Out of the mouth of a five year old

Last night Isabella and I were talking about how God gives everyone different talents.  She told me that she thought God made me a "good cook, good cookie baker, good singer, good at playing piano, good at teaching piano, and good at taking care of people."  I asked her what she thought God made Daddy good at, her response - "Um (long pause), he's good at backing the vehicles out of the garage."

I couldn't help but laugh, but then I helped her come up with some more, because Daddy's good at lots of other things, too!

Conversation

I spent almost two hours this morning (while Jaymes was napping) pulling all the weeds in our landscaping and trimming bushes (I'm addicted to trimming our bushes and have to do it every other week, don't ask me why!). While I was out there, Isabella stood there the entire time and chatted my ear off. The entire conversation revolved around this:

Isabella: Did you know I have kids, I have A LOT of kids, so many kids I had to sell my car and get a van.

Mommy: Really!? What are your kids' names, and just how many do you have?

Isabella: Well, I have like one, two, three kids. Their names are Cindy, she's a baby. The next one's name is Microphone, and the other one is Shotsy.

Mommy: Those are some interesting names!

Isabella: Well, you know I really didn't name them that, their Daddy wanted to name them that, and I was like, well okay, if you say so!

Mommy: Their Daddy is your husband I hope! What's his name?

Isabella: Yes, he's my husband, his name is Monte of course! He helps me with them when he's not at work, but you know I just have SO many kids, it's really hard for me to take care of them! Plus, you know, I have a granddaughter too! She's four. Anyway, all my kids had to go to the doctor today for checkups. And excuse me ma'am, but don't you have a baby? Because if there's ever anything wrong with him, I can fix him. Well, you know, I'm not a doctor, though, just a fixer lady.

Finally after about an hour of talking about her kids, she realized she left them all in her van! So I had to go check on these imaginary kids in her imaginary van. Thank goodness they all seemed okay since she did remember to leave the air conditioning on!

I really need to stop and remember these one on one moments with her more often. It was so much fun.

Alleluia

A couple weeks ago Isabella came to me one day and said,


"Mommy, I've noticed we don't sing 'Alleluia' anymore in church, how come?"


I explained once Easter comes, we will start again. Just goes to show kids pick up on way more than we think!

Wrong kind of cream!

I overheard Isabella talking to one of her babies earlier today -

"Here sweetie, lets change your diaper and put some sour cream on your bottom."

I had to write this down . . .

Background information:



Isabella was running around the house one night after her bath, with a white towel on her head.



Mommy: "Isabella, you look like a bride, are you getting married?"



Isabella: "I'm not going to marry ANYONE! Well . . . but I am going to marry Jesus."

Mc.Donald's

I just overheard this in the other room:

"Daddy, I know of 7 Mc.Donalds, there's one in _____(name of nearby town), one in heaven, one in . . ." (etc.)

Yes child, your idea of heaven would have a Mc.Donald's!

This and That

Monte has been taking the computer to work with him quite a bit lately, so I haven't been spending a whole lot of time on-line. Here's some snippets of life recently that happen to come to mind right now.

Isabella went as a Care Bear for Halloween. I have never been a fan of Halloween, and it would appear that she's not really either. I'm not quite sure how I got a picture of her smiling in her costume, she must have smiled for one nanosecond, and I actually caught it on camera! I do enjoy the pumpkin carving every year, though, but this year I was sick in bed with an awful migraine the night before Halloween. Daddy did a good job on Isabella's pumpkin, and I hear they had a lot of fun!


Over the past few months Isabella has taken quite the interest in watching TV. We usually limit it to one show in the morning, and one show after her nap. Her new loves are Dora and Diego, she got some Dora books for her birthday, and I cannot read them to her enough. She has them all memorized, and "reads" them to her babies all the time. One set of grandparents is getting her the Leapfrog Tag system for Christmas. There are Dora and Diego books that go with it, I know she will LOVE it!

Speaking of Christmas, I'm SO excited for it! I can hardly wait to start listening to Christmas music, Christmas baking, decorating, etc.

In the picture below, Isabella is being Diego. She has both her "rescue pack" and "spotting scope"!

My sister and her kids came to visit, and we went to "Pla.yhouse Di.sney L.ive". It was so much fun, the girls loved it! Isabella sat on my lap, and never moved, she was absolutely amazed.

During intermission.

Isabella has been all compliments for almost the last year, it's so cute. I can't even count how many times a day she tells Monte and I she loves us. Every night right after her bath she gives me a hug and says, "I'm so happy I've got you, and I'm so happy I've got Daddy, too." Talk about melt my heart . . . Some things she's said lately that I need to write down before I forget, "Daddy, I think you misunderstood me.", the other day I asked her what she was looking at, and she responded, "Oh Mommy, just pretend I'm not here." And the last few days when she's been playing with her little animal toys, she's been all talk of "hibernation". I would love to say that she learned her recent counting in Spanish and other Spanish words from me, since that's what I actually have a degree in, but it was all Dora, folks. :)

Monte has a friend from high school that is an ul.timate fighter, and is on the realty TV show, also called The Ultima.te Fighter. We are watching it right now, it's crazy to be watching someone on TV that we know, but I am most definitely NOT a fan of ultimate fighting.

I got one of my winter projects done. I went through all of my Taste of Home magazines, and other unorganized recipes, and put them all in a binder with different categories. I've had fun trying out several new recipes lately, now that I can actually find them!

And that's about all I've got for now!

And sorry if this has been hard to read (if anyone is still even reading!) blogger is being difficult and won't let me separate my last few paragraphs.

More Birthday Fun

On Monday, the actual birthday, Isabella had lots of fun! My sister and her kids were staying with us for a couple days after the party, so Isabella had loads of fun with her cousin, Rachel. Isabella and I recently discovered the play area at Menards, of all places! Actually, I've always known about it, I've just never been one to let her play anywhere like that because of my germaphobe tendancies. I have to say, though, I've gotten much better about things like that, I just make sure to have hand sanitizing wipes with me at ALL times. :) When it comes down to it, after so many weeks of gloomy, cold weather, it's great for both her and I! So we let the girls play there for a while, then we went to McDonald's for a birthday lunch. Of course McDonald's is the child's favorite place to eat, and we eat there all too frequently. She and I have our "dates" there whenever we go to the 'city' to run errands, which is about once every week or week and half. But this time it was her birthday, and she was with her cousin, and she got to get a happy meal with a My Little Pony in it. Oh, the excitement!! She told me while we were eating, "Mommy, this is SO excellent, it's just the best surprise ever!"

When Monte got home that evening, we told her she could open her presents from us, but she didn't want to! Nothing surprises us anymore, I guess. She kept saying, she didn't want to open any presents. Also, if we ever take her to the toy aisle/toy store to pick anything out, she absolutely does not want anything! I guess she's just a browser, and I hope that lasts! Anyway, we finally gave her the presents the next day, and once she saw them, she was excited. I think part of it was that she was having so much fun playing with her cousin the day before, that she didn't want to stop to open presents.

Playing at Menards.

This picture cracks me up.

Our very nice, and very generous neighbors gave her this tea set (they also gave her a huge bag of Hershey's kisses and a big bag of cookies for Halloween)!

Her Little People tree house from us.

Third Birthday Party

We celebrated Isabella's birthday with my family this past Sunday. My whole family was able to come, which made it such a special day! It means so much to us, because everyone had to drive so far. My brother and his family (with 3 little kids) drove a total of 8 hours that day! The weather was actually nice, so the kids got a chance to play outside for awhile. I made meatballs, cheesy potatoes, spinich penne salad, beer bread, fruit salad, and apples with a homemade caramel dip for dinner. Isabella was SO excited about her cake. I made her a Nemo cake. One night, about 3 months ago, Monte was flipping through the channels, and the movie, "Finding Nemo" was on. Up until that point she hadn't had much interest in TV, but she fell in love with Nemo! Now she'll watch just about anything, her new favorites are Dora and Diego. We usually limit her TV viewing to 2 shows per day, otherwise there's no telling how much the girl would watch.

I thought the cake turned out pretty good. I'll have one more chance to make it this weekend, when we get together with Monte's family.

We made treat bags for her cousins, each one had a Nemo yo-yo, Nemo sticker, and Nemo fruit snacks.

Looking so grown up!

Her new shopping cart from Grandma and Grandpa. Every morning for about a month she would ask me, "Mommy, do I not have a shopping cart?" I took that as a hint she wanted one. :)

I'm three!

Getting in touch with her feelings

I need to write these down here before I forget them.

Today Isabella said, "I felt very frustrated when Rachel was trying to hug and kiss me."

Then a little while later, she said, "Daddy, sometimes you just need to be patient with me."

Isabella quote of the day

"Mommy, would it be alright if I fed my helicopter some grass?"




She was referring to the ride-on helicopter on her swingset. It seemed to enjoy the grass.

Lessons On Lights

The other day at my sister's we ventured out on a little shopping trip, it was the first time my sister had the new baby out. I thought I would help out a little by taking my niece in my car with me. The following conversation took place in the back seat.

My niece Rachel: " Angela, why are you stopped?"

Isabella: "Rachel, my mommy has to stop because we're at a red light. Red means stop and when it's green she can go. My mommy can also turn right on red, though."


Well, I'm glad she's got that all figured out.

Have I mentioned she's a Daddy's girl!

Right after Monte left for work this morning, Isabella said:

"I think you should work, Mommy, then Daddy can stay home with me."


I see how I rate.


Then, when she saw Monte come home really early today (because I had a dentist appt.), she was SO excited, that after all the screaming with excitement, she was actually telling herself, "now relax, just relax." Ha!

Vacation Post - Mount Rushmore

Monte, Isabella, and I, along with Monte's parents went to the Black Hills of South Dakota for our vacation last week. It was amazingly beautiful out there! I was there when I was a little girl, then Monte and I went there for our honeymoon, and then a couple of years later for our anniversary. We were married in the dead of winter, though, so I haven't seen it during the summer, when it's so beautiful, since I was very young. Also, there is so much to do and see there, that every time we go we see new things, although Mount Rushmore is always a must see. It was an 8 hour drive out there at the beginning of the week, then lots of driving while we were there to see the scenery and different tourist attractions, then an 8 hour drive home at the end of the week. Isabella did amazing with all of the driving, she just went along with the flow the entire time. Monte's mom brought the baby doll from her house (Isabella's favorite toy in the whole world!!) and that baby honestly kept Isabella entertained the entire time we were driving! We stopped several times to let her go potty, and to let her run /jump around, and I think that helped a lot too. I think I'll do several vacation posts as I have time since there were so many things we did.

Isabella loved Mount Rushmore, we went there 3 times while we were staying out there. Every time she would see it she would say, "Look at Mount Rushmore!! Isn't that something!"

This next one was taken outside the gift shop at Mount Rushmore. The stuffed buffalo in her stroller was her souvenir from Daddy from the trip. She named him "Bravo" and has been sleeping with him ever since. My dad also got me a stuffed buffalo from there when I was a little girl.

Conversation at Supper

Isabella: "Mommy, did the doctor take your blood pressure yesterday?"

Me: "Yes, she did."

Isabella: "Oh, mm hmm . . . what was it?"

Me: "It was 120 over 70."

Isabella: "Oh okay, I see."

I swear, sometimes the kid seems so grown up, then I am reminded of her "two-ness" when I hear something like I heard after supper. I was loading the dishwasher, and I overheard Monte in the bathroom saying, "AAHH, no we do not touch anything in the toilet." Ha! Good times.

Recent Isabella Quotes

"Hmm, my eyes are getting all tangled up!"





***



She and I go for a walk everyday, we almost always stop in to church on our walks. The other day as I kneeled down in front of the tabernacle she looked up at it and said, "Oh hi Jesus, how are you today? *pause* Oh, you're good, that's good, I'm good too. I love you, bye."

Just how old do you think you are missy?!

Isabella, this morning while I was pushing her on the swing: "When I was a little girl, I would just swing and swing and swing."

Two year old talk

(Background Information: Nancy and Denny are our neighbors.)

Isabella: "I'm going to Miami with Denny, and we're going to buy Nancy some juice there, and Mommy will come, and Daddy will be there too becuase he is NOT going to be working, and we'll all go and buy Nancy some juice! "

I have no idea where she heard about Miami. She has some pretty big plans.

2 and a half

My birthday also marked Isabella's half birthday, it seems the time just keeps going faster and faster! I can't believe my baby is 2 and a half already! Monte and I are both in love with the twos, so far it has been such a fun age (except for one thing - potty training, which I will get to). It seemed to us that when she was potty trained back in February that she really grew up. She continues to talk up a storm, and uses phrases like, "I'm being ridiculous.", "That reminds me . . .", "I actually probably need . . ." "Excuse me there Father/Mother.", "You need to concentrate.". She insists that our neighbors have a banana tree in their yard, and is always talking about it! She cracks us up with her talking, but sometimes she WILL NOT be quiet! She counts and says her ABC's like a pro, knows all her colors, and says the blessing before meals, Guardian Angel prayer, Hail Mary, Glory Be, and sign of the cross (she could teach my 6th grade CCD kids I think, but that's a whole other story, sigh). She asks permission with EVERYTHING she does, even going down the slide the other day at the park, she ran over to me every single time after she went down the slide to ask if she could go down again. She still refuses to get out of her bed without either Monte or I telling her she can, I wonder how much longer that will last. She is very easygoing and compliant BUT was not for about 6 weeks after she was potty trained. She turned into a monster, the littlest things set her off and she seemed very angry a lot. I was very worried that I did some sort of emotional damage to her and that I had potty trained her when she perhaps wasn't quite ready. I found myself saying a lot that I just wanted my girl back! It was an extremely frustrating time for me, my worst as a mommy. I felt so guilty for "damaging" her . . . live and learn. But thankfully I did get my girl back, and she is completely back to her happy, easygoing self. She still needs and wants her sleep, and asks me everynight to put her to bed sometime between 7 and 8. We also work our days around her nap, as she really needs that too.

She LOVES the TV show "My friends Tigger and Pooh", however that is the ONLY show she will watch, despite me trying to get her to watch something else every now and then just to mix things up a bit. Other than that show, she wants absolutely nothing to do with TV. Which I'm not sure how to take. I definitely don't want to use the TV as a babysitter, but I also would like to be able to have her watch something quick while I take a shower, etc.) Her favorite thing is to play outside, when the weather is nice we come in to eat and nap and that's about it, and her favorite thing is her beloved blanky. She loves to color and paint, and I'm convinced that Crayola Color Wonder is just about the best product ever invented. She is every bit a girly girl, and puts on her makeup (my empty makeup bottles I gave her) every morning right along beside me. She has quite the imagination, and I'm pretty sure she has an imaginary friend, she just calls her "that lady". Today "that lady" was in my bedroom all day, and Isabella brought her lots of snacks! She likes to go to Bible Study every week, but gets very shy around some of the other kids there. She loves to go places and often asks me in the morning what we are going to do that day. When I ask her what she wants to do, she usually tells me she wants to go to the mall or McDonalds!! Our town has a big, new gymnastics facility, and almost all my friends are starting their girls out there at 3 years old. One of my friends is trying to convince me to start Isabella this summer as they will take kids before 3 as long as they're potty trained. But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do it, she just needs to stay little for a while I think, there will be plenty of time for running her around to different places/events when she's older! We're looking forward to a fun summer with her, especially now that Monte is feeling so well, we are going to take advantage of having a "normal" life! The way I feel about this age/stage can be best described by a quote from my mother-in-law when we were at the zoo the other day. "I just want to spray something on her to keep her like this forever!"

Thanks for all the birthday messages, emails, etc! Our mother/daughter banquet went really well, I now know what it's like and will be more prepared for next year, it was a really busy weekend! Today Isabella and I went to where Monte's sister teaches and watched her third grade production of "The Wizard of Oz", it was so good, I can't believe little third graders could do that well! They only live an hour from us, but we never see them, so it was nice to go there. I didn't know what Isabella was going to think of it, but she loved it, she sat still and really paid attention. The only time she said anything was in between scenes, she would loudly exclaim, "Somebody needs to turn the lights on!" And now she's exhausted from only a short nap in the car, so I better get her to bed . . .