Just One to Savor

Let me tell you, it's very different to have just ONE kid to play with! All my parenting years so far have been a three-pack! Blake and Will are 16 months apart. Will and Audrey are 16 months apart. When Audrey was born, Blake was 2 1/2 and poor baby Will was right in the middle. Needless to say, they do not know life without each other. More like triplets! So, my parenting has been more refereeing and playing with a gang of coo-coo kids. Lots of fun fun fun - but, hectic and a little chaotic. That is one reason I was still pushing all three kids in a double stroller when their legs were dragging on the ground. I always liked to keep them "compact". Right under my wings.

Now, I have just one to savor. I have to kiss her a millions times a day! Today we went to the grocery store. She is soooo dang cute! She does not stop talking. I really only answer by saying, "Oh", "That's right", "Wow". A typical conversation she has with me (pretty one-sided)..."Mommy, apples yummy. You like apples? Look green apples! One, two, three... lots of apples! No red apples. Oh no, red's all gone. Hey! Red apples, too! One, two, three..." Seriously, she goes on and on about ANY topic. I just laugh all the time.

We were in the car a couple days ago and the song "B-I-N-G-O" was playing. She started laughing and said, "Hey Mommy! You's song!" (She says you's as in - those are you's shoes). I asked her what song and she sang, "B-I-Angela, B-I-Angela..." Is that amazing? My sister-in-law told me last week she asked Tess, "What is your mommy's name" and Tess told her "Angela". That is VERY smart if you ask me! Anyway, now she's walking around the house singing "Mommy's song"!

She has totally mastered "you, me, my, your". And, she is just starting to say "I". Usually she says, "Tess go get my shoes". But, yesterday we were at the park and she was jumping from one step to another. We were pretending that the ground was water full of sharks. She is awesome at pretending! She was acting all shaky like she was about to fall in and said, "Save me, Mommy! I'm scared!" Fortunately, she did NOT get eaten by a shark. As it turned out she told me, "No mean shark get me. Sweet dolphin!"

It's funny. The more I get to know her, the more I know when she's totally faking. You know how it is when you're the mom. You just KNOW. Today she was in her room crying and yelled to me, "Help me boots on! Too hard! Tess no can do it!" I walked over sat down with her on the floor. I said, "You can put your boots on. Let me see you try." She said, "Okay, Mommy". And put them on in two seconds. Rob and I like to say, "Acting! Brilliant!" ;) If you remember the Saturday Night Live routine from the 80's.