Memories and conversations

Kali's mom texted me a few days ago-
"I was rocking Kali tonight and explained to her that when she was a baby, I rocked her all the time. She told me that Lina rocked her too. So sad!"
I'm not going to lie; I cried when I read that. I miss her as a baby, and I just plain miss her. I'm glad that, at least for now, she still remembers me. I haven't seen her in almost two months.

Also, a few days ago, Mia was curled up with me on the couch, watching Sofia the First. She glanced at my shirt, and commented, "You know, I can kinda see your boobies."
"Yep."
"I guess that's just the kind of shirt it is," she added. Sometimes I love how no-nonsense her mother has raised her.
"Yep."
"So I can lay my head on nice soft and comfy!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, they make good pillows," I laughed. I have this from multiple sources.

-squeals-

Baby Eli is ten months old today. Yesterday, we were at the tot lot, and a little girl - maybe 18 months? - enthusiastically waved and said bye-bye to him as we were leaving. He lifted his arm in response, and it seemed pretty darn deliberate to me.

I texted his mom and said that I think he just waved bye. Her response was, "Wow! He's been doing something new almost every day."

When I went to leave, a few hours later, I waved bye to him and said it, and he most definitely waved back at me. I grinned at him, his mom clapped, and he scooted* over to me so I picked him up and snuggled him. I handed him back to his mom, went back to the door, and waved and said bye again, to actually leave this time.

Not only did he wave at me, he deliberately said "ba-ba-ba" as he did it, looking at me. OMG you guys. That made my day SO much better. He's officially waving and saying goodbye, and I was the honored first chosen!

Yes, I know that's ridiculous. But life around here has been in a bit of a funk, so it was a wonderful, day-brightening moment. His mom said he waved to daddy on the phone later. I think the phase of more recognizable communication has begun!

*He's one of those kids who scoots rather than crawls on all fours. He can do the latter, but he's much faster at army crawling/scooting. Though lately all he wants to do is cruise.

Anatomy

When I say Mia is a precocious and often quotable child, I mean it.

Last week, she had a toy bird, who was pecking at my arm.
In the bird's voice, Mia says, "Mmm, blood vessels!"

Not just blood, mind you. Blood vessels.

Then she takes a comb and scrapes at my arm, saying, "I have to scrape the skin to get to the blood vessels."

Mildly creepy, yes. Cool points? A thousand.

Playground chatter

There's a lot rolling around in my head right now about helicopter parenting and the ideas of letting kids explore their own boundaries, but the frustration of dealing with the former and the importance of the latter were brought home today when I was listening to parents yell out to their kids, while Mia was running around the park after preschool camp.

"Don't go in the sand!"
"That's too high; get down from there."
"Come back to this side of the playground so I can see you."
"Don't get your clothes all messy."
"Put your shoes back on!"
"Stop running; you'll trip and break something."

Some things parents and caretakers remind kids of are serious: don't throw mulch at people; there's lightning so we need to leave. But clothes getting messy? That's what playgrounds are for.

Mia, meanwhile, is running around barefoot, dress dirty, hanging upside-down from the monkey bars. At least her underwear matches her dress?

I may not be the best. In fact, I know I'm not. But I hope I err on the side of too much freedom instead of too little.

Mia's chatter

While I was spinning her on a tire swing, Mia dizzily looked at me and said, "I feel like a glooooooobe!"

Thought that was pretty insightful, since most of the 4 1/2 year olds I know would probably stick with "ball" or a similar analogy.

We also had a great conversation, when I tried to remember how her mom had referred to her dad.
Me: I think your dad might be home when we get back. What do you call him?
Mia: Daddy.
Me: Oh, I thought your mom called him something else.
Mia: Well, she calls him Sweetie. But Sweetie doesn't get home until later.

And the first four days I watched her:
Mia: Can you whistle?
Me: Eh, a little, not really.
Mia: Can you try?
Me: (whistles a little)
Mia: That was pretty good!
(Her mom is a counselor. She's got a lot of positive talk that comes out, which is both cute and awesome.)

Updates around the homestead

I don't actually mean around the literal homestead, although plenty of "updates" are going on here, with trying to sort out our living space. But on this lil blog, I've updated both the "The Kids" and "About Me" pages (just under the title), to hopefully better reflect my actual life. I'll write more details (read: posts) about Mia and Eli soon, but at the moment, it's too hot to do anything but sit in front of a fan with my eyes closed.