by Laura Fleetwood | Feb 5, 2007 | Uncategorized
Audrey’s imagination is in full swing. I spend half of my day not remembering who I am supposed to be at the moment. She’ll point her finger and matter-of-factly say, “YOU are David, I am Emmy, and JACK is Leah. ” You can’t slip and accidentally call someone their real name, either, without a stern reminder of who they are supposed to be. It wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t change every 15 minutes. Our poor dog, Jack, is soooo confused!
In all honesty I am thrilled that Audrey is so creative and imaginative. I think that’s one of the best things about being a child…you don’t have worry about reality…anything is possible and the world is your stage.
I must say that I’m vexed over the toy situation at our house, though. If I could do it over again, I’d minimize the cheap, plastic, non-imaginative toys and spend a little more to buy quality, handmade toys like these. Seriously, some of the dolls she has are downright scary and I’m running out of room to hold all the “crap” (did I just say that) that we have collected. How many stuffed animals does a girl need, anyway?
I’m seriously thinking about slowing removing many of her toys and giving them away to charity. In the future, The Three Sister Toys will be my first stop for new toys instead of Target or Toys R Us. IMHO a few good toys are better than a lot of cheapy ones any day. Especially when your child’s room becomes a disaster zone! Case in point below. And this was on a good day!
by Laura Fleetwood | Feb 5, 2007 | Uncategorized
BIG news at the Fleetwood household. Audrey went pee pee in the toilet on Friday night, last night and 4 times today, including once at church! This is huge news considering before Friday night, if we even suggested sitting on the potty, she resounded with a emphatic, “No!” complete with stomping. She would sit on the potty every once-in-while at Angie’s but never for us at home.
On Friday night I was giving her a bath and noticed her holding herself “down there.” She said, “I have to sit on the toilet,” so I scooped her up and plopped her on the seat. After a few minutes of nothing I put her back in the tub and she immediately said she had to sit on the toilet again. This time she started tinkling immediately. It was so exciting! We called Nana & Gramps, Grandma, Aunt Sarah and Aunt Amy to let them know! Even peanut, moe & freddie had to be informed. I was half-way expecting that it was a one-time thing but she went again last night before bedtime and then 4 times today! We were in Sunday school and she told me she had to go, so we ran to the bathroom with me saying, “hold it, hold it!” She plunked right down on that toilet seat and went! How exciting is that!?!
She doesn’t have a big head or anything, though. After Aunt Nora took her into the bathroom tonight and she went pottie, Audrey said, “you are SO proud!” Then she came in to me and said, (in a little valley girl voice) “OH MY GOSH, MOM! I went pee pee in the toilet!” She gets 5 skittles each time she goes – I think we need to stock up!
by Laura Fleetwood | Feb 1, 2007 | Uncategorized
Audrey
Anna
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 31, 2007 | Anxiety, Uncategorized
I’m feeling very thankful today. We had a Parents As Teachers visit this morning with Miss Melanie and both girls are doing very well. Audrey is way ahead and Anna is right on track for a wee little one. Both girls have had a cold for the past few days, but other than that we’ve been in a nice little groove. Anna even slept for 8 hours a few nights ago!
A few weeks ago when I was in one of my “funks,” a few dearly loved family members shared some things with me to help me put it all in perspective. My Aunt Judie sent me a quote that she has on a poster at work that says, “Put on your Big Girl Panties and deal with it!” A funny reminder that so much of what we stew about just isn’t worth the negative energy in the long run. Dana, Justin’s cousin, sent me a link to a blog that she reads when she’s having a rough day with her boys. Here it is: http://www.noahsteven.blogspot.com/ Just a warning that you will be in tears after reading it. Makes you realize just how fragile life is and how much we sweat the small stuff when we really should just suck it up and let it roll off our backs. We really are blessed.
In related news, Justin is no longer going to run the marathon this spring because he’s the best, most considerate husband in the world. He asked me if I really didn’t want him to run it right now and I said, “I want YOU to decide that you really shouldn’t run it right now!” Ha! Anyway, he’s going to wait until the girls are a little older and I’m thrilled that he won’t be away for hours every Saturday any more.
Work is going ok. I’ve been taking Anna to Angie’s now because it was just too stressful to have her with me at work. I was always worried that she would start crying and bother everyone else (even though everyone LOVED having her there). It’s just easier to be able to focus on work up at the church, so I can focus on my family when I’m home. Once again, I marvel at how content I am with my life right now. Not even the hormones can keep me down. Hope you’re lovin life, too!
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 28, 2007 | Parenting
“Daddy, why does the yink like to drink pink ink?”
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 28, 2007 | Uncategorized
Ok, I know that everyone thinks their kid is smart, but seriously Audrey is amazing. Every day I’m blown away by something she says or does. She’s not even 2 1/2 and she can not only count to 15, but recognizes the numbers 0-10 on sight. She counts things. She knows the alphabet, of course, and several letters on sight. Her memory and vocabulary are out of this world. She told the tic tacs today that “they were not cooperating,” when she couldn’t get them out of the box! We were driving home the other night and she said matter-of-factly, “there’s the moon. It’s a crescent moon.” It was! She also pointed out to me that the stop sign “was an octagon.” What?!?
A few days ago I picked up a book to read her at bedtime. She told me she wanted to read it and started spouting off the story verbatim. I mean EVERY LITTLE WORD was exactly as it was written on the page in front of me. It wasn’t just a short little book, either. It was the “I’m a Big Sister” book my mom got her when Anna was born – lots of words. As my mouth was open in stunned amazement I seriously looked at her eyes to see if she was reading the words. I know kids this age have sponges for brains, but this is crazy.
Mixed in with parental pride, I’m anxious as all get-out. I know what it’s like to have learning come easily. I didn’t have to work hard for my straight A’s and was really quite bored most of the time in school. After all of those A’s and academic awards, I left my formal eduction not knowing a damn thing. It was so simple for me to learn only at a superficial level because it came so easily. I studied for the tests, aced them, and moved on to the next one. I wasn’t challenged and more importantly, and most regrettably, I didn’t connect to the things I was learning at a deeper level. I think that’s why I always felt somewhat of a sham when I stepped up to receive those academic awards. I feel that void in my life to this day. Dana had an interesting post on her Since Eve blog about the following quote that really got me thinking about all of this:
“Thirdly, its trite “thinking outside the box” moral is insultingly simplistic—before one demonstrates how well one can think outside the box, one ought to demonstrate that one knows what’s actually inside the box. Teaching someone how to think is not remotely the same thing as teaching someone what to think. Mere wit should never be confused with wisdom.”
In my formal education, I was never taught how to think. Sure, I studied geometry, but no one ever encouraged me to wonder how geometry came to be or why it had such an enormous impact on the world. All I was asked to do was to regurgitate a few theorems. No one encouraged me to read the original texts by the authors of those theorems. So, now I’m 30 years old and I certainly don’t remember the theorems and I still don’t have any idea how geometry came to be or why it had such an enormous impact on the world. What a waste of time.
I feel like I’m rambling now, but there’s something really important in all of this that I feel like I need to figure out. I want something different for my kids. I want them to immerse themselves in what interests them and be challenged to think about the whys instead of just the whats. And, I feel like that should start now. Does that make any sense? I want my girls to enjoy learning because it fills them up and makes them feel more whole – like they are connecting to something bigger than themselves. To love the process of learning more than the performance of learning. I know that starts now, with me, and I hope I can do them justice.
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 16, 2007 | Uncategorized
This is such a happy, happy day! Two of our favorite couples had ultrasounds and found out the sex of the little miracles growing inside of them! There will FINALLY be a little boy in our family! Sarah and Mitch are expecting William (Will) Frederick on June 14th. I’m going to have a nephew! I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting that is. Will will be named after my father. My sisters and I made a pact when we were little girls that whoever had the first boy would name it after my father, whose name is Frederick William. I love that little boy so much already, I can hardly stand it!
And Clint and Mindi are having a little girl, due 3 days after Will! They are going to be awesome parents and Clint will rival Justin for being the most over-protective Daddy in the world.
Gary and Nikki are adding another baby to their family in July and we’re waiting with baited breath for the arrival of Mark and Jenn’s little Michael Patrick, who will hopefully come any day.
Bring on the babies!
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
I am so thankful that Justin’s mom was able to spend a few days with us last week. Thanks, Diane, for your love and commitment to our family! We were in stitches one night over this…Misty is our tomboy cat and, as you can see, she has no couth whatsoever.
Best baby invention in the 2 years since Audrey was born – the Bumbo seat! Anna is 2 months old and she can sit up in it.
A bird FINALLY came and ate from Audrey’s peanut butter/birdseed pine cone. Audrey, of course, was taking a nap, so I snapped this picture so she could see for herself!
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
Anna was baptized today. The holy waters of baptism have marked her as God’s child, confirming her place in heaven and forgiving the sins that are innate within her. What a loving, gracious God we have who would send His Son to live a perfect life in an imperfect world and take our place on the cross to pay for our sins once and for all. It’s mind blowing. It’s completely unfathomable. It’s the most beautiful, completely undeserved gift one could ever hope for and it’s ours for the taking. I pray that this day begins a long life of faith for our little Anna Marie.
This baptism gown was made out of my mother’s wedding dress. Myself and my 3 sisters all wore it for our baptisms and now both Audrey and Anna have both worn it, as well. It’s a special family heirloom that we will treasure always.
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 15, 2007 | Uncategorized
Audrey was “hiding” yesterday morning to take a poop. She finished her business and then promptly fell asleep in this position! The entire kitchen smelled, but I didn’t have the heart to wake her up just to change her diaper.
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 8, 2007 | Uncategorized
This is unbelievable. Anna slept for a 5 hour and 4 hour stretch last night and is STILL sleeping at 7am. Audrey is STILL sleeping at 7am. I slept in until 6:45 and I am dressed for work with make-up on and hair done drinking my coffee and blogging at 7am! See? That’s all I ask. 15 minutes to get myself put together without 2 munchkins distracting me, thus making it take 30 minutes and involve tears from all parties involved. It’s a miracle!
I soooo needed a morning like this after the yucky weekend I had. I’m sitting here trying to think what I did differently so I can try to get some repeats. The only thing I can think of is I snuck into Audrey’s room last night and turned her sound machine to rain (loud rain). Maybe that was enough to keep her in sleep mode a little longer. I’m definitely trying that one, again! Wow, I might even have to wake them up to get to Angie’s on time. Wake THEM up! What a concept! Happy, happy Monday morning!
by Laura Fleetwood | Jan 7, 2007 | Uncategorized
If you haven’t ad the experience of being bossed around by a 2-year-old, it’s definitely something you should put on your to-do list. I now understand why some people have so many children – it’s so they have plenty of other kids to play with the little ones so they can actually get other things done! Audrey has a constant need for attention, which is partly due to her age and partly a reaction to her baby sister, Anna. What this means is that a typical conversation sounds something like:
Audrey: I want to play a game.
(Mom starts to get the game.)
Audrey: NO! I want to paint.
Mom: I thought you just said you wanted to play this game.
Audrey: What you said?
Mom: I thought you just said you wanted to play this game.
Audrey: What you, said, Mom?
Mom: You heard what I said.
Audrey: I want to watch movie.
Mom: Which movie do you want to watch?
Audrey: I want to pick.
Mom: Ok, which movie do you want to watch?
On and one it goes…
Ugh! One of the solutions I’ve found is to have a loose schedule planned for the day (in pictures, so she can understand it) with various planned activities. This seems to work fairly well in combating the endless back and forth about what she wants to do, but sadly it takes time every night to plan for the next day and sometimes I’d just rather take a hot bath and go to sleep.
The other problem is that I don’t like being told what to do and sometimes my frustration reaches the point where I just want to have the last word – JUST ONCE! This usually ends in disaster. It’s hard being her only playmate because frankly I think I’ve forgotten the art of play just for play sake. It seems like I’m usually thinking about everything else I should be doing instead – I’m working on that! After all, iIt’s much more fun to think and act like a child rather than an adult, anyway!
When I do allow myself to get immersed in play, it’s usually a blast for all of us, but then I get frustrated because she’s ready to move on to the next thing! I’m sooooo hoping that she and Anna will eventually play well together to give just a little relief. I’m told that Audrey is just like me when I was little, so I guess I’m getting what I deserve!
