Tag Archives: kids

Best and Worst

Posted on April 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Hi Everyone!

PHIZ Illustration of Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.  It was the day when my sweet daughter demonstrated her extraordinary love, and the day when my mischievous daughter had all my buttons pushed in about 10 minutes.  With those of you who have kids, isn’t that the way it usually is?

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Mark had a cold this weekend; colds are harder on him than on most people because of reasons there are no need to go into here.  He still got up and went to church, but couldn’t stay for Sunday School, since he wanted to save enough energy for the Sunday night choir service.  Kayla and I stayed for Sunday School, and then once we got home and had lunch, the solemn ritual of the Sunday afternoon nap began.  (Almost every Sunday, Mark and I take a long nap – I’m embarrassed to say that it is one of the highlights of my weekend!) 

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

 Mark didn’t sleep very long because of his cold, and once he woke up Kayla bebopped out of her room, where she gets to sleep or play quietly as she chooses during nap time.  When I woke up at 3, she came into my bedroom to tell me that I needed to come see Daddy immediately.  When I asked why, she told me that he was freezing cold, even though his temperature seemed normal, and she had already given him two blankets and she didn’t know what else to do for him.  As I headed from the bedroom to the den, she also firmly told me that I needed to give Daddy a kiss.  Then she paused and added, “But you need to do it somewhere where it won’t hurt him.”  (One of Mark’s side effects from running a temperature is extreme pain.)  Now, how much more sweet and loving can a daughter get?  Not much!

Kayla Playing Around At Halloween

Then we came to the 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. time slot, where she squirmed, talked, played school and just generally made those noises kids can make that hit a nerve somewhere at the base of your spine and shiver on up to your brain to the “guaranteed to irritate” button.  Towards the end of this time,  we were driving Mark’s mom to take her to the concert with us, and Kayla insisted on being the center of attention.  I was close to my last shred of patience when we pulled up to the church.  (To other parents:  doesn’t that always leave you in the proper mood for worship?   It would be interesting to see videos of families with children under the age of 12 right before leaving for church, and compare that to when they arrive at church.  Sometimes the picture is very different, at least in our house!). 

Fortunately, shift change had arrived, and sweet child came back on the scene.  She sat through an hour of Easter music with no difficulty and impeccable behavior, and enjoyed it very much.  I think though, that she used all the patience she had available to her in that hour, because once she and I got home, the antics started again.  Let’s just say I was extremely frustrated by the time I got her in bed.  Then she reached out to give me my good-night hug, and somehow none of the rest mattered anymore.  I guess the entire day was the best of times, after all!

Kayla and Mandy right after we got Mandy

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., When things don't go as expected, working mom

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Growing Up

Posted on April 14, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!

It’s pretty surprising, but when I woke up this morning, I realized that we had reached Thursday, with an excellent chance of reaching Friday tomorrow.  This week is flying by! 

The older I get, the quicker time passes.  Only yesterday Kayla was 3, and I was reading her a bedtime story, and now she is a beautiful young lady of 9!

Bed Time Story when Kayla was three

Kayla's Spring School Picture (Age 9)

That’s quite a change in just 6 short years! 

As she grows, I enjoy seeing her personality develop, and, in spite of any small mistakes she makes along the way, I love the beautiful sweet intelligent person that she is growing up to be.  (Of course, we haven’t hit the teen years, yet, either.  I have heard through friends that the reasons children are so sweet in their elementary school years is to give the parents enough memories to allow the children to survive their teens.) 

To give you an idea of the difference in maturity, one Saturday afternoon when Kayla was five, Mark was taking a nap in our bedroom while I was doing some chores in the great room and Kayla was (supposed) to be either napping or playing in her bedroom.  Suddenly, a piercing wail/scream came out of her bedroom.  I rushed in to find her holding her hand, crying at the top of  her lungs.  Even though I am not a doctor, it was quickly apparent what was wrong – a staple was pressed into the bottom part of her hand.   After some pleading, chiding and exhortation on my part, she finally allowed me to take her hand and pull out the staple.  Being a rational human being, I asked her how the staple came to be in her hand, assuming that it had to have been an accident.  Well, I was wrong – she told me she had decided to staple her hand to see what it felt like.  She certainly found out!  It was actually a brilliant, if accidental, diversionary tactic on her part, since due to the distractions involved in removing the staple, it took me another four or five minutes to realize that the stapler had been in her bedroom originally so that she could staple pictures onto her wall. 

Now, at age 9, the stories (for the most part) involve little things she says, or does.  For example, this year Kayla has blossomed into an avid reader.  She has read tons of books for school, and has over 100 Accelerated Reader points for the year!  She also has two or three books at home she is working on.  Now those of you who grew up in the same house with me will understand why I find this next so amusing – when she is really concentrating on what she is reading, she doesn’t hear or notice when someone is speaking to her.  I can remember coming home from high school, starting to read, and then suddenly realizing that my youngest sister had been speaking to me for about five minutes without my having heard anything! 

Last night, we ate on trays.  (I know, I know, it’s not the best way to eat supper, but we had choir practice at church and it was already 8 by the time we sat down to eat, so trays it was!)  I forgot to put a fork on her tray, and rather than calling out to me to bring her one, she put her tray down and started to go into the kitchen to get her own.  I apologized for neglecting to place a fork on her tray, and she veered off course to come around to me, give me a big hug and say, “Mom, it’s okay; it’s nobody’s fault, you just forgot!” 

Then, this morning, I called to her that it was time to get up and on the second call, I heard a voice from her bedroom calling cheerfully to me, “Mom, I need help.”  I went in to look, and somehow she had managed to roll herself tightly into her top blanket during the night and needed someone to pull the bottom of the blanket out from under her.  She looked rather like a large caterpillar in a purple cocoon.  She thought so too, because when I asked her how she had gotten wound up in her covers like that she answered with a bright smile and laugh, “I don’t know, but I must have  thought I was a butterfly!” 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Just stuff..., Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

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Cheese Grits and Pugliese Bread

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone! 

Even though it was a cold night, at least it was a stormless one!  We all got some much needed rest.

A Breakfast with Grits

  • Cheese Grits

Saturday morning, Kayla woke up and asked me to fix her cheese grits.  For those of you not from the Southern United States, grits are a breakfast food, consisting of flakes of coarsely ground corn and mixed with boiling water to make a porridge-like substance.  It is, I am told, very like polenta.  I would not know, since I have never been tempted to try polenta given my dislike for grits.  Kayla, however, loves them. 

Unfortunately, there was a problem with her request for grits Saturday:  I have never been able to make grits to her satisfaction, which means up to the culinary standard set by her Grandmas Dottie and Pat.  The last time I tried two years ago, I received enough of a critique from her majesty that I resolved to myself that it would be a very long time before I made grits for her again.  However, after a time lapse of two years, I decided that her home grits probationary period had run, so I was willing to give it another try, with a couple of caveats.  The first was that I wouldn’t make cheese grits since I only had shredded cheese, as opposed to a single slice of American cheese to place on top of the cooked grits, which is the way Kayla insists cheese grits should be made.  The second caveat was that no matter what, Kayla was not to tell me how much better either grandmother’s grits were, or give me continuous suggestions on how said grits should be cooked, since I intended to (strangely enough) follow the package instructions.  I almost had to perform a swearing-in ceremony on the last condition, but she finally agreed. 

She did try hard to comply with both conditions, but she had one or two minor slips.  She started to tell me the grits were too watery when I poured them in the bowl for her  but she quickly bit it back and said,”Never mind.”  Then, once she had possession of the grits, she got up, went to the refrigerator and condescended to put the shredded cheese into her grits after all.  I assume that was because she found some flavor to be lacking.  However, since she never did explain the thought process behind the adding of the cheese, technically she did not violate the “no criticism” rule.  

  • Pugliese Bread

I like bread.  While not exactly a connoisseur, I am interested in different kinds of breads and the variations in flavor and crust that can be attained, so when, on Saturday at Costco, I walked by two loaves in a paper sack labeled “Italian Pugliese Bread,” I thought I would give it a try. 

I have now concluded that “pugliese” must be Italian for “crust that can’t be cut with a chainsaw,” or perhaps “pugnaciously tough crust” since even our best and sharpest bread knife could only saw about halfway through the loaf vertically – and that only with a great deal of effort – after which you had to bend the bread to finish breaking it off.  It was not quite as difficult to cut the bread horizontally, but it still wasn’t easy.  Surprisingly, the bread when heated in the toaster oven with a little butter on it was not too tough to eat, although it was a little chewy.  Still, I am going to learn the Italian words for “soft crust that can be cut” before I try any more novel types of Italian bread!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Cooking, On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

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Rules I Never Thought I’d Need

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 187 comments

When I pictured being a mom, I realized that it would be necessary to have rules of conduct for my child.  That being said, after over 6 years of being a mom, I have compiled a list of rules I never expected to need:

Do not cut the screen out of its frame in the window.  (The need for this one arose when she was 6.)

Do not put anything in your ear, including rocks, without consulting an adult first.  (Age 4.)

Do not put anything in your nose, including wooden sticks, without consulting an adult first.   (Age 4)

Which led to:  Do not put anything in any body part for any reason unless a parent says it is okay, with the exception of food or drink in your mouth.

Do not cook eggs on the stove without a parent’s presence and permission.   (About age 7:  this one is harder to justify because the one time that she did cook the eggs by herself, she did a good job and remembered to turn the stove off, which is more than I do sometimes!)

Do not try to pierce your ears with the end of a paper clip, even if it looks like an earring hole is there.  (Age 6 and 7).

The controls on the dashboard in the car,  including the radio, are MINE!  Please leave them alone.  (This has been a running battle ever since she was old enough to ride in the front without a car seat.)

Do not drag a dog into the bathtub with you.   (Age 6).

Do not dump the entire bottle of shampoo in the tub to use as bubble bath.  (Ages 6 through 8).

Do not dump the entire bottle of liquid soap from the sink in the tub to use as bubble bath.   (Ages 6 through 8).

Do not dump the entire bottle of conditioner in the tub for reasons I have yet to understand.   (Ages 6 through 8).

It’s not a good idea, either, to dump all of the bathroom dixie cups in the bathroom sink and then fill it up with water.  (Age 6, but she had help from a visiting 4 year old.)

Do not wash your hair with conditioner only.  (Age 8 through 9).

Soap is required for a bath to really be a bath.  (Age 5).

And, last but not least,

Paper is not a proper treat to give a dog.  (Age 9).  (Darwin and Mandy liked it  but at least Tyra was smart enough to say no.  I guess I should be grateful Kayla didn’t decide to hand out socks for all!)

Have a good day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in When things don't go as expected, working mom

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Thunderstorm Frenzy and Vacation Mystery

Posted on March 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

  • Thunderstorm Frenzy

Kayla has always been terrified of thunderstorms.  About a year ago, I was reminded of how much. 

After I picked Kayla up from after-school care, she and I needed to stop at the grocery store.  As we went in, a cloud was coming up from the west, but I thought we could get in and out of the store before the storm reached us.  Unfortunately, I was wrong. 

Right after we had gone through the check-out line, the leading edge of the storm hit, complete with fierce wind and driving rain.  Kayla wanted to stay at the store until the storm blew over, and I flat out refused.  She clung to my hand in the store and said, “But Mama, I am so light and I don’t want to blow away!”  I told her to hold my hand, as I was pretty sure I wouldn’t blow away.  Clinging to my hand like it was a lifeline and she was lost at sea, we hurried across the parking lot, where I safely deposited her in the car, after which I put the groceries in the back, got in the driver’s seat, and headed us back home.

Unfortunately, we have several stop lights to go through before we reach the house, and one of them turned red.  I stopped.  Kayla started pleading from the front seat, “Mama, please keep going.  I don’t care if you go to jail, let’s just go through the light.”  (Item:  There were nine cars ahead of me!).  I said wryly, “Thanks.” and she replied, “I don’t care if we both go to jail, just keep on going!” 

Luckily for me, the light changed then so we could keep going forward.  I was trying to help her, so I told her to try closing her eyes and instead of listening to the thunder, listen to the rain hitting the roof.  She tried that for a minute, then opened her eyes back up again with a “What now?” look.  I said to her, “Now, pretend that the sound you are hearing is either fairies or pixies dancing on the roof.”  At that, she opened her eyes wide, looked at me, and, this child who had been losing her mind in the thunderstorm, stated matter of factly, “Mom, you’re embarrasing yourself.”  At least she stopped thinking about the storm for a minute!

  • Vacation Mystery

Mark and I recently had the opportunity to spend some time on vacation at an absolutely wonderful place!  I am waiting for some pictures we took with an old-fashioned disposable camera to get developed before I talk about it, but I will definitely have a lot to share next week.  See if you can guess where the place was by the following pictures (no fair guessing if you already know where we went!):

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

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“Daddy, Daddy”, Yawns and Waffles

Posted on March 17, 2011 | 1 comment

Kayla, when she was three

It is amazing the types of memories that I can recall now because I managed to save the information from e-mails and other medium on the computer.  Here are a few I found while looking through my files the other day.

  • Daddy, Daddy

All of us who have children have had the experience of constantly being interrupted by our children while we are trying to talk.  Here is a conversation that happened one day when Kayla was 6.

Mark and I and Kayla were riding somewhere in the car, and Mark and I were talking.  The conversation went like this:  

Kayla:  Daddy!  Daddy!  

Daddy:  Hush Kayla, Mom and I are talking right now.  

Mom and Dad continue to talk.

Kayla:  Daddy!  Daddy!

Mom:    Hush, Sweetheart, we’re still talking.

Mom and Dad continue to try to talk.

(Repeat above sequence five times, then continue).

Kayla:  Daddy!  Daddy!

Daddy: What, Kayla?

Kayla:  I want to talk to Mama….

On a similar vein, Mark, Kayla and I were in a store last summer, and she had just said, “Mom, Mom” one too many times, so I spent the rest of the time in that store following her around saying, “Kayla, Kayla!”  Mark didn’t hear me, but the store clerk did.  She must have been a mother also, because she was doubled up with laughter by the time we left the store!

  •  Yawns

One morning, on the way to work, both Kayla and I were yawning frequently, so after I made a particularly big yawn, I said, “That was a big yawn; That was a humongous yawn; That was one of the biggest yawns I’ve ever seen.”  She looked at me (I could see her in the rearview mirror) and said, “Are you speaking English?” 

  • Waffles

One day, when Kayla was 3, we made waffles together Saturday morning for breakfast.  I mixed most of it, but a few things I measured out and let her pour in the bowl.  She particularly liked the red baking powder can and kept trying to send extra splashes of baking powder in the mix.  Fortunately, I intercepted, and so our waffles were normal size and not the size of skyscrapers in Manhattan!  They were quite tasty, also. 

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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New Looks!

Posted on February 28, 2011 | 3 comments

Good morning everyone!  It is hard to believe that it is Monday already!  Our household, emboldened by the new looks of spring blooming forth across our state, spent the weekend in obtaining new looks themselves!

  • Kayla’s Braces
  • The most important new look, of course, was Kayla’s braces.  The people at Allen Orthodontics on Friday were just super with her, as they always are, and she has been a trooper about her mouth and the soreness that comes along with the first few days of braces.  Sunday we stopped for a minute, and she let me take two pictures of her with her braces. 

Because she said the sun hurt her eyes, we took a second picture, too.

  • Mom’s New Look
  • Then it was my turn.  I spent Saturday morning getting my hair colored, so Kayla wanted to take pictures of me with my new hair color on Sunday. 

Front:

Back:

Side:

Front Again:

  • The Escape’s New Look
  • We also had a trailer hitch put on the Escape on Saturday, so that we would have a way to pull a light trailer that could carry Mark’s scooter back and forth to the Suzuki place for servicing.

  • Spring!
  • While the most important new look in our house was Kayla’s braces, the most spectacular new looks are with the trees and flowers around us as spring approaches.  Here are some pictures of them:

A tulip tree in full bloom:

Close Up of the Tulip Tree:

  • Daffodils

Here are some daffodils that have grown wild on a hillside:

And here is a close-up of another group of daffodils that have just started a new clump across the street from the ones on the hill.  In a few years, they will have the ground covered!

The last new look in our household was Mark’s.  He originally intended to rest on his laurels with the truck, but a small “oopsie” by him, followed by a bigger “oopsie” by me led to an entirely new look for him also.  But that post will have to wait for another day!  So, COMING SOON:  The Accidental Haircut!

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Weightwatchers as Kayla sees it

Posted on February 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

Thursday night is not as busy for us as Wednesday night, but it still is busy, since Thursday night is when I go to Weightwatchers.  The meeting is at 6, so I have just enough time to get Kayla from day care and arrive at the meeting just a little early so I can get weighed in.  Kayla attends the  meetings with me out of necessity, and I am very proud of how well behaved she is during them.  In fact, she has been quite a hit with the group, and the leader will ask her to help hand out items and do other little things which make her feel included.  Her favorite part is when she gets to weigh in (for free).  She listens to the leader too; the suggestion a couple of weeks ago was to compare your level of hunger to traffic lights – green means you’re hungry, yellow means you’re getting close to satisfied, and red means you’re way too full.  About a week later, we were eating dinner, and out of the blue, Kayla looked up at me and said, “Mom, I’m at yellow.”  

Last night, Kayla had been playing outside at day care when I picked her up, and her first, second (and next 100) comments involved the fact that she was thirsty and wanted a drink.  I had nothing in the car with me, and not being gifted with the ability to manufacture something out of nothing, I told her when we got to the meeting place, she could get a drink at a water fountain.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see a water fountain anywhere on our way in, either.   So she spent the entire meeting whispering to me “I’m thirsty.”  When we got outside after the meeting, she looked at me and said, again, “I’m thirsty.”  I stopped, looked at her in amazement and said, “You’re thirsty?  I never would have guessed!  What on earth would have made me think that you were thirsty?”  She looked at me and said, “Daaadddyy!” in the tone of voice she uses when she knows she is being teased and wants you to stop.  I pointed out that I was Mama, not Daddy, since I was the one with dark hair and brown eyes, not light hair and blue eyes, and that it probably was time for her to be able to tell the difference between us.  She started to laugh and then she said, “It’s just that I love both of you  so much that I have a hard time telling you apart!” and then she gave me that  little grin that says she is seeing how I will take it.  I looked at her and said, “I don’t believe that, but I give you credit for quick thinking!” and she laughed again as we drove home.

She has been very disappointed that there are no free samples of anything given out at the meetings that we have attended so far – at Weightwatchers’ meeting, there are boxes of different snack bars and other items on the weigh-in table that you can buy if you want, and she has just been certain that somewhere along the line free samples will be forthcoming.  Yesterday was her magic day – we got to try some cracker/chips that were 3 points for 30 that the leader had found at the store.  They were pretty good.  The only problem was that they were seasoned with sea salt and the sea salt obviously did not help with the thirst. 

Today is “B-day” in our household – the day that Kayla’s braces get put on.  Mark is going to take her this afternoon to the appointment.  She is already very nervous about it.  Please say a little prayer for her.

Have a great Friday everyone!

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The Best Part of President’s Day

Posted on February 22, 2011 | 2 comments

The excitement of yesterday afternoon having faded to the (relative) tranquillity of the morning, I can write about the fun part of yesterday.  Since it was President’s Day, which I can remember used to be Washington’s Birthday, Kayla was off from school, so I took the day off too, in part because she had to go to the orthodontist for a “records appointment.”  A records appointment is like the warm up act for the main concert – the people at Allen Orthodontics took x-rays and an impression of her mouth.  They are very nice there, and Kayla was a trooper.  I let her go back without me, because she seemed comfortable, and I heard her tell the technician that she was good listener, when she wanted to be, except at school.  Little comments like that managed to keep the entire office staff entertained throughout her visit.  Kayla asked a lot of questions, and most of them were very good.  Friday is the “main show” – they will put braces on her front teeth and a few in the back to help with the front work, but at least she will only have to have them on for about nine months.  She is very excited about getting to choose the colors in her rubber bands though, and was even more excited yesterday when she learned she gets to change colors every month!  Her first choice is orange and blue, to honor “the trees”; ie., the trees at Toomer’s Corner. 

When we finished at the orthodontist, I took her to Books A Million.  I wanted to buy her the Little House on the Prairie series, but let her look around in the children’s section for a while by herself.  When I caught back up to her, we had to open negotiations – she had picked out $90 worth of Lemony Snicket books, and I wanted to get the Little House on the Praire set.  We settled for the first three Lemony Snicket books and the Little House on the Prairie set, with a promise that when she finished reading those we would go back and get more Lemony Snicket books.  Her teacher read her the first book at school and she is wild to read more. 

After Books a Million, we met Mark at his work and went to lunch with him at Cracker Barrel.  I was amazed at the power of imagination in children;  without any other implements in hand, Kayla took the pegs that go in the triangle game that they have there, and the crayon box that comes with the children’s meal, and pretended that the pegs were people riding the bus (the crayon box) to go see a pyramid.  She even tucked one peg in the box to be the bus driver.  It was quite inventive.  Her manners to the waitress were impeccable, too; she even remembered “please ma’am” without having to be reminded at all!

After we dropped Mark back at work, Kayla and I went to a place in Opelika called Head Master’s, where I let her get her hair washed and blown dry, which is something my little princess always loves, and then as an extra special treat, I let her get a manicure next door at the Lee Spa Nails place.  She was transported with joy!  Nail polish is something she only gets on rare occasions and I let her get a little darker pink polish then she has ever been allowed before.  We even had a good ride home, without any arguments over the radio station.  (Sometimes she has a difficulty with the concept of the cockpit controls in the car being mine. You have to draw the line somewhere!)  Of couse, it was all too good to last, but how nice it was while it lasted.

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Reality, Drama and Chaos

Posted on February 21, 2011 | 2 comments

Today’s post was going to be about what a nice day Kayla and I had together for President’s Day, and how well she behaved at the orthodontist for her records appointment, (and I may still get there in another post) but, alas, having arrived home reality and drama have both set in with a vengeance.  We stopped on the way home from Opelika to pick up the dogs from the kennel, so when we hit the house in the Ford Escape, Kayla was in the front seat, Mandy was on the console between the front and the back, and Tyra and Darwin stood guard at the front of the back seat.  As we pulled up, I told her to not let the dogs out until she got the door to the house open.  Of course, she went ahead and let Darwin out, so he was milling in the garage for a minute or two while he tried to decide if he was going to make a break for it.  When we got all three dogs corraled and back into the house, I let her go inside while I went outside to bring in her books that we bought at Books a Million and then walked in to find her pitching a fit because the remote wouldn’t work right (she was trying to watch Beezus and Ramona) and because she couldn’t reach her friend Rebekah on the phone.  (This is after an afternoon where, after her orthodontist appointment, she got to buy books at the bookstore, have lunch with Mark and me at Cracker Barrel, get her hair washed and dried at HeadMaster’s in Auburn, and got a manicure as well as a drink from Chick-fil-a!).  Because the remote had a message about the battery, she decided to fling all of the batteries out of it and replace them (Item:  she is not supposed to touch the remote.  Period.)  In doing so, somehow some of the codes have been lost and the remote won’t work correctly now, especially with respect to the TV.  I sat down on the couch to try to see what I could do with the remote, which ended up being nothing.  While I was on the couch,  Darwin, whose water consumption I failed to monitor in the excitement over the remote, decided to throw up every ounce of the vast water  he had just drunk in the middle of the floor.  (All right, I caught a break there; he could have chosen carpet.)  I never could fix the remote, Kayla reached her friend Rebekah twice more but now is crying because Rebekah had to get off the phone and I have had the (apparently in her world completely unreasonable idea) that she should start to clean her room!  She just told me that her life was terrible.  Sigh.   Hopefully later, when the fit stops, I can talk about what a wonderful day we had before we came home!

UPDATE:  I didn’t catch a break with Darwin after all nor had he managed to rid himself of every ounce of water he had just drunk, either; he was just waiting for a convenient moment to slip into the carpeted bedroom to finish up twice, so I ended up cleaning the carpet, too.

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