Well played Lilly

So after a long day of excessive whining, I say to Lilly,

"Oh my goodness Lilly, stop whining."

Lilly proceeded to say,

"Mommy, I am not whining. I am just breathing"

Well, I can't ask my daughter to stop breathing. So point goes to Lilly.

Need to keep a record.

Of mis-said words that I just can not correct Drew for saying because they are so darn cute.

" I want to wear my Pirates of the Carabeanies shirt today Mommy"

"Can we play with the prodector?" (projector, but I personally like how it sounds like a dinosaur)

"MMMM, Daddy this gaderator is really good." (the ever popular electrolyte improving sports drink)

Its just the little things like this throughout my day that puts a huge smile on my face. Thanks Drew.

Working on our manners and where did I go wrong?

So..if you are a parent, you know how rude and annoying interrupting is on a daily basis from your children. So I have been really trying to work on being polite when wanting to speak or say something.

Let's see where I went wrong here with this conversation.

Setting: Driving in the car

Drew and myself are having a conversation about Darth Vader or some new bad guy that he is obsessed with at the moment. Lilly starts to interrupt and is raising her voice over ours.

Me- "Lilly, you are interrupting. If you would like to talk you need to be polite and say excuse me, can I say something?"

Lilly- "Excuse me, say something?" (because she never quite says the entire full sentence)

Me- "Yes, Lilly. What would you like to say?"

Lilly- "Drew and mommy need to stop talking. Stop talking right now"

Just lovely and how polite Lilly. I hope she does this at church and school too because that is not being rude at all.

Deep thoughts by the Petersen kids

I just have to document and share some unprompted and direct quotes from my kids as of late:

At 6:55am as Drew walks into my room to start his day, the first thing he says to me is, "Mama...I am going to be a nice boy today...not a mean boy"

As Lilly is running to the bathroom, Drew yells, "Lilly you need to turn on the fan if you are going to go poo-poo"

Driving to school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings..Lilly frantically yells, "Mommy watch OUT! Don't crash into that tree*!"
*tree could also be substituted for car, fire engine, house, biggest garbage can ever

When I sit down to eat lunch with Drew as he is finishing his lunch, he puts his arm around me and says, "I am not going to hit you right now mommy."

Lilly very seriously says, "Drew...look at me." when she wants his attention during a sincere conversation about how big or little she is that day.

Girls Night Out

I wish I had more photos to post, but the curse of the dead battery follows me everywhere. Lilly and I had a very special night out to see the Moscow Circus at the Wells Fargo Center this week(notice LIlly holding the tickets in her hand).

**SIDE NOTE It's funny because when we got home and the kids were upstairs dreaming, Todd and I compared notes of our evenings and we kept going back to the idea of how much the kids enjoyed having one on one time with us. Lilly and Drew just know that they have our undivided attention and what a special feeling it must be for them. Anyway...Todd and Drew played crash game and tickle monster all night. But this is about the girls night out.

Well, Lilly was captivated for the first solid 40 minutes...where the entire 40 minutes she had her hands covering her ears and she was yelling things like, "this music is really really loud" The only time she would take her hands down from her ears was to clap when the rest of the audience clapped. She was a very exuberant clapper.

Lilly's quotes were worth the price of admission. Many chuckles around Lilly that night. Just to highlight some quotes:

Please take into consideration that all of these quotes were loudly spoken and could be heard in a diameter of 5 people in front and to the side of us easily

"Good Job Girl!!!," when a small (long-haired, but small bodied) male russian acrobat was performing. Followed by whole body clapping.

" Oops...I just toot. Peee uwwwww Mommy. Stinky." followed by an excuse me at the top of her lungs

"I have to go poo-poo Mommy" followed by an immediate exit

"She has One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eighteen, hoola hoops on the body..WOW...WOW"

"I really really hungry...really really. I like, I like, I like PIZZA." then proceeding to turn around to face her neighbor in the row behind us and ask for some cheese.


There were more that I am forgetting, but those made the people sitting in row J get a giggle. We did get to go out to ice cream and Lilly slammed down an an adult scoop in 2 minutes 36 seconds flat without ever getting brain freeze(and least she did not lead on that she did)

Making her mommy proud.

I look forward to many more girls night out with my Lilly. I love my Lilly.

When your kids use your words against you.

I have to be honest. What I am about to write is so frustrating at times, but in the same breath, makes me break out into a giggle.

Conversation between Drew versus myself/Todd:

Todd: "Drew...I said no. No throwing your cars off the stairs to crash on Lilly. That is not a safe or a nice thing to do. If that hits Lilly, it will make her sad"

Drew: (starting to cry) "No Daddy, don't tell me NO. That makes me sad."(more crying after that very dramatic statement)

Me: "Drew..please stop tackling your sister on the tile floor. She is trying to play with you right now, not trying to take Chic away. Look, she is crying and upset. That hurt Lilly's feelings."

Drew: (really whooping it up) "Don't tell me to stop it mommy. That makes my feelings hurt when you say this at me." (insert lots of over the top crying here)



Where did we go wrong?

Happy Thanksgiving!

***

These are direct quotes
"I am thankful for lots of chocolate cookies, lightening McQueen who drives really fast, the ambulances who say 'wee -hoo wee-hoo', and I have one last thing.....my school"


***
"I am thankful for ice cream, hide and seek, the doggies in the houses say 'woof-woof', and Little Einsteins."

Todd and I are thankful for our Drew and Lilly.







***These gorgeous pictures are courtesy of the very talented Melody White.

Drew the botanist

So we were all out back the other day and I asked Drew to go water the tree in the corner.

His response, "Okay mama I water the hibiscus tree."

"What did you just call that tree Drew?"

"Hibiscus tree. And these are Gerber Daisy's and these are poppy's mama"


Clear as day when he said it. All correctly identified including the tree.
I laughed so hard at this conversation and the fact that his brain cells must multiply faster then mine these days.

TA DA....

Our side yards are paved, yipeee! We are lucky to have some connections and have some very generous friends who helped in this entire process. Thanks Danny and Sarah!!

Space that was not usable now feels like an addition to our house. We are so happy.




This is a question that will most likely happen in a year or so from now:

"Mommy. Why isn't my hand print and foot print on the cement?"

"Because you freaked out Drew and thought the cement was going to swallow you like a large crocodile in the wild"

The real conversation at present time goes a little something like this:
"Drew..why isn't your hand print under your name like Lilly?"

"I cry mommy. I run away from Grandma.(my mom was the one here when it happened and we were on a plane)Grandma says she gives me 10 chocolate chips. I run away and cry and scream no"

That is what he told me.

My mom has supported those statements of Drew's as facts.

Drew is always prepared....

....for the loudness of the Sonoma County Air show. He liked having these ear plugs in...funny little boy.




Now with the ear plugs gone, he covers his ears with his fingers or hands and says, "I can't hear you mama because of my ear plugs."

Awesome.

Direct quote

Setting: At the kids table during snack time. Lilly drops a piece of pineapple on the floor.

Drew says without hesitation, "Lilly...that's probably really, really yucky."

Do you like how he used two really(s)and the word probably?

I guess my two year old is telling me to clean the floor more often.

There is something to Sesame Street

So yesterday morning over a scrambled eggs, fruit, and cereal bar breakfast, Drew picked up his breakfast bar and says plain as day, "This breakfast bar is scrumptious." I started to giggle because his statement was completely unprompted by any one in the room(which was a monkey :-) and me)

I said, "What did you just say Drew?" As my mind wandered back to a Sesame street episode the other day when Jessica Alba was telling the audience what the word scrumptious meant.

Drew again said, "This breakfast bar is scrumptious mama." He also told me at lunch that his wheat thins were scrumptious.

I am liking my sons expanding vocabulary, and Todd likes Drew's taste in women because we all know Jessica Alba is pretty easy on the eyes.

Request Granted

So quite a few people have asked why isn't the public seeing any Lilly videos lately. I realize Drew has been showcased for his "advance" toddler knowledge in recent videos and Lilly has been somewhat absent. Well, here you go. Please enjoy the video of Lilly below.



If any one out there can interpret what she is saying, I would love to hear...but now the public can see why it is a little more challenging to get Lilly to recite her ABC's, shapes, or colors. :-)

PS- I love the part in the middle of her rant where she almost gets knocked over by her own emotion to her made up words. So great.

PPS- I absolutely love this spirited little girl.

The Negotiator

So I have been meaning to write about this conversation for a while. It seems to keep changing as Drew's negotiating skills improve. Drew occasionally wakes up in the middle night and there are times when it is for 2-3 days in a row, usually around 2 am.

Setting: Drew's room at 2:30 am

This is how the conversation goes.(by the way...me in this conversation could also be Todd very easily)

Me: Drew it is night-night time.

Drew: I need...I need to watch Lightening McQueen.

Me: No Drew, we are not watching McQueen right now. It is night-night.

Drew: I need...I need...chocolate cookie.

Me: Um, no Drew. Sorry that is not happening.

Drew: I need...I need...I need chocolate milk. Please mommy.

Me: Thank you for asking nicely Drew, but it is not time to drink milk or eat anything.

Drew: I need white milk please? Please mommy?

Me. No Drew.

Drew: I need water?

Me: Okay Drew I will get you some water.

Drew: YA OKAY!

I have learned that a compromise of water is a win-win for both if us. He is happy with his water and I am happy to go back to sleep.