I always get a kick out of Chloe when she tells me how pretty she is. The best part of it is that she really believes it. I love little kids. I love that they just know how precious they truly are. I dread the day when Chloe comes home crying because some punk kid called her names... I know that it won't be long before she starts doubting that she's still "so pretty." But for now, my pretty lil' miss knows she hot stuff - and life's just the way it's supposed to be.
I get a kick out the funny things that Chloe is always saying, but the other night she had me rolling on the ground. It was getting close to bedtime, and as usual, Chloe was avoiding me like the plague so that she could stay up longer. Finally, I managed to wrestle her upstairs and got her started on the nightly rituals... but let me tell you, Chloe was on one. She was running around and flinging toys to the four corners of the house, when all of a sudden she got a glazed look in her eyes. She came up to me and took my hand and said, "Mommy, I'm so tired. I'm really slowing." She then got into bed, closed her eyes and fell asleep. I wish I would have had the video camera recording that moment. Every time I think about it, I still laugh. Three-year-olds are definitely funny people.
Okay... So I know that this post is going to be kind of corny, but bear with me anyway...
Tonight, as I was putting Chloe to bed, she grabbed my hand, and then planted a big wet smoocher on my cheek, and then said in her sweet little voice, "best friends - today, tomorrow and always." I burst out laughing and gave her a huge hug and pressed about 20 kisses all over her adorable little face. I then proceeded to tell her that tomorrow we would go buy all of toys she wanted at Target (which I didn't mean, but what she said was just so dang sweet that I couldn't help myself).
After she fell asleep, I crept in and layed down by her side to snuggle for a little while. I started to think about her little kisses and the cute things that she does and then I started to think about kissing in general (I know... keep bearing with me). I thought about life and how there were all sorts of kisses that marked a rite of passage for me - each taught me all sorts of lessons. There were the kisses from my parents that made me feel special and loved. There was the grudging kiss from my sister, Krista, who had just stood at the top of the stairs waiting for me so that she could drop an ice cream scooper on my head to kill me (that one taught me to keep my enemies close, you never know what's going to happen). There was the kiss from that silly boy on the playground at recess that taught me not to dare someone to do something unless you really want them to... ewww, gross. There were the cheek kisses that bff's pretend to give when being silly. Then came the heavy duty arsenal... there was that first kiss from the boy I thought I loved (yes, it really was perfect) - hello hormones. Then there were a few more yummy kisses from more boys (some I thought I loved, some I just... ya know, whatever) - hormones continue. There were the angry kisses where I told the big jerks who wronged me bad to kiss my $%# (these kind of kisses could be from men or women, I'm not discriminating with these)! And then, there was that kiss from the boy who I really did love and who I ended up marrying (he also sometimes gets the "kiss my *$#" when he's been a booger). There were kisses from my grandparents... kisses that I miss terribly now that they are gone (except for my grandma Hoggan, who I miss and don't get to see very often). The kiss goodbye from my mother as we moved to California, sometimes it really sucks to be a grown-up. And then tonight, there was that sweet, sweet kiss from my little girl. The one who said she was my "best friend - today, tomorrow and always." It was too sweet and too adorable.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've learned all sorts of lessons in my life. Some suck, some weren't so bad and some I kinda liked. But all those lessons learned that were puncuated with kisses were the best kinds. So here's to wet, slobbery kisses; cheek peckers; french kisses; midnight kisses; kisses that accompany the four letter words; and the sweet kisses that teach us that life's all about the little moments.... CHEERS!!!
This morning Chloe and I went to the Children's Museum with a friend and her daughters. What should have been a perfectly pleasant playdate ended with a bang - THANKS TO CHLOE! I took Chloe and her friend to Burger King and let them eat fried food (very bad for the arteries) and then let them run around like wild animals in the play area. Before we left, I took the girls to the bathroom to their business. Ari (Chloe's friend) did fine... business done... and so I moved on the next 3-year-old at hand. My darling daughter absolutely refuses to potty train. This is actually starting to horrify me. I've tried everything - bribery, potty charts, timers, dolls that pee, coercion, threats of death and maiming, peer pressure, making her run around naked, making her wear panties and enduring the cleanup, kid potties (note that we've purchased more than one potty to see if she likes a different one better) in front of the tv with a steady supply of suckers, chocolate milk and chips to keep her on the dang thing, and so forth (you get the picture, and it's not pretty - this has been going on for well over 6 months).
Anywho... since Ari used the potty, Chloe wanted to go to, but then she got the wacky idea that she should take off all of her clothes and get in the toilet. I have no idea why she was so possessed, but all of a sudden it was all I could do to stop her from taking off her clothes. She's pretty strong, so she practically had one foot in the toilet as I was trying to wrench her shirt back on her - she'd already shed her pants and shoes - and keep her from diving headfirst into a rather unsanitary experience (LITERALLY). She was screaming her head off and I kept trying not to swear and I know they heard us through the whole dang restaurant. This little old lady comes in and asks me if we're okay - I'm not really sure what she thought... Imagine a half naked 3-year old with one foot in the toilet, her mother trying to keep her from ripping off her shirt and both of us screaming bloody murder. I was a little worried that someone was going to call the police.
I finally managed to get things under control. After disinfecting Chloe with a bottle of sanitary gel and reinserting her into her clothes, we walked out of the bathroom. I kid you not, the whole restaurant went completely silent and everyone just looked at us. I've decided 2 things: The first... whoever coined the phrase "terrible-two's" never had a bloody three-year-old; and the second... my bad karma has caught up with me in the form of an un-potty-trained, potty diving monster with pig-tails. She might look innocent when she's sleeping, but that angelic smile she's wearing is disguising her dreams of evil plots to make her mother crazy.
DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA!
I took the opportunity during the Christmas break (from school) to reread quite a few of my favorite books. I have lots and lots of them - but I thought I'd put together a list of my favorites and then see if anyone wanted to add to it and then I'd have some more good books to read during my next break. So... let me know what you think and make some suggestions!
The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THIS! It has my favorite poem in the whole world in it.
Coming Home - Rosamunde Pilcher
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maude Montgomery - Darn if I didn't always want to have red hair and freckles just like Anne with an E. I often repeat my favorite line of this story.... "this is the most tragical day of my entire life"
Anne of Avonlea - Lucy Maude Montgomery
The Scarlett Pimpernell -
Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy
The Bourne Identity Series - Robert Ludlum
The Eight - Katherine Neville - for all of you chess players
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
The Hunchback of Notre Dame -
Pride and Predjudice - Jane Austen
Twilight Series - Stephanie Meyer - I have added Edward Cullen to my list of potential "would consider leaving my husband for..." list :)
Wheel of Time Series - Robert Jordan
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte? - This was the first classic I ever read!
Okay - so what are your favorite books? I'm sure I've left a few off - in fact I know I have, so I'll probably have to update this list!
And BTW... here is my favorite poem (maybe my second favorite, I really like part of Wordsworth's poem about Splendour in the Grass)...
September has come, it is hers
Whose vitality leaps in the autumn,
Whose nature prefers Trees without leaves and a fire in the fire-place;
So I give her this month and the next
Though the whole of my year should be hers who has rendered already
So many of its days intolerable or perplexed
But so many more so happy;
Who has left a scent on my life and left my walls
Dancing over and over with her shadow,
Whose hair is twined in all my waterfalls
And all of London littered with remembered kisses.
(Autumn Journal, Louis MacNiece)
William Wordsworth's Splendour in the Grass
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind...
My kid is growing up all too fast. It seems like just yesterday that she was just a baby - now she sasses back and is constantly reminding me of all the things that she can do! Last Sunday, I sat through Sacrament meeting thinking about how, when the meeting was over, I needed to remember to take her to Primary and not to Nursery. And so, after the meeting, I gathered our stuff, took Chloe's hand in mine and told her what a big girl she was and how proud of her I was and how she was now a SUNBEAM. And then to my dismay... I started to feel all weepy and maudlin. I watched her all through primary (when she wasn't looking of course). She sat in one of the "mini" chairs and even then, her feet didn't even touch the ground - her sparkly pink shoes just kind of hung over the edge of her seat. She folded her arms when she was supposed to and only peeked a little through the prayers (okay, maybe I peeked a lot, I was just making sure she didn't take her clothes off to run around the building naked or something scandalous like that). I was so proud of her! But dang it - that girl needs to slow the growing up thing just a little bit!
