according.to.kim

Was she serious or joking?

I really don't know...

Last week, after the girls and I went for a bike ride/walk, I was telling Neil that the next time I take them out, I should make sure their faces are washed before we leave the house because we ran into (and chatted with) my grade three teacher and her husband when we were on the bike path. Sophia overheard this and exclaimed loudly -- in seeming disbelief...

"Your grade three teacher is still alive?!"

Had to write this down

While watching me peel and cut up fruit this morning, Sophia kept fidgeting and sort of dancing around. I said, "Do you have to go to the bathroom?" She replied, "No, I'm just bored, but I like watching you." Then, after a brief pause, she said, "My feet don't, but I do."

***

A few weeks ago, Madeline and I were walking toward our van in a parking lot. I noticed some brake lights come on right next to us, so I hurried Madeline out of the way of the car that was about to back up. As the car backed out of its spot (with the driver window down), Madeline stopped, put her hands on her hips, and said to the driver (a 20-something guy with a soul patch) in her most serious-angry voice, "You should watch where you're going!" He looked at her and said, "Uh... yeah, I should," while doing his very best not to crack a smile -- which I can attest is not easy when you get a scolding from Madeline!

***

While skimming through past months looking for favourite posts, I've come across many things my kids have said. I'm very glad that when I started quoting Sophia and Madeline, I created categories called Sophisms and Madelisms. In the future, I'll undoubtedly create one called Georgiaisms... or should it be Georgisms? Hmmm.

Daily pic: 18 Jan 07

This morning, Sophia claimed that she was "born to make snowflakes." Indeed, she is a very prolific snowflake maker, and she leaves bits of paper everywhere!

(Our floors are in such terrible shape. I hope our next big home improvement project will be to have them refinished. Oh, but what a major undertaking that'll be. Eek.)

Quote of the day

After asking me if she could keep today's Ben Moss flyer, Sophia said, "I love, love, love diamonds and jewelry!"

Good luck with that, kiddo!

I guess she is a girlie girl in some ways.

Smarty pants

This morning...

Me: "You sure made a nice necklace."

Sophia: "That's because I'm talented. Really talented."

Yes, and humble too!

You were playing WHAT???

Yesterday morning, we stopped at Darren and Ali's to drop off a few items for the garage sale. We were just going to be there for a couple of minutes, so the girls stayed in the van. When Neil and I got back into the van, it was obvious that Sophia and Madeline had gotten into my purse and my lipstick. As we drove away, I scolded them for going into my purse and putting lipstick on without permission, and I asked a very silly question: "Why did you do that?!"

Sophia's reply: "We were playing hooker."

I wasn't sure I heard that right. "You were playing what?

"Hooker."

Huh? Did she just say hooker?! Neil and I looked at each other. We were both thinking, Does she know what a hooker is?! (Remember, they were also sporting some extra makeup.) For a second, I considered asking Sophia if she knew what a hooker was, but decided not to. I did NOT want to go there.

Neil and I were just so confused, we had no response. After a few seconds of our stunned silence, Sophia piped up, "Yeah, we were using the hook to hook your purse!" (The hook is a very long shoe horn that was in the van for some unknown reason.)

What a relief!

I immediately knew what she meant because when B was with us on Friday afternoon, they were playing with the long shoe horn and had snagged my purse several times. Each time it disappeared, I would think of something I needed from my purse and then act very surprised when my purse was missing. The girls roared with laughter every time I exclaimed, "Where's my purse?!"

Unearthed today

This afternoon, I was sorting through a box of papers that hadn't seen the light of day for three years. It was mostly receipts and quotes from our kitchen and basement renos, as well as a bunch of manuals and warranty info. To my dismay, there was even junk mail in there. But among all the papers, I found some gems... a Sears portrait diskette with this photo of Sophia and Madeline taken at the end of January 2003:

...and a scrap of paper with the following notes:

Feb 3/03 [Sophia had just turned two]

"Milk please Daddy."
"Help me reach it."
"Sherlock scared me."
"That one? / This one?"
"Touch it. / Hold it." (it = Madeline)
"Bless you Madeline."
"Here you go. / There you go."

Sophia - 30 lbs 11 oz, 35"
Madeline - 6 lbs 14.5 oz, 19.25"

Mid-Feb

"I do it! I do it!"

Mid-March

"Milk me please."

There, now I can get rid of that diskette and paper! Progress.

Note: At three and a half, Madeline weighs less than Sophia did when she turned two.

All about Sophia

Last week, Sophia said to me in a very serious tone, "Mom, you should watch the Care Bears. It would teach you how to care for your children." (Gee, thanks!)

Lately (Neil says for six months now, but I disagree), Sophia has been in the habit of rolling her Rs when speaking. Not all day long, but several times throughout the day, she tries to roll the Rs in every word she says. It r-r-r-really bugs Neil. It doesn't bother me; I think it's kind of funny.

Each night at bedtime, Sophia selects books from a series called Secrets of the Animal World. Each book is about a certain group of animals such as birds, crocodilians, primates, etc., and every book has a diagram of the animal's anatomy. Sophia insists that we look at "the insides" in every book, and the first thing she looks for is the kidney. It's true. She can now find the kidney(s) in most animals.

Sophia's drawings are becoming more sophisticated. She really likes to draw flowers and houses now (it was rainbows and hearts for a very long time). She also incorporates a lot of stickers into her pictures. This morning, she whipped up this work of art to enter the Kids' CBC Curious George Canada Day Contest (the prize is a VIA Rail trip for four to Ottawa for Canada Day). Speaking of Kids' CBC, Sophia absolutely loves playing games on the website, especially The Art Machine.

Kidbits

On Easter weekend, I said to Madeline, "I can't believe you're wearing that dress again!" (a silly thing to say, really), and Sophia responded, "Well, she's a dress-loving girl, so she can't help it! And I'm a snake and dinosaur and frog-loving girl!"

When we were at the pool for Sophia's swimming lesson last Friday, Madeline got my attention and pointed to her flip flop floating in the middle of the pool. When I asked, "Why did you do that?!", she replied with a giggle and a huge smile, "Funny!"

When we're out in the van and Madeline sees a Canadian flag, she shouts very excitedly, "Canada!" and then, "I love Canada!" every single time. We can't help but smile, every single time.

A few days ago, Sophia decided she's not going to use sippy cups anymore. We agreed wholeheartedly.

Madeline had her entire swimming lesson this evening with the instructor (without a parent) and she was the only one in her class to do so. The instructor said she did very well.

Last night was the first time Sophia and Madeline slept in the same bed all night -- and they liked it! Around 5:00 a.m., Sophia started calling me and woke Madeline in the process. When I went to her room, Sophia asked me if I'd stay. I said I couldn't and then tucked them in. Without a word, Sophia started rubbing Madeline's back. I didn't hear from them again until it was time to get up!

Finally, this picture just makes me laugh:

More quotes from today

Warning: A little toilet humour follows...

Within the past five minutes:

Sophia, from the bathroom, "It's like I'm laying a hundred eggs here!"

Neil to Sophia, after a brief conversation about wiping bums, "If you ever have to wipe my bum, you can pull the plug while you're at it."

I'm practically in tears writing this. You can't buy entertainment like that.

Kid quotes

Sophia to Neil, this morning, in the whiniest voice possible, "It's like I'm Cinderella and you're my step-mother and you're making me do eeeeverything!" (Neil asked her to help clean up a few things before they embark on their mission to create a replica of the solar system.)

Madeline, yesterday, with her arm around Sherlock's neck, "I'm a purple princess and this is my purple horse!" She has a thing about purple. A couple of weeks ago, we took her to Costco and she announced, "This is my purple Costco!"

Quote of the day

"Dip is my favourite vegetable!"

Not to worry, Sophia eats plenty of real vegetables along with that dip! She requested tomatoes, carrots, and cauliflower for breakfast this morning.

Thanksgiving weekend

I'm so glad to have had a four-day weekend. I needed this extra day off so badly. I had Friday off, as I often do, but Neil worked all day and didn't get home until I was just getting the girls into bed. I don't really consider that to be a day "off" though--it's too difficult to either rest or get anything done beyond the basics.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving. The girls and I went to a friend's home on a farm near Griffin for supper on Saturday. (Neil stayed in Regina and went to the Rider game.) All three of us had a great time. By the end of the party, Madeline was really wound up and enjoyed getting attention from the other guests. She fell asleep in the van just minutes after we left. Sophia stayed awake though and I asked her what her favourite part of the party was. She said, "All of it, except when I hurt myself!" She certainly had a lot of fun there. Sophia and a seven-year old boy were the oldest children at the party and they played together quite a bit. On the way home, Sophia said, "When I grow up, I might want Miles to be my boyfriend." I've never heard her say anything like that before! Cute.

We stayed overnight in Yellow Grass that night as it's conveniently about half way between Griffin and Regina. Thank goodness! I couldn't have driven all the way home; it would have been torture trying to stay awake for an hour and a half that late in the evening. It was really nice to visit with Mom and Dad on Sunday morning. We headed back to Regina before noon and were there for just a few hours before going to Neil's Mom and Dad's at Avonlea for Thanksgiving dinner. (I was so tired, I slept for a couple of hours in between.) It was another delicious turkey dinner! I love turkey and rarely have it at home, so I was very happy to have it two days in a row. It was a party too with 16 people including the children. We drove home last evening and didn't get home until after 11:00 p.m. so it was another late night for me too.

So, as I said, I needed today, not only to rest up from the busy weekend but to catch up on some chores. We did accomplish quite a bit today. The living room and dining room haven't looked this good in a long time. We're stocked up with groceries again too.

Another thing I was working on today is sorting through my digital photos. I used to keep up with the sorting and editing every couple of weeks or when I downloaded a larger batch of photos, but I was really behind--it had been almost two and a half months! I was looking at pictures today that I barely remember taking. I really need to do this. I like to sort pictures by people and events, but the main thing I do is sort photos of each of the girls by month, such as "Sophia Sept 2005". My plan is to scrapbook just a few of my favourite pictures of each child for each month. I hope that won't be too overwhelming. I'm going scrapbooking this Saturday, so I need to finish sorting ASAP, then choose and print some photos.

What's up?

So, what have I not been blogging about since last Thursday? (I guess my last post wasn't that long ago, but it seems like it. I always feel like I'm neglecting something or missing something when I don't post anything.)

We enjoyed going to Yellow Grass on Saturday to celebrate our niece Kacy's first birthday (her birthday was on the 27th). She is such a sweet little one-year old, and she reminds me of Madeline at that age--petite and bald! It's always great to see everyone in YG and the kids have so much fun together! Robyn had invited us and Mom and Dad over for supper and cake. Rob even arrived home from work just in time for supper which was a surprise.

I've been busy tackling the paper clutter around our computer as well as organizing my scrapbooking space. I did some decluttering there too. It's lookin' good! What I really need to do now is sort through a bunch of photos and print some. I have a scrapbooking day coming up on the 15th and I have to figure out what I'm going to work on! I haven't had that problem for a long time because I had been working on my First 10 Years album for so long.

I have four days off this weekend which will be nice. I only realized yesterday that I had long ago booked Friday off work because Sharon is taking the day off, and then Monday is our Thanksgiving holiday. My friend, Leeann, has invited me to Thanksgiving dinner at her house on Saturday and I'm looking forward to it! The girls will stay with Mom and Dad in YG while I go to dinner. Neil will be going to the Rider game that day. He has season tickets and is determined not to miss another home game.

Neil and the girls are watching The Incredibles right now. Neil watched it on the weekend and says it's a great movie. I'll have to try to watch it sometime. He suggested I watch some last evening after the girls were asleep, but I fell asleep along with them and didn't want to get up. I don't have much spare time for movies (or anything) when that happens.

Madeline has been such a fuss-bucket lately--over clothes and shoes mostly. She won't wear what we want her to wear, and she only wants to wear clothes that are in the wash or inappropriate for the weather. Most of the time, she wants "my wed dwess" or "my poople dwess" (which is fine when they're clean) and she refuses to wear tights, even when it's freezing outside.

Sophia has been pretty good lately, except Saturday morning in the mall. She ran away from us and hid in the middle of a clothing rack inside a store. Luckily, I saw what store she went into. We won't be taking her to the mall again for awhile.

The funny thing about Sophia recently is that she doesn't like the name we've chosen for the baby and so she keeps suggesting different names. This morning, she suggested Kaitlin. Other names she's come up with are Kaiden, Jordyn, and Rainbow Starfish (her first suggestion). We always say we've already decided what her name is going to be and then when she protests, we say we'll take it under advisement but we're not planning to change our minds. When she suggested Jordyn, I replied that that would be confusing because she has a cousin named Jordyn. Sophia quickly responded that it wouldn't be confusing because "one of them would be big and one would be little and one would be age three and one would be age zero". Smart cookie, that girl!

Hmmm, what else? Well, 24 weeks pregnant yesterday. Our baby girl will be here before we know it. I've been feeling pretty well, but still more tired than I'd like to be. I guess that won't change anytime soon!

Neil's weekly hockey game starts tonight. He has to leave about 8:30 pm. At least the girls will be in bed (but probably not asleep yet) when he leaves. The girls swimming lessons start next week. I was happy to have another week without it.

Kidbits

Madeline sometimes gets a really disgusted look on her face and says, "Heaven's sake!". It's so funny! I know where she gets that from...yes, I say "For heaven's sake!" quite a bit around here. I wonder why. ;-)

As we drove by a large building today, Sophia stated, "That building has twenty-five point one people in it." Really?! She cracks me up sometimes.

The other day Sophia untied the dress-up skirt Madeline was wearing. Madeline cried for a few seconds, then stopped crying completely and said sternly, "I'm really mad at you, Sophia." I told Madeline that was a great way of expressing herself. It sure beats crying or hitting.

When leaving the airport today (we dropped off Laurel and Bronwyn), Madeline had an all-out laying on the floor kicking and screaming tantrum because she wanted to go on the escalator again. Man, if it's not one, it's the other! It's much more understandable at Madeline's age though, and her tantrums are so far and few between. I can handle that. Plus, I can just pick her up and haul her away--unlike Sophia who's practically 50 pounds of pure muscle (fortunately, Sophia rarely has tantrums in public).

Hooray for Madeline!

Absolutely 100% for sure Madeline peed on the toilet this afternoon! I'm so pleased! Sophia had told me a few times before that Madeline peed on the potty, and then yesterday, Neil's Mom thought she had too, but I hadn't been there to witness it for myself.

Sophia's claims were always questionable because she had an ulterior motive--she would say excitedly, "Madeline peed on the potty, so now we can have a party! We need to have cake!" She said that to Neil's Mom yesterday and when Donna replied that she didn't have any cake, Sophia said, "Well, we can make a cake!"

Added 8:56 pm: This evening too, Madeline took off her Pull-Up in the kitchen, then ran to the bathroom and peed on the floor. At least her timing is much improved! The past few days she's been running to the bathroom immediately after peeing in her Pull-Up.

Perhaps I seem a bit anxious for Madeline to be potty trained; after all, she is only two plus three months. Sophia was six months older when she became interested and started using the potty. But... Madeline has been interested for eight months now (see August 14)! In fact, the last time I saw her pee on the potty was August 26, and I have helped her get onto the potty seat hundreds of times since then! Oy.

Home-grown humour

Wearing just a Pull-Up, Madeline fell down onto her bum. Then she walked over to me, pulled down her Pull-Up, turned around sticking her bum out slightly, and said "Kiss my bum." I love it!

And so a new category is born--Madelisms. (A natural addition since I categorize Sophia's amusing statements as 'Sophisms'.)

Speaking of Sophisms...
Earlier today, after a dispute over whether to make a long or a short tunnel in the living room at the farm, Sophia said to Madeline, "What on earth were you thinking? You need to think about your attitude."

Drumheller weekend

We had a nice weekend in Alberta. The highlights were seeing the badlands, visiting the Dinosaur Provincial Park (the Flash intro on this site is cool!), World's Largest Dinosaur, Royal Tyrell Museum, and Reptile World (especially because Sophia held a Boa Constrictor!). Many of the details are in this Drumheller Trip photo album, so I won't repeat them here, but here are a few things not included with the photos...

We left the city at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning. We were hoping the girls would go back to sleep once we were on the road but they didn't. It was dark out when we left, and Sophia asked, "Did you phone the dinosaur museum to see if they're open in the night?"

I think Sophia liked our hotel room in Drumheller (or perhaps its proximity to the swimming pool) because she frequently asked, "When are we going back to our new home?" I'm glad she wasn't too upset when I explained we had to go back to our house in Regina.

I was disappointed with the pool and waterslide at our hotel. The main pool was too cold and deep for Madeline (too cold for me too), and the hot tub was too hot for her as well. The waterslide wasn't suitable for Sophia either--not even to go on it with Neil. Nevertheless, Sophia enjoyed splashing around the steps of the main pool and walking on her tip toes in the metre-deep water. Madeline liked sitting on the edge of the pool with her feet on the first step.

Neil's cousin, Rhonda, drove from Calgary to Drumheller to visit us on Saturday. It was sweet of her to drive all that way--she must have been on the road as much as she was in Drumheller! She came to Reptile World with us and out for supper at Bernie & the Boys--a fun little local restaurant.

Madeline was quite a chatterbox on our trip. She must have said "I do it!" a hundred times. She was also forming many sentences, such as "I need crackers, Mommy!"

P.S. My thumb doesn't hurt anymore! Amazing. I was really worried.

Page 11, again

Sometimes you just have to pull everything off the page and start over. I think this is much better than the first version. That page was really bugging me!

***

Also, something Sophia said yesterday... She and Neil were preparing potatoes for supper and it was her job to pull them out of the water and dry them off before Neil cut off the bad spots, etc. Neil asked Sophia to do it faster and she responded, "I'm going as fast as my little arms can go!"

The burning question

At 1:55 a.m. last night, Sophia called out for me so I went to see what she needed...

Sophia: Why do peas grow in the garden?
Me: What?
Sophia: Why do peas grow in the garden?!!
Me: Oh, ummm, because all vegetables grow in gardens.
Sophia: No... WHY do peas grow in the garden?!!!
Me: Because that's where they come from.
Sophia: Oh.

Thank goodness she accepted that answer. I wasn't expecting to have a pop quiz in the middle of the night!