What are your intentions, young man?

This morning, while Diana took her first nap, Amelia and I worked in the backyard. As I was trimming the olive tree (making it look a bit more like an actual tree) our friendly neighborhood cat came by. Amelia couldn't stop talking about it and asked me repeatedly, "Can you pet the cat?" I pet the cat for a while, but I never forget that this cat can be ornery and has bitten Amelia in the past. Amelia also suggested I feed the cat. I replied, "If I feed the cat he'll come by every day asking for food."

Funny how you never heed your own advice.

Amelia's friend came by again this afternoon. (I don't want to give his real name, so let's just call him, "Jim.") I'm glad he comes by and I'm glad Amelia turns off the DVD player for a bit and goes outside, but I sometimes feel like there should be some small reimbursement for supervising and feeding a neighbor's son. Today Jim told me, "Amelia wants some juice." I asked Amelia if she did, indeed, want juice and she shook her head, "No."

I told the boy that he could have juice, even if Amelia didn't want any. He told me that what he actually wanted was chocolate milk (of course). I asked if soy was okay and he said that was fine.

So, he followed me into the house and I gave him a small paper cup with chocolate soy milk in it. He drank this and a second cup and then told me, "I think you should cut open that second watermelon." I guess he did some recon of my kitchen while inside.

I cut into the watermelon and gave both Amelia and Jim a slice. Jim finished his quickly and asked for a second slice. I asked him if his mom would think it was okay for him to eat watermelon and he said, "She doesn't like me eating during the day...Can I have that last slice of watermelon?"

He's a funny kid. All of us then proceeded to the park across the street. While there I told Amelia, "We have to go home soon so you can eat dinner." Jim asked if he could come over and have dinner, too. I said, "All she's having is leftovers from Texas Roadhouse, and there isn't much left." He stood silent for a moment then said, "I don't know what that is, but I'm hecka hungry."

I would say that Jim followed us home expecting to be fed dinner, but he actually led the way - opening the door for us. It wasn't easy to find a tactful way to say, "Go home, kid - no free meal today." Finally I told Amelia to say good-bye as we were washing our hands for supper. He still didn't get it right away, but he did leave...With a glass of chocolate soy milk to go.

I think we're reaching a point where I'll have to tell his parents that he's eating over here. I want to make sure it's okay with her and that she knows the strange woman who has her son in her house.

I guess this is what happens when you're a stay-at-home mom. This could get expensive if he's still coming over as a teenager.

Lisa

"I love this baby!"

There may be nothing cuter than the speech of a three-year-old. Recently Amelia has been repeating, "I love the baby," and "I love this baby." Of course mommy will tell her, "I love the baby, too; and I love Amelia" to which she replies, "And I love mommy."

What's funny about these conversations is that Amelia, who doesn't understand the concepts of diexis and anaphoric reference, will almost invariably ask mommy, "Can you say, 'I love this mommy'?" I'm not sure she understands why it's odd for me to say, "I love this mommy," but if it's important to love yourself first - then I guess the statement must be true.

On the funnier side, let me tell you about the six-year-old boy who sometimes comes by looking for Amelia. This boy is full of "good knowledge" and he's always willing to share the things he knows. For example, a couple of days ago he explained to me how another neighbor boy built a nest for a pigeon (I guess that's only funny if you know that the nest is very high out of reach...And that I watched the pigeon build the nest itself while I was at the park). He also corrected me when I explained how Amelia hurt herself sliding down a hot slide (but who would know better than a six-year-old who was no where to be seen when the accident took place?).

Yesterday we learned that the critics are saying that Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3 are the best movies in the world.

But one of his funniest quotes so far came when the boy walked into my house with Amelia and said, "Amelia wants some hot chocolate, and I would like some too."

Yeah, nice try kid.

I had no intention of making hot chocolate in the middle of the afternoon when it was almost 90 degrees outside. And Amelia has never, to my knowledge, asked for hot chocolate in her life. She's asked for chocolate lots of time, but never hot chocolate. Still, you have to give the kid points for effort.

Lisa

I want to ride my bike

My house is still a mess, but I got some things done. One job completed was the assembly of Amelia's new tricycle. Amelia had been talking about her bike while we were together in the car, so I decided it was important to put it together for her.

Assembling the bike was easy. Luckily, so was re-assembling the bike once I realized I had put it together incorrectly.

Amelia still doesn't have the hang of pushing on the pedals, but she loves going around and around our small back patio while mommy pushes.

As you may be able to tell from the photograph, Amelia thought her bike was so fun she decided to take her snails du jour for a couple of laps around the yard.

And as she often does, Amelia surprised mommy by singing a bit of the chorus from "Bicycle" by Queen as she circled the patio.

Lisa

Cleaning up

First I want to say, "Thank you," to everyone who came by for Amelia's birthday party last Saturday. Amelia had a lot of fun (especially playing with Hannah and Michael) and I really enjoyed seeing everyone together.

I know the drapes in my living room don't match at all. I'm working on it.

Let me tell you about Amelia's newest habit. Lately Amelia has wanted to help "clean up" around the house. This is very nice of her and sometimes comes in handy. For example, this afternoon while I was clipping the lavender and rosemary in our backyard Amelia was carrying off the clippings and placing them in our yard waste bin. That was great and very helpful.

On the other side of the coin is Amelia helping with the laundry. When she puts dirty laundry in the washer, it's great, but recently she's been opening my dresser and putting all my clean "unmentionables" in the washer. Daddy has pointed out that she could be doing much worse things around the house and he's right, but this does create a little more work for mommy.

Today Amelia tried to get mommy to help her relocate her lingerie into the washer. When I tried to coax her into quitting her fruitless work and taking a bath she said, "No, I'm cleaning up." Well, her heart's in the right place.

Amelia also had her three-year check-up today. She is doing well and remains tall and thin on the growth chart (75% for height, 25% for weight). Because of her contrary nature, I don't think she impressed the doctor with her brilliance (she has a bad habit of refusing to do things that are asked of her - even if they're simple things she would normally do on her own), but any three-year old who knows the alphabet and can sing, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" is a smarty in my book.

Lisa

More firsts for Amelia

Yesterday was a peculiar and disjointed day. One thing really stands out, however, and I'd like to mention it here. Just about the time I expected Diana to wake up from her afternoon nap the doorbell rang. I assumed I would find a salesman at my door and answered in a mildly irritated fashion. When I opened the door one of our neighborhood kids was there asking if Amelia could come out to play.

I felt pretty excited and found myself thinking, "Wow, someone's asking Amelia to come out and play for the first time!" Going back to the park in the ninety-plus degree weather was the absolute last thing I wanted to do, but I didn't want to discourage this kid from asking to play with Amelia in the future, so off we went for a brief visit to the park.

When we came back I cleaned Amelia's hands and sat the girls down for an afternoon snack. I was about to cut into a watermelon when the doorbell rang again. The same boy was at the door asking about Amelia. I told him that we were going to sit down for some watermelon, but he could come in if he wanted to.

The boy stated politely, "I'm not supposed to go into anyone's house." I did not want to talk him into anything his parents advised him not to do and said that that was a good rule to follow. He stayed at the door. There was an awkward silence. After a minute or two he said, "But I would still really like some watermelon." I thought that was pretty funny, so I cut the boy a watermelon slice and handed it to him with a paper towel.

Today, while Amelia and I were eating leftover chow mien ("No, it's Chinese noodles") she saw a preview for 28 Weeks Later. Though I'm excited about the movie, I don't really like Amelia seeing the scary previews. When the trailer came on Amelia watched it intently and said, "It's Spiderman!" I thought that was pretty interesting. I know she saw a Spiderman 3 preview at the theater with daddy. I guess it made an impression on her.

Well, that and all of the older kids at the playground continually talking about Spiderman.

A little while later the same channel showed an advertisement for ITT Technical Institute. After the ad started Amelia chimed, "Look, it's Spiderman." Though she later correctly identified a Spiderman preview and an advertisement for a Spiderman video game, I wonder what it was about the ITT Tech. commercial that made her think of Spiderman. I also wonder if there are advertising companies out there who deliberately make subtle references to popular images and themes that little ones can catch. Interesting stuff.

Truth is, I should probably give up my dinner time "King of the Hill" habit and spare Amelia all of this silly advertising, but habits are hard to break. (And after all, this is the only hour of "mommy's choice" television we see during the day.)

Lisa

It's a magic number

Monday was Amelia's birthday. Because we have a birthday bash planned for this Saturday, her birthday was a little low key. My only wish was that I could take her to Cold Stone for ice cream. When we reached Cold Stone, we found a note on the door: "Under new management, closed until May 9."

Amelia was disappointed and so was I. Luckily, I knew there was a second Cold Stone, so off we went to the other side of town. When we got there we found another sign, just like the first. Evidently, whoever is the new manager of one shop is also the manager of the other. There weren't any other Cold Stone Creameries within a reasonable driving distance, so we went to a different ice cream shop. It wasn't nearly as good. At least I had the sense to keep Amelia from eating lime sherbert with mini M&Ms when she asked for the green ice cream.

Who knows? Maybe she'd like lime with chocolate.

I know Diana likes chocolate cookies.

I also brought Amelia to the grocery store to pick out her birthday cake. While we were there I bought her three balloons. When I asked her what color balloons she wanted she said, "Green." So, the clerk showed her two different shades of green balloons. After a moment, Amelia said, "No, black." I asked her, "How about two green balloons and a black balloon." "Ok!" she said. Just as the clerk was preparing to inflate the balloons, Amelia said, "No, orange." She left the store with three orange balloons. The balloons were tied together and attached to a clip - but they still didn't make it through the day.

Amelia also got three rides on the carosel outside the grocery store. But maybe the best part of her birthday was, yes, collecting snails in the backyard with mommy. This girl loves snails.

Lisa

You don't have to be crazy to work here, but...

Today I took Amelia and Diana to order fabric for our new drapes. While at the fabric store, Amelia found some maracas and deeleebobs (that's what we called these things when I was in high school, but they're labeled as "PretendEars") that she wanted. I had to draw the line at two pair of deeleebobs, but had no objection to buying one pair - especially when they looked so cute on her.

Well, after Amelia and Diana's bath we were all playing in Amelia's room when Diana did something remarkable - something worthy of a blog entry unto itself. Diana, in an attempt to reach a desired toy, pushed herself up using Amelia's step stool and briefly stood up. I was extremely excited when I saw this and rushed to get my camera, hoping it would happen again.

Though Diana did not attempt to stand again, the craziness of the moment did not escape my camera. Amelia, who has recently learned to put her shoes on (sometimes on the correct feet) and take them off, felt like wearing her shoes with her diaper. I thought I might be able to film her singing, "Take me out to the ball game" (she knows the words). Although she wouldn't sing for the camera, she did play along. (Click here to see Amelia perform.)

So, things are fun and crazy around here at times. Other times, things are just crazy. As long as I get my Starbuck's breaks I won't go nuts.

Lisa

Princess Amelia

Last week daddy and grandma got to see Amelia in action at her gymnastics class. Daddy noted that the school had gymnastics outfits for sale, and suggested that the time had come for Amelia to own a costume, just for class. (Up to this point, she had been wearing jeans to class - which made sense to mommy who wears jeans more often than not.)

So while Amelia was at class yesterday, mommy had a peek at the outfits for sale. I found a cute little blue dress and asked Amelia if she liked it. She liked the dress very much and wanted to wear it right away. I didn't think it would be a good thing to wear to lunch, so we brought it home with us.

As soon we arrived home, I suggested that Amelia model her new dress for daddy. Amelia was very eager to put on the new dress and referred to it as her princess dress. She pranced around in the dress all day, occasionally practicing dance moves or positions she had learned in gymnastics class. She made modest comments like, "I look cute," and "I'm a princess."

I was glad she liked her new outfit so much, but I was concerned it might get messed up before her next class. We put the dress away in the laundry basket while Amelia took a bath (in the big, princess bath tub). After her bath we tried to put Amelia into her pyjamas, but she insisted on putting her princess dress back on. Ok, we let her sleep in her princess dress - but we told her repeatedly before bed that she would have to wear something else the next day.

This morning I got Amelia dressed in her more usual attire with minimal protest. Though she wore pants and a top, I could tell Amelia really wanted her princess dress back. I told her it needed to be washed so that she could wear it again. Amelia seemed to understand and repeated more than once, "It's not ready yet."

Amelia enjoys being called princess Amelia. If she's a princess I guess that makes me the queen.

As the queen I declare this blog entry complete and accurate in its entirety.

Lisa