children

Poor Lexi.

S is over here today after school playing and Emma and S are clearly in their own little world together.  Emma made S a bracelet for school and they’re pretty much lording it over her that she doesn’t have it.  I have a little talk with Emma about being nice to her sister and Lexi walks up and asks why Emma was in trouble.  I told her she was being mean to her.  So Lexi looks upset and I pick her up and bring her inside.  She says to me, "I want Emma to be my friend."  Aww, Lexi feels left out.  Who knew feeling left out could start at two years old?

This is a line from my email.  Can you read it?

I still can’t believe I booked a double party there in two Saturdays.  The good news is I don’t have to clean my house and decorate.  The bad news is I may go insane.

So last night I bought Lexi this red Belle dress for Halloween.  She fell asleep on the way home so she didn’t get to wear it last night.  She had school this morning so I made her wait until she got home this afternoon to wear it.  The first thing we do when we get home is take her play clothes off and put this dress on.  Her and Emma are so excited and I tell Lexi to go in my room to look in my full length mirror to see herself.  She comes out half crying pulling on the dress saying it hurts and she has ripped the seam at the shoulder apart. 

Nice.

Conversation today on the way home:

Emma (whining):  Mommy, I want to pick a different movie.  We’ve been watching this one FOREVER.

Me: Emma, quit whining and don’t be dramatic, we haven’t been watching it forever.  (Lexi just picked this Barbie Mermadia out from Blockbuster Saturday night)

*pause*

Emma (still whining): Mommy, we’ve been watching it for a while.

Me: Emma, if you don’t quit whining, I’m going to turn the movie off.

Lexi: Yeah!  Off!

I’ve been known in the past to substitute regular words with technical words.

Like one time I opened my refrigerator and saw something out of date and said out loud, "I need to delete that."

Yes, wouldn’t it be nice just to click a button for the fridge to be cleaned?

Well, yesterday I think Emma was trying to use a big word and ended up doing the same thing.  She was folding socks and she was SO PROUD that she can finally put the socks together.  Lexi was wanting her to go play and Emma didn’t want to and said, "Leave me alone, I’m busy computing socks!"

I don’t understand what it is about toddlers (and maybe it’s with all children) that they must have things assigned to them.  As in, this is my cup, this is my chair, this is my book, this is mine, mine, mine.  Everyone has everything assigned to them.  Tonight S was over here and we were outside.  We have a swingset that has 3 swings.  The left one S usually sits in, Emma sits in the middle and Lexi usually sits in the one on the right.  Fine. 

But today Lexi wanted to sit in the middle one.  S got in hers but Emma would not even sit in Lexi’s on the right.  She whined, "But Lexi’s in myyy swing."  I say, "Emma, these swings don’t have names on them, you can swing in that one."  You know, she stood there and watched S and Lexi swing instead of swinging in "Lexi’s" swing?

The girls got up and played on the slide and then made their way back to the swings.  This time Lexi sat in the middle, Emma sat on the left in S’s and S would. not. swing on the one on the right.  She sat there with a scowl on her face the whole time.  I kept trying to explain they were missing out on swinging time by standing there and they needed to share and blah, blah, blah.  I don’t get it.  They would rather sit there, miss out on swinging and pout than get in "someone else’s" swing.

OK, before you watch this—I did not teach them to shake their boo-ties so much and I try to restrain them while in public.  According to Emma, Diego taught them to "shake your body".  And I’m not sure if Emma needs a pole or she’s getting ready to break out in the sprinkler.  As for Lexi, she was not taught to grab her boo-ty while dancing.  The clumsiness is inherited from me though. In any case, it makes me laugh.