Mommin' It Up!

February 18, 2010February 17, 2010

Stacy and Clinton – the Next Generation

Last week my pal Cortney and I and our kiddos (minus poor Joshua who gets left out of most playdates ’cause he’s at school) met at the mall to give the stir-crazy kiddos some time at the play place. Then, we hit Chick-Fil-A, and Cortney wanted to stop in Gap Kids. (Because she is a *tad* obsessed. It is rumored that her three-year-old wears only Gap underwear. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

Anyhoo, while Cortney and her 18-month-old (trapped in the stroller) shopped, I chased our three-year-olds around the store. But pretty soon it turned from chasing into cracking up and taking pictures (sadly my point-and-shoot wasn’t performing too well. But you’ll get the idea.) Sophie and Evan were soon engrossed in examining all the fashions that Gap had to offer. Sophie was picking up shirts and pants and saying about each one. “Is it pretty? Ooh that’s pretty, mama!” Evan was was thoughtfully choosing which color of basketball shorts he liked best. He knows a boy’s gotta look his best when shooting hoops!

Don’t sweat it E, you know your mama’s gonna buy you one in every color!

Sophie, meanwhile, was checking out the girls’ sweatpants. ‘Cause she knows a girl’s gotta look cute when she lounges!

And then she moved on to every girl’s love…the shoes!

Finally, the two joined forces and started comparing notes. I saw them transform before my eyes into the preschool version of Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from TLC’s What Not to Wear. (which their mamas coincidentally both *love*.)

I mean, they weren’t exactly discussing fit and body types yet, but I am pretty sure I heard the words “fabulous” and “drape”.

Pretty sure.

Soon toddler fashion became passe to these two haute couture cuties, and they moved next door to the adult Gap clothes. Sophie was all, “Evan! You MUST see this dark-wash denim!”

Evan immediately spotted some jeans he thought his mama would look good in.

While Sophie told her captive audience about why a great pair of dressy jeans is an essential piece of every wardrobe.

All they need is a mini-Ted and a mini-Carmindy, and they are ready to go! “What Not to Wear to Preschool” would be a GREAT addition to TLC’s lineup – it could come on right after “Toddlers and Tiaras”.

So watch out, Stacy and Clinton! You’ve got some cute competition!

February 2, 2010

The Big Girl Bed

Yesterday we took a very big step in our family, one Bobby and I had been *very* nervous about – we got Sophie a big girl bed.

“What?” you say? “Sophie has been three years old for almost three months, and she was not in a big girl bed? SCANDAL!”

It’s true, you see, we kept Sophie in a crib because she slept all night, every night, and we were WAY afraid to mess with that. However, she is three. And we want to move her towards being a “big girl”. And since she put the ix-nay on the otty-pay a couple weeks ago, we are starting with the big girl bed.

We said “bye-bye” to her crib after she got up yesterday. We skipped nap time as Daddy was still working on getting her furniture re-arranged. When we showed her the bed, she pretty much ignored it. She wouldn’t sit on it, because I think she was afraid we were going to make her go to sleep!

At bedtime, we read her books and then I left the room as I always do, while Daddy sang to her and snuggled her. I watched on our video monitor as he left the room.

She was out of bed before he even got downstairs. D’oh!

He went back up and put her back in bed.

Ditto. She was really “exploring her new space” – getting on and off both sides of the bed, trying to get her bedroom door open…

This continued for a while, until Bobby just waited outside her door. When he heard her get up, he opened the door and told her to get back in bed. She always obeyed, and never fussed! Finally he was able to come back downstairs and watch “Sophie theatre” with me. We watched as she got up one last time. This time, she got UNDER the bed! And proceeded to just LAY there. We giggled at her for a couple of minutes, until we decided we really didn’t want her to spend her first night in a big girl bed UNDER the big girl bed. So Bobby went back one more time, and tucked her in again. This time, she gave up and went to sleep IN her bed. This was about 10 pm. I wasn’t sure what the night would bring, but we did not hear a PEEP out of her until she woke up at 8:20 this morning!!! I was SO PROUD and grateful, I nearly couldn’t take it.

My baby is a big girl!

Sophiebiggirl

I love her SO MUCH!

January 12, 2009January 11, 2009

An anatomy lesson, brought to you by Emily and Jenny

As I have mentioned numerous times on this blog recently, I had a baby shower at my house for my friend Megan Saturday. On Friday, Joshua was watching me as I did some cleaning in preparation for the party. Though I had told him before, he asked me why we were having a party.

“Because Miss Megan’s going to have a baby and we’re going to give her presents she can use for the baby.” I replied.

He thought about that for a second, then out popped THE question: “Mommy, how does the baby get out of the mommy’s tummy?”

I froze, and wished I could hide behind the broom I was holding. “Uh…well… you know how your pee-pee is different than a girl’s pee pee?”

He nods.

“Well, mommies have a special place for a baby to come out where they go pee-pee.”

My answer TOTALLY blew Joshua’s mind. His eyes got HUGE and he jumped a little, like he was startled, and he drew his breath in and made a little – huh! – gasp.

“That’s just the way God made mommies’ bodies, so they can have babies. Isn’t that cool?”

Joshua nodded, still wide-eyed and mute. At this point I was afraid I had scarred the kid for life, so I did whatever I do when I have a serious problem: I ran to my laptop and IMed Emily. The following is our IMversation:

Jenny says: OMG Joshua just asked me how babies get out of the mommy’s tummy

Emily says: tell him the doctor gets them out.
Emily says: and then when he questions you further, tell him they come out where mommy goes potty
Emily says: and then watch the look of revulsion on his face
Emily says: bdtd

Jenny says: i DID tell him it comes out where mommy’s go potty!! and he was SHOCKED!

Emily says: wow, great minds think alike!

Jenny says: his eyes got HUGE

Emily says: Now just wait until he tells Bobby that, and watch the look of shock on HIS face.

Jenny says: hee hee can’t wait!!

I was glad to know that my answer wasn’t too far off what Emily would have said! I tried to get Joshua to tell Bobby about it later that night, but he was NOT saying a word. He did NOT want to talk about it. Then I thought a minute and told him his head was too big too fit out where mommy went pee-pee and the doctor had taken him out of a hole in my tummy. He liked THAT explanation much better. You could totally see the relief on his face. Hilarious!!

So readers, how did you (or will you) answer this question? Because if it hasn’t come up yet… trust us, it will!