Eight Years Ago

Eight years ago I was holding the most amazing, beautiful, wonderful baby girl in my arms. She was perfection in a baby blanket. It feels like I blinked once and she is now perfection in peace sign jeans and a "birthday girl" shirt.

Happy Birthday, my Curly. Thank for being a great kid. I love you.

Tough Stuff

"Being 3 is really hard. I make mistakes."

"Everybody makes mistakes, Peanut. It's okay. That's how you learn."

"When I am 4 it will be easy because then I will know everything and I won't have to learn anymore."

"Baby, Mommy and Daddy make mistakes. Everyone does. It's okay to make mistakes. And it's good to keep learning. It helps you become a smart grownup."

"Are you smart?"

"I think so."

"Is Daddy?"

"Yes."

"Do you make mistakes?"

"Yes we do, sometimes."

"When you are 4 you won't make mistakes, Mommy."

"No?"

"No. You won't make mistakes when you are 4 like I am going to be."

"I've already been 4."

"But next time when you are 4."

"When is that going to be?"

"When I am a grown up, you can be 4."

"Deal!"

Birthday

Yesterday StinkyMan was going to the birthday party of one of his best friends in the whole wide world. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. When the gift was bagged and ready I wrote "To Friend. From:" and then he wrote "StinkyMan."

When I went to grab my shoes he decided he wanted to write something extra, so on the other side of the tag, in his very best writing, he wrote "Happy Birthday."

"Mommy! I writed Happy Birthday all by myself!" He was so, so proud of himself.

"Let me see!" I said, equally excited.

And there, in the nicest penmanship a 5 year old boy can manage it said "Happy Birfday."

It was the cutest thing EVER. He wrote it like he says it and that's good enough for me. I told him I was proud. He showed his Daddy. Daddy told him he was proud. No way were we about to burst that bubble!

He is such a sweet boy. I just love that kid.

Tipsy

So, while I am busy earning my Mommy of the Year award, I let my kids listen to Tik Tok by Kesha. The song is basically about how she's going to go clubbing and get her drink on.

I know, I know. But it has a good beat and you can dance to it. And the little kids are lyric clueless.

Not so much Curly who said "Mommy, what's drunk?"

"It's one you drink so much of a certain kind of drink that you aren't in control of yourself and you say and do dumb things that you would never do if you hadn't had too much to drink. It happens when you drink too much wine or beer or some other drinks."

Eyes wide and frightened, she whispered "Too much chocolate milk?"

"No," I reassured her. "You are okay with chocolate milk."

"Diet Coke?" she whispered again, fearful now of my habit (Yes, I picked it back up. I'm weak.)

"Not Diet Coke. Now go dance."

It's so cute how they can know so much and still know so little.

Cats and Dogs

I think it's pretty cute that BabyGirl thinks that kitty cats say "Meowp. Meowp."

It's even cuter when she's crawling around on all fours being a doggy that says "Whoop! Whoop!"

Discovery

My two middle children have discovered, the hard way, that cardboard boxes do not hold water.

Did you know...

StinkyMan is big into telling me things he knows, and it always starts with "Did you know...." and can be about just about anything.

Yesterday, as we were snuggling before bed he said "Mommy, did you know that there are three kinds of 2s?"

"There are?" I asked, curious to see where he was going.

"Yeah! I am going to the store is the T-O kind of to. She is two years old is the T-W-O kind of two. And if you say "I am big too" that is the T-O-O kind of too. Did you know that?"

"Well, I did, but there are lots of grownups that do not." I answered, thinking of some of the poor spelling I see daily on the Internet. "I think you might be as smart as a grown up!"

Then this morning, we were driving and he was noticing all the bare trees.

"Did you know that trees lose their leaves in the winter, so they look all brown?"

"I did know that, yes." I answered.

"But trees that do not lose leaves or turn brown are called Evergreens. Did you know that?"

"I might have heard that once before."

"I bet Daddy doesn't know."

"No?"

"No. I will tell him. Daddy knows about mowing lawns and about the pool, but I don't think he knows about Evergreens because we don't have any."

"Well, you be sure to tell him, then."

"I will."

And the thing is, while of course, I DO know much of what he tells me, I don't know how HE knows it. He's only in Kindergarten!

And I suspect it won't be long before my little smarty does tell me things I don't know anything about.