The Usual Breakfast Conversation

Today when Steve came home from work and found a Post-It note which read:

"Eat your food ... self
Singing bananas"

You can imagine his confusion. Why would his wife write this on a note and then leave it behind? Or really, why would she write it at all?

Let me explain.

This morning Steve left super early and he missed the throw-breakfast-at-the-kids-and-sprint-out-the-door routine. While the girls were eating breakfast I started snapping pictures of them because they were being so stinkin' cute.

They even broke into our favorite Yo Gabba Gabba song "Banana" without being prompted and sang the entire song. Here they are singing the chorus:

They were entertaining each other so much that Caroline wasn't really eating. I told Caroline to start eating her food.

***Note: Whenever I tell Caroline to do something, Lucy will always say the exact same thing to Caroline in a very motherly voice. In fact, Lucy is often more interested in keeping Caroline in line than she is in making sure she is doing what she needs to do. So Steve and I will often tell her to "worry about yourself instead of Caroline."

So, here is how the conversation went:

Me: Caroline, please eat your food.

Lucy: Please eat your food ...

Me: Lucy, worry about -

Lucy: self.

Me: Lucy, please worry about yourself and not Caroline.

Lucy: Mom, I was talking to myself. Didn't you hear me say 'self'?

As Steve pointed out, this is pretty clever. And also very obnoxious. If she is like this as a 4 year old, I can only imagine what she will be like as a 14 year old.

Now back to the note. I have started leaving notes around because I see hilarious things like this and tell myself to remember but it never quite happens that way. So I write myself a note with a few key words so that I can remember and hopefully post about it. And that is why I leave Post-It notes around the house that read:

"Eat your food ... self
Singing bananas"

Before I forget ...

There are things that I forget. I forget them after a week or a month or a year, and if I don't write them down now then they will be lost. So here is the random crap rattling around in my head:

• Lucy's name for Caroline has evolved quite a bit since Caroline was born. For a long time, Lucy only called her "Baby." This is a name which both Steve and I have continued to use long after Lucy stopped. Lucy then called her Caroline, but it sounded like "Deh-hine." Earlier this year she finally figured out how to pronounce Caroline, and would get very angry if we continued to call her "Deh-hine."
  
• The reason that I started thinking about Caroline's name evolution is because Caroline just recently started saying her own name. It is not an easy, one-syllable name. So sometimes it sounds like "Hine" or "Cay-ine." Either way, it's adorable and I make her say it just so that I can get a chuckle.
  
• For a long time, Lucy wanted to control her wardrobe each day. While we obliged for the most part, we wouldn't let her wear short sleeves and sandals in the winter, nor would we let her wear a sweater with long sleeves in early September. She has since gotten over this but has decided to start throwing a stink about two things: socks and her coat. She INSISTS on picking out her own socks in the morning and they must never be matching (unless it is a day when she insists that they match). She also incessantly asks to take her coat off, even when it is clearly cold out and would be very uncomfortable to go without.
  
• Caroline has started initiating hugs and it is about the cutest thing in the world.
  
• In case anyone out there wants to share their deepest darkest secret with Lucy, I need to inform you: she is NOT a good secret keeper. For the past two weeks she has been giving me daily updates on the Mother's Day gift she is making at school. Her teachers have been coaching her not to talk to me about it, but whenever I call her on it she just says, "I'm telling Caroline. My teachers say I can tell her, and Caroline wants to know."
  
• Today in a moment of stress and crankiness, I lamented how bad the driver in front of me was. Lucy said that the driver should "keep trying and maybe get some lessons to get better." She had a much nicer suggestion for that driver than the one I was thinking of ...

 That's it. This is a super random post, but I guarantee that if I look back at this a month from now I will have forgotten most of it. They say you lose your mind when you have kids. They aren't kidding.

Bonus Post About Cake

As I mentioned before, Lucy had approximately 32 birthday celebrations when she turned 4. I was looking back at pictures today and realized I had forgotten about this series of photos of Caroline enjoying her 100th piece of cake in a three week span.

I feel this giddy every time I eat cake too.

Saturday Afternoon

So proud of herself

She now can ride around the house which
causes me to lose sight of her for about 10
seconds. It scares the crap out of me but
leaves Steve unphased.

It does, however, cause Caroline to cheer for
her sister and yell, "Yay, Lucy!"

My Sweet Caroline

Shooting hoops with Dad

It was a good day. It was one of those days that leaves you smiling.

Soccer, Take 2

For the 5s and 10s of you out there who are waiting to hear how this week's soccer game went, I am happy to report that Lucy did a total 180 from last week. She managed to get through the entire thing without tears or a parent running along side her.

As I predicted, she jumped right in this week without any hesitation. Much like her mother, once she knows what to expect she can handle most situations. Here are the highlights:

Lucy  participated in the "drills" with the coach for the
first 15 minutes without tears. Score.

This is my FAVORITE photo. Steve said I shouldn't post it, but
I couldn't resist. As we waited for the game portion to begin, 
Lucy decided to cool her bum cheeks off. I had to yell across
the field for her to stop giving everyone a show :-)

Action shot!

Lucy and her friend Mallory - these two ran together for pretty
much the entire game.

I love this shot for one reason: the two kids by the ball are
actually elbowing each other to get to the ball. Lucy is totally
oblivious to this and is walking the other way.

I took this shot right after she ran off of the field to the sidelines
to get a hug from mom. No real reason - just wanted to say hi.

And what did we do with Caroline? What any good parent does: we fed her delicious snacks to get her to sit still.

Caroline and Dad after a trip to the snack truck.

Playing with her "guys"

Eating muffins

Drinking chocolate milk

Overall, soccer today was a success. We could care less if Lucy is any good or if she really even knows what is going on. We just wanted to expose her to a sport, let her run around, and give her the opportunity to play with her friends every Saturday. Unfortunately, that was not the case for a lot of the parents around us. There was a horrifying amount of coaching from the parents on the sidelines. It was not the encouraging "Go, Johnny!" or anything like that. It was specific, it was critical, and it made the game not fun for the kids. I hate to sound too judgmental, but seriously? IT IS FOUR YEAR OLD SOCCER. Get over yourself, dude. You're not Pele and neither is your kid.

You Didn't Know We Have 3 Kids?

Oh, Boog. My sweet boy. You were our first child. We bought you top of the line toys and a comfy bed. We doted on you and took you to the vet at the slightest hint of intestinal distress. You snuggled with us on the couch. You went on vacations with us. You were our first child.

Boogie lounging on our couch  - before the arrival of the children.

And now ... now you have fallen to the bottom of the totem pole. Your needs are put behind those of Lucy and Caroline. You are such a sweet boy and you never complain. We have even kicked you off of the couch. At night before we go upstairs we move all of the cushions up so that you can't get on the couch.

You are such a good boy, and that is why I can't do anything but laugh when I come down in the morning and find this:

That white lump is Boog who has somehow positioned himself
behind the cushions.

He somehow got over the cushions and created a pretty sweet (and secluded) bulldog nest. In fact, I didn't even notice he was there until after I came back from my morning workout. He looked very comfortable.

I can't even get mad at your for this one, Boog.

You're Treading on Thin Ice, Boog

Recently I have started getting up and working out in the mornings. It is a love-hate relationship right now: I love getting it over with and having the rest of my day free, but I loathe the entire process of getting out of bed when the clock still has a 4 on it.

Today was a good workout and as I was walking out of the gym to my car, I was thinking about how great getting up early was. I get time to myself and I don't feel guilty for leaving Steve with the kids (although he would never complain if I did ask for that time). I am energized for the rest of the morning and I feel good about what I've done. This high lasted for about the 2 minutes it takes me to drive home. Because it was at that point that I walked into the house to find that Boogie had puked all over our living room. Awesome. I was not too happy with him, and I was wishing that I hadn't gotten up early so that Steve would have been the one to find the puke covered carpet.

When Lucy came downstairs later that morning I was trying to get her to avoid the puke spots and to leave Boog alone. Boog had relegated himself to a corner where he very pathetically laid on his side with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. Here was our conversation:

Lucy: Mom, why is Boogie sad?

Me: He's sick.

Lucy: Why is his tongue sticking out? Is it because his belly hurts?

Me: Sure, that could be one reason.

Lucy: No, I don't think that's it. I think it's because he misses Nana.

If missing Nana causes this dog to puke all over the carpet, then Nana needs to drive back here and take him home to Lester Prairie. Our off white carpet can't take too much more of this.