Birds and the Bees, Part 1

I was sitting on the couch last night with Berlin and we were practicing recognizing body parts. She is getting pretty good at it, though it has taking her awhile to learn because she just really hasn’t been interested until lately. And she still thinks that ears and eyes are very similar sometimes…hm.

Like all kids, my girls love their belly buttons. Don’t ask me why, because I have no idea, they just love finding their belly buttons. So when Tryn came to join us in our body part naming activity and we got to belly button Try suddenly asked, “Mom, why do you have a belly button?”

I told her, “Well, I used to be a tiny little baby in my mommy’s stomach and that is how she gave me food so that I could grown big enough to come out of her belly. Remember how Berlin was a baby in my belly?”

“And me?” Tryn asked.

“Yes, sweetie, and you too. You used to be a baby in my belly, a tiny little baby. Your belly button was connected to my belly button (improvise here, she’s only three after all) and that is how I gave you food so that you could grow nice and big!”

“Why?” This is Tryn’s favorite new question if she feels a little confused or doesn’t know what else to say.

“Well, I wanted to you grown nice and big so that you could come out and I could hold you and kiss you. I was so excited to have a baby girl and I just really wanted to see you and hold you. Daddy and I were both so excited.”

“Why?”

“Daddy and I just really wanted you. We wanted our sweet baby Trynica and we just really wanted to hold you and kiss you. We love you so much! So you just had to have a belly button so that I could feed you so that you could come out and see us.”

“Mom?”

“Yes, babe?” I thought that she might have some curious insight or tell me that she loved me too.

“I want to color.”

Stupid Phone

Tonight Steve let Berlin hold his iPhone. She thought this was amazingly cool. I laid on the floor and watched her walk around just holding it with a huge smile on her face. Tryn sometimes gets to play games on daddy's phone, but Berlin never gets to touch it. She tried opening it, and holding it up to her ear to say hello. Then, for some reason, she walked over to me and flung the phone down to me. She totally wasn't being mean, I can usually tell when she is acting out about something, but she just happened to fling it in my face. It hit me in the forehead just above my eye and it actually either scraped me or broke my skin open a little...that's along with the welt. I actually cried. Silly, I know, but my eyes started watering and then I started laughing, and suddenly I was really crying. Kind of like when you laugh so hard you cry, only I was definitely not laughing that hard.

The sort of funny thing was, Berlin totally didn't get it. Steve was there and so he told Berlin, "NO, Berlin, you can't throw things at people. You hurt mommy and you need to say sorry."

Well, Berlin just looked at me like, "What? I just gave you the phone. What's the big deal?"

Ugh. She did finally give me a kiss. Little stinker.

Two Tryn Stories

I was at Target this morning before church. Yes, you might ask what I was doing at Target at 9:30 on a Sunday morning while we were dressed for church. Well, I will tell you. I was trying to buy shoes for Berlin. I have been on this I-don't-want-white-sandals-for-my-daughter-who-gets-dirtier-than-most-boys kick. Unfortunately, white sandals are very in style for little girls this season. When Tryn was this age she had a cute pair of brown sandals with white flowers. Perfect. They went with everything and never looked exceedingly dirty. Not so for Berlin. Our options are bright pink, bright multi-colored, jelly shoes (which are making a reappearance since hiding their shameful faces since I had them back when I was six, whattheheck!!), or white. So, after previously looking at really every baby clothing store I could think of, I got the girls dressed this morning, didn't put shoes on Berlin, and went to Target to buy a pair of white sandals that I thought were pretty cute, although white. However, they were totally out of her size in EVERY baby shoe!! EVERY ONE!! So, Berlin when to church shoeless. Good thing she is just over 1 and can still get away with it.

Anyway, Tryn. While in the checkout lane Tryn decided to empty a hanging display of little plastic princess dolls that were, of course, right at her eye level. We had to wait for a few people ahead of us and so she had time to take them all down and line them up according to identity. All of the Snow White's were in a row, followed by Cinderella, and so on. As I got to paying I turned to Tryn and said, "Come on babe! Put those away, it's time to go!"

She told me, "Mom, see Cinderella! And here is Sleeping Beauty!."

"I see babe, but it's time to go."

I finished paying and took Berlin out of the cart. "Come on Tryn! We are gonna go!"

In a voice as close to yelling as you can get without actually yelling, plenty loud enough for me, the cashier, the five people in line behind me, and the 20 or so other people within earshot, Tryn responded, "MOM! I NEED TO PUT THESE AWAY. JUST A MINUTE!"

Then she proceeded to hang each and everyone of them back up...At least she picks up after herself. Sometimes.
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The other night we were at the park. We met up with our friend Rollie and cooked some brats and hot dogs for dinner. Tryn, not really wanting to sit still long, kept getting up and running to the playground before she was finished with dinner. Since I think it's rather mean to bring your kid to the park and then tell them they can't play until they are finished eating, the rule about not leaving the table until you are finished is put on hold at the park. We let them come and go and figure if they are hungry enough, they will eat.

Tryn had left and come back several times, and then left for a significantly long period of time. Long enough that I assumed she was finished as she had eaten most of her hot dog anyway. Well, she soon came running back, climbed up to the table, and said, "Where is my hot dog? Where is my food?!"

"It's all gone, sweetie," Steve told her.

"Where is it? I want my food." There is fast breathing and the approach of tears at this point.

Trying to ward the oncoming storm Steve said, "Well, see that bird up there in the tree? He came down here and ate your food! He was really hungry, so he just took your food."

Tryn, without missing a beat, looked up in the tree and indignantly demanded, "Bird! You give me back my food right now!"

I WON! (and a REALLY funny story!)

I WOOONNNNNN!!! Yay! I won American Idol. I’m surprised you didn’t see me on TV last night. I totally won. Heehee!

Actually, we were gambling at church had bets going on in the workplace about who would be the winner of American Idol and I WON!! We had some bets that were started after the top 12 (actually 13) were chosen: who was going to be the top two girls/guys, who was going to win it all, who would make it to the final three, who were the top six going to be, etc. The two biggest pots were who was going to win it all and who was going to be in the top three. Well, lo and behold, out of the 15 or so people who participated in our $1 bets, I was the ONLY person to pick those two categories correctly!! For most all of the other categories there was more than one winner or no winner at all, but I won $30 and didn’t have to split it with anyone. We would also have weekly bets about who would be going home each week and I won several of those as well, all in all I think I won about $40 by gambling at church betting in the workplace.

I might have to go shopping tonight.

Also, I forgot this really great story that I told my sister-in-law that I was going to post on my blog, so I hope she doesn’t mind that I am actually going to do it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was up at my mom and dad’s this weekend and two of my nephews were there. My nephew Brendyn just turned 3 in April and is absolutely adorable. Unfortunately, it seems like the cutest kids most often say the darndest things!

We were having a little birthday party for my brother-in-law Andy (Kristy’s husband) on Saturday, so in addition to the 12 members of my family who were there, Andy’s mom, stepdad, brother, and two family friends were there as well. Well, Tia/Christine/sister-in-law took Brendyn out of the room for something, can’t even remember now, and when they came back out Brendyn announced something sort of unintelligible. However, my brother started laughing! Everyone was like, “What? What?” Brendyn made his announcement again, which most people couldn’t understand, but made his dad laugh even harder. I turned to Tia and asked, “What did he say?”

“Oh, nothin’. It’s nothing.” It was apparent that she really didn’t want to say.

However, Brendyn was repeating it more and more with each laugh that he gained. Suddenly I was able to understand the pronouncement, “Mommy tooted!! She tooted really loud!”

HAAAHAAA!!!! Totally hilarious!

I am still not sure that everyone in the room really understood what he was saying, but for those of us who got it…man, SO funny. I am just glad that this time it wasn’t Tryn.

Oma and Opa's

My parents live on a 40 acre piece of wilderness next to 150,000 acres of state land wilderness. Yes, that means there are bears and lots of wild things around. For those city people who say, “Yeah, so and so lives out in the middle of nowhere…” and the main indicator is that person lives out on a country road…they have no idea what they are talking about. Seriously. When you are at my parent’s house the closest town with anything but a gas station is 20 minutes away. And all that town has is a school, a gas station, and a restaurant. The town in which they live on the outskirts of has an old deserted falling down church…and that’s it. My parents are the only people that I know who still live on a dirt road.

At Oma and Opa’s (German for grandma and grandpa) house it is so quiet and dark at night that sometimes I can’t sleep because it is so quiet and dark. I normally sleep with a street light outside my window and white noise on to cover up all the other noise going on, including, but not limited to, airplanes, helicopters, gunshots, screaming, yelling, and an endless number of cars.

I love going up to my parent’s house, it is like going on a mini-vacation. When I am there I can literally forget about other things like work, stress, and whatever else. I think that partly comes from being with people who know and love me pretty much unconditionally, but it also comes from life being so different there. If I had the mind to, I could sit in the front yard and count the number of cars that drive by in any given day I would probably not count past 20. At my house in the city, more than 20 cars drive by per hour.

Anyway, it is always fun and relaxing. Even when the kids are sick. Yes, Tryn got sick on Friday and I still went up to my mom and dad’s. Why? Well, to see my sister of course! My sister and her husband live out in Indiana and I only get to see them a couple of times per year, this was one of the times. Hopefully Kristy will move back to Minnesota soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Berlin and Trynica also love going up to Oma and Opa’s house. They don’t love it just because they get spoiled by all the attention, they also love it because they LOVE to play outside and there is just so much outside at Opa’s house. The yard is one of the biggest I have seen, there are four-wheelers, horses, and a river in the backyard (through the trees and down this little “path” that is most easily traversed by four-wheeler or horse).


My brave Berlin will touch anything. She marched right up to the horses, who are miles higher than she is, and stuck her hand through the fence to try and pet them. Bold, fearless, crazy kid. I feel like I say that a lot, but it is totally true. Maybe I just don't expect it from her because she is a girl and she surprises me a lot. Tryn is very cautious, delicate, and girly. Berlin is...not.

If there are any kids that I adore almost as much as my own, it would be my nephews. I have three. Brendyn and Tyvan are brothers, Brendyn is 2 months older than Tryn and Tyvan is 4 months older than Berlin, and then there is 9 month old Gabe who is living with his parents in South Korea right now. I adore them. This is Tyvan, isn't he just so cute?!?!

This is my sister Kristy (in the middle) and my sister-in-law Christine (fondly known by everyone as Tia) who is Brendyn and Tyvan's mom. I love these girls too. I kind of just really like my family :)

Flower Child

I am currently up at my mom and dad's house, I will post some more pictures and stories later on. I just couldn't wait to share these!! This is Berlin inhaling flowers. She presses her nose right into the flowers and inhales will all her might. I love this girl.

Big Girl Bed

First of all, thanks for posting comments on my last blog entry!! It is really great to hear what you all are thinking. I mean, I can tell that you are out there because every week I get an email telling me that lots of people have visited my blog, so it's nice to hear what you think about it! Feel free to comment ANYTIME!! Anytime.

Ahem.

I am a little behind. We got Tryn a toddler big girl bed a few weeks ago, so this is not brand new, but it is still exciting in our household. We waited a long time to get Tryn a big girl bed, mainly because she is a mover when she sleeps (or was, I guess). Whenever I would sleep in the same room with her I would wake up several times a night because of her rolling over and banging the side of whatever she was sleeping next to. She also never minded sleeping in a crib or pack 'n play and only once ever climbed out of her crib, so she was fine...but it was finally time to make the switch.

As I normally get lots of things used because I am a bargain shopper and love getting a deal, I shopped around for Tryn's bed for several weeks. Unfortunately, every time there was a cute white wooden bed decently priced on Craigslist it disappeared before I could even send an email. So we decided to go with plastic, which was slightly cheaper and almost as cute :)

Both of the girls were very excited about putting this bed together. They both desperately wanted to help daddy, especially by "holding" the screws...which was very helpful, of course.




Berlin thought the new bed was kind of like a jungle gym and couldn't help but give the entire bed a good crawl over before it was completely put together.



Once the bed was all put together Tryn excitedly sat on it in her calm and collected Tryn sort of way.



Berlin, on the other hand, got up onto the bed and, without hesitation, started jumping away. Berlin was actually the first one to fall out of Tryn's new bed. Crazy kid.



In the middle of the night the very first night that Tryn slept in her bed Steve and I awoke to a loud CRASH! and scared screaming crying. Yes, she fell right out. Thankfully, that only happened that first night, and things have been just fine ever since. Except that Berlin still loves to climb right up and start jumping...

Not Kidding

I just want you to know how not kidding I am when I talk about Trynica pretending to be a princess. In the picture below you will see Tryn laying on the couch pretending to be Sleeping Beauty. Notice that she is wearing her beads (which is actually something that Cinderella wears) and I am not kidding about the pacifier which has become the stand-in crown. I have had this crown balanced on my head several times as Tryn bestows on me "a crown of grace and beauty" (which is a line from the movie).



Tryn has, for some reason, taken to calling herself Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or even Grace and Beauty. When I say, "Tryn, do you need to go potty?" She will tell me, "No, Mom, Cinderella needs to go potty." Or, "No, no, Grace and Beauty, Mom." Also notice the way there is a blanket laying over the bottom half of her body and the way her hands are folded on her chest, just the way that Sleeping Beauty looks when she is laying in her deep sleep. Tryn will get all ready with her crown, go through the motions of walking across the room to touch her finger on an imaginary spinning wheel, fall to the ground, and then get up and go prepare herself this way on the couch. Then I will get a, "Mom!! Mom! Can you come and kiss me?" And she will lay there with her eyes half closed until I come to kiss her. She will do this several times in a row.

She also does a similar thing with Cinderella. She will come to me and say, "Mom, can you say, 'these beads, they give it just the right touch'?" Then I play my part of the evil stepmother and the stepsisters who tear her dress apart. After she runs to the garden to cry, I become the fairy godmother who makes her a "car" and a dress. I have some really great video of this, if only I could find the dumb cord to put it on my computer!

This is so funny. I love it! I can't believe how imaginative she is. I would love to be able to just get inside her head to see what is really going on when she is acting out these parts. She can quote entire sections of the movies and can sing the theme songs from them both. Crazy kid. She is so dang smart.
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Sidenote: I really really don't mind at all if people comment on my blog. Seriously. I don't mind. I mean, is anyone actually out there? Hello? Hellooooo?? If you read my blog, feel free to write comments, I LOVE to hear what you think. Seriously, hello? You can even post a comment anonymously if you don't have your own google account. Come on! You know you want to!! :)

Weekends

Things I did this weekend:

* Was a wicked stepmother, a handsome prince, and a princess full of "grace and beauty" (according to Tryn).

* Balanced a pacifier on my head while being a princess, apparently the pacifier is the new crown of choice these days.

* Pricked my finger on an imaginary spinning wheel and had to wait for Tryn to give me a kiss before I could get up.

* Rescued Sophie from the toilet after Berlin decided to toss her in mid-flush.

* Calmed a hysterical Tryn who was very traumatized by the fact that Sophie was thrown in the toilet. Tryn informed me that Sophie was very sad and scared about the whole ordeal...Sophie seemed okay to me.

* Gave Sophie a "bath" in the washing machine.

* Gave the girls a bath in the bath tub.

* Did 8 loads of laundry.

* Was surprised by Steve and the girls with a bouquet of flowers. Tryn gave them to me and pronounced, "Happy Father's Day!"

* Was also surprised to not be allowed out of bed Sunday morning until Tryn and Berlin trooped in carrying gifts which they had colored on the wrapping paper for me. They were so excited about their coloring, which was completely adorable. This was followed by Steve making me a huge breakfast.

* Broke up fights about who should be allowed to play with the "beads" (plastic colorful necklaces) several times.

* Was kept from taking a nap by a child who wouldn't to go sleep because she figured out how to take her pants off.

* Tried to convince Tryn that she was not Sophie's daddy, as she kept proclaiming that she was, and that she was in fact Sophie's mommy.

* Watched Tryn try to give her doll Zosia a bottle and then tell me, "Zosia doesn't want a bottle, I am going to feed her with my boob."

* Played outside.

* Watched an episode of Lost.

* Pulled out a bin of Tryn's old clothes which will now become Berlin's summer clothes, realized two girls clothes do not fit in one dresser anymore, and rearranged the entire clothing situation in the girls' room.

* Helped host a Frock Exchange Party wherein some friends and I went through our closets, picked out stuff we didn't wear anymore, and exchanged clothes with each other. Very fun, as I got two bags full of cute new clothes. Following said party I stayed up until 1:30am with Steve and some friends...

* Went on a date with my man and had a really, really, really good burger at The Bulldog in North East.

* Went to church.

* Cleaned the house.

* Read the book First Words to Berlin about 25 times, at her insistence.

* Worked on teaching Berlin animal names and noises.

* Started what Tryn calls school. Steve bought her a pre-kindergarten book and we practiced drawing the big letter A and the little letter a.

* Read a little bit of Harry Potter...to myself :)

* Put Cinderella's dress back on her about 15 times. Cinderella seems to like to take her clothes off for some reason.

Whenever I go back to work on Monday people always ask me, "How was your weekend?" and a lot of the times I just say, "It was good, pretty normal." Truly, my weekends, though not extremely eventful, are very busy. In fact, many times the weekend feels much busier than the weekdays. And, although I don't normally get flowers and presents when I wake up on Sunday morning, when people ask me tomorrow, this is probably what I will say, "It was good, pretty normal."

Happy Mother's Day

Happy mother's day to all the wonderful mom's who read my blog. I think most of the mom's who read this are good friends of mine and I just want you to know that I appreciate you! I love having people in my life who challenge me to be a better mom to my kids, so thanks :)

(I did not write this, but got it as an email the other day. I thought I would share it since it seems to be how I feel about being a mother this mother's day.)

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind
and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests.
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body...
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom .

Business Time!

Thank you for all your caption's for this picture:

I LOVED reading all the silly comments, they made me laugh almost as much as the actual picture. So funny! I mean, I hope she agrees with Oma and says, "Don't even try me, I know the rules." And though I really thought Beth's, Amy's, and Trisha's comments were really funny (check out comments on previous post if you want to read their creative thoughts), I think my favorite might be Stew's, "Business Time!!" It just totally fits with the idea behind the name of the softball team (click on the name if you don't know what I am talking about). Very funny.
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Steve's started a summer softball team last spring with several special sidekicks (how is that for alliteration!! I didn't even mean to do it until "spring", but there ya' go!) Anyway, the guys all had such a great time last year that they decided to do it again this year. Their team name is Business Time (if you haven't watched the video by now you might want to, you won't regret it. Well, maybe you will, but at least you will laugh!) They will have games every Monday night from now until July sometime so feel free to come and cheer them on! Email me and I can tell you the time and place.

Although Berlin was at several of the Business Time softball games last year, she definitely didn't enjoy herself then as much as she did this time (in fact, last year she was so small that every time I cheered she would burst into tears). This time she definitely had some fun!


I don't think you can really see how dirty she is in this picture, but she literally, at one point, was laying in the dirt. She tasted the dirt, put some on her head, put handfuls of it above her head and let go to watch it fall to the ground. I might have been able to plant a garden in her hair after that.


She was very exited to see her daddy. She spent a lot of the time standing at the sidelines saying, "Dada! Dada!" And waving to him.


Tryn was also very excited to see Steve out on the field. In this picture she is actually saying, "Rueben! That is MY daddy!! Out there! See him?" Tryn and Rueben spent a lot of time pointing out their dad's to the each other. (And, yes, that is a naked Cinderella in Tryn's hands. Rueben brought a green dirt bike to play with, Tryn brought naked Cinderella...)


I think I have mentioned before how much Berlin likes dogs (if I haven't, she TOTALLY loves them), so she was really excited to have a dog at the game. She had to size the dog up first, before she deciding she wanted to give it a kiss.


She was even still excited about the dog after it gave her a huge kiss right on the face!! Can you imagine an animal bigger than you giving you a big sloppy kiss right on your face? I would be scared. Berlin is very brave.


This is my good friend Cait, that, however, is NOT her baby :) Just in case you were wondering.


And these are my friends Melissa and Crista. Melissa is talking about her very cute pregnant belly... :)


Did I mention that Berlin spent a lot of time playing in the dirt?

Caption please!

I took a load of pictures at Steve's softball game tonight, several of which I will be posting in the next day or two. However, I just couldn't wait with this picture:



I mean, seriously. Don't you think this picture is just crying out for a great caption?? I don't have any fabulous prizes to give away for the best, but I would love to hear your thoughts on what this picture should be titled. It's just too funny!!

Saturday, Love, and Garage Sales

After waving good-bye to daddy and sending him off to work with lots of love and kissings, the girls and I played outside for quite awhile in our pajamas. Why not? We played with sidewalk chalk and rolled balls around. Berlin decided that she wanted to taste something from the ground. It was either a leaf or a little branch with pine needles, and she was not very impressed.

Tryn, after thinking Berlin's taste test got a good reaction out of me, decided to try a leaf herself. Although she was not impressed either, she didn't seem to mind as much as Berlin did.

Berlin and Tryn seemed to think the neighbor boys were having more fun then they were and spent a lot of time watching them. Tryn told me, "When I am a boy, then I can play with them." We went and said hi to the neighbor boys, but they had to stay inside their yard...

After a bath I put the girls in new outfits. By new, I mean garage sale new. I LOVE garage sales. I don't mind at all that someone wants to sell me the adorable shirt that they probably spent $15 dollars on for their kid to me for .50 cents or $1. I don't mind that at all. Especially since their kid probably wore the shirt maybe 10 times. Then my kids get to look oh so cute at a fraction of the price. It's very fabulous.


And, it seems, that they do in fact sometimes love each other!! The proof is in the pictures :)

Have I mentioned lately how much I love this little girl?

Or this one? Man, oh, man, watch out boys!!