Silky Overalls

Soooo happy to see my girls again! And we had a fabulous weekend with my family. All is right again in the world! :)

No boys that I know of follow my blog so I feel at liberty to share this story. Being pregnant and nursing, I've gone through a few top-floor undergarments if you know what I mean. In our house, we call them overalls. :) This started when we went to Disney World last year and Beatle got a hug from Ariel and afterward said, "Ow. Her purple overalls were hard when she hugged me." Ever since then I haven't corrected her...it's too cute. And, also when she runs around blabbing to people about my overalls, they won't have a clue and I won't be as embarrassed. Anyway, Beatle is an extremely crafty child. She loves making things for people or cards/invitations for her friends. Today, an under wire popped out of my overalls (owww!) so I threw them away--there's no repairing that. A few hours later, she went to the trash can to throw something else away and was shocked that I threw my overalls away--proclaiming they were the prettiest overalls in the world and how she was disappointed that I threw them away. The funniest part to me was she pleading with me to get them out of the trash because she was insistent that she could make something out of them. I probably should have let her because what, oh what, would the possibilities have been??? :) Alright, next time some overalls go bad, I'll let her and if it's as interesting as I think it will be, I'll blog about it.

There's no Handlin' like a Monkey-Handlin'

I got word from Oklahoma that Birdie rolled over for the first time! We've hit a milestone, people! :)

I also found out that Beatle got man-handled by a monkey at a funky little zoo in Oklahoma that she frequents when she visits grandparents. Ok, maybe man-handled is a slight exaggeration but still, the monkey left marks! We could have filed a police report if this monkey was a human. I still want to hear her tell the story; I'm sure her expressions are priceless. She told my mom that they were petting small monkeys and then she turned around to leave when she felt someone grab and squeeze her arm. Beatle thought it was another kid and said, "What tha??" When she turned around, the monkey had just let go. Mom says there's a little primate hand impression on Beatle's arm! Haha! This is crazy!

Beatle's very into her Indian heritage right now. (Her great, great grandmother was full-blooded Creek Indian. Beatle's 1/16th. Yeah.) If she talks to you for a minute, you'll know she's an Indian (and sometimes she throws in that she's lived in India to spice it up). Last night, she was very persistent in the fact that Indians eat carrots in their cereal. Mom gave in and chopped up baby carrots in her Fruity Pebbles. All gone. I'm telling you, the girl will eat anything. :)

Last thing, Beatle got a cut on her finger and Mom was going to doctor it with Neosporin. Beatle told mom that she had a friend named Sporin. Mom thought that Beatle was telling a "whopper" until I realized that she does have a cousin/friend named Orin. But of course, he will never be Orin to us again...oh, Sporin, what a good friend you are.

Lost Toys, Time, Temper and Keys

Both of my blogging materials are in Oklahoma until Friday. Can't wait to see those two again! But in the meantime, I'm using my spare time to clean and reorganize Beatle's room. I swear she's a hoarder. There's little junkie things everywhere so I've made a clean sweep with my trash sack and my garage sale sack. (Insert evil laughter here.)

On Sunday, Brent was already gone for church and I was getting judgemental and couldn't understand how people can be late to things when they only have to get themselves ready. (It feels like it's been a long time since I've just had to worry about myself.) By Tuesday, I'm shoving him out of the way with my hands full screaming, "I'm late!!!" haha! Doesn't take long for God to put me in my place. :)

Beatle has her dance recital on Saturday night. She's so precious and I can't wait for her to do her thang on stage. One boy called her fat before she left for OK. Well, I've actually already introduced him to you--he's the one she's in the onion breath club with. (I liken their relationship to tempestuous lovers. You witness their ups and mostly their downs but they just keep going back to each other and, as an outsider, you just don't get it!) I wanted to blacken both of his eyes when she told me what he said but you just do the best you can to keep your children from dwelling on something hurtful like that. (Even though it didn't take me much time to think of some tremendously hurtful comebacks I wanted to offer to her for free. Trust me, they would have shut him up and sent him crying to his mommy but despite the fact that that wouldn't have been Biblical or emotionally responsible, I really like his mommy, so I abstained.)

I've been enjoying my time with BR this week without the girls. We were a little like strangers at first but we're warming up to each other. (It's funny how you have a child together to cement the relationship and share something special together but it takes focus and dedication to keep those precious little things from getting in between the two of you and being a distraction.) Back to Brent, I'm quite certain he lost my keys last Friday! Pray for that, if you think of it or care. My life feels all discombobulated without them; not to mention, my last day of work is Friday and they're going to want their key back!!!

Our foster meeting went well and we're excited about the adventures to come!

A Big Day!

Friday was Beatle's Pre-K Graduation. We are so proud of her! My husband's role in the graduation ceremony every year is to do the welcome and this year since Beatle was one of the "graduates", the Preschool Director wanted Beatle to introduce him and another girl to do the opening prayer. (This girl announced that Birdie was a "hairball" the first time I brought Birdie up to the school. haha!) Well, the prayer girl chickened out the day before graduation so they were going to have Beatle do that as well. When it came right down to it, the 200 or more people that were there got to see a very rare instance in which Beatle got shy. She looked like she would have climbed on top of BR if she could have! BR played it off really well and the two of them just had fun up there and after a few minutes on stage, her nerves settled and she did the prayer. It was a neat day for our family. I left Birdie at daycare so we could give our undivided attention to Beatle. We took the Jeep afterwards to wherever Beatle wanted to eat lunch to celebrate...turned out to be Burger King. :) She was a cheap date.

Her teacher (you know, the one that "donked" her on the head?) kept a binder that contained samples of her work, pictures, poems, and special projects they did throughout the year and it was amazing to see her transformation documented like that. So amazing in fact, that I bawled like a baby when I went through it! I'm glad that Beatle wasn't around to see that. I want her to grow up because that's what kids are supposed to do and I don't want her to ever feel like growing up is bad but sometimes I just can't believe how fast it happens!

After the ceremony and after lunch, we finished getting our things together and picked Birdie up from her last day at daycare (because my last day of work is the 28th!). We met my folks in Ft. Smith where we did a hand-off because during my last week of work the girls will be with grandparents in Oklahoma.

To explain more about staying at home, this is something we've considered since shortly after Birdie was born. The whole time I was pregnant, I didn't give much thought to staying at home--I just knew I was returning back to work. But a switch had flipped inside me since having her and I did return to work but my heart was at home. I never in a million years understood how hard it would be for me to go back to work. I'm not going to spend time blogging about working vs. staying at home, it's an emotionally charged issue and everyone makes their own decisions. However, we're starting a new chapter in our family's book and we're all very excited for me to make the transition back home for many different reasons. The main two: We know from experience with Beatle, kids grow up so fast and the other is we just feel like it will help bring peace to our home and to help refocus our attention to ministry (which is why we moved here in the first place!).

Tomorrow, we attend our first meeting to become foster parents. We're excited because this is something we've been wanting for over 2 years and it seems like the timing might finally be right! Keep you posted!

Revelation on a Stick

I'm going back in time...

Living here in Hot Springs, you can't avoid driving on Central and you wouldn't want to because just about everything you need is on it. Along this stretch of road, is a lighted sign with flashing messages that belongs to one of the local hospitals. What makes the messages so special is that it will cycle through each child born at that hospital for the last two weeks, first and middle name with the day they were born and their weight. I couldn't wait to have a baby in Hot Springs so when people from the church drove by they'd see MY baby's name flash up there! I played these scenarios out in my head for the last two years over and over. I imagined that someone would be in the car with someone else and go, "Oh, I know that baby! That's our Children's Minister's and his wife's baby." Or in the middle of a busy day, look up and smile when they'd see my child's name. Well-meaning idea but I was completely self-absorbed with this thought. When I was pregnant, I knew that I needed a picture of her name when they cycled through so I could put it in little Birdie's scrapbook (you know, the one that I'll do in my golden years that I don't have time to do now).

So, after I had her (and was released to drive), I loaded her up and went to go look. We had so much going on that I was afraid that I had waited too long and had missed it. I grabbed a corndog from Sonic and sat in my car in the O'Reilly's parking lot, window down in February and camera ready. I was thrilled when I saw that her birthday was the starting date of the cycle! So, I waited and held my breath and waited...went right past it! Aww...I was totally bummed. I picked my corndog up and forlornly mustarded it up, glancing back at the sign. Wait! Some are out of order. Sat the corndog down. Camera back up. Went through the whole thing, no Birdie! I watched it closely go through the whole thing again. Nothing! My first reaction was, "After all I went through to have her, the least the hospital could have done was post her blasted name, dob and weight--after all, they practically killed me!" I thought about calling them and demand/persuade them to get her name up there. I'm sure they would have; it was a simple oversight. But by the time I finished my corndog, a deeper lesson of self-centeredness was not lost on me. Everyone who knew us and loved us in this town and beyond had already recognized our wonderful, new addition in touching and affectionate ways. Who cares if no one saw her name on Central? Hopefully they already think of my family and smile because of Christ that's in and working through us. I did peel out of the parking lot to make myself feel better. Haha! I kid!

My Beautiful, Hungry Girl

Aunts, uncles and cousins far-away send complicated little toys with a million pieces or annoying sounds that are always a big hit to the kid but leave the parents wondering how they are going to manage playtime with these wonderous new additions to the home. Play make-up for girls is another one on the list. It drives my husband crazy when our daughter gets into hers right before we need to walk out the door and she's leaving looking like a floozy. (He usually makes her wipe it off.)

We had family pictures done recently and they just got posted to FB. I was excited and wanted Beatle to see hers because she looked wonderful--a perfect snapshot of her sweet, little face. She said emphatically upon seeing it, "I am beautiful!" Then with a deep sigh of reflection, she states, "I can see why y'all don't want me to wear make-up. There's just no reason for it." :) You are absolutely right, Beatle. Don't let the world ever rob you of your joy in the Lord's perfect creation.

To preface, remember my statement about Beatle being a billy-goat? She is SO persistent about food! Yesterday, she came home talking about how her elderly pre-K teacher "donked her in the head with a can of mayonaise" because she thought Beatle was eating lunch before they prayed. haha! I have no sympathy for her. First off, she probably was trying to and secondly, she garnered that reputation for a reason!

Bad Girl

I blame my sister.

Since Beatle was a tiny tot, she's loved my sister's tattoos. She'd touch them and talk about them. She did the typical draw-all-over-yourself thing when she was 2ish but instead of leaving it at that, she'd label them as tattoos.

This weekend, Beatle was living out her bad-girl persona in full force. (We've asked her to call it tough-girl because tough-girls can still love Jesus but as for bad girls, there's something that doesn't theologically jive with that.) On Friday, she noticed a few skull and crossbone license plates and stickers on cars when we were out and about. Later that evening, she found some electrical tape in our building when she was out there with BR. She brought it in and cut some off and made a bracelet out of it by taping it around her wrist. She did this all weekend long (once it moved to her ankle). She kept talking about how she wanted people to be afraid of her (later she said she was doing it just to scare off strangers). She went into Walgreens with my husband and came out reporting that she said hi to a boy and his response was, "Ummm....hi." She just knew he hesitated because of her bad girl image that this electrical tape is creating. On Saturday, she announced that when she gets older, she's going to get a skeleton tattoo on her upper arm. Awesome. I've heard stories about minister's kids.

For now, I'll let her live out her fantasies as long as it stays electrical tape and knowing that I have 13 long years before she doesn't need my consent for that skeleton tattoo.

Breath and Booty-Butts

This first post is going to be pretty crazy. By far, it is the most outrageous thing to date I think that Beatle has shared with me. Getting a little off track, let me say that I absolutely cherish the fact that she tells me things. When she starts something with, "Momma, can I tell you something?" I know it's going to be good; something is on her heart and she wants me to listen up. I'm fully aware that in 10 or so years conversations like those may be few and far between so I'm trying to soak it up. The other day after that favorite question, she confided in me that her and this [ridiculously wild] boy at school have a club but before you can get into it you have to smell each others' breath. Wow.

Ok, back to the crazy story...I was being Beatle's "friend" in the bathroom and sitting on her stepstool while she was sitting on the throne. She asked her question and then when I said, "Yes." She told me that this was a secret. I'm sure I physically set up a little straighter and leaned in closer. "Yes???" I led. She began talking to me about how her friend Franny was the best friend to her in the whole wide world. Ok, I know that. What's the big secret, I was wondering. Then she started saying how her and Franny go into the bathroom together when they are at school. I knew that because Beatle's got in trouble for it at school before and I got a note from the teacher. At the time, I thought it was innocent and just because the two loved to gab and play together and why should they stop just because one has to go? But then she said that Franny "helps" her in the bathroom and my mind went through a worrisome jog even though I was trying to be cool on the outside and lead her to this big secret. "Well, Franny's my best friend in the whole world! When we're at school and I have to go to the bathroom, she goes in with me and helps me. When I go potty-dah, she wipes my butt. And, then when she goes, I wipe her butt. It really is perfect because I can't see my own butt. I'm so glad to have a friend like Franny!" I about fell off the stepstool laughing. Those two are way TOO close! But, I guess she is pretty lucky because I've never had a friend that close before! :) (Obviously, we talked in depth about how that's not Franny's job because everyone needs to take care of their own booty-butts.)

Birdie has a lot of hair; it's sooo cute. Anywho, we went on our first family Jeep ride the other night to go get a snow-cone and to look at pretty houses. When we got back home, her hair was hysterical! It looked like a cross between Danny Zuko from Grease and Don King! She's also just started laughing those deep, big belly laughs--precious.

BR's family came to visit last weekend and him and his dad went to Sam's to get some stuff for us to eat and one of the things that they brought home was this sack with about 8 onions inside. His family I think had planned to take them home but forgot them and there was no way we could eat all those onions by ourselves so we were going to take them up to the church to give away. Now most of y'all reading this know that Beatle is a billy goat, she will eat anything, anywhere and the poor girl lives at least one meal ahead of herself. BR was taking Beatle to school and the sack of onions were in the Jeep and he said she began pestering and downright begging for an onion. She kept saying she wanted to eat it right then and there. (She can be unrelenting.) So, finally, he was going to call her bluff and he said she could have one as long as she took a huge bite of it. She did! And then she took another one and another one! She was riding around in the Jeep, going to school, after a full breakfast, eating an onion just like you would an apple. Haha! BR said that later when she was talking to him, his eyes couldn't help but water. I bet if her and that boy had their club meeting on the playground, it was probably their last! haha!

The Beatle and Birdie Beginning

I would start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, but for Beatle I'd be trying to catch you up 5 years and for Birdie, 4 months. Despite being all over FB, my husband has asked for our daughters to have anonymity on this blog since it will be dedicated just to them and their hilarious and insightful stories. I agree. I guess these days it doesn't hurt to be extra cautious. So, let's get to it.

The names...Beatle's is self-dubbed. When she was about 2-years-old, she couldn't pronounce her name and the closest she could come was "Beatle". It stuck. And, for Birdie, she just reminds me of a baby bird when she wants to eat, so dependent on me. (My girls have tons of nick-names. I can't help but create new ones all the time!)

Let me introduce them to you (but if you are reading this, you probably already know them well). Beatle is a precocious pre-Ker who is articulate, self-reliant and hysterical! I've been told time and time again that I need to be documenting her stories and I've journaled some but hopefully this can be a good outlet for such as well as an opportunity to be able to share those with family and friends far away. Birdie, obviously at 4 months, isn't doing or saying much that is as entertaining but she will be soon enough! Plus, the girl's got the best smile ever! The floor manager at her daycare put it the best when she said that Birdie is "like a flower that blooms" when she smiles and she "smiles with her whole body". Surely, it would melt even the hardest heart.