Can You Hear Me?

It is not uncommon for me to hear Mariah and/or Ambria speaking loudly "AT" the television. They answer the questions that cartoon characters ask. They even respond to cartoon characters' commands without the characters saying "please."

Dora: (unnecessarily yelling) "SAY BACKPACK!"
My girls: BACKPACK! Backpack, backpack!

Go, Diego, Go has his own commands and list of questions, as does Little Einsteins, and on and on.

The point: MY GIRLS LISTEN!

Um, yeah, pretty frustrating when I am trying to get the girls to do something, like clean up their toys or clear the table, I EVEN SAY PLEASE, and they 'can't hear me' or they just plain don't want to listen to me.

At times, I feel like Dora has more leverage than me.

The Case of the Missing Tooth Fairy

This is not the normal "Hey, look, my kid lost their first tooth!" post.

Mariah lost her first tooth back in April. This was a memorable experience for the whole family as we waited patiently for Mariah to get "brave" and pull out her then 'hanging by a thread' tooth. She did it. We cheered.

As a mother, it was emotional for me as my oldest daughter reached yet another milestone.

That night, instead of placing the tooth under her purple pillow, Mariah placed the shiny tooth on her dresser. She did not want the Tooth Fairy to take this precious piece of her life. She didn't want the Tooth Fairy to fly off with her prized possession.

The Tooth Fairy did not show up. The Tooth Fairy did not steal the tooth out from under her. The Tooth Fairy did not have Mariah's permission to visit.

Mariah took her tooth to school for Show and Tell the following week and her teacher gave her a cool 'tooth necklace' to place her tooth in. Mariah came home from school skipping, smiling, and even more proud of her tooth, now inside the plastic necklace.

Mariah proudly shows me the necklace after school and opens it up to reveal her first tooth. She exclaims, "look, mom, there is A LOT more space in here for the rest of my teeth!"

What does this mean? Mariah wants to keep her teeth.

I asked Mariah if she ever plans to place her teeth under her pillow (not to catch the Tooth Fairy off guard) and she thought MAYBE she would after 5 or 10 teeth have fallen out and then she would put them ALL under her pillow and see what the Tooth Fairy would leave for her.

Interesting. Not the 'normal' Tooth Fairy story.

Unique and inventive...just like my Mariah.

As seen in this picture, Mariah has since lost ANOTHER tooth! Tooth #1 and Tooth #2 reside inside the plastic necklace to this day.

Strabismus Eye Patches

Ok, so we are going on almost two months of eye patch therapy (read on for details about how the patches have become a tasty treat). Some days we see an improvement in Ashlyn's eyes and some days seem like she has taken a few steps back. Before starting the patch therapy, we were noticing her eye crossing about 50% of the time, and now it seems like her eye is crossing 75% of the time (like I said, a few steps back). We will continue the patching until the middle of July and then go back to the specialist.

Here is a pretty cool new eye patch (but of course it is more expensive). It has glitter and sparkles on it!! Mariah and Ambria were jealous of this stylish piece of **bling**.
The first month or so of patching went well and Ashlyn tolerated them REALLY well....but....that wore off and now she HATES them!!! She attempts to rip them off within a few seconds of me putting on the patch, and most times she is successful.
Rip off first patch.
Take two.
Rip it off.
I get upset.
Money down the drain.
Try again.
Try to hold Ashlyn's hand, push her hand away, say 'no', distract her with snacks, distract her with toys, go outside.
No luck.

One day, Ashlyn was playing in the living room while wearing her eye patch. I walked in to check on her and she looked like she was up to no good. Upon closer inspection, she was eating something. I pry open her mouth to find...HER EYE PATCH! Ashlyn now rips off her eye patch ASAP and tries to EAT them. So, not only do I now have to try to keep the patch on her eye, I also have to make sure that if she does successfully tears it off and eats it, that she doesn't choke on it. Nice.

Eye patch therapy just got a little more difficult.
Our new idea and pretty much last resort: we put socks on her hands. I am sure it is only a matter of time before she learns to get the socks off too. Lovely.

Learning Numbers

Well, not exactly sure if this is considered great parenting or not, but Ambria has learned her numbers...thanks to the remote control.

Ambria: "Mom, what channel is Dora?"
Me: "2...9...5"
Ambria: "ok"

Ambria: "Mom, dad left the sports channel on."
Me: "Push 3...0...1"
Ambria: "ok"

Boom. She knows her numbers. :)

Thief.

I just ate Goldfish crackers off of Ashlyn's highchair tray.

And, I didn't say please or thank you.

Happy, Sad, or Mad

A few years ago, we started doing something at the dinner table. Every night (or whenever we all sit down to eat dinner together, usually 3-4 times a week) we ask these three questions:

1. What made you happy today?
2. What made you sad today?
3. What made you angry today?

Each person in the family, even me and my husband, gets a chance to speak and everyone else has to be polite and listen.

Of course, this can prove to be interesting on some occasions. When we started this tradition, Ambria was just learning to talk. We would ask her what made her happy, and her response was, "happy." On other days, we get looonngg drawn out stories from Mariah about good and/or bad things that happened at school and who her best friend of the day is, or what new club has been started and what friend was left out.

We learn new things are each member of the family.

The girls learn that mom and dad have emotions too.
We learn more about each of the girls' personalities, likes, and dislikes.
We learn about events at school.
We learn to respect each family member and validate their feelings.

I really enjoy this tradition. I can only imagine that stories will get more interesting as the girls get older, well, I guess if they don't refuse to talk and have an attitude...