1. I just channeled Cliff Huxtable, for real!!! KB was trying to threaten me into letting her come into my room for rest time and she said, “If you make me go back to my room I will throw stuff all around and be messy.” (said with furrowed brow and grumpy lips) I told her, “That will be your choice, KB. It will be a bad choice and there will be discipline and you’ll still have to clean it up.” She said, “I will not have to clean it. It’s my room, not yours.” Then I heard myself say, “HO! I pay the bills, little one, and while you live in my house you’ll clean up messes you choose to make in the room I let you use.” Bill Cosby would be so proud.

2. My friend Regan does midday carpool for our preschoolers and I take our first graders home at 3:00 pm. A week (or so) ago Regan’s father-in-law, Pop-Pop was visiting. My kids fell right into step calling him by this beloved name and Regan told me that one day she overheard KB and NL talking in the back seat while Pop-Pop was riding shot-gun.
KB: “Your Pop-Pop is really old. . .like my Memom.”
Nolan: “He is NOT really old.”
KB: “He is too. He’s at least 28.”
Nice.

3. Little got up in the middle of the night last week and Honey went into her room to see what she was doing. She was changing clothes and Honey asked why. Her answer, “These pajamas are so not working for me, Daddy.”

4. Honey and KB were wrestling the other morning and I hear Honey say in a deep, ominous voice, “I am the king of you!!” KB responded with the chirpy, sweet quip, “I’m the queen of Poptarts!”

5. Little went to change her pull-up and Honey asked if she needed any help. Her reply: “No, I need some personal space.”

6. Our children really want a dog but our lease strictly prohibits it. One of the girls was asking about it and basically asked why our landlord didn’t want us to have a dog. I explained to them that tenants in the past had animals that chewed the wood and peed on the carpets; Mr. M. was done with all that. KB responded, “But OUR dog would use the toilet!”

7. I can see that mothering girls is only going to become more and more like the Mind-bender, a roller coaster I rode at Six Flags as a teenager. Just last week I ruined my little girl’s life, single handedly caused her to have the worst day of her life, had the best ideas ever, and was told, “I am so glad you’re my mom.” SERIOUSLY – all in one week.  Same girl – – the FIVE YEAR OLD!

8. I’ve been married to Honey for twelve years and during that time we have tried all kinds of potato soup recipes. Until this week I haven’t found one I truly liked. This week I tried one that was made in the crockpot, had minimal ingredients, and turned out Y-U-M-M-Y. While I was serving bowls my oldest came into the kitchen for our daily discouraging exchange about food.
Little: “What is that mom?”
Me: “It’s dinner, Little. It’s potato soup and I don’t want to hear your thoughts on it.”
Little: “I don’t WANT that for dinner. I want cheese.”
Me: You will taste it, Little. You are a Kicklighter and Kicklighters (all family in unison) taste everything.”
Little: “I don’t WANT to be a Kicklighter. I want to be a Cheely today. (My maiden name.) At this statement I laughed out loud and challenged Little to rethink her words. I let her know that if she were a Cheely she would not only taste the soup but she would finish the soup AND if she didn’t eat the soup for dinner she would eat it for breakfast the next morning. Her response? “I WANT to be a Luthin.”

9. We cancelled our trip to Birmingham for Christmas. There were multiple factors but a major player was the fact Little had been so sick. A week of her being yucky and Honey just felt we would regret the decision to travel so far. Now, I am not sure if I have ever heard my husband use the word “feel” in conjunction with a decision but I chose to follow on this one (the decision was made easier because I felt he was right!). That day Bubba twisted his ankle. The next morning KB woke up at four and spent some time facing the toilet. By noon I had chills and was so achy that I snuggled down for a 2+ hour nap. It was a good decision to stay. My parents drove up yesterday, opened gifts with us this morning and were back on the road by 1:00PM. Now I am sitting in my room and blogging while I wait for the LeapPad2 Little is getting to sync so I can load the Tag Reading system KB is getting. It’s taking forever but I guess this is the equivalent of my parents building a bike on Christmas Eve.

10. Bubba is a voracious reader and loves to learn. He remembers just about everything he reads too. Bubba and I spent time learning together recently. We checked out all the books in the Bible and found that 2 John is the shortest book with only 13 verses. One day he asked me if I knew that the thigh bone was our biggest bone. I answered that I didn’t remember learning that but it sounded reasonable now that I was thinking about it. His response? He went and got his book entitled, Exploring My World – The Body and laid it on the table in front of me. He said, “Mom, all you have to do is read pages 1-44 and then we can talk.”

Well, the LeapPad2 is at 93% and closing fast. I’ll stop for now and come back with the Christmas festivities are done. Here’s wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!!