Conversations with Kiddos

Me: Let's get going upstairs.  I need you to go to bed so I can take a break.  You know, when you girls are sleeping, I'm not a mommy anymore.
Kenzie: Huh?
Me: Yeah.  I don't have to be a mommy anymore when you are sleeping.
Dustin (against his better judgement): That's right.  When you are sleeping she's not a mommy anymore.  After that she's just a wife.

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Kenzie: Massachusetts kinda sounds like Cheez-Its.  It's like Massacheezits.

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When a dominant rooster wants to mate, a good hen (one who knows her place) stops and squats and lets the roo do his thing.  Kaia has been chasing the chickens as of late and a couple of them have started to drop into this position when she is near.  In essence, our chickens think Kaia is a rooster.   Hence, the following heated dialogue. Quite possibly the strangest thing we'll ever scold our children for doing.

Dustin: Kaia!
Me: Kaia! No!
Dustin: Kaia!  Do NOT sit on the chicken!  Get off the chicken!!
Me: KAIA!  GET OFF THE CHICKEN!
Dustin (running to her): No!  No!  We do NOT sit on the chickens!
Kaia: hahahahahahaha

 After a few minutes sitting on the stairs (pretending) to contemplate her wrong-doing...

 Me: Kaia, it is not nice to sit on the chickens.  You could hurt them.  We don't want to hurt the chickens.

Kaia (patting my arm sympathetically): Okay, Mommy.  Okay.

Ooo boy that girl likes to test us.

Sleepover!

Now that Lily is attending school every day, it's harder to find the time to get together.  This week is school vacation and she got to sleep over. The girls had a blast.  We celebrated the nice weather with the first ice cream cone of the season.  I didn't think an ice-cream-cone-eating tutorial was necessary, but regretted that after both Lily and Kenzie got their cones and immediately ate the bottoms off. Doh!

After bath time, Kaia, the entertainer, went to bed (in hopes that she would be asleep before the big girls).  While they waited for Kaia to fall asleep Kenzie and Lily "read" Go Dog Go together.

Finally, when I was sure Kaia was asleep, the girls went upstairs.  Sometimes being quiet is really hard for toddlers (go figure) and it wasn't long before Kaia was up and running again.  After about twenty minutes of Kaia singing various songs (Row Row Row, Twinkle Twinkle, Ring Around the Rosy, and more) and instigating the others..."Lily!  Wake up Lily!" I decided to get her out. Lily was thankful for Kaia's departure.  She said, "good, 'cause I can't sleep with all that talking."  Ha!

So much cousin fun.  Now all three girls are spent and need a couple days of rest to recuperate. Who knew bubbles and sandboxes could be so exhausting?

Goodnight Gorrilla

I caught Kenzie reading the book Goodnight Gorilla it to Kaia the other morning.  This is one of those sweet sister moments that makes the moments in my previous posts all so very worth it.

I love these girls.

At the end, when Kaia is trying to grab the camera, she wants to watch "chickens chase me."  Haha.

Bedtime

Before viewing, please note: some of you may wonder why I am letting Kenzie scream like this instead of going to see what she wants.  Let's just say that I'm certain what she wanted involved straightening of the covers, adjusting of the pjs, re- positioning of the bedside sippy cup, or other such nonsense.  We thought "sleep-training" was for infants but have learned that toddlers need occasional refresher courses.  Hence my choice NOT to respond to the tragic calling of my name.

I hope this makes you laugh like it makes me laugh every time I watch it.

I Need to Call the Whaaaambulance

Tough times in our house these days.  There are so many things to cry about.

Including:

• my shirt isn't tucked in right
• my blankets aren't perfect
• my yogurt isn't properly hiding the strawberries
• my pants are too short
• my pants are too long
• my sister is touching me
• this isn't the song I wanted
• I'm hungry
• I'm tired
• I don't want to take a nap
• I don't like carrots
• the baby won't sit up
• I don't want to go potty
• I need more milk in my cereal
• I have to go potty
• I need a tissue
• my sister won't do exactly what I tell her to do
• My ratio of Mini-Wheats to Cheerios is WAY off
• My shirt is touching me
• my sleeves are too short
• my sleeves are too long
• my shoes hurt
• my nails are pokey
• that's not the spoon I wanted
• the music is wrong
• the closet is open
• I wanted to read the other book first
• the cheese didn't melt how I wanted
• it hurts to have my hair brushed 
• I wanted to stay in the bath longer
• I'm too tired to take a bath
• It's the middle of the night
• I wanted to feed Kona
• that's my chair
• I wanted to put the cover on

This is a phase, right?

Chicken Run

For most of the winter we've had to keep the chickens locked in their pen for fear of predators.  We, unfortunately, lost one hen in December after the first big snowfall and we have been extra cautious since.  Now that the snow is melting and predators will have more luck finding food in the woods (instead of our backyard) we have started letting the chickens roam free again.  Instead of waiting for dusk when they naturally go to roost I've been heading out around 5:00 or so to lock them up.  I am the chicken whisperer.  When they see me coming they run to greet me and then they dutifully follow me back to their coop.  I throw some scratch for them and without difficulty I lock them in for the night.

Tonight, Kaia was the chicken whisperer.  Enjoy!

The girls and I were looking at some home videos today and came across this gem.  It got us all giggling.  I hope it will make you smile too.