A Mama - where the nicknames went wrong

Sweet Pea's actual name is Alexa but it is rare that she hears that.  Papa Bear calls her Bear, I call her Love Bug and her brothers call her Lexa.  It is so rare that she doesn't actually know that it is her name.  We were looking at pictures of the family and I asked her to name everyone she saw and she started with herself and said "Me!"  I agreed and said, "That's right, that is you.  Alexa" then she pointed at my picture and said "A Mama" and then at Papa Bear and said "A Papa" and then added A before both of her brother's names too.  Apparently she thinks her name is Lexa and that she is a lexa like I am a mama or that is a toy.  Little Man was even sounding out her name to spell it the other day and I hear him saying "LLLLLLexa".  So the lesson here, we need to start to use her full name more often and break the nickname habit. 

Some of her other nicknames are:
trouble (she actually answers to this)
baby girl
sweetie
princess

Little Man's First Tooth Fairy Visit (Updated)

Little Man and Peanut were playing their games, up to their usual antics when I hear everyone yelling for me to come downstairs.  The crisis was that Little Man had lost his first tooth and then had actually lost the lost tooth.  Papa Bear and I were on our hands and knees realizing that our floor desperately needed vacuuming when we finally found it.

The Story:
Little Man was pretending to eat a picture of marshmallows (in a magazine) to make Peanut laugh when he felt a pop and out came his loose tooth.  No fuss, a little blood and now a much anticipated visit from the tooth fairy.

The marshmallows/magazine he was pretending to eat when he lost his first tooth!

The Toothfairy:

Papa Bear and I had a lot of fun being the tooth fairy.  We also think that the tooth fairy has a harder gig for kids with loft beds that are light sleepers.  Just sayin'.  The tooth fairy left a tiny tiny little note and $2 for the first tooth (inflation?)  I am fairly certain we will be awakened in the middle of the night by Little Man's joyous declaration when he rolls over and finds his tooth booty. 

The Building Museum

Another family fun trip into the city to visit a museum, although this time we skipped the bus and the metro ride despite Peanut's protests.  We wanted to get in and out easily and so we drove in and parked, huddled in the wind and off we went.  Mama Bear and Papa Bear sanity restored!

The kids played in the Building Zone where they got to use backhoe type diggers in the sand, play in a kid sized house with real windows and couches that fit them perfectly, play with doll houses and oversized legos and trucks galore.  The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves even though there wasn't anything there that they hadn't been able to play with at other places. After we left the Building Zone there were some fun things spread out in the lobby.  There were cushioned blocks that if stacked properly would make a perfect arch.  This project started with a bunch of kids and was completed by a bunch of dads.  I am not sure who was having more fun.  We played and built houses and then had snacks in the car on our way home.

The Fuammule (The Family)

'Nuff Said!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Invisible, Under God

Little Man and I were working on his homework together and his task was to list things that were invincible.  He immediately perked up and said, "Oh I know! Air and God."  I hadn't yet caught on to the fact that he thought I said invisible not invincible (even him saying "air" didn't clue me in) and then he launched into the Pledge of Allegiance.  "....One Nation, Under God, Invisible with Liberty and Justice for All.  See Mama, God is invisible, we say it all the time at school."

Now his list of things that are invincible reads:
Air
God
Superman (but not Captain America)

His list for the things that melt is a little more comprehensible (and will be clear to his teacher that he helps me a lot with baking):
Butter
Ice
Lava Rocks (they melt into lava)
Snow
Chocolate

His list for things that are soft yet strong:
yarn (he explained to me that the cotton isn't strong at first but when it is wound into fibers together they are very strong.  Thank you episode of Curious George)
bears (no explanation needed)

I learn so much about how his little mind works when we get to work on his homework together and I have to admit that I am not sure I could come up with better any better answers than my kindergartner.  I am a little terrified for the homework that is going to come home in 3rd grade!

Public Transportation and a Museum

This past weekend we decided to have a family fun adventure day.  It was an adventure for Papa Bear and I in the sense that Sweet Pea is newly potty trained and we decided to have a go at a stroller-free adventure.  So we packed a backpack with snacks, changes of clothes for Sweet Pea, camera and our metro cards.  We felt like we were traveling light but it was a stretch to be going so far from home without back-up. 

We made one mistake that worked out will for the kids.  We didn't check the metro schedule for the weekend and the track was closed and we had to take a shuttle to a different metro station before boarding a train.  We should have just turned around and driven into the city when we discovered this but Peanut's love for public transportation overrode our desire for sanity.  So we took a bus to the metro and a metro into the city.  This took about 1 hour and 15 minutes which is about 45 minutes too long if you ask me and about an hour too short if you ask Peanut.  Then we headed the Air and Space Museum.  Peanut was ready to get back on the train as soon as we got there but Little Man really enjoyed himself learning and walking around.  Peanut was our MVP while on the bus and metro as he was so focused on everything going on around him.  Little Man was our MVP at the museum as he was truly interested in some of the concepts and aircraft around him and Sweet Pea was our MVP in using the potty!

All in all, it was a success and an adventure.  Peanut has finally stopped asking to go to another Pumpkin Patch and now frequently asks if we can go back to the museum so that he can take a bus and a train. 

I love our family adventures and I love that we can now do them stroller free.   The days of having to pack half the house just to be able to go anywhere are receding.  It is a diaper-free, stroller-free world we are venturing into and I am so excited.

Civic Duty

Today we voted for the next President of the United States.  Papa Bear and I don't overly discuss politics in the house but we do discuss the process, the reason that we are voting, the democratic process and any other questions spurred on by the zillons of political signs, commercials and phone calls.  Little Man has staunch political beliefs that he isn't afraid to share.  (* disclaimer: this is not necessarily the political beliefs of the voting members of this family.)

Little Man is not shy about the fact that supports President Obama in another 4 years in the White House.  His reasons range from the fact that President Obama is fancier that Mitt Romney and that Mitt Romney is going to bring change and he likes things the way they are.  He also said that if your President asks you to vote for him, you should because he is your leader. 

While we all stood in line waiting for our turn to vote, Little Man asked his typical non-stop questions.  Can anyone be President?  How do you know who to vote for?  How many times do you get to vote when you are an adult?  I answer each question even going into explanation about the requirements that have to be met to be eligible to run for President.  The sweet woman behind me leaned forward and said "Boy, he sure does ask a lot of questions!"  I smiled and said that he sure does and Little Man said "That's because I want to know everything and my mama knows almost everything".  I am a little sad that there is the 'almost' qualification.  Then a pollster asked Little Man if he knew how he was voting.  I groaned knowing what was coming and Little Man informed everyone in hearing range that he clearly would be voting for President Obama if he could but that he thinks his mama is going to vote for Mitt Romney and that makes him sad. 

I think I will leave him home the next time I go to the polls even though I love that he has an opinion and isn't afraid to share it. 

Sweet Pea Potty Training (Update)

In part, this blog serves to help me remember how we successfully did something for one child when we inevitably have to do the same for the next child.  So I go back and read the posts and it helps me remember the mistakes we made and the things we did successfully.

So when we started the potty training for Sweet Pea I knew not to even try to put her in underwear on the first day and just declare a few days of naked booty time because of this post and I knew that giving her any type of droppable/retrievable food while on potty would be a mistake because of this post and I knew that even the impossible can be possible when I reread this post about potty training Peanut even when he didn't have the verbal skills to support it.  I reread the lessons that I had learned and then squared my shoulders to do it one more time, imagining the worst (lots of mess and stress) and hoping for the best.

We are on day 2 of potty training and Sweet Pea is accident free so far.  Let's be honest, she has been asking to potty train for about 5 months by stripping off her diaper and running to the potty.  So she is more than ready.  Yesterday wasn't even supposed to be day 1.  I was just giving her some naked booty time to see how she would do and she was so excited and great at it that I couldn't bear to put a diaper on her.  I expect that this house will be diaper free by the end of the weekend.

They say girls are easier to potty train.  I don't know about that but I will say that I think 3rd children are easier to potty train as the behavior has been modeled for them for so long.  I also enjoy that naked booty time can be done in a dress and baby legs - less exposure.

(I know that the few people reading this blog probably don't care at all about how Sweet Pea does in her potty training endeavors. So sorry!  But this blog serves mostly as a memory book for me and when she is 15 I might want to read about her potty training days and how well she listened to our instruction after catching her trying to sneak out the basement door to meet a boy)

- to update:  Sweet Pea was 100% accident free from day 3 of potty training.  She was our easiest to potty train and we never even have to remind her.  She is already out of pull-ups and staying dry at nap time and wants to be out of them for bedtime (although we are resisting).  I don't know if it was because she was barely two, a girl, our third child or a combination of all 3 but this was a cake walk in potty land.  We are officially out of diapers in this house!!!!

Being Moe

Peanut:       "Mama, I'm Moe"
Me:             "Ok Moe"
Peanut:        "No Mama, I'm Moe so I get to pick the TV show"
Me:             "Huh?"
Peanut:        "Jackson, I'm Moe, right?"
Little Man:  "Yup, Mama, he is Moe.  See Einy meeny miney moe, catch a tiger by his toe, if he          hollers let him go. Einy meeny miney moe.  See he is Moe"
Me:               "Yes, I see now."

In all of the years that I have heard that game played to see who gets picked or who gets to go first, I have never ever thought of the picked person as "being Moe".  This concept is one that I now pull up in my head when I need a smile or a laugh.  I love that Little Man will tell me things like "Mama, I will make sure you get to be Moe tomorrow".  I love that they take turns "being Moe" and that now everyone in this house accepts that the person who is last pointed to IS in fact Moe.  I have no idea if maybe I was slow to get the concept in the first place and that this is widely accepted by others and I just had no idea or if Little Man just reached this conclusion on his own and others will be just as surprised as me.  But in this house, everyone wants to be Moe.