Momsomnia

Whatever Ben had that gave him insomnia yesterday I seem to have caught. Instead of laying in bed tossing and turning I will attempt to update the blog with randomness of the kiddos that I adore.

Emma used to HATE to brush her teeth. I would literally hold her down with my legs wrapped around her and squeeze her cheeks with one hand while 'gently jamming' the toothbrush in her mouth with the other hand. This went on so much that it got to the point that it just wasn't worth this whole scenario more than once a week. (She's gonna lose those teeth anyways, right?) Well, I don't know how or why and I am not going to complain, but a few weeks ago something in her clicked and she realized that brushing her teeth all by herself could be fun. So now - at least 3 times a day she will say to me, "Mama, I gotta brush my teef. Dey really yellow. I gotta brush de white on 'em." (She thinks the toothpaste makes them white - not that they are white to begin with.) She will brush, then she will PLEASANTLY let me get in there and finish up the job. Imagine that. And, she no longer swallows the paste during the rinse portion. She has perfected a good swish around the mouth and strong stream of spurting it through her teeth into the sink without getting it everywhere. Phew.

Whenever Daddy happens to be sitting on the floor of the living room, Benny will walk up to him and say, "Yayayay yeeeoooo!" which is the sound Daddy makes when he plays the bounce baby on his lap then toss baby into the air game. Who said this kid can't communicate with words?

Emma has very clear speech for her age and is often mistaken for an older kid. It happened again at the playground this morning when she was playing with this 2 and a half year old girl, Molly. I was chatting with her parents about places to take the kids one the weather gets cold and the Mom said to me, "Emma plays so good with the younger kids. It must be because she has a younger brother." I explained that she just turned 3 in July and both parents were surprised. "Wow! She carries herself so much older," the Mom said. I thought about that a bit and agreed that she really did - and my whole point of this ramble is - I guess that is why it drives me so CRAZY when she occasionally talks in a baby voice and I have to say, "Emma, talk like a big girl." Then, the other day she was talking about putting something in the garbage - but she was pronouncing it, "gawbage" and I kept saying, "Emma, please talk like a big girl." and she said, "Butmama, I am!" Later that day when her teachers stopped by our house for a visit, one of them was talking about something and used the word "gawbage" in a sentence - and I immediately recognized that Emma was simply using a Long Island accent to pronounce it. HELP!!!