Parenting: Dirty little secret #64

 

I teach my kids potty words.  There I said it.  Awhile back we had an extra long wait to get Ethan's hair cut.  He had crunched through three suckers, scribbled on all the paper in my purse and was becoming more rambunctious by the second.  I started whispering secrets in his ear and this kept him on my lap.  As you can imagine, your run of the mill secrets got old pretty fast.  But the "potty secrets"...now those were a completely different story.  Golden nuggets like, "Superman wears pink panties" and "Spiderman goes poopy in his pants" seemed to cast some sort of hilarious tranquilizing spell on him.  He would cackle and slap his hand on his knee and then cozy his face up to mine and ask for another. Kept him busy for 20 minutes until his hair cut and I left feeling pretty proud of myself.  And no one ever had to know.  Until today.  Ethan's 61 year old preschool teacher came over for a home visit.  At the end of their session she picked him up and he said, "Rita I tell you a secret."  We all know little boys can't whisper, so from across the room I heard, "Rita, mommy went poopy in her pants."

Ethan's 4th birthday

Ethan and Cohen

 

Soaking in all the birthday love

 

First pedal bike

Taking her for a spin

 

Kyle entertaining the kiddies with his stellar juggling and magic skills

Oreo cupcakes and race car apples

the lost dog and cat

Here is another gem.  I was flabbergasted to realize it is an adoption story.  Flabbergasted because a year ago, mention of any number of adoption related terms (forever family, China, adoption, birthmother, etc.)would send NiNi into a full on panic attack.  Now she is writing stories about it. 

 

 

The story spanned several pages, but goes like this (spelling corrected:)

 

"Once upon a time, there was a lost dog and cat in the woods and the dog and cat were hungry.  The cat said lets have mouse tonight.  The dog said no thanks. So they had nothing for dinner.  And they went walking and they saw a castle and they went inside and saw a pretty queen.  And they asked the queen if they can stay and she said yes!  They played dog and cat tag and made "forever home at last" hats.  The queen made a name for the dog and cat.  The dogs name is Lily and the cats name is Fluffy. And they did swimming training and they both passed. And did other fun things.  The end."

She told me I was the queen in the story.  I'm so glad she gets to be my forever girl. 



 

 

Meagan is in Florida this week with her friend's family.  It's a little torturous hearing the updates about the beach and sunny weather, but glad she is having a good time.  The rest of us on the other hand are missing her a lot.  This is the longest she's been gone since church camp last summer.  Every morning Ethan asks, "Yea-yea at Florida?"   I am having a stay-cation of sorts.  Off work Mon-Weds.  NiNi has been gone on several sleepovers, so it's just been Ethan and I for much of the week.  No lunches to pack, no buses to catch, no cracking the whip over homework.  Just playing with my boy, watching the travel channel and catching up on two months worth of blog posts. Much to Chris' dismay I haven't even been cooking.  Cereal for dinner anyone?  Yesterday I stayed in my pajamas all day, never even left the house.  My kinda vacation, which is so indicative of my introverted, homebody nature.  Hey, it takes all kinds!

the voice

 

 

This poem was written by my very artistic 7-year-old.  It was not a school project or homework assignment.  I just found it laying around.  Something tells me it is a metaphor for her life...and this girl is ready to be heard:)

 

"The voice is a roar.  It is steam.  It is just rock red and hot.  It is so red and orange to be seen from far away.  From New York all the way to me.  To Alabama to South America to Alaska to everywhere to be seen even from space.  Even to Marsh (Mars)" 

Easter (part II)

 

Easter (part I)