An Appropriate Dessert

Yesterday after dinner, Kyra asked if she could have dessert today. I told her that I was going to cut up an apple for Siana and myself, and she was welcome to have some of that for her dessert. She responded, "Nooooo, I mean an UNHEALTHY dessert." Hey, at least she knows the difference.

Future Archeologist

As I sat in the living room this morning, Siana exited the room and I heard her little footsteps padding down the hallway. Soon after, I heard a drawer open and shut in my bathroom, then a minute or so later, I heard another drawer open and shut. I decided to investigate, and as I rounded the corner into my bedroom, I see Siana arm deep in one of my bathroom drawers. I asked her, "Siana, whatcha doin'?" Her reply: "Diggin'."

From my hallway to yours...

This was the girls' activity the other afternoon: they both donned as many headbands, rings, necklaces and scarves as they could support on their little bodies and ran up and down the hallway in clunky play shoes, announcing, "We are glamour girls!!!" They would load up on bling in their bathroom, run down the hallway to me in the kitchen, show me, run back and change out some of it, run back down to show me, etc. This went on for quite some time and they were quite entertained by it. The funniest part was Kyra running down the hallway with Siana, calling out to her in an extra fabulous voice, "Come on, glamma girl!" and Siana responding in her tiny little voice, "Comeeeeeeng!"

Angie Bruce, NickJr.com Official Member

Well apparently Ms. Kyra has now learned my email address. The other day, I was going through my new emails and found one from Nick Jr. thanking me for joining their club. Sadly, I had to think back to recall whether or not I actually had been to Nick Jr.'s website and signed up for something, say a sweepstakes maybe, and inadvertently signed up for a newsletter. I came to the certain conclusion that I had done no such thing, so naturally, I called my sweet daughter into the room and asked her if she knew why Nick Jr. was sending me emails. She matter of factly replied, "Oh yeah. I put in your email address so we would get the Nick Jr. newsletter. All you have to do is click the link in the email to complete our registration." I think not. You may have commandeered Daddy's blog for a few days, but my email account is mine, sister.

Drive By Mooning

My parents are in town, so this post is a conversation as reported by my mom:


Driving in the car one evening:

Mom: Kyra, look, there's the moon...

Kyra: Oh yeah!

Mom: It kind of looks like a toenail...

Kyra, confused: Huh???

Mom: repeats statement.

Kyra, still confused: Huh. It just looks like a crescent to me.

Wind Control

Our area of the Texas Panhandle is ridiculously windy somedays, and today is one of them. The wind was rattling the doors to the fireplace in the living room, so Siana pointed in that general direction and said, "Wind." I verified that yes, it was wind, to which she replied, "Turn off."

10/17/98

9 years today...Happy Anniversary, Mr. Brcue! =)

Tired...

For all of you wondering where I've been and if I've fallen off the face of the planet, the answer is no, but just barely. The last month has been utter insanity at the Bruce house and I am tired. We are not busy people. I purposely make our routine such that we are not running around like mad all week, barely seeing each other. I prefer that we spend most evenings at home, having some family time together before the girls' 7:00 bedtime. However, the last month has been so far from our nice little routine it's not even funny. First, Steven went to Nashville for a conference for 4 or 5 days. No big deal...I can handle single parenthood for a few days, no problem. The following week, I started a new job that would eventually be a once or twice a month deal. But in the inception of the business here in town, they were severely short-staffed and severely overbooked. So I agreed to help out for 2 weeks until they could get some new people trained. The company is one that is just beginning a new contract with CPS to take over many of their supervised visitations between children and the parents they've been taken away from. Difficult, yes, but I can handle it. So Steven and I finessed our schedules so that I could work quite a bit those first 2 weeks, and I became a working mom for a short time. At the same time, my transcription work was still booming and thriving, so I would come home and write the reports for the case I'd just supervised, then work on whatever transcripts were due that day, pushing off the ones that weren't. After those first 2 weeks, more employees were hired and I got a bit of a reprieve, at least from that job. I spent the next week catching up on all the transcripts that previously were not due immediately, but had now become due. The week after that, Steven left again for a different conference in Nashville, one that I usually accompany him on, but this time for a week and a half. And although the girls were great, it's just hard being the only adult in the house for that long. I am glad that he got to go, and got to go see his mom and sister for a few days after the conference...he really needed that, but I also am grateful that he's back home. During the time he was away, I continued to get transcription work, as well as adding 2 new clients during that time. So needless to say, it has been a loooong few weeks. I need a massage and a nice long nap!

5-year-old Blogger

Well, Kyra has decided that she wants her own blog, like Mommy and Daddy have. So Steven showed her how to use iWeb on our Mac, and she's been building her own blog site for several days now. She's pulled pictures from iPhoto and put them in, written about the things she likes, and chosen her favorite colors for each section. Well, she was ready for school early this morning, so she sat down and worked on her blog for a few minutes. This afternoon, Steven called me from work, and apparently Miss Kyra published her blog all by herself. The problem is, she completely overwrote Steven's blog in the process. HA! So for the time being, if you go to http://web.mac.com/brucefamily/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html, right now it's Kyra's blog creation instead of Steven's blog. She's got stuff on the 'About Me' page and on the 'Blog' page. If you can get past the spelling and words with no spaces, it's actually pretty darn good for a Kindergartener! =) I particularly like her Design Star section...she's got all the names of the contestants and judges, except some of them are just their initials! I don't know how long it will be up, so hurry over and take a peek. I'm sure Steven will reclaim his web space before long, but Kyra's blog will definitely have a home on the internet very, very soon. Move over, Chris Crocker, here comes Kyra!

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra at the dinner table: "Mom, you need to sell our car and buy a Mercury Mariner. Or a Milan."
Me: Why?
Kyra: "Because I saw them on a commercial on TV and they look really nice."

Heeheeheehee Wipe Out!

280 wipes to be exact. You know it's bad news when Siana comes running into the room exclaiming "meh! meh!" and pointing down the hall. I calmly replied, "Did you make a mess?" She giggled and said, "meh woom." Me: "Oh, you made a mess in your room?" Another giggle, and then "wahp." "You made a mess in your room with wipes?" Ok...doesn't sound too bad...maybe it got a little cleaner in the process? So I go to her room to investigate, and sure enough, she had discovered the gargantuan refill package of wipes next to her changing table, gotten it open, and painstakingly removed each and every one of them from the package. So much for "Works in your pop-up dispenser!"...nothing is going to be popping up out of that pile anytime soon. So I ever so delicately shoved them all back in the package, squished it as tight as I could to make it zip closed, and called it a day. It could have been a whole lot worse...she could have run down the hall saying "meh woom dahp," which would have meant she'd found a way to get the Diaper Genie open and remove all the nasty "dahps" from it. So I'm choosing to count my blessings!

Mental Mambo

Kyra was sitting across from me at the dinner table a couple nights ago when she started doing a funny little dance, waving her arms around with her eyes closed and her face scrunched up in the air. I chuckled and said "What kind of dance is that, Stevie Wonder?" She said, "I'm thinking of a song in my head and I'm dancing to the thinking."

Mommy's a mess

Siana was sitting on my lap today while I was putting on her shoes, when she grabbed my hand and looked closely at my fingernails. They were in pretty sad shape, with the nail polish chipping and desperately calling for complete removal. She then grabbed my other hand, looked at it, and then turned to me and said this with a concerned look on her face:

"Mommy, han, meh...mommy meh...han meh." Which translates to Mommy, your hands are a mess, Mommy mess, hands mess."

I laughed and said that yes, Mommy's hands did look like a mess.

She then looked me straight in the eye and ordered, "Wah." Ok, maybe I do need to wash them. I'll get right on that.

Design Star

I know I've blogged about this before, but Kyra is still obsessed with HGTV. She is particularly a fan of Design Star. (Her favorite contestant this season is 'Josh Sparkle' because he's soooo funny...) She was making a collection of drawings to give to her friend for her birthday, and as she sorted through the papers she'd drawn, she came upon one that apparently didn't belong. She exclaimed, "Oh, this one doesn't belong in here...that's a picture of Vern Yip...he's a judge on Design Star." Funny thing is, it actually kind of looks like him:

Sound the Alarm

We decided to try an alarm clock for Kyra, now that she's started school, so that maybe she'll have an easier time waking up in the morning. So I found a cute Disney Princess clock at the store, bought it, brought it home and plugged it in. That thing made the most hideous noise I've ever heard coming from an electronic appliance. I immediately decided it was going right back to the store it came from, because anyone woken up by that awful of a sound would be crankier than they would've been otherwise. So I was telling Kyra about the clock and that we were going to find a different one, because this one made such a horrible ruckus. Her response: Maybe the noise was the sound of the Princesses arguing. Hmmmm...maybe so.

First Day of School!!!

Well, my sweet Kyra started Kindergarten today. The day went well, once she got to school. She loved her teacher and all the things she got to do. However, the morning, in true Bruce style was a comedy of errors. Doesn't matter how well we plan, it never fails to be drama some days. *sigh* I got up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. which I haven't seen in many, many years. I got myself completely ready by 7 and went to wake Kyra up...she was resistant to say the least. It took over 35 minutes to actually get her out of bed. I had to give up for a while so I could go get her lunch made and fix the breakfast she'd asked for the night before. Steven finished getting ready and went in to take another shot at getting her out of the bed. Once she was up, she didn't want to wear the outfit she'd planned to wear for weeks now. But by that time, we were running late (of course) and we didn't have time to find a new outfit. So we shoved her into her clothes, I picked her up, carried her to the kitchen, screaming in my ear, mind you, and plopped her into the chair in front of the special breakfast I'd made for her (that she had requested). She decided she didn't want that after all. I wanted to pour it over her head by that point, but refrained, since she'd just had a bath the night before. She finally settled down after about 10 minutes or so of sitting there watching her food get cold. Then she had time for about 3 or 4 bites before we had to go. Siana had woken up during all the hubbub, so we changed her, dressed her, and strapped her into the car. We drove the 2 minutes to school, and since we weren't as early as we'd planned to be, we had to park down the street and walk. Naturally, we parked in front of the one house who happened to be watering their lawn at the time. So as I walked in my thin-soled flip flops, carrying Siana, I hit a patch of exceptionally slippery mud and down I went with a loud, painful thud. And a screaming baby who thought the world had come to an end. Once everyone figured out all was ok and that I was actually laughing, because, honestly, what else could I do at that point, the tension was broken and Kyra seemed less nervous and cranky, and more amused. So in we marched to the school: one flustered Dad, one nervous 5 year old, one baby who didn't quite know what was going on, and one mom with a soaking wet, muddy rear end. We walked her to her class, with Steven and Kyra forced to walk behind me at that point. As we were walking, occasionally a giggle would erupt from Kyra, and as we got to her classroom, we got one final look of terror, a big kiss, an I love you, and into her class she walked with her teacher. And standing there with mud all over my butt, I thought how much worse the day could have been. She walked into her class with her own 2 feet and no screaming and crying occurred at the door. Mission accomplished. Now on to some clean, dry clothes.

Intercessory Intermission

Siana has become quite the little prayer warrior of late. So much so that she is starting to demand an impromptu prayer at all kinds of random places. All 4 of us were picking up some school supplies in Target a couple days ago when Siana, out of the blue, started saying "han..pay...han...pay!" and then bowing her little head and peeking up at us to see if we got it. We knew she wouldn't give it up until we did it, so as we walked through the store, holding her hands, we said a quickie "Thank you God for Siana...amen." Well, that wasn't enough. She wouldn't let go of our hands until we'd thanked God for each and every member of our family. Once we did, she declared us finished with a loud and enthusiastic "Meh-men!"

My own prayer is that my sweet little Siana remains always open to instant conversation with the Father, no matter where she is, and no matter what she's doing. Meh-men!

This little light of mine

I was rocking Siana this evening at bedtime, and shortly after I heard a car rumble by outside the window, I noticed an odd flash penetrating the darkness sporadically. I thought nothing of it at first, but then a few minutes later, when I was still seeing something flash occasionally, I started to wonder what it could be. As I sat there, rocking my sweet baby, I wondered what could be going on outside her window...perhaps it was the car that drove by a little bit ago...was it a police car...is something going on out there...should I open the blinds and take a peek...but if there is something going on out there, I don't really want to open the blinds, just in case...what could that light be...it does kind of look blue...but there's no red...that's really strange. So as I sat there with this random barrage of thoughts running through my head about this odd light, I began to sort of look for it. I watched the window for a minute and when I saw the flash, I realized it didn't appear to actually be coming through the window. It appeared to be coming from something inside the room. So then I started searching for any random toys that could be flashing, yet still turned up empty. I looked behind the chair I was in, thinking that just maybe I could be rocking onto some poorly positioned toy and making it flash each time I rocked back on it. Nope, nothing there. Although the light was really bright when I turned my head back that direction, so it had to be something really close. Then, like an idiot, I finally realized what it was...I had forgotten to take my bluetooth out of my ear before entering a pitch black room and was seeing the blue standby light flashing and lighting up the entire room. Good grief. What a waste of brainpower.

Kyra Quote of the Day

From the living room, I hear Kyra call this out down the hall:

"Hey guys....? I'm in the bathroom all alone...can somebody come entertain me?"

I'm afraid the answer to that one is always going to be no.

I'm a slacker

I know it. Therefore, that makes it ok. To all of you who have been giving me a gentle nudge that has turned into a solid shove, sorry for not posting in a month. =) I've got a backlog of blogs in my head that I just haven't pounded out yet. I won't bombard you with 40 posts all at once, but here are a couple new ones for you. =)

Family Photos

My family has been in town for a fun-filled almost 3 weeks, so we decided to take the kids and get a big family photo taken. It was lots of fun and here are the results:

The fam:


Kyra and Siana with Nana and Papa


Kyra


4 Bruces

A day at the lake

5 years old!

I am now the proud parent of a beautiful, smart, hilarious, talented, sweet, loving, and all around fabulous 5 year old girl. In 5 short years, my life has been transformed over and over again for the better by this amazing little person who I am blessed to live with. To celebrate her birthday, Kyra donned what she decided was her prettiest dress, and got to experience her first kid party. She chose Chuck E. Cheese as the locale for the festivities, and here are a few pictures of all the fun:

My 5 year old girl:


A cake fit for a princess:


Biiiiig bite of cake...


Playing some tunes at Chuck E. Cheese

Interesting Questions about Babies

After having 2 babies, I'm pretty much prepared with rote answers to most of the questions I get about my kids from random people we encounter. However, tonight I got one that has to be the most unusual question I've ever been asked about a small child. Our poor little waitress tonight had been asking questions about Siana...how old she was, her name etc. Pretty standard fare until she came back to check on us one particular time and this was her question:

"She's so cute...is she a natural blonde?"

Really? Is she a natural blonde? No, actually, I take my 18 month old's tiny amount of hair and bleach it every so often to give it that peroxide glow. Wow.

But instead of saying all the things that were running through my head, I maintained my best straight face and politely said that yes, indeed, both my girls are natural blondes. Then I made slightly stunned, but amused eyes at my husband as she moved on to the next table....

Illegal Edibles

Siana has not yet learned the fine art of discretion. Steven recently bought a box of Golden Grahams cereal, which Siana saw in the cereal drawer and thought were crackers due to the exterior photo on the box. Apparently she decided to check out her theory when nobody else was in the kitchen. I'm sitting in the living room when I hear *crinkle crinkle crinkle* then "no, no, no" then another *crinkle crinkle crinkle* followed by "Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmmm!" After listening and trying to figure out what she was into, I went in to investigate. When I rounded the corner, there she stood up to her armpit in the Golden Grahams box with her cheeks covered in sugar and an 'uh oh' look on her face. It was funny in the first place, but even funnier that she totally ratted herself out by her loud enjoyment of her sneaky snack.

Photos

Just a couple of cute pics we've taken of the girls recently:

A true Bruce child

We have a Leap Frog learning table that has a slider that makes a trumpet sound when activated. Kyra was sitting on a little stool at this table yesterday sliding the trumpet slider, which apparently resembled a slider on a sound mixing board to her. She looked up at Steven and me and declared, "I'm working the audio." Yep, she's a Bruce...no question.

Not so Stupendous

Steven asked Kyra to do some mundane task the other day, to which she responded..."I don't want to do that Daddy. That would not be exhilarating."

White Girls Can Jump?

Toothless!

Kyra officially lost her first tooth today. It's been hanging on by a thread for over a week now and I haven't had the stomach to just yank the thing out. Fortunately, it came out today while she was eating a snack at VBS. UNfortunately, she did not recognize it as her tooth, only as an annoyance getting in the way of her otherwise tasty snack, and threw it away.

What are we going to do tonight Brain?

What we do every night Pinky...try to take over the world....

The Penile Code

I was playing this morning with Kyra, and occasionally, I would say something silly and she would reply, "Phallus!" After having heard this a couple times, here was the conversation:

Me: What are you saying?
Kyra: Phallus.
Me: Phallus???
Kyra: Yeah!
Me: What does that mean?
Kyra: It means not true.
Me (after processing for a second): Oh! You mean false!
Kyra: Yeah, phallus.

After that, we went about ensuring proper pronunciation from this point on...

Disturbed

Kyra, as said to me this morning: "I had a rough night last night."
Me: "You did? How come?"
Kyra: "I had a hard time sleeping because I kept hearing your video."
Me: "I'm sorry. Next time, we'll remember to turn on the humidifier so you can't hear it."
Kyra: "Yeah. It disturbed me."

Siana and the Balloon

Who's the Boss?

As Steven finished up the bedtime routine with Kyra and I was putting Siana to bed, Kyra asked for a snack and a drink (even though we'd literally *just* come back from eating dinner with our small group). Steven told her she'd just eaten dinner so she would have to ask Mommy if she could have a snack. She looked at him and said, "No, you do it...you're the real boss."

It's Imported!

I was passing through the dish section in Walmart the other day when a woman at the other end of the aisle picked up a plate made out of melamine and was examining it. She then turned to the 2 people who were with her and excitedly said, "I love these plates...you can't break them...they're made out of Melmac!" I had to quickly exit the aisle so as not to smirk and/or snicker. So don't ask why this tidbit of information is something that is lodged inoperably in my brain, but Melmac is the planet that Alf came from. Now that would be quite an import! Ok, now you can quickly exit my blog so you can smirk and/or snicker about the random bits of trivia that float around in my head.

Things that hurt our tummies

Last week, a friend of ours from church had a semi-emergency hysterectomy. As we were walking into the hospital to visit her, Kyra asked why she was in the hospital. I told her that something inside our friend's tummy area was sick and hurting, so the doctors took it out. Kyra looked at me knowingly, nodded, and said solemnly, "Oh...too much candy."

Vengeance is Mommy's saith Kyra

Said in a very angry, very loud voice to an unassuming insect that got a little too close for Kyra's taste: "Fly!!! Come back here...so my Mommy can catch you and put you in the potty or trash!!! Come out so my Mom can destroy your wings off!!!" I know she was just talking about a fly, but I have to admit, I got a little bit of a power trip from that last part. =)

Getting it all out in the open

I told Kyra the other day to clean up her room, as she had made a large mess during 'rest time' that day. She responded, "But Mommy, I like having everything in the floor. It's all out where I can see it and I can find everything I need!" Not a bad trail of logic, and I kind of have the same sentiment at times, but she still had to clean up.

Souvenirs

My parents called this evening to say hello and tell us they had safely arrived in Orlando, FL for the week. My dad has a business engagement there and my mom went along for the sun and fun. They asked Kyra what she wanted them to bring her back from there, since it's so close to Disneyland. She thought for a minute and then decided that she wanted a Disney Princess hat. I relayed this to mom and she said ok. Then Kyra changed her mind and said, "No wait, I want a necklace instead because a Disney Princess hat would be like 99 dollars!"

Scheduling Conflicts

Steven and I were gone for 2 days to a Ministers and Elders Retreat in Oklahoma. We left the girls at home with some awesome friends from our small group during that time. This couple has no kids yet and Kyra was asking them why they didn't have any. They explained that one of them is still in school and has to study a lot, etc. etc. She kept asking questions and I think the final statement was that they wanted kids someday, but just didn't have time yet. Kyra looked at her like she was nuts and said, "Well, you could have one on a Saturday...."

One long day

As we left a playdate with her friends, Kyra commented,

"I wasn't ready to leave yet. I wanted to leave at 100 p.m."

Some days, 24 hours is plenty. I don't know if I could handle 100!

Baby Bono?

Sorry for the proliferation of pictures recently, but at this pre-verbal age, Siana's sense of humor is better caught on film than in words. Here is some of the goofiness that permeates our house daily....

First Ponytail, Pomeranian-Style

Blue Skidoo, You Can Too?

For those of you familiar with Blue's Clues, you'll know what I'm talking about. For those of you who aren't, ask me later. Kyra was sitting with me a few days ago as we watched an episode of Blue's Clues before bed and I rolled her hair in curlers. She was watching silently for several minutes until she saw Blue and Steve skidoo into a book. She then turned to me in all seriousness and said, "I've never figured out how to skidoo." Steven and I looked at each other incredulously and tried to not to laugh as we processed what she'd said. I asked her with a remarkably straight face, "Have you tried?" She looked at me for a few seconds and seemed to get a little embarrassed as she thought about it logically, so she said, "Well, no...." And I nonchalantly asked her again, "Did you try to skidoo into a book or something?" To which she admitted, "Yeah. A few times. But it didn't work." I successfully contained my laughter and said, "Bummer. That would have been fun if it had worked!" She looked back at me with a big grin on her face and said, "Yeah!"

I am always caught off guard by moments like this. She is so bright and often seems so much older than she really is, but on the inside she's still just a little bitty girl with a big imagination. I love that. And I also love the mental picture etched into my brain of her swinging her arms around and jumping onto a book in her bedroom trying to skidoo like Blue and Steve.

Praises by Kyra

Steven left a stack of music out and Kyra has been flipping through the pages and belting out some praise tunes all morning. My favorite was when she got to the song Amazing Grace in the stack. It went like this:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a 'wrench' like meeeeeee!

Just Toying With You

Here is the conversation I heard between 2 Happy Meal Toys, as facilitated by Kyra:

Toy 1: (in a bragging voice) IIII'm from McDonald's!

Toy 2: (also bragging) Well, IIII'm from Burger King!

Careful now, we don't want to incite a riot...

Celebrations

There is much to celebrate this week. For one, I just reached the milestone of my 200th blog post. Wow. It amazes me that I still have so much to blog about. My sweet girls are such a joy and I am richly blessed because of them. Second, I just turned 30 yesterday. It makes me laugh to hear that people who really don't know me well were warning Steven to make a really big deal out of the day because turning 30 is hard for a woman and causes a lot of mixed emotions. By the time we met up at the movie theater after work, he was a little nervous because he had not gone to any elaborate lengths for my birthday...we had just planned to meet at the movies and go eat dinner afterwards. I just chuckled and told him to quit worrying...who knows me better...him or the person who warned him about female birthday angst. There were no mixed emotions for me about turning 30 at all. It does not bother me one bit. It is a bit surreal at times for me to remember my mom's 30th birthday party in our backyard in Michigan with all our friends and family, and then think that I'm now at the same point in my life that she was then. But I am not sad, nervous, or upset about getting older. I'm actually kind of proud. I wouldn't go back to 20 if given the chance, not even back to 25. Not that those were bad years by any means. I had a great time at 20 and I plan to have a great time at 30. I am able to look back with fondness at the things I did then and appreciate how far I've come since. I'm thankful for the journey I've been on and am anxious to see how I will grow and change in the next decade of my life. I love my family, I love my friends, and I have nothing to complain about, who would be upset about that?

Funny Girls

Here are a couple pictures of the girls that just make me chuckle....

Siana is going to be quite the "girly girl" I think. Lately she's been walking around with Kyra's headbands, taking them on and off and on and off. She found this tiara among Kyra's dress up stuff and put it on, and here is the result:

Princess Baby Mullet:



Kyra's preschool class went to the fire station the other day to learn about fire safety and talk to some of the firefighters there. This fireman was the designated "prop" for all the pictures with the kids. He looks happy to be there taking pictures, but Kyra doesn't seem like she's as certain about the photo op.

Look it Up Online

I co-teach Kyra's Wednesday night class at church, and yesterday, she asked me what the story was going to be about that night. I told her the old quarter had ended last week and I hadn't gotten a new book yet for this quarter, so I didn't know. She then told me that maybe I could go to "www.cccwednesdaynightclass.com" and maybe I could see the new book on there. I am a firm believer that you can find just about anything you would ever need on the internet, but that's probably one of the rare exceptions. And just in case you were wondering, yes, I admit it, I did look it up to see if anything was there. And no, it's not, so save yourself the trouble. =)

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Siana has formed her first sentence/request. Her favorite thing to play with, as you know, is my cell phone, which she calls a Faaaaaa. This is said Faaaaaaaa? like a Pterodactyl calling it's mate. It's quite funny sounding. But anyway, she talks to my mom, her Nana, and sometimes her Papa too, almost every day on the phone. A couple of days ago, she pointed and said, "Faaaaa?" I gave her the phone and she started saying, "Nananananana." She then added Papa a few times to her chant. And after a minute, she looked at me, held out the phone and repeated, "Nana Papa Faaaa? Nana Papa Faaaa?" until I called Nana and Papa on the Faaa for her and let her talk to them. It was very sweet. And of course, she's a genius for forming her first semi-complete sentence at 14 months. =)

The Measure of a Woman

We had dinner with our friends Jim and Elaine Friday night and after we ate, we were sitting in the living room talking and watching the girls play. Kyra wound up with a yard stick and was measuring everything she could find. Elaine was standing up at that point, so Kyra came up behind her and announced that she was going to measure her bottom. As you can probably guess, through much laughter, she was issued a swift, but polite, um, 'rebuttal.' =)

Formalities

Siana had just fallen and clunked her head, and while I was comforting her, Kyra called from the other room, "Mommy! Your phone's ringing!" I asked her if she would bring it to me, and as she walked down the hall towards me, I heard her say, "Yeah, Mommy couldn't get the phone so she asked me to bring it to her." As she approached me, she handed me the phone and said, "Here, Mom. It's a call from your husband."

Causing a row

This year, we bought Kyra a calendar for her bedroom so she could see activities and events that are coming up and keep track of what day/date it is. We put birthdays, school activities, play dates, etc on there. Tonight at dinner, we were commenting that Steven's birthday was coming up soon. She got very excited and said, "Yeah!!! Daddy's birthday is at the end of this row!!!"

Happy Days

Here are a couple recent pictures of the girls at one of the favorite places to go in town. It's a big indoor bounce house extravaganza. It really is quite fun and Steven and I have been known to get in there with them....=) Hey, it's good exercise! Anyway, they had a great time and we got some cute snaps of them having a blast....

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After we read our Bible story with Kyra last night, one of the questions in our book was 'How do you talk to God?' Of course, the first thing she said was prayer. Then she came out with, 'Or we can call him on the phone!" Steven and I chuckled and said, "You can call God on the phone?" Kyra responded, "Well, yeah, we could if we had his number."

Go Colts!

I'm not a huge football fan (see my previous post about who I sat by on the plane) but this makes me happy. I'm proud of our Indy boys! And though I may not be a fan of football, I am a fan of Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning. They're just good people and it makes me glad that good things are happening for them. Ok. That's all. Any more of me talking about football would be weird. =)

Coach Who?

Funny thing on the plane this weekend.... I was sitting with Siana, and Steven and Kyra were a couple rows behind us because the plane was extremely full and we couldn't get seats together. There was one seat next to me, and shortly before takeoff, a man sat next to me that seemed to garner quite a bit of attention from the other passengers nearby. I noticed an enormous ring on his finger, and I glanced at it as I leaned down to pick up something Siana dropped. I saw that it was a Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl ring, but he didn't quite look like a player to me. He said hello and we made small talk for a few minutes before some guys in the seats around us started chatting him up. One of them mentioned his ring so I asked him if he played, still trying to figure out who he was and why he was apparently big stuff. He said that no, he hadn't played and smiled at me. Then another guy asked him something else. So, stumped and not really caring all that much, I turned toward the window and Siana and I quickly fell into a nice little snooze until right before landing. The fellow and I chatted for another minute or two before everyone started de-planing and that was the end of it. After our family reunited with the other praise team people that were on our flight, one of them commented in an awestruck tone, "Did you know Coach Barry Switzer was on our flight?" I said, "Oh! So that was the guy sitting next to me. I knew he was apparently 'somebody' but hadn't a clue why." They both just stared at me, and I think one of them felt compelled to touch me, then both launched into hysterical laughter that I was the one who got to sit next to him and had absolutely no idea who he was. They found it even more hilarious when I told them I slept the whole trip. Oh well. Not big on football and not Texan...never had a clue. =)

Cool and the Gang

Kyra has been cracking us up all weekend, but here's one of the funnier quotes. We took the kids and flew to Nashville for the weekend to sing on the new Keith Lancaster Praise & Harmony CD with several members of the praise team from church. On Saturday, the rest of our group went to the Opryland Hotel while I took the girls back to the hotel for naps. As we were driving to meet back up with everybody for dinner (P.F. Changs of course), Kyra commented, "Where's the rest of our crew?" It sounded so funny that she put it that way, but then she added, "Ya know, I never met Ross and Grimace before." I was a little confused and asked her, "Ross and Who?" "Ross and Grimace," she replied. I busted out laughing when I realized she was talking about Prentiss from 'our crew.'

Not Guilty!

It appears that Kyra may have some manner of pink eye. I told her that I was going to call the doctor and that I might have to actually take her there if they want to see her. She replied, "But I'm innocent!"

Things We've Learned About Markers

1. The tips of markers can be pulled out relatively easily, should one attempt to do so.

2. Small children who have only 12 teeth can pull out the tip of a marker with said 12 teeth.

3. Old, completely dried out markers can quickly reconstitute themselves after prolonged contact with baby slobber.

4. Small children get very angry when reconstituted markers are taken from them.

Just a Hair's Difference

As we were putting Kyra to bed tonight, Steven laid his head on Kyra's tummy and said he could hear her heartbeat. Kyra laughed and said, "Daddy, you're just like a stethoscope! You're like a stethoscope...except you have hair...." Apparently, otherwise, they'd be exactly the same....?

It's all logical....

Kyra was watching a Dora show today and, as typically happens when watching Dora, Kyra yelled something at the top of her lungs at the TV. As for the moron who decided it would be a 'great idea' to have Dora ask kids to "SAY IT LOUDER" every day on her show, I want to put him in a room with 18 Kyras and no ear plugs to let them experience the fruits of their 'great idea.' But I digress. As she yelled "SWIPER!" as loud as she could, I asked her to please not yell. She responded, "But Mommy, I have to. Dora said to shout 'Swiper' when I saw Swiper." I replied, "Well, you can whisper 'Swiper' instead." She said back, "But Mommy, she won't be able to hear me!" I said, "She'll be able to hear you, just say it quietly." She then looked at me like I was goofy and said, "But Mommy, it's just a TV show."

Feelin' Groovy

Steven was playing a Led Zeppelin CD as we ate dinner tonight and as he finished up his food, he started goofing around with Kyra, saying if you listened to this music, you had to dance like this.... He then proceeded to wave peace signs with both hands and sway back and forth. Kyra responded, "HAHA! Look! Daddy's making 'twos' and waving them around!"

Don't Count On It

The other day, Kyra, without any assistance, counted from 1 to 100. I congratulated her on her accomplishment and she excitedly said, "Now I'm going to count down from 100 back to 1." She stood there a second mulling this over and then said, "Actually, I think I'll just count to 15."

Knock and the Door Won't Be Opened to You

We often keep the kids' bathroom door shut to keep Siana out of there when I'm not looking. Well, I walked in there to put away some towels the other day and Kyra happened to be in there using the facilities. As I opened the door, she exclaimed, "Mom...I'm going potty here. I need some pwivacy!" Oh sorry...my bad.