The Bad Words

It all started with Shrek telling the donkey to "Shut up!" Then, it was the beast in Beauty & the Beast saying, "Stupid!" I remember the day Alyssa put all of her dolls and stuffed animals in time out for saying "Shut up!" She'd tell each one that they were in time-out for saying "Shut up!" Essentially, she was repeating it over and over without getting in trouble because, after all, they were the ones that said it, not her.

We try to be mindful of the things that we say and the word choices that we make. We try not to use words that we don't want to hear repeated. However, in case we forget, we now have a little person to remind us exactly what was said.

"Is 'weirdo' a bad word?" Alyssa asks. I tell her that it's not exactly a bad word, but it's not really nice either. It's a silly word that people say when they see someone who is different or acting goofy. She tells me she heard the word from a friend at school. Her friend said, "You're a weirdo!" She seems a bit sad and says, "But I'm not a weirdo!" We have a talk.

"Is 'crazy old buzzard' a bad word?" Alyssa asks. I couldn't help but laugh. It's not a bad word, but it's also not nice to call someone that. I gave an example and told her if she said that to her Grandma it wouldn't be very nice. Sure enough, the next time we see Grandma she looks at her and says, "You crazy old buzzard!" Grandma's looked at her sternly and says, "I don't like that!" Alyssa cried. Talk not required.

"Is 'friggin nuts' a bad word?" Alyssa asks. I turned my head and busted laughing. Upon gaining my composure, I asked where she heard that. She tells me she heard it at school. Interested, I asked what the kid said to her. She told me the kid looked at her and said, "You're friggin' nuts!" I tell her it's not nice to say and we have another talk.

I was driving home on the highway and there was a slow car in front of me going about 25 in a 55. As my patience was wearing and I said out loud, "I have to change lanes... this car is driving me friggin' nuts!" Oh my! Did she hear that from me? How often do I say that? Is "friggin" even a word? Maybe she didn't hear that from a kid at school? Well, it's better than the alternative. Ohhhh boy!

As I said before, in case we forget what we say, there's always someone to remind us.

Light Switches, Doors & Locks

What's the deal with light switches, doors, and locks?

I'm absolutely amazed that with a room full of toys the only intriguing thing to play with is the light switch. Light on, light off, light on, light off, light on... "STOP PLAYING WITH THE LIGHT SWITCH!!!" It stops briefly, then starts again light on, light off, light on, light off, light on... I see Alyssa looking at me with those curious eyes. She reaches to give it one more try -- light on, light off -- just to make absolutely certain that she's not supposed to be playing with the light switch.

Next time, it’s the bathroom door -- open, close, open, close -- I hear the squeaking. This doesn’t work in her bedroom because there is a foam door guard at the top of the door. “SLAM!” the door closes. “STOP PLAYING WITH THE DOOR!!!!” I hear a faint voice say, “Mommy, where are you?” I go to open the door and it’s locked. I hear giggles in the distance. “OPEN THE DOOR!!! 1…2…3…” Apparently, the counting is ineffective when Mommy is on the other side of the locked door. “I’m getting the key!” and magically the door opens. We have the first of several discussions about not locking doors.

You would think that would be enough, but it’s not. You have to think like a child and anticipate their every move. Mommy has been locked out of the bathroom, the changing room at swim class, public restrooms, and, yes, even our house. When your child is running quickly towards a door and giggling, you run as fast as you can screaming, “You’d better not lock that ((SLAM)) door!” Sometimes, I feel like the big, bad wolf standing outside the door yelling, “Little pig, little pig, let me in!” Little did she know that Mommy had already entered the house through the garage door, I sneaked up behind her and said, “What are you doing?” It was time for another discussion about not locking doors.

We’ve made progress. Alyssa told me yesterday that she’s not going to lock doors anymore because she wants to be a good girl and only bad girls lock doors. I understand that it’s just something new that she’s figured out how to do by herself. Meanwhile, she has learned a lot about cause and effect. Locking Mommy out gets you in BIG trouble!!!

If this hasn’t happened to you already, it will. If you don’t have another way to get inside a locked door (besides threats and bribery), then you’d better learn to run very, very fast. It’s like the real life version of Survivor – outwit, outplay, outlast. You’ve always got to be one step ahead of the game.

Travel Buddy

Hi there! It’s me, Alyssa. Mommy has been too busy to work on my blog, so I decided to do this one for her. I went to San Francisco for vacation this year and it was a blast! Since Daddy has a travel buddy “Homer,” I wanted a travel buddy too. This is my “Annie.” She is a little critter that came with my Jessie doll from Toy Story. She looks kind of like a bunny rabbit, but with the body of a pig. She didn’t have a name, so I named her Annie. We’re going to travel the world together. She’s my travel buddy.


My favorite part of vacation is riding all of the carousels. San Francisco had a HUGE carousel. It had two stories and I got to go up really high. Mommy and Daddy let me ride it a few times. It was fun!


I got to ride in a boat and it was really, really cold and windy. We went to Alcatraz. It’s a really scary place that they used to lock people up in. We had to be very, very quiet because people were sleeping. Daddy told me they weren’t real, but I saw them! My daddy made a really neat video of Alcatraz (http://www.vimeo.com/5032057). We had fun looking around and playing in the cellblocks. Mommy told me if I wasn’t good that she’d leave me there, but she was just kidding.


My next favorite part about vacation is all the yummy food! We went to this bakery with lots of yummy bread. Mommy got me turtle bread and it was so good. The lady at Boudin Bakery even let me pull around a giant alligator bread that was bigger than me! We also had pizza, ice cream, mini doughnuts, and salt water taffy.


I had a nice bike ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. Daddy pulled me the whole way and I slept on the way back. Now, that’s what I’m talking about. We stopped at this really pretty place on the way back and I met a little boy. He gave me some bread to feed the birds. There were birds everywhere!!! They must have been really hungry because they kept coming to me for more.

We took a nice drive out of the city to go find Snoopy. My mommy loves Snoopy. We had lots of fun taking pictures with Snoopy. I even got a super cuddly Snoopy to sleep with. I love him so much! We had a nice lunch at the Warm Puppy Café. Can you believe they even have Snoopy ice cream there? It was a Snoopy kind of day.

I had lots of fun in San Francisco! I got to ride on trains and cable cars. I went to two aquariums and saw lots of fish. I really liked looking at the sea lions on the pier. I’d hear them and say, “Arr, Arr, Arr!” I think they understand me. I met lots of new people. When I’d see someone sitting on the side of the street, I’d say, “Hi! What’s your name?” Mommy says I shouldn’t talk to strangers. I was a really good girl for my Mommy and Daddy. I can’t wait to go on vacation again! Annie and I have lots of places to go.

Two Mommies

It's hard to be serious sometimes when your child says or does something so silly that you burst into laughter. Last week, Alyssa was up to her bedtime antics of running around and not listening. When I discipline, I get down to her level and make sure she is looking at me when I am talking to her. She was looking off to the side, so I told her to look at my eyes when I'm talking to her. As her eyes met mine, she made them cross-eyed. I raised my voice, then she looked at me straight and went cross-eyed again. As she crossed her eyes she said, "Look! Two mommies are yelling at me." At a time when I needed to be authoritative, I clearly failed. I immediately busted up laughing. As I was laughing, she looked straight again and said, "One Mommy," then crossed her eyes and said, "Two Mommies." She then asked me to cross my eyes to see if there were two Alyssas and, of course, there were. We both got a good laugh and she asked me if I thought she was funny. Yes, I thought it was hilarious! We had a good laugh and a big hug. Now, when she wants to be silly, she looks at me with crossed eyes and says, "I see two Mommies."

Just Like Daddy

For the past month, Alyssa has been drawing on the back of her color sheets from school. All of the kids get the same sheet with a picture to color. Alyssa is usually the first person to finish her color sheet, so she flips the page over and draws on the back while everyone else is still coloring. Yesterday, to my surprise, I flipped the page over and it was an amazing drawing of me! She gave me purple hair because she knows it’s my favorite color and wrote “MOM” at the bottom. It’s just beautiful! I love all the green eyelashes. When I asked her about the drawing, she just smiled and said, “It’s you!”

I was looking through the other papers she brought home and didn’t realize there was a second drawing. When I asked her who it was, she told me it was daddy. These drawings are just amazing. I’m impressed that her stick figures are developing into detailed faces. It’s also interesting how she selects and blends her colors instead of just using one crayon. I think she definitely has daddy’s artistic talent.

I asked her to draw me another picture today. I can’t wait to see it!

M-O-M

Spelling is just the beginning of learning to read. We see words in a book and Alyssa asks what they are. I point at the word, spell it, and then sound it out. That way, the next time she sees the word she knows what it is. She's been writing words on her own like her name, C-A-T, D-O-G, M-O-M, and D-A-D. She's so proud when she writes something and we praise her for it. We're always challenging her to write new words. We also have a game on our iPhone called SightWords that teaches word recognition. It's the 100 easiest words in the English language. Your child can look and hear the word so they learn basic reading just by word recognition. It's great!

We just got back from our family vacation to San Francisco. One day, we were riding on the train and Alyssa was talking to a very nice lady named Pietra. I'm still laughing at their conversation:

Alyssa: Hi!
Pietra: Hi!
Alyssa: What's your name?
Pietra: Pietra
Alyssa: (looks puzzled)
Pietra: Pietra (sounded out slowly)
Alyssa: Pizza?
Pietra: (laughing) What's your name?
Alyssa: Alyssa, A-L-Y-S-S-A
Pietra: That's a nice name. What's your mommy's name?
Alyssa: Chanda
Pietra: How do you spell your mommy's name?
Alyssa: M-O-M

Not realizing how many people on the train were listening to this conversation, everyone started laughing as soon as Alyssa spelled M-O-M. I'm so tickled that she associated the spelling of M-O-M with my name instead of just saying she didn't know. This was one of those special moments that made Mom smile... and I'm still smiling. :-)

Letter to Mommy

For Mother's Day, Alyssa colored a picture for me and wrote me a letter. Daddy asked her what she'd like to thank me for on Mother's Day. This is what she said as written by Daddy:

Dear Mommy,

I love you. Thank you for making me breakfast.
Thank you for candy and food. I love all my toys.
Thank you for reading books. They are fun.
Thank you for taking me to the park and getting me clothes.

Love,

Alyssa

She was so excited about her letter that she asked me every day for the past 3-4 days if it was Mommy's Day yet. When I told her Sunday morning it was Mommy's Day, she took off running to get it. You could see the pride beaming from her face when she gave it to me. I love it so much! She is such a thoughtful little girl. It's amazing to me how she's starting to express her love. She asks for hugs now and tells me that she loves me.

I had an incredible Mother's Day. It seems like it lasted for two weeks instead of one weekend. Last Friday, we went to As You Wish Pottery and Alyssa painted me a Mommy's Bowl. I love it!!!! It's purple just for me and has her name and date on the bottom. I'll use it every morning and cherish it forever.


At school, Alyssa did a special craft project for Mother's Day. She made a pink sparkle frame with a beautiful picture of her inside. She picked out the shoe and the bow just for me. It's so adorable! She looks so pretty in the picture. I placed it on my desk at work so I can look at it every day.


We had a nice Mother's Day breakfast at home with Grandma. Daddy and Alyssa got me some beautiful flowers. We spent the afternoon at Desert Ridge enjoying the warm weather and the splash pad. We had a nice lunch on the patio and topped it off with some Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. What a fantastic day!

It's wonderful to be a mom.