Monday, August 22, 2011

Oh no - please tell me she didn't!

Imagine my surprise when I walked in to the nursery on Sunday to ask Liliana if she needed to go potty and was flagged over by the nursery leader to be asked, "Are you having a baby sister?"
"No," I responded.
"I didn't think you looked like you could be, but during our lesson on families today, Liliana told us that she was going to have a baby sister," the nursery leader explained.
"Liliana has been stuck on this baby idea for a few weeks," I told her, wondering how many of the other kids and adults in the room thought that Liliana's announcement had some merit. The nursery is huge - with over 20 kids in it - and has about 4 to 5 other adult helpers in it at any given time. Chances are that Liliana's news was heard by most of them and who knows how many people believed it?! I partially blame David for Liliana's baby fixation because he's starting to get a bit of baby fever and has encouraged Liliana's discussion about when she'll get more siblings. In fact, the other day I was setting Liliana up with a reward chart for going to bed without hopping back out of her room for this, that, and the other thing. I told her for each nap or night that she follows her "sleep rules", she can have a sticker on the calendar. After she gets five stickers, she can pick a movie to watch. David, who was standing by during this explanation, added, "And when you get ten stickers, you can have a baby sister!" Well, Liliana didn't forget that and now that she has more than ten stickers, she wants her baby. I made David go talk to her and tell her that these things take time and that mommmy isn't growing a baby in her belly right now, but after the nursery announcement, I don't know how effective that little discussion was.
I guess I can at least be grateful that Liliana is claiming that I'm pregnant, rather than asking other non-pregnant women if they are!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Fun moments

Emmett and Liliana like to wake up early on weekends while David and I would rather not. A normal Saturday usually involves me rousing to one or both kids calling out to us to let them out of their rooms. I stumble out, change a diaper, take Liliana to the bathroom, close the gate so the kids won't go downstairs unattended, and then lie back down - though I know I won't actually get anymore sleep. Liliana and Emmett run back and forth between their bedrooms, the playroom, and our bedroom, dragging toys and making plenty of noise. This past Saturday, Emmett climbed over me and in between David and I in bed with a book. He sat "reading" for a couple minutes and then all on his own he leaned over and planted a big slobbery kiss right on David's mouth. It was too adorable - although a little slimy for David! I guess Emmett liked our awwwws because he kept doing it to David (and then one to me with David's encouragement) after that for a few more rounds. Who can turn away such sweetness...even if it is accompanied by large amounts of drool?

David worked from home the other day and took a break long enough to come out and teach the kids how to fall down when he pretended to shoot them. He called me over and with a triumphant look, pointed his finger at Emmett and Liliana as if it were a gun and shouted, "Bang! Zap!" and laughed with great pleasure as they slumped to the ground with convincing death-giggles. I'm so glad they have such enriching learning moments with Daddy.

We went to drop David off at the bus stop the other day and as we drove away, David stepped onto his bus. Liliana suddenly sounded quite upset as she cried out, "I don't want to be alone with not Daddy. I want to be a family!" It was so sad and cute at the same time. I explained to her that we are still a family even when Daddy goes to work and that his job was to provide for our family so we'd have a home to live in and food to eat. She seemed to calm down a bit, but she has talked a few times about how Daddy should only work at home.

Out of the blue while running errands in the car, Liliana asked me, "Is your body growing another baby now?"
"No," I answered.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I want to wait until Emmett is older," I responded.
"Why do you want to wait until after the birthdays?" she asked precociously.
"Because I am trying to get healthier first."
---Where does she come up with this stuff?

A few days later, we had another conversation about babies after hearing something on the radio about a woman who had 11 kids. That converstation went something like this:
"Mommy, I want 11 kids."
"You want me to have 11 kids, or you want to have your own 11 kids?"
"I want to have my own 11 kids, but I want you to grow them in your belly."
"Do you know how many 11 is? Let's count to 11." After counting I simply said, "Not gonna happen."
"But why?"
"I couldn't handle that many. You can have as many kids as you want when you grow up and get married. I doubt you'll still think 11 is a good number."

Emmett is parroting a lot lately. Liliana thinks it is a fun game to have him repeat whatever she wants him to say. He's getting pretty good at remembering some of the phrases Liliana says and he will use them at the right time, just before Liliana is likely to say them. For example, we were getting loaded into the car and he asked Liliana's usual question (but in simpler words) "Where we going?" I can't believe how un-baby-like he is becoming. His size probably has something to do with that as well. He is eeking out of most 24 month clothes and wears some 2T and a lot of 3T now. According to my bathroom scale he is about 35 pounds - what a whopper! Liliana only weighs a few pounds more than he does and he has outweighed his 3 year old cousins for months already. He is wearing size 7 to 8 in shoes - sizes Liliana was wearing earlier this year. His face even looks bigger than Liliana's to me. This kid is going to be huge, I can just tell. Luckily he seems to be a rather gentle-natured boy, so he'll probably be one of those guys who never realizes he could use his size to his advantage.