Kiersten’s Blog

Some things were said today that I don’t want to forget:

by the x-ray tech:

I’m really good at this.  I’ve been doing this for a long time and I just did you a big favor because I convinced the Dr. that we don’t need to take 9 pictures.  Only 5.

This one’s really important so don’t forget to smile!  I’ll smile with  you.

by an old man waiting for an x-ray after watching me with London:

I’m no expert, but I think you’re doing a great job as a mother.

(That was especially nice for me to hear as I have heard so often from old people that I’m a bad mom.)

by London:

Don’t take a picture.  I don’t want to remember this!

I wish I was you!

I’m sorry to say that I was being disobedient.

Today Ashton opened up the shower and wondered aloud why there was not a ball inside.   Last week I stepped into the shower and wondered why there was a ball inside.

I made bread today.  Whenever I do anything in the kitchen, Ashton pulls up a chair to “help.”  I turned around for a minute and when I turned back, this is what I found.

It’s a good thing the stove wasn’t on!

I have never been one for pets.  Neither has Taylor.  We’ve been married for 7 years and never even had a fish.  The only pets we have are unwanted pests, but we won’t talk about that here or now.  Anyway, London has been asking for a pet.  Our neighbors have two dogs that my kids love to visit, but only when the dogs are behind the fence.  Both kids are terrified of them, but they love them from a distance.  Ashton knows their names and has to go visit them every day.  London even told me while we were on vacation that she missed “her” dogs.  She’s been bugging me more and more lately about getting a pet.  She really wants a dog (even though they scare her and she won’t admit it) but I’m sure she would settle for anything.  That brings me to yesterday.  We had just arrived home from somewhere and we found a black fuzzy caterpillar in our garage.  London promptly picked it up and told me that it was her pet.  She carried it into the house and I convinced her to take it into the back yard.  On a shelf, she built a make-shift home, complete with leaves and such.

She put “Catty” in his home and got a little upset that he wasn’t staying there.  Catty ended up on the ground, but that was okay with her.  She was so excited to have a pet and kept saying, “My first pet!  Catty is my first pet!”

looks like Catty got stuck in a spider web

We got up this morning and London’s first order of business was to go downstairs and check on Catty.  At first she couldn’t find him, but then she spotted him on the grass and was happy he had found a nice place to hang out.  Later she couldn’t find him again and exclaimed, “My first pet and I already lost him!”  Taylor told her that Catty was probably moving into his chrysalis and would soon be a butterfly.  That calmed her down and now she’s keeping her eyes out for any chrysalis-looking objects.  Maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll run across Catty again, but instead of calling him Catty, she’ll have to call him “Butty.”

I think that London is pretty creative.  A couple of weeks ago, she arranged these blocks to spell out her name.  Can you tell?

That same day, Kate came over to play.  Those girls had a great time together.  We miss Kate and her family now that they don’t live here anymore so we were glad she could come over and play while they were here visiting.  As soon as Kristi dropped her off, Kate said to London, “Do you think we could play dress-up?”  London’s response, “OF COURSE we could!”  And they did.  They emptied the dress-up box and had a ball.  We can’t wait for them to come back and play again!

A couple of weeks ago (before we left on vacation) I snapped a couple of pictures of my kids outside in the parking lot at church.  I love all the wild daisies growing and I love that it looks like we’re out in the middle of nowhere, when in fact, there’s a college right across the street.

The same day, we were playing with some friends right after church.  For some reason, London’s friend, Gwyn, kept pinching Ashton’s cheeks (okay, I know the reason.  They’re irresistibly pinchable).  I thought he would like it, but he loved it!  He kept running up to her and look up at her with this big cheesy grin.  Funny kids.

Yesterday on our way to pick up Taylor from work, London and I had the following conversation:

London:  Mom, I want to go to Disneyland tomorrow.

Me:  You have a dance recital tomorrow.

London:  We can go after dance.

Me:  It will be too late.

London:  Okay, we can go before dance.

Me:  You have school.

London:  Mrs. Bradshaw and Danica are both going to Disneyland tomorrow.  I really want to go!

Me:  Are they going after school?  Because remember, you have a dance recital after school.

London:  I don’t know if they’ll be at school tomorrow.  But they’re going to California Adventure to watch World of Color and have a picnic with the princesses.

Me:  World of Color is at night and you have a dance recital at night.

London:  Maybe we can go during the day.

Me:  You have school.

London:  We can miss school.  I really want to go to Disneyland tomorrow.  Please can we go to Disneyland tomorrow?

Me:  (Laughing)

London:  Don’t make fun of me!

Me:  I’m not making fun of you.  I just think you’re cute, that’s all.

London:  But Mom, you didn’t answer my question.  Can we please go to Disneyland tomorrow?

Me:  Okay.

London:  REALLY?!  YAY!!!

What London didn’t know (and why I thought the conversation was so funny) is that I had just decided that morning that I would take the kids to Disneyland today.  She had no clue I was even considering it, but Bree (my BFF from high school) called me last week and told me that they were planning a last minute trip to Disneyland this weekend and wanted to know if we could join them.  I didn’t think we would be able to, but that was before I knew that they opened at 8:00 this morning.  Getting there early gave us time to play and make it home in time for dance.  So we went and had a great time!

When London was Ashton’s age, I remember thinking how smart she was.  When Ashton came and I started to see his personality, I immediately knew that London would be the smart one and he would be the goofy one.  I’ve realized that I was wrong.  I’m not sure who was smarter at this age (23 months), but if he’s not, he’s sure giving her a run for her money.  I was reading a counting book to Ashton yesterday and he counted to 10 all by himself!  I had no idea he knew how!  He’s a smart little guy.  He’s goofy too.

The other day he thought it would be fun to walk around the house in princess shoes.  It may be time to get rid of those things.

And on an unrelated note, a couple of weeks ago, Taylor had the day off so we took Ashton to the zoo.  We were at the California Condor exhibit and one of them tried to attack Ashton!

Luckily they were behind some glass and the bird ran into the glass instead of my son.  It sure made him jump, though.  I would too if a bird my size flew right at me.

London has spent the better part of her weekend working on paper clothes for some paper animals.  I guess she’s kind of making her own paper dolls, except she can’t change their clothes because she glued them on.  She came home from school on Friday with a bunch of little pictures of animals that she cut out, then decided to dress because their “nibbles” were showing — I mean because they weren’t modest.

She drew, cut out, and glued on little clothes for all of them.  Apparently there was a bride and a groom so there are hats with veils, some crowns, and some dresses that say love on them.  She’s such a creative little girl.

On another note, today she said to me (when she was mad at me for not getting what she wanted), “Someday you’re going to be someone’s grandma and you’re going to be a mean someone’s grandma.  But only if they whine.”  That’s right.  I’m only mean if you whine.  And there has been a lot of whining around our house lately.  She got quite hurt at school on Thursday.  They were on their first field trip to a puppet show at Balboa Park.  After the show, they ate their lunches and played on the playground.  She tripped on some stairs and bit through her bottom lip.  I can imagine that would hurt quite a bit.  It was pretty gnarly that day and she couldn’t really open her mouth at all to eat or anything.  It really was sad.  It’s still a little swollen on the inside but healing up quite well.  Anyway, I think her pain has contributed to her whiney-ness lately.  Although she was in such a sad state on Thursday it was kind of nice to have a bit of silence.  If you know London at all, you know that she does not stop talking.  Ever.  Except Thursday.  She couldn’t talk.  Yeah, that’s not an issue at all anymore.

And one more thing, today I was busy with some things.  I walked into London’s room and found this:

Please excuse the unmade bed.

After telling London to not stick her head between the the bars in the bannister, she asked why.  This is how our conversation went:

Me: Your head could get stuck and then you could hang by your head and die and I wouldn’t want that to happen because I love you very much and want you to be around for a very long time.

London: And I want you to be around for a very long time and you’re almost 40 and when you’re 40, that means you’re getting old.  But Papa is 50 so he’s older than you.

*I’m only 32.