Thursday, October 27, 2011

Turbo Quotes

Tonight was chock full of Turboisms, and I'm almost too tired to type, but I wanted to get a few down before they become lost in a cloud of was-that-just-a-dream sort of thoughts.

"I like to eat lots of treats every day." He repeated this three times, with the last delivery in direct eye contact with Mom, and his arms spread wide for extra emphasis.

"Well, actually, I think I want to watch a movie." When did my kid start using 'actually'?

Turbo has decided he wants to be a cowboy for Halloween. I ordered a Sheriff Woody hat off of Amazon and it came tonight! I have never seen Turbo's eyes light up so big, nor his smile be so genuine and happy and filled with glee. Pure joy. I see lots of dress-up dates in our future.

He put the hat on and asked, "How do we get on Halloween?" <-- he knows about the candy part.

And my favorite of the night was probably this one: "Ouch, I hurt my foot. I need a battery."

Monday, October 24, 2011

A Girly-Girl is Born

Smiley has been into my shoes lately. And my hair.

My curly hair, wet or dry, has caught her attention and she now reaches for it and tangles her chubby fingers in my hair whenever I am holding her. I think it might be because she is noticing that her own brown, curly hair is starting to sprout from her previously bald and perfect head.

When she tugs on my hair, I imagine her thoughts to be, "Oh, wow! You are beautiful mommy," or "I wish I had your luxurious locks... who's your stylist?"  But, I suspect, it's probably more like, "Hee hee, when I pull hard she makes a funny face."

And then there are the shoes.

The other day I donned a favorite pair of mary janes (with heels, of course, I'm not an infant) and as I was buckling them up to head out for work, her eyes lit up and she toddled over to me and stared at my feet. She picked up the one that hadn't made it onto my foot yet, and expressed a little frustration when I retrieved it from her mouth.

I finally got my two shoes on, and asked her, "Well, what do you think?"

Then she stomped on my mary janes with her Stride Rites.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Sinner

This is how you know it's been a while since you took your kid to church, or said his nightly prayers with him.

Me: "Let's say your prayers."

Turbo: "OK."

Me: "Now I lay me down to sleep, etc, etc. etc.... God bless mommy and daddy. God bless Turbo and God bless Smiley..."  And so on and so forth through all our aunts and uncles and cousins and pets.

Then I decided to throw in some of his friends from school for good measure.

Me: "God bless Taylor and Yaman and Kurt and Amaya. Amen."

Turbo: "Who's 'Amen'?"

Friday, October 21, 2011

Shaun The Sheep

We're celebrating Turbo's birthday tomorrow and I asked him what kind of cake he wanted. He answered the same way each time I asked him over the course of a week. Are you ready for it?

Turbo: "A green cake with Shaun the Sheep."

So I found this one online:
I'm pretty sure I can do it... just kidding!

Maybe this one?
Could happen, I did make a round cake after all

I'm about to head to bed and the cake is fully baked and halfway frosted with the first smooth-over layer of icing. I'm going to bed and in the morning, he'll either have something beautiful to eat, or something that looks like this:

Plan B

Because, truth be told, he gave me an out on the drive home from preschool today. He changed his tune ever so much and said he wanted M&Ms on the cake.

I did not ask clarifying questions to learn if he wanted the M's with Shaun the Sheep. I'm no fool.

Supernanny to the Rescue

Sometimes the chaos in this house makes me feel like Supernanny might show up at my door any second and help us get back on track.

But we do OK and always seem to find our center again. And our smiles. And the 3-yr-old yelling ceases.

Phew!  :)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I Won't Let You Down

Last night I wanted to sleep. But this little moment with Turbo was worth the lapse in rest.


Turbo called out to me in his sleep and I went to his bed after his usual and irresistible, "Mom, sleep with me."

I crawled into bed with him for a minute and he snuggled in and whispered, "Mom."

Me: "Yeah?"

Turbo: "I won't let you down."

Me: "You won't?"

Turbo: "No, I won't."

And then he fell back asleep. 


I smiled and smiled.


Very profound... unless he was talking about not letting me down from a tree or something, in which case that's just not nice, dude.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain

Turbo has been full of spit and vinegar lately and I've had these weird combo-emotions of frustration+giggles because he's so dang funny. But he's also turning three this week, and some of you may know how trying a three-year-old can be.

His mantra this week is, "No, I don't want to fill-in-the-blank!"

And, of course, it's always wildly amusing to have your kids spew back at you the very words you tried to put out there as parents.


Last night in the hallway, with zero intentions of going to bed:

Turbo: "No, I am not going to brush my teeth!"

Me: "OK. That's fine. Don't brush your teeth, but that means no books in mommy's bed. You have to go straight to bed."

Turbo: "Stop talking to me like that! It hurts my ears."

And then he gave me a look as if to ask, did I use that properly?

Me: "What hurts your ears, honey?"

Turbo: "Um... something." [touches ear] "Something hurts my ears." He genuinely tried to think of something that was hurting his ears and came up blank.


Tonight in mommy's bed, with zero intentions of settling in for books:

Me: "Want me to sing you a song? I know good songs."

Turbo: "No. Sing bad songs."

Me, smiling: "OK... Someone left the cake out in the rain..." -- I'm thinking I'm very clever here, as this song made it into Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, which I gave as a gift to a friend, and said friend returned the favor with a CD of these terrible songs. So, I'm going along, having my own adult moment outside of Turbo's world, and then I was quickly reminded that we'd been talking all week about somebody's birthday cake:

Me, smiling: "Someone left the cake out in the rain..." 

Turbo, looking concerned: "Uh-oh!"



side note: I don't believe I have ever used these two phrases together, "Stop talking to me like that. It hurts my ears." The 'hurts my ears' one has definitely escaped my lips when Turbo decides to yell and scream as loudly as he can. Charming child o' mind. The other one... I'm not as sure about, but it does sound a wee bit familiar. 

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Not So Smiley

Oh my word. This has been a really tough couple of weeks. Very cranky, sick kids and very little sleep for mom and dad.  The sleep deprivation reminds us of having a newborn in the house. Ugh.

Last week I stayed home from work for 3 days while Turbo weathered a virus that caused sores in his mouth - he couldn't eat because they were so painful. :(  The virus is said to be mild, so you just manage the symptoms, and the biggest concern is dehydration. It started to get bad enough that I was tracking urine output so that he didn't go 8-12 hours without a pee. It's a scary situation, but he turned the corner just in time.

Some funny things happened over those 3 days too. One is that Turbo saw M&Ms on the table and excitedly asked if he could have some. I knew they'd hurt his mouth, so I told him this and I'm pretty sure he ignored the warning cuz he tucked right in. They did hurt his mouth, poor guy, but the good news is that I had ice water on hand and he ended up drinking a ton of water just to get those chocolates down. He got fluids (score one for mama), and he got treats (score one for Turbo).

The best - or worst, depending on how judgy you are :) - was on the 3rd day, when he was crossing into wellness, but was still very skeptical of what he could put in his mouth. I let him eat marshmallows for dinner. As many as he wanted. When your kid hasn't eaten in 3 days, you just want him to remember that food will not hurt him. He swallowed them down with chocolate milk. Mother of the year, right here.

Oh, did I mention chocolate milk? He's nearly 3 years old, and I think it's pretty remarkable that I've avoided chocolate milk until now. In fact, a few weeks ago I had a glass of Ovaltine for breakfast and offered it to him and he sneered at me and said, "I don't like that. That's your coffee."

During the sickness I tried a hundred different options for fluid intake: popsicles, ice cream, milkshakes, warm water, cold water, anything with a straw and my stubborn little cutie wasn't going for any of it. He really was miserable. But he knows what chocolate is, and when I asked him if he wanted to try chocolate milk, he looked at me to see if I was kidding. "You mean this stuff comes in chocolate?!?" his eyes seemed to say.

So, yeah, chocolate milk was the gateway to wellness for Turbo.

Fast forward a week later and Smiley is sick. Only she can't talk and doesn't know how to use a straw and is sooo miserable (sad) and cuddly (sweet) and since I took so much time off for Turbo, my husband stayed home with her. Today I did stay home and she played some, but only if I remained in the room with her. Accessible. Otherwise, she cried and wandered around trying to find me.

She's been sick for 3 days too. Finally, I tried ibuprofen (we'd been using Tylenol) and whammo! I got a smile 23 minutes later. Why on earth hadn't I tried this before? She played fairly happily for a couple of hours - still needing me nearby, but not as much. I actually got some dishes done.

Then she saw some Cheerios on the counter pointed her chubby little finger and said, "da" which we're pretty sure means "that" as she points and "da's" all the time now.

She ate a good amount. Phew! I think the key is that since all the sores in her mouth are near the front, something like a sippy cup really hurts, but finger food she can squeeze past the opening and happily munch away. She was so happy I even let her walk around with her cup o' Cheerios.

And she finally smiled. Oh, my sweet angel, it's good to see you.

And now she is even napping. Alone - for the first time in about 5 days. My body is wrecked for holding her in chairs and on couches and in bed (nights have been awful too). I think we're finally seeing the light and can't wait to get back to some sense of normalcy.

And sleep. Please let us all sleep tonight.

So, that's where I've been. Too tired to write. I've missed it and hope to be back in it.

Monday, October 3, 2011

A Very Special Day at Daycare

Poor Smiley has the same cruddy virus that kept her brother out of preschool last week (for 3 looooong days). It was the first time her report card has read something other than, "happy" and "smiley." (See, it's not just me who calls her that.)

Today they circled: "sad" and "crying" and "cuddly."

Poor pumpkin. :(

But on the other hand, it mustn't have been too bad, for when I was getting her into her jammies I noticed she had glitter all over her chest.

Oh my. Thanks for the surprise, Smiley!