Smiley's Songs

Kids grow up so fast, said every mom in the universe ever.

It's because this is true that I sometimes want to capture every living breathing thing that my kids do and say, and bottle it or record it or write about it or something... anything to preserve a perfect moment.

I have, however, convinced myself that writing about the little things will bore the socks off of you and I tend to blog about the bigger moments instead, or at least for the extremely hilarious and sometimes shocking things that Turbo churns out.

And then there is Smiley. Sweet, cute, cuddly, adorable Smiley. She gets plenty of my attention, which might not be obvious for how often I write about her older brother. While Turbo turns my head in wonder at a high frequency, Smiley melts my heart a thousand times a day. This girl is special.

Maybe this blog entry is really just for me, to capture something dear to me so I always have these thoughts to look back on as she turns yet another corner in her way-too-fast growing up-ness. She could grow out of this little moment any day now and I don't want it to be forgotten.

Putting Smiley to bed has always been easy. When we moved from a crib to a twin bed recently, we did suffer a short-term setback of her not settling in quite as quickly as she used to. It's not too surprising that, given access to the bedroom door like that, she would naturally be inclined to visit it several times before falling asleep. Instead of putting our sleepy girl into her crib, rubbing her back briefly, and then leaving the room, the twin bed now requires some extra cuddle time. No complaining here! Snuggling with this cuddle bug is the high point of any day.

The new routine includes singing her some of my favorite songs from when I was a kid. I grew up with a lot of music in my life, thank you mom and dad, and these little tunes are her current favorites, and they belong in the following order, no exceptions:

1) Frosty the Snowman
2) Tender Shepherd
3) The Pie Song, or as she calls it, "Baby Don't Cry" - from the movie Waitress.

Baby don't you cry

Gonna make a pie

Gonna make a pie

With a heart in the middle

Baby don't be blue

Gonna make for you

Gonna make a pie

With a heart in the middle

Gonna be a pie from heaven above

Gonna be filled with strawberry love

Baby don't you cry

Gonna make a pie

And hold you forever in the middle of my heart

Looking the song up on YouTube just enlightened me. I need to learn the rest of these gorgeous lyrics to sing to my gorgeous Smiley. She is my baby pie, my heart, from heaven above.

Winnie The Poop

My daughter can't be the first kid to mistake "Pooh" for "poo-poo," but I am still getting a huge kick out of it. Definitely an LOL moment.

A few weeks ago Smiley got really interested in potty training - we're not training her yet - as the slightly older kids in her school use the toilet with doors wide open and teachers wipe their bottoms for an audience. She stares impolitely and points, "poo-poo."

She's been saying "poo-poo" a lot since she learned it, and just like any new word or skill she is really proud of her accomplishment. The other day her brother dropped his pants (as boys will do) and she walked around to the back of him, pointed at his bum, and said, "poo-poo."

What could I do but cheer her on with, "Good girl!"

I love to sing to my kids and we've been on a Winnie the Pooh kick lately... Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood...etc.  We even bought a DVD and it's been fun to sing both of the songs that I know (T-I-double-Guu-Er being the other). I tend to go for the old Disney version, like so, "Winnie the Pooh. Pooh! Winnie the Pooh. Pooh! Tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff..."

It was Smiley to helped me recognize that the echo "pooh" in "Winnie the Pooh. Pooh!" is basically guilty of calling this beloved bear a piece of sh**. Oops.

Yesterday when I was singing this song to her, Smiley was loudly and proudly saying "poo-poo" as if she were my back-up singer. We're thinking of taking the act on the road this summer.