Out of the mouth and mind of a 3 year old.

So today we went to Costco to return Cinderella's Easter Dress. Yes, they took it back no questions asked. While we were there we picked up a few items we have been needing, and one of the things I got was a box of strawberries.
Well my children love strawberries. Both of them. I cut up 6 large strawberries for the 3 of us to share with our lunch. Cinderella and Guy were both eating before I started, and so they had all their portion of strawberries eaten, while I still had a large pile on my plate. Cinderella asked for some more, and I told her they were all gone. She pointed to my plate and said, "there's some." So I explained to her that these were my strawberries.
Then Guy finished his strawberries, and pointed to the bowl where the strawberries had been, and started grunting. I held up the bowl to show him they were all gone. He then pointed to my plate and said "num, num, num" indicating that he too thought he should have some of my berries.
Once again I launched into my explanation that these were mama's berries, and that they had already eaten theirs. They seemed to accept this explanation, and then Cinderella turned to me and asked, "what's a family about?" (OK so this isn't the first time she has asked this question, and the last time she was just being silly, because I had the camcorder on. She told me a family was about a cup.) Well I guess this time it got me thinking. My response was, a family is about caring and sharing. Then I realized, I wasn't sharing my strawberries. So I picked up a few pieces and gave some to each of the kids, as she continued to tell me that a family is about a cup.

***

Cinderella has been greatly interested in princesses lately, particularly "Cinderella". Go figure. Anyway, Cinderella has a glass slipper right? Well so does my Cinderella. Only hers aren't really glass. So lately she keeps asking me what different things are made of, and if they are made of glass. "Is the car made of glass?", "is the cup made of glass?" "is the block made of glass?" ..... etc. Well yesterday was the first time I have heard her ask is something was made of something other than glass, and I found it quite funny.

Cinderella: "Mama, are you made of jam?"
Mama, very puzzled as to what is really being asked and where it came from: "Am I made of jam?"
Cinderella: "Yeah, are you made of jam?"
Mama: "No. Are you made of jam?"
Cinderella: "No. Are you made of peanut butter?"
Mama, really puzzled now: "No, are you made of peanut butter?"
Cinderella: "No. Are you made of peanut butter and jam?"
Mama, laughing:"No, and I think you are being silly." Then I started to tickle her and that stopped the conversation.

***

Cinderella is learning how to pray. It is so amazing to me to hear the prayer of a child, when they aren't being prompted. There are a few things she has prayed for that really make me think, and some that have really touched me. Here are a few.

• One night she said she was thankful for the Lamanites. (A group of people talked about in the Book of Mormon, who Latter Day Saints believe resided on the American Continent, and are the ancestors of the Native Americans).
• Another day I was having a challenging morning, and when I asked her to say the prayer for lunch, she prayed "help mama to get some quiet time." That one really touched me.
  
• She also prays quite frequently for our Prophet, President Monson.

It is so amazing to me to hear the things she says, and thinks of. Sometimes I wish I could just take a little peak into her mind, and see what really goes on in there. But it is probably better that I can't.

Cousins

My sister and her son came and visited us for a week. He is the only cousin my children have, and he is about 7 months younger than Guy.

It was very interesting to have them here. I greatly enjoyed their visit. Cinderella really enjoyed getting to know her cousin. Guy had a little bit harder time.
Guy would get quite possessive, of his toys, his mommy, and sometimes even his cousins things.

The most interesting part for me, was when Guy tried to sit on his cousin. This actually happened a few times. The last time, my sister and I were in the kitchen, and the kids were out of sight on the other side of the couch. I started being curious as to what was going on, so I asked Cinderella. I don't remember her response, but it left something to be desired. So I decided to look.
I come around the couch, and find Guy sitting as close to his cousin, as he possibly could, without actually being on him, bouncing up and down gleefully with a big grin on his face.
You might wonder why I get such a kick out of this activity. To explain that I need to take you back about 27 years.

At this point in time my older sister (the one who just visited), and I were the only children in our family. One day I was lying on a bean bag chair I think (OK so I was only a few months old, and so I have just heard the story and seen the pictures, so I could be off in my details). My mom had gone out of the room for a moment, but returned quickly to the sound of me crying. When she came back in the room, all she could see was my sister sitting in a beanbag chair, but no Julie anywhere. You guessed it, she was sitting on me.

So, not that I condone my son's actions. But it is interesting to see him attempting to sit on the child, whose mother sat on me.

It was also really interesting to try to work around 2 babies nap schedules, with the possibility of a toddler taking a nap in there some time too. Needless to say, we didn't get out a whole lot. In a way it is too bad, that it took until her second to last day visiting for us to figure out we could go for a long drive, and let the kids sleep in the car.


I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to have her visit, and to have my children have a chance to get better acquainted with their only cousin. It is hard living as far away from family as we do, but I think it makes me appreciate the time that I can spend with them all the more.

My crazy day.

Have you ever had one of those days when it doesn't seem to matter what you do, there are many things that go wrong? And of course when that happens I think it is easier to focus on the things that go wrong, than the things that go right.
So I'm going to tell you about my day. And I am going to try to put in both the things that went right and wrong, so that I don't just focus on the wrong.

This morning we woke up on time, and we were able to all get a shower or bath before my husband needed to leave for a 10:00 meeting. (He has just recently gotten a new responsibility in our church. This one requires that he spends a lot more time in meetings, and less time at home. Which I can handle, but can be difficult. On the plus side, it means that once they find someone to replace him in teaching our primary class, he can take Guy with him during that hour, which will solve that problem.)

Anyway, once we were all dressed and ready for the day, he left for his meeting and I put "The Testaments" (a movie made by our church depicting events that took place in the Book of Mormon, and some fictional that fits in that time period.) on for Cinderella, but Guy down for a nap, and then went to work reviewing my lesson for today, to make sure I had it all figured out.

Well I found myself frustrated, trying to figure out the right way to teach this lesson to my class. It increased my frustration to not have my husband available to bounce ideas off of. But with some prayer and pondering I came up with some ideas and got it in order.

Then I took Cinderella to the potty. She is doing a pretty good job there now. If I tell her to sit on the potty, most of the time she will with out a fuss, and she will actually use it. And she did today. So that was good.

About this time Guy woke up from his nap. I got him up, and let him and Cin play for a while until it was time for lunch. So I asked Cinderella what she wanted to eat, and she told me Cheerios. I figured that was OK, because she had eggs and potatoes for breakfast, and cheerios was less likely to make a mess of their church clothes. So I started to get it ready, and realized I hadn't put dinner in the crock pot yet. So I put Guy in his high chair, and told Cinderella to sit at the table. She was more interested in looking at some paper than obeying, and Guy was reaching the point that he was quite frustrated with being stuck in his chair without food.

So I went to get the food, and put some chicken in the microwave to thaw for dinner. I got their cheerios ready. Cinderellas in a bowl with milk, and Guys dry on his tray. I got Cin to sit at the table, and got a prayer said. Then I got them eating. By this time I had about 35 min. before I needed to head out the door, so that I had time to set up my class room. I then went and got the chicken out of the microwave. It was still partially frozen, which I don't like to put it in the crock pot, that way, but for the sake of time, I did, and turned it on high, intending to turn it down before we left. I then got a banana for the kids, and then started working on some lunch for me. I got a salad ready, sat down at the table had taken about 2 bites, when Cinderella decided she was done, and filled her mouth with milk, and then spit it out all over her.

OK so we were running out of time, my husband was still at the church, and I knew I most likely wouldn't see him before church, and now her dress was covered with milk, and Guy was sitting in the high chair screaming for more banana.

Well I took Cinderella to her room, and proceeded to change her dress. I'm sure I wasn't responding as kind and loving as I should, and so she didn't respond the best. She started crying that I wasn't being nice to her, as I was snapping at her to sit up strait so I could button her dress. Well, she was tired, she had gotten to bed late last night, and refused to be consoled. So I left her crying and went to the kitchen to take care of Guy. I felt lousy and overwhelmed by this time, but knew there was no one else to do it, so I better. Guy had finished the food on his tray, and I didn't have any more to give him, so I got him down. He then proceeded to scream at me, for getting him down before he was ready, and refused to come and get more food, when I found some he had been sitting on. And of course, because he had been sitting on his food, he had mashed bananas and milk all over his trousers and vest. So that meant I needed to change his clothes too. I hurried and gobbled down my salad, and then took to the task of getting him some new pants. I just decided to discard the vest.

By this time Cinderella had calmed down and I found her lying in her bed, ready to take a nap. To bad for her that it was time to go. I finally got the kids ready and got them out the door at about 11:56 instead of 11:40 as planned. I got them buckled in the car, and then my hubby showed up. He was going to give a ride to a 11 year old boy who lives in our complex that was interested in attending our church today. I waved him good bye, and drove to church. I was already on the verge of tears from the stress I had been dealing with, so I spent my drive listening to religious music, and praying. I got to the church, a lot more calm then how I left my home.

Well I pulled into a spot next to a curb. And got out of the car. I then proceeded to get Guy out of his seat, which was behind the drivers seat. I picked him up, and then took a step backward, to head over and get Cinderella out. What I didn't take account of what my heels, the curb, and my ankle twisting when I landed on it. I soon found myself on my back in the middle of the church parking lot, and to make matters worse, my skirt and flown up, and I was bawling again. Got to love those emotions. It didn't take long for some gentleman who I don't know to come to my assistance. He retrieved a shocked Guy from my arms, and helped me to my feet. I told him I was OK between sobs, and tried to retrieve Guy. He told me he would carry Guy for me, and that we should go find a place to sit down. I told him I had another child in the car. So I got her out, and then his daughter, took Cinderella's hand to lead her into the church. It was about this time, that I saw my husband heading toward me. Apparently he had shown up just in time to see his wife take a spill. So I pointed him out to the other man, and he let my husband take it from there. I was so mortified. And to make matters worse, I couldn't seem to stop crying. All through the first meeting, every time we would sing, I would cry. Thankfully Cinderella handled herself quiet well during the meeting.

I wasn't sure how I would handle teaching my class. However, where my emotions are concerned I seemed to do an OK job. It wasn't the best job ever, and there was one student that got a little bit of a tongue lashing. But other than that I handled the rest of church OK, until I decided I needed to tell one of the leaders of our ward (The councilor of the bishopric who is over primary) that my emotions won't handle teaching alone much longer. Then I burst into tears again.

After church was over, and I got home, I think the rest of the day was pretty good. So yes there were many negative things that happened today, but there were a lot of positive ones too.

Easter Dress

So I decided I didn't have enough time this year to make an Easter dress for Cinderella, so we bought one instead. Now I wish I had just made the time to make one.
Cinderella wore the dress 3 times. Yesterday was the third time. She was running around, and I saw a thread hanging down, so I had her stop, and I went to see what the thread was.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not, but her dress is made of gauzy material, and it had started fraying out of the seam on the sash.
I looked at it and figured I would see if I could replace the sash with a ribbon or something. But upon closer inspection, I found that it wasn't just fraying on the sash. The sash was fraying out at the side seams, and the other side, the front piece of fabric was fraying out of the side seam, as well as the shoulder seam. I tried to get pictures of these, but it was too close of detail to get one in focus.
I will admit that Cinderella can be a bit rambunctious, but falling apart after only 3 times. I think that is a bit ridiculous.

So now I'm going to try to make her a new dress to replace that one, because she needs a warmer weather dress in her wardrobe. But before I can do that I need to get a new sewing machine, so that making it isn't as much of a production.
So the lesson I learned from this, unless for some reason I really can't make it for my kids, I should make as much as possible, because then I know it is good quality and won't fall apart.

It's just too bad, because she really loved that dress, and looked really cute in it.

Sewing machine

So lately I have been thinking of replacing my sewing machine. It is a machine that has a strait stitch and a zig zag. It also came equipped with only the basic foot. The feed dogs don't lower, it just has a plate that you can fit on top of them, if you aren't wanting to use them. Personally it isn't my favorite machine, and I didn't know much when I bought it or I would have selected a different model. I think it would work well for basic non-clothing sewing, but for sewing that requires buttonholes, and zippers it is inadequate.
So I have some questions for all of you. I know that many people who read this blog sew and have their own machines.

• What type of machine do you have? Brand and model.
• How long have you had it?
• Do you like it?
  
• Would you recommend it to someone else?
  
• Do you use it much?
  
• What qualms do you have with it?
  
• If you purchased it, about what price did you pay for it?
• Do you feel like it was or is worth the price you paid?
• Do you have any recommendations on what would be a good machine, even if it is different than one you own?

Thanks. I feel like personal opinion can be a big key into getting a god product. Especially if it is something I am going to spend a lot of money on.

Cinderella

Cinderella is in a stage lately, where she is ornery all the time, and tells me that I'm the one that is ornery or frustrated. Then she tells me "You aren't very nice to me." And if I start to count (something I have been doing for a long time. I ask her to do something, and if she doesn't respond I start to count. If I reach 5 and she still hasn't responded, I either help her do the desired objective, or she has to go to her room, until she is willing to obey. It depends on what the objective is and if going to the room is an option.) she totally freaks out and says "DON"T SAY THAT WORD".

She is also getting to be a big helper. She wants to be entertained by Mama all the time, so I've started telling her things like, "I have to sort the laundry right now, you can help me or you can go an find something else to do." A lot of the time she will choose to help me. She helps me pick up toys (this one I don't give her an option about), unload the dishwasher, sort laundry, fold laundry, put away laundry, and sort socks. She also helps set the table, gets me things that I need for Guy, if I am unable to get them at the moment.

She is progressing on her potty training. She isn't there yet, and part of that is my fault. I don't stick with it enough. But I can see that she is making progress. I just need to stick with it, and be more assertive in getting her to use the potty.

Guy

So Guy turned a year old on the 20th, and I took him in for his 1 year check-up today. He is really a small kid. He is 29" tall (25 percentile). He weighs 18lbs 9oz (below the 5th percentile) however the doctor told me, this is in comparison with all of the kids in America, and a lot of them being over weight, it's not bad to be small. I think he was just trying to get me to not worry. But I'm not worried. So my kids are small, it's in the genes. The real disappointment over his weight is that it means that he still needs to be rear facing in the car. On our scale at home he weighed over 20 lbs, so we turned him around after his birthday. He was really not liking being rear facing, and really enjoyed facing forward. So I am dreading having to change that again.

Guy loves food. He loves to eat. He can say 3 words that I can identify. Mama, Dada, and num-num (for food). He eats a lot. When he is in his high chair, I sometimes think he eats as much as I do. I'm sure it really isn't that much, but it seems like it. He discovered a new food at Easter. Hershey's Kisses. He loves them. He will find a wrapper from one on the floor, that I somehow missed picking up, and he will bring it to me saying "num, num, num" and then get really disappointed when there isn't chocolate in it.

Guy loves to walk, but even more than that he loves to run. He almost constantly has a bump or gash on his head from falling against something.
He loves books. He will go and pull books out of the bookcase and flip through them. Sometimes he will pick one up and carry it to me. If I am sitting on the floor, he will turn around and back up till he falls on my lap. Then he will point to things in the book and speak gibberish. He likes to open it to what ever page, look at it, then close the book and open it again. He might even open it to the same page as before, but he is fine with that. He just loves to look at them. His favorite books are the touchy feely kind. Since he was little, I would hold him in my lap, open the book and take his finger and rub it over the textured parts of the page. One day I was sitting with him looking at a touchy feely book, and he grabbed my finger and started rubbing it over the textured parts.

Guy points. He loves to point, and point and point. Pointing is one of his main forms of communication.

Books

So I have a dilemma and I need some advice. But first a few facts:

1. So Cinderella is a 3 year old. She turned 3 in December, so she is a young 3.
2. Cinderella loves books. I think that is a good thing. I love books. Cinderella can sit and look at books for hours by herself. She will let me read books to her for hours.
   
3. Cinderella doesn't take naps anymore. She will maybe take one every 2 weeks or so.
   
4. I need quiet time. It is my only down time in the entire day from when the kids get up (somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00) until they go to bed (between 7:00 and 8:00). I only enforce it for 1 hour, but I need that hour.
5. Guy takes a nap during quiet time, so I really need Cinderella to be quiet.
6. For quiet time what I have been doing is I put Guy down for a nap in the play yard in the play room, and have Cinderella go in her room with some books and puzzles (which are toys that I think she should be able to play quietly with). She has the option to not have the books and puzzles, and to have her pacifier and take a nap instead. She has been opting for the books and puzzles most of the time lately. I tell her she needs to stay in her room unless she needs to use the potty, or has a messy diaper, until the timer that is on the stove beeps. I set the timer for 1 hour, and when it beeps she can come out.
7. A few weeks ago I went into the kids room after quiet time and found that Cinderella had torn one of the pages out of her book. So then I enforced board books only for quiet time. She could look at page books with Mom, but not by herself in her room.

So my dilemma. Today after quiet time I found this in her room.
If you can't tell from the picture, she started tearing the pages apart in the board books too.
I really don't know what to do for her for quiet time. I don't feel like at the moment I can give her books of any kind. She will just ruin them. But she only has 3 puzzles, and that won't keep her entertained and quiet for an hour.
So my question is... What suggestions do you have, or what do you do for your children, to keep them quiet for quiet time?
And what would you enforce about the books? I don't want to not let her look at books. I think a love of reading is something that is started young. But I don't want to just have her destroy books either. I want her to treat books the right way. Would you put all the books away for a time? Rule out books during quiet time? Or do something different?