Category: General Family News

The “Electric Babbler”

Posted on by Becky

Elderly man in the grocery store, upon hearing Mara’s life story in the first few minutes after they ‘met’:

“Boy, she sure is a chatterbox! . . . Does her Mom like to gab a lot?!”

Grandma, does this remind you of any two-year-olds you might have raised??? I seem to recall someone in the church nursery in New Jersey, expressing relief as they returned your 2-year-old, saying, “Boy, she sure is a chatterbox!”

On a related note, my sister-in-law called me the “electric babbler”?!?!?! . . .  (Should I be offended?)  . . . She said she “couldn’t remember” what my blog was called . . .  I love you, Darla!!!!

I suppose Mara could be the “electric babbler” . . .

Music Mix-up

Posted on by Becky

Mara loves music–classical music, hymns, worship music, kids’ sing-a-long . . . but all that music can get mixed up in her little head.

This morning, she was singing on the potty, “Holy, holy, holyyyyyyyy . . . That’s what it’s all about!”

Somehow, we have this odd mix of “Holy, Holy, Holy” and Elmo doing the “Hokey-Pokey.” Wow.

“Write It Down!”

Posted on by Becky

For some encouragement to those of you who, like me, blog so we can share and remember the simple treasured moments of our family life . . . here’s Shannon, one of my top favorite bloggers (Rocks in My Dryer), blogging today at Parenting.com.

You have to go to the Parenting site and read her post!!  What a great encouragement, not to focus on the format or get discouraged by inconsistency! But just to jot down something! It is so true that this is not “one more thing to do” but it’s something relaxing to record the memories, and know they will be preserved as part of our family story!

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So! Now that I’m all inspired (and while I can still remember), here are a few little memories from this week . . .

  • We are practicing charts. Mara is supposed to say, “‘T’ says ‘t’ turkey.” But instead she said, “‘T’ says ‘ch – chicken’.” 🙂 Well, I guess it would be hard for a two-year-old to distinguish a turkey from a chicken!
  • Ironically, she never enunciates the “c” correctly. It always sounds like a “t.” So as we are looking at the A-Z book on the “C” page, she points to all the pictures: corn, cookies, cake, and says: “Torn. Tookies. And take!”
  • On Saturday, Mara mentioned a friend from church. “Remember Mo, Mommy?”she asked. It always cracks me up when she says, ‘Remember  – – – -, Mommy?”

“Yes,” I said. “We haven’t had her over for awhile.”

“Can Mo come to our house and eat lunch?” she asked.

“I think that’s a good idea!”

So on Sunday at church, Mara saw her and said, “Hi, Mo! Can you come to our house for lunch?” I think that was the first time she asked anyone over. 🙂

Then today, I said, “I need to figure out what we’re having for lunch tomorrow when Mo comes over.”

Mara said, “Tortilla soup.” [That’s what we had the last time she came over–I was surprised Mara remembered because that was about 6 weeks ago!]

  • We’ve had a lot of rain this week, and we found an earthworm on the sidewalk out back. I told Daniel to show it to Mara. If I’m raising my girl in the innercity, I want her to at least know what a worm looks like!  Not to stereotype . . . But Mara was majorly creeped out by the wriggly earthworm. Micah, on the other hand, was completely intrigued. And after holding it for a few seconds, he tried to put it in his mouth. We had to take it away.
  • Micah continues to eat his weight in food daily. That’s probably an overstatement, but not a huge overstatement! Today, for instance, breakfast: bowl of oatmeal & 1/3 cup applesauce. Lunch 3 – 3.5 oz containers of baby food (squash, green beans, banana berry). Dinner 3 – 3.5 oz containers (green beans, sweet potatoes, and banana plum grape). That’s down from the other morning, when breakfast alone was: a bowl of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of applesauce, a handful of fresh blueberries, and an entire can (14.5 oz) of pears!! Is that not insane?!?! Mara never ate that much!! Is my child normal? or am I allowing him to over-eat?!

Well, those are tonight’s random memories, without regard to format, as Shannon recommended. 🙂

The Amazing Internet

Posted on by Becky

Today I was scanning dealnews.com, one of Daniel and my favorite sites, and I came across the Samsung Omnia Screen Protector for $3.49. I knew Daniel was looking for something like this for his new phone, but I never buy anything electronics-related without checking with him first.

I clicked on the link, intending to copy the url and e-mail it to him. That is, until I saw the note, right under the price, which said: “Last purchased by Daniel in Our City, Our State.”

I started laughing out loud! Though there are probably many Daniels in Our City, I knew it was my Daniel.

I called him at work: “Soooo I see you got the Samsung Omnia Screen Protector for $3.49 this morning.”

Sure enough, he had.When I told him how I found out, we were both laughing. . . I wondered if anyone else would be amused, or just us. . .  Maybe that’s why we got married.

But–wow! It’s just amazing that I can go online to buy something, and the website will tell me that my husband just bought it this morning! I’m still laughing out loud.

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On a somewhat related note, Jos. A Banks is having a great sale on some dress pants (buy one, get two free). Perfect timing! Because Daniel needs new khakis. 🙂

Playgroup

Posted on by Becky

Today Melissa invited us to a Thursday morning playgroup she and the boys have enjoyed.

I knew it would be a long day. Daniel has a meeting tonight, so we will see him about an hour today during dinner, after the kids literally saw him less than five minutes yesterday. Plus it is a rainy day, so we couldn’t walk or go to the park. So I thought it would be good for the kids to get out and do something fun with someone else besides Mom!

There were a bunch of toys in a large area–a wooden play kitchen; washer & dryer; baby dolls with cradles, car seats, and highchairs; a tool bench; all sorts of “ride-on” toys; a slide . . . What fun for Mara! Right away she met a little girl on the slide, and I heard Mara call, “Hey, Lily, come down the slide!” She already knows her name. At first, I thought she may have “named” the girl herself, as she has been quite imaginative lately. But when I met the mom, sure enough–her name was Lily!!

Mara loved carrying a baby doll around in the carseat–even better, setting the carseat in the shopping cart, and taking her shopping for food in the play kitchen!!!! I wish Daniel could have seen her. She really had fun! After 45 minutes or so, they had circle time, where they sang songs. Mara remembered that they sang “No more monkeys jumping on the bed” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Then it was snack time: pretzels, cheese, graham crackers and juice in little cups. I was so proud of Mara–she didn’t spill her juice (or play with it!!). We also made it through playgroup and all the way home without a potty-training “accident.”  Those little successes are big with toddlers!

Playgroup was so  good for my shy little one-year-old! Everytime someone says “hi” to him, he clings to my shirt and buries his head in my shoulder with a coy smile.  But he really loved watching the older kids play, and he ventured over to the toys by himself, glancing nervously over his shoulder to be sure I was still there. . . He also enjoyed playing in the kitchen, where he could open and shut cabinet doors without Mommy saying ‘no.’ Maybe interacting with other children in a fun setting (with Mom nearby) will help him grow out of this clingy, insecure stage.

When we got home, as we were getting out of the car, Mara said, “That was a fun nursery!” 🙂

We’ll have to do it again.