Insights From My 7-Year-Old

Like all families, we have our struggles with contention in the home. In fact, at this point Nathan and Matthew’s entire relationship seems to be built of one contentious moment after another. The whole thing makes me extremely weary. Considering how many of the fights he starts, I was pleasantly surprised to see Matthew writing up a “Family Happiness Plan” on his chalkboard yesterday. This morning he took the time to copy it onto a paper and asked if we could hang it up so we could remember. Apparently he has been listening to the many (so, so many) family home evening lessons on contention and how to have peace in our home.

I think he pretty much pegged it. If we all did these few things consistently, I’ll bet our family would be happier. So yeah, I’m hanging it up. And although I’m realistic enough to know this is not the end of the bickering amongst my offspring, hopefully it will serve as a reminder to Matthew when he is feeling ornery.

Play Imitates Life

Malia had to get her reindeer dressed this morning. If you look closely, you’ll see that in addition to the princess panties, Clarice has rubber bands on her ears.

In other news, at breakfast this morning Malia informed me that, “Horsies are for riding. Cows are for eating.” Apparently Kev had a conversation with her a few days ago after she told him she wanted to ride a cow.

Birthday Bash

Both Daniel and Nathan were gone last night so although yesterday was her real b-day, we had Malia’s family celebration today. Kev’s parents joined us for the festivities.

Just in case Sunday’s cupcakes didn’t clue you in, Malia loves Rapunzel. “Tangled” was the first movie that she ran on a never ending loop and even though a variety of other movies have made their way onto the list, “Tangled” is still her default movie. Being a total girly girl, she loves to comb hair (hers or mine) and even combs her baby doll’s hair in spite of the fact that it is painted on. So when I saw a Rapunzel doll with loads of hair in the store, I figured it was the perfect gift.

She’s also a fan of Ladybug Girl. We check Ladybug Girl books out from the library frequently and every time we return them, she asks where they are for days afterward so she definitely needed one of her very own.

That look means I must have chosen wisely. :-)

She also got a stuffed Olaf. All his parts are connected by Velcro so he can be taken apart and reassembled. The very first thing she did was hug him...and then she ripped his head off. That's a "girl" reaction closely followed by a "girl with three older brothers" reaction.

She also got some socks featuring characters from “Frozen” (she hugged those to), some wood food for her kitchen (a pinterest find that Kev and Matthew helped me complete), and a book and a cute bag from Grandma and Grandpa.

With strawberry shortcake as a special birthday treat, we had a great time!

Birthday Play

Today is Malia’s birthday. She has turned three and in about five minutes she’ll head off to preschool. It all seems a bit sudden to me, but that is what happens to kids born at the very end of August. And honestly, I think she’s ready for the whole school thing. But I’m not sure that I’m ready. However, kids grow up no matter how much we want them to stay young just a little longer.

Here are a few tidbits about Malia:

~I’ll ask her how she wants her hair before I comb it in the morning and if she wants “Elsa hair” it means one braid and “Anna hair” means two. “Juuuuust one” means a ponytail.

~She loves shoes. Her latest pair is pink and has sparkles and bows. They are just about as girly as you can get.

~In spite of her love for shoes, she prefers to be barefoot. Every week when we pick her up from nursery, she has to put her shoes and socks back on before we can leave.

~She has become fascinated with paper and writing utensils. Not only is she starting to color in the lines, but when she doodles it is beginning to look a lot like letters and numbers. I really think she is ready for preschool.

~She loves books. :-)

~She loves to sing…except in nursery as I’m currently doing nursery music and having mommy in nursery means she acts like a spaz the entire time I’m there. Her teachers tell me she was great and sang all the time with the previous nursery music leader. Sigh…

~She loves to be outside.

~Some of her favorite foods are blueberries, strawberries and spaghetti.

~Her favorite color seems to be yellow with purple coming in second.
~She can go from crying to laughing in under a second. I just have to find the right thing to say to move her past the tears.
~She is stubborn. So, so stubborn. Tries my patience.

We are having Malia’s birthday celebration tomorrow since both Daniel and Nathan will be gone tonight, but today we invited her cousin Kate to play with us at the splash park and have lunch at McDonald’s. Malia has been super excited about this since we made the plans about two weeks ago. She was so jazzied up this morning that she had to spread out her beach towel and eat breakfast on it.

It was still kind of chilly at the appointed hour so we started at the playground.

While she was playing, she paused long enough to take a call from Papa (my dad).

When it warmed up a tad, Malia and Kate dressed to be wet and played in the water.

(pondering the meaning of all water)

(turning on the water)

(jumping in a puddle)

(making wet footprints)

(just hanging around)

(happy Kate)

It was still kind of brisk so after a while they got cold and called it quits. 

(two cold girls)

(Malia gets crazy)

(Kate joins in)

(laughing at themselves)

After lunch at McDonald’s and another hour playing at the playland, we headed home. She must have worn herself out because Malia actually told me she wanted a rest today when she normally resists taking a nap. I guess playing hard all morning with her favorite cousin was a great way to spend her birthday.

Gone In 6 Seconds

In spite of the fact that she has three older brothers, Malia is just about as girly as you can get. She loves anything with ribbons, bows, sparkles, etc. And she loves cute hair clippies. She has one set that has little flowers printed on them and in spite of the fact that they don’t stay in all that well, she is really fond of them. Right now yellow is her preferred color so yesterday she chose the yellow clippies with white flowers.

Last night as Kev was helping her get into her jammies, she had a little catastrophe. She went potty, got down and just as she leaned over and flushed, one of those little yellow clippies fell out of her hair and into the potty just in time to get flushed away. She was absolutely devastated. Seriously. There were real heartbroken tears of grief at the loss of that little clippie. I promised her we could look for some new ones, but that didn’t really seem to help relief the sadness she felt over her loss. It was so sad and so funny at the same time that I had a really hard time not laughing.

The very first thing Malia said to me this morning was, “My clippie got lost in the potty.” Apparently sleeping on it didn’t alleviate the trauma. So after we finished with Daniel’s dentist appointment, we headed to the Walmart and not only found another set of the flower clippies to replace the long gone yellow one, but several other sets that she was crazy about.

At naptime she had to put all the cards of clippies on her pillow right next to her. And when she got up she had to try them out…all at the same time.

Potty Party

First of all, pardon me for my last potty related rant. Potty wise, we were having a bad day…week…couple of weeks. Having said that, here’s the latest edition of Wee-Wee-Weekly.

There is something to be said for buddies when working towards a goal. People have fitness buddies all the time-exercise buddies, diet buddies, etc. My sister, Rachael, has two daughters: Kate, who is just a couple of months older than Malia and Sabrina, who is starting first grade this year. These two have been Malia’s potty buddies. And having a potty buddy has been super fabulous for Malia. She does have three older brothers, but she doesn’t care a lick that they wear big boy underwear. She is, however, enormously impressed by the fact that Kate and Brina wear big girl panties.

Last week we invited Rachael and Kate to come have a mini birthday celebration with us for Malia’s birthday. Malia was really jazzed and asked if Sabrina would be coming. This is the conversation that followed:

Me: “No, Sabrina will be at school.”

Malia: “In her panties?”

Me: [trying enormously hard not to just bust out laughing] “Yes.”

Malia: "And Kate will go to school in her panties."

Me: [still trying to contain my glee] "Yes."

Malia: "And I will go to school in my panties!"

Me: "Yes!"

I was laughing in my head the entire time. I mean, going to school commando is not exactly a fabulous idea. Although it isn’t actually written in the school dress code, I’m pretty sure that underwear is required as part of appropriate school attire.

Speaking of school and the appropriateness of wearing underwear when going to the hallowed halls of learning, I think Malia is going to be in fine shape when school starts in two weeks. After my last potty related rant, we had a few hard weeks. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when the potty was mentioned. Then one day last week as I was helping Malia get dressed in the morning, she flat out asked for a diaper (not that she had been in one during the day for over a month) and I told her no. Then she asked for a pull-up (not that she had been in one at home for at least a couple of weeks) and I told her no. After some more complaining, she finally consented to the panties in spite of the fact that she really didn’t want to be bothered with the whole potty thing. Once she was firmly convinced that I was not going let this particular fight go, she must have just decided that she might as well give in because later that morning, she suddenly stopped, looked at me and said, “I have to go potty!” And so we ran to the bathroom and she was still dry and after she did the deed there was much cheering and clapping and many wahoos and she got to call Kev on the phone to tell him all about it. It was a big deal for both of us.

That seems to have been the turning point. She has been staying dry more consistently with each day and has figured out that she really can go by herself and doesn’t have to wait for us to tell her it is time to go or even wait for someone to go with her. She has always told me that she’s a little girl and not a big girl, but a few days ago she said, “I’m a big girl!! I growed and growed and growed!!” I think that gaining this particular skill has given her a sense of accomplishment.

And honestly, her being okay with even the idea of using the potty started the day we spent the whole day with Kate and Brina and one or both of them went with her every time she headed to the potty, which was about every 45 minutes at that point. And I’m really glad that Malia has some girl cousins. I think the potty training buddy system should be shouted from the rooftops. Because a potty party is way more fun than just going to the bathroom by yourself. In fact, even as adults women have a tendency to visit the ladies room in groups. (Y’all can’t honestly tell me that you and your besties never headed to the ladies on prom night to discuss how everything was going with all the gentlemen.) Honestly, I think I need to buy those girls a cookie…or some new princess panties. ;-)

The Sweetest Things

Malia’s birthday is later this week. She is super duper excited. For about the past ten days she has been saying, “It’s almost my birthday!” And, “It’s almost my turn to blow the candles!” So very, very excited. Today was the day we celebrated her big day with my family so after church and choir practice she helped me decorate the cupcakes. I frosted them and she stood next to me on the stool and put on the sparkles. (They’re called cake shimmers and they are super fun in spite of the fact that they are super messy when applied by a not quite three year old.) About halfway through, Malia leaned over, rested her head on my shoulder and said, “Thank you for making these.” I have to admit that I welled up a bit. Unsolicited, heartfelt gratitude from my two year old makes any amount of effort totally worth it. And I dare any mom in the world to not get a little teary under similar circumstances with their own offspring. Anyway, back to the cupcakes. We worked for a while longer and then she exclaimed, “They’re beautiful!!” Gotta say, I’m lovin’ the praise I’m getting for these cupcakes. I don’t care what anyone else thinks, they are a complete success because Malia loves them. And they really are rockin’ cupcakes. Once again, I’m glad people share their brilliance on Pinterest. And although they taste delightful, the sweetest things today are not the cupcakes.

Fluid Thinker

So Malia will be starting preschool in a couple of weeks. She will be three by then…just barely. All summer we’ve been priming her for potty training by telling her that she has to use the potty and wear big girl panties so she can get a backpack and go to school. With the potty training part actually making some progress (she’s in princess panties most of the time now although we still have to remind her to go to the bathroom so she doesn’t have problems) we decided she was ready for the backpack. She chose princesses, of course.

She was also determined to get a lunch box even though she doesn’t need one. Matthew was at this exact same stage when he decided he needed a lunch box, so I let Malia pick one. She chose a totally girly lunch tote...

that doubles as a hat…

What can I say? She thinks outside the box…or bag. :-)