Ummm, no thanks!

Henry has a plastic pizza that goes with his toy kitchen. He was offering me a slice recently and told me what was on it...based on what it actually looked like this is what he said "Do you want some pepperoni pizza...with uhhh lollipops and uhhh blueberries?"

For your information it was mushrooms and very small round looking olives. I have to say, I don't blame the poor kid. Definitely not a realistic looking interpretation.

Fun Stuff

One of my favorite things about having a three year old is that they can say a lot but they still mess things up.

For example, when ever Henry is talking about the past he says "last night." I told him a song was stuck in my head and he asked me later if I wanted to know what song was "stuck in his hair." He calls our living room the "Libning room."

One of my favorite things about having a one year old is that they really don't talk yet :) Cute enough to be sitting at lunch peering at a picture of Adam and says "Dadeeeee" over and over but not eloquent enough to be sassy.

January Update

• Late news bulletin, but I received my first ever macaroni necklace a few weeks back. So sweet it almost brought me to tears! It was Italy day at our little co-op school and the boys worked very intently on their necklaces. Henry insisted on me leaving the room at the end so that he could properly present it to me. He has me wear it almost daily; he finds it and says "Mommy, don't forget your beautiful necklace!"
• Henry has a future as a motivational speaker. I have recently overheard him telling Molly to "just keep trying" and "just do your best Molly." He also told me, "Keep trying Mommy, that is how you'll get better." Cracks me up. When he wants to do something, he tells me "Let me do it Mom, I'm good at that." Whether he has ever done it before does not matter.
• Henry's power of observation are absolutely incredible. He notices the slightest possible change wherever we go. The new parking attendant at our garage. That one of the apartments across our street now had green curtains. New wardrobe items. I could go on and on, these are just ones that come to mind right now.
• Henry is starting to show an interest in letters. The two that he knows now and can pick out whenever he sees them are "B" and "W". He also knows that "M" looks like "W" upside down and that Molly and Mom begin with an M. We haven't focused on letters at all yet, so I am very pleased that he is picking it up on his own without being drilled. He can also write the letter "H" pretty accurately.
• Henry is doing really well at school. He participates in every activity and is very excited to see his friends each time. He is also quite the peacemaker and disciplinarian. If he sees that someone isn't participating, he always goes to find them and ask them to join. He is also very sensitive to anyone being left out.
• Molly is able to walk very well now, but she still choses not to do it very often. She would rather crawl, she is much faster that way. The funny thing is that she has incredible balance when she wants to dance. She does the most hilarious bouncing deep knee bend to the music and really loves to dance.
• Molly's word update: No, mama, daddy, Henry, dog, duck, door, shoe, brush (her teeth), night night, cheese, coin, book, Roen (her friend). She has more but I can't think of them right now.
• Molly understands absolutely everything and can respond to questions and commands accurately. Do you want something to eat? Do you want something to drink? Do you need your diaper changed? Go get another book for me to read to you. It's time to take a bath, brush your teeth. Can you give me a kiss? She loves to shake her head no to that one just to be funny.

I'm Stumped!

I consider myself to be someone of above-average intelligence, but certain parts of motherhood really stump me. I like to bring the kids fun places, but doing it by myself during the week definitely presents a challenge at times. For your entertainment, I will share with you a recent outing.

I took the kids to the train show at the NY Botanical Garden on Thursday. There was snow pouring from the sky, but nothing motivates you to hustle the kids onto the slushy highway like non-refundable tickets. I got them into their coats, hats, gloves, boots, packed the bag and walked them to the garage. Of course our car would not start because our garage cannot remember to remove the key everytime which kills our battery. Finally, I got the kids strapped in and away we went. Molly of course decided to forgo her morning nap in the car and scream at the top of her lungs the entire way. Nothing improves your concentration more on an icy highway than your child screaming like the Exorcist in the back seat.

But, we made it there for our appointed timeslot. You could not bring strollers, so I brought the front carrier for Molly. I anticipated a crowd and/or lots of rules, so I did not bring our large backpack. We got there and it was too hard to squeeze Molly in her snow suit over my coat into the carrier so I just carried her. It ended up being a long, cold walk but we eventually made it. Henry, despite being cold, does not see this as a motivating factor to speed it up and stop kicking every bit of snow. We arrived and there was no coat check. I was trying to figure out the logistics of holding three coats, sets of gloves, hats, a small diaper bag, a non-walking baby and keep track of a wandering three year old.

We managed through the exhibit and enjoyed seeing it. Henry then declared himself STARVING right after so we bundled back up to find the cafe outside. While holding Molly and wrangling Henry who insisted on touching everything, I grabbed: an orange juice, a bagel, 4 containers of butter, a large fruit cup and a uncrustable PB&J. After paying, I added straws, a cup, knife, forks and napkins to this teetering pile. Dropped it all onto a table, got Molly a high chair, took off my coat, Henry's coat, Molly's snow suit, buttered the bagel, poured the juice, cut the fruit, opened the sandwich..."PEE!" Huh? He didn't just say that right? Henry, you didn't just say you have to go to the bathroom did you? "PEE! I need to go pee!"

As I surveyed the table I think I muttered "You've got to be kidding me." Upon further investigation I saw that the only bathroom was outside, about 25 snowy yards away. Forget about it kid. I am not cleaning up all of this uneaten food, getting everyone re-dressed and walking back outside for you to void 1 tsp of fluid. I am willing to risk it here. I instructed him to "Hold it" which he took quite literally. I told him in my best hostage negotiator voice that he needed to wait a few minutes. He bravely soldiered on and made it through his meal.

We bundled back up and hustled over to the bathroom. All three of us squeezed into the tiny bathroom and I attempted to help Henry with Molly strapped to my chest. She of course couldn't be left out so she screamed and swung her fists wildly. I decided to seize the moment as well since I really could not remember the last time I had used the facilities (days? weeks?) and got to pee with Molly strapped to my chest and Henry trying to open the door.

I will spare you the rest of the boring details of our journey, but we all took a nice long nap when we got home. I'm sure my twitch will subside eventually.