From our most recent trip to the zoo:
I knew Mara would do it!
But when Micah spontaneously did it too, I was so surprised, I wasn’t ready to take the picture!–and it turned out blurry!
Fun times with my little monkeys! 🙂
The End of An Era
It’s official. I’ve retired my daughter’s size 6 shoes.
These are the shoes that have taken her little feet everywhere since last fall!
First, are the Perkle Shoes. Mara, my mom, my sister Mary, and I were in Sioux City, Iowa, shopping at the mall last October when we found the Perkle Shoes. This makes these shoes kind of special. The four of us are rarely together because we all live so far away, and we haven’t been shopping together since!
Mara had a love/hate relationship with these shoes. When we first got them, they seemed to fit perfectly in the store. I was so excited because Mara has wide feet, and it can be challenging to find shoes that are the right width. But the second time we put them on her feet, Mara cried and cried and said they hurt her feet. She was at a stage where we were working on not crying about things you just don’t want to do.
So I was in a hard position, as the mom, trying to determine whether they actually hurt her feet or whether she was just being difficult (which she was very capable of doing!). In the end, we learned she was just being difficult. But that’s when the “love” part of the relationship began.
Once we actually dealt with her attitude, Mara and her Perkle Shoes became inseparable. She always always insisted on wearing her Perkle Shoes, no matter what they clashed with!
I took her to The Childrens Place again to see if we could find one more pair of shoes. Something a little more neutral in color. Something that could coordinate with her un-purple outfits.
Enter the Sneakers.
They were her size. They fit.
But this time, Mara had her first Major Meltdown while in a store trying on shoes, instead of at home.
Mara had found Pink Shoes (with leopard print) and immediately fell in love. She did not want Sneakers. She wanted Pink Shoes, which, like Perkle Shoes, still clashed with many of her outfits.
But Pink Shoes were only $3.99. Sneakers cost more. So I decided we would get them both and I could decide at home, where we could control the Meltdowns a little better.
And we ended up keeping both pairs.
Since last fall, Mara has grown and changed so much.
We’re now able to talk through things a little more. To discern between Meltdown Moments and when the shoes actually don’t fit. We’re able to tell her, “You may not cry when Mommy tells you what to wear,” and enforce that.
But they really don’t fit now: Perkle Shoes. Sneakers. Or Pink Shoes.
And when she tells me they hurt her feet and asks to take them off, I know it’s true.
So it was a bittersweet moment, as I took these three pairs shoes out of her shoe basket and tucked them away for our next little girl.
Yesterday as Mara was getting dressed, she said to me, “I think I’ll wear my sneakers.”
“They’re too small, sweetheart,” I told her. And the melancholy part of me thought, “It’s the end of an era.”
Pre-K Horticulture Class
Mara and I planted a small pot of grass several months back, and it has been growing quite well. Or, I should say, it has had its ups and downs.
Sometimes Mara will look over in the kitchen window and say, “Oh, look, Mommy–the plant died. Again! . . . We should give it some water.”
In an effort to teach my city kids a thing or two about horticulture, I’ve given Mara responsibility for this plant. We water it (when we remember!), make sure it has plenty of sunshine, and when the grass gets too long, Mara cuts it!
Here it is, after the “cut.”
We will work on cutting the grass evenly when she gets a little older.
For now, she’s enjoying learning to use scissors, so she’s enjoying taking care of the plant.
But I’m sure, someday, when she and a bunch of other kids are swapping stories about how hard their parents were on them, this is how it will go down:
“Well, my parents had me cutting the grass when I was two years old!”
Mara, the Disciplinarian
We have a somewhat flexible house rule that the kids can’t come in the kitchen. I say ‘somewhat flexible’ because Mara can come in to help empty the dishwasher or to get her vitamin or occasionally to play with refrigerator letters (if Micah is sleeping). And Micah can come in if he is putting away sippy cups or throwing his diaper in the trash.
So enforcement of that rule can be tricky.
For me, anyway.
But here’s Mara to Micah: “Don’t go in the kitchen again, or I’ll have to give you away!”
More Mara-Speak
You know how cartoons always involve classical music? Well, I had a CD playing, when Mara gasped and announced, “This is Ratatouille!”
“Actually, it’s another Beethoven cello sonata. Can you say ‘cello’?” I asked her.
But she shook her head: “I can’t–I’m eating my dinner. I can’t talk when I’m eating my dinner.”
Wow, that’s never stopped you before.
———
Mara recounting our weekend retreat:
“But first we went to Mickle-donalds,” she explained. “There are two Mickle-donalds. [She knows about one in the city, and she knows we stopped at a different McDonalds on the way to the mountains.] And they have drinks and stuff,” she added. “And ice cream . . .”
“And chicken and ranch,” I threw in, since she always calls it ‘chicken and ranch’ at home.
“It’s called ‘chicken nuggets,'” she corrected me.
“Yes, Mara, chicken nuggets.”
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Mara, introducing our family to someone she meets at church: “I’m Mara . . . This is my mommy, Becky. Becky,” she repeated, as if the person might not pronounce it properly. “And this is Micah . . . And this is my husband–Daddy!”
———
Mara looking at a bell-shaped cookie cutter: “Oh, look, Mommy, the Liber-ree Bell! We went to the Liber-ree Bell with Aunt Mary!” (I didn’t think she would remember.)
———
Hearing Micah’s cries after another unreasonably short nap, I said, “Oh my goodness, tell me he’s not up yet!”
And Mara obliged. “He’s not up yet,” she said to me.
Then calling to Micah’s room, she shouted, “Micah!–you’re not up yet!”
I only wish it were that simple.