What do you see?

Drinking Fountain Etiquette

KHBetterTogether — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:57:30 +0000

Mia has graduated to the preschool class which means the class is equipped with a short cute kid sized drinking fountain to meet their demanding water needs. Today as I picked Mia up, she declared she was thirsty and would like to go visit the fountain before we get into the car for a long drive. I proceeded to gather her things and chart assuming this was a normal occurrence. Imagine my surprise when I turned around and Mia has her WHOLE mouth over the drinking fountain head. I mean you couldn’t see any part of the large water dispenser. Few things quickly ran through my head:

1) OMG how did that whole thing fit in her mouth.

2) EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

3) Doesn’t anyone watch these kids.

So I quickly skreetched, and it got her attention to stop. I quickly explained that that was utterly repulsively disgusting in 3 year old speak. While this explanation is going another boy goes to the drinking fountain and proceeds to drink in the same manner that Mia had just done. Noticing that I was explaining how repulsive this was she asked the little boy to stop.

So now I have two more questions:

1) Is this how they taught them to drink out of the fountain, cause I now have a greater understanding of how we are getting colds.

2) And can someone Please please explain to me how to properly explain how to teach someone the proper way to drink out of a fountain?

Fashionista

KHBetterTogether — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:36:41 +0000

In order to have less argument and give Mia an independent nature I have come to regularly letting her pick out her clothing options (mostly for at home viewing). I truly think this 3 year old has a fashion sense…above just the right mix of rugged princess to make her look totally adorable and less ridiculous for wearing her halloween costume from last year, jeans, a camo hat Grandpa brought her and and a sweatshirt. No outfit generally that a kid can put together is complete without a) high heels b) rain boots. In this case she opted for rain boots.

One can only hope that in the future Mia will carry her fashion sense forward and be much more fashionable than either of her parents. I know her individual style will come out more when she gets to help pick out the clothes she owns but for now she is doing a pretty good job of individualizing the ones she has!

Thank goodness for little girls!!

Is fricken/freaking better than saying f*@!ing?

KHBetterTogether — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:55:33 +0000

I suppose this is an ode to the good good deeds we do which hopefully outweigh the bad:

First- the bad: Mia has taken to utilizing a few choice words in her exclamations, for example:

“there are a lot of freaking birds in the yard”

“it tasted like crap”

“this is all f’d up”

Now to the good:

“Thank you for the banana bread it was delicious”

Isn’t this wonderful? or beautiful? she uses them interchangably

I like the St John’s bridge!

Mia is very observant, taking notice to what everyone is doing, and utilizing such opportunities to ask questions. It constantly suprises me what she knows and what she sees when we are together and the things she can remember. I know children don’t typically retain memories of early life, even toddlerhood, but Mia seems to recall things very vividly. I wonder if this is a result of us telling her and showing her pictures or if she actually remembers. She talked to me about our trip to see Jack Johnson the other day, that was a year ago and she still remembered.

On the topic of memories, she has one like her mama, elephant as some would say. Mia can finish sentences in books with farily lengthy and detailed stories. She can also “read” you some of the other ones, how does one go about remembering obsure phrases, like “touch the spindle I say”. I know a lot of kids do this but its quite astonishing to watch. She does all sorts of wonderful things which outweigh the bad deeds for sure, its nice to remember that once in a while as she becomes so independent!

Hopefully the good outweighs our obvious inability to keep our traps shut at home – we can go all day without messing up at work but at home it just doesn’t happen. So much for not teaching our kids that. We remind her that those aren’t nice things to say

Music can always speak for us…

KHBetterTogether — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 01:22:48 +0000

I felt like today was an appropriate day to finally blog about this. Its not really something that belongs broadcast for all the world but today of all days I felt the need to write about it and so here it goes.

Today is the day I thought I would be ready to hold a new addition to the family, introduce my daughter to her sibling, and be complaining because my ankles were swollen, my back hurt, and we were in for months of sleepless nights. Today would be my due date, January 25, 2009 a day that I will remember forever. I will also unfortunately remember June 28, 2008, the day that dream went away. The past 6 months have been emotional and on this sad day for me and Nick, I was able to not think about it as much as I thought, enjoy my family and recognize that I am sad, but hopefully although the sadness will never go away, there are things to be happy about. Hopefully someday I will have the opportunity to be excited about all the things I wish I was doing today. Until then we will let music soothe the soul.

Sitting working til late at night alone in my living room this week, the following song pulled at my heart and seemed as always when you need a song to speak for you- it does. Enjoy the words of Paul Simon as sung by (you guessed it) Jack Johnson. One thing I love about music is even if the song really has nothing to do with what you associate it with, it can have that meaning or recognition to you. Many signficant (and seemingly insignificant) moments in life can be attached to a song. The music triggers the memory or speaks for us.

Follow the link to Mother and Child Reunion.

No I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reu-nion
Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine.
I can’t for the life of me
Remember a sadder day
I know they say let it be
But it just don’t work out that way
And the course of a lifetime runs
Over and over again

No I would not give you false hope
On this strange and mournful day
But the mother and child reu-nion
Is only a motion away, oh, little darling of mine.

http://www.archive.org/details/jj2008-06-14.mk4

The Live Bonoroo recording is amazing in itself and this makes it better.

I hope my posting doesn’t come across poorly, but for 6 months I have been thinking about posting the heartache and thoughts that you go through after suffering such a loss. Although many tears have been shed and may continue to be shed may our little angel baby know we love you…and miss you…always.

Things that make you ho hmmmm….

KHBetterTogether — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 03:26:33 +0000

Ever wonder why you spend all day dying to not work only to sit around and do nothing. By the time we finish and I use the word finish loosely we are are not energized to make dinner and do all the fun things we day dream of during work. Here is hoping the weekend and two weeks of PTO will cure us.

Anecdotes

KHBetterTogether — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:57:18 +0000

As requested by Alana!

Mia has become quite the conversationalist these days, which is a rather exciting phase. She recounts countless events that have happened to her and begins these memory conversations with reference to “Last Night” as everything in the past was to her only last night.

The following are a few anecdotes from the latest car rides with Mia:

Preface: We basically listen to 2 CD’s in the car Bob Marley and Jack Johnson. A) Mia will demand either depending on her mood B) Jack Johnson is her favorite (naturally) and she will tell you so.

Mia: Can Bob Marley and Jack Johnson sing together?

Me: No, I am afraid not, Bob Marley is no longer alive.

This lead to a few more questions and a little more banter (basically the same questions rephrased. I ended up with Bob Marley died, but left us some great music.

Nick proceeds to pick her up from “school” and has a follow up conversation:

Mia: Bob Marley is dead!

Nick: Where did you hear that?

Mia: Momma told me.

Another quite random convesation began with a simple question…no idea what triggered it… Matt says she never remembers him… he was wrong!

Mia: Where is Matt?

Me: Matt, who’s Matt?

Mia: From dinner last night (everything is last night if it was in the past).

Me: Hmm

Mia: From the restaurant (we ran into Matt and Megen at Andina a few weeks ago).

Me: Oh he is probably at work

Mia: I was shy, but we said hi to them, you talked and I was shy.

I decided she has a pretty good memory for a 2.5 year old (at least I think so). Other notable things she can do lately. She can recognize other cars that look like ours. “That car looks like ours only white” even I have trouble deciding if that is true sometimes but she has been right. And ever the fashionista that I have created…she can tell when things match, and very assertively tell you that those buttons are just for looks.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary, how does your garden grow?

KHBetterTogether — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:40:30 +0000

While I am in the blogging mood….

Sometimes I revel at how alike Mia and I are and other times I wonder who’s child she is. This is one of those times. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy a beautiful garden and the outdoors as much as anyone, but I do not enjoy the tasks that go along with having that luxury. Apparently Mia has gained a fondness for watering the plants, and refused to come in to take a bath until all flowers were properly hydrated. Enjoy the pictures.

What does the penguin say?

KHBetterTogether — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:05:50 +0000

Being a parent has exposed me to a lot of questions I never really gave much thought… including every possible animal sound imaginable. Nightly we read books, of which we have read before (over and over) and to keep them interesting we integrate additional information or questions about the pictures. Mia’s current favorite is the joyous story of “Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?” and its successors…Panda Bear and Polar Bear. Mia being the verbal child that she is (wonder where she gets that?) has memorized this story and can “read” it to us. Included in each read is the energetic sound that accompanies the particular animal, our current and long time standing favorite is the bear. If you are interested we have a lovely YouTube video of this. This inevitably brings us to the penguin…the easy answer is penguins are quiet, like turtles, butterflies, giraffes, and pretty much any other animal that isn’t really known for its loud boisterous or farm like sound, but that just feels wrong to lie to a child.

What does any person of our generation do, you guessed it, Google it. However with the thought process of a 2 year old I typed, “What does a penguin say”. I inevitably got a lot of unrelated stories and some really bad penguin jokes…the most bizarre being…What does a penguin have in common with JFK Jr?A)Neither can fly very well.

After rephrasing my thoughts to adult speak, I finally discovered a video which taught Mia and me that a penguin sound remarkably like a goose…Honk Honk.