Now I know.....

I have called Emily my friend for quite some time now and there are many obvious reasons as to why I love her so much, all of which I won't go into right now (I am afraid she is getting a little too full of herself because of her good hair day and updated blog site). But until now I never understood just where she got all her talents and charm. Since becoming addicted to the "Blog-O-Sphere" as some like to call it I have spent many hours reading about her family. I have never meet her family with the exception of her mom and that was very brief, but I have to say I have never been so impressed with one family as I have been with hers. So for all this time I knew I liked Emily but now I understand why I like her so much. How could someone grow up in a family such as hers and not turn out to be anything but great. If anyone from Emily's family ever reads this you have to know how good your daughter was to me while living across the street from her in Charleston. We meet Clark and Emily just as we learned that we would not be able to have children. I think it is fair to say that at that time I disliked most pregnant women. But Emily was the exception. Clark and Emily would come over and we would eat junk and drink root beer while watching Survivor and as her belly got bigger and bigger she would completely let me invade her personal space and allow me to feel as Haley kicked and moved. Perhaps at one of those moments when you only want your family Clark and Emily called right after Haley was born and asked if we wanted to come and meet her. What a special experience that was to see first hand what a miracle a brand new baby is. Sometimes at night I would get a call from Emily telling me she was just about to give Haley a bath and did I want to come over and help out, or at church when as we all know is the best time to cuddle a sleeping baby, Emily would generously let me hold Haley. She was so kind and so generous to me and I can't imagine what that time in my life would have been like if she had not been there to help me through it. Now I understand where she learned it from. This is a family comprised of well just remarkable people. I hope someday I get to meet them until then I will just keep smiling, laughing, learning and yes, sometimes even crying as I read about them from the comfort of my home.

Hungry?

Is it wrong to ask your three year old if she is done with her lunch knowing the response will always be yes and the only reason you are asking is because you want her last chicken nugget?

Lost in Translation......

Just so you know it is late and I am tired but I promised Emily I would get this done and so here it is. I tried to be witty but there is just nothing left in this brain. Anything that was left was sucked dry today while sitting on the bathroom floor reading "Thomas the train" and "Stinky Face" to Madelyn while silently praying she would hurry up and just "go"! Yes, that is right, I am in potty training hell, yes I know not that isn't a nice word but I think we all know it is justified. And by the way yes, she is 3 1/2! And further more this picture has nothing to do with the following post, it just makes me laugh when I see it, so I thought I would share it!

As a parent you are provided many opportunities to teach your children. These life lessons have a wide range when it comes to importance. One that comes to mind is the difficult task of trying to explain to a three year old why it is not appropriate or lady like to tell people to "watch" as you try your hardest to push out gas that has built up in your tummy and upon succeeding smiling and proclaiming with pride "that was me"! Try as I may there are times when it seems like no matter how hard I try somehow what I am trying to say just gets lost in translation. Let me give you an example.....It is Christmas time. Madelyn is finally at an age where she is beginning to understand the importance of Santa Clause. We loved reading books about him and singing songs explaining all the requirements that must be meet in order to receive a visit from the old man in red. However, we also wanted to impress upon Madelyn the true meaning of the holiday. So we talked about Jesus and how he was born in a manger. We even had a family home evening where Dallan reinacted Luke II using our porcelin nativity (needless to say that was a disaster, poor Joseph no longer has a head). For one small moment I thought I had mastered the art of teaching but soon knew there was a problem when I noticed that it wasn't Santa who was up on the house top listening to reindeer paws. No clearly something was very wrong when I sat Madelyn down and asked her what she was singing about in which she replied Cwismas. I said ohhh are you singing about Santa going down the chimney? She looked at me with the look of "Mom, you clearly don't know anything" and simply said "Mom, Heavenly Fodder comes down the chimney not santa". Do you see what I mean? Lost in translation. But I suppose it goes both ways. One day while driving through Tacoma I hear Madelyn sniffing something out when all of a sudden she says "Oooohh stinky cwap". I couldn't believe what I had just heard. Had she really just said crap? I quickly scanned my brain trying to remember any particular time I had used that word in front of her. Now I am not perfect and I definately say things I shouldn't but I knew I had never used that word in that context. So I said honey what did you say? I wanted to make sure I was hearing her correctly and sure enough she said "Mom, it smells like stinky cwap". While I sat there thinking of all the ways I was going to let Dallan have it for teaching her how to use that word Madelyn said "Mom, I touched a cwap". I said you did what? She said "I touched a cwap". I said really where did you do that and she said at the park and then it hit me she wasn't saying crap or at least she wasn't trying to say crap, what she was really trying to tell me was that it smelled like a stinky crab. Again, lost in translation. How about you? Has there ever been a time that something you said just didn't sink in the way you would have liked?