer all at the same time. It pretty much works for me 99.8% of the time.
3- I have the best, most amazing, loving husband in the whole world who puts up with a lot from me. I have a huge fear of natural disasters, fire, and snow. He helps me cope with them all. When I can't sleep at night because I am too scared of an earthquake, I wake Paul up from his deep sleep, and he'll try to tell me a love story - one of Our love stories. These are the easiest for him to tell as he has to do it a lot and he can say them when he is still half asleep. It takes my mind off of planning what to do, what child to grab first and second, and where to hide. I can just fall asleep thinking of "true love." When I can't sleep at night because I hear sounds like a fire, I wake him up, and he'll go downstairs and make sure there is no fire (even though he already knows there isn't). He even checks the closets for me. And lastly, Paul knows I don't like going anywhere in the car when it is snowing. He bought chains for our little car and promises me we couldn't slip even if we wanted to. Paul used to be a VERY DEEP sleeper. It would take an army crashing through his bed in the middle of the night to wake him up, but no longer. He is not even that grumpy when I wake him up anymore, just alert and ready to help. (Just for the record, this really does not happen too often for those worrying about my poor husband and his lack of sleep as well as my sanity.)
4 - One time my mom and I thought it would be so funny to gather up all leftover hotdogs and ribs from the fridge. We put them in a bag and began our walk very nonchalantly along the Boulevard (a much traversed double sidewalk near our house). Carefully, we would drop a hotdog or rib on the sidewalk when no one was around and then stumble away laughing hysterically as we imagined some poor person walking their dog and trying to keep them on the leash as the dog found a trail of hot dogs. The placing of the hotdogs was actually much more fun than the actual dog finding. Unbeknownst to us and probably to many of you, most dogs do not get all that excited when they come across a hot dog on a sidewalk, or their owners have trained them to ignore them. We were basing our "experiment" on the reactions of Oscar (our dog) who usually goes CRAZY if a carrot is dropped on the ground. You should see him if there is even meat in the same room as him. My mom is the best friend ever. She is so much fun! (Don't worry, we picked up the hotdogs and other stuff before we went home.)
5- I LOVE musicals or actually any movie that has singing in it - "Ella Enchanted" - "Mulan" - "High School Musical" - "Enchanted" are just a few of my favorites. I used to think that the creators of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" had come into my house and 'stolen' my voice to use as Ariel's voice. I realized that didn't really happen a little while ago.
6- Gardening is one of my favorite things in the whole world. On the nights that I am not planning my families escape from the raging inferno of our house, I am planning what flowers and plants I want to get next spring and where to put them. I love it!
7- I am always very nice to survey takers on the phone and try to take the survey. I had the privilege of having that dreadful job in college and realized they are people too.
1- Calculus was my favorite class ever. English - I hated!! I wish I would have paid more attention in English, I never realized how powerful writing can be.
2- I get scared very easily. Scary movies and books are not allowed into my house, I frighten myself enough as it is. Anyway, for the times when I get really scared and I am alone, I have mastered the ability to sing a Primary song (usually "I Love to See the Temple"), read a book, and say a prayer all at the same time. It pretty much works for me 99.8% of the time.
3- I have the best, most amazing, loving husband in the whole world who puts up with a lot from me. I have a huge fear of natural disasters, fire, and snow. He helps me cope with them all. When I can't sleep at night because I am too scared of an earthquake, I wake Paul up from his deep sleep, and he'll try to tell me a love story - one of Our love stories. These are the easiest for him to tell as he has to do it a lot and he can say them when he is still half asleep. It takes my mind off of planning what to do, what child to grab first and second, and where to hide. I can just fall asleep thinking of "true love." When I can't sleep at night because I hear sounds like a fire, I wake him up, and he'll go downstairs and make sure there is no fire (even though he already knows there isn't). He even checks the closets for me. And lastly, Paul knows I don't like going anywhere in the car when it is snowing. He bought chains for our little car and promises me we couldn't slip even if we wanted to. Paul used to be a VERY DEEP sleeper. It would take an army crashing through his bed in the middle of the night to wake him up, but no longer. He is not even that grumpy when I wake him up anymore, just alert and ready to help. (Just for the record, this really does not happen too often for those worrying about my poor husband and his lack of sleep as well as my sanity.)
4 - One time my mom and I thought it would be so funny to gather up all leftover hotdogs and ribs from the fridge. We put them in a bag and began our walk very nonchalantly along the Boulevard (a much traversed double sidewalk near our house). Carefully, we would drop a hotdog or rib on the sidewalk when no one was around and then stumble away laughing hysterically as we imagined some poor person walking their dog and trying to keep them on the leash as the dog found a trail of hot dogs. The placing of the hotdogs was actually much more fun than the actual dog finding. Unbeknownst to us and probably to many of you, most dogs do not get all that excited when they come across a hot dog on a sidewalk, or their owners have trained them to ignore them. We were basing our "experiment" on the reactions of Oscar (our dog) who usually goes CRAZY if a carrot is dropped on the ground. You should see him if there is even meat in the same room as him. My mom is the best friend ever. She is so much fun! (Don't worry, we picked up the hotdogs and other stuff before we went home.)
5- I LOVE musicals or actually any movie that has singing in it - "Ella Enchanted" - "Mulan" - "High School Musical" - "Enchanted" are just a few of my favorites. I used to think that the creators of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" had come into my house and 'stolen' my voice to use as Ariel's voice. I realized that didn't really happen a little while ago.
6- Gardening is one of my favorite things in the whole world. On the nights that I am not planning my families escape from the raging inferno of our house, I am planning what flowers and plants I want to get next spring and where to put them. I love it!
7- I am always very nice to survey takers on the phone and try to take the survey. I had the privilege of having that dreadful job in college and realized they are people too.
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