Amali-Tales Part 2

1) One morning Amalia told me she is getting big and will soon be big like me. I said, "That's right Amalia. You are getting big. But Amalia, don't get big too fast. Mommy will miss her little Amali-Bear very much." Amalia comes over, puts her arms around me and says, "Its ok Mommy. Don't cry."

2) We use the spanish word for kisses sometimes which is "besos." But the other day Amalia said she wanted some "kissos" before bed.

3) Random Conversation with a 3 Year Old - This Scares Me!!!
Amalia: (proclaiming out of the blue) I love Noah.
Me: (after getting over the initial shock) Really. What Noah are you talking about?
Amalia: from soccer
Me: Oh. Why do you love him?
Amalia: Because he loves me and he's a nice guy.
Me: (trying not to laugh) How do you know he loves you?
Amalia: Because he thinks about me everyday.
Me: (trying REALLY hard not to laugh out loud) How do you know?
This is where she conveniently changed the subject on me. Where does she get these things?!?!?!?! I honestly don't think she has ever even had a conversation with this little guy! Crack me up!!!!

4) Amalia's Prayer Last Night:
"Dear Jesus, thank you for my family and friends and for a fun time at soccer. But God, we didn't go to the park today and Riley couldn't come over, but that's ok because it was too late anyway and she can come over tomorrow. Amen."

Amali-Tales

1). When Adrian calls, I answer my phone, "Hey babe . . . " so after I got off the phone with him the other day, Amalia asks, "Was that babe?"

2). She LOVES the song "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt." She likes to sing it with me every night before bed.

3). I was teaching Amalia a 3 part song in which one of the parts goes, "one bottle of pop, two bottles of pop, three bottles of pop . . . " I sang it and then asked Amalia is sing it back to me. She piped in, "one lollipop, two lollipops, three lollipops . . . "

4). She loves to "help" bake cookies and do laundry

5). Amalia is a bit of a drama queen when it comes to bumps and bruises so when she hurts herself, I pick her up, dust her off, give her a hug and tell her, "You'll be ok. See, there's no blood." So the other day we were swimming and I was trying to show her how to do a back flip under the water and I smacked my face on the bottom of the pool. Amalia comes over and puts her arm around me and says, "You'll be ok. There's no blood."

6). The last two consecutive mornings the very first words out of her mouth were, "Mommy, I want to play Candyland." She LOVES this game right now. There is a character called "Gramma Nutt" but she calls her "Peanut Gramnut."

7). Amalia just told me this morning that she likes freckles and wants to someday have freckles like me.

8). While driving around doing errands yesterday, Amalia proclaims (out of the blue) from the back seat, "Mommy, the park makes me happy." I was wondering if this was a hint . . .

9). She loves broccoli right now. Everytime we're in the store, she wants to pick out her own broccoli. She also likes to help me wash it when I'm making it for dinner and later I notice little nibbles out of the top.

10). Yesterday, Luci and I were going over our grocery list of what we need at Costco. Amalia pipes in from the backseat, "And toys! They have a lot of toys."

Pink Umbrella - Part 2

I went to pick up Amalia at Nana's yesterday and guess what she came home with from Wal-Mart . . . yes, you guessed it, a new umbrella complete with princesses and ruffles (Grandparents are such softies!) Later that night when I was putting Amalia to bed and she wanted to pray, I said, "Why don't you thank Jesus for your new umbrella." So she starts praying, "Dear God, thank you for . . . thank you for . . . " and then turns to me and whispers, "I forgot." I whispered back, "umbrella" and then she continued praying, "Thank you God for french fries and my umbrella."

Pink Umbrella

This is my conversation with my 2 year old, Amalia this morning while I was getting her dressed.

Amalia: Mommy, its raining outside.
Me: Yes, you're right.
Amalia: We'll need an umbrella.
Me: OK, we'll use an umbrella today.
Amalia: Yes, we need to use an umbrella today.
Me: OK
Amalia: Mommy, I need my own umbrella. I would like a pink one.
Me: But we already have umbrellas.
Amalia: No, I want my own umbrella. I want a pink one.
Me: OK well, we'll see.
Amalia: But mommy, I need an umbrella . . . can I have some apple juice?

Learning Patience

Today Amalia was with Nana and she came into the kitchen and asked Nana if she could have some chocolate covered cherries (an indulgence only nana's can get away with). Nana was busy cooking and said, "Nana is busy cooking at the moment, but I'll get you some in a few minutes. Just be patient and wait." Amalia seemed to be ok with this and went back in the living room. Well, Nana accidentally forgot all about the chocolate covered cherries and about 15 minutes later, Amalia comes back into the kitchen doorway with arms crossed and foot stamping and says, "I'm waiting, I'm patient." Of course, Nana just starts cracking up and Amalia got her cherries!

Pony Riding and Cookie Eating

Mornings with Amalia

I have quickly figured out that I am the only morning person in our family. My wonderful daughter takes after her Papa in many ways and not being a morning person is one of them. Saturday mornings consist of me sitting on the couch all by myself sipping my coffee and either watching the morning news or reading. This goes on for at least an hour until about 9:00 until Adrian gets up. Then he and I have about another half hour until we start hearing squeaks from Amalia. I know, this would be a dream come true for many moms of bounce-off-the-walls, get-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn kids, but I actually used to want everyone to get up when I did. After a few grumpy mornings and me finally figuring out that not everyone has to be a morning person, I settled for letting everyone sleep. And it is not as if Amalia doesn't get enough sleep. Along with an afternoon nap, she goes to bed at about 8:30 p.m.!
Weekday mornings are always interesting because I have to wake Amalia up at 8:00. "That's not early" you may say, and I well agree, but it is for non-morning people apparently because I give myself an entire half hour to get her up and ready and I am almost always late. I have learned to compromise, and I have learned to be very calm, tranquil and serene. So on to the point . . . I went in to wake Amalia up this morning and in my rehearsed semi-calm, serene way, I said, "Good morning." This is definitely a learned art because after a jog, a warm shower and a cup of caffeine-laced coffee, I am rearing to go and think everyone else should be too. The slits that contain eyes slowly opened and then closed right back up again. She then rolled over and clutched her blanket (luckily, I had spotted her pacie before she saw and hid it under the pillow because if she has that it is ten times harder to get her up). I began gently rubbing her back and said, "Amalia, do you want to brush your teeth?" (this tactic worked for a little while because she LOVES to brush her teeth, but I think she has become wise to it). she winced and rolled her shoulder as if to try to detach my hand off her back and then turned back over toward me and and tried to push me off the bed with her feet. Sensing the grumpiness coming on, I got up and starting getting out her clothes to give her a little more time. You have no idea how much self control this takes on my part. When I was little, my dad used to come in, jump on me and start tickling me ferociously and that is exactly what I want to do, but Amalia will start crying! After I did everything I could possibly think of to give her more time to wake up, I went over and sat on her bed again but didn't say anything. This time she opened her eyes and finally conceded, "Ok mommy, ok . . . be patient." This of course just cracked me up, but I was careful to chuckle quietly under my breath instead of a loud boisterous laugh and said, "Amalia, I love you." She retorted with, "No, I love YOU!" A sigh of relief! I knew then I was homefree and could proceed with the rest of the morning without WWII erupting.
She is only 2-1/2 now . . . I can only imagine the adventures I am going to have when she is a teenager.

Fun in the Snow

All I wanted for Christmas this year during our visit to Pennsylvania was snow for Malia to play in since we live in Florida and she hasn't seen any since she was 6 months old. Well, I got my wish . . . complete with sledding and snowman making! Here's the evidence. My mom (a.k.a. Mimi) was all ready for us with a snowsuit, boots, hat and gloves so Malia wouldn't freeze her little toes off (Thank you Mimi!). I was curious to know what she would think about the snow and whether or not she would like it. I got my answer the day after our first time out. As soon as she woke up and EVERY morning following that, she would go right over to the window and ask, "We gonna play in da snow Mommy? We gonna play in da snow?" And then in about 10 minute intervals all morning long through breakfast until we were ready to go out, she would ask me again, "We gonna play in da snow Mommy? We gonna play in da snow?"

Hello My Little Smart Girl!

This is Mali's latest read and boy does she LOVE this book. We have read it over and over and over and over and over . . . I also love it too, so I don't mind a bit. Yesterday I overheard her talking to herself, so looked over to see her sitting with this book opened on her lap. She was "reading" it by herself from memory!!! I thought to myself, "Oh well, she knows a page or two . . ." but she knew the whole thing!! I've got to get this on video.

Pumpkin Festival

For those of you who think this blog is worthless without pictures of Mali, here are some to make you happy.

Nothing Better in the World

I was just thinking about the feeling I get when Mali runs up to me with arms wide open and gives me the biggest hug she possibly can or when I give Mali a snack or hand something to her and she says, "Choo choo Mommy" which translates to "Thank you Mommy" or at night when I'm tucking her in and she says, "luh you Mommy"or when she first wakes up in the morning and is still a little sleepy and will sit and cuddle with me for a while and let me kiss her hair, or when she sees a booboo on my leg and kisses it and tells me I need a Dora (her word for bandaid), or when she leaves a really loud toot and looks at me and starts laughing and then we both start laughing really hard, or at my soccer games when she shouts, "Go yeyo!!" (I'm on the yellow team) or when she gives me eskimo kisses . . . ahhhhh, that just fills my heart up to overflowing. There is no better feeling in the world.

And Keys!

When Mali's grandfather, Tito, goes off to work each day, Nana always asks him right before he leaves if he has his phone, keys and glasses. She always asks him about these 3 important things because it is a big inconvenience to not have them. Yesterday, as Tito was walking to the door to go to work, Nana noticed he already had the keys in his hand, so asked, "Do you have your phone and glasses?" Mali was there and was sitting watching TV seemingly not even paying attention when suddenly she peeks her head out from the big chair she is sitting on and exclaims, "And keys!!" What a crack up! So young, so smart.

Financial Guru

I never thought of financial magazines as a good read for toddler age children, but apparently I was wrong. When Mali's Aunt Sarah and Uncle Todd came for a visit, Mali sat on the couch with Uncle Todd for over a hour reading with him. She really gets into it too. She even ripped out a couple articles she didn't agree with.

Our Big Helper

Lately, Mali has been our big helper! Here's a couple pix of her helping Papi mow the lawn. She also likes to "help" unload the dishwasher and fold laundry.

M&M Tax

We have been attempting to potty train Mali. So as a sort of incentive, we give her two M&M's each time she goes. This has been working pretty well. Whenever she goes, I get all excited, shout, "YAY!!!" jump up and down, clap and tell her she gets two M&Ms. So the other day, her grandfather (Adrian's dad), whom she calls "Tito," went to the bathroom. She goes right up to the door to listen (poor Tito, no privacy). As soon as she hears he went, she shouts, "YAY Tito!!! Two M&Ms!" and claps for him. As he is washing his hands, she goes over to Nana to get two M&Ms for him. Unfortunately, both the M&Ms did not make it to Tito. I guess she figured there needed to be a delivery tax, so she ate one on the way and gave one to Tito.

She's All About Kikis

So my daughter, Mali, Adrian and I were sitting at the table the other night waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Because I had already eaten earlier, I was munching on a cookie (in front of my 2 year old daughter . . . what was I thinking?!) Of course, Mali says in exclamation, "KIKI!!" (her word for cookie) This means that 1) she has noticed it so there is no use trying to hide it or pretend otherwise and 2) she would like one. Immediately I realized the error of my ways in eating a cookie in front of her right before dinner and said, "Ok Mali, you can have one right after dinner." I then proceeded to take the cookies back in the kitchen and put them away so they would be of no further temptation. She seemed to be ok with this and dropped the subject (amazingly). The great thing about having little ones is that they have short memories (or so I thought). So fastforward about 20 minutes . . . we had just finished dinner and were sitting at the table chilling. Adrian and I were in a conversation, and Mali was quietly sitting eating her last few bites. Then Adrian says to me, "Oh Babe, do you think I should get her a . . . " and before Adrian could even finish his sentence, Mali turns to him and says, "Kiki" in the kind of voice that says, "Yes, I am paying attention and don't even think for a minute that I've forgotten about those cookies." Adrian and I burst out laughing and Mali got her precious "kiki." The end.