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....

1-877-J-E-H-O-V-A-H

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.

A 4-Year-Old's New Year's Resolutions

As I snuggled with Kyra at bedtime this evening, she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I'm going to tell you my New Year's Resolutions." I was slightly taken aback that she could even pronounce resolutions, much less have some. So this is her list:

1. To give more hugs and kisses.
2. To be friends forever and ever with Adley, Corbin, Spencer, & Michaela.
3. To be kind.
4. To sing pretty songs.

Sounds like a great list. Hopefully I'll get to be the lucky recipient of some of those extra hugs and kisses.

Production Crew

Steven and Kyra are already plotting their next DVD creation. As they finished up the details, which included a list of featured content, as well as special features, they started to choose a template for the DVD menu. After they chose a design, Steven commented that since Kyra had chosen the content and the design for the DVD, that made her the Producer. And since he had helped too, Daddy was the Executive Producer. Kyra then asked what Mommy was, so he said that since I had taken much of the footage included on the DVD, I would be a Co-Executive Producer. So Kyra then said, "And Siana can be The Baby Who Plays Around!" Sounds about right.

Check!

My mom was the designated bedtime storyteller for Kyra for the better part of last week. One night, as they were deciding what story to tell that night, Kyra busts out with, "Ok. Let's weview. We've done Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, ...." and after saying the name of each story, she put her little arms up in a big X to signify that they were checking it off. I think there's a listmaker in our future....

Making Movies

Steven helped Kyra make her very first DVD the other day after she performed some Christmas carols with her class at church. They hovered over the computer making titles, intros, and credits to the DVD. When it was finished, we watched it at least 7 or 8 or 500 times. Fortunately, it was only like 5 minutes long. After the last viewing, Kyra had a great idea and exclaimed, "Ooh! We should make Bonus Features for this DVD!!!"

Happy Holidays!

Kyra told us Happy Holidays today, then proceeded to tell us Happy-Every-Holiday-She-Could-Think-Of. She went through Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Easter, and eventually she ended with "Happy Ha-chunk-a." We figured out that she was attempting to wish us a Happy Hanukkah. So to all my friends who are Jewish, and my one friend who is half-Jewish and whose children are each "quarter Jews" (you know who you are), my daughter and I wish you a very Happy Hachunka!

Hello, Bermuda?

This morning, Siana was playing with her favorite toy...a cell phone. She was sitting up on my sink playing with my phone while I put on the finishing touches to get ready to go. All of a sudden, I heard a ringing that was originating from my phone. Somewhat alarmed, but assuming she had just pushed one of my speed dials, I took the phone and hit end. That is when I looked at the display and noticed that she had just happened to hit 10 digits and the call was being placed to, of all places, Bermuda. Yikes! Fortunately, I hung it up before someone all the way in Bermuda picked up their phone, wondering who was calling from a 317 area code and probably wondering where in the world 317 is. So hopefully, the next time I see a 1-441 number I will be planning for a wonderful vacation and not just a hideously expensive phone bill.

The Big One!

My little Siana turned 1 today...it's amazing how fast the time went and at the same time, how long this past year was for many reasons. Kyra and I were talking about it being Siana's birthday today and Kyra asked if she was 1 now. I said that yes, she was. She thought about that a minute and asked, "Are you sure she's not still zero? She still looks zero-ish to me."

Kyra Quote of the Day

Me: "Kyra is your room clean?"
Kyra: "No. It's just naturally messy."

Lavatory Lyrics

Kyra, as I've blogged about before, has a soundtrack backing her little adventures at all times. It has gotten pretty much constant. Not much time goes by without her singing a little ditty about whatever she's doing or something she saw and/or heard. This little trait of hers continues wherever she goes, and as proved by Sunday lunch, it even continues in the potty. *sigh* We were at a restaurant having lunch with some friends after church when Kyra announced that she needed to go to the bathroom. I took her in there, and as I papered the seat for her, we could hear the individual in the next stall start to make use of the facilities. So, my little songbird, as you might have already guessed starts to sing a little song about the fact that she can hear the lady next to us 'going.' It went a little something like this: "I hear peeing...I really hear peeing...." I had to stifle the deep hilarity about to erupt from my gut until we got back to the table, where it took about 10 minutes before anyone could understand what on earth I was saying through my laughter. I can only hope the poor lady next to us found the same amusement.

Not So Super Store

This evening we were playing and Kyra announced, "My name is Miss Kristin and I'm a helper at Wal-Mart. What does your baby need?" I named off several things, and she asked for more things the baby needed. I named off 3 or 4 more things. She then responded, "Ummm, well, we don't have any of those things. Sorry."

Sleeping Beauty

This morning, I attempted to wake Kyra up bright and early at 7:30 for school which, as usual, was too early for her liking. After about 15 minutes of coddling her awake and playing with her, I told her that it was time to start being serious about getting up and getting ready to go. She turns her face toward me and with her eyes closed whispers, "Shhh...I'm trying to rest."

Boogie Mama

It appears that Siana's Bruce genes are starting to kick in as she is just ecstatic every time she hears any kind of music. She grins from ear to ear and giggles, then her little body sways back and forth from side to side, eventually ending up in a bounce up and down. It's hysterical and absolutely adorable to watch. The girl can find a groove in anything. This past Sunday in church, she started boogying during a hymn, so if she can find a dance beat in a CofC church service during a classic hymn, she can get down to anything!

Indecent Proposal

I took the girls to the mall the other day to do some Christmas shopping. As we crossed the parking lot, Kyra was rattling off all the ideas she had of things that we could get for different family members. We entered through one of the large anchor stores and the door we chose just happened to be next to the lingerie section. As we passed a see-through red lace teddy that was prominently on display, Kyra says quite loudly, "Mommy! We could get those red 'overalls' for Aunt Melissa...that would be really cute!!!" But not so cute would be receiving a red lace teddy from your brother and his family. Ew.

Higher Learning

Kyra was getting ready for a bath this evening when she says, "Children who go to school are called students." I responded that yes, indeed they are, while wondering where this was coming from. She then says, "and people who go to stores are called customers." I said that she was right and then asked her where she learned all that. She responded, "maybe at school, or maybe from God, or maybe from myself."

Get Your Story Straight

This afternoon, Kyra randomly commented, "I need to call Mammaw and tell her that the Sleeping Beauty story she always tells me is not the right Sleeping Beauty story." I asked her what she meant and she said, "the Sleeping Beauty story she tells me is not the right one...maybe she hasn't seen the movie."

Variations on Peek-a-Boo

Siana's new favorite game is peek-a-boo. However, she doesn't quite get where you're supposed to put your hands yet. So our version of peek-a-boo may be played in a variety of ways. Typically we start out with our hands over our ears and then put them out in a big tada pose complete with cheesy grin, which will be repeated until someone recognizes the effort and says Peek-a-Boo! Then it usually progresses to one hand over one eye and the other covering the nose or mouth, effectively squishing her little face, then assuming the aforementioned tada pose. It's quite the funny thing to watch and I think I'll be a little bit sad when she actually starts doing it "right."

Young at Heart Only

Last Wednesday, we were driving through Chop Chop and the dude at the window was "young lady-ing" me at every turn. Thank you young lady, here you go young lady, have a nice day young lady, and so on. As we pulled away, Kyra asked, Mommy, why did he keep calling you young lady...you're not young!" And I'm getting more decrepit as we speak apparently.

O-Hi-Yo

Kyra was looking at a map of the U.S. today in one of her books. She was going through and telling me which states she knew, and after all 3 of them, she started asking me which ones were which. After a few, she pointed to Ohio. I told her that was Ohio and she lit up and said, "Oh yeah! Like we say Hi and we can say Yo!" Sure, rap momma. Just like that.

Mommy Has Problems

Sunday morning as I was in the shower, I heard the door open and small feet running to the potty. I greeted Kyra and she giggled and said, Oh hi, Mommy. She then proceeded to carry on a conversation with me the entire time I was in the shower. We landed on a conversation about one of her favorite shows, the Wonder Pets, and she started quoting her favorite funny lines that Ming Ming the duckling has said. She went through quite a few of her faves and then asked me, "Mommy, do you remember any other funny things Ming Ming says?" I responded, "Nope...I can't remember any more." She replied back, "Hmmmm....maybe you have a problem." Thanks.

Vacation Elation

We just got back from a 2 week vacation in which we first went to Nashville and attended the Zoe Worship Conference, then drove from there to Indy for 6 days. We had an awesome time and did about 1/2 of all the things we wanted to do. There never seems to be enough time. But we did tons of fun stuff. We went to the Indianapolis Zoo and then went apple picking in Mooresville, which were my top 2 things I wanted to do since there's not anything even close to an apple orchard in/around Amarillo (that would require trees) and the zoo here is basically all farm animals from what I've been told. So I was excited to take the girls both those places. Steven has chroncled a lot of our trip in his blog and has lots of pics posted, so for the rest of the experience, click here: http://web.mac.com/brucefamily/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html

Statues and Limitations

A few days ago, Kyra grabbed a clean paintbrush and started "drawing" on her arm. She then declared, "I'm painting a statue on my arm."
"A statue?" I said.
"Yes, a statue...you know a picture that you can put on arms."
"Oh...a tattoo you mean?"
"Oh. Yeah. A tattoo. I'm drawing a tattoo on my arm."

Kyra on Transsubstantiation

While sitting in church on Sunday, Kyra was paying particular attention to the fellow on stage presenting the communion thoughts. She has heard this type of thing many times before, but apparently not in quite this way. The guy said something to this effect: now let us drink the blood of Jesus shed for us. From next to me, I hear a small but utterly disgusted voice say, "Ew."

Impressive Clergymen

As we watched the end of the Sound of Music this morning, we got to the part where Maria and Captain VonTrapp get married. In this segment, the priest who marries them looks remarkably like the Impressive Clergyman who marries Westley and Buttercup in the Princess Bride. He's wearing the white robe and the large pointy white and gold hat, and as he came into the picture, Kyra commented, "Huh...that's an interesting preacher." Yeah...I'd pay good money to see our preacher don that kind of a getup. =)

Circus Skills

Kyra to Mommy: "I'm not very good at flying trapeze in the circus because I don't know how."

What pants???

On a related note, the commercials in between shows on HGTV are also having an effect on Kyra. The most incessant commercials are for other HGTV shows, Countrywide home loans, NutriSystem, and Jenny Craig. A few Sundays back, Kyra asked if the day was Sunday. I responded that it was, and she very animatedly told me, "Design Therapy premieres tonight...Two shows, One hour, No charge!" I just stared at her. I couldn't believe she'd ingested that commercial enough to even know the byline of a show that she'd never seen. Also, you've probably seen the Jenny Craig commercials that currently feature Kirsty Alley. Well, yesterday morning as I was getting Kyra ready to go, I gave her some choices of attire and she countered with, "Or I could wear my 'fat pants.'" I asked her, "Did you just say fat pants???" She looked at me innocently and said yes. I then of course, asked her what fat pants were, and she said, "Oh that's just something I made up" and giggled because she obviously had no idea what that meant. Funny? Yes. Am I cracking up even now as I write this? Yes. But still, I think we just need to turn off the TV for a while, HG or not.

Design O.D.

I've blogged before about Kyra's love of HGTV...well I'm not sure, but it may be bordering on obsession at this point. She chose HGTV over cartoons the other day. Is that normal for a barely 4 year old? Of course, she's not necessarily the most normal of children anyway (see my previous posts about computer usage) but still.... She can name the hosts of almost every show and tell you which host corresponds to which show. She also never misses an episode of Design Star and frequently acts out the different competitors from that show. If her mid-day rest time interrupts a show that she's engrossed in, she insists that I record it on the DVR and then wants to know exactly when she'll be able to watch the rest of it. It's pretty funny, but definitely unusual. Is there such thing as too much HGTV?

Kyra Quote of the Day

"I'm a lady now...I'm 15 years old!"

Common Biters

As I was putting Kyra's pajamas on her, I noticed what looked like a bug bite on her. I examined it and said, "It looks like something bit you right there." Kyra replied, "Maybe it was crocodiles. Or Siana." Yeah, maybe.

Q & A with Kyra

Are you going to get married when you grow up?
Yes.

Where are you going to live?
South America.

Why South America?
Uhhhh, because I've never been there!

Are you going to have kids?
Yes. I think I'll have a boy and a girl.

What do you think your kids should call me...what should my name be?
(Laughing) Um...Steven still....

Growing Up

We asked Kyra what she would like to pray for last night as we were putting her to bed. This was her response:

"I want to ask God to help Daddy be an artist when he grows up. Oh and for Mommy to be a firefighter."

Yes, randomness abounds at the Bruce house.

Performance Appraisal

I have to avoid mirrors at all costs whenever Kyra is mad or upset. Having a mirror around only prolongs the process indefinitely, as every time she'll start to calm down, she looks in the mirror, sees how she looks, then watches herself start to wail again. And you can tell by watching and listening that it's not a genuine thing...she's doing it purely for her own benefit. You can look at her eyes and see that she's concentrating on her facial expression and tone as she dramatizes her angst. I thought that didn't hit until she was a teenager! Soap opera city...ugh.

Baby Love

Siana has gotten to where she is very free and intentional with showing affection. It is one of my greatest pleasures in life to go in to get Siana when I hear her wake up from a nap or something, walk into the room and see her face light up as she catches my eye...then as I pick her up and cuddle her close, she plants the wettest, slobberiest, most lick-ful kiss right on my mouth. It's messy, but the love and sweetness behind it just fills my heart every time she plants a smooch on me. What an awesome thing to be able to experience...pure unadulterated love from the tiniest of people who doesn't yet know how to speak but can express herself all the same.

Gimme an M!

I was goofing around with Kyra today with a set of pom poms she bought with some birthday money she got. I had my hair in a ponytail and shoved the stick of the pom poms down into the ponytail so it looked like the streamers were part of the ponytail too. Kyra started laughing and I played innocent like there was nothing out of the ordinary. I jokingly said something about there not being pom poms anywhere, and that was just what my hair looks like. Kyra then informed me, "Mommy, that is not your hair. Those are pom poms and right now, you don't look like the Mommy God wants you to be."

Waterworks

I typically bathe Siana in the kitchen sink and leave the water on so I can periodically replace the soapy water with clean water without having to reconfigure the temperature, etc. Anyway, tonight, as I had the faucet near her and was rinsing her off, she decided to see what would happen if she stuck her thumb up into the stream of water. It, of course, shot all over the place and sprayed her directly in the face. I chuckled and waited to see how she would react. She shook her head in surprise, wiped the water out of her eyes and nose with her fists, and then did it again, and again, and again. Each time she did it, she did the same thing...shook her head in surprise, then wiped the water out of her eyes and nose. Eventually she got the idea that maybe she could get a drink in this fashion, so she modified her approach a bit to include opening her mouth as wide as she could possibly get it and leaning it toward the water. This succeeded in one thing only...shooting even more water directly into her little face. It was quite the funny thing to watch. I don't think she ever did get it to spray in her mouth, but she sure seemed to have fun trying.

Compliments by Kyra

Kyra looked up at me today and said, "You're the best lady in town."

Random Song of the Day #2

(melodically) "I loooove you as I stomp my feet....."

Kyra Made-Up Song of the Day

"iiiiiiiii'm an Englishman!
I'm an Englishman!
I'm an Englishman walking around town!"

Kyra Quote of the Day

Kyra kissed Siana on the cheek this morning and said:
"I'm going to kiss Siana again. She will be delighted."

Eye Problems

In telling Kyra it was time to go to sleep this evening, she replied, "But I can't close my eyes very well." I said, "Why not?" She said, "Because they keep coming back open...like this...see?"

Old=Dead

Kyra was on the phone with my mom yesterday and she made some interesting connections during their conversation. I'm sure most of it had to do with conversations we've had with her regarding the recent death of my grandma. Kyra had just repeated the same thing like 3 times because my mom either didn't quite hear her or didn't understand what she'd said. Apparently mom then apologized and said she didn't hear Kyra very well, to which Kyra asked Why. Mom replied, Well, I'm just getting old I guess. Kyra instantly responded, "Oh. You're gonna die." Mom just laughed and said, "Well, hopefully not for a while" and Kyra said, "Yeah."

Bandits!

We've been listening quite frequently to the soundtrack from Rent (the clean songs at least). One of the most famous songs from this musical is Seasons of Love (525,600 Minutes). One section of the song goes like this: 525,600 minutes...525,600 moments so dear...525,600 minutes...How do you measure, measure a year? Kyra has taken a liking to this song and sings it incessantly. However, in her mind, it apparently goes like this:

125,600 Bandits
125,600 Bandits
125,600 Bandits
How do you measure exactly what you are?

No wonder those people can't pay their rent...what with that many bandits around!

Kyra Quotes of the Day

Quote #1: "Wow, Mama, that loud noise scared me out of death!"

Later on in the day:

Quote #2: "Mommy! I'm 4! I amn't 3 anymore!"

Drinks Only

While discussing where we wanted to eat, Kyra declared that she wanted Cici's Pizza. I looked at her and said But you don't like pizza! She looked back and said, Yeah, but I can just have the drinks there.

Kyra Quote of the Day

As we were eating dinner at Subway tonight, Kyra was rapidly consuming her dinner and said enthusiastically, "They make the best turkey sandwiches here!"

Preschool Freestyling

There is a show on HGTV called FreeStyling, and the premise of the show is a designer goes into someone's house and uses all their existing furnishings and accessories, but redesigns the room to make better use of the space. Well, we watched that show yesterday and after I helped Kyra straighten her room up later on in the day, she began using some of the techniques she'd witnessed on FreeStyling. We got all her clothes put away and all of her toys and books as well, so I went to the other room to get her a drink that I had promised her. While I was rinsing her cup and pouring her milk, she came into the kitchen and told me that she had put some things in her room "in different places." I said "You did?" She replied, "Yes. I put some things in different places. Come and see!" So I went down the hall with her leading me by the hand and she showed me her room redesign, which consisted of a stack of books being moved to a different shelf that was now flanked on one side by a little boy figurine from her toy bin and a lovely costume ring on the other side. She was quite proud of her arrangement and told me how they were the things she had moved to different places and now she had them right there and told me which things she had used in her 'space.' My little budding designer.

Tribute to my Gramma Qualls

My mom posted a great tribute to my Gramma Qualls this morning, so she'll be my post for the day:


Wayfaring Stranger: The Times They Are A-Changing!

Kitchen Affection

I am officially raising a full fledged drama queen. This afternoon, Kyra was sitting at the table eating some yogurt for a snack while I was feeding Siana some cereal. All of a sudden, she looks at me wistfully and says with great emotion, "I just love this kitchen." I looked at her a bit strangely and said, "You love our kitchen?" She looked back and said with what appeared to be nostalgia and said just as dramatically, "Yes. I love this kitchen." So I decided to play along and asked, "What do you love about the kitchen?" She thought a moment and replied, "The windows." I chuckled and said, "You like the windows?" She said yes and I asked her what else she liked about the kitchen. She then said, "I love when I come into the kitchen after school. I just really love this kitchen." Alrighty then.

An Extra Long Break

I noticed a half-done puzzle in the living room floor that Kyra had started this morning and commented, "Kyra, you never finished your puzzle." To this, she replied, "Oh. I was just takin' a break."

Health Code Violation?

We went out to eat with my sis and her b/f this evening and as we walked in, we passed a recently deserted table that had yet to be bussed. It just happened to be the same table we had eaten at the last time we ate at this restaurant. As we walked by, Kyra noticed the plates and mostly eaten food and exclaimed with a surprised expression, "Look! It's our stuff from last time!!!"

5-second rule

Tonight as we were eating dinner, Kyra grabbed a piece of food that was lying by itself on the table, which she promptly popped into her mouth. My sister then said, "Ew! Kyra that was off the floor...sorry!" Kyra looked at her nonchalantly and said perkily, "Still good!"

Another Brick in the Wall

Nana to Kyra as she's playing with blocks: Kyra, what are you building?

Kyra to Nana: Oh, The Great Wall of China.

Cute everyday

Kyra did something today that caused my Mom to hug her and comment, Kyra, you're so cute! Kyra looked back at her, put her hands in the air, shrugged her shoulders, then said, I'm like this every day!!!

Imitation

Apparently Kyra is starting to include a whole lot of Mom and Dad's phrase-ology into her own little vocabulary. Here are a couple amusing things that have come out of her mouth recently that sound a bit familiar....

Upon being told it was time to leave Grammy B's house and come back to where we were staying the night: "Soooo...it's been fun playin at your house Grammy B. Bye!"

On the airplane with Daddy coming home from Michigan: "Man! It's stinkin hot in this plane!"

Mermaid Rationale

Upon being told it was time to exit the pool so we could dry off and get some dinner, this was Kyra's long-winded and musically delivered response:

I'm going to stay here all day and all night because I like to swim in the water at night. I don't need to eat because mermaids don't need food, and I'm a Mermaaaaaaid!

Ok then. Now let's get out and dry off. =)

Say What???

It's been a bit quiet in my little blogworld the past week or so because this entire week, we've been sucked into the vortex of VBS. Loads of fun, but exhausting! However, I found it quite humorous that I had two incidents just today noticing the extreme Texan accents that you would think I would be accustomed to by now. Even though I hear them often, that doesn't mean I always understand it clearly. Some accents are so thick that they might as well be speaking a completely foreign language to me. For example, today, I received a phone call from Steven's cell phone, so I picked up and said "Hey!" Then after a sentence or so, I realized I had no idea whatsoever of any single word that sentence contained, so I said "What?" The caller then repeated the sentence over again and I realized that I heard some twang in there and that even though this was my husband's phone, it was not him on the line with me. I then had to request, "I'm sorry, can you say that one more time?" The poor guy on the other end then said very slowly for my benefit, "Ma'am, this is so and so from Barnes and Noble. We found this cell phone on the floor and this was the home number." Ah. Yes. That I understood. The other funny incident was at dinner this evening. As we were finishing up our food at one of the restaurants by our house, the manager was coming around from table to table saying the same thing to each group he approached. It sounded a little something like this: "Howzhyallzmealz?" or perhaps it was more like this: "How zhyallz mealz." This happened to a couple tables before ours, so I had time to interpret before he actually got to our table. Apparently, he just wanted to know if we were liking our food or not. Go figure.

Somebody Stop Them!

Steven has been away at a conference this entire week, so as a fun thing on our last night as 3 bachelorettes, the girls and I went to eat at TGI Friday's. Well, Kyra and I ate, Siana just sat there and grinned at passersby. =) On the way there, I asked Kyra what she was going to eat at Friday's. She thought about it and surprised me by saying Spaghetti, rather than her usual standard of chicken strips. I asked her what she wanted for dessert since this was a special girls night out before Daddy came home. She said we could get Oreo Madness (my favorite). I told her with much regret that someone crazy had decided to discontinue the Oreo Madness and we couldn't get it anymore. She looked confused and said They can't do that!!! I agree with the sentiment, but told her that there wasn't anything we could do to stop them. She then started thinking hard and said, "Well, who can stop them?" I said, "Probably nobody." She replied, "Bad guys?" I just chuckled because I doubt any bad guys would take up our case and stop them from taking our beloved Oreo Madness off the menu.

Kyra Quote of the Day

"I wish my hair was yellow and puffy like Cindewella's"

Favorite Things, Part 2

So I decided to take the same route as Steven did and ask Kyra what she would like to get her Daddy for Father's Day. I once again got comical and unusual responses.

Me: Kyra, what should we get Daddy for Father's Day?
Kyra: Flowers!!!
Me: You want to get Daddy some flowers?
Kyra: Yeah! Flowers!
Me: Ok. What else should we get him for Father's Day?
Kyra: A sticker. Maybe with a monkey on it.
Me: You want to get Daddy a monkey sticker...?
Kyra: Yeah. Or we could get him a sticker with an elephant on it! Maybe they have a sticker with an elephant on it store!

So Mommy gets Wal-Mart and Taco Bueno and Daddy gets Flowers and Stickers. It cracks me up the way her little mind works! But why couldn't I get the flowers???

Technology

I am a technology buff, just like my husband, father, and now daughter. It constantly amazes me how far technology has come since the days of my youth where I played Wheel of Fortune on our old NEC computer in our basement back in the 80's. You know the kind of game with the "melodic beeps" pumping out the theme song and Vanna moving across the screen in exactly the same position but side to side...you know what I'm talking about Ad. =) For those of you who've never seen a game this old and cheesy, I do a mighty fine impression of the stellar graphic movements of Ms. White. haha But back then, we thought it was the coolest thing ever to be able to play Wheel just by putting in a floppy disk the size of your head. We also had Jeopardy and $10,000 Pyramid, which of course had similarly stellar graphics.... Anyway, it's incredible the advancements in technology in the last 20-25 years. I am so thankful for the fact that even though my family now lives 1000+ miles away from my parents, sister, Mammaw, and in-laws, my daughters can see any of these family members any time they want because of the miracle of internet video chatting. Kyra and Siana will never know a time where they can't just hop on the computer when they miss their family and see them and hear their voices. And all this for free even!!! It's not as good as a great big hug, but it certainly shrinks the miles to a manageable size. And Kyra, through instant messaging, is learning to spell all kinds of words. She can carry on a decent typed conversation for a while all on her own through the skills she's learning from this technology. It keeps us connected to family across the country and it's educational at the same time. What more can you ask for? Well, maybe an interactive hug vest, but I'm sure that's not far down the road....

The Hills Are Alive....

with the sound of music coming from our entertainment center day in and day out. The Sound of Music is Kyra's new obsession. She asks to watch it pretty much every day. This is no small feat because the thing is long enough to have an intermission. It's a great movie and we like watching it, but just not every single day. She is quite amusing to watch the movie with as she is a nonstop barrage of questions from the beginning credits to the ending ones. The most common of which is, "Where is the singer? Where is the singer now? Where did the singer go? When is the singer going to come back?" and so on and on and on and on. It also amuses us to hear her rendition of So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye. And so I say to you, in Kyra's own words, so long, farewell, 'it's time to say' goodbye....

The next Bill Gates???

Ok, I've blogged before about Kyra's emerging tech savvy, but she crossed the line of all I've blogged about before over the course of the past week. A couple days ago, she hopped on the computer and after a couple minutes, we heard music playing. We thought she'd opened iTunes by chance and randomly started up a CD. How wrong we were. Mac has a feature accessible from the desktop called Spotlight that is basically a search feature that searches for your keyword throughout your entire computer and pulls up everything with that word in it, whether it be in the middle of a Word document or an email you have in your inbox. Well, we discovered that Kyra had clicked open Spotlight and typed in her name. Spotlight pulled up everything in the entire computer with her name in it and displayed it for her to peruse. So she had quite a few pictures open and was currently watching a movie of the kids that Steven had made, which was where the background music came from. What 3 year old opens up a computer search engine and does a search on herself??? That cracked us up. So today, I was making dinner and Steven was snoozing on the couch after work. I called to them that dinner was ready, and Kyra replies, "Hang on, I'm doing sometin' on here." I chuckled and assumed she had opened up one of her games and was in the middle of playing it. After a couple minutes of nobody making any indication that they were coming to dinner, I went into the living room myself, woke up Steven, and noticed that Kyra was playing a game on the Playhouse Disney website. I smiled and asked Steven, "Did you log onto Disney for her?" He looked at me, still a little groggy, and said no. We both kind of looked at each other for a minute, then looked back at her in amazement. We then set about to figuring out how on earth she got onto the Playhouse Disney website because although she's becoming quite the little typist due to internet chatting with my parents, we both know for a fact she can't spell something as long as 'Playhouse Disney.' I was especially confused because yesterday, I had taken the internet browser icon off her desktop to prevent her from getting on the web unsupervised.... Yeah, that almost worked. I'm going to have to be smarter than my 3-year-old. *sigh* Anyway, we asked her how she got to that website. She goes into this long monologue that went something like this, "Well, I clicked switch user and got onto my account and then I clicked Mini HD (kind of like the PC start menu) and clicked 'Users.' Then I clicked 'Kyra' and then I clicked 'Sites.'" We were doing all of this as she described what she'd done and ended up with a dummy webpage, but it was in a legitimate web browser. She couldn't remember what she did after that, but we surmised that somehow she'd gotten the address bar highlighted and must've clicked the 'D' key, which would pull up past webpages because Disney.com was the first 'D' page to come up. Then all she had to do was hit return and off she went to the Disney site. All of that makes perfect sense, except for the fact that it was done by a 3-year-old!!! Steven and I were just wide-eyed and laughing, but more than a little concerned. She had been surfing the web for at least 1/2 hour without any supervision, which can be a recipe for disaster at any age. I made a joke before about having to get internet parental controls for my preschooler, but now we're actually going to do just that. Holy cow!

On a Schedule

A few days ago, Kyra declared that she was "not feewing vewwy good...I fink I'm a widdle bit sick." (Ended up she was just hungry.) But in response, I told her how sorry I was that she was feeling yucky and said I hoped she felt better very soon. She replied back, "Oh, I will be better soon. I'll be better in June." I chuckled and told her that it was indeed June. "Oh," she says, "well, maybe next January then." Ok. I'll be waiting.