A sign of flawed judgment

At the zoo the other day, Naomi said, "I'm scared of the cows! Can we go see the jaguar?"

In order to scare Naomi

This six weeks of homeschooling, I've got a unit on farming planned. Farming books, farming crafts, poems, art, etc. It's a good time of year for it, since there will be baby animals at some of the field trips that I've planned, we're planting our own garden, etc.

The only thing I forgot to take into account was Naomi. I was thinking, "Oh, fun, we'll go to these farm field trips and see the baby animals and the new growth and the tractors and the...whatever else we'll see." It was a good thought. Most kids would LOVE field trips like that.

Today we did a little mini-field-trip to kick off this new section. We went to the zoo, which has a family farm section. As soon as we headed in that direction, Naomi began to get upset. "I don't want to see the cows. I don't want to see the goats. I don't want to see the cows."

Of course, the cows were the first thing we encountered. They're not usually, but today they were in the petting area (closed for the season, but highly visible) while their pen was being cleaned.

"NOT THE COWS! NO, I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE COWS! NO, MAMA, NO, MAMA! I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!" The poor kid is screaming and clinging to the stroller. Needless to say, Hannah went up to see the cows and Naomi didn't.

Then we moved on, relieved that the cow obstacle had been passed. But more was to come.

As we headed further into the family farm area, she started in low with, "I don't want to see the goats. Mama, I don't want to see the goats." Naturally, I wasn't going to force her to see the goats. But we had to go that direction to see the OTHER animals. I tried to explain this to her, but the terror of goats apparently is too much for explanations. "Not the GOATS, Mama, NO! Not the GOATS, Mama! MAMA, MAMA, NOT THE GOATS! NO I DON'T WANT TO SEE THE GOATS! NO!"

At which point I veered off into the chicken and rabbit area. We had a lovely few minutes with chickens and rabbits, then visited the fake cow that kids can pretend to milk -- this one is okay -- saw the barn owl, the donkeys, and the kiosk with videos.

Then, a zoo attendant came up and said the fateful words, "We're bringing the cows through here, so you may want to stay to the side." And the cows followed almost immediately. There was no time to race to cover. The cows -- 2 miniature panda cows -- were coming through.

Naomi began to panic again, although we had moved as far as possible in the short time allowed. And then one mooed. Immediately she covered her ears and began to cry, "No! I DON'T WANT THEM TO MOO! I DON'T WANT THEM TO SAY MOO! NO! NOT THE COWS! I DON'T WANT THEM TO SAY MOO!"

As soon as the cows were out of the way, we revisited the fake cows, chickens, and rabbits (in order to leave on a positive note), then hurried past the goats without looking, and then our field trip was at an end.

Leaving me wondering about other field trips that I'm hoping to go on. How much fun will it be for the rest of us to have Naomi crying, screaming, and panicking at each new animal? Mmmm. Not much fun.

And wondering what the other parents -- and zoo workers, for that matter -- thought about my cow-phobic child. She has in the past mentioned her belief that cows eat people, and we've tried to dissuade her of this idea -- I'm not sure we've been successful -- and we don't threaten her with cow-related retribution for bad behavior. But it sure looks like we do, doesn't it?

Who am I again?

This morning, Hannah was pretending that we're All of a Kind Family.

H: You're Mama, Dada's Papa, Simeon's Charlie, and I'm Charlotte. Naomi will be whoever she wants to be. [Spoken like a true sister who tried to get Naomi to be something last time with no luck whatsoever.]
M: Well, Dada's not here, can Sim be Papa?
H: No, he's too small. Besides, Papa has a job that he goes to every day. It's at a junk shop, so that's appropriate. [Hello, Microsoft? Here's what Hannah thinks of you!]
M: Okay.
H: My nickname will be Hannah, so that if you call me Hannah by accident you'll just be calling me by my nickname. [Hmmmm...she knows me well.]

A few minutes later Naomi came downstairs with two of her teddy bears.

N: These are my babies, I'm a mama bear.
M: Oh, they're lovely.
N: You're my mama bear.
M: Okay.
N: And Sim is your baby bear.
H: [Just coming in the room.] Hi, Naomi, I'm being Charlotte. Do you want to be Gertie?
N: No, I'm a mama bear. Mama's a mama bear.
H: No, Mama's being Mama.
N: No, she's being a mama bear. And you're a sister bear.
H: No, I'm Charlotte.
N: No, you're a sister bear.
H: Maybe I'll be Charlotte pretending to be a sister bear.
N: No, you're a sister bear.
H: No, I'm Charlotte, pretending to be a sister bear.
M: Umm, Hannah, would you please go get something for me? [See, I called poor Charlotte (or a sister bear, depending on which camp you support) by her nickname, just as predicted!]

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Last night, we put out our Valentine's shoes. This is a new idea invented by Hannah, whose imagination was captured by St. Nicholas Day and the shoes. She used her own money to buy conversation hearts to put in everyone's shoes, and she cut out hearts for that purpose, too. Both girls tried to get up at 5:15 in order to check their shoes. Those who know Naomi know that this is a disaster waiting to happen. Luckily, Michael talked them down -- or in this case, back up -- and they slept a bit more. Hannah was still up at 6, but Naomi slept until almost 8.







The day has been full of kitchen activity. Michael's been baking up a storm, and the latest project is another vegan cupcake -- cookies and creme this time.

Michael loves it when I take candid cooking pictures of him.



See?





Naomi's not about to miss any of the chocolate-sweet-making action.



And she's brought her friends to enjoy the fun, too. They're sitting on the produce, where they can get a good view of the goings-on.











Hannah is in charge of ingredients.













And some more Michael cooking shots, which are so dear to him:

Tummy time

tends to be a baby's least favorite time, at least in our experience. So once they learn to turn over, you better get tummy time pictures fast, since after that, you'll only get rolling over pictures. Sim had his first roll on Saturday, so I took some pictures. Of course, he hasn't rolled over since then, but these are cute anyway!

Questions that immediately get attention

"Mama, how do I get all this water out of my room?"

Have you perused this yet?

You should check out the LOLCats website, which usually has at least one or two new pictures daily that make me laugh. Okay, so I don't check it every day. Or every week. Or even once a month. But when I DO check it, I laugh. And sometimes you need to laugh. This one is one I laugh at every time. It's too ridiculous. I don't know why.

What a great idea! Some days it's really the little things.

Here are my small successes today, in no particular order:

*I got Hannah to karate on time.

*I did music time with the kids for the 4th day straight -- we all had fun.

*We prayed our Rosary decade.

Other small success posts are up for your perusal, should you be interested, at Faith and Family Live!

Now she's not even waiting

until she's finished with her dessert. Before, Naomi used to finish her dessert, then start begging dessert from the other diners. Tonight, as we all ate our pumpkin chocolate chip vegan cupcakes (mmmmmmmmmm), Naomi began asking Michael for some of his before she'd had not more than 2 bites of hers. Better safe than sorry, you know, and you never know how quickly he's going to eat that thing!

More fears

Today as Simeon was taking a nap, I got the girls into the bath. When he woke up, I brought him down to the bathroom, since they weren't quite finished. Simeon loves his big sisters, and the feeling is definitely mutual, so I brought him over to the tub to say hello. Both girls greeted him enthusiastically. Simeon looked at them for a moment, then his lower lip stuck out, then he started bawling!

I was very surprised, and I took him over to the other side of the bathroom to calm down, thinking it must have been a fluke. However, when he'd calmed down, I brought him back to say hello and it happened all over again.

Poor kid is scared of his sisters in the bath. Once they got out, he was happy to smile and laugh at them again.

Fears

Kids often have irrational fears. For example, for a long time, Naomi has been deathly afraid of cows. She explained to me gravely that cows eat people. I have tried to tell her otherwise, but she seems to be clinging to the belief that cows are just waiting for one of us to get into their pasture before they pounce. She even screamed when we went into the cow barn at our state fair over the summer.

You would think that a girl who's scared of cows would be easily frightened of other things. The other day, Hannah was trying to elaborate about a scary monster.

Hannah: It will be a scary monster!
Naomi: I'm not scared of monsters.
Hannah: It will be as big as this table!
Naomi: I'm not scared of it.
Hannah: It will have claws!
Naomi: That's not scary.
Hannah: It will be as big as this whole house!
Naomi: Oh. That's not scary.

At this point, I decided that point-by-point scary monster descriptions were not perhaps going to be the best thing for the peaceful sleep of the children, so I decided to step in.

Me: What if it's a dog?
Naomi: Oh, I'm scared of dogs.

Simeon's doing well

He had his 4-month well baby checkup today:

26 1/4 inches
20 lb, 14 oz

Healthy and happy.

More on Hannah's future life

Hannah: When I grow up, I won't even BUY my kids jackets!
Me: Oh, well, that will be too bad. They won't be able to go outside when it's cold.
Hannah: No, they'll go outside, they just won't have to wear jackets. I hate my jacket.

****

Hannah: When I grow up, I will always buy whole pickles so that I can cut them myself.

****

Hannah: When I grow up, I won't ever buy meals. It's much more fun to make your own at home. I will always make dinner.

The Perfect Storm

What do you get when you combine a girl of almost 3, a great love of dolls, a Baptism lesson in which the girl of almost 3 has her baby baptized "St. Rose," and a new bunny costume made for dolls by a loving and sewing grandmother?

Naomi: St. Rose likes to dress up in her new bunny costume.

She's a BOTH/AND kind of girl

The other day, as we had cupcakes for dessert, I asked the girls, "Do you like cupcakes or candy better?"

Hannah: Cupcakes!
Naomi: Both!

Then I asked, "Do you like cupcakes with frosting better, or without frosting?"

Hannah: With frosting!
Naomi: Both!

Of course, when you're a small girl and your mom talks about DEfrosting cupcakes that have been in the freezer so that you can have them for dessert, it gets a bit confusing.

Me: I'll defrost the cupcakes.
Naomi: I like frosting. Can I come watch you?
Me (not understanding that she thinks I'm about to frost cupcakes): Yes, but they're almost defrosted, I just put them in the microwave. Okay, here you go, take it to the table!
Naomi: Okay. I'll unwrap it.
Me: Okay.

A minute or two passes.

Naomi: Mama, are you making the frosting?
Me: Oh, no, we're not having frosting tonight. OOOOHHHHH...Sorry, Naomi, when I said DEfrosting, I meant that I was warming them up in the microwave because they were frozen. We don't have frosting tonight. Maybe we'll have frosting the next time we make cupcakes.
Naomi: Oh, okay.

She ate the cupcake anyway -- she does like them both ways, you know!

Hannah's Karate Test

Hannah tested for her new karate belt yesterday. Naomi and I came along to watch. It was very cool: they showed off their jabs, punches and kicks; they practiced escaping from a choking attacker; they swept each others' ankles and knocked down their opponent.





In the end, Hannah was awarded a yellow belt. Here's Hannah bowing to her sensei:

You may have observed that Sensei is very pregnant. (She's expecting in a few weeks.) If you didn't think you could get a custom gi with expansion panels, you thought wrong. She could still put you on the ground in two seconds flat. As she demonstrated on me last week.