Rock Star

This past weekend, Honey took the kids on some errands while I was at work.  They ended up buying a toy microphone on the fly.  So it plays music, records your voice and plays it back, and will amplify your voice as well.  No biggie right?  Peanut would absolutely not put the thing down for the first 24 hours she owned it.  She took it to the bathroom with her, talking and singing into it all the while.  She brought it outside and did shows on stumps while wearing her butterfly wings.  She walked through the house recording and listening to her own voice.  At first, she did want to be alone or at least not have to see that you were right there while she was talking.  But as the day went on, she became more and more confident, and she was just singing and talking regardless of who was in the room.  My very quiet Peanut would absolutely not shut up.  Why we had not thought of this sooner I have no idea...

Disengaged

The detachment of the present day human is amazing.  Our family went together on some errands this afternoon.  We went out to lunch, to the pet store, shoe store, and grocery store.  We spoke with one another, via actual vocalizations, eye contact, gestural communication, and body language the entire time.  I'm quite proud of that considering what was going on all around us. 

There was a little girl, maybe 2 1/2 who was standing by the fish tanks in the pet store.  She looked to be by herself, but Honey told me that he had seen her mom just a second ago texting while the girl tried to tell her something about the fish.  Peanut and Pumpkin were enamored by the fish too, so we all stood there for a while and the girl started talking with us.  We had a nice discussion about the orange fish and how they were like Andrew's (She seemed to feel we would understand that) and the minutes ticked by.  No sign of mom or dad.  I looked at Honey wide eyed.  "Really?"  Finally, her parents came around the corned and we laughed about the conversation I was having with their child.  Ha Ha Ha.  It's super amusing when your toddler talks to total strangers because you won't listen to them and you have left them alone in a store while you text. 

So on to the shoe store.  I used to think the little benches with the mirrors were for sitting on while you tried on shoes, but alas, I was mistaken.  Those are the spaces for people who want to cut themselves off from the folks they are shopping with to text or post on facebook.  I have never seen so many people sitting down and just typing on their phones in one store before.  It seemed really weird to me.  I guess you can still try on shoes while you text... As I rolled Pumpkin's stroller through the aisles, people were completely oblivious that they were taking up the whole aisle and we could not get by.  More than once I turned back and headed around another way to get through the store. Seriously, do we need to be so focused on the little tiny boxes?    

I'm sure there are sometimes when you really feel that you need to pull the phone out and text, post, email, whatever.  But please, consider how your children perceive that.  Consider how necessary it really is.  Consider how you may be using it to avoid others.  Consider how you may be neglecting what someone else needs.  Consider how you may be seen as rude, or self absorbed.  Consider the lost opportunities to be a social being.  Pay attention to the people around you.  Please. 

Wanted: One Camera Crew...

The language that comes out of this little girl is astonishing. Today, she said, "mouses are mice" very thoughtfully as she was working out the plural. She has the plurals of most normal words down, but some of the odd ones are a puzzle for her. I have no idea where she got the mouse - mice connection, but there it is. We were driving this morning to Hidden Pond, and stopped on the way to drop off some library books. After a big exclamation "there's my library!" she asked "are we going inside to drop off our books?". Once we were on our way, she began to ask about going inside the library again and I said that maybe Friday would be a good day to go. Peanut then says, "no, I have plans Friday." Really? So I asked what her plans were - she says "Aunt Brianne will come Friday. She will have dinner with us and read books." Yeah - she does have plans Friday. Who knew she had a little blackberry in her head?


After a fun filled morning watching the turtles and snakes, walking around the pond, and playing on the playground (completely independently even on the big slides for the first time!) I figured we'd have a nice nap. She talked to my mom on the phone, and had her second "real" phone conversation. She told her all about our morning with details about seeing "lots and lots of fish and tons and tons of turtles" and that she was "sad about the mice. Mouses are called mice. The mice went to another store.". After all that, well, she's still up there talking and chattering away. When I went up to remind her it was still naptime, she gave me the play by play of her afternoon. "When I finish my nap, I will put on my pants and shoes and my purple flower dress, and go outside to run and play." She is priceless.

My little dude decided yesterday to pull himself up on his little gym and use it like a walker. So I turned around to see him coming towards me! Holy cow. Between the two of them, it's just constant - I wish I had a recording of it all - now I see how John and Kate (well OK maybe just Kate) got to be OK with a camera crew around all the time.