More Questions About His Body

Ok so my son is curious about his bodylately. He wants to know what "things" are. Ugh...the other night after his bath he was sitting on the step wrapped in a towel. When I looked up at him he was twisting his nipple. ?? I said, "Hey buddy, what are you doin?" He said, "These are my BOOBS!" I said, "No, those are your PECKS. Boys have PECKS." He pointed to my chest and said, "Those are your BOOBS!" I said, "No those are my BREASTS." He giggled that amazingly hilarious little giggle and said, "You've got the biggest BREATH of all!!!" :) I did not correct him! :)

Naughty Little Girl

After last night's events with our precious Maggie Poo, I have decided that I WILL take her doctor's advice and read "1,2,3 Magic" for parents with strong willed children.


Nicholas and Maggie were playing a game while Mark and I put laundry away last night. I told them that they had a few more minutes and we were going to put the game away so we could get ready for bed. When the time came, Maggie threw the mother of all temper tantrums. She began to swing at me so I took her into her room for time out. As I was carrying her she pulled my hair, pinched me, and hit and kicked me. Seriously child! She is three!!! So I put her on her bed and told her to stay there until I came back for her. She yelled, "I'm not stayin here, I'm getting down!" That was when Mark stepped in. He threatened to give her a thump (a little flick on the hand) and she still wasn't cooperating. At this point I took Nicholas into his room because he was crying. He does NOT like it when she gets in trouble. I calmed him down and we both listened to what Maggie and Mark were saying. She was yelling and crying so I couldn't hear all of what Mark was saying but I did hear the word "thump." Maggie screamed, "I LIKE IT!!! THAT DOESN'T HURT, I LIKE IT!!! SEE, I'M LAUGHING DADDY, I LIKE IT!!" Oh....my....gosh. I would have been laughing hysterically!!! But I knew it just fueled Mark's fire. He was very unhappy, to say the least. :) Soon, Mark came into Nicholas' room fuming. He said, "She needs to stay in time out." So we left her be and let her calm down a little bit. I went in next and I talked to her about how some mommies and daddies would spank their kids if they were acting like that. I explained that spanking was when daddy (notice I said daddy!) would pull your pants down a little and smack your bottom. I also said, "It will hurt." She started to cry a little bit and then quickly changed it to, "I'm not crying, I"m laughing!! I'm laughing...haha ha ha ha...I'm laughing!" Seriously, where did this child come from??? Needless to say, I am going to pull that "1,2,3 Magic" book out tomorrow and read it!!!

Growing Up

I know this story is going to be super duper corny, but I just have to write it down. Tonight the kids were getting ready for bed and brushing their teeth. As they were brushing their teeth I realized that one of Nicholas' friends just found out that she had a loose tooth. I looked at Nicholas and said, "Hey buddy let's look and see if you have some wiggly teeth." When I looked in his mouth I saw an adult tooth coming in on the bottom behind one of his baby teeth! As dumb as I know this is going to sound, I almost cried. At the moment that I saw that adult tooth I realized that my little boy is growing up! He's turning into a real kid! All these memories seemed to just flash before my eyes...how excited we were when we saw that first little tooth pop through, the sleepless nights that followed as more teeth popped through, and all those itty bitty baby toothed smiles that we see every day. Pretty soon he won't have those itty bitty baby toothed smiles anymore. They'll be....big ugly adult toothed smiles. Ya know how when kids get their adult teeth in, they haven't quite "grown into" their mouth yet? They have that awkward, big tooth look for a few years. That's what he's gonna look like. I guess the idea of a big toothed kid scares me a little. Right now he's getting big teeth, but pretty soon his face will grow into that mouth and that sweet, soft little baby face will disappear. It will be replaced by a young man face and soon after a man's face. This tiny little event of a loose tooth (not even a loose tooth actually, just a new tooth growing in...it's not even loose yet!) turned into much more of a sentimental moment for me. I wasn't expecting the loss of a first tooth to bring up so many realizations about my little boy growing up! It's a tooth for crying out loud! I guess this moment is just a snapshot of the kinds of changes that will be affecting his life soon. I am just realizing what a big boy he is becoming and how sweet he is. Jeese, what am I going to be like on the first day of KINDERGARTEN???

A Special Moment

The original thought behind this blog was to keep track of FUNNY things my kids do. In thinking about things that happen on a daily basis, I have decided that it would be nice to include sweet moments as well...the kind that I will read someday and say, "Awwww, I remember that! I loved it!" So here is a special moment that I don't want to forget. It's not anything particularly exciting or even out of the ordinary, just something I want to keep in my memory...

This morning I awoke to see that the clock said 5:50. Ugh, I thought...Monday. I have 5 more minutes to sleep. Suddenly, I saw our bedroom door open and in walks little Maggie rubbing her eyes and with crazy hair. Mark lifted her up onto the bed between us and she immediately snuggled right in next to me. Man, her breath stunk TERRIBLE, but I didn't care. I just snuggled back with her, set the alarm for 10 more minutes and enjoyed our time together "snuggling" as she would say before my day began. I know times like this will end soon...I mean, I suppose when she's 16 I will be glad she's not crawling in bed with us...but I want to remember those everyday little things that someday will no longer be.

Discoveries

So last night I was getting ready to get Nicholas in the bath tub. He was in our room yelling for me, so I went in to see what he was doing. There he sat....naked....squating on the floor. I told him that he needed to get up because that was gross. He looked at me as he was squeezing his "privacy" and he said, "What's in there?" I said, "What?" He grabbed his testicles (I HATE that word) and said, "In here,what is that in there?" I held back a laugh and tried to choose my words carefully. I wasn't sure whether to tell him the real word or come up with some other word to describe "them." I couldn't say, "Those are your balls...or that's your sack." So I went with the proper word. I said, "Those are your testicles." He got a huge smile on his face and said, "TESTICLES?!" He giggled his funny little giggle and said, "Poke right through your TESTICLES!" I'm not sure what this meant, nor did he. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to say the word again. I couldn't hold back my laugh which made him giggle more. I just went on talking about something else and he seemed to forget about it. I just know that one of these days he is going to say that word at the most inopportune time!

More Questions About God

We were at the dinner table tonight talking and Mark said, "Oh, Nicholas asked me today which was farther, China or Heaven?" We laughed about this and I joked, "I don't know...it's close." Mark said, "Heaven isn't a place that you go to. It's a place where you go when you aren't living anymore." (He was avoiding the words, 'dead.') Nicholas looked puzzled so I said, "Well, look at those flowers on the table. See how they aren't alive anymore? They are still there but they aren't alive. When they aren't alive..." he finished, "they go to Heaven?" I said, "Yeah, sort of!" I know this was a really terrible way to explain what Heaven is but it was the only thing I could think of that MIGHT make some sense to him. He thought for a minute and said, "Remember though, Heaven is by Milwaukee!" All Mark and I could do at that point was laugh. :)

Environmentally Aware

Tonight we were putting the kids to bed. We had just finished reading a story UNDER Nicholas' new loft bed. This is a novelty since we just got it yesterday and they are LOVING it! Anyway, we read the books and Maggie and I were heading out to read more books in her room. As we started to walk out of the room, I turned on Nicholas' night light. Maggie said, "No! Mommy, don't turn it on!" I thought maybe she just wanted to do it and I said, "No Maggie, Nicholas will want this on when the lights go out." She said, "No mommy, remember? Daddy is goin green!" Ha ha ha! Mark has been talking about turning the lights off more and how he is "going green." It's kind of a joke so it was really funny to hear her say that!

Sympathy Cry

Tonight the kids were exploring and playing on Nicholas' new loft bed that has a desk and shelves underneath. I must say, it is pretty darn cool and I'm an adult! The kids thought it was just awesome! Anyway, they were playing away in his room while I was cooking dinner. All of the sudden I heard Nicholas' start crying (the I'm hurt cry). Maggie came out of the room and I heard the door slam shut. She stood in the living room sobbing and I could hear Nicholas in the room crying. All I could think was, "What happened to him that is so terrible that she is crying?" I was sure he was bleeding or something. When I got into the room I found Nicholas standing next to one of the drawers in his desk. He was holding his fingers and looking at the drawer, still crying. I gathered that his fingers got smashed by the look on his face. After examining his fingers and concluding that he was absolutely fine, I turned my attention to Maggie, who was still sobbing. In fact, she was crying so hard that she was doing that "hiccup cry" where you can't quite catch your breath. I kept asking her if she was okay and she just continued to cry. So there we are, the three of us, and both of the kids are BAWLING. It took some time to get them calmed down but I finally got out of them that Maggie accidentally smashed Nicholas' fingers in the drawer. She felt so bad that it sent her into hysterical cries. I felt so bad for both of them, but it was very sweet to see how much they cared about each other. When they were both tear free, Nicholas said, "See, I'm fine." :)

The Kissing Hand & Other Funnies

The other day Mark and I were going to a Cubs game with some friends. Our plan was to leave around 9:30 in the morning so I was planning to take Nicholas to pre-school before we left. I was really excited about it because I never get to take him since I work. So we were in the pre-school line waiting to drop off when Nicholas started recognizig people in the pre-school line. Pete and Macie Swinehart pulled up. Usually Pete's wife, Kelly, takes Nicholas to school so he and Macie know each other pretty well. When he saw them pull up he said, "OH! Macie got a really, really, really pretty, pretty haircut!" He said it in "his voice." :) Then he looked at Pete and said, "He got bald hair." :) I love how honest he is! Funny thing is that Macie didn't have a haircut at all. After Nicholas got out of the car, I said to Maggie, "Oh no! I didn't get to give Nicholas a smootch!" She thought about that for a minute and said, "I have an idea! Why don't you give me the kissing hand and then I'll give it to Nicholas when he gets home!" I melted. How in the world did she come up with this idea??? How did she turn out so incredibly sweet? So I gave her a kissing hand on each hand when we got home. Of course, she immediately wiped both of them off. That is my Maggie. I told her that no matter where she wiped them they wouldn't wipe off. She just grinned. I didn't get to see her give the kissing hand to him but Colleen told me she did when they got to her house. I love how much she loves her big brother!