The Dog

After Bear and I got married, we talked more seriously about having kids. I told him that I wanted kids. He said "lets get a puppy instead". So we did. Enter Cami. She was the only girl out of the whole litter of seven or eight puppies that were found abandon in a cardboard box and taken in by the pound. She had huge ears for a very young puppy and they used to flop down over her eyes. She was adorable.

Bear's master plan to put off having kids worked!... for a little bit.

Having a puppy wasn't enough for me. So we got pregnant with Monkey. Now we have a puppy (that Bear occasionally refers to as "failed birth control") and newborn Monkey. We thought that Monkey and Cami would be best friends and grow up together. Six years later, this is not the case.

Monkey likes the dog, but Cami tends to be "aggressively passive". She will live in your personal space bubble unless you force her out. Monkey likes her space.

Bug is the human this dog was meant for. They are two of a kind. Both full of energy, don't listen, and will eat anything. ANYTHING. They chase each other around the house. Cami playfully nips at Bug to get her going again and Bug lays on her and tries to ride on her back. They both have their tolerance thresholds, but they seem to be able to hold each other's attention much longer than anyone else in the family can. It makes for great entertainment watching them run around and wear each other out.

Maybe Bug is half dog and Cami is half Bug? Who knows. All I know is they make each other happy. And even though Cami is/was failed birth control, we all still love her. Most of all her kindred spirit, Bug.

Watering the Flower

Tis the Halloween season. There are lots of reasons to be out and about in costumes. This last Saturday night  we went to a church Halloween night with my parents. Bug was supposed to be a lion, but she refused to wear her hoodie with the tail and lion face, and Monkey was a purple flower. Monkey's costume is basically a purple, knee length dress with purple tulle flowers on the bodice, "petals" for the skirt, and green trim.

As we were walking to the car after the festivities were over, I overheard my mom and Monkey talking about her being a flower. My mom had a cup of water and was teasing Monkey that she was going to water her. Monkey was laughing and running away and playing with my mom about it. About a minute later, Monkey was walking in front of me and I couldn't resist. I threw the water that I had on her. She screamed. She cried. I laughed.

She was so upset. She went into insta-drama mode, crying and yelling at me. "Why would you do that?!" "That's not nice!" I told her that she was a flower and that I thought she needed water. Her response was fantastic:

"I'm not a real flower! I don't need to be watered!"

Bear tried to get her to calm down. He tried to explain to her that there was no reason to be so upset. She maintained that it wasn't nice of me to throw water on her and that it was mean of me to surprise her by doing so.

I didn't get her costume wet. She was wearing flip flops, so she didn't have to wear wet shoes or socks. She was dry within a couple minutes.

I knew that by doing that I was going to awaken the drama queen. At least this time I knew what I was doing. It wasn't a random crying fit because of some perceived slight against her. It was totally worth it.

I blame my mom for my sense of humor in torturing my children. She did it to me. I do it to my kids. And I am sure the cycle will continue. I also know that karma comes around, and I am only getting back what I gave my mom. That gives me confidence that one day my kids will find humor in the things from their childhood and not take life too seriously when they have their own kids.

The Social Butterfly

Monkey has been in school now for about three months. She has to go to before and after care (like school day care before and after school hours) because of my work schedule and Bear's school schedule. There are  kids in every grade from Kindergarten to at least 5th grade that are in before/after care. I like the idea of them all being in a social setting together because it is helping Monkey learn how to deal with kids a varying ages. She always comes home with stories about her friends and what they did before or after school.

This past Friday night, we went to her school for Fall Festival (also mentioned here). I dread social settings where I don't know anyone. I feel out of place and like I am forcing myself on someone if I do try to talk to them. This was important to Monkey though, so we went.

As we walked in the gate, Monkey was already yelling "HI!" to one of her friends. It seemed like every two minutes she was running off to be social with someone. The amusing thing was it wasn't just an "oh hey, ok bye" thing. She would walk up to them and say "Hi, *name*!" and give them the biggest smile and hug that should could come up with. She would tell them something she liked about them (ie: i really like your costume) or tell them how happy she was to see them. She would then introduce Bug to them, give them another big hug and run back to us to continue on with whatever we were doing.

On one hand I have major anxiety watching her run off and talk to everyone. On the other hand, I am happy that she is confident enough start branching away and becoming her own person. Her teacher mentioned to us that she is generally a popular kid. That she always has at least 4 or 5 kids around her at recess and that the kids all love her. I can only imagine what will happen in the future. I wish what every parent does of course, I just want her to be happy.

Love Bug

Bug makes me crazy most of the time. But I know deep down underneath the tantrums and the trouble is one of the sweetest kids I know. In the last two nights she has shown me two different examples of her compassion for other people.
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Friday night we went to Monkey's school for the Fall Festival. There were games, food, silent auctions, face painting, and even a petting zoo. We got tickets and went on in. One of the first things the girls wanted to do was get their faces painted. Monkey got a pink sparkly heart and Bug got a sparkly blue heart.
As we walked away from getting their faces painted, I was carrying her while we figured out what to do next. Bug looked at my face and said "Heart mom?" I told her that I didn't get one. She just said "Oh" and put her head down on my shoulder. After a few seconds, she lifted her head back up and the following conversation occurred..

Bug: There mom!

Me: What where?

Bug: *wipes her cheek on my shoulder* There go mom!

Me: Whats that?

Bug: Heart you mom! *big grin*

Me: Oh thank you baby! Thats very nice of you to share your face heart with me.

Bug: Uh huh! I love you mom!

She then gave me kisses and we continued about the night.
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Tonight (Saturday) we went to my parents' church for trick or treating, games, and some AMAZING chili. After everyone was done eating, it was time for Trunk-Or-Treat time. For those of you that don't know, Trunk or treat is trick or treat around the parking lot. People decorate their cars and set up games. It is very fun and easily controlled.

Anywho... back to the story...

Monkey and Bug were going around to each stop with big smiles and lots of "trick or treat"s and "thank you"s. We got to one car and Bug got to the front first. She said her cute little two year old "trick or treat!" and grabbed two pieces of candy instead of the one that she was supposed to take. I started to correct her and tell her to take only one, but I stopped myself. She turned around to Monkey and dropped one of the candies in her bucket, and took the other one for herself. Then she said "Ok lets go!" and the two of them ran off together to the next stop.
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I have to say that I am very proud of her and her love for other people. I hope that she stays as considerate and loving when she gets older.

Stink Baby

Bug is very particular about the stuff that goes in the car with us in the morning. Cup and blankie are the every day items. Shoes and toys are optional and vary. Today it was her cabbage patch doll.

Getting to the sitter takes about half an hour. About ten minutes out Bug proudly proclaims from the back seat "Diaper, Mom! Poop!"

Really?! I am not looking forward to dealing with a poopy diaper and rush hour traffic.

Me: Ok Bug. I'll change it in a little bit.
Bug: Ok Mom. I do it.
Me: Uhm... just wait.
Bug: I did it mom! Baby stink diaper done. I change it!

Oh! I Get it! I am so glad that "Baby" had a dirty super and not Bug. The rest of the way to the sitter and most of the way home, Bug talked about changing the baby.

Very cute and mature. She is definitely my lovey kid. Bonus: she's never stingy with the hugs and kisses.

Multi-Purpose Cream

As a parent, certain things raise red flags. Crying and loud banging noises, shattering glass or pouring liquid. However, the biggest warning sign of all is silence.

Despite the saying, Silence is NOT golden.

Everyone in the house was doing their own thing. I was sewing. Bear was reading. Monkey was watching TV. Bug was.... uhm.... unaccounted for. She wasn't making any noise. She was not watching TV. Bear and I had the parental spidey sense at the same time. As I went walking down the hall to find our wonderful Bug, I heard Bear already talking to her. He beat me to it by about 10 seconds. But we found her.

She was washing her hands. And brushing her teeth. And brushing her hair. She wasn't using soap, toothpaste, or gel. She was using a tube of diaper rash cream. For all three things.

Her hands and the counter were covered in a moderate layer of the cream. We could not even see her skin. She had clumps and smears of cream on and around her mouth. And finally, she had her hair smeared straight up like Sonic the Hedgehog. I grabbed her up and swooped her away to the shower.

The shower was a pain all by its self. Diaper rash cream is water resistant. Lots of real soap. Lots of scrubbing with a hand towel, and still she came out of the shower a bit greasy.

I think I need to have my parent radar updated. It was a little slow on the pick up of the shenanigans of Bug.

Doing Homework

Bear recently lost his job. It has been a mixed blessing. On the upside it has given him the opportunity to go back to school. He can be a full time student and a part time stay at home dad. He is currently taking an art class. One of the projects he had to do was draw a picture that told a story. He chose to do a simple picture depicting trees and the changing of the seasons.

Monkey likes to do homework. She told Bear that she would help him do his homework. He politely declined. Because he has to turn this in for a grade, he didn't want Monkey messing with it. She asked again and said "but, I'm really good at coloring, Poppa." He again declined and this time told her that she couldn't help because his teacher wouldn't like it if someone else did his homeowork for him. She understood this and didn't ask again. Bear did draw up some circles for her to draw pictures in though. They sat at the table and drew and colored together.

These are the end results:

Bear's Homework



Angela's Picture