Siana Quote of the Week

An ordered but undiscussed plate of chicken is brought to our table at a restaurant.

Siana: "Speaking of chicken, I need to go potty."

Cast-igation

Siana showed me her cast this evening and pointed out a place where the cotton had worn down and was starting to irritate her. I felt inside the cast to see how far down the cotton was, and she said Ow! I apologized to her and said, Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt?

Her reply: "No. That didn't hurt. I said Ow just in case. That was a bonus Ow."

Siana on NOT picking up after herself

I heard Siana crying in her bedroom this evening, so I went up to investigate. I walk into her room and I see some puzzle pieces lying on the floor that coordinate with the pieces lying on the bed next to her. I ask her why she's crying, and she says it's because she dropped the puzzle pieces on the floor. Logically, I suggest simply picking them up. Her response was, "I don't want to pick them up because if I go down there to get them, a bug might sneak on me because bugs are quiet." Hmmm, good point. We've not had any problems with ninja bugs as of yet, but I guess that may just mean they're good at what they do.

Theatrics

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has long been a favorite musical in our house. Well, now dreams are turning into reality as Steven and Kyra both have a part in that very musical that's being put on by our local community college. Kyra is a member of the children's choir, and Steven scored the ever so fabulous role of the Pharoah (Elvis impressions and platform shoes here he comes!). Siana and I are looking forward to seeing both of them on stage and enjoying the performance, but I am admittedly getting a little weary of the incessant soundtrack day in and day out, amusing as it may be. First thing I hear in the morning, and last thing I hear at night is Siana belting out some random Joseph tune at the absolute top of her lungs. This is usually accompanied by Kyra whining...Sissyyyyyy...I'm trying to sleeeeeeep! And then later on after school, Kyra will join in and it becomes an all out concert. I may have to post some video of them...it's truly something to behold! So if any of you will be in our neck of the woods the first couple weeks of April, you'll definitely want to check it out!

Vulnerability

Well, it's finally time again. I've lived here for almost 2 years now, so I am finally feeling safe enough to start to open myself up again. It takes me a long time to get to this place for some reason. You'd think it would get easier as time goes on, but not so much. I guess it's some form of self-preservation after a move, combined with a time of surveying the new landscape of where I live. So I move forward with much fear and trepidation into this new old journey I'm on to make myself more accessible. Ugh and woohoo!

Siana Quote of the Week

While watching 2 birds make a nest in the tree outside our living room window, Siana exclaims, "Mommy! It's a splendid day to have the window open!"

Private Matters

McDonald's recently had the Penguins of Madagascar toys as Happy Meal prizes. Well, we got several of them over the course of a few weeks and Siana in particular loves them. One of these penguins is a bath toy that squirts water out. Why they picked this particular penguin to be the bath toy I'll never know. Of course, the one they chose is named "Private." Really? The character you choose for the bath toy HAS to be the one named Private??? So the other day, Siana is in the tub taking a bath and she discovers that both her bath toy and Kyra's bath toy are in the tub at the same time. So she loudly yells out to me, "Mommy...I don't need TWO privates in the bath!" This is even more comical when you consider the fact that we live in the second and third floors of a house that holds an office suite on the bottom floor. And yes, of course, she's yelling loud enough for even our new friends downstairs to hear. HA!

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."