Birthday Bashes…
Wes bid a fond farewell to his 20s with lots of golf. We took a fun, last-minute trip to Pinehurst, minus the goose, who stayed with Gamma & BeBa (you would have thought the kid was going to Disney though… she was SO excited… guess we should go away more often). On his actual birthday, I valiantly attempted to make an ice cream cake… being married to an accountant, I thought he would appreciate the thriftiness of homemade. Next time, I won’t be so crazy… here is my first and last ice cream cake creation.
With spring’s arrival on Sunday, we also celebrated an even bigger birthday milestone as Granny turned 96!!! Again, I regretfully did not have my camera handy. It was a small family gathering, with lots of good food, a great cake, and a few presents. We thought the goose could help the 96-year-old speed up the opening process, but we were wrong… I’m not sure who opens slower… Granny or the goose. After a clearly tragic paper cut, closely followed by an “I thought that present was for me” meltdown, the goose gracefully bowed out of the gift opening and let Granny unwrap for herself.
Baby Preparations…
Since the day we told the goose that she is going to be a big sister, she has been quite preoccupied with baby preparations. She woke me early one morning with a very serious question… “Mommy, do we have pacis, a crib, and baby shoes for the baby?” Clearly, she has only the necessities in mind. Later, she informed Gamma that we need to get the baby some toys, followed by her newest concern… “pajamas with the feet in them”. Finally, we reached a deal… as soon as we find out whether the baby is a brother or a sister, we will go to Target (goose’s request) and get the baby some clothes, including pajamas with the feet in them, and of course, “I get to pick them out,” says the Goose. My favorite big-sister line though has to be “Mommy, when you and Daddy have the baby, I am going to be the Mommy.” To which I replied, “I thought you were going to be the big sister?” “Nope,” the goose corrected, “I am going to be the Mommy-Big-Sister.” I am glad to know I will have lots of help with those mid-night feedings!
Almost Four Attitude…
We’re long past the terrible twos and are nearing the end of the thrilling threes, but in the process, we have encountered the almost-four-attitude. When someone asks the goose how old she is, if she refuses to reply (which is most of the time) & I answer for her, “She’s three,” suddenly, the shyness is gone and the goose quickly interjects with lots of attitude “I’m almost four!” In addition to age three being insufficient, anything that we tell her she cannot do immediately receives the reply, “When I’m four I can…” Oh to be four… clearly it solves all life’s little problems and removes those pesky three-year-old-prohibitions.
Strange Thunder & Lost Socks…
At least a few times a week, the goose wakes up around 3am & appears at our bedside with one of two requests… “My tummy hurts, will you hold me?” or “Can I sleep in the middle?” The way this generally works is that I reply “I’m sorry, go back to bed.” Or “You can sleep in the middle of your bed.” Lately though, the goose has changed-up her 3am routine. Here are my two favorites…
“Mommy, I just heard some strange thunder. Did you hear that strange thunder?”… by the way, there was NO thunder, strange or regular. Since then, any time it looks like rain she asks, “Will there be more strange thunder?”
The second-runner-up was not so amusing initially, though in retrospect it is rather humorous. Instead of showing up 3 inches from my face, the goose let out a deafening, minute-long scream. I was sure she had thrown up or had some major issue as she is not a screamer, especially not at night… she much prefers whining & stomping to screaming. I ran back to her room and could find nothing visibly wrong with her. After a series of unanswered questions, she finally screamed/cried “MY SOCK!!!!” … that’s right, she was missing one sock and could not find it in her bed… clearly this was tragic. “Are you kidding me!?! You screamed because you can’t find your sock?!?!” “Uh-huh,” she cried. Two seconds later, the blessed sock was recovered from underneath the sheet and order was restored. I returned to bed expecting Wes to inquire as to what had happened, but he hadn’t even noticed. I grumbled, at both of them, & tried to go back to sleep. The next morning I asked him if he even heard her scream, to which he replied, “I heard something but just figured it was in my dream.” Are you kidding me?!?
Passive Voice…
As I said, my month has been consumed with reading, reading, & more reading, followed by paper-writing & some more paper-writing. The goose likes to inquire frequently (try about every 30 seconds) as to how many pages I have left on either task. She has also recently learned to “click” (ie. Use the mouse to play computer games… she feels this takes precedence over my papers as laptop priorities go). So one night in an effort to speed up my progress she said, with great confidence, “Mommy, I can type the keys.” “Oh really,” I replied. “Can you write without using passive voice?” “Uh-huh, I can write without passing boys!” And that, my friends, is my favorite quote of the month.
Super-goose…
To end our monthly review with the few photos I did manage to take, here are a few shots of the goose’s new favorite activities… “superman swinging” and “monkey bar flips”… the latter took several days to perfect, but now she is a pro, and quite proud of herself as you can tell. (You may also be able to tell that she dressed herself… don’t worry, this is only permissible when we are not going in public.)
