Playing | Marriage Confessions Playing | Laugh. Fight. Stay Married.

On Mother’s Day afternoon, I was sitting on my parent’s porch with my mom, Grandma, Sarah, and the kids. We were eating strawberry shortcake and enjoying the beautiful weather, while Bean and Gracie puttered around their little picnic table my mom bought for them.

Life was grand.

Sarah and I were talking about something when all of a sudden, we both heard Bean say (quite loudly), “HOLY SH…” Immediately, it was silent out on the porch.

“What’d he say?” Sarah whispered.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back. And then turning to Bean, I said casually, “What’d you say, Buddy?”

He looked right at me and clear as a bell said, “Holy shit.”

Now, I know the appropriate thing to do in these situations is to ignore your child. Bean wasn’t doing it for attention, and so I didn’t want to call attention to the phrase unnecessarily, but I turned to look at Sarah and she was literally falling off the front porch swing where we were sitting because she was laughing so hard.

Which got me laughing.

Which got Sarah laughing.

Which got me laughing.

Which got BEAN laughing.

And then we had to stop. Because if he knew what we were laughing at, there was a good chance he would say it again. So, we stopped.

And then Sarah started laughing again.

And then I started laughing again.

Goodness, I never knew inappropriate language from a toddler could be so funny! NOT THAT WE ENCOURAGE THAT, but still. It was good for an afternoon giggle.

17 comments | posted in About Beanie, Family, Fun with Mom, Playing, The Romper Room, Toddlerhood | tags: humor, toddlers

Hmmm… I think I’m stuck.

Oh, what’s this?

Oh, I know what this is! It works that talking box thing. I bet I could get it to work. But first, I have to get out from under this table.

Shoot.

This is exhausting. I think I’ll just rest for a minute.

Oh, now I’m out! Look what I did!

Mom! Look at this! I’m loose!

Now, about that talking box thing…

13 comments | posted in Conversations with Gracie, Gracie Girl, Playing, Sweet Gracie, The Romper Room | tags: babies, humor

Having two kids so close in age has a lot of pros and cons to it. In the very beginning when we brought Gracie home, we went through a really nice little honeymoon phase with the kids. Gracie didn’t do much as a newborn, and Bean was still really excited to have a new person in the house. When Gracie was around six months old, the sheen started to wear off and as she became more mobile and needy, Bean became less than impressed. He never acted out towards her, but he certainly made his presence known. He reminded us often that he needed attention, too. When Gracie finally started crawling and moving, Bean wasn’t sure what the heck to do. He is meticulous with his toys, always focusing on lining them up, sorting them, putting them in piles, collecting hidden treasures. And then Gracie would come along and with one swipe of her hand, she’d send his orderly little world into a spin.

Bean started to speak very harshly to Gracie, snapping at her or yelling at her when she got in his way. We worked with him on how to speak nicely to Gracie and how to distract her when she starts to mess with his things. And, we worked a LOT with sharing. At the same time, we had to start redirecting Gracie and telling her no sometimes. This did not go over well with Gracie. The past probably two weeks have tested all of our patience, as we learn to live with two kids who are so close in age, and yet worlds apart.

But then today happened. All day, for the first time ever, Bean and Gracie played together. And not just sitting next to each other playing. They were interacting with each other and laughing at each other and sharing things – and all of this without any interference from me or Chris. Bean started crawling around on the floor chasing Gracie, who thought it was the greatest game in the whole world. She laughed so hard that she would have to stop and lay down in the middle of the floor just to catch her breathe. And it was like that all day.

Bean built a fort with some pillows and the ottoman, and he somehow convinced Gracie to crawl inside and sit really still. For, like, a LONG time. Then he ran around outside the fort, yelling like a pirate. He kept calling her a scallywag and she thought it was the most fun ever.

I’m sure the challenges of having two kids so close in age are not over, but getting just a glimpse of what life would be like in the next couple years today made my heart swell with love and appreciation for my babies. I can’t wait to see where their relationship goes.

11 comments | posted in Playing, Siblings, The Romper Room | tags: Family, fun, parenting, siblings

Bean and Gracie are at a great stage right now. Bean’s two and a half and Gracie is almost ten months old. Up until this point, both of them have been interested in the other, but they haven’t really been able to interact or play together.

Now, Gracie is getting interested in the toys and activities that Bean has. She doesn’t always know what to do when she finally gets her hands on something, but she spends most of her time trying to figure out how to do whatever Bean is doing.

Bean is just as infatuated with Gracie as she is with him. He loves to bring her things to play with and he’s really good about sharing his toys with her. He starts each day by asking where Gracie is and he goes to bed each night asking to give Gracie a night-night kiss.

They just like each other. Now, they are learning how to play together. We still have to remind Bean that Grace doesn’t know how to play with his toys and that he needs to show her. The other day, Bean and I were playing with his wooden train set. We had just put the entire track together and were ready to start playing with the trains. Gracie had been sitting next to us, quietly, for 10 minutes or so, just watching what we were doing. She sat there for a while, watching us work, and then without warning, she lunged! She grabbed two chubby handfuls of train tracks, sending the entire set up flying.

Bean just about lost it, yelling out, “NOOOOOO, GRACIE!!!” And just as he was about to flip out on her, I calmed him down and explained that she is just a baby and she doesn’t know how to play with big boy toys, and that maybe he could show her how. He calmed down a little and then spent the next 15 minutes trying to get her to hold on to a train piece while he pushed it around the track.

I have found with Bean that just telling him he has to share doesn’t always go over so well. But if I give him a job to do when he’s sharing, that gives him a sense of importance and he doesn’t seem to mind sharing with Gracie so much. He also does much better with sharing when I give him the choice of which toy to share. So, if he has a bunch of toys that he’s hoarding, I don’t just tell him he has to share everything. Instead, I’ll ask him to pick two toys to share. Giving him ownership over the sharing really seems to help.

I’m sure that over the next…oh…eighteen years, we’ll deal with sibling rivalry in all different forms, but at this point in time, I am really enjoying seeing my two babies grow and play together. When I was pregnant with Gracie, some people told me that it would be challenging to have two little ones so close in age. Maybe that will cause some issues as they grow up. For now, I have been pleasantly surprised so far that not only do my children bring so much joy to me and Chris, but they also bring so much joy to each other.

20 comments | posted in Family, parenting, Playing, Siblings, The Romper Room | tags: babies, Family, parenting, siblings, toddlers