Nothing much and then some!

So I have felt the need to blog this last week or so, but for the life of me, I can't seem to come up with anything worthy of blogging! So let's start out with some Ism's for ya...

Lil-ism's

The other day Lilia was trying to get me to play along with some game or another that she had made up, but I was in the middle of cooking dinner and was unable to play her game properly. She looked at me and said, "Mom! I am frustrating! You are making me frustrating!" Now, I know what she meant. I was frustrating HER... but that's NOT what she said. I apologized for upsetting her, but in my head I couldn't help but think "you have no idea kiddo..."

Lil has always been one for bargaining. Be it dinner time, bedtime, play time, or any other time. She is always on the market for a better deal. She knows that at dinner time she is required to eat so many bites of food before she is excused from the table. She knows the routine for bedtime. But neither bits of knowledge keep her from trying to cut a better deal for herself. For example: A few nights ago she was required to eat 5 bites of the main dish- she ate one bite... decided she didn't like it and said, "Mom- I have a better good idea. I will eat 3 bites and be done!" (RIIIIGGHTTT) She does this with EVERYTHING. I tell her it's time to come in from playing at the park- "Mom, I have a better good idea! I can stay out and play for longer!" She is so full of BETTER good ideas!

Lilia is SO excited to go to kindergarten! She can hardly stand it! I wonder if she realizes that big kid school is every day... She asks me almost every morning if she is old enough to go to big kid school yet. sadly, it seems all her friends in preschool will either be at the other school or (if the parents get their way) in the other time slot... I have asked for afternoon preschool where most all the other mom's I know want their kids in morning. We'll see how it goes!

Lil has officially started learning long vowels. It's been tough! ((I am thinking the best thing I could have done for prepping myself for kids was to take child psychology classes and child education classes!)) I fully expected her teachers to be the ones to teach her the rules for long vowels... But who really expects a preschool teacher to teach their children 1st grade reading skills!? With the help of my mom and my cousin I have given Lil some pretty good rules for long vowels. Neither of which is foolproof, but seriously- what grammar rule is??

Rule 1: If there is an 'e' at the end of the word and a vowel nearby (we haven't discussed just how close yet) the 'e' gets scared and the other vowel calls out it's name. Example: Cake, make, bake. Rule Breaker (or at least bender): takes.

Rule 2: If two vowels go walking (two vowels next to each other) the first one does the talking! Example: wait, bait, heat. Rule Breaker: point.

At this stage I am so eternally grateful that I married Joe. When Lil is in highschool there is no doubt she will easily overtake me in secular knowledge. At least DAD can help her with her homework!

Lace-ism's

Lacey is finally starting to make progress toward speaking! Her latest accomplishments?

She can count: "eee-two-eee-two-eee" (that would be 3-2-3-2-3)

She is getting better with animal sounds. Though she can't quite place a sound with the name of an animal, she can moo when she sees a cow and neigh at the picture of a horse. My personal favorites are the rooster (which for a while was doodle-doodle-doo but as of this morning was cocka-doo) and the pig (she sounds like she is choking on something when she makes the pig sound- it's pretty funny)

She is also an excellent mimic, but only on her terms. The other day I was trying to give Joe a greeting from Lacey while he was getting in the shower. Lacey was standing at the bathroom door and this was the convo that took place.

Me: Say "Daddy!"
Lacey: Daddy!
Me: Say "I love you!"
Lacey: No
Me: Daddy!
Lacey: Daddy!
Me: I love you!
Lacey: Uh-uh
Me: Daddy!
Lacey: Daddy!
Me: All done? (hehehe)
Lacey: All done?!

Just today she started thanking me. As I was getting her clothes out of her drawers I would hand each piece to her and she would give me a smile and say "Tee koo!" Love it!

And finally- She has learned a new favorite word around our house. The word is: Dam. I chose to spell it like that cause I refuse to believe she learned a bad word! Though it took us forever to figure out WHAT she was saying for real, I was relieved to realize she was only saying "jump" Seems she is a lot more like her mother than I thought! (See below for explanation)

Baby Pam-ism

When I was a toddler (around 18 months) I had a favorite saying that had my parents thoroughly befuddled. "Cocoa sh*t!" It became a real problem when I stood up during the sacrament at church (that would be a very quiet time) and yelled, "Cocoa sh*t! Cocoa sh*t!" Talk about mortified! Later that day, while explaining to the bishop that my parents had NO IDEA what I was saying, my oldest sister (then 8 or 9) said, "Duh Mom! Coke is it!" ((Do any of you remember those commercials? I totally do! Then again, I am constantly harassed by my siblings and mom about this story, so I have no choice but to remember those commercials!))