Me: Girls, what would you like for breakfast?
Norah: Plain green peas, steamed broccoli, and do we have any cauliflower? Oh, mama, can I please, please, please, have an orange??
Me: Of course! Cedar, what would you like?
Cedar: Nandy.
Me: We don’t eat candy for breakfast. I’ll make you a cheesy egg.
Cedar (screaming, snorting, stomping, and maybe spitting): Nandy! Nandy! Nandy!
Why are children so different?
Do you remember imaginative play? I do. I remember it with such envy. I remember getting lost for hours playing with my button collection. I still remember how I played and the names of certain families buttons. And I sometimes bring my buttons down from the attic and hold them in my hands.
I suppose that is why I can’t take enough pictures of imaginative play. I might have more pictures of abandoned toy set-ups than pics of my children!
“The adult has various means at his disposal of coming to terms with the whole range of his environment…but the path of children is and remains that of play. Simply by a staircase of games, children have reached the world of adults from time immemorial. Each step is made up of the games of a particular age-group.” –Children at Play (Heidi Britz-Crecelius)
I struggle some days with Norah’s “schooling.” She’s a December baby so she would not begin kindergarten until this fall. We homeschool. Which, at this point, mostly means she has unrestricted free play. That is the bulk of her school. I remember the year I went to kindergarten. It was half-day then. And I remember playing. It seemed like that is all we did. Sometimes we made peanut butter on saltine crackers. I don’t think kindergarten is like that anymore.
Re-centering involves reassuring yourself that you have made a good choice, that you have recognized that the true center of childhood is play, not work. After all, play is the primary way children were designed to learn…research shows that a child’s intellectual awakening takes place during the normal adult-child interactions that occur in everyday, purposeful activities…playful environments and spontaneous learning opportunities hold the keys for a happy, emotionally healthy, and intelligent child–and for a fulfilled parent. –Einstein Never Used Flashcards (Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff)
I hope I can stay relaxed and trust she is climbing the staircase. I need to find ways to play more, too.
I need to make a form. It is a simple form.
Once upon a time, before I had children, I worked a grown-up job. With other grown-ups. Not only did I create forms, I often created manuals, or training seminars, powerpoint presentations, budgets, grants. I supervised others. I attended business meetings. I wore heels.
And oh, I could think. I had such free time to think. What a luxury. And if I had a problem, I called a team together for an assessment.
Now. Now. I just need to make a form. A simple “check-out” form for a lending library. Good grief. It needs lines. And a header that says “Lending Library.” Yet the effort and brain power required to make said form seems overwhelming.
Am I losing my edge? What if I need to re-enter the workforce someday? Will my brain return when I live again with the grown-ups?
Because I’m not so sure. These children, these children can bring me to the edge of insanity. Consider yesterday.
Cedar wakes at 4am. I bring her to my bed. She takes her diaper off at some point and then pees in the bed. We’re late for babywearing group, so I feed them a cereal bar and an apple in the car. But first, Cedar poops right after I strap her in the carseat and start to back-out. Go inside house. Change diaper. Return. Begin to back-out and Norah shouts, “WAIT!!!!” After jumping out of my skin, she begs for me to go inside the house and get her magna-doodle. I grumble words about responsibility but secretly remember I’ve forgotten my ipod. There is a podcast sermon about love I want to listen to.
We back out of the drive-way. It is 9:30am.
At babywearing, Cedar picks a fight with Gretchen and with Ivey. Norah gets mad because she didn’t get to talk to her “grown-up” friend who I have FINALLY figured out is Coral. “You never let me see who I want to see and now I want to go see Nanoo (Laura).” Inside the library, the girls read some books until finally we have to go and Cedar collapses in the floor screaming in resistance. I hurriedly leave carrying the writhing child. Once outside, Norah announces she needs to potty. We go to the bathroom where Cedar tells me she has pooped. Again. I have to change her standing up in a stall.
It is noon.
I get home and leave the car running because Cedar is asleep. I run inside and make Norah and myself some lunch. I sit on the front steps so I can see Cedar. Norah decides she wants my food. I sigh. I make myself more food. Sit. And Norah needs me to start her DVD. I flip my lid a little. Speak irrational words about why can’t you just try to do it yourself and then ask for help? Mommy needs a break. Just a little tiny break. Norah tells me I need to eat some protein.
I’m trying, dear girl. I’m trying. It is 1:30.
Cedar wakes. I feed her. We go to the grocery store. Minor antics. No major meltdowns. Hoorah!
A postpartum mama calls while I’m unloading groceries. I put the frozen things away and then let the girls play in the yard while I talk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cedar–naked–chasing a cat into the neighbor’s yard. Where are her clothes? I say good-bye to postpartum mama. Collect my children. Find Cedar’s clothes which are scattered under the apple tree.
At some point, there are baths. Not one for me, of course. I also remember a rather large fight between the girls. Involving yogurt throwing. And it was after the bath.
For dinner, I decided on egg carton meals.
Scott gets home in time to put Norah to bed. Cedar goes down easy. This time. So thankful for that mercy.
I treat myself to a gorgeous plate of cheese/crackers/cherries/cottage cheese/peaches/blueberries and a glass of riesling. I deserve it. Scott has a bowl of cereal.
Now. Why can I not access the part of my brain required to make a simple form???!!!
I’m whining, I know. These days are beautiful and fleeting. But I certainly do not feel I’m getting smarter or even wiser.
Sisters.
Sometimes they play so sweetly. Like when Norah reads to Cedar.
But the rivalry began early. About 2 weeks after Cedar was born, Norah calmly suggested we throw her to the lions. Or take her outside and leave her in the grass.
More recently, Norah announced the completion of her “Great Invention.” In case you haven’t heard, Norah is an excellent engineer. She ties amazing knots (often tying my skirt strings to a kitchen drawer handle while I’m cooking…yes, disaster). Her goal is to become an architect and she designs and builds fun projects: a birdhouse, a leprauchan trap, etc.
And then, The Great Invention.
I was confused when I first saw it. She eagerly explained it to me.
“Cedar will follow the trail of money.” See the pennies lined up on the floor? They were carefully lined up through several rooms.
“Then she’ll want the paper money, the sucker, and the sweet potato.” I’m not sure Norah knows the term yet but she’s describing “bait.”
“After she gets the money and potato, she’ll sit in the camping chair. The dragon will scare her and she’ll fall out of the chair, land on the broom, and fly through the air.” What is the blue napkin for? “Oh, that is to catch the blood when she lands. Her nose will be ‘blooding.'” I’m not sure what the dustpan is for.
Good stuff.
Sadly (for Norah) it didn’t work. Back to the drawing board.
After much drama involving a tooth barely hanging on and twisted sideways. After Norah screaming, “Nobody touch it!!” After encouragement from the Lewis kids. “It won’t hurt and then the tooth fairy will come!” After a quiet counseling session with Noelle. “What makes you afraid? Would you like to pray about your fear of blood?” After walking around with a spit cup because she refused to swallow for an hour (her tongue kept touching the tooth). After a mother contemplating sitting on the child and just getting it over with. Norah calmly walked into the room holding her tooth and feeling as satisfied as I’ve ever seen her.
She had a tiny tooth fairy box that the dentist gave her. To say she was excited is an understatement. She made us take a bazillion pictures.
For the last year, Norah has been very clear about one thing: the tooth fairy will not bring her money. The tooth fairy will “sparkle me.”
Ok, easier said than done. We had glitter glue ready. We had sparkly tattoos on hand. What we didn’t count on: excited child. Norah usually sleeps like a rock. Not this night. Each time we crept in to sparkle her, she woke up! So we did it in increments. Yes, we set the alarm to wake every two hours and try again. One tattoo ended up on her forehead because Scott took advantage of rubbing her head back to sleep. As he talked with her, he was applying the tattoo on her forehead. It is still there.
In the end, we got glitter footprints on her cheek, two tats on her arm, glitter down the other arm, and the tat on her forehead. We also threw glitter all over her bed. No, I didn’t regret that. Totally worth the clean-up.
She was so excited when she woke. She is certain she saw the tooth fairy flying away. Certain. We had to leave early that morning to drive to Atlanta. Norah’s unending chatter and excitement about her tooth helped make the good-byes with my sister, Zach, and Asher a little bit easier.
Of course, after sharing her experience with other kids, she has decided next time she wants money. The paper kind. You know, mom? The green kind.
Join us as we say farewell to a local mama by raising awareness about human trafficking. Noelle Slagel will be returning to Cambodia on March 23rd with her husband and 6 month old son. Noelle will again be working with girls who have been rescued from brothels. Only this time, she’s a mama and needs to have a village of mamas supporting her.
We need your help to make this day a success!
We’re asking you to gather your gently used diapers, baby clothes, and gear to sell or swap. We’ll have a space for you to throw down a blanket and display your items. You keep your earnings and you’re responsible for all of your money and swaps. We suggest a 5.00 donation to “rent” your space.
We’ll also have raffle tickets for 1.00/ticket. Some of the raffles include a 1-hour massage by Blissful Massage, Henna Art by Katy, a free 3-d Ultrasound, and much more!
All proceeds from the day will go to Noelle. We’ll have info on how you can follow her journey and how you can get involved in local efforts to end human trafficking.
For parents who just want to come and shop for great deals, no need to rsvp. We’ll see you there!
If you’d like to reserve space to sell your stuff, please rsvp here or by emailing info (at) ilovenaturalbaby (dot) com. We’ll send you more info as the date draws near.
* Norah no longer says “deseasers” when she means “tweezers.”
* And “hotella” for “nutella.”
* When Cedar no longer runs through the house carrying her step-stool so she can hang with the humans over three feet tall.
* Picking out little girl clothes. Norah won’t let me dress her anymore.
* The pigtails!
* Norah’s imagination. Or as she says, “Mommy, I’m imaginating something.” Here is a recent example. Norah and her friend Ryleigh had a playdate a few months ago. Ryleigh has a stuffed Rudolph. Norah has a stuffed Clarice. A week ago, Clarice gave birth to a small moose named Clancy. Clarice has been a great mom. Norah makes sure that Clancy is nursed to sleep each night and fed on demand throughout the day. However, Norah has tremendous anxiety because Rudolph has not met his son. I’m talking quite the tantrums to see Ryleigh RIGHT NOW. I did call Ryleigh’s mom so she could tell Rudolph about his son. And we have a playdate arranged this week so the family can be re-united.
I should mention that the little plastic guy in the picture is Hansel. He is forlorn because Ryleigh has his wife, Gretel. He’s waiting for the playdate, too.
* I’m going to miss babywearing. Cedar already wants to (GASP) ride in the shopping cart!
Many more things will be missed. What will not be missed is the screaming sibling fight that is breaking out AS I TYPE. “My castle! I had it first!”
Better wrap this up!
I came home from the Blessingway yesterday–which was wonderful, by the way–and found my Mr. Handyman made these wonderful shelves for Norah’s room.
The wall has such a tiny clearance from the door. But these narrow shelves are perfect for a book display. And Norah will enjoy changing out her books in her crazy love for patterns and arrangment.
I admit that I had fun arranging this display. Did I ever tell you guys that I secretly long to be a librarian? And even majored in library science for a semester? Yep. A whole semester. That was between the pre-med and anthropology semesters.
You can click on the pics to enlarge them.
I love Mr. Handyman.
I promised to post some pictures of other beautiful wooden gifts Scott made for Christmas.
Wine bottle stoppers:
Coffee scoops:
Duck call:
Coffee Grinders:
Ice Cream Scoops:
Teething Necklaces:
And yes, he is working on the teething necklaces this weekend! I’ll have some for those of you who wanted one very soon.
I think he did a FAR superior job than that time I tried to make all our Christmas gifts.
Fun things that have happened in my house over the last couple of months:
♥ Cedar ate my contact lens.
I saw proof that she ate my contact lens when spraying her poop into the toilet.
♥ To Norah, I made the mistake of explaining “having your loins girt about with truth” as “putting on your truth panties.” Norah is memorizing Ephesians 6 as part of her classical program. I despise that she has to learn it in the King James Version because of such explanations.
Now Norah has “magic panties.”
♥ And yesterday I heard this: “I have to be the special-est because I’m the one with the magic panties. Cedar can’t be the special-est because she doesn’t even have panties. And if you don’t give me the hippopatomus RIGHT NOW, I’m gonna throw trash at you!”
I heard these words because Cedar got the hippo vitamin and Norah got the lion.
♥
Norah has also learned a bit about Russia. She tells me that Czar Ivan the Great put a gremlin in Moscow.
And WWII. She explains that the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki and “Hero She-Ra” in 1945. She’s been loving old She-Ra episodes on netflix.
♥ Cedar now speaks in sentences. But she speaks Ewok. I’m certain it isn’t English. Very cute curvy tongue kind of talk. It sounds like “duey, duey, oooo, phftt, phftt, phftt, leur, long, ohhhh, duey”
♥ During a stressed moment, I told Norah to give me some space. She did. And made up a song to entertain me, “Mommies are supposed to be nice. Mommies are not to be mean. Mommies do not need space. They want to snuggle all day. Mommies are supposed to be nice. Mommies are not to be mean. Mommies never yell. They play all day.”
♥ We removed the handle from the oven drawer under our stove because Cedar kept climbing on it. After a few frustrated attempts, she abandoned the drawer. Success! After a few moments, she returned to the kitchen with a stool. Now she can reach everything. Fail.
♥ Another success/fail: We discovered that Cedar loves fish oil. Great! DHA/EPA are good things. But, oh the breath. Oh the breath. And, no, please do NOT nurse after taking the fish oil.
Inexplicable Ways 