Ali's First Story

As narrated to me by Ali:

Once upon a time, there was a daddy of Ariel's, and his name was King Triton. And one day, he was crying. Ariel, his daughter, swam up and said, "What's the matter, Daddy?" and he said "The Sea Witch hit me today." 

Ariel swam up to the Sea Witch and said, "That's not nice. That's not okay to hit my daddy." So they were swimming, and while they were swimming, Ariel said, "This is the plan." The Sea Witch said "Yes." "We are going to swim up to my daddy, and you are going to say you're sorry." 

So when they were there, the Sea Witch said "Sorry," and then he, King Triton, said, "It's okay." And then Ariel took the Sea Witch back to her cave, and they piled in her bed for a nap, and then Ariel and King Triton went back to their castle in the water to take a nap. And then everyone was sleeping, Ariel, King Triton, the Sea Witch, Ariel's sisters, Ariel's friends and Sebastien. Everyone. The end.

Ali is 3 yrs, 3 months, and 2 days old.

Conversations with Ali

All of these convos happened with Ali today.

Ali: Mommy, watch me jump off the couch!
Me: We don't jump off the couch, love, especially not toward the coffee table. You could get hurt!
Ali: Oh . . . Mommy, watch me carefully climb down off the couch!

(When discussing The Little Mermaid)
Ali: Isn't there a but in that story?
Me: What?
Ali: Isn't there a but in that story?
Me: A but. You mean, like the word but?
Ali: Yeah. Isn't it in that story?
Me: Oh, I'm sure it is. Like, I could say "Ariel loved being a mermaid, but she wanted to be a human, too."
Ali: No, it's 'but it simply grazed her arm.'" (an exact, obscure quote from The Little Mermaid)

(When finishing up telling her the story of The Three Little Pigs)
Me: And the wolf decided he wanted to build a house, too, so he built a house out of bricks.
Ali: No, he didn't use bricks. He built his house out of the American flag.
Me: The American flag?
Ali: Yes, because that's even STRONGER than bricks. 

Ali: I'll have to do my hurry walk!
Me: What's your hurry walk?
Ali: Well, I have two hurry walks. One is slow and one is fast!
Me: Wait, wouldn't the slow walk be called a slow walk?
Ali: No, it's one of my hurry walks.
Me: But why is it a hurry walk if it's slow? If you're going slow, you really aren't hurrying.
Ali: Well, that's just the way God made it. Two speeds for a hurry walk.

(During her bedtime routine)
Ali: Will you come and check on me and wake me up?
Me: Yep!
Ali: Awesome good.


Ali is 3 years, 2.5 months old, and probably my most favorite person to talk to.

Conversationsn with Ali

All three of these conversations took place in the same evening. I laughed that night. A lot.

Ali: Fank you!
Me: You're welcome!
Ali: Fank you!
Me: You're welcome!
Ali: FANK YOU!
Me: You're welcome!!
Ali: No, I said FANK you.
Me: Oh. What am I supposed to say to that?
Ali: You're not supposed to say anything because that's not a real word.

(If only Sammy could have chimed in with an "oh, snap!" in the background.)

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(Upon giving Ali a small piece of chocolate cake for dessert:)

Ali: Mmmmm! This chocolate cake tastes like treasure!! 

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 We were playing a game where I made a toy fly across the room, and Ali and Sam took turns chasing it down and bringing it back to me. 

Me: Good job, Ali! Now it's Sam's turn. 
Ali (looking at Sam): Sammy, now that's a promise you'll KEEP!




Ali is 3 years and 1 month old and cracks me up daily.

My Big Girl

This evening was one of those that I wish we'd been able to capture on video in its entirety. After naps, we loaded the kids up into the car and headed into town to do a little exploring. We found a new park, and it just so happened to have the BIGGEST SLIDE I'VE EVER SEEN. Seriously, I think it was at least ten feet high. Like, for really real.

Alex asked Ali if she wanted to go down it, and she shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Well, sure, that would be cool," and sauntered off toward it. She climbed the steep stairs all the way to the top before finally looking down and realizing she was really high up. At which point she, understandably, got scared. Alex ended up at the top with both her and Sam, and he slid down first with Sam, and then with her.

We went to go play on the rest of the playground, and she was in a great mood, running around, going down the smaller slides, and playing with her brother. At one point, I swung my feet up on the monkey bars, hooked my legs over a rung the way I used to when I was in elementary school, and hung upside down. Ali saw me, looked at me in her "what-on-Earth" way, and said, "That is just wrong, Mom." HA!

A little while later, we talked about being scared and being brave, and I may or may not have told her that if she went down the super-big slide all by herself, she could have chocolate ice cream after dinner. She said, "Well, okay...." but still seemed a little nervous, so I picked up a fallen pecan and told her that she could hold the nut and it would help her be brave. Her face lit up! She climbed right to the top with her "brave nut" in her hand, sat down, and slid right down the giant, humongous slide all on her OWN! I was so incredibly proud of her!! She did it one more time before we left, all the while holding her "brave nut." Yay!!! (She also chattered on on the way back to the car about how the "brave nut" would help her eat her scary macaroni-and-cheese at dinner. Crazy girl.)

We went to Jason's Deli for dinner and she and Sam both devoured some muffins, mac-and-cheese, and ice cream for dessert--chocolate for my brave girl, of course. When we asked her if she was going to eat any more of her dinner, she said, "Umm, not so much." I had to ask Alex if I'd heard her right.

She's TWO. I can only imagine the things that are going to come out of her mouth when she's five, or nine, or thirteen.

I love love love my funny, sassy, smart, and super-brave girl. What a wonderful evening we had.

Growin' Boy

Tonight for dinner, Ali ate two pieces of chicken, one serving of mac-&-cheese, and about four green beans.

Sam ate about 15 pieces of pork tenderloin, one serving of mac-&-cheese, one full serving of green beans, and an entire banana.

Ali is 2 years, 11 months, and Sam is 1 year, 3 months...and just MIGHT be going through a growth spurt.

She's Catching On

Sam started crying tonight because I wouldn't let him have some uncooked corn that he spied on the counter right before I started boiling it.

Ali walked over and asked, "Why is Sammy crying?"

"Oh," I told her, "he wanted to eat some of this corn, but he doesn't realize it's not cooked yet."

She pondered that for a moment while Sam continued to wail about the injustice of it all.

Then she put her hands on her hips and said, "Oh, Sammy. Now you're just making noise."

Speaking of Talking...

This morning when I asked Ali what she would like for breakfast, she said, "Wellllll, let's think about what options are available."

What happened to my babyyyyyy???

Ali is 2 years, 11 months, and 1 weeks old...and going on 15, apparently.

Never a Quiet Moment

Anyone who has ever met my daughter knows that she's a talker. At 2.5-yrs-old, she talks like a 5-yr-old. She says things like, "I am fit to be tied!" and "Oh, I agree!" and "Mommy, could you please put on a short video? I don't think we have time for a long video. Maybe on the weekend, but today is not a weekend day, it's a school day!"

She talks. A lot.

I'd been warned that the second child typically starts talking later than the first, and that boys typically start talking later than girls. Since our second is a boy, it seemed like a double-verbal-whammy, and Alex and I remembered to temper our expectations about Sam's verbal skills and vocabulary.

Ali's first word, "book," was at 10 months.

Sam's first word, "ball," was at 8 months.

Way to defy expectations, buddy.

Now, at 14 months, Sam at least 45 words in his vocabulary (I don't even think I've properly accounted for them all). He is talking MORE at this age than Ali was.

Sam's words: 
ball
all done
mommy
daddy
Ali
milk
more milk
please
thank you (<--- which he says unprompted when you give him something. CUTE.)
cracker
cheese
agua (<--- bilingual, baby!)
shoe/shirt/shorts (he calls these all "sh")
fish
hi
hello
bye-bye
baby
up
down
woof-woof
meow
ela (elaphant)
bock-bock (chicken noise)
baaaa (sheep noise)
maaaa (goat noise)
doodle-doo (rooster noise)
booo (cow noise...apparently cows are scary)
quack-quack
oink-oink
ah-ah-ah (monkey noise)
kitty (he pronounces "titty." Insert joke here.)
dog
--the horse sound made by blowing out between your lips--
butterfly (bub-bub)
brmm-brmm (tractor sound)
choo-choo
whoo-whoo (owl sound)
roar (lion sound)
a-oooooo (wolf howl...he scrunches up his face and closes his eyes. I may or may not ask him what a wolf says many times a day because this is so cute)
(((adding these that I forgot yesterday!)))
door
banana
blueberries (boo!)
apple
go-go (when he wants to walk or go somewhere)

Sam is 14 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days old, and my house is never going to be quiet. Not ever.

Today

Today I went through all of the clothes Sam has outgrown and put them into piles to resell, pass along to a friend, and donate. With him being my second, I knew going in just how fast time passes, and I made a conscientious effort to enjoy the small moments, to be present, to soak in the sights and sounds of each day, knowing tomorrow he would change and I'd never get that day, those moments, back.

I did a pretty good job. I sat and I soaked. But still, today, going through all his itty bitty clothes that I loved to dress him up in so much, still it hurt my heart with a deep ache to think about all the time that's already gone by, all the versions of him that came and went that I'll never have back.

I had a panicky feeling and suddenly wanted to video tape our entire lives, every meal, every diaper change, every bath, every evening walk, so that a year from now, five years, ten, thirty, fifty, I could replay those videos and have it all back.

Those mental snapshots I took in my mind suddenly seemed so inadequate.

On the way home from school, we listened to sing-along kid songs. When each one ended, Ali would yell, "It's OVER!" Pretty soon, Sam started yelling "o-vuh!" at the end of a song, Ali would yell, "It's over!" and I would confirm, "Yep! Over!" I think that's the first time the three of us have had an actual conversation together. When we got home, of course I didn't yet have the house wired for continuous video recording, so I put dinner on the stove and sat and played with them. Ali played a new game on the iPad where she fixed cars' flat tires. She thrilled with telling me each step ("first I roll the car in, then I drop it, then I raise it, then I pick new tires, then I lower it, then it rolls off!"). I sat on the floor with Sam and a box of blocks and we talked about the pictures on each one ("Apple. Monkey. Elephant. Those are pears. That's a bunch of grapes. [to which he signed "eat"] That's right! You eat grapes!") and eventually he started telling me which ones he wanted me to find: ah-puhl (apple), ella (elephant), ha-ha-ha (monkey), shhh (fish). I got up to go to the bathroom and Sam followed me, playing peek-a-boo with the shower curtain while I laughed at him. Ali ran in and hugged my knees. Later we went for a family walk around the small parkland by our house, and then came back to play two rounds of hide-and-seek (Ali's current favorite) before bath time. I nursed Sam, and when he was all done he sat up and said "ah dahh" while waving his hands in the air. And then he buried his head on my shoulder. When I got Ali out of the bath, she would squeal while I jiggled her throat, making her noises jagged and vibrating and she laughed uncontrollably at the sound. Sam picked out the books he wanted read both by pointing and by forcibly shutting the book when I picked up the wrong one. And when it was just he and I, standing in his dark room, singing his bedtime lullabye, he rested his head on my shoulder, knees tucked up into my chest, and reached down to hold onto my finger while I sang.

I can't video every moment. But maybe this will help, ten, twenty, fifty years from now, both as a way of reminding me of the tiny wonderful details that make up my day, and as a way of reassuring myself that I lived them, I loved them, I breathed them in and appreciated them and was present in them when they were there, happening to me for real.

Ali's First Dentist Visit

A couple of weeks ago, Ali had her very first visit to the dentist! She's had dentists come to visit her school, and she's very good about brushing her teeth twice a day. She was so excited for her visit!

The kids' dentist we visited had a great office--lots of fun toys and a movie playing not only in the waiting room, but also on screens in the ceiling of the main exam room! The staff were very friendly, and Ali did so GREAT with her cleaning, they even did some baseline X-rays of her mouth, from which we for to see her adult teeth already starting to form. Neat stuff!

I was SO proud of how well she did, and the staff was obviously impressed as well--they gave her a balloon, sticker, bear, and a bouncy ball!

Enjoy the pics!

Summer's here!

After what was officially the longest winter ever, summer is officially here! To kick off our summer season, we hit the local splash park not once, not twice, but three times (in as many days). Ali is still not a big fan of getting wet, but Sam? He's in LOVE.

Oh, and Momma's got a new phone that will let me take pics and immediately blog 'em. Hellooo, blog revival!

Daddy's Home!

And we're all pretty stinkin' excited about it.

Ali-isms

My little linguist has always been ahead of her age when it comes to speaking, so more often than not, she says words correctly and we have few chances to giggle. Not always though, and in those fleeting examples of mispronunciations, I see only a small window into a world of youth and innocence that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt will not be open for long.

tater tots = potater tots

flat tire = black tire

Bevo = Be-bo

Moves Like Jagger = Boobs Like Jagger

three = flee

chocolate = choloclate (cha-la-clet)

oatmeal = oat-pee-uhl

yellow = lellow

Excuses, Excuses

On the way home yesterday:

Me: Do you want just me to sing the song, or do you want to sing with me?

Ali: Well, I can't sing with you because I have too many boogers.

Tonight was a beautiful night.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The blog has been getting a lot of well-deserved Ali love lately, but it's kind of not fair because Sam can't sit there and charm me with hilarious, witty conversation.

But you know what he can do?

Sit there and charm me with his ridiculously sweet smile.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all have a Valentine as sweet as I do. XOXOX

Big Sister

I know I've mentioned how much Ali adores her baby brother. While of course there are moments of "No, Sammy, that's MINE!!!!" I'm being totally honest when I say she had no period of adjustment when he was born. She loved him from the moment she walked into the hospital room to meet him, and has continued to adore and look out for him ever since.

This morning, we had a super special Friday treat in that she got to watch a "long video" on the TV while she got dressed and ate breakfast. We still aren't letting Sam watch TV, so when I turned on her show and he crawled over to see what we were up to, Ali said, "Sammy isn't allowed to watch TV?"

"No, he's still too young to watch TV," I told her.

"What is he allowed to do?" she asked.

"He can play with toys!" I told her, trying to sell the idea that toys for him are just as much fun as videos for her.

She thought about that for a moment as her show started, and then got up and said, "I'm going to ask him if he wants to play with a ball. Then I'll come back and watch my show."

I absentmindedly said okay as I picked him up and brought him with me to the kitchen so that I could finish getting ready and he wouldn't be able to see the TV. I stepped into the bathroom to grab a brush, and when I came back, a small yellow ball had been set by Sam's left leg.

She was already back in the living room, watching her show. But first, first she had made sure that her baby brother had been taken care of, that he had something fun to do since he was still too little to share her fun activity.

It's no lie that having two kids this young and this close in age has its challenges. But I'm reminded every day--when she spontaneously hugs him, or wants to help wash him, or brings him a plastic ball so that he can have fun, too--how amazing it is to see their friendship develop. I'm so, so, so glad that they have each other, and that we didn't wait to give them the gift of this incredible relationship.

Conversations with Ali

Me: I can't go down your little slide, Ali. I think I'm too big for it.

Ali: Well, you should just give it a shot! Maybe you will like it.

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Me: Come on, Ali, it's time to go home!

Ali: I will come with you in just one moment, Mommy.

Me: One moment? How old are you??

Ali: I'm just two, Mommy!

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(talking to Sam, who was yelling loudly just to hear his own voice)
Me: Sam, that's not necessary.

Ali: I'm necessary, Mommy.


Yes, you are, baby girl. Yes, you are.