Peek-a-boo!

Here I am. Over here. No. Here. Over this way. There you go. You found me.

Allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is Jessica. Still have 3 kids. And a wonderful husband. Everyone is still healthy. Life is moving on. Just sadly without the weekly (okay...semi-monthly) bits of wisdom being blogged into history.

My last post was in July, so let me catch you up.

August was an electrical storm in my life. Too much going on, swirling around our family of five, and it's no wonder to me that it set off the four month drought in my journaling. A tad bit of crazy. A dash of fun. Mix in a little mayhem.

Then September started and we've been able to fold in a little stability. I'm working more now so I have the kids doing some after-care. Read more about the working mom guilt later.

Seriously, I will write more about it. Later.

There is always later.

So for your reading pleasure, and for my nostalgia keeping purposes, here are some highlights from the past few months. They've been swirling around my mental blog so that I wouldn't forget them. Since that's really the whole point of this exercise. I don't want to forget all the little bits of fun that visit us every day, but that we never seem to remember when we are so exhausted at the end of the week...or month...or quarter. So here goes.

My son while riding a bus full of girl scouts ages 6 to 16, who are busting out songs as per the girl scout tradition: "When I grow up I want to sing just like dem. I want to be one of dem."

One of the girl scouts in my troop during my volunteer counselor stint, after her friend noted that I have pretty eyes: "Yeah. You do. You must have been really pretty when you were younger." Ah, thanks. That's so...sweet of you?

A 9 year old boy at the park who came up to us seemingly out of nowhere and inquired about my oldest daughter: "Does she come here a lot? Like every Tuesday? Do you guys live around here?" And then he just walked away after we gave him some confused looks. As was pointed out by my friend and completely missed by me, this would be my daughter's first experience of "do you come here often?". Thankfully this was completely missed by her as well. Still hanging on to the innocence.

My oldest on the first morning of school, after I suggested a hair clip for her that I thought was really cute: "I don't want to look cute mom, I want to look cool." My younger daughter's retort: "Do you want to look cool, or do you want to be cool?" Older daugther's response: "I already am cool." So much for the innocence.

My oldest - almost 9 year old - daughter commenting about the wonder of Santa Claus: "I can't believe how busy he is and how he can get presents all over the world." My younger - almost 6 year old - daughter's voice of reason: "Maybe that's because he's not real." My oldest: "Well I know that the ones at the mall aren't the real one. Everyone knows that little sister." My younger daughter: "Maybe there is no Santa big sister." Oldest: "Yes there is! I believe in him." I can't say enough how this depicts their personalities. My oldest is up in the clouds, forever creating and dreaming, and my younger daughter has her feet firmly planted on the ground with no funny stuff.

And by far some of my most favorite quotes lately have come from my son. He's been known to punctuate every day with frequent occurences of this scenario. Him: "Mom! Mooooommmy!?" Me after finding him: "Yes hon?" Him: "I love you" Me: " I love you too sweetie" Him: "I love you sooooo much!" and then he follows it up with a wet peck on the lips. Or occassionally we'll be walking somewhere and he'll just grab my hand and give it a kiss. No words. Just pure love.

He is definitely the lover in the group. He brings love into all of our lives and keeps it present.

So this year on Thanksgiving (that'd be today), I'm thankful for all those little moments in life. Because when we look at our lives as a whole I could say that not too much has happened in the past 4 months. And for that I'm also thankful.

Nothing dreaded. Nothing wounding. Just life.

Full of lots of fabulous little moments that I don't want to forget and for which I hope I am always grateful.

Toddlerisms

You know your 2 year old has two older sisters, and a command of the English language, when you hear him say...

..."whatever" when he gets frustrated and wants to walk away. Perhaps while doing a puzzle and not finding the right piece..."whatever"...

..."cool!" when you point out a little red sports car on the road.

..."I'm just wewaxing" when you ask him how he is doing while sitting on the potty.

..."what now?" whenever you finish a stated task. For example, "Let's go get your milk," and after finding the cup and taking a long gulp, "what now?". "Let's go outside," and after arriving outside, "what now?".

..."I got one!" whenever he's trying to think up a new joke. For example, when saying "see you later alligator" he will often be prompted to come up with a 'new one'. So we say "bye bye french fry" and he will continue with "I got one! Bye bye hamburger! I got one! See you later streetlight! I got one!....I got one!" over and over and over again, naming the many things he sees around his immediate area, or even making up things that sound funny.

..."I buy dat!" whenever he sees something he wants. While looking in a book, while driving in the car, while watching tv...which is wear this sentiment was born with help from his sisters. Most times the items are not 'buyable', but that doesn't stop him from yearning.

..."no way!" whenever he doesn't want to do something that you ask of him. And of course he says it in response to our retort of "way" or "yes way".

No one has ever said he isn't clever.

Now I'm off to wewax.

Yes way.

See you later doo dah.

Quotables

Here are some amazing quotes from my younger daughter in the past couple of weeks. I'm not kidding when I say that they were so funny and they were coming so often, that I started writing them down so I could save them in a blog post. And this is coming from the girl that doesn't offer too many words to the public. So today I'll speak on her behalf.

While in the car driving home from the library, talking about nothing in particular.

"We have the best family in the whole world."

Again, while in the car. Again, while talking about nothing in particular, certainly not baby-making.

HER: Where do babies come from?

ME: Inside your tummy.

HER: How do they get in there?

ME: They start out reeeaaallly small, and then they grow bigger.

[This is the same thing I told her sister and it seemed to end the conversation. Not so much this time.]

HER: But how do they get inside your tummy?

ME: Well they are in there and they are really really tiny.

HER: As small as a crumb?

ME: Yes, as small as a crumb. Even smaller.

HER: But how does the crumb get in there?

[Strike two.]

ME: It happens when a mommy and daddy are in love and it comes from their love. And it's really tiny. How small do you think it is?

HER: Like a crumb!

Then I divert her to something else.

One day we were in the kitchen and I was cleaning up some papers and art projects that came home from school with the kids. These same things that seem to accumulate on a massive level every day, let alone every week.

HER: What do you do with all the stuff that I bring home from school?

ME: Some of it I save, and the rest of it I recycle.

HER: You mean you throw away the stuff?

ME: Yes, but just some of it.

HER: Well whoever's mom would do a thing like that?

That'd be your mom, I'm afraid.

Another day we were...you guessed it...in the car. My younger daughter was talking about picking up her sister from school, and all the carpooling we do to and from school and soccer practice.

HER: It's a good thing we have so many booster seats. Cuz you have to have those for the kids in the car. If we didn't, mommy would get a ticket.

ME: That's right. You always have to be safe and make sure everyone uses a booster seat if they aren't big enough to ride without one yet.

HER: Yup. Cuz if you got a ticket then you and daddy would have to clean up the streets.

Good thing we have those booster seats because neon orange has never been one of my colors.

When I was trying to fix her bothersome cheap dresser from IKEA, I was pounding away at the side of it trying to make sure it would stay together. She came up to me and said one heck of a stunner.

HER: Daddy should do that.

ME: Why? I can fix things too.

HER: Yeah, but you're the pretty one.

ME (after regaining my composure): Well thank you for the compliment, but just because I'm pretty doesn't mean I can't fix things.

HER: Oh.

I'm not sure that one really stuck with her, but we'll have to reiterate that point again soon. Really, where did she come up with that? How is it that she assumed it is an either/or situation? I think we need to start a show called "Barbara the Builder".

And finally, one other time....in the car. Do you get the idea that we do a lot of driving around?

HER: Mommy how do they build cars?

ME: Well they start with something called an axle. And they connect wheels to it. And they make two of them for every car, they are called a rear axle and a front axle, one for the rear wheels in the back and the front wheels in the front of the car. Then those parts are connected with something called a chassis, which holds all the parts of the car in.

HER: Just like skin! Our skin holds all the parts of our body in!

Yes, our skin holds all of our parts in.

Including that amazing little noggin of yours.