Southern By the Grace of God

WOW! Ashton just said "Shucks!" when he didn't get what he wanted. LOL! Paul and I tried to keep moving along, like we didn't notice, but a few giggles did sneak out.
Also, as I type, he's helping Paul try out the new Waffle Iron we got him for his birthday. They are mix. Or, since Ashton just assured us in his best big boy voice ever while trotting over to the fridge to grab 2 eggs, "I'm the chef Daddy.". So, well, I guess Paul's assisting him. :)

Ashton-isms

Lately Ashton is trying out some grow up talk. Sometimes it comes out right, some times wrong, but usually unexpected either way. Enjoy!

• Ashton:"So, what's with the guy mowing Susan's lawn anyways?" (He inserts the word "anyways" anywhere in a sentence and often.)


• Ashton: "Kate can wear my Superman PJs, but not on Sat." Me mildly amused: "Why, what's going on Sat?" Ashton: "I don't know, Sats are just kinda weird. So no PJs for Kate on Sat." (He also thinks kinda and weird should be in about every sentence. )


• Ashton: "Is it tomorrow yet?" (Paul and I can't figure out how to explain the concept of tomorrow to him so he can get it.)


• Ashton: "I want $64,000 so I can buy a toy." or "In 960 minutes I'll be ready." (Numbers don't quite mean what they should I guess.)

Love this time with them!

Wow, He Is Good

Monday was a tough morning all around. I was exhausted from sleeping 3 hours a night for 4 days in a row due to work and everything that could go wrong was. I knew I was yelling every other minute at the little ones to "Hurry up please!" and "Listen to me!", but couldn't seem to stop myself. Once in the car and nearing preschool Ashton, my three-year-old who had been quiet in the backseat, suddenly said "Mommy, it's a beautiful day outside...". I grumbled in agreement but really had to strain to hold the tears back when he followed in a softer voice with "...but you are having a bad day today. Can you please stop yelling at me?" I sent myself to time out after that and man, I deserved it. He is so perceptive for such a young soul and can humble me with one sentence. He is going to be a great man someday.

Arrrrg Me Maties!

Did you know today is "Talk Like a Pirate Day"? September 19 every year!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

"Ahoy! - "Hello!"
Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense
of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check
it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"
Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily
with everything you just said or did."
Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that
sir, as soon as my break is over."
Arrr! - This one is often confused with
arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin.
"Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this
beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it
sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a
few of the myriad possibilities."

Southern Drawl Y'all

Ashton suddenly has a southern accent...Miiiiilk (Milk), Heaaaaaad (Head), Hiiiiiiiii (Hi) etc... How did he get an accent in 3 days? Where did it come from? Surely not from Paul or I....


I'm not sure how I feel about it, but it is what it is! I guess raising a southern gentleman/belle was what we bargained for when we decided to raise a family south of the mason-dixon line! Kate and Ashton will be a G.R.I.T.S. (Girls Raised in the South/Gentleman Raised in the South). Gone With the Wind was always my favorite book/movie.

• Girls Raised in the South: "Whether called "Sweet Potato Queens", "Steel Magnolias", "Ya-Ya Sisters", or "Belles", Southern girls make the best friends."


• Gentleman Raised in the South: "He's chivalrous, kind, and moral, but he can also be messy, hog-wild, inattentive, and just plain frustrating. You love him, bless his heart, but you sure don't understand him."

Check this out for GREAT insider info on G.R.I.T.S.: http://www.gritsinc.com/GRITSexcerpt.html

"So ugly she'd run a dog off a meat wagon, bless her heart." translates from
Southern into "Damn Ugly, Poor Thing!"

Not Child's Play...

• Recently we attended a play date with the parent's group a friend of mine
  started. I was really upset by the experience and hope that sharing gets me over and through it.
• I had advised the organizer of the group time and
  time again that Ashton can be a little wild and difficult to manage at times.
  She insisted that the group was full of alternative-style parents and that he
  would be accepted "as is" in all of his eccentricities. So, on a day when Paul
  was off from work, we decided to meet the group for the 1st time.
• The play date was at the home of my friend, A, the organizer. On the way to the
  group Ashton asked where we were going and who would be there. After explaining
  we were going to see A and her daughter, R, Ashton very happily exclaimed he
  would love to share some of his American flags with R and proudly held up which
  one he planned to give. Now, as a fanatic collector of items, I was impressed
  with his plan to give something he currently treasured away, especially to
  someone he had met only once.
• Once we arrived at the house, I was a little nervous but encouraged by Ashton's preplanned generosity and happy to be meeting so many new people. The age of the children that attended the playgroup that day ranged from 6 months - ~2 years old, excluding Ashton who's 3.5. I was a little surprised to see that while the kitchen was gated off, the rest of the house was not but did not get the impression that anywhere was off limits for the children, particularly the nursery. Ashton, brimming with the curiosity of a
  3 year old, raced around to check out everything he could, but staying out of
  the master bedroom and bath. (Ashton and Kate were the only children who left
  the living room area...why I don't know.) The toy he came back in to the living
  room with, having found it god knows where, was a cowbell.
• I am going to talk about the cow bell, not as the only instance where I felt the parents of
  the group were annoyed with Ashton, but as the one I remember most. Now, the cow
  bell WAS loud from the joy he got when he rang it, but I have to put my foot
  down and say, why have a toy for a child that no one wants them to play with. I
  say this only because, as he rang the bell, I heard several off hand remarks
  like "WOW, that's quite a bell" and "Maybe we should put some tissue around the
  inside so it doesn't make any noise." Now, what the heck kind of sense does that
  make to have a bell that doesn't make noise? I suppose I'm harking on this point
  because I don't understand what happened. I mean, a)he was invited to a group to
  play but not seemingly to play in the way he likes to play, which is typical for
  a 3 year old boy and b) had I taken the bell away from him, he would have been
  so upset a loud cow bell would have sounded like soft wind chimes in comparison
  with his protesting tantrum. I mean, what is the point of a "play group" if not
  to PLAY? What would have been the appropriate way for him to "play"? Sitting
  quietly on my lap? Bowing and curtsying? I saw one dad spending most of the time
  quietly reading a book to his daughter and holding her on his lap, but really,
  why come to a group to do that?
• Another thing, one mother quickly packed her little girl up the moment she began to throw a tantrum and whisked her out the door. I wonder if I should do the same and feel shamed into quickly leaving if my children were to act up? Or should I feel that in public, let
  alone around other parents, I should feel free to work through the tantrum,
  discipline, then get back to the group? Why try to hide something that everyone
  else surely goes through?
• But hey, maybe this just wasn't the group I thought it was or we are not group people. I observed another mother, not finding joy in her 16-month old's identification of a penguin toy as a "duck", but scolding her 16 MONTH OLD for not using the word penguin instead. I mean, WOW, the genus of a species...from a 16-month old. Wow, that's not expecting a
  lot or anything...:(
• Maybe in all the rush to organize and categorize and perfect our children, this generation is causing them to miss out on so much. Like the email the co-organizer of the group sent out for the next playgroup. Maybe my bad experience was due to age difference, as the email
  specified this one would be for kids "2 and under due to the age appropriateness
  of the toys". (This was by the father who was quietly reading to his child
  during the playgroup, so maybe he's unfamiliar with the term "parallel playing".
  Or maybe he's just unfamiliar with toys and kids, the fact that if they belong
  to someone else they are always "age appropriate".) But really, what is the harm
  in older kids mixing with younger kids? Isn't that how younger kids learn? From
  older kids? Or does he fear my child's sensory integration dysfunction will rub
  off on his? What better to teach our children than tolerance for differences? I
  would never intentionally exclude a child for any reason and cannot understand
  anyone that would.
• I fear the age limit was set due to fear of Ashton's high-energy. This now seems to exclude Ashton from most activities, as I cannot find a parent with a child his age that is not working during the times we have free. I fear that he is now excluded from the core of the group who's one member stated "A great support structure for parents with kids to reassure them they are not alone." Ironically I now feel very alone and more isolated than ever, particularly since I still have not had any communication to see how we liked
  our first visit to the group from the organizer, my friend, A, who hosted the
  event in her home. A's husband joined the play date late, but seemed overly polite, preoccupied
  with apologizing for his baby's moodiness (aren't all babies moody?) and expressed surprised the toys were
  taken out (by my kids of course). So hey, maybe we left an equally bad impression?
  I really don't know. Maybe I am being overly-sensitive, but when it comes to
  one's children, who isn't?
• I will say this, by excluding Ashton, even from one play date, they are excluding a child who is full of joy and energy with communication skills that are phenomenal enough to help his best friend, Richard, learn English better than his parent's native Spanish. They are also
  excluding Kate, who cannot attend playgroups without Ashton, but who cares more
  for babies than any adult or toy. I may be over reacting, but I had such high hopes that were quickly deflated.
• I've since canceled my membership to the group and will stick to more informal play times where anything goes and imaginations as well as cow bells can ring free.

Mamaspeakin'

The day I realized I was going to be a mother, I never dreamed things like the following would flow daily from my mouth like raindrops in a thunderstorm.

"Young Lady, we do NOT use peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to wipe
our bellies with."

Even more distant in my realization of what motherhood is really about...this was not the strangest part of my day today.

He that thinks himself the happiest man is really so...

Here is a list of things that just flow out of Ashton's mouth these days:

• Buddy (our cat) has sharks teeth on his feet. (meaning his claws)


• Please close window, the frogs wake me up when they sing the ribbits.


• I go candy store and toy store when I get 5 quarters and spend them.


• I love you today mommy.
  
• Happy Daddy's Day Mr. Jimmy. You a daddy so I give you a hug.(Our neighbor and it's not even Father's Day yet!)
  
• Clean up or the pigs will come. Lock the door so the pigs can't come.
  
• That's not a monster truck, it's a green truck.
• I'm not Curious George mommy, I Ashton.


• Kate! Turns. My turns, Kate's turns, my turns.


• Grandma come to our house in 2 days. No, 5 days. No... 2 months, yes Mommy, 2 months. (She came to visit the next day)


• Mommy, today is not Monday, today is Sunday. Sun-day, because the sun is out.


• I put rainbow in my hand and give it to Daddy. Here Daddy! I share a rainbow with you!


• I can do it! Look!....Uh oh, sorry Mommy. I make a mess.

"He that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks
himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool."

Listen Closely to the Minds of Children

Today, for reasons that are an even longer story than I'd like to get into, Ashton told me today..."Mommy, I don't want to go to school." Raising an eyebrow and looking closer at him, I asked why not. This is what followed in the perfect three-year-old speech I am adjusting to, "Mommy, I eat my vegetables and fruit and grow big and strong so I can go work to get money to pay puppy and kitty doctors for Buddy so his teeth will not hurt him."
I love this stream of ideas about our day's worth of activities. It was interesting how he connected everything into one sentence, however long and drawn out it was. Ashton is demonstrating that he is becoming less and less of an observer in my life and more of a participant. Welcome to the world Ashton!


And little Miss Kate, well, she is just a world of personality all balled up into one amazing red-head! She was doodling today with a random pen and paper she found when she suddenly busted out into a garbled song coupled with motions toward the paper and a huge smile. I realized she had come very close to what I can only assume was an accidental almost perfect "A" and was singing "A,B,C,C,D,la,la,T,W,la,la,now,I,la,la,Yea!" She really understands and comprehends so much more than Paul & I give her credit for. She is on the verge of conversing and I simply cannot wait to hear what she has to say!