Girlies

Gracie’s stages: Whasfodinnuh?

~ Christie ~ 3 Comments
Sweet baby Gracie
Sweet baby Gracie

It’s time for the next installment of Gracie’s stages!! And it is a good one!

This stage was definitely my sister’s favorite ever. It got to the point where she would text me every morning saying, “Did she say it?” But I give too much away.

We love two-year old’s around here!! I think it’s my favorite age. You can read about why here. After that post, I started writing down all of Gracie’s fun two-year old stages. You can read about some of those here and here.

A little background before I dive in to the story of this stage. Gracie lost weight from the age of six to nine months (I really took that hard) and it was a while before she got back to where she needed to be.

But now?

She’s definitely making up for lost time.

Plainly stated… the child LOVES to eat. And I’m so thankful every time I look at her chubby little body.

At some point this fall, she realized that I pretty much knew what I was going to make for dinner that night; and that if she asked me I would share that information with her. (The other girls will frequently ask about the dinner plan at some point during the day)

Gracie began to ask me, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply with whatever the choice was for that night.

To which she would reply, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

It was great. But it got even greater.

That question became literally the first thing she said to me every morning! For at least a month, probably longer!

I’d walk into her room in the morning, “Good morning, Gracie! How are you?”

She’d stand up (always with the most hideous case of bedhead you’ve ever seen), rub her sleepy eyes and say in a soft, morning voice, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply, and she would say, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Every. single. morning.

(See how I just. did. that.? It’s a very bloggy thing to do.)

Even though she had already asked first thing in the morning, she would still ask six or seven times during the day. Just randomly walk up to me and say, “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?”

And I would reply and she would say, “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Didn’t matter what it was. Spaghetti? Tilapia? Chicken and dumplins? Breakfast?

“Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

Of course, I would tell Laurie about this during our daily phone conversations; so she began texting me in the morning, “Did she say it?”

It was her idea for me to ask Gracie, “What do you want for dinner?” Awesome idea. “I’ll try it tomorrow!”

So the next morning after “Mommy, whasfodinnuh?” and my reply and “Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face; I asked:

“What do you want for dinner, Gracie”

“Chicken and dumplins!”

She said that for at least a week; but after she said it, I would tell her what we were actually having and she would say…

“Oooo!!!!” with a very excited, happy look on her face.

I love that girl.

What the fly on the wall heard

~ Christie ~ 1 Comment

Hey everybody! I have another somewhat funny thing that was said in our house today…

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(Sounds of Mckayla crying around the table)

(me) “Gracie, what happened?”

“Mckayla was trying to get up in my chair.” (Gracie)

(me) “Did you push her?”

(Gracie) “Yeah, but I’m okay.”

(Oh good. That was my concern all along.)

For friends and family/Farm Day/(the motherload)/part 2

~ Christie ~ 2 Comments

Hi again!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the first half of the pictures from our fun day at the farm. If you missed it, here’s a link:

Farm Day, part 1

Remember, (the motherload) is in the title for a reason; this is a lot of pictures! If you don’t know us, I won’t be offended at all if you go read somewhere else. This might be a little much. = )

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Here again, you see the girls in another long line…

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But this was the attraction this time!

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There were smaller lines for smaller tractors, but no-siree, they’d wanted the biggest one. (And I did, too, but the line was really long. Think small children who don’t want to get out of the tractor once they get in, and parents who are trying to reason with them that other boys and girls wanted to go, too.)

Once we got to the front wheel, we took fun pictures of the girls. The wind was blowing so I think most of them are trying to hold their hair back.

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And we finally made it!

Sophia was the first to the top, no surprise there.

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Hope looked the most like she knew how to drive.

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And Gracie tried to buckle her seat belt as soon as she got in the seat. I love when kids do things that totally surprise you!

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Then we took more pictures in the much larger back wheel. So fun!

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Just when you thought the day couldn’t get any better… they gave away free ice cream to everybody! We had so much fun sitting on hay bales and eating ice cream.

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Yum! Get it all!
Yum! Get it all!
Oops! The red vest wanted some, too. = )
Oops! The red vest wanted some, too. = )

IMG_2135IMG_2138This picture represents a nostalgic mommy moment. Hope asked if she could go throw her own ice cream carton away. I said that that would be fine, but watching her go away and stand and move around the other kids made me realize how big she is. She looked so sweet, and happy, and grown up! It made my heart happy and sad at the same time.

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What a lovely day!

Believe it or not, Mckayla was perfectly content the whole time in the stroller. I was very thankful for that. That stroller was not made to push through tall grass and barn shavings; I definitely got my workout that day! Sometimes I just picked the stroller up with her in it to get over a hump or something.

Also, there are a few pictures that I can’t find to stick in here… Sophia milking the cow, Gracie eating her ice cream, and one of all of us together. If I find them, I’ll stick them in and let you know that I did.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Thanks for reading…

For family and friends/Farm Day/(the motherload)/part 1

~ Christie ~ 3 Comments

Hello to all!

First I have to say that it feels like forever since anything has been posted around here! But thanks to all who have been reading the last few days anyways, I really appreciate it!

If you’re wondering what (the motherload) was doing in the title, here is the scoop: this post has a ton of pictures.

If you are a grandmother, aunt, close friend, or angelic babysitter… prepare to be very, very happy. If you cannot claim any of the above-mentioned titles or anything close to any of the above-mentioned titles, prepare to be very, very bored. You will not hurt my feelings at all by clicking away. Just so we’re clear. = )

We happen to live in a really, really cool place with lots of things for families to do. A nearby university hosts a “farm day” every year and we finally made it this time!

You know it’s a good activity when you hear your kids saying frequently and without solicitation, “This is a really fun thing to do.” “I’m having so much fun.” “This is so cool!” “Thanks for bringing us here to do this, Mom.”

It was tiring! But rewarding! A really good, fun day.

So without further ado, I present you with part 1 of our Farm Day pictures.

The first thing the girls did was hold baby chicks. Gracie was not interested.

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IMG_2088Here are all the girls… excited about all the things they’re going to see.

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Next we went outside to see a horse demonstration which was actually just someone on a horse talking. But the girls did have the chance then to stand in line to pet the horse. When I asked them if they wanted to do that, they answered, “Yes!” Gracie was not interested in petting the horse, but the friendly helper picked her up and touched the horse with her hand anyway.

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Back inside we got to see a one month old foal and his mom. Needless to say, the girls loved that. We saw some cows and saw a line to milk a… fake cow? I didn’t think they’d be interested; but apparently my mind doesn’t work like a preschoolers because they definitely were interested! Interested enough to stand happily in line for a long time!

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Mckayla wasn’t quite sure what all the hullaballoo was about.

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Hope made good use of her time by practicing her photography skills.

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And finally, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! I mean, the pail of milk under the white and black painted box! I have to admit, it was worth the wait. The girls thought it was so cool (except for Gracie, who wanted to do it until it was her turn).

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Back outside again, we saw a “REAL BABY DAIRY COW THAT WAS GOING TO GROW UP AND GIVE MILK!” Yes, a baby cow reclining in some bark really was that exciting after the milking experience! (Did you know that a milk cow can produce 80-100 pounds of milk per day? I’m pretty sure I need one.)

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And did you know, that there are such things as “hair” sheep? As opposed to “wool” sheep. Here’s proof. (Gracie again, not interested. {by not interested I mean content to look, but terrified to touch})

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Inside again, they caught sight of another fake cow! Hope made sure to tell me that it wasn’t really real because she could see inside and it was a person. Shocking.

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And then, a breeze began to blow. The clouds began to part. Soft music began to play.

Why?

Because we headed to the bunnies.

And at the bunny cages… Gracie fell in love.

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She’s touching it! She’s touching it!

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I thought my heart was going to melt all over the ground. She was completely taken, transfixed. She would pet them as long as I would let her. Hope and Sophia were so excited for her; it was quite the sweet, sweet, very sweet moment. She told many people afterwards, “The bwack one didn’t let me pet him. He just (sound effect) “ooped” away. But the bwown one and da white one let me pet them. Yeah, I like the bunnies.”

We went back a second time and this time Mckayla got to look, too. She was very excited with it all, but not quite as gentle as Gracie. = )

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And so with this, I close part 1 of our Farm Day picture post.

Hope you enjoyed it! I will try to post the other one either later today or tomorrow.

Love to all,

Christie

What the fly on the wall heard

~ Christie ~ 4 Comments

Welcome to “What the fly on the wall heard”! This is where I keep track of all the silly things said around here as we go through our life with four girls five and under.

Sophia quickly shoved a bunch of newly picked grass in my hand so she could run down the sidewalk as we were on our way home from playing outside, “Mom, can you hold these for me? It’s my fresh garlic!”

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This afternoon at lunch, Paul and I were conversing about ranching life, how it’s dusk to dawn, day in and day out; how there’s so much work to be done; how it must help people to avoid the pitfalls of idleness to be so busy…

Sophia chimed in (with very excited tones), “And because they live on a farm, they don’t even have to stop to eat breakfast if they’re really busy; they can just go to work, grab one of the animals, kill it and eat it!!”

Gracie had a little something to add, “And they probably get a kitty-cat, and they’d kill it and eat it, and then put it inside the fence. And that makes perfect sense.”

I’m not lying! That’s what she said!

So just to review, they’d kill a cat, eat it, and put it inside a fence. All that would make perfect sense.

Got that?

Gracie’s plan for the day

~ Christie ~ 7 Comments

DSC00976A couple mornings ago, Paul was holding Gracie on his lap talking with her before he went to work.

“Gracie, what are you going to do today?” he asked.

“Eat breakthast.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Eat lunch.”

“What are you going to do after that?”

“Eat dinnuh.”

Well, sounds like a plan.

Gracie’s stages: I don’t like bugths!

~ Christie ~ 1 Comment
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photo credit

Gracie is, or can be… a little contrary. Let’s just say she seems to enjoy not liking things more than she does liking things. Bubble bath? The other girls can’t get enough of it. But Gracie shakes her head and says, “I don’t like bubblths.”

Perhaps if you’ve read much here, you’ve caught on that Gracie and I have a special time of mother/daughter conversation while she uses the restroom before her nap. Strange as it might sound, it’s one of the most entertaining, (dare I say, favorite?) times of my day. This conversation basically consists of her monologue-ing and me just saying something every now and then to keep her going. One day, early on in the two year old stage, she began to tell about things she didn’t like.

“Mommy…”

“Yes, Gracie?”

“I don’t like bugths!”

“I don’t like bugs either, Gracie.”

“Yeah, them gwoss!”

But it was cuter than that. Imagine her scrunching up her nose and shaking her head when she says, “Bugths.” It continued.

“I don’t like beeths.”

“I don’t like waspths. ”

“I don’t like anths.”

“I don’t like ca-ta-pil-wa-ths.”

“I don’t like butterflieths.”

I had to disagree here. “You don’t like butterflies? I like butterflies.”

“Mm…no, I don’t like butterflieths.” And the nose scrunches and the head shakes.

It was too much.

I don’t know how long we would ask her, “Gracie, do you like bugs?”

And she would tell us.

I’m trying to keep track of the funny stages Gracie goes through as a two year old. Last time I wrote about “Birthday Woo!” and “Boy run!”

Gracie’s stages: Birthday Woo! and Boy run!

~ Christie ~ 4 Comments
Gracie riding a seesaw on her second birthday
Gracie riding a seesaw on her second birthday

In my recent post about why every house should have a two-year old, I said that one of the best things about this time is the stages that they go through. I thought it would be fun to chronicle the different stages that our dear Gracie has had. It started out with them all in one post, but that was way too long. So, I’ll just break it up and do a couple every now and then. There are two for today; hope you enjoy!

Birthday Woo!

Gracie’s first stage that relates to being two started a few weeks before her second birthday. Her sisters had been in the habit of singing “Happy Birthday” with an enthusiastic “Woo!” for an ending.

Of course, Gracie was quite small still, but for fun we would ask her what she wanted for her birthday. At first she would smile and think and then say, “Birthday Woo!” We thought this was adorable, so like any good family we kept asking her and asking her and asking her. Her response would grow in excitement. To accompany the “Birthday” she would shake her arms twice in a typing position, then raise them up high over her head when she said, “Woo!” It got to where you could ask her at any point in the day, in the middle of any occasion, we would ask, “Gracie, what do you want for your birthday?” and she would adorably reply, “Birthday Woo!”

I so wish that I would have caught this little antic on video; but as all stages do, it came to an end before I did. Poor thing, her arms must have gotten tired.

Boy run!

This next stage was a weirdy. I sort of hate to include it because it wasn’t all that funny and didn’t make sense, but then again, who says that two year old stages by requirement must be sensical?

Gracie would say to me, “Mommy, when I was a little boy… I would say, ‘Boy run!'”

Yep. That’s it.

Every now and then it would be, “Mommy, when I was little boy… I said, ‘Boy preach!'”

I have absolutely no idea where this one came from, but I do know that she would say it at least once at every meal.

Sometimes we would interrupt her and say, “Gracie, you never were a little boy…”

And she would continue, “…I said, ‘Boy run!'”

Like I said, a weirdy.

Until next time…

What are some of the funny stages your two-year olds have been through? Do tell, I love these kinds of stories. = )