Spin Cycle: The Word of the Day is "Different"

My child pleases me. All the time, of course, I'm a proud mother, but sometimes I have extra little moments.

I wouldn't say we are homeschooling her or anything, but we do a lot of activities that could be called "educational". We do work sheets and flash cards, and oh yes, did I mention that she can read (Only 2 hundred times or so probably)? It's pretty easy to do these things with her, because she genuinely likes learning right now, and is always asking us how to spell words, filling pages with printed letters (that don't always actually spell anything due to her love of spelling phonetically), and looking for "matches" and things that are the "same" and "different".

So the other night I was looking at a magazine. She came over as I was reading a page that had an ad for a woman's weight loss product. It has cartoons of two women, who are mostly identical, but one is large, and one is thin, and the gist of the ad is naturally that you will look like the thin woman after using their product.

Elizabeth immediately pointed to the women in the ad and said "Look mommy! They're different!" I thought "Oh no! My child is starting to notice things like body type! Is she becoming judgemental? Does she even know the words for these body types? What word will she pick for the larger woman? FAT? WHAT DOES SHE THINK OF MEEEEEE?"

Hah. I should not have worried. Out loud I said "Oh yeah?", and she answered "Yes! That lady has a FULL water bottle, and that lady's bottle is almost EMPTY!"

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This has been posted in participation with the Spin Cycle over at Sprite's Keeper. To read more words about words, head on over there!

Not too many of these left, dagnabbit!

For some reason I haven't taken any pictures of the girls on one of our bike rides (well, the girls ride, David and I walk for now). And the big bummer is that while the North will be enjoying a summer of evening family bike rides, it will soon be too hot and buggy around here to even think about spending more than 5 minutes outside after dinner.

Tonight, though, was perfect for bike riding. It was beautifully warm, but not hot, there was a lovely breeze, and the wafting scent of orange blossoms was strong, but not overpowering. Ahhhhhh.

So here you go:

Yes, they're wearing pajamas. So?

Elizabeth at her squinty best:

Lilli on the go:

Sometimes I don't know how Lilli makes it so far on that tiny little tricycle, but she powers around the block like no body's business and miraculously doesn't wipe out. She absolutely can't wait to have her own two wheeler so she can "go fast, mama! Weally, weally, fast!"

I'm kind of afraid.

Of course by the time we get her a big girl bike she'll have to wait a while before it's bike riding season again, so maybe she'll be less reckless by then...

.....ahahhahahaha. I crack myself up.

Easter and this and that.

So, we had a great weekend! Which is always a nice thing. Festive, but still fairly relaxed. We did celebrate Easter though.

Among the secular Easter activities, egg decorating with Grandma and Papa is one of the girls' favorite things:

Some of the eggs (below). I took way too many egg pictures trying to get the colors right with my point and shoot. This was the best I could do. It's fairly close to reality. You can even kind of see the egg that came out marbled purple and green. That's what happens when your 2 year old decides to see what happens if you put one egg in every single color.

My mom with the basket she brought for the girls:

What the Easter Bunny left:

We had to wake Lilli up on Easter morning, because Elizabeth was awake and we couldn't keep her in her room any longer. Lilli was OUT.

When she finally got up she was happy she did:

So, the this and that. Two funny (or at least mildly amusing) things that happened today.

First, David had to briefly stop at home today to change for an unexpected trip out into the field for work. Elizabeth saw him and gave him these rules:

1. "If you see a fire ant nest, don't go near it", and

2. "Don't touch spiky plants".

That Elizabeth. Always watching out for daddy. Clearly she worries about him as I do, only my rules would be more like:

1. If you see panther tracks, it is not a good idea to follow them.

2. Don't walk through waist high water when you see slide marks on the bank that show an alligator has recently gone into it.

3. Don't grab random vines that may be a snake.

4. Don't trip and then fall on your machete. Please. And

5. If you see a black bear, don't walk towards it to take a better photograph, walk away!

Anyway, the other amusing thing resulted from the fact that Lilli spoke on the phone to my friend C today. Or actually Auntie C talked, and Lilli said "yeah" to everything. Anyway, Lilli spent the rest of the evening talking about Auntie C. She had gotten it into her head that we were visiting Auntie C. tonight, and when we headed home after pizza and groceries without a visit TO ANOTHER STATE, she was inconsolable for quite a while. "I want to do the monkey song for Auntie Ceeeeeeeeeeeee" she sobbed. Good grief. I have no idea why that particular little number was of such importance, and I might have been a little impatient with the fussing. I said "Why do you want to see Auntie C tonight?" She said (cried) "Because I liiiiiiiiiiike her!" Ever the skeptic (and Mean Mom), I said "Oh yeah? How do you know? I don't think you even remember her!" She said "I just doooooooooooooooooooooooo". Sob, sob. Poor Lilli. It was wrong of me to laugh, but she is so dramatic. Although, C, when you read this, know that she wasn't willing to get on an airplane to come see you. It was drive up there or nothing. She has decided that she Does Not Like planes, and even in her distress, when Elizabeth helpfully (and cluelessly) suggested that we could get on a plane tomorrow and go visit you, she wasn't willing to go that far. Hee hee hee. Ahhhhhhhh.

One more (unadvertised) thing. Tonight Elizabeth asked me to tell her about the days that she and Lilli were born. For the first time. Do you know that I have never tried to tell a light hearted version of their births? I always tell the grown up version with as much drama and gory detail as I can muster. The pain! The blood! The tearing! It was a challenge, but I think I left them un-scarred. Elizabeth's favorite part of both stories was "...And then you came out my Yazoo!" She thought that was utterly hilarious. Side note: Yes, we have purposely taught our children the wrong names for their body parts. I suspected (and was right) that I would have very open children (masters of TMI just like their mama), and didn't want them yelling out about random itchy or uncomfortable lady parts in a grocery store with the correct name. That would attract some attention. But they can mention their yazoos all day, and people are just like "Awww, what cute kids!". So I do not have regrets. Perhaps I will develop some when my children are mocked at school. We're not there yet.

So that's my this and that. I hope you all had a great weekend too!