stages

From preschool to kindergarten; my thoughts so far

~ Christie ~ 1 Comment

imageI’m trying from time to time here to just sit and write out thoughts. Most of my posts are things I’ve thought about for awhile or specific updates about the girls or the family.

There’s a gentleman in our church who loves to tell me how much he wished he would have understood stages when his children were growing up. He’s told me on more than one occasion how hard it is to welcome a new stage while realizing that the one that just passed had fled without his realizing how precious it was.

I remember growing up almost every year in school thinking during the first week how much better last year’s teacher was than this year’s. I finally realized with some amusement that I would soon be missing the teacher I was currently griping about.

“It goes so fast!”, everyone always says. I’ve stood around in more than one group of young moms wondering what to actually do about it.

My sweet and beautiful oldest daughter started kindergarten last week.

The weird thing is – at this point, I don’t really feel like it’s flown by. I feel like I can remember every stage  either in grueling or delightful detail.

But as I now transition to being a school mom, I’m fighting the feeling of wanting to go back to those preschool days. It was so fun to basically play all day every day! I don’t think once I thought, “I can’t wait ’til she’s in school!”

I feel like I have a new baby again…what am I supposed to do with this? You mean I have to guide this child through the intricacies of education? responsibility? relationships? eventually independence?

All right, cut! Everybody, let’s just go back to the playground.

But nope, this is happening whether I want it to or not.

On the positive side, I feel like I have been praying all day every day. Not in the spiritual way, but in the “Lord, if you don’t help me I’m either going to lose it or go hide in a corner somewhere.” (slightly overdramatic)

The challenges, the tests, the stretching into new territory is a gift from God. Not just for Hope, but for me, too. It helps that her eyes have been twinkling for a whole week and she has said at least ten times a day, “I really like school!”

But how to do my best? how to trust and rest? how to self-discipline and diagnose? when to listen and when to go with your gut? These things I’m wondering about.

And how to cling to this last year I have with Sophia, and the last two years with Gracie, and the last three years with Mckayla, and how not to wish they were all in school so we could all be on the same page again.

I’m so thankful for my husband who listens so patiently.

I love my girls more than ever before.

And I’m so grateful for my Jesus who lovingly puts new challenges in my life, and then promises to always be near.

(and I really need to go to bed… because tomorrow is Monday morning!)

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. = )