Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Truth The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth.




Have you ever just been amazed at how smart kids are? My children never cease to amaze me! They come up with the darndest things! They are so brutally honest, they take words very literal and say things with out malignant intent.  My husband took my middle child to gymnastics as she began her lesson she realized that she had a new instructor as she introduced herself the teacher asked her “when did you turn 4?” 
“On my birthday!” she simply responded. The teacher looked at my husband and said “Ask a stupid question, you’ll receive a stupid answer.”

There has been many times that we have asked our oldest child to think ahead to do things before we have to ask her. For example; make her bed, feed the dog, clean her room, and so forth. She has chores that she has to complete in order to get her allowance and if she forgets to do one of her chores, she has to make it up by doing something that is “extra credit,” like throwing the trash out in the house or helping mom clean or something. Well, on one occasion she had to do extra credit and when I went to check her chart I noticed she wrote that she babysat her baby sister. I called her in and asked, “honey, when did you babysit the baby?” she said “ oh, when you were in your bedroom I got her and brought her to play with me.”  “ okay. when did I ask you to babysit her? “  “Mom, that’s the point! Remember you and Dad always tell me to think ahead to not wait ‘til you ask me.”
I could not believe my ears. I was stunned as she was right in a very literal sort of way.
  
I went shopping for a new dress and took my middle child with me. When I was trying on a dress I asked her “what do you think of this one?” her clear answer was “That dress doesn’t make you look fat. You should buy it.” I guess it took me by surprise because I expected her to tell me she liked the color or that she liked the flowers on it or something like that. However, that was NOT what she noticed, she noticed it somehow made me look thinner!! After that I had to buy it!! After all, it’s not every day a dress makes you lose so much weight that your 4-year old notices!

I love how honest they are and how they just say what they’re thinking. I wish adults could be that way. I asked my husband “wouldn’t it be cool if everyone would just say the truth about what they’re thinking when someone asks??”  He quickly responded “No! The world would be full of assholes!”  I guess the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree…

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I’ve Joined The Club!

                             I have officially joined the club of the “mother’s that have kids that put things up their nose!” I always laughed when a mother would tell me about the time their kid stuck a marble or some other object up their nose. I have always wondered what would possess a child to stick something up their nose. Is it curiosity? Is it a save-it-for-later type of place for them? Do they think they can eat it thru their nose? What is it??

About a week or so ago, I allowed my two older girls to go wild all day! Or maybe it was an hour or two and it felt like a day! They built a fort. They played non-stop throwing everything in their sight to one another. They took everything out of the closet to find dress-up outfits. They played hide-and-go-seek underneath all the mess they made. Well, somewhere between the dressing up and hide-and-go-seek in the closet my middle child found the ironing board. Apparently while waiting to be found she began picking the foam off the board. For some reason, she decided to stick it up her nose!!! Yes you read correctly, SHE STUCK FOAM FROM THE IRONING BOARD UP HER NOSE!!! I was putting them to bed reading them a bedtime story when all of a sudden she screams!! “ AHH!!!!! Something is inside my nose!!” 
“Oh calm down you’re fine, go blow your nose” I calmly responded.
Well, she just kept screaming! At that point my oldest child decided to tell me that earlier she had been sticking foam up her nose. My husband and I rushed her in to the bathroom where we could have the most light and proceeded to look up her nose. We grabbed the tweezers and pulled out what seemed to be a small piece of yellow foam but soon realized that it was a pretty big piece of foam. We stood there for a minute or two staring at her and at the foam in disbelief.  My child smiled and simply stated “oh yeah I stuck that up my nose!”
“ Why would you do that??” We asked.
“I wanted you all to be like are you okay and save me,” she replied.

And there you have it; she did it for attention!! There was no mysterious reason. There was no imaginary secret hiding place. It was just because she needed attention. I slept with her that night. She was happy. I went to bed thinking about how difficult it must be for her having a baby sister and moving to middle child. I went to sleep thinking of ways to make her feel loved and important. I also went to sleep hoping that this would be the first and last time she stuck something up her nose. I really hope so!