Bella Unabridged

Abuela is coming to visit tomorrow (that's Grandma for all of the non-spanish speakers out there). Bella is very excited. She's been asking all week, "How many more days until Abuela?". This morning she was getting ready for school and I told her that when she got home, she needed to help me clean up the house for Abuela's visit. She casually said, "We should start with your closet. It is disastrous in there!"

Her 4-year old vocabulary never ceases to amaze me! Webster would be proud.

(and she's very observant too - my closet is a disaster!)

Hmmmm

I was just sitting at my desk getting a little work done, when Bella crawled into my office pretending to be a dog. Barking, wagging her tail, sniffing around. Then all of a sudden she hopped up and ran out of the room. I heard the bathroom door shut. 

I hope she's not drinking out of the toilet.

Old Soul

When Bella was a baby, an uncanny number of people, strangers, told me that she was an "old soul". I'll never forget one day we were standing in line at the grocery store and a very kind looking old woman was standing in line behind us. She and Bella locked eyes, Bella's face was very  sober. They stared at each other for at least a minute. The woman leaned forward and said softly to me, "She's been here before."

This week I came down with strep throat and Daddy was out of town, it was a rough few days until the antibiotics kicked in. I felt like I was hit by a truck.  On the worst day, I took Bella to the store and let her pick out a movie and any treat she wanted. We went home and made a "movie theater" in the basement and she watched her movies and ate as many cookies as she wanted (right out of the box), curled up in my arms while I slept. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So last night I laid down in bed next to her and said, "Thank you Honey for being such a good girl and taking care of me when I was sick. I really appreciate it." She  gently put her hand on my face and said, "Mommy, sometimes I will help  you, and sometimes I won't. But I always love you."

I think her old soul has been here before. 

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

In the car this morning, Bella was singing songs and it started to rain a little so she broke into "It's Raining, It's Pouring". After 'the old man is snoring' she said, "How does the rest go again?" so I finished it "He bumped his head and he went to bed and he couldn't get up in the morning." 

Then she said, "And then what happened?"

Huh? I have no idea what happened after that...never really thought about it before. My guess is that the prognosis was not good, considering his age and the fact that he probably went to sleep with a concussion, but I wasn't really prepared to explain all of that to a  4 year old, so instead I asked her what she thought happened next.  Her version went something like this (sung in the same tune as the song). 

He went outside

with his pajamas on

and he looked pretty silly without his rain hat on.

Everyone loves a silly ending.

Three Blogs for the Price of One

In about 45 minutes it will be 2009. The days of late night celebrating are long gone. My family and I spent a quiet night at home, happy to be with each other and looking forward to the adventures the next year has to offer. The past few weeks have been busy so I have been jotting down notes on scraps of paper here and there of things I have been meaning to write about...

Holiday time. We are not church-goers or religious people, so I have struggled as to what to teach Bella about this time of year. So far, we have celebrated by decorating a tree and exchanging gifts, but we haven't really talked about Christmas, Hanukkah, etc. and what the holidays really mean. So the day after Christmas I asked Bella, "What is Christmas?". She replied "It's a special day to celebrate". "What do we celebrate?" I asked. She replied, "Well, we celebrate snow and presents and dogs and people and EVERYTHING!". " I asked, "What else do we celebrate?". She said, "Hanukkah." Then she sang the Dradle song (and she knew all the words?). Surprised, I asked her what Christmas and Hanukkah had in common and she said, " Celebrating with our families". I guess maybe I should not worry about what we can teach her, and think about what she can teach us.

Bella got a new piggy bank a few months back. It is divided into 3 sections. Spend, Save and Share. Every week she gets an allowance and we divide the money by percentages into the three banks.  A few days ago we counted up all the money and Bella made her first purchase. I told her she could buy anything she wanted. She walked up and down the toy aisles at Target, carefully looking at all her options. She finally chose a Barbie doll that came with a dog with 3 puppies. She counted out all the money at the checkout line and handed it to the cashier. Mommy was a little teary-eyed as we walked out of the store.  From there we counted out the "Share" money and went to Brent's Place, an organization that provides a home away from  home for kids with cancer and their families. Bella donated $5.07 (mostly in quarters and dimes!) and Mommy and Daddy matched it. They were very grateful and told her her money would be used to buy hot chocolate and cookies for the kids as a special treat after playtime. We told them we'd be back again at the end of next year. Mommy walked out even more teary-eyed from there. No words can describe the joy in seeing your child growing up to be a loving, responsible and comapssionate person. This year has been filled with moments like these and for that I am thankful.

And finally, yesterday we were walking into the supermarket and Bella reached for my hand and said, "Mommy, let's skip and sing, "Shiny! Shiny! Shiny smiles!". So we did.

Happy New Year to you. I can't wait to see what 2009 brings.

A Friday Thought

Draw a crazy picture,

Write a nutty poem,

Sing a mumble-gumble song,

Whistle through your comb.

Do a loony-goony dance,

'Cross the kitchen floor,

Put something silly in the world

That ain't been there before.

-Shel Silverstein

How to Solve the Housing Crisis

It has been COLD in Colorado this week. Too cold for my taste. But what can you do. 

Today driving in the car, Bella warmed things up with this statement.

"Mommy. When you see smoke coming out of people's chimneys, it means there's a chocolate factory inside." 

Ahh... just the thought of having a chocolate factory in my house makes me feel warm and cozy. 

Now if only we had a chimney....

And the Oscar Goes To....

This morning I asked Bella to help me put away some laundry and toys. She kept doing whatever she was doing so I asked her again. Ignored me like I wasn't even in the room. So I went over to her and asked her again. She looked at me and grabbed her little school backpack and said as she was walking out of the room, "NO! I am leaving town...FOREVER...forever...forever...forever" (she was actually fading out her own voice as she walked away). The kids' got quite a flair for the dramatic! All I could do was laugh.

Bella Be Good

Last week we were shopping at Whole Foods. They have a thing called the "Kids Club" where kids can choose from one of about a dozen snacks for free while you are shopping... fruit leather, a piece of fruit, string cheese or Bella's favorite, a cookie. Luckily the cookies are at the far side of the store from the entrance, so our usual routine is (standard mom bribery) "If you are good while we shop, you can have a cookie". Well, let's just say she didn't really hold up to her end of the bargain. So when we neared the checkout line she said, "What about my cookie?" to which I replied, "Well, you weren't being very good. I don't think you deserve a cookie today." She thought about it for a minute and said, "I was a little good, can I have a little cookie?" Another laugh out loud moment... for me and the woman behind us in line (whom I let go ahead of us as we went off to get a cookie).

If you can't be good today, at least try to be a little good. Might get you a cookie after all.

La la la la la la

Don't you love it how kids will just break into song at any given moment. Today at Target (imagine that, we were at Target) Bella saw something about the new Madagascar movie and at the top of her lungs started singing "I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it. Ya like to...move it!" and did a little dance in the shopping cart. I really wanted to join her but thought I'd better not. What a shame that I didn't. A few minutes of laughter and a lifelong memory would have been worth a moment of embarrassment.

Reminds me of the old song from Sesame Street...

Sing
Sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things, not bad
Sing of happy, not sad

Sing
Sing a song
Make it simple
To last your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Sing
Sing a song

La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la