Amazing Kids

I imagine that every parent is proud of their children. Parents also think their kids are super duper smart. We are no exception. Let's start with Amaris. She is almost 18 months old so we decided it was time to get rid of the ba-ba. Our strategy was straightforward...let's just talk to her about it and tell her what we wanted to do. Thus, I told her that she was a big girl now and didn't need a ba-ba anymore. She said "Ba-Ba?" I said "I'll just give you a sippy with some milk if you are thirsty". She said "Sippy" (in a happy voice). We proceed with the going-to-bed process without any troubles. She hasn't asked for the ba-ba again. How cool is that. I've got lots more stories about her super-smartness but not enough time or energy to type them. I can only pray it will be that easy when we go to take away her "binkie."

Now for Sheinah. Most everyone who knows us also knows that we are pretty conservative parents. Our kids don't watch very much television and what they do watch is limited to programs that we approve of. The same goes for movies. We check out new movies online before we decide if Sheinah can watch them. We then honestly explain to Sheinah why we don't want her to watch that particular movie. Somehow we managed to not communicate this with her daycare facility...bad parent move. Here comes the really cool part. Sheinah tells us at dinner "Mommy, I have to tell you something and you are not going to like it" (that's a great intro if I ever heard one). She told me that the other day one of her teachers brought in a movie to watch because it was raining outside. Then she says that it was The Princess and the Frog. This movie is on our do-not-watch list for a variety of reasons. After calling her teacher we discover that she didn't watch the movie. About 10 minutes in she told her teacher that her mommy and daddy looked up the movie on the internet and that it had some bad things in it that she was not supposed to watch so they took her next door to play with her sister. How cool is it that she actually listened to us, acted on it, and then told us the truth about the whole thing. It was a proud parent day!

Things Kids Say

Tomorrow morning, the Bumgardners are going to watch their first branding and castration of baby cows. The owner of one of the larger cattle ranches in town holds an annual branding party every spring to brand (and castrate if needed) the spring calves. The Marshalls are coming up to check out the festivities so we've been talking it up with Sheinah for a few weeks. Today Sheinah learned that the baby cows cry alot during this process....geez, can't imagine why :) So tonight at dinner Sheinah was talking to the person sitting in the booth behind us and I asked Sheinah to tell her what she was going to do tomorrow. Her answer: we are going to watch baby cows cry.

Amaris, on the other hand, has a very simple vocabulary. A few months ago she had her first cupcake which she promptly named Kai Kai. We enjoy hearing her say it so much that we've bought/made cupcakes for her several times. We've learned recently that Amaris now calls pretty much anything that is sweet Kai Kai...ice cream, jello, cookies...if it is sweet and yummy it is Kai Kai. Those of you who have not heard her say it cannot quite appreciate the cuteness. We have a video of it somewhere that we'll post if we ever get time.

Boogers

Like most 4 year olds, Sheinah can't help but put her finger in her nose when she feels the urge to clear her nasal passages. Pre-schoolers also enjoy talking about boogers and occasionally eating them. Sheinah is no exception. The other day, we found something hard and crusty on the armrest of the couch that, after close inspection we determined to be dried boogers (gross). Apparently, she would just wipe her fingers on the couch rather than using a tissue. We had a little discussion about that. Today, she asked Travis to sing her a song. Of course, since Travis is a 4 year old at heart, he chose the topic of boogers. For several minutes the two of them went back and forth making up words to the song related to boogers. At one point Sheinah sings something about wiping boogers on the ladder during the night. She sleeps on the lower bunk of a bunk bed with her head by the ladder. Apparently, we need to do a little further discussion about where boogers belong and maybe put a box of tissues by her bed...oh, and one of us should probably go clean the ladder...

Sheinah-isms

Life is incredibly busy, but I just had to take a second to post a few of Sheinah's comments from this week:

1. I have a tooty bottom (said after multiple episodes of flatulence at the dinner table)

2. My eyebulbs are hurting...there is something in my eyebulb. (eyebulb = eyeball)

3. Daddy, you are warm like a blanket (said while snuggling with Travis on the recliner)

Sleepers

Thanks to the help of BabyWize, we've raised some pretty good sleepers. Case in point, they both slept through the powerful flash of Travis' Nikon D90. We couldn't resist getting a picture of their strange sleeping positions. Now you must realize that both of our girls sleep in pitch black darkness. The reason it looks like daylight is because of Travis' bright flash. You should also know that neither girl MOVED...despite multiple pictures taken of each. We think it's cute that they are both sleeping in almost the same position!

Special time with daddy

Whenever Travis is alone with the girls (for even just a few minutes) the camera comes out and strange things happen...we've had my little pony pieces up the nose, running through snow in flip-flops, and on this day, we had underwear on the head. Of course, Amaris will do whatever her big sister does so there were lots of underwear on the head.

Sheinah turns 4

It's hard to believe that it has been four years since Sheinah was born. It's always a little bittersweet for us on her birthday as it brings back memories of the near-death experience for Melissa when Sheinah was born. That said, we had quite an exciting day. This weekend we are celebrating our grand opening at the pharmacy so Sheinah got to spend the morning with her Nama and her sister while we worked. She got calls from all of our immediate family with lots of happy birthday songs sung to her. She even got a call from one of her babysitters, Nicole Skinner, all the way from Wisconsin.

We've been telling her for several months that when she turns four she would have to give up her B (her special blanket that she uses to suck her thumb). We are trying a technique we saw on Super Nanny (yes, it's cheesy but we hope it works). The episode was with a family whose four year old twins had a pacifer in their mouths 24-7. The "Binky Fairy" came and took all the pacifers and left presents in their place. Thus, the "B Fairy" was born. Now, we try our best to be truthful with Sheinah so when she asked who was the B Fairy, we told her it was daddy :) The deal was that she would need to give all of her Bs to the B Fairy and then she could get one present for each B she turned in. We let her pick out the presents at our store. We had planned to do this transaction next weekend after her birthday party, but today, she came to the pharmacy and said she wanted to turn in her Bs for her presents. We patiently explained the consequences of this which she professed to understand.

Fast forward to 8pm tonight when the B Fairy came for the Bs. The short version is that it did not go well. Melissa cried almost as much as Sheinah. Sheinah just kept saying "I just need my B for one more night and then I'll give it back tomorrow." This sounded completely rational to her mommy! Travis, in all his daddy-B-Fairy wisdom, knew that it would only get worse if we gave in. Two hours and many tears, screams, and one potty accident later, she was finally asleep. It was most certainly a birthday to remember!