Driving Miss Ellie

Lately some of the best direct conversation I have shared with my almost-four-year-old has been in the car. I suppose that is because there are fewer distractions and we can't physically walk away from one another. She has been learning how to express her emotions verbally, and I must say I am quite proud! Since she was very young I have tried to teach her the words for the emotions she feels, both to validate her feelings and give that feeling a name. Hopefully, then she would learn to tell us she is very frustrated, rather than physically acting out when she is feeling that way. And so far, so good; thankfully she's not a violently reactive kid.

Last week we went to Pat's school to see the his 6th grade play. It was very good, too! Pat and his students actually wrote, directed, assembled and produced the entire thing - very funny and impressive! The girls and I were driving home that evening and it was just about bedtime. I was doing everything I could to keep them from falling asleep in the car during the last 15 minutes of the drive. Ellie can be extremely grumpy if she dozes off and has to wake up and get out of the car.

When the very loud New Kids on the Block music was not working (even when i was singing along), I rolled down the windows. The wind was whipping her hair into her face and eyes and it was obviously annoying her. She whines at me, "Stop, you're hurting my feelings!" I laughed at her and it made her even more upset and she began screaming and crying, "Put the windows up, it's HURTING MY FEELINGS!"

The very next day, we were getting buckled in the car to come home from the library. Ellie asked me if we could come back tomorrow and get a video, because we didn't check one out that day. I explained that the next day would be Saturday and we had something else to do and couldn't come back. Upset by this, and also upset that I was talking to a friend in the parking lot and only half-listening to her, she started yelling, "That makes me jealous!" Iasked her if she was mad, and she insisted again, "No, jealous!" So perhaps we need to check out a book about emotions.

Another new skill Ellie has been toying with is rhyming. She understands what it means to rhyme and likes to say different words aloud to hear for herself if they do, indeed, sound the same. Last week we were driving home and I gave her some words to see if she could name some rhyming words. Boat, coat, goat, moat (even though she probably has no idea what a moat is, it counts!)... she's a pro. Then she wanted to give Mommy a word to rhyme with. Glasses. I tried to think of some words that she might know what they were. So I explained classes and molasses and she didn't seem to need verification that those were actually words and not just rhyming sounds. She told me, "No, no Mommy. You forgot the other one! Asses." Hmmm. I assure you I do not use this word. :) "Glasses, asses. It rhymes!" Indeed it does, big girl. :)

Oh, and I really love this stool. It's super.




Kids can climb up and down it, mostly unassisted, and reach the sink and the soap. It's really nice to just be able to tell them to go wash their hands. And usually I am very close by to supervise. And the stepstool is not always in front of the sink. But this is what happens when I leave the stool there just long enough to unload the dishwasher.

A 19 month-old completely soaks and 'shampoos' her hair with handsoap, of course!

And this was just too darn cute!

Milking What's Left of Summer

Pat goes back to school in about a week. We've been trying to spend as much time as we can getting out and enjoying the nice weather before he is so busy. We have visited lots of parks, been to the zoo, had some picnics and taken lots of walks. Lots of these things are documented and you can check them on our Picasa site, http://picasaweb.google.com/robinmulcahy. I especially wanted to share some fine art we have encountered this summer, and thus had to explain to a three year old. :)




"Mommy, what is that?"


Leave it to my kid!

Claire in Cloth: A Crappy Choice?

There's nothing like starting a blog and talking about POOP! If you don't want to know the dirty details, don't read on!

I am seriously crazy. As I'm writing this, Claire has been in cloth diapers for four days. I know there are lots of good reasons to make this change, many of which I have been considering since she was born. So here we are ten and a half months later. So far, it hasn't been too bad. I like knowing her bottom is getting some more air. Plus, I'm getting faster at changing her. If she would just stop trying to get up and crawl away it would help immensely. Still, today's morning diaper change proved to be a bit of a challenge. With a disposable diaper, it may have gone something like this:

Lay Claire down in the floor to change the overnight diaper, which has just a small amout of #2 inside. Wrestle her while wiping her bottom. Let her crawl away while I wrap the wipes into the said dirty diaper. Catch the (fast!) crawling baby and wrestle and hold her just long enough to put a new diaper on her. Dispose of dirty diaper, wash hands, done.

Today's diaper change was more like this:

I had just put a load of diapers and ALL diaper covers into the washing machine. Lay Claire down in the floor to change the overnight diaper, which has just a small amount of #2 inside. Wrestle her while wiping her bottom. Let her crawl away while I drop the wipes onto the said dirty diaper. Catch the (fast!) crawling baby and wrestle and hold her just long enough to realize all the covers are in the wash and I should have grabbed a disposable diaper from the closet. Let the baby go and decide to take the dirty diaper to the bathroom before crawling baby takes interest in it. (Remember, naked baby is crawling around momentarily unattended) Dunk and rinse the dirty diaper in the toilet bowl. Grab the very old toothbrush from under the sink to help rake some of the mess into the toilet. Rinse the diaper in the sink, just because. Put the old diaper in the empty diaper pail. Return to bathroom to spray down the sink and old toothbrush with vinegar water and replace toothbrush in its hiding spot under the sink. Wash hands. Done? Nope, naked baby! Catch Claire and see that she has POOPED on the tail of her flapping un-fastened onesie and crawled across the room. Clean Claire, diaper Claire, clean carpet, clean carpet, clean carpet, clean onesie.

I am totally aware that this is completely my fault in many ways. I'm just not smooth with this yet. I have since moved ALL diapering supplies to the changing table, where ALL changing will be done from now on. And I know it's a lot of work, but I'm still excited about using cloth. I know, I'm seriously crazy. :)