The Linda Family

My babies are growing up.  Growing up WAY too fast.

I met Ashleigh at school when she got out today.  I took her backpack and handed over her car seat and overnight bag.  She’s off for her first big girl sleep over birthday party.  I’m trying not to be a nervous wreck, really trying hard.  We ‘know’ the parents from drop off, pick up, and school gatherings, but it’s not like I *KNOW* the parents.  I’m praying their movie of the night is a G rated experience and not something I’ll have to deal with the results of later. This is the kid who thinks Toy Story 3 is too scary.

I walk in the front door and am greeted by Bekah.  I had left her at home with Wes because she was napping.  She proceeded to tell me that daddy had a hot dog.  A hot dog.  Last time she said that word it was pronounced ‘Aah-gosh’.  I have it on video somewhere.  I must find it.  I used to make her repeat it over and over because it was so cute.  I noticed last week that she started pronouncing her friend Caleb’s name properly.  Two weeks ago he was Qualeb, last week it was Caleb.

My babies are growing up.  It goes by way too fast.  Someone PLEASE find that pause button!

Last week Wes and I realized that Bekah was nearly two and a half.  As if that is not enough of a shock, we realized we have never spent any time teaching her to count or her ABC’s or even her shapes and colors.  Whoops!  Parenting fail.

So, I started emphasizing the color of things over the past few days.  Here is your purple cup, let’s put on your pink shoes.  I’ve quizzed her a few times, and she usually gets it right by the 2nd guess.  Today she shocked me.  I was in the kitchen getting a bowl out of the cabinet for her lunch.  From below I hear, “NO MOMMY!!  Not the BLUE one!” Well knock me over with a feather, she’s getting it!  If only she wasn’t quite so opinionated…..

Today was a strange day.  Ashleigh did not have school (professional development day for teachers) so we had a girl’s day around the house.  I did some cleaning, they did some playing, I did some work, we caught up on last week’s American Idol.  You know, the usual.

Both girls were in rare form today.  Ashleigh was amazingly helpful, and she only whined a little this morning.  She really was not happy that Bekah got to watch Sesame Street when it was on at 9:30, because this took away from her Idol time.  I promised her we would watch Idol, but we were also going to watch Sesame Street.  There were a few sisterly fights over toys here and there, and neither one really wanted cooperate with my desire to take some photos of them, but all in all, Ashleigh had a GREAT day and I was so excited about how helpful she was being.

It was a good thing, because Bekah has hit 2.  HARD.  She is quite stubborn and will hear nothing about what you want her to do, it is only what she wants to do.  Oy!  She gave me a run for my money today.  I’m hoping after a few rough days she’ll figure out that doing what mommy says you may not do is not a good idea.  (I know, but please let me live in my fantasy world for a LITTLE bit, k?)

Of course, it all fades away when dinner begins.  Tonight we sat down to eat and after I put food on the girl’s plates Bekah folded her hands and said, “Jesus, food, Amen.”  My eyes welled up with tears as I was so proud of my little girl.  Two may be the age of stubborn and seeing what they can get away with, but it’s also the age of finally being able to express themselves and understand and put things together.

A few moments later Ashleigh began singing her grace, and Bekah tried her best to join in.  She doesn’t know the words, but she does know the tune and she made up words and hummed right along with her big sister.  Those are the moments that make me a proud & happy mommy.

We keep old phones around here in case of emergency.  When I get a new phone, I always keep the old one just in case.  I have (on more than one occasion) had to go back to the old phone.  Now that we’ve switched phone carriers, the old phone I hung on to is useless, and in the toy bin.  the girls love it because it’s pink, and therefore looks like my current phone.

Today Bekah had the phone and casually handed it to me and asked me to plug it in for her.  I about fell over laughing at the cuteness that was the (almost) 2 yr old asking me to plug in her phone.  I told her that I no longer had the charger for that phone, I had just thrown it away.  She seemed to understand and took off up to her room to play.  Or so I thought.

A minute or two later, our friend Alicia was walking out the door and started laughing at what she saw up the stairs.  So, I came to investigate.  Here comes Bekah down the stairs.  She was holding two phone chargers, a wall charger and a USB charger for our current phones.  She then begged me to plug them in and even plugged the USB into my laptop.

She is hilarious.  And smart.  A scary combination.  Even as I type this she is looking over my shoulder making sure I know that the photo above is of HER phone.  Oy!  We are SO in trouble with this girl….