Our Kids

Piper and I were chatting about a beach ball that she got during the recent juvenile diabetes walk. Go Daddy, which is where I work, was a sponsor of that event and had given away the beach balls.

Piper said, “that’s my Go Daddy beach ball.”
“Hey, that’s where I work!” I said.
“Yep,” began Piper… “Hey! Maybe mommy can work at Go Mommy!”

This is pretty typical Piper… she cracks me up with what she says just about every other day. And the way she said it — so matter-of-factly just made it that much better.

Lela continues to be my tall girl. She is not off the charts or anything but she is long and lean just like her Daddy. Due to her long torso she has to go up in to the little girls size 5 but she is a bit too thin for the pants! Anything smaller in the top though and its a belly shirt:) She is also growing narrow, long feet. She is in a size 11 while Piper is in a size 8. No sharing of clothes and shoes in our future (which is probably a good thing).

Lela continues to be the conscious of the group pointing out whenever anyone steps out of line. She is also constantly asking me to watch TV or to play on her computer. She gets a limited time every day but it doesn’t keep her from asking or my personal favorite sending Piper to ask for her. Now I know that Piper could pretty much care less about watching TV.

Lela knows all the names of the Princesses thanks to our neighbor Noa. She has still not seen one Princess movie because she is scared of them. She does not like anything scary although when she tells us stories there is always a monster in them (hmmmm…..odd). Lela told me she does want to watch Beauty and Beast this weekend so we might have to rent it and see.

Lela doesn’t like change or new things too much and still cries when we start a new class. The only class they don’t get upset about is Apples to Zebras, I say they because Piper will get upset after and because Lela got upset.

Lela has been interested in practicing her letters lately and carries around a three ring binder with tracing pages in it. She has spontaneously written words such as Noa and Mommy.

Piper and Lela are just becoming so grown up. Piper is in a classic phase where when you tell her something she doesn’t want to hear she breaks into a cry (a really fake cry). But she is quickly redirected and can even listen to your love and logic.

Piper is also becoming very worldly, very quickly. Yesterday I asked the girls to put our organic scraps into the compost bin. They went out and worked together to dump their bowls. Lela (in typical Lela fashion) wanted to know what we were going to do next and Piper answered that we were saving the planet! LOL! I just had to laugh. I asked her other ways we were going to save the planet and she said by composting, recycling and reducing waste. Clever girl.

Piper is also bringing up things from the past and telling us about them. For example, how she ate the carrots that were on top of her birthday cake when she was 2! She likes to tell us stories about our past and her past and has a striking recollection.

Today as we were driving along Piper asked out of the blue if Jason and I were going to die. I know that this is a typical question but in my reading they usually are not making the connection about their parents dying for at least another year. We have had the whole fish experience to help us along and we have been talking to them about death, life and dying for over a year now so it shouldn’t be a real shock but it was out of the blue. We talked about it and she was okay with it.

Today the girls and I headed out to Queen Creek (about 30 min away) to go to the olive mill. The drive was nice but I forgot my directions in my rush out the door, so I gave Jason a call and he sent them to me via my phone (ahhh technology, if I had an iPhone I could have looked myself but I would have broken it already so that won’t work).

Landis fell asleep on the way but it was okay, she is sleeping horribly due to the entrance of at least 6 new teeth at once. So when we got there I popped in a Berenstain Bears DVD and they watched an episode while we waited for our friend Lisa and her identical twin girls.

When they arrived we went in to the olive mill to sign up for the tour. Right away I was thinking this was a bad idea. Hmmm…let’s take some 4 year old twins, some 2.5 year old twins and an active 19 month old into a room with lots of glass bottles and jars. Yeah…..BRILLIANT! Anyway, we made it to the tour and we were afraid the docent was going to ask us to leave, lol. Anyhoo, it was fun and the food was fantastic. All the food they served in their little cafe was local (yeah) and very fresh. I had a roasted vegetable panini that was divine.

I would totally go back but maybe with just my mom or some girlfriends, a bottle of wine and a big baguette to dip in all those fabu olive oils.

I feel so bad for Landis. First of all, Piper downed all the homeopathic teething tablets that we had. Now poor Landis is teething something fierce with 7 teeth coming in at once! I mean really, that will cause the best temperaments to go bad. She has all 4 eye teeth coming in plus three molars on the top. Jason is doing his best to comfort her but I can’t stand another minute of her crying so I have to go and get her. I can’t even imagine what it will be like when they are bigger and crying, what a heart breaker:(

The girls have a new thing with Landis, they love to carry her around. The other day I came out of my room after getting dressed and they were toting her around the house giggling all the way. I was a little distressed although I did not show it. Piper had Landis’ legs and Lela was leading the way with her shoulders and torso. It seemed a bit awkward but Landis did not seem to mind, she was laughing right along with them.

They continued the carrying scenarios until I got nervous and said that was great but let’s not do it for a while. They acquiesced and we went on about our day. Today Lela said hey mom look I can carry Landis and when I looked she had Landis in a WWF neck hold about 4 inches off the ground. Yikes! Landis seemed none the worse for wear but it had to be a little uncomfortable.

I forgot to post that on our last trip to the zoo Landis noticed the animals! I don’t remember exactly when the girls noticed them but I think it was a little later than 19 months. She may have just been watching and mimicking the girls but I don’t think so. She did not get excited about every animal but she did like the zebras, the orangutan and even the elephants. I love this age:)

I watched an Oprah last night with Dr. Laura Berman who is a sex therapist. The topic was sex education for kids and boy was that an eye opener. Kids these days are way more advanced and “in the know” than I ever was. I can’t even remember having “the talk” with my folks although I am sure it must have happened at some point.

These days the general consensus is that we should arm our kids with as much information as possible because the information is out there and if we don’t tell them what is true then they will believe things that they hear that are entirely not true. Anyway, there were some interviews with 12-14 year old girls and I was amazed, shocked and terrified all at the same time. There mothers were in the audience and I think some of them had the same emotions!

On the good side Dr. B had “the talk” with a 10 year old girl and I thought it was really good and only slightly uncomfortable. She also has a Sex Ed Handbook that covers from birth to 12th grade in it and what you should say when. She allows for you to interject your own beliefs about sex but enables you to teach them about their bodies etc.

Barb Grady told us that we would have to have these talks before age 8 and it has been on my mind as to what to say and when. I feel now like I am at least armed with enough info to actually have the talks and not seem like I am uncomfortable.

If you did not see the show you should check out Oprah.com and get the guide for yourself and even watch “the talk” that Dr. B did with the 10 year old. Enlighteningly frightening:)