#1 Piece of Advice for People Under My Roof

C and Bean are sitting on either side of me, watching Sesame Street while I take advantage of some baby free time to work on photos.  C, looks at me and grins...  and then slooooowly extends her index finger and heads towards my keyboard...

"Buttons!"

"No, C."

Her finger keeps moving towards the keys... as the distance closes, her grin widens.

"BUTTONS!"

"No, C!  Don't push my buttons!"

Heh.  Hehe.  Sound advice for life with a happy Mama, wouldn't you say?

Smooshies!

He's got crater sized dimples, delicious chubby cheeks, and sparkly baby blues. 

That combo makes it easy to forgive him when he grabs my face with his two meaty little hands and chews. 

Well, come to think of it, that's pretty cute too. 

Slobbery, but cute. 

There's Something I'd Never Thought I'd Threaten

Today I managed to get our little family out the door to church.  (OK, full disclosure, Shaun was home and so it wasn't a solo deal as it would normally be).   Last week's snow pushed our annual Christmas service to this week so Bean made a Christmas tree ornament that looked like a tiny baby Jesus in a little manger.  She was VERY proud of her ornament.  In fact, every time it came across C's vision, she would screech, "BABY JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEEESUS!  Peas?  Peas?  Have BABY JEEEESUS?!"

Needless to say, Bean didn't want to give it up.  "But I don't want to share my baby Jesus!"

"JEEEESUS!  BABY JEEESUS!"

And so on... and so on...  It got a little crazy.

Anyway, after lunch, I was trying to hurry Bean into her car seat so I could help her buckle up and she was being a trifle difficult.  "Mama, I can't buckle the top buckle.  I can't reach it."  "Mama, my arms are tired."  "Mama, I want YOU to do it."  Etc., etc., etc.

Finally, my patience were shot and I snapped at her,

"BEAN!  If you don't get your arms into those car seat straps right now, I'M GOING TO TAKE BABY JESUS AWAY!"

She got her arms into the straps.

C piped up, "BABY JEEEEEESUS!  HAB IT!!!"

Oh good glory.

Merry Christmas!

May you and yours be blessed this Christmas season and all year long!

Wash The Dishes, Do The Laundry...

I've often joked that the only reason I have kids is to raise tiny indentured servants that will do my bidding. 

Kidding, of course.

The only reason I have kids is to do that AND to take care of me in my old age. 

Obviously. 

But in order to make indentured servants worthy of earning their keep, I'm finding that I need to invest considerable time in teaching them the finer arts of how to clean. 

Yesterday, I was coaching Bean on how to remember the proper location for her toys as opposed to pushing them out of sight into another room.  (She's quite masterful in the realm of "out of sight, out of mind")  She became more and more exasperated and completed each assigned task with the maximum amount of huffing and sighing that she could get away with. (Which isn't much). 

Finally, she had enough of my instruction, and turned towards me, hands on hips, and said,

"MooooOOOOOM!  I am NOT Cinderella!"

Heh! Not yet, kiddo...  But now that you mention it...  those dishes could use some washing... and the laundry needs doing... and hey, the toilets?  Hmmm.... 

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
 

And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping  

She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

A Poll - Indulge Me, Please?

So, answer me this, my friends...

Is it completely nosy to ask a friend if they're planning/hoping to have more children?

Or is that one of those utterly taboo questions you should leave well enough alone? 

Obviously, exceptions made for very close friends, (who most would ask) and near strangers, (who I imagine most wouldn't).

Weigh in, folks! 

At Least I'll Have Seen It Coming

Bean's in a funny stage lately.  She sings.  A lot. About EVERYTHING. 

She hums and sings and until recently, the vast majority of her songs consisted of exactly 5 words, sung over and over and over and over. 

"Mommy is making foooood.  Mommy is making FOOOD!  Moooooooommmy is making food."

Over and over. 

And over.

And while that was driving me crazy cute, I'm very glad that her songs are developing into nice, storytelling ballads instead. 

Except, her songs are a trifle... dark. 

The other day, she lined up her animal figurines and one by one she tipped them over, singing, "allllll creatures must diiiiie.  All creatures die!  They all die!  And when they diiiiie, they fall over!"  in the cheeriest voice imaginable. 

Erm, ok.  I mean, it's true and all, but um, a song topic? 

And then today, in the car,

"Santa won't bring the presents and Christmas isn't cooooooming!   Because everyone was bad, bad, and my Mommy said NOOOOOOO.   No more presents for anyone!  But thennnnnn, Mrs. Clause said we have to rescuuuuue Sannnnta!  Or Christmas will be goooooone!"

Where does she get this stuff?  I mean, really? 

Sometimes she sings about cheerier stuff, so I think I can safely assume she won't be pulling out the black clothes and Emo music anytime soon. 

I hope.