ridawesome [rid-aw-suhm]: something really, really cool

Baby girl made up a new word. Ridawesome. It’s a combination of ridiculous and awesome and means something is really, really cool. Like, ridiculously awesome.  Get it?

She found out the way new words are created and added to the dictionary is by becoming popular and used by many. So, in an effort to get her new word used by a large amount of people, she asked me to spread the word here.

I think that’s pretty ridawesome, don’t you?

Photo by Jeff Kubina

Today my baby girl turns five years old. That is a big deal. Five is (in my mind anyway) officially the age when kids turn into big (little) kids. That is, they are no longer babies, preschoolers, or whatever other term you use; they are now actual little kids. Which is why I wanted to be sure to properly celebrate her birthday this year, even though I knew I’d be 38+ weeks pregnant and our second child could arrive at any time. Thankfully, we were able to pull it off and our baby boy cooperated and waited to be born. His big sister was able to have her birthday party this past Saturday amongst many friends and family. Today, she gets a second celebration with her preschool classmates. She’s a happy five year old girl!

My husband and I thought it would be fun to ask our daughter some questions in order to get inside the mind of a five year old. After all, she’s been talking about turning five for a really long time and has set some pretty high expectations about it. She has been commenting for a few months now how she’ll be able to do this and that when she turns five: “I can’t do that now, because I’m only four. But, soon I’ll be five. Maybe I can do it then!”

So, this morning, we sat down and asked her these questions. Of course, in true kid form, when you try to record the answers and save the memory, is when they decide not to talk. She wasn’t as talkative this morning and did not provide very detailed answers as I know she would have normally, but nevertheless, here are her thoughts:

1. Do you think turning 5 years old will change what you do each day? No.
2. What do you want to be when you grow up? A baby doctor.
3. Why are you excited about turning 5? Because, I’m turning 5 and tomorrow the baby’s coming out!
4. How long did you wait to turn 5? Like, almost 100 years. I wish every day was my birthday.
5. Anything special you want to tell me about turning 5? I’m excited about being a big sister for the baby.

We plan to ask some of the same questions next year and see how the answers differ. Hopefully, we’ll be able to build a nice scrapbook for her of each year’s answers, so that when she gets older she can read through it.

What humorous moments or thoughts have your children shared with you?

Mommy, you know there are bras for little girls too?

Well, not for little girls like you, but older little girls, yeah.

Like for 5 year olds? (Mind you, she turns 5 next month and apparently the world is going to drastically change when she’s 5 – she’ll officially be a big girl that can do any.thing. So she thinks.)

No, not for 5 year olds. Older girls. Like 10 maybe.

Nuh uh! [classmate's name] had a bra on when she was 3!

Are you sure it was a bra sweetie? Maybe it was an undershirt, like the ones you sometimes wear.

Noooo. It was a bra.

How do you know it was a bra? Did you see it?

Yes, she showed it to me.

Well, baby, even if she did, you’re not going to wear a bra until you need to – when you start growing breasts. That’s when mommy started wearing a bra.

Awww…I wish I could wear a bra.

Baby girl, don’t rush it. Enjoy being a 5 year old and not having to worry about that. When the time comes, you’ll wear a bra. Your body knows when it’s supposed to grow and when things are supposed to happen. Don’t rush things, ok?

Ok, mommy.

So went our conversation a few mornings ago. I’m not sure if her classmate really did have a bra on or not – I would hope not, since there’s no reason – but, somehow my not-even 5-year-old got the idea in her head that she needed a bra. I know she sees them in the stores too as we shop for her clothes and nowadays they look really pretty. I cringe every time I see a padded beginner’s bra. Why does a 10 year old just starting to develop and wear a bra need padding again? Aside from the padding, the bras in the little girls’ section are definitely much prettier than the ones around when I went through the ritual of picking my first bra. I definitely get why they are enticing for my girl.

Still, I can’t help but think of what else is coming my way. Did I ask my mother such questions at such a young age? What other questions will I have to answer within the next year and especially when she begins kindergarten?

I am not shying away from such conversations, but it would be helpful if I could peek into her little brain and know ahead of time so that I can prepare myself. It would also help if she waited until after I’ve had breakfast and fully woken up before she springs such heavy conversation on me.

If you have a little girl, at what age did she start asking about bras? What other questions have you fielded from your young children already?

[photo credit: Glamcheck]

Conversations with preschoolers can be fun. They come up with interesting thoughts, sometimes silly, but often humorous and enlightening. My 4-year-old daughter is a talker. She loves to ask about the world and has many ideas she shares with us – a lot. This makes for very entertaining drives to preschool in the morning.

This morning, I decided to ask my baby girl a few questions about Thanksgiving. I wanted to expand on what they’ve been learning in school and reinforce the overall message of Thanksgiving. Here was our conversation.

What are you thankful for?

In the order she responded:

• my family
• food
• toys
• clothes
• stuffed animals

Me: Aren’t stuffed animals toys?
Baby Girl: Yes!
Me: So, didn’t you already say toys?
Baby Girl: But…they’re animals!
Me: Oh, ok…so it’s different?
Baby Girl: Yeah.

What is Thanksgiving all about?

Thanksgiving is about love, hugs, kisses, and being thankful. Oh, and food.

How do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

We sit around a big dinner table and hold hands, close our eyes and say a prayer.

What is your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?

Hmmm…the turkey. The crispy part.

Me: The crispy part of the turkey?
Baby Girl: Yes!

I’d like to point out that she’s never eaten the crispy part of the turkey. Ever. I’ll be lucky if she actually eats turkey at all this year.

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving – full of love, hugs, kisses…and crispy turkey!

My three year old daughter is incredibly cute. I’m not biased or anything. Just see for yourself.

See? I told you so.

Not only is she beautiful on the outside, but she’s an incredibly sweet little girl as well. And smart. Also? Funny. Truly funny – not just “Oh, she’s so cute so I’ll laugh at anything” funny either.

I love all these qualities about her. She’s definitely got a strong combination going for herself.

Sometimes I look at her and I can just see the wheels turning in her head. Then she’ll burst out with some random thought. I love those moments. They give me an opportunity to glimpse into her little brain and get an idea of what she’s thinking about all day.

Some of the random thoughts she’s said lately:

• Mommy, you’re my best friend.
• When I grow up, I want to be a detective.
• Daddy’s a funny guy, isn’t he mommy?
• You know what abuela? I’m from the United States.

They all make sense to me and my husband. And all show different characteristics of baby girl: love, aspirations, admiration, and culture.

She continually surprises me and never ceases to amaze me. And I just want to eat her all up. But, then she’d tell me “Mommmyyy, we DON’T eat peopleeee!”

What craziness do you love about your children? Let’s share some positive memories in the comments to get away from the everyday aggravations for a little bit.

“Brian’s funny.”

“Oh yea?”

“Yea, I like him.”

“Do you?”

“Uh hmm. He’s my boy-friend.”

“Your what?”

“My bo-y-friend.”

“Is he? And why do you say that?”

“He was at the playground. And I asked him if he wanted to hold my hand. And heeee saaaaid YES!”

“So that’s why he’s your boyfriend?”

“Uh huh.”

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Little Cesar is always in time out. Every other day when I walk in to drop off my daughter, there he is at the front of their classroom, sitting by himself at the table. He’s adorable with his little chubby cheeks. Even in time out. And I feel bad for him.

This is the same kid that lied on my daughter’s second day of preschool and said she had been bad. He always talks to me or my husband. You can tell he just wants to talk to someone.

On this particular day, little Cesar looked up at me from his time out chair and said, “[something I didn't understand]…Brian’s girlfriend.”

“Who’s Brian’s girlfriend?”

At this point, my daughter came up to me and showed me something, so little Cesar sat for a second thinking.

Then he said, “Her! She’s Brian’s girlfriend!!”

And then I hear “Yeeeee-aaaaa!” from the corner and see little Ms. Megan (who’s sitting on the potty bench) is the one being little Cesar’s back-up homegirl.

Seriously? The fact that my daughter thinks she’s Brian’s girlfriend is a known fact amongst the other little boys and girls??!!

What in the world is going on at this preschool?

If this is the crap I have to deal with at THREE (almost four), I fear greatly for the teenage years.

In fact, I think I’m gonna just lock her up soon.

*All names have been changed cause I don’t want their mommies to beat me up if they ever find this blog.*

This morning, as I’m getting baby girl dressed, this is the conversation we had:

Where are we going, mami?

Well, mami and daddy are going to work, so you’re going to abuela’s house.

I don’t want to go to abuela’s house!

Why not?

I’m going to work…to get some money.

And, why do you need money?

To go shopping.

And what do you need to buy when you go shopping?

Turkey!

So, to recap…

My daughter needs to go to work so she can get money so she can go shopping and buy turkey.

Image credit: Bree R

Lately, my three year old has taken to repeating a phrase that is like nails on a chalkboard every time I hear it.

“It’s not fair!”

There are variations to this phrase, as well.

“But mooom….it’s not fair!”

“It’s not fair, mommy!”

“But, but, but…it’s not fair!”

Any way it’s said, you’d think I had a teenager in the house, not a toddler.

Apparently, life is rough for three year olds.

I’m not sure where exactly she picked up the phrase, since it’s not something commonly said in our house.

But, curse whoever or whatever introduced it into her vocabulary.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, these are my many ways of being unfair:

• I feed her.
• I give her a bath.
• I clean up the craptacular mess in the pamper she refuses to let go of yet.
• Oh, wait, I even play with her.

The horror!

Like I said, it’s a hard knock life for three year olds.

You might have heard of the book Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi. Or maybe not. If you haven’t, check it out here.

I first heard of this book from a previous co-worker. She was a 1st grade teacher and is very much into literacy. She has a wealth of information in her brain regarding teaching children to read, various books, fun activities, you name it. I’ve been trying to get her to start a blog so she can share this information with all us mamis out there, but she’s a little hesitant still.

She suggested Everyone Poops to me for several reasons:

1. She thinks the book is funny and cute.
2. She thought my toddler daughter might like it.
3. We were starting the very early stages of potty training.

We’ve read the book with my daughter a few times. I have to admit that it was a little weird to me at first, but then I embraced the silliness of it all. I mean, how can you not laugh at, “A one-hump camel makes a one-hump poop and a two-hump camel makes a two-hump poop… Only kidding!”

The other night my daughter asked me to read it for her.

We sat down on the couch and as I read the title and author’s name out loud to her, I could see that she was studying the cover of the book.

(image from Amazon.com)

She then said, “An apple poops???!!!”

I started to laugh and told her, “Well, no baby. You see, we eat an apple and then it goes in your tummy and then it comes out your bunda.” (Bunda is what we’ve come to call the butt.)

As soon as I started the sentence, I knew I was giving way too much information that wasn’t going to make sense. I saw it in her face. I swear I could see the wheels turning in her little head trying to figure out what I was saying.

She looked up at me, confused as ever and repeated, “An apple poops? Hahaha…NO, that’s so silly! Hee hee hee”

Indeed it is, baby girl.

image by lodigs

Baby girl: Mommy, mommy! Help! My goat needs help.

Me: What’s wrong with your goat?

Baby girl: He’s stuck on the light! (points up to the light in the hallway)

Me: Oh! Well tell your goat to jump down.

Baby girl: He can’t!

Me: Why not?

Baby girl: He has no feet!

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Baby girl: Where are we? (We had just parked in the near-by grocery center.)

Daddy: We’re going to pick up chinese noodles.

Baby girl: :gasp: Piiiiick up chinese noooooodles???!!!

Both of us: Yup!

Baby girl: BAM! (a la Emeril-style)