At breakfast:
“Sometimes my pink blanket is like an escalator.”
I looked at her quizzically. “How is your pink blanket like an escalator?”
Immediately she clarified, “Not my favorite pink blanket. Other pink blanket. Other pink blanket is like an escalator.”
Oh, yes. Other pink blanket.
———-
While sitting at dinner last night, Mara piped up: “Mommy? My hand is on backwards!”
I’m pretty sure it’s not. That’s probably one of those things we would have noticed the day you were born.
Our friends Chris and Melissa are buying a house this week. Last week I watched Corban, who is almost three, to give Melissa a little time to focus on packing without splitting her energies with a toddler boy.
I took Corban and my two kids to the park just down the street. This woman was pushing her baby in the swing and looked at me and said, “You must’ve been pregnant forever with those three!”
“Oh, he’s not mine!” I laughed. “Just these two.” But what I should have said is ‘Oh, yes, and I’m pregnant right now!’ (Ha ha!)
I forgot to take my camera to the park, which is just as well, because when I’m watching an almost 3yo, a 2-1/2 yo and a 1yo outside I really shouldn’t be focusing on anything else!
But I did take a couple inside pictures. Which I would like to title “Anything you can do, I can do better!” They’re constantly one-upping each other, and they are only toddlers!
Mara was sitting in one of the toy baskets. I guess Corban thought, “That looks like fun! How much more fun if we both do it together!?!” 
Decorating themselves with stickers (Whatever one did with his sticker, the other would do with her sticker. The stickers were on their foreheads, their arms, over their eyes . . . finally I got out the camera.)
I wish I had a picture that captured the crazy way they laugh and scream and run after each other and knock each other down! They have the best time together!
Susan, over at Five Minutes for Mom, asked us to write about our first bike or how we learned to ride a bike.
Wow, that experience takes me way back–in so many different ways!
As the oldest child, I wasn’t watching brothers or sisters who could already ride. But I remember being very young–probably 4 or 5–watching the neighborhood kids in New Jersey–riding wheelies, sitting on the handlebars–and I wanted to ride too! We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so it was never an option for my parents to go out and buy me new toys. That said, I never felt poor growing up.–We always found tons of toys second-hand (either given to us or sold to us for a fraction of what it would cost new)!
A guy in our church came across a used red bike–which became my first bike. I remember riding down the street by our house with training wheels at first, with my mom walking alongside me (or jogging, as I got faster).
One huge memory for me was a trip deep into southern Illinois, visiting friends who lived on a long gravel road. I had just learned to ride, and these kids’ bikes didn’t have training wheels. My lack of balance, combined with the gravel road, resulted in a deep knee wound–the scars of which remain on my knee some twenty years later!
After that experience, I was even more determined to ride a bike without training wheels, and after coming home, I perfected my balance skills with hours of riding. 🙂
In high school I rode during the summer with my dad for exercise–4-8 miles. I’ve always enjoyed biking, and I’m hoping, as my children grow older, we can bike together as a family!
Maybe we will win one of the Strider Balance bikes! 🙂 Check it out!
Remember last week when Mara prayed for a hula hoop? She was pretty serious about it, and told Daddy she was praying for one the next morning. Of course, she wanted to pray about it again the next day, when we didn’t have a hula hoop yet before bedtime.
Well, I think she found the “answer.” She linked a bunch of toy beads together and said, “Mommy, look! A HU-la-loop!”
