Sigh

In the last two weeks, my 4 year old has decided that she is going to get married. I only learned of this when she asked me to buy her a new wedding dress because her old one was dirty. First I was thinking, where did you get an old wedding dress, then I asked her who she was marrying. She told me Prince Elmo. I asked her where they would live and she told me the castle at Disney World. I didn't even know she knew there was a castle at Disney World. Meanwhile, I look over at her dad to see if he was listening to the exchange and he had a look of horror on his face. I guess he didn't expect to hear her talk about marriage this soon.

The 2 year old is becomming more and more energetic. A few times I have even peeked under her bed to see if she has some energy drinks hidden in there. Hopefully, preschool will help curb her energy a bit. Only a week to go before I get two glorious hours a day, three days a week, all to myself.

Today I have been wishing that I had a little tape recorder with all the things I seem to have to repeat myself on at hand to save my voice. Handy things like "Stop hitting your sister," "Get that out of your mouth", "Don't throw that in the house," and "Stop eating things you find in the yard." That last one is for the dogs, not the kids.

My pet tongue

I've got more than two children living at home. I also have two dogs. One is a rat terrier mix we picked up at the pound five years ago named Beryl. She was already a year old and had most of her personality when we got her. She is very sweet, but was intensely mistreated before we got her. She wants to please us so bad, but even after five years with us she doesn't let her guard completely down. She develops all kinds of fun little obsessions that we have to work getting her to break. Her most current is sitting at the base of a tree and watching for our yard's resident squirrel. That alone seems like normal dog behavior, but she will sit there for hours doing it.

Since we had one dog, a month later we though she needed a playmate so we picked up another dog. He is a "miniature" dachshund. That miniature is in quotes because he grew quite a bit larger than a miniature is supposed to be. He isn't fat, he has a nice body shape, just much longer than he should be. We bought him from a "breeder" for $35. That isn't a typo, just $35. The people just never bothered to get their dog fixed, so we ended up with a puppy. Little did we know we were actually buying a tongue with a dog attached to it. We have chosen to call the dog portion Turbo and the tongue portion Lickey. We have yet to figure out which portion of the pair controls the whole, but I will say EVERYTHING in our house has a fine layer of dog spit on it. That would be from the Lickey portion. Either way, both portions are extremely attached to me. We are talking separation anxiety attachment. On top of that, Beryl ended up just tolerating Turbo, so he really is not her playmate as we intended, and I now have a dog that sits right next to me constantly and another dog that sits on the floor and stares at me and the other dog. Sometimes I can get her to join us, but mostly she just stares.

I almost understand Beryl's world. We got her and she loved us from the start. She played with us and followed us around, then we got Turbo. She was a little standoffish after that. Less than a month after we got Turbo, I found out I was pregnant with my oldest. Within a period of 3 years I got two dogs and two children. No wonder I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes. Maybe I should be out there with Beryl at the tree.

Scarlett O'Hara

Since I posted about my four year old being Scarlett O'Hara, I am learning every day that I live with more than one. The four year old has fantastic little fits. The only thing missing is her arm thrown up to her head as she collapses to the floor saying "I just can't do it." Even better, her little sister is training to be her understudy. Preschool starts in September. I don't know who is more excited, me or the girls.

Self changing baby

The potty training was going well at first. Now she has just figured out how to change herself. She is sneaky about doing it, too. She dissapears for a bit and then comes back with a new pull-up on. I'm a bit torn. I was tired of changing diapers and didn't want to change them anymore, tat has been acccomplished. I want my child to sit on the potty and go, still working on this bit.

Those who play with knives

I haven't made a post in while, but I have a good excuse. I cut my finger nearly in half, so wasn't much for wanting to be typing. Of course I was not doing anything stupid with the knife in the first place. The thought that I was about to cut myself never even went through my head, especially mere seconds before the cut happened. Yes, that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Rainy days and Mondays...

Yesterday was Memorial Day and my husband had the day off of work. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't rained all day. The girls were both feeling better and wanted to go outside, but the constant downpour prevented it. This fed right in to the situation where they push each other's buttons. I had no idea that kind of stuff started at such a young age, but here I stand corrected. Today looks a bit brighter outside, still with forecast to rain. Already the girls are fighting over some dolls, or at least one is upset because the other one's doll is touching her.

The highlight of yesterday was running out of diapers. This forced the little one to sit on the potty. After much screaming, wailing and gnashing of teeth, we had a small success. She used the potty and realized it was not the end of the world.

My sister leaves for Hawaii on Saturday. I'm seriously thinking about hiding in her luggage.

What a weekend

I got up early yesterday and made buffaloes for my kids. I was pretty sure that the box said waffles, but my 4yo insisted the box was wrong. After breakfast I headed out on a few errands. I wasn't gone long, but when I got home the 4yo had a 101 degree fever. Great. She slept most of the day away, which was actually pretty nice.

Today is my birthday, and other than the kids being sick (little one had a fever this morning) it hasn't been a bad day.

Drama queen already

My oldest daughter turned four last week and the younger turned two in January. It took me awhile to get used to staying at home with the girls at first, and I'm not sure I'm used to it yet. All I can say is they keep me entertained. Today for instance I was exposed to two new things.

I asked my four year old to get her cup so I could fill it for her. She turned, took one step and dropped to the floor reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara. "I can't find it" she wailed, "it is lost forever." I asked her calmly if she looked for it. That only brought on tears. I was just about to roll my eyes when I noticed the cup sitting innocently on the counter. I showed it to her and she immediately got up, grabbed it and skipped to her seat. I have NO idea where she gets it.

I am trying to potty train the two year old. She has already figured out that this is indeed the one thing she truly has control over in her little life. I am constantly asking her if she needs to sit on the potty and she is constantly telling me no. Two weeks ago I decided when the mega jumbo pack of diapers we had were gone I just wasn't going to buy more so for now I am just changing her diaper when she needs it and biding my time. Today I smelled poop and asked her if she needed a diaper. She stretched out the front of her diaper and took a good long look inside. I was just about to ask again when she let go, took a sumo stance and shook her butt at me. Then she shouted "Yep, there's poop in there, see?" I almost wet my pants. There are eight diapers left in the box.