stories

now that i'm in a slightly better mood...

yesterday, adeline was playing house--as always. that is one of the top ten things to do for playtime, pretend like you are a mommy or daddy or teacher or doctor or dentist or baby. but always, it's called "playing house". anyway, so addy told me "i have TWO babies in my belly, i'm the mommy with babies in my belly"... when in character (thankfully, eh?!). then she lifted up her shirt a bit & dropped a small ball & laughed, saying "now i only have one baby in my belly. ask me how it got out, mommy". so i asked her. she told me that the way babies get out of the mommy's belly is" *VERP* {her noise, not mine}just open your belly & a baby will fall out! then she made motions with her hand, going around her stomach to show me where the belly opens.

*sigh* of relief that i didn't have to go into birth delivery details again. i mean, technically some babies do come out that way, through incision in the uterus. difficult parent conversation: success!

***

right now the girls are upstairs playing with addy's preschool friend. of course, they are playing house. & of course, amelia is the baby. addy has been very kind to her baby/amelia. there was a series of door slams & from what i overhead, the baby/amelia was trying to escape nap time...but to amelia, this was no longer playtime. she wanted OUT. her pretend cries went quickly to real cries & just as i was standing up to take care of the situation adeline jumps in with a "oh, poor millie. she wants out. amelia is sad. we will not leave amelia alone again, okay friend?"

*momma heart melt*

then adeline goes about telling her friend that they should apologize to amelia for making her sad & scared. (see above note!)

***

i've mentioned a few times that amelia is highly interested in poop. we think it's mostly funny, up until she's sitting on the stool in the bathroom, eating her cereal out of a bowl (with a spoon & milk--very coordinated) & watching someone do their business. it is quite a humbling experience...like being on display, having an audience. if she was a few years older i might even expect to find that she's posted all these bowel movement shows on youtube.

but! adeline has finally begun allowing amelia into the bathrom while she's dropping a deuce, as wes likes to call it, & this has encouraged amelia to also use the potty...she's now pooped in the toilet a handful of times in the past week & peeing in the potty at least 3 times a day.

yes, i still change poopy diapers & clean poop & pee off of the carpet almost daily BUT i see the light at the end of the tunnel. and adeline has been dry for 3 days straight at night without a pull up! (well, she's been dry in the morning for a few weeks now, but always then with a pull up).

***

i rummaged around the crawl space the other day, pulling out our christmas decoration boxes, & found our christmas books. amelia instantly gravitated towards the polar express & since we have two copies, i have to read each one then start all over again with the first. she's a speed reader, turning pages after the first sentence is complete. maybe she just likes to see the story progress through pictures ?? but just opening up the polar express instantly takes me back to me being little. i *loved* the illustrations in this book. i didn't care that it was about santa & i knew that santa wasn't real already. even now, i really don't care about the story line, i just like looking at it, smelling the pages.

which brings me to the santa issue.

i was brought up knowing santa claus was a fable. i think my siblings & i spoiled several classmate's love of santa a bit earlier than their parents expected.

wes was brought up believing in santa & getting gifts christmas morning from santa (he still does! *smile*) & loving the whole magic of it all.

so we're trying this middle ground, telling the girls that santa is not real but something really fun to imagine & let themselves believe in as a fun story. kind of like fairies. we're not drilling into their heads that it's wrong to enjoy the story of santa, that christmas is ONLY about jesus being born (which my parents didn't do also, but don't spell christmas "xmas" to my mom--woah, there! *wink*).

but the girls still get terrified by santa dressed up...which i totally am encouraging that one. dressed up santas still give me a near anxiety attack (& anyone dressed up in a full-on costume, for that matter. it's just weird to me. it makes me want to run & crawl under a dining room table, like i used to when my ex-grandpa would come to our house on christmas eve dressed like santa. he proves the point: weird.).

what i'm trying to get at is that adeline came home last week saying something along the lines of  'one of my friends thinks santa is coming for christmas & i told her santa not real & she was mad & sad'.

ugh & EGADS! i don't want our girls to be crushing their friend's santa beliefs, right? but i also don't feel the need to let them indulge in the whole santa thing. (we just want christmas to center around giving instead of receiving & this idea of being good to get something. & yea, the whole it's jesus' day instead of your day thing...that's what their birthday is for, in my opinion).

anyway. how to do this...a very delicate situation.