for the love of the game

we have quite a bit of sports talk around our house lately. greta discovered baseball this summer & loved spending many an afternoon/evening playing with dad in the backyard...and with mom & calla...but it was really about greta & dad. it also helps that she has a yankee loving, world series watching dad so she is fully engaged in watching sports on tv now, too. this love is not only for baseball, it's for football, or really any sport that she can watch. the best part for me (the non-sports lover) are the things the girls say.

here are my favorites:

greta- dad, which team are you yanking for? (yes- yanking. not rooting, but yanking- i think this proves her dad is a true yankee lover)

calla- dad, do you want to watch some golfball with me? a better example of this is me telling calla it's time for bed & her replying with- um, i need to watch a little golfball with my daddy.

they base the teams they are rooting, excuse me, i mean yanking for, based on the name. for example- greta was yanking for the angels over the yankees because she liked the name better. now she is yanking for the yankees because the phillies does not sound very good. and yesterday in football is was the ducks over the trojans because- the trojans is a crazy name!

being a big sister is tough work!

today greta walked into the kitchen and declared- "mom, sometimes it's awful having a little sister!" when i asked why she said, "well, sometimes she gets in the way and hits & pinches. and when i was coloring my snow white picture she pushed my head down to the table." (sidenote- calla is a bit of a bully- she just hasn't figured out how to channel her frustrations- she's well- meaning, for the most part!). i then asked greta if she enjoyed laughing, playing house & dress up, snuggling up in bed together, etc with calla. she hesitated and nodded her head yes, but in the end left the room saying, "still...sometimes it's awful having a little sister." being a 4 1/2 year old is tough sometimes!

things i don't want to forget

that calla calls her big sister "det-ta" and granola bars are "mereal bars".

that greta asks every day - "am i going to school today?" it's nice to know she loves the place that much (and we hope this love for education lasts forever!).

and that tonight we watched "the sound of music" for the first time together and my heart was happy the whole time. what a fun memory, probably more for me then them (especially since calla decided to "go to work" in the middle of the movie), but still, i love sharing those moments with our girls.

it happened.

calla climbed out of her crib yesterday. she was supposed to be taking a nap, when suddenly she walked into the bathroom to see me. she is trouble with a capital T!

***just in case you were wondering- there were no injuries of any sort- she is perfectly fine. we are the ones who now need to figure out if it's time to transition to the big girl bed. i've been telling her once she learns to go potty on the big girl potty she can get a big girl bed- maybe calla will be so motivated she'll potty train herself overnight! :)

she's getting there...

greta has been asking me to teach her how to read. while i really look forward to doing this, we have some steps to take before getting there- like knowing lower case letters! in the process she is doing a lot of writing out words. she will ask me, "mom- how do you spell (fill in the blank)?" and then she will go on to write out all the letters. she knows to write her letters from left to write, in a fairly straight line, to form a word.

yesterday she was making a birthday card for her friend. she asked me how to spell LOVE, then wrote it out. next she asked me how to spell ARI- this is her friend. she wrote A-R-I and then paused to say, "but mom- that doesn't make sense- shouldn't there be an E on the end of her name?" someone is getting it!!! the hard part was me explaining the sounds...we might need a workbook of some sort to help us along the way, but it's amazing, exciting & fun watching her learn. she is such a sponge (calla, too) that i want to take advantage of this time...which is a large part of the reason why i quit my job. time to stay home and be with these girls - teach them more, play with them more, love on them more...doesn't get better than that!

rash, pneumonia, and ear infection- oh my!

yes, it's true- we were sick again. this time it started with pink eye over a week ago, which we nipped in the bud immediately (poor calla- she did NOT like those eye drops!). there was some coughing going on, but it seemed we were on the upswing, until...greta woke up saturday with a rash covering her body, we took her to urgent care and they listened to her coughing, took x-rays & concluded it was a form of pneumonia that involves a rash. off to get anti-biotics and greta is on the mend. sunday had us back in urgent care for mike- with, what he believes (we need to verify with his mom), was his first ear infection. another set of anti-biotics and hopefully this is it.

so now we are working to de-stress and change our diet. my cousin's husband is doctor, focusing on whole body wellness. he is going to analyze our diet (keeping a food diary) and then give us suggestions. at this point we are going to try everything possible to get healthy...which might involve many more things- to be discussed later...

who's the boss?

a few days ago i overheard greta telling calla- "calla, the big kids are the boss of you." i quickly jumped in and said-"greta, moms & dads are the boss- you are not the boss of your sister."

greta's response- "Mom, Jesus is really the boss of all of us."

WOW! i got trumped by a 4 year old!