A Mother’s Joy

Being a mother to my three children has been challenging, but in the end, always a joy. I usually tell people that being a parent is both the most difficult and most wonderful thing at the same time. If only they could stay little! Enjoy each and everyday! Cherish every kiss and every laugh. Be glad to be the one to give them nutritious meals they may not be excited about, and to be the one they want comfort from when they get hurt or are sad. These are the things running through my head when I’m tempted to be grumpy when tired. I don’t want to miss out on enjoying my kids for the gifts that they are to me.

Here’s my snapshot of my kids this Mother’s day:

Kadie

Kadie is my 5 year old, turning 7 or 8. She’s a protective and caring big sister; sensitive, yet silently stubborn sometimes. She’s shy, yet bubbly. She’s my “question girl”. Sometimes, when I’m too tired to think of an answer to her 20th question in a row, I’ll ask her “why do you ask so many questions?” She just smiles.

She’s getting two adult teeth already! The tooth fairy will visit any day now.

She surprised me this past winter by reading “Go Dog Go” all by her self one day. We picked out words and asked her what they were, and, by golly, she has taught herself to read! We brought new library books home one day and there she was, reading “Froggy Goes To Hawaii” to Violet in the bathroom while she sat on the potty. As part of Violet’s potty training, I kept library books in the bathrooms only to be read in there. Another part of the training was chocolate chip rewards for both of them for Violet’s success. So Kadie was asking Vi from time to time if she needed to go potty, as well as reading books to her in the bathroom.

Kadie loves Peter Pan. She can’t stop thinking about him and wishing he were real, and wishing she could fly and live in Neverland. She and her sister will watch the movie everyday, twice a day, if I let them. We have drawn our own map of Neverland and a separate Pirate Island and have made up stories of our own.

Kadie loves to dance. She could shake her little bootie quite well from an early age. This year is her first year for taking ballet, and she says she wants to take the class everyday. She also loves doing polka with me, laughing as we fly through the house.

She plays well with her sister and brother, even though Violet is sometimes (well, a lot of times) difficult to be around. Even though she wanted Bruce to be a girl before he was born, she adores him, saying to me on occasion, “Oh, Bruce is so cute! I wish he’d say a little baby!”

Her newest trick is that she’s learned to skip. She tells me, with her hand on her head, “I can’t stop thinking about skipping. I feel like I want to do it all day and all night.”

She also tells me every day, many times a day… “I love today.”

Violet

Violet is a very imaginative 3 year old (soon to be 4!). Sometimes when she’s eating dinner she will be making hand or body motions and making some sort of noises as she’s acting out whatever scene is going on in her head.

She is also creative in dance (she’s taking creative dance class right now). She and Kadie have come up with some pretty funny moves such as placing hands on the jaw, then jumping and moving their hands up their face to their hair, over and over. I call this the washing-the-face move. She also led me through a move where you hold your belly, stick it out, then jump and push the baby out. If only it were as fun and easy as a dance move!

She’s a natural born leader, directing everybody in how to play. There are some hurt feelings on both sides when one doesn’t wish to be bossed, and the other wants someone to boss around. She’s also brave and will talk to strangers, telling them all kinds of things that are going on in her world. She was along for the tour of Kadie’s school and all the teachers thought she was the kindergartner and talked her her first, as she isn’t shy to talk to anybody. She also walked right into the classroom we were peeking in on and started doing a little dance on the Veggietales rug as her stage.

Vi Vi is a snuggler; sucking her thumb, rubbing her ear, or Bruce’s, or anyone who’s at her level. She snuggles toes, arms, her own leg or arm with the one sleeve or pant leg pushed up. She’s also spunky. When Ma Ma tells her not to suck her finger, Violet will take both her thumbs and act like she’s going to put them both in her mouth.

Violet has “the dropsies”, as Auntie Tracy puts it. Tracy told me the story that in the hotel on our Disneyland trip, David handed her the napkins to bring from the dining area up to our room. When they got off the elevator on our floor, David asked her, “where are the napkins?” To which she said, “I don’t know.”

She is a talker and story teller, cracking her self up with funny imaginings or plays on words. Some of her sayings: “Hewwo Dr. Wiz!” (as in “Hello Doctor Liz” from Garfield Thanksgiving) “Let’s look it up on the inner-tube.” “Good-bye, I must be going!” (When asking her if she needs to go potty) “Not yet. My body parts are not done making it yet.” Or “It’s not done cooking the pee/poop yet.” And she laughs at her self when she makes a mistake, correcting it and then saying “What was I thinking?”

She also loves Peter Pan and makes up stories. And she copies her sister in saying “I love today.”

Bruce

Bruce is now 17 months old, and he is the sweetest funniest little guy! He started signing “I love you” back to me and giving me kisses. His vocabulary is exploding with up to 3 new words a day now. Some of his latest are: ullella (umbrella),hi, hello (sometimes with an accent – helloo?), bye, ni night, yuck, poo, apple, Bruce, Elmo, everyday, pease (please), yeah, na, no no, mm! mm! (his very first word), ee go (there you go), up, and help

His sign language vocabulary: milk, more, all done, brush teeth, I love you, binky, banana, please, cracker, apple, cookie, bye, come here.

He has such a deep and loud voice. Instead of saying a normal “mama” or “dadda” he says, in a rather loud hillbilly voice “Maaa!” or “Daaa!” He also folds his hands together before and during meals shouting in that same voice “Amen!”

He grabs my toes and laughs, or pokes my belly, both his attempt to tickle me. He loves talking on the phone, and will say a whole lot of what we wish we could understand. He sure does in his little brain. He just keeps going and going in a very long and drawn out conversation.

He enjoys Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider. Sleeps with his Elmo, or the Winnie the Pooh we got him from Disneyland. He snuggles stuffed animals and kisses them, saying “Awww.” He loves helping put socks in the laundry and pushing the buttons, watching it spin. He crawls into laundry baskets full of clothes and “helps” sort, or says “Wee!” when we give him a ride.

He LOVES animals, and hugs any dog or cat that will let him. He loves music and makes a dash toward any guitar in his reach. He falls asleep to music either on the computer, when Daddy plays guitar for him, or when I sing to him before laying him in his crib. He also likes to dance a little and tries to copy his sisters doing ballet.