Toast 2 Mom

Welcome to The Land of Imagination

I have been having an identity crisis lately. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be "Mommy," "a mermaid," "a princess," "a deer" or a "witch". We have entered the land of imagination big time in our household. It begins at sun-up and does not end until sun-down.

I love all of the extra time I have with my girls. It has provided me with so many opportunities to interact with them. I love to read to them. I love to color with them. I love to do puzzles with them. I love to swing, dance, chase, hide, twirl, wrestle, laugh and veg. However this new activity of constant role-playing is really, really annoying me. I don't have another word for it.

What is strange is I enjoy acting. I've taken some acting classes. I've done a bit (wee bit) of amateur acting. I have read scripts, received direction and redone scenes over and over again. But when it comes time for Mommy to turn into a deer, resting in the grass, waiting for the baby deer to bring her flowers and then wake up and say, "ohhh what pretty flowers".... I just can't get into character.

I'm not sure if it's the timing of day (or that it's all day!). I feel like I always have some other task I am trying to juggle at the moment when I am asked to put on my mermaid face by my three year old.

We have been off schedule a couple weeks with vacation and such. Syd just had her dance class yesterday, and it had been a couple weeks. It was a good thing for her. When I used to hear about moms putting their kids in this class and that class, I thought to myself, "sheesh, give the kids a break. Let them just play." Some kids, though, I think really need that class, structure, activity to look forward to in order to keep them moving.

In a little over a month my Syd is going to be starting pre-school. It's just twice a week, but I get misty at the thought of it already. However, I think she is ready! She really thrived when she was in school before. School time will allow her to use that little whipper-snapper brain of hers in a variety of ways, in a new setting.

I just hope when it's imagination time at school, that whoever is role-playing with Syd, they know she gets to hold flowers. The baby deer always gets to hold the flowers, the other deer just smells them.

Sisters Rock!

 
 
 

Swimsuit Model

Cheekers has taken it upon herself lately to "swipe" items from her sister's room. I've been finding books, animals and figurines stashed here and there. Her most recent attempt was to swipe "Sissy's" swimsuit. I didn't think they'd be fighting over clothes so soon?!

Little Sister seems pretty happy about it though.

Happy Bouncers

We joined some friends today at one of those inflatable jumping places. Yes typically I assume these places to be a sweaty, germy, hyper, drug-for-kids location....and that's because that's pretty much what it is. However, today we just wanted to stay cool and have some fun. Fun we did. After fifteen rounds down the steep thirty foot slide, the girls and I made our way to the bouncy pirate ship - rrrrrrrrr. Despite the fact that Cheekers could not take two steps in that ship without falling, she still managed to enjoy and giggle a LOT.

We have a birthday party on Saturday at another bouncy place in town. This was just a nice trial run... went well!

 
 

A Thoughtful Interview

OK I'm no Barbara Walters, but I have been wanting to interview my three year old recently and see what are her favorites and interests. This would be WAY more interesting to have this conversation video-taped. However, Mama needs a new camcorder to make that happen. Because the thoughts of a three year old go by very, very quickly, the following is not verbatim - not a chance I could capture it all. However, here's a glimpse at the interests of my Sweet Syd...today anyway.

What is your favorite thing to eat? Ice cream - strawberry, chocolate chip and chocolate with sprinkles and marshmallows.

What's your favorite color? Pink marshmallow.

What is your favorite show? Ariel.

Who is your favorite princess? Ariel the mermaid (Duh, I know, dumb question, Mommy).

What do you want to be when you grow up? A mermaid....no, a fairy.

What is your favorite animal? A cat.

What do you like to do for fun? Work on the computer and do lots of fun stuff with Mommy like sing and work on my letters and play ball and go to the park.

What is your favorite number? Counting to 10 with my Daddy.

What is the best thing about having a sister? Loving her and watching shows with her.

What is your favorite thing to do? Swim in the pool.

What is your favorite thing to drink? Juice.

Do you like dresses or skirts? Dresses.

Do you like headbands or clippies? Clippies with hearts on them.

Do you like pizza or hot dogs? Hot dogs.

Do you like swinging or sliding? Swinging.

And then the interview abruptly ended because she was done. :)

Attention...please!

We have an ongoing challenge in our household; there is not enough attention to go around. I become more and more convinced that my Sydney will grow up and become an actress. When she is not requesting, "watch me," "watch this," or "look at me," she is providing me with a script detailing how I am to interact with her current performance.

"OK, Mommy. I'm going to crawl out from under the table and meow. Then you're going to say, 'awwww, there's my little baby kitten. Where have you been?'"

And if Mommy doesn't get the script right, or tries to improvise, we do it over again (and again) until I get it just right.

Probably the biggest challenge with our little thespian is her need to steal the spotlight away from her sister, especially when Daddio comes home from work. Eyes light up when the Daddio walks through the door - not just one set of eyes, but two sets of eyes. Sydney is trying to work her self by showing Daddio all the art work and projects she did for the day. Cheekers is trying to play "row-row" and the "spin around the room" game. The battle for attention never ends up being as cute as the battle began.

We struggle to find the balance between appreciating enthusiam and taking turns. The good news about this whole attention thing is we get to see a LOT of creativity (and it entertains us so). The bad news is, we just aren't a big enough audience. Maybe someday the spotlight will grow?

Shoes to Fill

Cheekers has had a fascination lately with putting on her big sister's shoes. She focuses very hard on putting them on by herself, then claps in delight when I step in to assist and speed up the process so she can clop, clop, clop around the house. Here is her latest go in the ever so popular sparkle shoes (we're on our third pair of these shoes because they are THAT popular).