"I No Love Mommy"

We have a new form of communcation around here. Talia can write me notes. Previous to now she could only write "I love Mommy" but her genius has kicked in and now she can add "no" to the sentence and really communicate. Ron thinks I shouldn't "let" her say that to me but I'm thrilled. I'm so proud of her for coming up with the idea in the first place. I also want her to be able to identify her feelings and say what she feels. There are too many women who don't know how to express that they are mad at someone. Of course she's allowed to be mad at me! We're not going to always get along and to deny that is false. If she isn't allowed to tell me she doesn't like me, what on earth will we talk about when she is a teenager? I think on this day she wanted something from me and I said no. I was watering the garden and she kept running out with these little notes. Inside I could hear her asking me, "How do you spell FEEL? How do you spell SAD?" I thought it was adorable and very smart. Within 20 minutes the notes turned back into love notes... just the way I like 'em.

almost... made... it... (not quite)

The winter break started out well-- we spent time crafting and decorating, playing with friends, even playing in the snow a little. Hanukkah was nice; we went to the Dells on Christmas and slid down all the waterslides. For New Year's we had friends over and the kids played together so well they just disappeared and we didn't hear from them again.

And then... this last weekend basically sucked. Saturday we went out to breakfast and then spent the rest of the day inside. Sunday we went out to lunch and then spent the rest of the day inside. The snow is disgusting-- all frozen over and old. Alex has a new phrase: "No! Mine!" and he basically uses it all day long-- even when he doesn't mean it. Dinners were early and then we had this weird hour of time that we don't usually have. We played duck duck goose and did a family yoga DVD and it just sucked, in general. Yesterday most of Talia's friends went to school and we were still home. We asked pretty much everyone we knew if they could play and alas, they could not. I was grumpy and pissy. Finally Supergirl came over for two hours and she was a godsend, as usual.

I was still grumpy and pissy though and I still am today-- even though Talia is at school. The kids got up an hour early and it just threw everything off. I'm not complaining (much) about that because I am grateful that they usually sleep until 7:30 anyway, I'm just mad that their schedules are off. Talia will likely take a nap at school and that will ruin my night because she will go to bed at 10:30pm instead of 8:30. I had to put Alex down for a nap at 10:30, when I usually nap him now at 12 or later. He was just impossible today. Alex can now get into my spice bin and wants to spread cumin and paprika and cayenne everywhere and he threw a full blown tantrum when I took the bin out of the pantry and put it up high. Then he bit me and I put him in time out (for like, the third time ever) and he just wept and wept. He's been asleep for almost 2 hours now so hopefully he'll feel better when he wakes up. And hopefully I'll find a place for those spices and put something fun, like a bin of play food in its place.

Redhead

Talia got to "dye" her hair as a reward for good behavior (hey, it's better than getting her a Barbie or giving her ice cream...). It was really fun and made her feel special all day. It washes right out and doesn't seem to get all over the house or her clothes (not much anyway). I think I might get some other colors.

Follow your heart

I was a little impatient with Talia yesterday while she was (not) getting ready for school. Alex has a cold and I'm a little extra sleep-deprived. I kept telling her to get dressed, eat breakfast, get her snow boots on etc. and was getting very frustrated with her pokiness. This was how she described her feelings about the situation:

"I'm trying to follow my own heart and you just want me to follow yours!"

Perhaps we're watching and reading too many princess stories?