Conversations with Curly Daddy

As Handsome and I were preparing dinner on Sunday, Curly looked out the window and said quite shocked and concerned, "The birds are eating mushrooms!" This because we have told the children not to eat the mushrooms that they might find in the backyard.

Handsome: "It's okay, birds can eat whatever they want."

Curly: "WELL, they CAN'T eat people!"

Handsome: "Most birds wouldn't eat people, but if you were dead there are some birds that might. Like a buzzard. But only if you were already dead."

Curly: Sitting on the stool confused and shocked...

Me: If you were dead....really?!? Did my husband seriously just tell my daughter that birds would eat her if she was dead? He did NOT just say that...I'm just dreaming.

The Trunk

I wanted to post this when it happened, but got busy =). So...I will share now, a few days later.

We went as a family for a drive to Costco. We needed to get something for Mom. Something like...oh...let's say- Wilcox chocolate milk. (Which they DIDN'T even carry anymore, but we won't get into that.)

First off, Ana did really well. Last time we tried to go to the store with her, she screamed bloody murder at the cart when we tried to put her in, so I ended up staying in the car with her. This time, she just got in. No issues at all, just let us plop her right in. That was a wonderful thing for us.

So anyway, we were back in the car after finding out that they didn't have Wilcox chocolate milk anymore...and after eating lunch there. Curly and Ana sit in the third row seat of our Kia Rondo and Smiles sits in the middle row with the seat next to him folded down. That's how we get the other two into the back, we have to leave the second row just one seat. So...Curly is sitting back there with Ana and suddenly gets this look on her face. A look mixed with confusion, disgust, and shock at her parents.

"THIS IS the TRUNK!" These words were spoken as you only hear when someone has surprise revelation that changes their whole world. "I am IN the TRUNK!" She was appalled at this. How could her parents stoop to the level of placing her in the trunk of the car?!?

I couldn't stop laughing. I am not sure what suddenly brought her to the realization that she was "in the trunk" as far as she was concerned, but it was a light bulb moment for her and it was funny.

...I wish that you could hear the tones and inflections in her voice. That was the best part.

I Fell Some-fing

Aunt Artsy is here staying with us for a couple of nights and reminded me of a conversation with Curly that I have never posted. I thought I would quickly share it with you...

We were in the grocery store quite awhile back checking out after shopping. Curly was in my arms while Handsome was working through the debit card portion of check out.

Curly started sniffing the air like she was trying to figure out a smell.

Curly: Sniff, sniff..."I fell some-fing Mama." (That was before she said smell properly)


ME: "It's fine dear. Don't worry about the smells, there are smells everywhere we go." I was a little nervous about what exactly she smelled and how embarrassing this smell might be if conversation continued...

Curly: SNIIIIIFFFF, sniff, sniffity sniff- she was breathing in deeper now with voilent lifting of her head as if she were a stench seeking missile, "BUT! But I fell some-fing Mom!"

ME: Trying to just cease the talk of this smell I finally asked quietly, "What do you smell?" My voice clearly stating that I was not wanting to really know, but was just wanting to get it over with.

Curly: "It fells like...." sniff, sniff, sniff, "it fells like....air."


Even the checker laughed at that one!

Dancing for Dough

So, I started this new thing with Curly to try and help with positive reinforcement. I have been having a hard time keeping grips on the frustration bug now that she is three and we are in the throws of trying to do an adoption. It's just a lot to handle and my fuse hasn't been as long as I would like it to be. So, we brought out a cleaned out peanut butter jar (glass) and some decorative stones.

When she does certain chores, she gets a stone (which she likes to call "chips"...but I am not helping my story here by comparing her to a gambling queen). If she does well on a car ride with no whining, she gets a stone. Good attitude = stone. Bad attitude = take a stone away. She has a list of things that she can earn toward and how many stones it is worth so that she can cash in later.

She can earn staying up half an hour late, a trip to the playground, going to the grocery store with just Mommy, a dollar and a trip to the dollar store to spend it. You get the point. Each special thing is worth different amounts of stones so that she can practice saving up for things and decisions about spending now, or saving for something she really wants.

So... fast forward to this afternoon. We got home from a really fun trip to Nana's house where she enjoyed a very full day. She earned a lot of stones and we put them into her jar when we got home. I let her have the chance to earn a few extra stones by picking up her brother's dirty clothes and putting the family's shoes in the closet where they belong and she was happy to do it. It seems to be working well.

...but then....

.......then my little girl starts dancing around the house and looks over at me. She stops mid move busting and says to me with a smirk that tells me she just came up with a crazy awesome plan, "If I do this dance- THEN I get a DOLLAR and go to the store!" Her little face glistening with a gleeful smile because she was inventing a new "job" for herself.

Yeah...umm.... sorry Charlie, but that isn't going to happen for OH so many reasons. The most important of which for your knowledge right now is- you don't get to pick your jobs. And let's hope by the time you do that your parents have taught you well enough that you don't get dollars for dancing.

I do love how children can say such inappropriate things and still remain innocent about them. I just hope she never comes up with that one again.

Curly's at it Again

Sunday morning on our way out the door to church, without Handsome since he had to work, Curly was standing next to me while I put Smiles into the car. She walked around the back of the car and I told her to come back next to Mama. She knows the rules are that when we are getting into the car she has to stay next to me or touch the side of the car while I put Smiles in first.

Knowing that I was getting after her, she quickly replied: "MOM! I am being hayve!"

(In case you didn't catch what she meant there...I apparently always tell her to BE-HAVE.)

Prayers from Curly

Curly: Mama, pray for me.

ME: Sure honey, what do you need me to pray for?

Curly: For me to eat GRAPES!

That girl never ceases to make me laugh. We prayed for her and added a word for grapes at the end.

Curly Says...

Whilst eating Cheerios at the table today a shriek of excitement is expelled from this adorable monster with curls.

"It's like a O Mama!"

"Yes dear. It's like an O." says Mommy as she smiles from ear to ear. Who knew!? =)

We have a busy morning, but tonight I will share a Meet the family on The Viking. He is an interesting young man for sure. If you would like to write a post about your family members one by one, I would love to read about them. It's fun to get to know the people who make up our lives. Share away and then comment so that we can all come and read about your family!

Curly and Her Flowers

Today Handsome was mowing the lawn. Curly always has a hard time with this process as her beloved Daddy ends up mowing her pretty "flowers". Every time her eyeball gutters get full and she tearfully begs her Daddy not to mow them.


As usual, I explained to her over and over that they will grow back but we have to cut the grass and they are in the middle of it. They aren't where we want them to be, so we have to mow them.

Through her sobs, she let me know something. "That how God made them!"

(This doesn't look like the tearful face I got. I took pictures later, after we had gone through the discussion.)

And how could I argue with that? Daddy still mowed the lawn of course, but it does make you think. Why do we have such a problem with the way God made it? Why do we always have to change God's creation from it's raw beauty into something made by the work of our own hands?

He's a Manger

Apparently this is what Curly thinks a manger looks like. She told me that Smiles was a manger.

"Thanks sister. I always wanted to feed cows and hold baby Jesus."

What Kind of Milk?

Curly always makes me laugh.

Here is the conversation that went down yesterday:

Curly: "Mom, I would like some milk." pause, "Please."

Me: "Sure honey. Thank you for asking so nicely, you may have some milk."

I go into the kitchen and am getting her cup when I hear from the newly three year old mouth, "Mama, I would like cow's milk."

Ummm...okay. Cow's milk it is then.

(Apparently she was not in the mood for soy.)

Choking Scare

Little kids make me laugh. They want so badly to be "in the know", so they try to act like they know what you are talking about.


Curly: Coughing and acting like she is choking.

Mom: "What's wrong honey? Are you alright?" in my reassuring Mother voice that tells her it's not a big deal.

Curly: "Yeah. I'm okay Mom. I was just choking on my gums."

She proceeds to point to her teeth and her actual gums...as opposed to chewing gum that she must have heard someone refer to choking on. We aren't really chewing gum people.

And check out those rosy "post-nap" cheeks! Aren't they pink!

Onititent

So, yesterday when Curly and I were doing her devotions for preschoolers we learned that you can't hide from God. It was a fun one for her since she loves to play hide and seek and that was the route that the book took. She understood it very well.

We were in the car going to church today and we told Vicky that God is onititent. That is how she says omnipotent.

Vicky asked me if she dared ask what that meant and I told her that she could try, but I didn't think she was going to get an answer...or at least one that made sense.

She tried anyway, and to my surprise she piped up from the back seat, "It means you can't hide." We were both shocked that she had an answer (it did go with the theme of the book yesterday though). She looked at Vicky like "duh" when she was so surprised at the answer.

After that I suppose it became a rehearsed thing. It's hard not to do that when you are so proud of them for remembering. I really need to be better about that. We tried to get her to tell a couple of people later, but she was just being too shy. I now have it on video though, so anyone can hear it. I love the way that she says "onititent".



...and note how she says, "Jesus. Who is God." at the end. Let's just say that trinity understanding is something that some of us may disagree on, but you can't deny it's cute.

For Gramps

Curly made a special video last night while getting ready for bed. Unfortunately, it was too long for Blogger, so we had to make another one that was shorter. Here is the less lengthy, but still cute video for you Gramps and GG. She had lots of fun with it.




FYI - the covering of the eyes is due to the explanation of blind. She didn't know what quite a few of the words meant and so we explained. So, you get covered eyes because if she isn't supposed to be able to see while she is blind. Yep. Enjoy =)

Daddy Leg

As we were getting dressed in PJ's earlier tonight, Curly tried to put both legs into one pant leg. I told her that she needed to switch one to a different leg hole. As she was switching one over...

"This is the Daddy leg, this is the Mommy leg."


"Oh." Vicky and I smiled and tried not to laugh too much.

"Yes. This is the Daddy leg...AND THIS is the Daddy toe!" Pointing to her big toe.


We smiled again and just went with it for her to see where she was taking us. We were laughing quite a bit at this point.

"And this is the girl toe, and this is the girl toe, and the girl toe, and the baby toe." All this on her left foot.

She moves to the right foot. "This is the Vicky toe."

Thank You for Loving Me

This morning as Curly was going into the bathroom, being told to shut the door by her daddy, she kept almost closing the door and then stopping. "I love you Momma." She would say. The door would nearly close and then, as if she had forgotten something very important (this was not a laughing game for her), she would open it back up and tell me she loved me again.

Her last profession of sincerity was this:

"Thank you for loving me!"

How sweet is that?!

The Attic

Handsome had to go up in the attic because we have a huge leak coming through the bathroom fan that came about after all the windy rain that we have had.

H: You stay here and drink your milk. Daddy has to go in the attic. Do you know what an attic is?

C: It's REALLY DARK and NOT safe.

H: I need to be safe, don't I.

C: Yeah. You need a ladder to get up there. You might fall down without a ladder.

Dangerous Kisses

I know I posted a Curly conversation yesterday, but I had to share this one from this morning anyway because it was too funny.


Mommy walks into the bedroom and grabs smiles. She starts kissing on him like anyone that sees this guy would.

Curly: "Don't kiss him Momma. 'Cause eeey as REALLY dangerous kisses!"

I guess I'm adventurous because I am willing to take that risk.

Mommy: "Curly, what song would you like to sing to God tonight?"

Curly: Thinks for a short second, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Mommy and Daddy glance to each other and shrug with a smile. "Twinkle, twinkle little star...how I wonder what you are....."

You know it was quite fitting, though I had been thinking something along the lines of Jesus Loves Me This I Know, or perhaps her favorite- Amazing Grace. The story we had just read was about the star that had led people to the Christ child long ago. I often think it's funny how much things that are totally not Christ centered can fit so well. It's also great how often our children can remind us about such thoughtful things.

Jack Sure is Busy!

I am with Smiles feeding him and putting him down to bed. Handsome is with Curly reading to her.

"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candle stick..."

"Jack climb the beanstalk Daddy?"

"Yes. Jack climbed the beanstalk."

"Jack fall down the hill?"

"Yup. Jack did that too."

I'm thinking that I will never name a child Jack lest his peers associate him with this crazy Jack from the nursery rhymes. Couldn't they think up a name other than Jack? There are always Bob and John.

I am...

Today I am a pretty darn sure honey that needs to cooperate.

I have heard:

-"You are a honey Mommy."

-"You pretty darn sure Mommy!" (That was a very firm statement)

-"Cooperate Mommy."

All of which I heard multiple times today. Also joining them was, "Not gonna happen." I guess that she is hearing all of what I say...and taking it to heart...or to memory anyway.