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....."