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