inside-it-out

"i can inside-it-out."

i love how 3 year olds use the English language.  this is what my phoebe says when she has a shirt or pair of pants that is inside out.  i tell her i will fix it for her, but she insists on doing it herself.  she really can "inside-it-out".  and i'm thrilled, because i'm pretty sure her 6 six year old brother still struggles a little with that skill.

a different kind of underwear

Baby's new word is "shoes".  However, her favorite word to use right now is "ow."  She walks around saying "Ow" over and over and then laughing.  She also gets hurt alot, falling off of something or getting her leg or foot stuck in something or hitting her chin or mouth on something - so she uses the word a lot anyway.  17 months old. 

I'm ready for mosquito season to end!!!

Baby definitely screamed all the way to the bus stop this morning.  But was happy on the way back.  And we were on time for the bus!  My goal this year - well, at least when it's above 50 degrees outside - avoid carpool line which also means avoiding sometimes very angry policeman who is directing carpool traffic!

Boy has a bad cough so I may have to keep him home from school tomorrow.  Not really looking forward to that, because 2 kids is so much easier than 3 - WOW!  

Tonight, Boy asked me, "what is a stepmom?"  I'm glad that he did not know what that was, at age 6.  It was a sad thing to explain to him though. 

On a lighter note, Boy was talking to Sister (age 3) about underwear.  she said, "i wear panties, you wear underwear."  he said, "yeah, but you know what?  when you get older you will wear a different kind of underwear and it's called...undees."  i thought for sure he was going to say, "bra" or something but no, undees.

yogurt beard

the littlest one.  she's a mess!

thank you list

some of these single parent days leave my brain feeling deep-fried.

and that's when i know i need to make a thank you list and go to bed. 

God, thank you for days like this because they make me thankful for the many days when my husband is here.  thank you for days when the baby has a cold and is not sleeping well because it makes me appreciate the restful nights more.  thank you for the dead rat smell in my house because that means the rat poison is working.  thank you for candles.

thank you for the school bus.  thank you for air conditioning.  thank you that my salvation is a gift and not because of my works.  thank you for children's benadryl, coloring books, imaginations.

 

there once was a girl who loved dresses

 

There once was a girl who loved dresses.  it didn't matter if they were too tight, too big, or fit just right.  she would often change her dress 3 or 4 times a day.  the fancier, the better.  even though she had a drawer full of cute shorts and tops, she much preferred a dress.  she wanted to play outside in a dress, walk to the bus stop in a dress, and even sleep in a dress.  her mommy began to hide dresses from her.  but, she was a smart little girl and would sometimes get a dirty dress out of the hamper and put it on.  she also loved to wear a tiara.  she wore one everyday for a month.  she was 3.  the end.

Refrigerator Box Ride: a short story

when i was 5 years old, my family of 6 moved into a 2 story brick home.  my parents had bought 11 acres out in the middle of nowhere south carolina a few years before that and moved us out there to live in a trailer while the house was built right in front of us.
moving into a big home means you get lots of new appliances. it also means you get big boxes to play in. 
i have 3 brothers and i'm the third child of the bunch.  one day, my 2 older brothers thought it would be really fun to take the big refrigerator box and get in it themselves and make it roll down what we called, "the Cliff".  it was a place in the woods where the land made a significant drop - a slanted decline for about 30 feet. 
at least they told me they had gone down the Cliff in the big box - i can't really remember if they actually did or if they were just telling that to me and my younger brother to convince us to get in the box too and go for a ride.
"come on, it'll be fun!" they said.
i remember being not so sure.  but little brother and i got in and and closed the flaps of the box as best we could and before we knew it we were basically performing a sequence of forced cartwheels with a huge box around us.  when we reached the bottom of the cliff, i remember being out of the box with a bunch of dirt in my mouth.  i, of course, was extremely upset about the whole thing and especially about the dirt in my mouth.  i think all three of my brothers were laughing.  i walked up the cliff crying and found my dad in the yard about to cut grass or something.  i told him what happened, and he didn't really respond.  i guess at least he didn't laugh at me.  but that's all i remember and i'll never forget it.