Happiest Holidays

To all of my friends and readers, happy holidays!

I hope you got everything you wanted this year. I can say with certainty that we did.

Cordy got to meet Santa, loving every minute with him and even interrupting others to go back and give Santa a hug after she opened her gift.


Mira received Thomas the Tank Engine trains, books and even underwear. I think she’s satisfied, don’t you?

Score!

Santa heard my plea and wasn’t about to let me be cut off from my ‘net:

Score!

And Aaron found out two days before Christmas that in the new year he will once again be employed. The new job looks promising, tapping into many of Aaron’s talents, and I hope it will be both interesting and fulfilling for him.

All in all, I’d call it a successful Christmas.

Add to it a lot of good time spent with family, an enormous (and delicious) meal this afternoon, and a lot of excitement, and you can see how Cordy ended the day like this:


What about you? Any good presents/stories to share?



Lady Gaga for Kids?

I think I’m ready to submit my application to the Bad Moms Club.

I can only take so much kid music while driving before I have to switch my iPod to something that isn’t aimed at the preschool set. Which means Cordy is occasionally forced to listen to songs I like in the car. However, she’s never really shown any signs that she’s paying attention to my music. Or at least I thought she wasn’t listening – there’s one song in particular that she’s obsessed with now. A song that she probably shouldn’t like so much.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, she’s indoctrinated her sister, and Mira begs to hear the “Rah-ah-ah” song anytime we get into the car:

Yep, they both love Lady Gaga. And not just that song. Paparazzi, Poker Face, Just Dance – all songs they love to hear. It seems we skipped the Miley Cyrus, slightly-inappropriate-for-preschoolers craze and went straight for the totally inappropriate. They only get to hear it in the car, and neither of them have watched the video, although Cordy has seen photos of Lady Gaga.

The good news is that Mira totally doesn’t understand the lyrics, and Cordy tends to make up her own words to the tune rather than sing what she’s hearing. (Other than constantly singing the “Rah-rah, rah-ah-ah” part, which she does all the time.) I actually think she isn’t listening to the words, but instead likes the beat of the music and the repetition of the rah-ah-ah part.

(There is one pop song she’s learning the words to, but it’s far more G-rated and a song that I’d consider safe for all ages. Also, a great song.)

I guess I can’t be too hard on myself. I remember being a little kid and singing along to Madonna’s Like a Virgin. I didn’t even know what it meant at the time, but hey, it was a catchy song and she was pretty and dressed so cool with 100 jelly bracelets on her arms. And I turned out OK, right? Right?

Note to Lady Gaga – please make a children’s album that’s just as good as your current one. My five year old thinks you’re awesome. And pretty. And she loves how you dress.



Playing Love Games

A conversation that is regularly heard in our household:

“Mira, do you love mommy?”

“Yea! I wuf ma-mee!”

“Do you love Cordy?”

“Yea, I wuf kor-eee!”

“Do you love grandma?”

“Yea, I wuf aaa-maaa!”

“Do you love daddy?”

“No. I don wuf da-eee ei-er(either).”

Of course we all know that Mira loves her daddy. But she has turned it into a game now, and daddy is always the victim, with Cordy occasionally falling onto the No Love list as well. (Usually after Cordy has taken away a toy or told Mira to leave her alone.)

The problem is, it’s constant. And while Aaron tries to not take it personally, it eventually gets to him and it hurts. But Mira rarely relents. She’s a pint-sized Roman emperor, using her love as a prize to be given and withheld as fits her mood. I’m sure she thinks it’s hilarious, although we try to never laugh or let on that we think it’s a game.

There was a period of a week or so where she did tell daddy she loved him, but only after I scolded her and explained I was upset with her for hurting daddy’s feelings. Soon she was back to her old game.

Yesterday there was a twist in her game, though. Out of the blue, she said:

“Da-eee, I don wuf yuuu – HA-Ha-ha!”

Imagine those laughs as staccato evil genius laughs, with a melody going from high pitched on the first HA to softer and lower pitched on the last ha. Aaron and I looked at each other with a mix of horror and humor. We couldn’t help but giggle – she was so proud of the addition of her little evil laugh. Of course, that prompted her to repeat it.

So I still have no solution on how to get her to admit she loves her daddy, but I think some of the tension has been dampened with the addition of her squeaky “HA-Ha-ha!” at the end of her declaration. We never had to deal with this with Cordy. Cordy loves everyone, and at two years old didn’t understand emotions well enough to articulate her love like Mira can.

Hopefully this phase will pass soon.

Mira the Imp


This Will Have To Pass For A Post Today

Things have been a little busy for me the past few days, no thanks to a crippling round of nausea and vomiting that struck yesterday. But there’s been more going on than just that, only I’m too tired to write it all up. So, in summary form:

– Cordy lost two more teeth on Sunday, making it a grand total of three now. Actually, she lost one, leaving one tooth on the bottom with a gap on either side, which then made her reach into her mouth and yank out that middle tooth. If she loses any more teeth on the bottom, she’s going to have trouble biting into anything. She’s thrilled, though.

– Ever since Cordy’s birthday in September, Mira has had two beds in her room – the crib and Cordy’s old toddler bed. And each night we offer her the choice of “the big girl bed” or “the baby bed” for bedtime. She always chooses the crib. Until last week, when she decided she’s had enough of the baby bed:


I thought we were in a for a long night of her getting out of bed and waking us up, but she slept the entire night. And since then she’s not gone back to the crib even once. She also does better than I expected at staying in her room once it’s bedtime. Is it possible for this transition to be this easy? Or is she lulling me into a false sense of security?

– And then there’s this:


At first I saw this and worried that Mira was starting to develop Cordy’s old quirks, like lining up toys in a row for no reason. But this is apparently “putting the trains to bed” according to Mira. Whew – at least she has a story for it.



Apple Girls

Last weekend was my brother-in-law’s wedding. Our girls were asked to be the flower girls for the occasion, although actually they were “apple girls” holding baskets with an apple and fall leaves. I was so nervous about how they would behave. White dresses, walking in front of a crowd, staying quiet during a ceremony – all things that could go very, very wrong.

And yet…


Everything went amazingly well. The girls were a little restless before the ceremony, but when the time came, they only needed a little push from me to walk down the aisle. (It helps that Aaron was a groomsman, so they knew to walk to daddy.)


Of course, at the reception they kept the dance floor hot.


And perhaps one of the most amazing moments of the day was that we actually got a photo of the four of us all together. It might be the first of all of us together, even if it is a grainy iPhone photo.


It was a lovely wedding, Cordy and Mira were perfect in their roles as apple girls, and I survived without having a stroke from the stress of keeping them clean.

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