Tensils: the things you eat with.
Big Phone: the new thing that Dad bought for his birthday that plays movies on it (yes, Paul, we’re trying NOT to call your Motorola an iPad but it’s sooo hard).
Pink Tails: Having two ponytails in my hair instead of just one.
Pumpkin Day: That day when I get to dress up as Pinkalicious and everyone decorates with pumpkins. Mom, why don’t we have any pumpkins yet. Let’s go buy some from Wal-Mart or that big yard down the street that has bunches of them on tables. By the way, did you know I dreamed about white pumpkins last night? I was a princess named Peach and I was married to my cousin Ben, …… (yes, for those of you without children, this is a great example of how one small idea can lead to a non-stop conversation, totally one sided, between you and your 4 year old-I’m sure it’s just a girl thing but I could be wrong. I’ve tried to tell Paul she gets that from him but I have to admit it, she probably got it from me. If she got it from Paul, you’d most likely see his postings on her blog all the time instead of my ramblings on and on. God bless Paul and the additional girl in the household he’ll have very soon.)
Totally off subject-we were on the phone with Paul today since he’s out of town, when Bella said something so sweet but not really. We were discussing how Bella was on Yellow with the behavior chart and since I had already told Paul about it earlier in the day, by the time the ‘going to bed’ phone call took place, when she told him about Yellow, he said he knew. I was also trying to tell her that he knew but her reply was, of course he knows Mom, he knows everything. I said, that’s right and so does Mom. She quickly corrected me saying, no Mom, only Dad knows everything. I dropped it since I’m not gonna battle with that, as long as she thinks one of us knows everything, it doesn’t really matter which one. Yes, Paul, you owe me big time for caving on that one. Love you both!
So yes, we let Bella name the baby. Official name is Ella Maegann Lee. Ella was Bella’s idea and Maegann is the combination of my mother’s middle name Mae and Paul’s mother’s middle name Ann. Put a ‘g’ in the middle and voila you have Maegann. A few other thoughts from Bella were Uni Corn-thanks to Paul’s nudging on that one. Elise, which I reminded her that even Mommie has a hard time spelling so we’d steered clear of that one. Just tonight it was changed to Viva, as in Viva Las Vegas from the ZZ Top song. We talked about it being one of my favorite songs because it sounded so much like an old Elvis song and she thought the Viva part would make a great name for the baby. Every time they sang the words Viva Las Vegas, she would sing Baaabbyy Viva instead. Cute!
How often do you hear from a 4 yr old when they’ve finished their dinner—Mommy, do we have any more vegetables? Yes, Bella loves her vegetables so much that even though I gave her as much as I gave her Dad and I, she still wanted more. Then, go figure, when I told her I’d be happy to make her some more, she asked if they were frozen, really really frozen? Of course, they were I said. She reminded me how much she loves frozen vegetables (thanks Dad for getting her hooked by feeding her frozen corn from the bag) and she ate another ½ cup of mixed vegetables straight from the bag.
Oh dearest Bella, with your being our dream child, what is possibly in store for us with the next sweetie coming along? God help us all…
This is a small petting zoo in Troutman. We’d never been there before but Paul had a coupon for it so we went this past Saturday. Wow, it was really cool. They had stuff right out in the open like turtles and parakeets. They even let a camel roam the property for a while during our visit. The place offers a guided tour at no extra charge and it was very informative and fun for all. With the tour, they even took some animals out of their cages to let us pet them. We got to pet a skunk, a ferret and even a snake. It’s a corn snake that Bella decides to hold and she not only liked it but thought it was the most natural thing in the world-until it starting putting its tongue in her armpit, then she started moving in quick motions that could be dangerous so they quickly removed it but she still has fond memories of that, even the tickling part. If you have kids, you should definitely try it out.
Paul was out of town since Monday, stuck in Maine overnight and can’t catch a flight til tomorrow-Sunday. During the week was fine as usual and even Saturday started out great. Bella and I worked on art projects together and had a grand time. We shared breakfast, mid morning snacks, and then I had to go and fall asleep (and all heck breaks loose when your 4 year old is left to their own devices). All in all, it wasn’t too bad but things I just reminded her NOT to do this morning were the exact things she did. I was shocked, although I shouldn’t have been. I got so angry with her after finding the 50th thing she had messed up in the house that I broke down in tears which made her cry too. Then I sat us both down on the couch and held her for a few moments and we cried it out. Then everything was alright and we went on about our afternoon/evening.
She fell asleep on the way home from dinner so it’s an early night for Bella-I’ll get some things finished up around the house before Paul gets home and the horrible few hours we had today will have been all forgotten and forgiven. Dear Bella, I know you were just curious but really? Painting with puffy paint on everything you could think of, getting it on your new Halloween costume and the carpet in your room too? Thank you for staying away from my art project for work-although I’m sure you were tempted. Love you sweetie-have a good rest while you dream of the sushi rolls and banana spring rolls we shared tonight-and don’t eat all my eel roll next time:)!!! And when Mommy says not too much wasabi, you might want to listen next time, of course you’ll learn to love it too.
HopScotch=The flavor of those little yellow candies that man at church gives me. (Butterscotch)
Titsie Rolls=What Mr. Jimmy always carries in his pockets to give me and the other children at church. (Tootsie Rolls)
Treasure=You know, that little baby boy I play with at church sometimes. (Trevor)
Potty #1=Everyone knows what that means.
Potty #2=Everyone knows what that means.
Potty #(anything greater than 2)=This means I gotta go REAL BAD, Mom!!!
‘Baby you’re a fah once’=Lyrics to a recent hit hiphop song also known as ‘Baby You’re a Firework’
‘What the buck!’=Yes, thank God she mixed up the words here. Not sure where she heard that from but Paul quickly put a stop to that. Now all she is allowed to use as an exclamation is the ‘what!’ part.
‘Mommy, I’m full’=If I eat one more bite of my dinner, I won’t be able to eat all my dessert.
This gets into the part where she’s getting so smart that she’s piecing some puzzles together to make up some good doozey of a story[using words very properly]. For instance, when Paul was out of town a few weeks ago, we talked about having family time when he came back. She also said the day before he came home: If we have some family time, then on Sunday we have to be together in class so we won’t miss him again. So on Sunday, I need to be in your Sunday School Class. [I immediately put a stop to that trying to get out of going to her own class under the disguise of attempting to spend ‘quality’ time with Dad.
We planned a short trip to Florida in July to see the first Thompson great grandchild get married. Bella knows Whittni by face and name but they aren’t close-she just never forgets a name or face when she finds out she has more cousins. (On a side note, I am almost positive that she thinks cousins grow on trees and that these cousins were created just to make her happy.) I say all that to say this…This is the first real vacation where she wanted to know the plan in advance from start to finish and was bursting with exuberance about each detail as we described it (and then also later on, as we experienced them).
Perfect example– when we arrived at One Ocean Resort in Atlantic Beach FL, we were getting familiar with our new room that would be our home for the next few days when Bella was drawn to the large window overlooking the ocean-her tiny face and hands glued to the glass. As Paul was describing to her about our plans of going to dinner with family and making time for the ocean too, he directed his information her way and said ‘and Bella, we’ll set up your vacation bed (a toddler blow up bed which she adores) right next to that window so you can wake up to see the ocean every day.’ to which she immediately replied with such enthusiasm ‘are you freaking kidding me!?’.
Now I know that was the moment where I put on my Mommy hat and reminded her that little princesses don’t say such things but with the look of excitement and unbelief reflected on her face, in addition to using the phrase in its proper placement and tone, how could I resist but to fall on the floor laughing at my little comedian. Don’t get anxious just yet. We addressed it later-which is an entirely separate post in itself. More to come on the adventures of the July Lee Family vacation…
Yesterday was the first time Bella actually admitted she’d be happy if the baby is a boy. Her exact words to me yesterday and to the doctor today were-’I want a baby sister but I’ll be happy if it’s a boy or a girl but I’ll just be a little bit sad if it’s a boy but either way, it will be okay.’
First of all, yes, she is still the sweetest daughter in the whole wide world. Secondly, yes, that’s how she really talks…in run-on sentences. Once she starts talking, she can’t stop herself. Then after she really gets rolling, she starts interjecting an occasional ‘and do you know what?’, waits for your acknowledgement before continuing just to make sure you’re still paying attention and haven’t slipped into a comatose state by listening to her sweet gibberish go on and on. I don’t know where she gets it from… and do you know what else?…
A few months ago, we started getting up with Bella in the middle of the night to get her out of the diapers/pullups. Ever since she moved to the 3 yr old class at school, she had been pull up free for naps and at home, with only about 3 accidents in 7 months (not bad at all Bella). At first, we would make sure she used the potty right before bedtime, then make her wear panties, then get up with her at 1am and 5:30am to take her again. A few times we didn’t get up exactly when the alarm went off and she would surprise us by having an accident. We went thru a few accidents before we got on a good schedule of swapping who got up and when and making sure we did it on time. Then we transitioned to making sure she didn’t drink very much before bedtime, then only getting her up once during the night. That seemed to work out well also. Then we noticed she didn’t go to potty immediately after waking up so we figured if we just took her to potty before we went to bed (sometimes 10, sometimes 12), that was enough. That too worked well. She even came down with the flu and even thru all that, she didn’t have a accident.
After the 1st of the year, we have switched to making sure she doesn’t drink a ton right before bedtime, making sure she goes to potty (and actually does something) as the last thing before we tuck her in for the night. Now we’ve committed to not getting up with her at all. It’s the 14th and so far no accidents, knock on wood:). You’re a big girl Bella-now quit cutting your lovely hair or Mommy will cry her eyes out…
Bella and I were reading a story in the Highlights magazine she got in the mail the other day. This was only her 2nd issue but I think she was more excited about this one than she was the first one. I guess she knew what it was all about by now and ready to roll with hit. Anyway, the story we read was a cute one about 2 little monkeys making different things for their Grandpa who was having a birthday. The last page showed their final gift, a big double hug showing how much they loved him. When we got to that ending, Bella said ‘Ahhh, I love my Uncle John’. I asked about loving her Grandpa and she said, ‘Yeh, I love my Grandpa Lee too’. When I recounted this story to Paul, he said she had talked with her Uncle that morning so his name was fresh in her mind. Still sweet though…
