Once when my family was playing a dice game my mom said the funniest thing. She always says the funniest things, but this time was particularly hilarious. It was her turn to roll, and when the dice landed she was supposed to be looking for either colors, or numbers, or something else similarly simple. I'm pretty sure the box says for 5 years old or older. :) But she rolled with a grand flourish and looked eagerly at her dice.
"Wait, nothing looks familiar!!" she cried out, genuinely lost. Because you know, the numbers 1-10 and the primary colors can be pretty tricky sometimes, those little friggers. :)
Anyway, that's what I thought of when I came on blogger for the first time in two months. I looked around for familiar buttons and options and felt a little disoriented. It's like a weird breakup. Huh.
So ... my baby is three years old - going on 11 - and my other baby is five months. How did this happen? I'm kind of ticked. Five seconds ago Noelle was my silent little snuggler and now she's chatty and grabby. I love every phase as they come, and truth be told I think every new stage is my favorite one so far, but I'm still feeling all wistful for earlier days. And Chiara ... Oh, Chiara. Somehow I think our roles have gotten reversed in that curly little head of hers, because she mothers me all day, every day.
"Don't kiss me right here, okay, Mom? Just right here." (Though, to be honest, I couldn't tell the difference between the spot on her cheek that was off limits and the spot I was aiming for.)
"Don't pick your lip, Mom, it gives you owies."
"I'm just going to do this, okay, Mom? That's a good idea."
"Um, I don't think so. You just clean the dishes."
"Thank you for getting my milk, my mother. That's a good choice."
"Uh oh, Noelle is awake! She needs her sister. I'll be right back."
And on and on and on. ALL DAY. Every day. It's cute for the first few hours, and then my natural woman gets a little sick of being bossed around. Hey, I'M the mom here. YOU do what I say! :)
The other nursery kids get it the worst though. They are her true minions. She has the vocabulary of, I don't know, a high school drop-out, so I think she just naturally assumes she is the queen. Hilariously worrisome. I'd lose sleep over it if she didn't have such a sweet little heart. Eldon says everything unsavory about her behavior she'll just naturally grow out of as her capacity for reason catches up with her capacity for self-expression. I hope so.
Grown up Chiara, I'm sure you're a delightful young woman. :)
She has an aversion to picture taking unless
she is doing said picture taking, so we don't have very many shots of her looking into the camera. Even fewer of her not doing this horrific fake smile she's developed. Mercy. I hope she grows out of that too. :)
Yikes.
But if I'm quick I can snatch a candid one like this:
Even with hot chocolate remnant on her face she's the cutest thing I've ever seen. It is so fun to be in this stage where the two of us can
converse about things. "Share with your friends!" has become "Doesn't it make you happy when your friends share with you? Don't you want to make them happy too?" and she GETS it. It's fantastic. Logic is a wonderful thing. Although she's used it on me too, which makes me laugh.
"Oh, no, Honey, let's not eat by the dvd player."
"It's okay, Mom. I can put it right here and I won't spill on it."
" ... Uh ... okay." Let me go in the corner and bu-bu-bu-bu-bu my lips with my finger for a little while.
My heck.
In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday Eldon whispered to me, "It stinks."
Me: "Did you ask Chiara if it was her?"
Eldon: "Chiara, did you have tiny gas?"
She just smiled, nodded, and kept chewing her Tinkerbell fruit snacks. No biggie.
It is so fun to be parents with someone you love. We just get such a kick out of our kids. And we imitate them to each other, which is totally bizarre, but we'll never not do it. For instance, Chiara has a princess wand with a button that makes a horrendously irritating magic twinkle sound. She thinks it cures all ills. When Noelle cries she goes over and magic wands her. When Chiara falls down and scrapes her knee, she magic wands herself. "Twinkle, twinkle! Twinkle, twinkle!" Oh, and a red light flashes too, so that's an added bonus. Anyway, the other night Eldon had had a hard day, so I plotted against him and snuck that wand into our bed. He was laying with his eyes closed and telling me about his test (or whatever ... I wasn't exactly listening, I was concentrating on nonchalantly reaching under my pillow for the wand) and I was just waiting for him to take a little pause. When he did, and it had been quiet for three consecutive seconds, I put the toy two inches from his face and magic wanded him. "Twinkle, twinkle!" (Remember the flashing red light? Fantastic.)
"Ahhh!" He jerked away, startled beyond all reason, and I threw my head back and laughed like a maniac. I sincerely hope other parents do that kind of stuff too and that we're not the only crazy ones. :)
