Reeisms, Vol. 3

Oh, Ree.  Equal parts sugar and spice, some days I can't get enough of her and other days I wonder if I'll survive her.

A few months ago during the Gospel reading in church, I suddenly dissolved into silent laughter, shaking quietly in my pew.  It was a reading from the book of Matthew, where a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and says, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon."  And all I could think was, wow, this scripture is really resonating with me this morning.  I know how that woman felt, because I have a three-year-old.

And another time, reflecting on the temptation of Jesus in the desert, I found myself thinking that Satan should have just sent a three-year-old to torment him, because it seems like that could make almost anyone snap.

And let's just say I may have once started to Google "Is my three year old a s..." and felt a sense of relief when it autocompleted "sociopath" for me.  I guess I'm not the first parent to wonder.

* * *

She loves music, dancing, snuggling, and nursery rhymes.  She plays imaginatively with Nell for hours at a time.  When neighbors drive by and she's playing in the yard, Ree waves and hollers a friendly but unexplainable, "OH HI MISTER POTATO!" And then dissolves into giggles.  Every time.

She recently fell into our bathroom trash can in a jackknifed position after standing on the toilet seat to wash her hands, quite the sight to see - it was both humorous and pathetic at the same time.

Her speech is more and more grown-up, but she still has some pretty cute phrases that she pronounces incorrectly, and I'll continue to love it as long as it lasts, I think.  She doesn't say "opeeoh" for "oatmeal" anymore.  She recently stopped asking to sit in my "yap" or asking for a "yittle bite" of something - her L's are sounding clearly most of the time, and every time she asks to sit in my lap I respond, "...but don't you want to sit in my yap?"  And she laughs as though that's the silliest thing anyone could ever say.

One of my favorite words to hear Marie say  -- and she says it often -- is "beautiful."  There's something charming about how she says it: "It's beauuuutiful!"  She'll declare it confidently about her own artwork: "Wow! I did it! It's beautiful!" or about the work of others.  Driving down the road I'll hear her quietly murmur, "That's a beautiful house there."  Or more loudly sometimes, when she sees something she likes, "Yook Mommy!  It's beautiful!"  Several months ago we went to the Peabody Essex Museum and she ran around loudly exclaiming "It's BEAUTIFUL!" about everything she saw.  One dress in the wearable art exhibit caught her eye in particular, and she yelled, "It's BEAUTIFUL!" and then, upon looking more closely, continued, "NO, it's BAD! It's BAD!"  The other art museum patrons were thoroughly amused.

A few of her other particularly fabulous words / phrases include:
Funscreen (sunscreen)
Chickmunk (chipmunk)
Fickly (quickly) ("I'm coming as fickly as I can!")
Packpack (backpack)
Popasul (popsicle)
Bonnet (bike helmet)
Daddy's factor (tractor - his newly acquired, free from the side of the road, John Deere mower)
Petal ticks (pretzel sticks)
New hamster (New Hampshire)
"It's a yittle bit ficky." (It's a little bit tricky)

{Pictures from a recent day when we visited the Topsfield Fair.  And yes, I dressed all the girls alike so I could easily keep track of them!}

* * *

Coming into my bedroom early while I'm still in bed:
"Mommy hiiiiiii. Can I tay (stay) with you ever (forever)?"

* * *

Running upstairs on another early (think pre-6 am) morning: "Hiiii!  So how are you guys doin'??"

* * *

After Molly was born, Ree noticed that beneath the top mattress in the cosleeper beside our bed was a little compartment for storing extra sheets, or diapers, or what have you.  "Mommy! When I have my baby, my own baby, my baby can sleep on the bottom and your baby can sleep on the top! And that's the end!"

* * *

Sitting in the glider one evening, rocking together: "I want to stay here forever.  I love being with you."

* * *

Nathan: "You're cozy, Marie.  I like to snuggle with you."
Ree: "No, mamas and daddies don't snuggle with little kids!  You're not snuggling with me, because I'm a little tiny girl!  But I'm snuggling with you.  Kids snuggle with mommies and daddies."

* * *

Ree: "I don't love Daddy.  Daddy is bad."
Me: "Daddy is the one who comes to you in the night and snuggles you when you are scared."
Ree: "Well, I do love him in the night but not in the day."

Looking at someone's birthday balloon: "I want a cupcake with finkles and iyfeam (ice cream) yike in the picture on that balloon!!!" (said very grumpily and demandingly)

* * *

Out of the blue: "I don't like to eat yucky spiders."

* * *

Singing: "I love to eat poops, poops, poops, poops!"

* * *

"Can I have one sip, Mommy?  Can I have two sipses?"

* * *

At breakfast:
Ree: "I want two grapefruits!"
Nell: "Mawie, it seems like two grapefruits but it's only one cut in half."
Ree: "No don't say that to me!  That is a bad word!"

* * *

Ree: "I don't yike peppers.  Well, I do yike peppers, I do like bell peppers, I'm just... nervous about them."

* * *

"I want a chocolate chip!  With a tuft on its head!"

* * *

Suddenly holding a Hershey's kiss suspiciously one afternoon: "It just... wiggled out of the wrapper all by itself."

* * *

"Mama, I found a waisin on the wug.  Can I eat it?"




Hearing Molly making a smacking sound: Oh, she's nursing by herself!"

* * *

Me: "How do you take care of your babies, Ree?"
Ree: "I just hold them in my arms until they go right to sleep and then I put them down and they stay asleep."
Nell: "Wow, my babies don't do that.  You must be the best mama.  High five."
And they high-fived.

* * *

Me: "Remember when Molly was a new born baby?"
Ree: "A new boy baby?  I don't wemember that!"

* * *

Ree: "I'm having a baby!  I'm having a baby now!"
Me: "Is it a girl or a boy?"
Ree: "A girl.  With a dress on.  In my belly."

* * *

Ree: "This is my baby girl."
Nell: "That baby doll is a boy, Mawie."  {it is indeed an anatomically correct baby boy, I can confirm}
Ree: "No, it's a girl!  It's a girl baby with a piece of poop stuck on her bum!"

* * *

Ree: "I had a baby."
Me: "What did you name your new baby?"
Ree: "Peeghost."
Nell: "That's a nice name."

Upon finding a piece of clothing she sought: "I had-ed it in my vawer!" (drawer)

* * *

"Dammit!  Mommy say that when she driving in the snow."  (who is the "Mommy" of whom she speaks?! ahem...)

* * *

Laughing: "I just did a big toot!  Just for fun."

* * *

"I just have some hiccups in my mouth and they are hurtin' me."

* * *

Me: "Do you know how old I am?"
Ree: "Two weeks."

* * *

Frequently: "I'm having a little fubble!" (trouble)

* * *

"When I grow up to be a grown up I want to be a bunny hopping along the path."

* * *

Sick one day, and so sad:
"Mama can you please help me bubble over (our family term for throw up) because I don't want to do it all by myself because I'm little and sick."

* * *

Inexplicably, on another day when she wasn't feeling too well: "Actually my tummy is not hurting.  My nose was just having a conversation."

* * *

With a fever: "My whole body hurts a YOT!"

* * *

Ree (pointing): "I have a bone in my bum."
Me: "It's your hip."
Ree: "Oh yeah!  It's my hip!  And I have another hip!"

* * *

Because the English language is confusing: "I looked at it, and I seed it, and I taked it out, and I goed up to my room with it!"

Listening to Mary Poppins at breakfast one morning: "Mama isn't this music so so so so so so so so beautiful?  Listening to it is such a treat."

* * *

To the tune of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas': "I wish I could be Mary Poppins, I wish I could be Mary Poppins, I wish I could be Mary Poppins....!"

* * *

After I told her the main singer in the Sound of Music (who Nell immediately identified as having the same voice as Mary Poppins, by the way) was a character named Maria, Ree declared matter-of-factly and inexplicably, "Oh yeah.  One of my moms is named Maria."
{ nope }






Ree: "Mama, can I use your colored pens?"
Me: "No..."
Ree, angrily, pretending to read on my package of pens and following along with her finger, "BUT IT SAYS 'YUP IT IS FOR KIDS'!!!"

* * *

Driving in the car one day, she became frustrated and started yelling from her car seat.
Me: "What's wrong?"
Ree (playing an imaginary violin in the air): "I want to do an up bow not a down bow!"

* * *

Nathan: "I'm going to be home tomorrow, so I can play with you."
Ree: "Daddies don't play.  They read on their phones."
(BURN)

Meticulously folding a small piece of toilet paper:
"I fold it into a fare.  Not a wangtangle but a fare."

* * *

Talking about the small holes in our hallway wall that Nathan drilled a couple of years ago to do some electrical work reconnaissance:
Ree: "If I go down those yittle tiny holes I will be so so gone.  I will be yost."
Nell: "Yeah you won't be my sister then I would only have one!"
Ree: "Yeah I would be so so gone forever."

* * *

Weighing herself one morning:
Me: "You weigh 28 pounds!"
Ree: "Just like Daddy!"

"I have jelly beans!  I'm going to save them all for myself and not give any to anyone but save them for an occasion."

* * *

"I found this weally special wock!  I'm going to keep it for an occasion."

* * *

"These are my special socks I keep in my drawer for occasions."

Some vaguely theological musings:

Frustrated and concerned after a brief conversation about death: "When I grow up I'm gonna 'top (stop) dying!  Actually when I grow up I am gonna die but with Mama and Daddy and Nell!"

* * *

On Easter:
"But where is Jesus?"
"He's with God now."
"But where is God?"
"He's everywhere, but we say he's in heaven especially, like when we pray Our Father."
"But where is heaven?"
"......"
(I'm outta my league with this kiddo's questions!)

* * *

Doing a puzzle that is a map of the United States: "But where does Grandma live?  But where does Aunt Emily live?  But where does Uncle Andrew live? ..... but where does GOD live?"

* * *

During a thunder storm: "I scared!  I want to snuggle with somebody who is big like tall to the sky maybe like God."

* * *

After a required potty break at church one week:
Me: "Okay, before we go back into church, remember that we need to be very very quiet."
Ree: "Yeah!  Because everybody is sleeping!"



Some interactions with her big sister...

Playing together:
Ree: "I'm gonna be Peter Pan and you be a dead rat."
Nell (cheerfully): "Okay!"

* * *

Antagonizing her poor big sister:
Ree: "Mommy, we are the only nice ones, and Nell is bad."
Nell: "I'm not bad!"
Ree: "Yes you definitee bad!"

* * *

One morning when Ree was a little under the weather:
Nell: "I'm sorry you're sick, Mawie!"
Ree: "You're gonna be sick too soon, so you won't be smiling anymore!"
(...sociopath...?)

* * *

After biting her tongue:
Ree: "I have like, a rip in my tongue."
Nell (thoughtfully): "I saw someone with a rip in their tongue once."
Ree (angrily, running up and getting in Nell's face): "IT WAS ME!!!!!!!!"

(that one really killed me for some reason.  I laughed until I had tears in my eyes!)

And there you have it: a few (okay, more than a few) of Ree's finest moments over the recent months.  We sure do love having this girl in our family.

Reflections on Preschool

This fall has marked the beginning of Kindergarten for Nell, and I've been reflecting on our past year of "homeschool preschool" (which really, for us, meant a lot of play and reading good books and spending time outdoors).

I have a tendency to feel that our life is busy and not quite proactive enough - you know those types of people who keep track of their budget after the fact but don't plan it ahead of time and stick within preset constraints?  {cough, cough.  not that I know any families like that.}  Sometimes my whole life feels like that, and preschool was no exception.  So, as I was feeling worried that I might not be able to lay out and then keep up with the right sort of plan for Kindergarten, I found myself reflecting on the past year, and realized that I was actually more than happy with all that Nell accomplished in the past year.  She did things on her own terms, followed her own ideas and interests, and has an amazing amount of growth to show for it!

I'm also very pleased that we did preschool while avoiding overly kitchy types of stereotypical preschool projects, which I do not love.  Most of Nell's craftiest projects were self-directed, like the wintry day when she asked, "Could I draw a picture of a tree in the snow and then cover it with glitter so it would look like the sun sparkling on the snowy trees?"  So we did that!  But I rarely pulled out pom-poms and glitter and came up with particular crafts for her to do unless it was her idea. I do, however, give them unrestricted access to paper, crayons, and colored pencils, and supervised access to glue sticks and scissors and watercolors, so they have constant opportunities for creating their works of art.

Reading:

Along with the picture books we love and read on a regular basis, a few of our bigger read alouds included:

Charlotte's Web
Ellen Tebbits
Beezus and Ramona
The Hundred Dresses
All-Of-A-Kind Family
Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charlie?
Happy Little Family

Nell also started working through a reading book we had on hand (I don't even know where we acquired it, to tell the truth!) with me, and is now reading consonant-vowel-consonant words fairly easily, and simple sentences like "pip was a pig," "sam is a cat," etc.  Recently she was looking at a word backwards and sounded out and pronounced clearly, "what does TNORF mean?"

Math:
Nell writes her numbers from 1-10, counts to 100 (with occasional help if she gets off track), and enjoys counting things like stairs, steps as she's walking or skipping, and foods she's eating.  She's recently started asking a lot of addition questions, and enjoys figuring out small groupings of pretzels, raisins, etc. where she can see them, work with them, and answer her own math questions.

Physical Education:
Nell learned to ride a two-wheeler (she successfully went straight from a balance bike to a regular bike, no training wheels needed!), and learned to pump on a swing.  She ran around a lot, climbed a little on playgrounds, rocks, etc. (not her bravest element, but she keeps challenging herself more), she does somersaults and wheelbarrows and keeps trying to figure out how to play leapfrog with Ree.    I would have liked to be doing swimming lessons this past summer, but with a new baby it just wasn't the right time.

Nature Study:
While I hope to be more consistent about doing this at the least on a weekly basis for Kindergarten, we did enjoy our nature walks and doing watercolors of things we observed and treasures we found.

Writing:
Nell's interest in writing continued to grow, and with very little formal or structured instruction, she can write all her capital and lowercase letters.  Often when I'm cooking or cleaning in the kitchen, she'll sit at the kitchen table and ask me to spell words for her so that she can write sentences.  She has a little book she's filling with sentences that crack me up, like "I want to be fancy when I grow up."  In the coming year I'll be making sure to be attentive that she's forming her letters correctly, as there are still a few she does in her own way (like a lowercase d being formed like a J with a closed loop, rather than with the correct pencil stroke), but she's well on her way to decent printing.

Art:
Nell loves to draw and does so throughout the day on most days.  I keep plenty of paper and a pail of colored pencils and a bucket of crayons on the kitchen table on a regular basis, so the girls can sit and write or draw any time they want to -- and they do it quite often!

Both girls are pretty obsessed with cutting and gluing, and will come up with all sorts of things to do with scissors and glue sticks.  On the recommendation of some friends, I also got the Kumon book of cutting and have given them both several pages from this over the past few months.  They love using scissors, so it's right up both their alleys.

Handicrafts:
Nell learned to stitch a few small, simple things, learned to braid hair / yarn / etc., learned to do her own hair in ponytails, and enjoys beading necklaces and bracelets a great deal.

Habits:
Nell empties the silverware from the dishwasher almost every morning, and also helps put away the plastic "kid dishes" that are on shelves she can reach.  The girls help me water the outdoor and indoor plants, and have also recently helped me pull out all the brown dead bits from amongst the lilies to keep the gardens cleared out and pleasant through the autumn months.  She carries dirty diapers to the pail and fetches clean ones when I need her to, puts away her own toys, straightens books on bookshelves, and helps me fold laundry.

She is quite the helper in the kitchen, as well.  She can slice and chop kale, snow peas, and other similar not-too-hard veggies, and can peel a potato (albeit slowly).  She cracks eggs, stirs batter, sautés in a hot pan on the stovetop carefully, and butters toast.  She sets the table with silverware and fills water glasses with ice and water for the family.  She's polite at the table, usually saying very gracious things completely unprompted like, "Mama, thank you for making this delicious dinner for us!"

She's also very truthful, and will sometimes come to me after a situation with Ree or something else of which I was unaware, and tell me everything quite honestly, even if she believes she was at fault, and when she is, she is quite remorseful and eager to make things right again.

And perhaps best of all, she's very kind to her sisters.  I couldn't be more proud to hear her encourage Ree in her small drawings or attempts to form letters recently: "Mawie, that's BEAUTIFUL!  Good job!  I love it!"  She's kind and empathetic to baby Molly, and loves to offer to hold her and help me in any way she can with the baby.  And while Nell and Ree do have their spats (and Ree is currently challenging Nell with some occasional downright mean behavior, because she's three and all), they mostly get along beautifully and are very cooperative, and can work out many of their own little problems between themselves.

I declare the preschool years to have been a success, and hope for good things to come of our {exceedingly informal} kindergarten experience, as well!

Molly at Six Months

She's trying desperately hard to be on the move, rolling all over the place but also using her toes to push herself around, and trying to get her knees up under herself.  She gazes up at me at mealtimes and tries to mimic the motions of my chewing with her own little mouth.  And with those sweet thigh rolls and the plumpness of her belly, every time I pick Molly up it's a reminder that she's not a newborn anymore.  Everyone says the time goes more quickly with second- or third-born and so forth, and it's all true as far as I can tell.

Perhaps the fact that I didn't get these "six month" pictures taken until a solid two weeks past that actual date gives some indication of how busy things are around here, and how quickly the time flies.

She's gregarious, this little girl, and happily bestows big smiles on anyone and everyone -- as long as she approves of her current situation, which often means being held by either Mama or Daddy, although substitutes are sometimes acceptable.

  

She's a solid sitter these days, although I'm closer than ever before to actually following some RIE parenting principles with her in her babyhood when it comes to motor development, so I find that I rarely sit her up, but prefer to put her on her back or tummy and let her go from there.  The more I've thought about it, the more it is odd to place a baby sitting up before she can get herself in and out of the sitting position.  It just leaves her being rather stuck there!  That being said, occasionally she really does like to be sitting up, so at times we just go with it.

Soaking through multiple full-body-style bibs a day (thank you, Aden and Anais burpy bibs! And thank you Cara for giving us some!), we've declared her our drooliest baby yet, which incidentally, my computer's autocorrect wants to change to drollest baby.   No, dear old laptop.  While she does bring us great joy and frequent mirth, droll isn't the word I'm going for, after all.  Just drool, and more drool, all the time.

 

I know we're biased, but we think this kiddo is one of the cutest babies ever to grace planet Earth.  Her eyes!  And her smiles!   Her Daddy is every bit as biased as I am, and declares her "above average" and "unbearably cute."

Dear Molly,

You are a handful to put to sleep, girly.  You're the queen of the 40-minute-or-less nap for most of your naps, and it's been making your Mama a liiiiiiittle bit crazy lately.  You've recently stopped falling asleep nursing, or rocking or singing or back-patting or anything else, for that matter; more often than not, the only thing that works is putting you in our LilleBaby carrier and bouncing you a bit until you finally give in and close your weary, red-rimmed eyes.  Last night you made a rare exception, and fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair as I whispered to you.  "Sweet girl, it's okay to go to sleep," I murmured.  "You can do more exploring tomorrow.  You'll have a wonderfully long life to do all the things you want to do.  Close those little blue eyes.  Tomorrow you can work on your crawling, and play with your sisters, and see all the people you love, all over again."  And as I whispered, you eventually stopped fussing noisily and arching your back to look around.  Your eyes drifted shut.  And after a few final fusses as you attempted to fight the sleep, you gave in and your little body grew heavy with sleep in my arms.  I love that feeling, that moment of my babe drifting off to sleep in my arms.  I know that someday, despite all these struggles we've had to get each of our babies to sleep in their turn, I will miss those moments in the rocking chair as a little one succumbed to slumber and grew limp against my shoulder, breath slowing against my neck, fist relaxing its hold on my finger. 

We're finding our rhythm with my work and my care for my three girls, and sometimes that is challenging.  Sometimes you make it known that no babysitter, no matter how qualified, is a suitable substitute for your mother.  And so, sometimes, you roll on the floor at my feet while I teach violin lessons, or snuggle against me in the carrier.  I like those moments, when you're quiet and happy to be with me.  You watch my violin students attentively and seem to like hearing the music.  It reminds me of years not so very long ago when each of your big sisters used to do the same, and I'm trying to find the mental space to be grateful, amidst the challenges and chaos, for the kind of work I get to do.  I'm grateful for the fact that for every moment when a tantruming three-year-old's cries ring through the house -- bringing a hot flush of embarrassment to my face while I'm working -- there are a hundred beautiful moments.  A baby rocking in the swing by my side during lessons.  A child sitting quietly in my lap for a moment and just listening.  A toddler coloring quietly on papers strewn on the floor, content to play quietly if she could just be near me.  And you, Miss Margaret Elizabeth, falling asleep against my chest in the carrier to the sound of a small violin playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  

Of course, we'll close with the requisite sister picture.  We struggled a little to get a good one, and one might say we failed.  Lest you thought it was all smiles around here all the time.  {But you didn't, did you?}

"Siiiiisters.... siiiisters... there were never such devoted sisters!"