World-Class Shopping?

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt's house in Michigan, and Kyra was apparently highly impressed by her bathroom decor. I went with her to help her find the bathroom, and once we got in there, she looked around wide-eyed at the pretty decorations on the wall and countertop. Her first statement was, "Wow, this is a really fancy bathroom. I wonder where they got all these pretty decorations?" After another moment, and me saying I didn't know where they got them, she mused, "Hmmm. They must shop at World Market."

Unusual Arguing

I heard a spat start up with the girls this afternoon, as is not all too uncommon around here. It was the typical one kid trying to take something the other has laid claim to either physically or mentally. Well, Kyra was trying to put on an item of dress-up clothing, and Siana was trying to get it back from her, so it went a little something like this:

Siana: GIVE IT BACK!!!
Kyra: Siana, you weren't using it!
Siana: GIVE IT BACK!!!
Kyra: Siana, I'm using it!
Siana: NO, SISSY! I NEED IT! GIVE IT BACK!!!
Kyra: But Siana, this is the season of peace and goodwill...

HA! That girl. She cracks me up.

The Replacements

Siana has quite a goofball sense of humor, which is pretty funny most of the time. She's always found it absolutely hysterical to replace an expected word with something else. She has done this since she was very small, most of the time in the middle of a song we're singing. Well, here's what she busted out today that perfectly illustrates her sense of humor:

Me: Hey Siana, guess what?

Siana: What?

Me: I love you!

Siana: I love you too, Grandpaw!

This was accompanied by a big cheesy grin, like aren't I funny??? Plus, neither of her grandpas actually go by the name Grandpa...so that makes it even more random...what a goofy girl!

Arguing the Important Points

The following is what I heard for several minutes this particularly combatative afternoon:

Kyra: It's a BUNNY!

Siana: NO! It's a WAMB! (lamb)

Kyra: It's a BUNNY!!!

Siana: IT'S A WAAAAMB!!!

Glad they're keeping the main thing the main thing.

First Grade Politics

Kyra came home from her 2nd day of first grade today talking about Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain and how they were coming to her class tomorrow. I sought a little more information to clarify, and then told her that perhaps she would watch some videos of Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain, but it seemed rather unlikely that they would physically come to her class. She then started discussing her philosophies on who she would vote for, were she old enough. According to her, she would vote for Mr. McCain because she doesn't like the name Barack...I mean, she already knows somebody named "Brock" and she doesn't need to know another "Barack." And also, Barack is a funny name...like what if people started calling him "Barack-li" you know, like "broccoli" because that would be weird. So she was definitely going to pick McCain. Ok then. At least she's thinking about her reasons carefully.

You Did What?

Well, while we've been busy adjusting to a new locale, meeting new people, forming relationships, playing, and just lazing the summer away, Siana apparently decided she was over the whole diaper thing. She's been in pullups for a while, and a few weeks ago, she just came in and announced that she'd gone poopoo in the potty all by herself. And apparently, she'd been putting pee in there all day too, because her pullup was completely dry as well. Ever since, she's been rocking and rolling. She's only had 1 or 2 accidents, and is even dry some mornings now. Let me just say, that this is sooooo much easier than our experience trying to potty-train Miss Kyra. We had to bribe that child through the entire process, but finally got it done after 2 weeks of a lot of work and a lot of prizes. So the self-potty training thing, yeah, that works for me. Way to go, baby girl!

We go waaay back

As commented by Kyra, age 6: "I've had you for a mom for like...8 years..."

New Alternatives to Terminix?

A couple days ago, the girls spotted an ant marching across the floor and called to tell me they'd found a bug. Kyra had on her tennis shoes, so I said, "Ok, well, get it." (Meaning step on the thing and be done with it.) Kyra looked at it, then looked at Siana, then back at the bug. She then excitedly said, "I'll sing at it!" And while I appreciate her thinking out of the box, I don't think that would quite do it. Unless of course, they could do some sort of super-sonic bug-killing shriek, which I think they've actually come pretty close to. So I responded, "No, don't sing at it, step on it!" Judging by the look on her face, this was a novel idea, and she said, "Oh! Ok!" and proceeded to do just that, walking away with a smug and satisfied look on her face. Her work here is done.

Doom and Gloom

Kyra was telling me about a princess and her horse, and she ended the story by saying that the princess rode off on her horse of doom. This caused me to chuckle and ask her if she knew what doom meant. She replied that no, she didn't actually know what doom was. So I told her doom was basically when something really bad was going to happen. She looked startled and said Oh...well...that won't work. She then rephrased her sentence to say that the princess rode off on her horse of happiness.


Yeah. There you go. And I'm sure there was sunshine. And birds and stuff. The End. =)

Past Tense

Siana is one verbal kid, however, right now she's struggling with how to talk about things that happened in the past. She always starts by saying that she did it this morning, then if she knows it wasn't really this morning, but a day or two ago, she'll add "last days" and if it was a REALLY long time ago, she'll also add "couple days." She knows those have some sort of bearing on time and space, but she hasn't quite nailed it down yet. So here is a typical conversation:

Siana: Mommy, we went to Wah-Moat dis morning.
Me: We did?
Siana: Yeah! We went to Wah-Moat dis morning wast days...a couple days.
Me: We went to Wal-Mart a couple days ago?
Siana: Yep...we did!

She'll get it eventually, but it's pretty funny watching her try to figure it out!

Siana Quote of the Day

As we drove past Fazoli's, Siana looks up at the sign and says, "Look, Mommy...tomatoes!"

I agreed that they were tomatoes, and told her that was Fazoli's.

Normally, she repeats after me, but since she didn't this time, I asked her, "Siana, can you say Fazoli's?"

Her reply: "No. I can't say dat. I'm drivin'."

Siana Quote of the Day

Siana, interrupting and trying to get my attention while I'm talking to Steven:

"Mommy....." (pause pause pause)
"Mommy....." (pause pause pause)
"Ange!!!!"

Kyra Quote of the Day

"I think my favorite Muppets character is Animal, because he's so funny. Oh, and my other favorite is Ms. Piggy because she's almost as beautiful as I am."

Lofty Aspirations

Kyra made this comment the other day:

"Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a 'die-va.'

"A die-va?" I replied.

"Yes, a die-va."

"What does a die-va do?" says I.

"I don't know...just sits around and looks fabulous all day, I guess."

"Oh! A diva. You want to be a diva when you grow up???"

"Yeah! That!"

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra, showing me a picture of Cinderella she'd colored:

"I colored her blue, then I added the green for some extra flair."

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra: Mommy, am I five and a half?

Me: Yep, you sure are.

Kyra: So that means...that...I'm halfway through my five-ness!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few snaps of Easter at the Bruce house. The girls got books, a couple outfits, and a few healthy snacks from the Easter bunny. Ok, ok, and one unhealthy one, which of course was consumed immediately whilst the healthy treats made the cut much later in the day. Hope you all had a fabulous and fun Easter Sunday!

The rise of feminism

We often go to a church down the street from our house on Saturday nights...they have an incredible kids program, and it's nice for Steven and I to be able to go to church together, since that can't happen on Sundays. So we had gone to this church a few weeks ago, and when we took Kyra to class, we saw that they had the room (a very large room) decorated to look like a Bible times village. They had big tents with the name of each Israelite tribe, which the kids would be in when they split up into groups. Even the workers in the classroom were dressed up in Israelite-looking garb. It looked amazing and we just knew she was going to have a blast. After class, we went to pick her up, and asked her how it was and if she had a fun time that evening. Her answer surprised us...she said it was not fun at all. We were astonished and asked her why. She went off into a tirade about how, back in the Bible days, they had all these rules that said girls couldn't do this and girls couldn't do that, and they had to wear this, but the boys didn't, and then girls couldn't do such and such, and she DID NOT like that. We struggled to keep from laughing at how angry she was about girls not being able to do the same things that the boys could. Perhaps she should have been born earlier in the century...I'm sure the suffragettes and the early feminists would have appreciated her chutzpah...at the tender age of 5.

Old Ladies in Jeans

Even though my birthday is still a couple weeks away, I guess I'll preemptively post an age-related doozy that happened to me today. Siana and I went to the mall this morning because I was in desperate need of a new pair of jeans (or two). I'd gotten an email telling me that Gap was having a sale on jeans, and since I'd not been in there in literally about 6 years, I decided that I would check out all the new stuff and see if I liked any of their jeans on me. So I'm basically getting my size in every style of jean they have, and as I stood in front of a mid-rise, slim-fit, flare-leg pair, the little sales girl bounces up to me and asks if she can help me find anything. I respond that I'm doing okay...I'm just looking for jeans and haven't been in here in forever, so I'm kind of trying everything on. She then points to the jeans I'm standing in front of and says, "This style is really popular with a lot of older people." Now, the first thing that flashes through my mind is some little gray-haired old ladies walking around in flare-leg pants. This seemed a little odd to me, but ok. Then as I looked at her and she looked at me, I realized that by "older people" she meant ME! Seriously??? When did I grow up? And when did I start being "older?" 31 is the new 21, people! (Except we can hold our liquor...) It was the most surreal feeling. And oddly enough, I wasn't offended, but highly amused. It still doesn't "fit" with how I see myself, but perhaps my perception is getting blurry in my old age.

What??? A New Post???

Ok, I admit, I've been a sucky, sucky blogger the last few months, so I apologize. I have quite a few posts brewing in my head that have built up from said few months, so I will soon post a massive blog entry chronicling the Bruce Family Fall/Winter in Review. Until then, here is a Kyra quote to tide you over...

A song Kyra made up on the fly while driving home after it had already gotten dark:

We're in the light
Yeah, we're in the light
We're in the light of Jesus Christ!

There is a light
The light of cars, but not that light
We're in the light of Jesus Christ!