Feeling lonely

Sarah says I'm not her mommy anymore and that I don't love her anymore.

:(

Sarah: "You're Cloostifer's mommy now. You love him."
Me: "I'm still your mommy, too, and I will always love you."
Sarah: -pouting-
Me: -feeling bad-

Sometimes it's really hard to spend enough time with her. Until the Rooster gets a little more independent, I have to pay a lot of attention to him. She doesn't always understand that. Lately I've been trying to set up little activities she and I can do together, but there are just those times when she feels left out.

And it's not just having a new baby brother that's making her feel this way. The move has really upset her recently. She told me the other day that she wants to go live at the old house. I had to inform her that we couldn't, but I needed her help in making the new house into a place we would really like to live. I promised she could help decorate for Xmas and we could make some cookies, too. She was receptive to that and wanted to do it immediately (gotta get her that calendar!). As we get more settled into the house things will get easier - for all of us. And I'm just as excited about making cookies as she is. ;)

Shhhh!

If you want Sarah to keep a secret, fuggetabouddit!

This is true for all young children in most cases and I knew that she would blab, but it was fun telling her...

I ordered a special T-shirt for Pete as an Xmas present. Oh, and I ordered one for myself as well. Anyway, the package arrived the other day and I opened it with Sarah standing next to me asking "What is it? Is it for me? What is it, Mommy?" about a billion times. She gets very excited when we get packages in the mail - she believes they are all for her, naturally. ;)

I explained that it was for Daddy. "Why?" Knew that was coming, eh?

Me: "It's a Christmas present."
Sarah: "Christmas present? For me?"
Me: "No, it's for Daddy."
Sarah: "Why?"
Me: *sigh* "I just told you why, Sarah."
Sarah: "Can I see it?"

I showed it to her, explained what it was and told her that it was a secret. She couldn't tell Daddy about the shirt because it was a surprise. "Yes, Mommy."

Famous last words.

Well, as soon as Pete got home, Sarah said, "You got a T-shirt."

"Hey! You're supposed to keep it secret!"
"It's a surprise, Daddy. A shirt for Christmas!"

Bah! Well, there went that. So I decided to go ahead and let him have it. But I made Sarah go get it from the kitchen.

Guess I'll only tell Christopher secrets now. ;)

I'm so proud!

I am so impressed and proud of Sarah! She had to get a filling today and was a super champion! Unfortunately she's inherited our crummy teeth. Oh, and she eats too much candy. Bleh, our fault.

Anyway, here's how it went. We went over what a cavity is, waded through all the "Why" questions (a billion of them), how she got the cavity, what was going to happen at the dentist office, etc. And if she was extra special good, she could get a special prize.

"What do you want?"
"Hmmm. I want a Barbie with dark hair, a brush, shoes and clothes."
"Okay. But you can't get it until after school and you have to be super great at the dentist."
"Okay, Mommy."

We arrived at the dentist, she hopped in the chair, asked me why they draped her with that little bib, and wiggled her legs around anxiously. When the dentist came in, Sarah immediately opened her mouth. They didn't use any anethesia or gas! Dr. Davis said that the cavity was really just on the surface so they wouldn't need any.

It took about 5 minutes to drill out the yuck and put in the filling. Sarah did everything the dentist asked without protest. Not a tear, not a frown, not a sign of fear was to be found. (Wow, that rhymes!)

Dr. Davis said, "I need a video of this to show to my adult patients! This is proper dental behavior!"

As soon as they were finished, Sarah hopped off the chair, ran to me giggling and gave me a big hug. She was so good that she got 3 prizes out of the treasure chest! And this afternoon we'll go get her a new Barbie.

When she got to school, she ran to all her friends to show them that she got a filling. Her little friends peered into her mouth and wondered what they were looking at, "I can't see anything." You can't see the filling because it's the same color as her tooth. It reminds me of this from last year.

Everyone was so impressed with her. Dr. Davis said I needed to teach a class on how to raise a confident child. I can't say that I have a method or know how I did it.

And to tell the truth, I think it was the promise of a Barbie that did it.

Then again, I could be wrong. (shrug)

Safe and secure

Sarah's been having a little trouble adjusting to the new house. She doesn't like to be left alone anywhere for any amount of time, not even 5 seconds. You can't even walk around the corner. We have to go with her everywhere to turn on lights and "help" her wash her hands, go potty, get a drink, etc.

"Mommy! I want you!"
"Honey, I'm right here. You can see me."
"But I want you!"
"Why"
"Because I love you."

That's so sweet. :D

I can understand her animosity. This house is bigger and she's not used to it yet and it can be scary for a little kid.

That's why I arranged her furniture to resemble her old room. She feels comfortable in there - at least enough to sleep in. She won't play in there by herself though. So for now, we have a little shadow. :)

Another comforting thing for her is what Pete calls the "blue plastic security blanket." In other words, a hospital throw up bag. You remember this post, right? Since then, she has carried around a throw up bag most of the time - in the car, watching TV, in her bed - but she hasn't thrown up. So Pete calls it her security blanket even though it's blue and plastic. Heh. She even took it in the shower yesterday. I suppose she was so traumatized by throwing up in the car that she's afraid to be without one. I think we have 4 total, but she only knows about 2. One we keep in the car, the other is in the house. I bet if she did know about the other 2, she'd have those stashed somewhere, too. I won't let her take them in stores or in public. I have to draw the line, ya know. ;)

Oy vey. I guess there are worse things she could have chosen for comfort, right?

Arrrrgggghhh!

We're cursed - cursed I tell you! We all have the Oompa Loompa song stuck in our heads! Arrrggghh!

Sarah watched Willy Wonka the other day and now we're being tormented by "Oompa, loompa doompidy doo." Except, Sarah says "Gloop glop, gloop glop, gloopity glop."

Hurry! Someone start singing "Rainbow Connection" or something!

Kleptomania

My daughter is a kleptomaniac.

Okay, most 3 year olds are - but they don't mean to be. They just think everything they like is theirs.

Here's what happened:

Last Thursday when I picked Sarah up from school, she had a velvety pink leotard waded up in her hands. She takes dance, by the way, at school on Thursdays. I asked her what it was, she showed me and said, "The dance teacher gave it to me."

Hmmmmm.

"She did?"
"Uh huh," she replied with the purest look of innocence on her face that would have made angels cry at the sight of it. I checked the leotard for a name - nada.
"Are you sure she gave this to you?"
"Yes, Mommy. She gave it to me because it's mine."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it is! It's mine because she gave it to me!" And she hugged it tightly to her body like a starving man protecting his food.

Yeah, whatever. Well, we took it home because the teachers had no idea either. Sarah hadn't been dressing out for dance and I thought that maybe this was the dance teacher's "subtle" way of telling me she needed to? And maybe she felt sorry for Sarah and gave her the leotard. Specultaion, specultaion.

Of course, she had to put it on as soon as we got there. She pranced around cute as can be with the biggest smile on her face. So Saturday I went out and bought her some new tights because she's quickly outgrown the others.

Tuesday there was a note for me when I picked Sarah up. It explained that the leotard was, in fact, someone else's and that the dance teacher had made a mistake in giving it to Sarah. And because there wasn't a name on the leotard, the dance teacher simply asked "Is this yours?" to whomever. Since it was something Sarah coveted, she piped up and said, "It's mine!"

Now you would think that the dance teacher might realize that it wasn't Sarah's since the child had NEVER dressed out for dance. Or that she might recall if Sarah had ever worn the blasted thing. I guess not.

So, I had to sneak the leotard into a brown paper bag so she couldn't see what was in it and slipped it to her morning teacher with an explanation.

Last night I decided that Sarah should take some dance clothes to school so she wouldn't feel left out. Why haven't I done this before? I did - but that was right before the class began and we didn't know what day it was going to be. When it did actually start, I forgot to take the clothes with us and no one said she HAD to dress out. I didn't see any other little girls with dance bags or clothes so I figured not all of them did dress out. So I'm a dingbat. ;)

We got a leotard, tights and her ballet slippers together in her Disney Princess backpack. "Mommy, I want the sparkly leotard." Uh oh. "Well, sweetie, I had to give that back because the dance teacher made a mistake. It wasn't yours. It belongs to someone else." I waited for the meltdown...... "Okay, Mommy."

?!?!?! Whew! "I bet if you're a super good girl, Santa will bring you one like that for Christmas." "Really?" "Yep." "Oh boy!" Problem solved and without any tears. Excellent!

Beach & Halloween Pictures

Here they are!

Halloween and Beach

Trick or Treat

I took Sarah out last night to officially Trick or Treat for the first time. Last year we only went to Boo at the Zoo, which really doesn't count because it just doesn't have that trick or treat feeling of knocking on a door and saying "Trick or Treat!". Plus, it can get pretty crowded at the zoo. For example, we were going to do Boo at the Zoo again this year, but it was a mad house! People were parking their cars a 1/4 mile from the entrance to the zoo! Crazy!

So I decided that I would take her up to my old neighborhood and experience a real Halloween instead. We drove over to my street and parked in a particularly dark spot - the street light was out. And I mean it was dark! I had to get my little flash light out so we wouldn't trip on anything. The first house we visited was my old house. *sigh* I love that house. Of course, Sarah wanted to know why it was my house and why did I live there and was the next house my house, too. Hehe. Next we stopped by the neighbors who have lived there for almost 20 years. They were excited to meet Sarah! She was their first trick-or-treater of the night so she got to pick some of the primo candy. :)

We moved on to 7 or 8 more houses until we ended up at the other house I lived in on that street. I informed the lady at the door that I used to live there. "Oh! Well, come inside and see what we've done to the place!" We were ushered inside and I tell ya, it was like I was home. Weird. I haven't been in that house in almost 10 years and it felt like I hadn't left. They haven't changed much architechtualy. They did remodel the kitchen (which needed it badly) and my mom would love it now, they added a bathroom upstairs, put a deck on the back, added french doors in the music room to the deck, and made the solarium into an art studio. They haven't done anything with the "log cabin" downstairs, but the rest looks great!

The couple were very nice and loved meeting us. We've been invited to come back and visit. By the time we were through with the tour, Sarah was getting tired so we said our goodbyes and trekked back to the car. Her pumpkin bucket was almost overflowing with candy. I can hear the dentist bills adding up in my head. ;)

I think she had a good time. Hopefully next year we can trick or treat with friends - Lauren and Eliot - in our new neighborhood. I think it's always more fun when you have some pals to go with you. :)