Is That A Good Thing?

Today I told Bethanie that I loved her more than chocolate cake. She told me that she loved me more than all of the good smelling hair spray.
I am feeling very blessed and loved today. :)

Are You Sure?

I don't believe that I mentioned that Sadie chose a nickname for herself the other day. She demanded that we call her by it. Luckily it was short lived!
I just don't think I would feel comfortable referring to my three year old daughter as "Mad Dog" in public. :)
I just don't know if people would understand.

What Does That Mean?!

Today Sadie came out of the bathroom brushing her hands off. She looked at us and said, "Done! My work here is done!"

A Picture Paints A Thousand Words

This is what I have been working on for the last ten days!

TEN DAYS of Insanity

I apologize for the gap in posts. We have been without Internet access for 10 days. They actually were supposed to come and hook things up tomorrow, but I called and complained that it was going to take 2 weeks when they told me 5 days at first.
They heard my complaint and responded. They came one day early. : Þ

In the last 10 days the girls have both said many interesting things. HOWEVER, my house was in total chaos and I am pregnant. I can not be expected to remember those things for very long!

I do remember a few things. A few days ago I celebrated a birthday. We found a trustworthy young woman from church who was willing to come and watch the girls while Sean took me out to dinner. This was quite an exciting thing for us!
The girls heard that Sean was taking me out to dinner for my birthday and that they were staying home with a babysitter. This was quite upsetting for Bethanie. She said,
"Why would dad take YOU to a restaurant for your birthday and not take us when WE are the ones that like restaurants?!"
I don't know why her dad would do that. Sean and I both hate going to restaurants without our children. It is way too quiet. We don't have to ask the server for three new forks because the others are on the floor. We actually taste our food...
Well, I don't even have to say that my birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse was perfectly horrid without my children. ;)

Sadie has also given us further knowledge on her "China-girl" life in the last 10 days. For example, I did not know that a China girl actually has special powers.
When we asked the girls if they thought we would be having a baby girl or a baby boy Sadie said,
"A baby girler! I PROMISE you are having a baby girler! If you don't have a baby girler and you have a baby boy, then I will use my china girl powers to turn the baby boy in to a baby girler!"

Hmmmm.... I guess we should start thinking of girl names then, huh?

Priceless?

A Clorox Bleach Pen to get all of the crayon out of the (thank heaven it's) white down comforter on Sadie's bed: $3.00

Loctite Gel controlled super glue to put the lamp shade back together: $2.50

Old English Scratch Cover Furniture Polish for dark wood to cover up Bethanie's BITE MARKS on the coffee table: $4.00

Pampered Chef scraper to scrape the cheap black melted spatula out of the frying pan: $3.00

Avoiding having to pay the temporary housing company for a down comforter, lamp, coffee table, and frying pan: PRICELESS!! :)

Enlightenment

Last night Sadie gave us further insight into her "China Girl" world.
She told us that she became a China girl when she went to China and was there for a really long time. Because she was there for so long she just changed.
When Sean asked her how she got there she said, "You don't remember? I went on the airplane and you (her dad) had to go with me because they wouldn't let me on the airplane by myself."

Some how Sean has blocked out this really long airplane ride that he took with Sadie. I can totally see why. A plane trip that long while trying to keep Sadie in her seat and quiet surely had to be traumatic for him.

(I would like to dedicate this post to my friend Danielle who had a baby girl yesterday. I am looking forward to her future stories. : > )

A Haircut Like That

Yesterday I finally found a place that the girls could get their hair cut. They needed hair cuts pretty bad. It ended up not going as smoothly as I would have liked. I am sure you are all waiting for a really good ..."because Sadie did this..." story, but it was actually due to the fact that the two hair dressers kept arguing and decided to put ME in the middle. It was a fun time for all.

ANYWAY, we were sitting there waiting for the girls to be called when Sadie spotted an older lady getting her hair done. She had one of the typical older lady haircuts. It was shorter on the back and sides, longer and curled on top.
Sadie was in awe. She just gawked at this lady. She told me when she grew up she was going to get a haircut just like that one. The funniest part about it was the hushed, reverent tone she took on whenever she talked about this haircut.

I think when and if she ever does go for that haircut I will tell her to avoid that particular place. UGH!

Make Sense?

Sadie: "Mom, if you don't let me help you (make dinner) then you won't have sense. If you do let me help you then you will have sense. It makes sense!"

(I am not making this up.)

Writ of Passage

The thing that Bethanie said to her dad last night is something that every child probably says in one way or another. I consider it a writ of passage.
Last night she told Sean, "When I get in trouble, I wish that I didn't have parents!"

I am sure that when I was young I felt the same way. I do think it is funny that when she gets sent to her bed to sit on it for five minutes, or when she is told she can't watch the television for a while (heaven forbid) that her parents are just cruel and she would rather live without them.

Ironically, last week she told Sean she was going to run away and live in a hotel. Considering the day we had Sean agreed and asked if Bethanie would take Sadie with her. He even offered to make the reservation and pay the hotel bill.
Somehow this was not ok with Bethanie and she admitted that she would never want to leave her mommy and daddy because she loved them too much.
How quickly they forget. :)

Leftovers

I need to go to the grocery store and get food to put in to our empty refrigerator. Not feeling very inspired, I asked Sadie what we should eat for dinner.

"Leftovers"
"That would be very nice Sadie, but we don't have any leftovers."
"Don't worry mom! We can just go to the store and get some!"
"Right."

Sadie is their leader

Today I considered the fact that the aliens took Sadie too, but then I realized that is just ridiculous. She is probably their leader.

Sadie and I were having a disagreement about if she should wear pull ups or big girl underwear. She recently decided she prefers pull ups because they "don't have any tags!".
I don't think she understands that they are much more expensive so we only use them at night.
I don't get this whole tag thing anyway. Those pull ups never looked that comfortable to me!

Anyway, Sadie disappeared after our little discussion. She showed up again wearing pull ups. Can you guess what she said to me?

"HA HA HA MOM! I didn't listen to you! I am wearing pull ups!"

I had no response to that.

Alien Invasion

This is neither cute or clever. This particular thing that was said by Bethanie was one of those moments when, as a mother, you go into instant panic mode.
We were at a BBQ on Saturday with Sean's new co-workers. Sean, of course, is eager to impress. The daughter (about 10 or 11 years old) of his new "mentor" took Bethanie and Sadie under her wing the second we arrived at the house and took them away to play.
At the end of the evening it was time to pack up and go. We were standing there with all of the kids when I asked Bethanie and Sadie to please say thank you to this girl that had spent all evening entertaining them.
"NO!"
Huh? "Say Thank you please Bethanie."
"NO!"

>This is when I started to panic. This couldn't really be my sweet little Bethanie. Obviously there were aliens that entered our temporary apartment last night and took the real Bethanie and left this one.<

I gave her what I felt was one of my best, -Do it or you will regret this later!- looks and asked her once again to please say thank you. After a third no, I gave up. I looked her right in the face and told her to say thank you- NOW!

Ugh. I really hope that the aliens come back tonight and bring her back. I miss her terribly.

Brilliant Bethanie

Bethanie is 4 years old. She is very logical and very methodical. She is also very sweet and loving. The other day she said something that just blew me away. Maybe it is because I am her mom.

Because we are new to this area Sean and I have been mapquesting everywhere we go. Sean had me read him directions as we were driving to the zoo. On the way home Bethanie noticed that I wasn't reading Sean any directions.

Bethanie said,
"Mom, if you have directions on the way there but not the way back, does that just mean that you use the same directions but you go backwards?"

I just looked at Sean with my mouth open and said, "Uh, yes." :)

Recent Sayings to Get You Caught Up

Me: Sadie, remember you have to be good today.

Sadie: I AM! How many times must I tell you that I am?

Me: (trying not to laugh) Ok

Sadie: I have told you that I am an angel and can do things by myself!

Me: Angels have to be good too. I love you Sadie.

Sadie: (Bottom lip out) I just don't care!


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This next LOOONG story was an email that I sent out to friends and family.

As some of you know, Sadie started speaking in sentences as soon as she started speaking. She always has something deep and insightful for us. Every few days I will have a new Sadie quote to tell my mom about when she asks.
Since she started talking I don't think she has said so many quotable things in one day as she did today. I have to share. A few of the quotes have background stories, so I will have to start before today. :)

About a month ago Sadie told me that she was from China. She is a China girl and she speaks China. She has not given that up.
Because my girls have birthdays at the end of Sept and Oct it has become a tradition for my mom to get the girls their Halloween costumes for their birthdays. They usually choose something that they can play dress up in all year long.
Sadie has insisted that she wants to be Elmo this year. That is fine, I am sure she will look adorable, but I also know that she has an issue with itchy clothing. She won't wear ANYTHING that looks like it might itch. (Half of the time she won't wear it even if it doesn't!)
I have been trying to talk Sadie in to getting a costume that she will be more comfortable in and that she can play in the rest of the year. I saw a cute little Asian dress. I tried to talk Sadie in to wearing that for Halloween. That was when Sadie said,
"Mom, I am a China girl every day. For Halloween I want to be something different. I want to be Elmo"
(Please note that I am not inserting words here!)

Later today when Sean asked her when she became a China girl she told him,
"A while ago Jesus Christ turned me in to a China girl, so I am a China girl."
So there you go, in case any of you wondered.

Sadie has an issue with change. She doesn't like it. She also has an addiction. She still has her pacifier! She won't give it up. We have tried, and frankly it was not an experience I wish to discuss.
I decided that we would wait until after our move and she gets through that before we get rid of the pacifier for good. I informed her that on her 3rd birthday the pacifier will know she is too old and it will just spontaneously break. (ok, I lied)
We have not yet reached her third birthday and conveniently the pacifier is falling apart on it's own. There is about half of it left. She still sucks on it. She also reminds us all of the time that when she turns three it will break all of the way.
Tonight at dinner she told us that she didn't like that her pacifier was breaking. All of the sudden she threw herself from her chair on to her knees and started praying. She prayed to Heavenly Father that the pacifier would be fixed and would not break.
We spent the next 10 minutes explaining that not all prayers are answered with a yes. We even were asked for examples.
About that time Sadie got bored with her ravioli and started poking and throwing around her bread. I told her that I was going to take the bread away and that she couldn't have it until she finished her ravioli if this continued.
Well, it did. So I did.
Once again she threw herself to her knees and prayed.
"Please Heavenly Father tell Jesus to make my mom give me back my bread now. I want it!"

(At this point Sean and I are trying not to fall out of our chairs we are laughing so hard.)

The day ended with another Sadie quote. Bethanie is starting preschool tomorrow and she informed us that she is a little bit nervous. Sadie told her sister, "If you want to make friends, you have to try!"
That is a good one to live by. I need to remember that one.

Sadie is definitely a handful, but she is a joy as well. Thanks for reading that whole long email. It was my therapy for the day.

Getting started

My two little girls have been at the top of their game lately. They have had so many clever things to say that I have been constantly calling my family to share.
Since I much prefer typing then writing things out by hand in my journal, I thought this would be a fun way to remember these funny little things and share with others!
I will start with what Sadie said to me this morning driving home from taking Bethanie to preschool!
We were coming up on a "hill" in the road. (Um, it's flat here.)

Sadie: Mom, are we going up that hill?

Me: Yes, Sadie. We have to if we want to get home.

Sadie: But Jack and Jill got hurt when they went up a hill. Are we going to get hurt?!

Me: I think we will be ok because we are driving and being careful.

Sadie: But Jack fell down and broke his crown on a hill!

Me: Well, I guess he wasn't being very careful then, was he?

Sadie: Nope!