Morning Hygine

After her first cup of coffee Molly likes to go in the bathroom and "polish" her face. This involves wetting wadded up balls of toilet paper and then scrubbing her face with this glop of cold wet toilet paper. She then drops the globs in to the sink which she has filled with water allowing the toilet paper breaks down a little more thereby forming the perfect consistency to clog the sink drain. Sometimes she will even offer to polish me.

*She does not really drink coffee, she drinks her usual lemonade

The Calm Before the Storm

Would you believe that moments after this photo was taken the day took a turn for the worse. A turn that involved crying over ice cream treats had been revoked and a certain four year old screaming, kicking and clawing at her father as we hastily made out way back to the car. I know it has been said before but it is a damn good thing that children are as cute as they are.

Ella's Grocery List

This was a list of things that Ella needed me to pick up for her at the supermarket.

I know it is a little hard to read so here it is,

Stackers (these are little polka dot fruit roll ups)
Ice Cream
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Band Aids
Movie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Vitamins
And some juice

It is a good thing that she knows with a diet like that she will need vitamins and band aids.

Who What When Where and WHY

Bobo is going through a phase it is some times charming, cute and endearing but most of the time relentless, exhausting and yes I can admit downright irritating I have even had thoughts of gouging my own ears. It is the dreaded question everything at least 100 times stage. Bobo has taken to this stage with a fierce determination to leave no question unasked. Every day with Bobo is an interrogation of everything from the smallest, most mundane, insignificant topics all the way up to the biggest philosophical questions man has pondered throughout the history of the human race. As I typed this last sentence she has asked me three times what day it will be tomorrow and what day it was yesterday, simple enough questions but her understanding of the tenses is a little fuzzy so she can trip you up. When she was clearly asking what yesterday was by asking what tomorrow is and you give the wrong answer the temper begins to flare. You see she already knows the answer but why waste an opportunity to ask another question, it is guaranteed fun for everyone involved. To illustrate my point Molly had the flu on Saturday she was so tired that she fell asleep on the wooden playroom floor with her dolly's little receiving blanket draped over her legs. Keep in mind this is the child who fights sleep with every ounce of her little being every day of her life. After waking up an emptying the contents of her stomach the line of questioning that accompanies our every day existence together started right back up. She wanted to know why she did not feel well, why did she have germs, why did she have a virus, why did she have to throw up, in fact many of these were asked in the midst of actually vomiting. Did any of these questions carry such urgency that she couldn't wait the two minutes it took her to throw up to ask them. Poor thing, but it was all I could do not to laugh at her I mean really can nothing slow down the procession of questions. When I ask Bobo why she asks so many questions her reply is simply, because your my mama

What's the Forcast?

Need a quick weather update just check with Molly she usually has the most up to date information concerning the weather. One of her favorite television stations is the Weather Channel, she would watch for hours if we let her. She will ask me to put on the weather channel and within a few minutes when she feels she has an accurate picture of all the major weather events she will wander off. Do not mistake this for an opportunity to change the channel if you do she will become hysterical. She likes to hear the comforting soundtrack of the Weather Channel running in the background and her little ears perk up and she comes running when she hears weather on the 8's. For she knows this means a local weather update, and for the remainder of the afternoon you will hear her try to drop phrases like partially cloud in to the conversation. She was really taken by the phrase generally sunny and repeated it over and over to herself and anyone else who would listen. She even earmarks occasions with the forecast of the day, I asked if she remembered our special lunch together last week and she pondered a moment before replying yes it was the gray drizzly day. I am not sure if this fascination with the weather has anything to do with her fear of thunder storms, maybe this is an attempt to put some order and control on the weather in her corner of the world. I do know that it is endearing to see Molly and her sister (who indulges Molly with a slight interest in the weather as well) eating their dinner and watching the weather updates together.

Why do we always hurt those we love the most?

Bobo has a ritual she follows when I leave the house, it is not all that elaborate and it makes me feel loved and missed. She absolutely must get a big hug and kiss and then she stands on the porch and waves goodbye as I drive away, and I open my window and yell that I love her and to be a good girl. Well I gather it is all a bit too sappy for my oldest to wittness because the other day as I was driving away and giving Bobo my final farwell I see her come flying out of the doorway she was standing in and fall to her knees. I stopped the car and yelled for Nick, Ella who was on the other side of the door had slammed it shut and sent Bobo flying. It was fine in the end all was forgiven and it was back to being playmates, but as I drove away I thought it is too bad that we often do treat those closest to us the worst. I know that I am sometimes guilty of being more patient with the clerk at the supermarket than I am with Nick or the girls so who I am to ask any more of them.

Fear Factor

Bobo has always been a scaredy cat but recently her fears have expanded in both scope and intensity. The phrase that escapes her mouth most frequently is "what was that noise!?" followed by "was that just you?" She gets worked up all the time and when I say worked up it is a sight you would have to witness to believe, you would think she had spent the first years of her life in a war torn country. She screams, cries, clamps her hands around her ears, sweats, and just becomes generally paranoid and miserable, the main culprits are as follows.

Fireworks
Cats
Dogs
Thunder storms
The ice maker (which she call the ice cream maker)
Trucks
Airplanes
Construction noise (they are building houses on our street and have been for the past 2 years)
Bugs
Closed doors (even when you would like a little privacy in the bathroom)
Bugaboo Creek, a steakhouse with a talking moose on the wall.

Chuck E. Cheese, Nick has a bad experience there with Bobo and to tis day when we drive by she makes us promise to never bring her there again. One of the easiest promises I will ever make in my life.

The dark, when she goes to bed the following lights must be on, our room, the guest room and the upstairs playroom. Yes they have two playrooms one upstairs one downstairs and I still have toys strewn all through the house. You should hear the reasons given for not playing in the two room dedicated to play.

Any noise that she does not know the origin of, no matter how distant the source or low the volume.

You know I could go on and on with the list, it just grows by the day and while I hope that this stage is reaching it's peak at least Nick and I can keep our sense of humor. While discussing her fears we came to the conclusion that some day her biggest fear will be running in to us in public, her friends will hear her say "what was that noise, was that my mom's car, it sounded like my mom's car"

Really

Bobo why must you yell down the stairs every night at the top of your lungs. Asking the same question each night. Mommy do we have to whisper?

And while we are on this topic why do you ask me every night if that is your seat at the dinner table, as if you have not sat in that seat at every meal since you graduated from a highchair. Never mind that every other seat at the table is already occupied. Do you really not know the answer? Because if I do not answer you repeat the question over and over your voice growing in size and pitch until I look you in the eye and say not just yes or yep or thats right, but I must tell you that yes that is your seat Bobo.

You are something else miss Bobo.

Is it O.K to lock the door?

Not that long ago I wrote about the magic words that made going to sleep a little less traumatic. While they have not completely lost their magic power a little person who shall remain nameless decided to test her boundaries a little bit. We did the routine the same way, I would lean in and whisper I love you Bobo I'll be back in an hour and the words prevented crying and arguing and trying to scramble back out of the bed. But there was a BIG but and that is she would con me in to thinking she was going to settle down and then as I ate my lunch downstairs I would hear little noises. I would mute the t.v and listen, nothing silence so the volume goes back on and then another little shuffling or thud. Hit mute, again nothing. Another noise no, the denial took over I did not actually want to go check that would lead to a confrontation, a tantrum, tears, guilt. So I just ignore the noises then I hear a little tiny giggle and it sounds very close. I mute the t.v again and look in the kitchen and I can see a little shadow peeking out from the side of the refridgerator. As I close in on the "shadow" the giggles increase. Then the escape artist was cornered her number was up. She thought it was fabulous. I thought oh great I have to break out the baby gates again and I hate those things they are a pain in the you know what. So here is the brilliant plan I hatched I will shut her bedroom door. Are you all impressed or what? You know I just never shut the door all the way because I assumed that would scare her because her sister has to sleep with the door all the way open ( which until she was 3 the doors had to be shut all the way or she would calls us back upstairs to properly shut it) and they are exactly the same right? I am always falling in to the trap of thinking they both see things the same way I always overlook the vast differences in their personalities. So I marched her back upstairs and put her to bed and shut the door. As I made my way downstairs I could hear her little flat feet pad to the door and then she shook the knob and twisted it but much to my surprise there were no tears. As an adult I would be horrified to realize I was in a room with no way out. Apparently Bobo did not see it this way she worked on the knob for about 15 minutes and then it was quiet. When I checked on her an hour later she was in bed sound asleep with her covers perfectly pulled up to her chin. When she woke up I asked her how her nap was and she said "mama you locked my door so I went to bed". So that has been the solution at nap time and for some reason at night even if her door is wide open she won't leave her room. In fact when she woke up yesterday morning she called downstairs to me "mama, mama, is my door locked" and when I looked up the stairs she was standing in the open door asking me if it was locked. So no need to worry I don't really lock my kids in their room they just think I do.

These are a few of my favorite things...

When the dog barks when the bee stings when I'm feeling bad I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad. That song actually sums up the two things my girls are most afraid of but the part about thinking nice thoughts and anxiety dissapearing does not apply to them. This applies to Bobo much more so than Ella who seems to be coming to the end of her I am absolutely terrified of everything stage. Seriously Ella would not even go near the library's pet hamster who I should point out is contained in a glass cage. So just in time Bobo will slide nicely in to the position of scardey cat. I guess watching Ella's fears all those months finally made a impact on her. We went to Fort Williams on Sunday for a picnic and the second Bobo heard the distant sound of a barking dog she wanted to "go home" we are familiar with this response these are the same words urgently sounded when we encounter a bee in the yard at home. Even though we are yards from the house Bobos response is always the same " I want to go home" shortened to "go home" in emergencies. Although she really wanted to leave at first with a group effort we convinced her to stay and she actually had fun and so did Ella who loves to point out that she was brave at all times. While the girls both have things that scare them they have things that with the same intensity please them. Ella's object of affection is a small oatmeal colored bear named Morris, named Morris because in her words he is a Morris too. Morris was actually left behind at toys-r-us last weekend when the lure of a new pool and sprinkler became too distracting. Not to worry he was back together with Ella in less than an hour. You can see Morris in both the photo of Ella and daddy holding hands and the shot of them standing up against the railing. Not to forget about Bobo's favorite friend she is a Mermaid named Nori and she (in my opinion) is not nearly as lovable as cute little Morris, she is hard and plastic with bright blue scraggly hair but Bobo adores her. She goes everywhere with Bobo. You can see how delighted she was when Nori was passed to her (it's the picture with her hand up on her check).

You'll come get me in an hour mama?

Bobo has never been a great sleeper, you know when you bring them home from the hospital that they won't sleep for a leisurely 8-10 hours but you hope that it won't be too terribly long until they give you a decent nights worth of sleep. I wasn't a first time mom so I knew that at least the first few months were going to be hard but... This child resisted sleep every step of the way. The first year of her life this girl got by on less sleep than I would think is humanly possible, I don't remember exactly how old she was but I clearly remember her slapping her little cheeks to keep herself awake. I couldn't believe it, I had never seen anything like it just how much could someone despise sleep. Which by the way I LOVE, I mean really I love love love to sleep, so clearly this little girl and I were going to have issues. Now that Bobo has grown a bit she seems to go through "sleep cycles" she will sleep like a angel for a few weeks until the devil takes her place and she will wake repeatedly or fight nap time and bedtime with determination that could break the best of us. At one point she was going to bed then right as I was drifting of to sleep around midnight I would hear her. I would lay in bed and try to convince myself that tonight would be different, that if I just ignored her she would settle back down. But that just didn't happen and so we would begin our nighttime ritual, from about 12:30 /1:00 a.m until about 4:00 a.m every night I would repeatedly put Bobo back to bed. I would let her cry but then I would start to panic I did not need two of them awake. So back to her room I would go, this routine got old really fast so in desperation one early morning (2:00 a.m) I brought her downstairs put on the lion king DVD and laid down on the couch. Now why would I think that someone as sleep deprived as I was would maybe possibly fall asleep, no I won't, I wouldn't do that. Well I woke up when I heard Nick say HONEY! I look down and on the hard wood floor her body half wedged under the couch was my little Bobo, finally exhausted. Now Bobo is by no means a great sleeper but I seem to have found a magical combination of words that has changed everything in regards to her sleep patterns. Now I am not sure if I should write this down, I may upset the God's of sleep, but the words are "I will come get you in an hour". This works at nap time and bed time as she has no real concept of time. She now asks me every time I put her into her bed "you come get me in a hour mama? For now this is working like a charm, except for the fact that big sister who is much more wise in the ways of time and keeps trying to explain to her at bedtime that I will in fact not be back in an hour, shaking her head at how silly her baby sister is as she talks.