A 3-Year Old's Thoughts on Pregnancy/Motherhood

Rachel has informed me that she thinks she might be pregnant. We had the following conversation a few weeks ago:

Rachel: Mom . . . .I think there is a real baby - and I mean a REAL baby - in my tummy.

Me: Oh, wow. That would be weird. Are you just pretending you're pregnant because you're wearing kind of a poofy shirt?

Rachel: No, Mom. I can tell there's a baby in there because my tummy hurts and I can feel something wiggling around.

Me: Uh-oh. That is a problem.

Fortunately her stomach stopped hurting after awhile and the whole thing turned out to be a false alarm.

She did, however, tell me a few of the reasons why she claims she is going to be a better mom than I am when she grows up. Here was her list:

1. She will let her kids eat pizza whenever they want.
2. She will take her kids swimming every day.
3. She will let her kids eat REAL FOOD on their pretend tea set dishes whenever they want.
4. She will let her kids eat THEIR OWN WHOLE PIZZA on their pretend dishes.

As some of you know, Rachel is quite a good artist and she draws all the time. Sometimes I think she might be giving me little "hints" on how to be a better mother through her drawings. For example, she will draw a little party scene and then come show me, saying, "See this little girl in the picture? See how her mom let her have a big party outside with all her dishes and she even let her eat cake and ice-cream cones and cupcakes and banana splits and root-beer floats for breakfast? Can you believe how nice this girl's mom is?" Then she will smile sweetly at me and run off to draw another picture of some lucky girl with a wonderful mother.

I guess I could be a little more lenient with some things. A few days ago Rachel was in the kitchen drinking orange juice, and as I walked into the room, I saw her quickly pull a spoon out of her cup, acting as if she had not been trying to eat her orange juice with a spoon (something that I have forbidden her to do on various occasions). She then smiled at me and sighed, saying, "Mom, wouldn't it be fun if there was a girl - and I know her mother wouldn't let her do this - but wouldn't it be fun if there was a girl and she got to eat her whole cup of orange juice with a spoon? But of course, there's no way her mother would let her do it. I'm just saying it would be kind of neat." She then laughed kind of nervously, probably to show me that of course she knew how silly her little "hypothetical" scenario was.

It made me feel bad that she had been so sure I wouldn't let her that she hadn't even asked. But I also had to try hard not to laugh because it sounded so funny when she kept saying "her mother wouldn't let her", because my kids have never called me "mother" before. Now I can't remember what I said to her - I'm hoping I told her to go ahead and eat her juice with the spoon.


Rachel informing me of her pregnancy






A few of Rachel's many "party" drawings



The kids eating their snack outside on Rachel's tea set dishes (I had to show Rachel that at least sometimes I can be a fun mom)

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Well, the big day finally came, and Elizabeth turned 2 on Sunday.

Here she is with her birthday breakfast of choice

Opening presents after breakfast- she finally got her new princess toothbrush. Rachel is very jealous and has generously proposed a trade with her Dora one. Lizzy is not interested.

A new princess wand from the kids.

A new camera so she can stop stealing Rachel's.

A new Sleeping Beauty Polly Pocket so she can stop stealing Rachel's.

A new doll stroller, which Rachel promptly stole.

Happy Father's Day to Daniel! Lizzy got to share her special day with her dad, which was fitting because they are such good buddies.

The birthday girl all ready for church.

Lizzy ended up choosing a pink and purple cake with marshmallows on it. I think the other kids were all more excited about the final result than she was, though - she loved how it looked but didn't want to eat any of it, kindly telling me that she just wanted to eat her ice-cream because the cake was "yucky." Oh, well. Sometimes you just can't compete with a good bowl of ice-cream.

Blowing out the candles.

We went on a nature walk near our house after dinner.

The boys went exploring the whole time and found lots of these (Texas Spiny Lizards)

Lizzy took lots of pictures with her new camera.

Rachel was quite the photographer, too. She told me before we started our walk that I better go slow and wait for her because she was planning on stopping to take a picture whenever she saw something interesting. Her definition of "interesting" ended up being a little bit different than mine.

The sprinklers came on near the forest just as we were leaving to go home, and Rachel couldn't resist.

I decided to just let them go for it - there is definitely something magical about running through sprinklers with your clothes on (Sunday dresses in this case) on a hot summer evening.

The birthday girl getting soaked. A fun end to a fun day.

Elizabeth's Birthday Plans

Elizabeth has been getting pretty excited for her upcoming birthday (she'll turn 2 on June 15th). I don't remember my other kids being so into it at this age. I think she must have been listening to the older kids a lot - recently they have been having lots of discussions about the birthday meals they're going to choose this year, and what kinds of birthday cakes they'll want (they take this very seriously and repeatedly give me updated plans throughout the year). A few weeks ago Lizza started asking me every day if it was her birthday. I would tell her, "not yet, but it's almost coming!"

Then I guess she got frustrated that I wasn't doing anything to make it happen sooner, so she just started announcing her birthday. At random moments throughout the day, she'd call out, "Mom! It's Lizza's birthday!" Then she would throw her arms up in the air and make a really excited face, like she's thinking maybe I'll believe her and agree that it's her birthday if she just acts the part well enough. She obviously does not understand that there is a set date for it; She thinks if she tries hard enough or asks often enough, I'll give in and let it be her birthday. I feel bad for her because she has no idea how to make it be her birthday and she's trying so hard.

She might have resigned herself to the fact that it's not happening for awhile - the last few days instead of telling me it's her birthday, she has told me that her "birthday's cooking", and it's "almost ready." I'm not exactly sure what she means by that. I think she might be talking about her birthday cake. I guess it makes her feel better if she pretends that her cake is still cooking and it's not quite ready, so that's why we keep putting off having her birthday. She already has grand plans for her cake - she has told me that she wants it to be purple and pink with strawberries on it. I'll see what I can do.

I wonder how she's going to react when it actually is her birthday. I hope it's all that she's imagined. She already knows one present she's going to get, and she's thrilled about it - a new toothbrush. I know that sounds lame, but right now she just has a plain blue one that I let her use because it's extra, and she is very jealous of Rachel's Dora toothbrush and is always trying to steal it (Lizzy is the only one of my children who is enthusiastic about brushing her teeth - I wouldn't even do hers at all if she didn't insist on it - brushing my kids' teeth has never been one of my strengths). Anyway, she was complaining the other day that she didn't have a Dora toothbrush, and I asked her if maybe she'd like to get a brand new toothbrush for her birthday. She was very excited about the idea. We could probably just do that and the purple cake and we'd be set.

Speaking of Elizabeth's plans for the near future, though, she also seems to be getting pretty excited about our new baby coming. She's always talking about the baby in my tummy, and how it's almost coming. Yesterday out of the blue she announced, "Baby coming! Lizza hold little baby. Lizza nice." She then did a big fake smile at me to show me what a nice, caring big sister she's going to be. She's still got a lot of convincing to do before I'm letting her anywhere near him.

Outer space is cooler than furniture. Literally.

Tristan is at such a fun "grown-up conversation" age. I guess he's been that way for a long time, though. Since he was old enough to talk, it seems he's been trying to fit in with the grown-ups.

Anyway, when he got home from school a few weeks ago, he was excited to tell me that they just started a unit on space. He said that it's really fun and not boring at all, because it's something he really loves and he knows a lot about it. He then explained, "That's why it's so perfect, I guess. Like, it's way different than if we were learning about something like, oh, say for example, furniture. You know? Because, first: furniture is not one of my favorite things. And second, I don't know that much about it. Get it? Maybe if I knew some cool facts about it, it might be a little bit interesting." He then stopped to think about it for a second, and then I guess came to the conclusion that furniture could never really be that interesting, and he added, "well, like I said, it's just not one of my favorite things."

He was saying all of this with a completely straight face, so I tried to take it all very seriously and not laugh. I just told him that it made a lot of sense, and I totally got it.

I love it when he has these little conversations with me, and I don't want him to stop, so I have to be careful with how I react - a few times after he has said something particularly cute, I'll give Daniel a little smile, like "can you believe how fun this kid is?", and Tristan will immediately get suspicious and demand, "Why are you looking at Dad like you think I did something weird or funny?"

Other grown-up thing he's been saying: "Literally". He likes to use this one a lot. But he always uses it correctly. So it's funny to see how many situations he comes up with to use it (Mom, I always get hungry in the middle of the night. Like, literally - it will be 2:00 in the morning and I will wake up and be very hungry).

He also says "meaning" a lot. (Mom, this isn't my favorite dinner. Not meaning I don't like it; just meaning if I had to choose a favorite this wouldn't be it. Get it?) He uses the "not meaning; meaning" line several times a day. I think it's his favorite new way to clarify. He loves clarifying. Maybe that's why words like "literally" are so appealing to him when he uses it in the right way - he thinks it's a cool way to say exactly what he means.

It seems like all of a sudden he's growing up. I'm not sure if I'm ready for it.