Sound the Alarm

We decided to try an alarm clock for Kyra, now that she's started school, so that maybe she'll have an easier time waking up in the morning. So I found a cute Disney Princess clock at the store, bought it, brought it home and plugged it in. That thing made the most hideous noise I've ever heard coming from an electronic appliance. I immediately decided it was going right back to the store it came from, because anyone woken up by that awful of a sound would be crankier than they would've been otherwise. So I was telling Kyra about the clock and that we were going to find a different one, because this one made such a horrible ruckus. Her response: Maybe the noise was the sound of the Princesses arguing. Hmmmm...maybe so.

First Day of School!!!

Well, my sweet Kyra started Kindergarten today. The day went well, once she got to school. She loved her teacher and all the things she got to do. However, the morning, in true Bruce style was a comedy of errors. Doesn't matter how well we plan, it never fails to be drama some days. *sigh* I got up bright and early at 6:30 a.m. which I haven't seen in many, many years. I got myself completely ready by 7 and went to wake Kyra up...she was resistant to say the least. It took over 35 minutes to actually get her out of bed. I had to give up for a while so I could go get her lunch made and fix the breakfast she'd asked for the night before. Steven finished getting ready and went in to take another shot at getting her out of the bed. Once she was up, she didn't want to wear the outfit she'd planned to wear for weeks now. But by that time, we were running late (of course) and we didn't have time to find a new outfit. So we shoved her into her clothes, I picked her up, carried her to the kitchen, screaming in my ear, mind you, and plopped her into the chair in front of the special breakfast I'd made for her (that she had requested). She decided she didn't want that after all. I wanted to pour it over her head by that point, but refrained, since she'd just had a bath the night before. She finally settled down after about 10 minutes or so of sitting there watching her food get cold. Then she had time for about 3 or 4 bites before we had to go. Siana had woken up during all the hubbub, so we changed her, dressed her, and strapped her into the car. We drove the 2 minutes to school, and since we weren't as early as we'd planned to be, we had to park down the street and walk. Naturally, we parked in front of the one house who happened to be watering their lawn at the time. So as I walked in my thin-soled flip flops, carrying Siana, I hit a patch of exceptionally slippery mud and down I went with a loud, painful thud. And a screaming baby who thought the world had come to an end. Once everyone figured out all was ok and that I was actually laughing, because, honestly, what else could I do at that point, the tension was broken and Kyra seemed less nervous and cranky, and more amused. So in we marched to the school: one flustered Dad, one nervous 5 year old, one baby who didn't quite know what was going on, and one mom with a soaking wet, muddy rear end. We walked her to her class, with Steven and Kyra forced to walk behind me at that point. As we were walking, occasionally a giggle would erupt from Kyra, and as we got to her classroom, we got one final look of terror, a big kiss, an I love you, and into her class she walked with her teacher. And standing there with mud all over my butt, I thought how much worse the day could have been. She walked into her class with her own 2 feet and no screaming and crying occurred at the door. Mission accomplished. Now on to some clean, dry clothes.

Intercessory Intermission

Siana has become quite the little prayer warrior of late. So much so that she is starting to demand an impromptu prayer at all kinds of random places. All 4 of us were picking up some school supplies in Target a couple days ago when Siana, out of the blue, started saying "han..pay...han...pay!" and then bowing her little head and peeking up at us to see if we got it. We knew she wouldn't give it up until we did it, so as we walked through the store, holding her hands, we said a quickie "Thank you God for Siana...amen." Well, that wasn't enough. She wouldn't let go of our hands until we'd thanked God for each and every member of our family. Once we did, she declared us finished with a loud and enthusiastic "Meh-men!"

My own prayer is that my sweet little Siana remains always open to instant conversation with the Father, no matter where she is, and no matter what she's doing. Meh-men!

This little light of mine

I was rocking Siana this evening at bedtime, and shortly after I heard a car rumble by outside the window, I noticed an odd flash penetrating the darkness sporadically. I thought nothing of it at first, but then a few minutes later, when I was still seeing something flash occasionally, I started to wonder what it could be. As I sat there, rocking my sweet baby, I wondered what could be going on outside her window...perhaps it was the car that drove by a little bit ago...was it a police car...is something going on out there...should I open the blinds and take a peek...but if there is something going on out there, I don't really want to open the blinds, just in case...what could that light be...it does kind of look blue...but there's no red...that's really strange. So as I sat there with this random barrage of thoughts running through my head about this odd light, I began to sort of look for it. I watched the window for a minute and when I saw the flash, I realized it didn't appear to actually be coming through the window. It appeared to be coming from something inside the room. So then I started searching for any random toys that could be flashing, yet still turned up empty. I looked behind the chair I was in, thinking that just maybe I could be rocking onto some poorly positioned toy and making it flash each time I rocked back on it. Nope, nothing there. Although the light was really bright when I turned my head back that direction, so it had to be something really close. Then, like an idiot, I finally realized what it was...I had forgotten to take my bluetooth out of my ear before entering a pitch black room and was seeing the blue standby light flashing and lighting up the entire room. Good grief. What a waste of brainpower.

Kyra Quote of the Day

From the living room, I hear Kyra call this out down the hall:

"Hey guys....? I'm in the bathroom all alone...can somebody come entertain me?"

I'm afraid the answer to that one is always going to be no.

I'm a slacker

I know it. Therefore, that makes it ok. To all of you who have been giving me a gentle nudge that has turned into a solid shove, sorry for not posting in a month. =) I've got a backlog of blogs in my head that I just haven't pounded out yet. I won't bombard you with 40 posts all at once, but here are a couple new ones for you. =)

Family Photos

My family has been in town for a fun-filled almost 3 weeks, so we decided to take the kids and get a big family photo taken. It was lots of fun and here are the results:

The fam:


Kyra and Siana with Nana and Papa


Kyra


4 Bruces

A day at the lake

5 years old!

I am now the proud parent of a beautiful, smart, hilarious, talented, sweet, loving, and all around fabulous 5 year old girl. In 5 short years, my life has been transformed over and over again for the better by this amazing little person who I am blessed to live with. To celebrate her birthday, Kyra donned what she decided was her prettiest dress, and got to experience her first kid party. She chose Chuck E. Cheese as the locale for the festivities, and here are a few pictures of all the fun:

My 5 year old girl:


A cake fit for a princess:


Biiiiig bite of cake...


Playing some tunes at Chuck E. Cheese

Interesting Questions about Babies

After having 2 babies, I'm pretty much prepared with rote answers to most of the questions I get about my kids from random people we encounter. However, tonight I got one that has to be the most unusual question I've ever been asked about a small child. Our poor little waitress tonight had been asking questions about Siana...how old she was, her name etc. Pretty standard fare until she came back to check on us one particular time and this was her question:

"She's so cute...is she a natural blonde?"

Really? Is she a natural blonde? No, actually, I take my 18 month old's tiny amount of hair and bleach it every so often to give it that peroxide glow. Wow.

But instead of saying all the things that were running through my head, I maintained my best straight face and politely said that yes, indeed, both my girls are natural blondes. Then I made slightly stunned, but amused eyes at my husband as she moved on to the next table....

Illegal Edibles

Siana has not yet learned the fine art of discretion. Steven recently bought a box of Golden Grahams cereal, which Siana saw in the cereal drawer and thought were crackers due to the exterior photo on the box. Apparently she decided to check out her theory when nobody else was in the kitchen. I'm sitting in the living room when I hear *crinkle crinkle crinkle* then "no, no, no" then another *crinkle crinkle crinkle* followed by "Mmmmmmm! Mmmmmmm!" After listening and trying to figure out what she was into, I went in to investigate. When I rounded the corner, there she stood up to her armpit in the Golden Grahams box with her cheeks covered in sugar and an 'uh oh' look on her face. It was funny in the first place, but even funnier that she totally ratted herself out by her loud enjoyment of her sneaky snack.

Photos

Just a couple of cute pics we've taken of the girls recently:

A true Bruce child

We have a Leap Frog learning table that has a slider that makes a trumpet sound when activated. Kyra was sitting on a little stool at this table yesterday sliding the trumpet slider, which apparently resembled a slider on a sound mixing board to her. She looked up at Steven and me and declared, "I'm working the audio." Yep, she's a Bruce...no question.

Not so Stupendous

Steven asked Kyra to do some mundane task the other day, to which she responded..."I don't want to do that Daddy. That would not be exhilarating."

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