The Doll Saga

When you think about having a second child you envision them playing together, loving each other, generally all round happiness. It seems I failed to think about the fighting. Oh the fighting. So, on that note, Nicole has a doll named Allison that cries and giggles. Julia really likes this doll. Nicole is rather possessive of the doll. I got tired of the screaming and yelling over the doll. So, being the good mom that I am, I decided that Julia should have her own crying and giggling doll. This lead us to make the biggest mistake any parent can make. We took them both to the toy store. I'm not sure why we thought this was a good idea, but it sounded fun. Even as an adult, I love the toy store. I love looking at all the new stuff and reminiscing over the old. I forgot that there is never time for reminiscing with children around. Anyway, we had warned Nicole that we were getting a doll for Julia, not for her. We did tell her we would get some new markers for her. Of course, when we got to the doll section Nicole decided she also needed a new doll (all parents reading this knew this was coming). She asked very nicely and was being really good, so we decided she could have a doll (and they were on sale, which always helps). Julia got a doll that coos and cries and makes sucking noises when you put a soother in the mouth. Her doll came with batteries in it, so she got to play with it on the drive home. Nicole got a doll that cries real tears. You feed her a bottle of water, then she cries tears. Then she goes to sleep. Her doll did not have batteries in it, nor did we have water for the bottle, so we had to wait until we got home to try it out. But she still got to hold it for the drive home. That was the most peaceful drive I've had in a while.

We got home and immediately hunted down some batteries and a tiny screwdriver (who designs these things anyway that you have to use an abnormally small screwdriver to open the battery case). We then filled the little bottle with water and proceeded to feed the baby, excited to see her cry. You'd think we wouldn't be that excited about a crying baby, after all, we've been through 2 real ones. But this one has an off button. Anyway, the baby would not drink the water! It just dripped down her face. We tried everything to get water into that thing. We finally determined that she was broken. It is unbelievably hard to explain to a 4 year old that their toy is broken and you are going to have to take it back. Real tears were certainly cried. But not by the doll.

The next day Mark and I raced to the toy store over lunch to exchange the doll. Luckily that was a very easy process. I was a bit worried that they would have a problem with the fact that we didn't have the box anymore. The box had gotten destroyed when removing the doll. I got tired of the 200 ties holding her in and tore the box. You'd think these toys come to life and try to get out with all the constraints. But the toy store didn't even blink an eye and gave us a replacement.

We got home and Nicole was excited to get her new doll. Again we filled the bottle. And (you saw this coming) again the baby did not drink!! At this point Mark and I think we must be incompetent. We tried pushing the bottle all the way in, just a little way in, and barely in. We tried sitting her up, lying her down, and somewhere in between. This doll just did not want to drink. I don't know what the deal is with this doll, but if 2 adults can't get this doll to drink, a 4 year old has no chance.

We still have the dud doll, but I guess we have to take her back. We won't be exchanging this for the same one, that's for sure. Maybe I'll get her a Barbie. They don't require batteries.

Our little monkey, err, ballerina

Tonight was Nicole's first dance class. She is taking preschool dance at a local dance studio. It is a precursor to more advanced dance she can do when she's older. This one teaches some dance basics and really just creative dance that is fun for 3-4 year olds.

Nicole has been asking pretty much every day since we registered when dance class would start. She was really, really, really, really hyper by the time we got there tonight. She's been practicing jumping on one foot this past week and has repeatedly told me that they would do this in dance class. I told her that I didn't think they would be doing one footed jumping so she shouldn't get her hopes up.

So anyway, off to dance we went. In the car Nicole told me that it was nice to get away from Daddy and Julia every once in a while. When we got to the studio there was still a class in the classroom, so we waited for them to finish. Nicole watched the class with her face pressed up to the windowed door. I think some of the girls (mid teens I'd say) were giving her strange looks. But Nicole was fascinated.

Once the room opened up, we met Nicole's teacher, Robin and the 3 other kids in the class. Parents were asked to go in to the room with the kids for a couple of minutes. They took attendance and then asked the girls if they liked to dance at home. Most of them mumbled an answer while looking at their parents. Nicole, however, launched into a detailed description of the dancing she and Julia do at home. She was about to get up and give a demonstration, but I put a stop to that. Nicole is definitely not a shy little girl. :) So after a little bit of conversation, we were told to say goodbye because parents were leaving the room. I got a quick "bye mommy" and off she ran while the other girls clung to their parents.

There are 3 dance rooms and 2 of them have viewing windows. But Nicole's class is in the room with no window. There were chairs outside the room, so all the parents sat there and attempted to catch a glance of their child in the refection of the open glassed door. We could hear everything going on. Nicole did not shut up! I know, this shouldn't surprise me. When she wasn't asking questions, she was elaborating on her dancing skills, or telling the other kids what to do ("no, the teacher said to do it this way"). I was getting more embarrassed by the minute sitting in the hallway with all the other parents. Before class I told her it was really important to listen to the teacher and do what she said. I should have also told her it was important to let the teacher talk!

The highlight of the class was when they jumped on one foot. Mommy was wrong, apparently hoping on one foot is a dance skill. They also did some running on tip toes, moving to poems and songs, and the most entertaining part for me, moving like animals. They were asked what their favourite animal was. Most of the kids said cats, dogs, etc. Nicole said monkey. Then they had to dance like that animal. I wasn't able to see much, but the thought of Nicole dancing like a monkey had me laughing. Maybe next week she'll move up to a more graceful zoo animal.

Nicole had a wonderful time and cried half the drive home because she has to wait another 7 days to do it again. But I was able to convince her that she has to teach Julia all her new moves and that cheered her up. :)

Lions and Tigers and Cows, Oh My!

We decided to take the girls to The African Lion Safari today. We were careful to not tell Nicole about it until this morning in case it was pouring rain. Disappointed 4 year olds are not fun to deal with. We woke up to lots of clouds and a storm sky and a weather report that promised sun. So Mark broke the news to Nicole. I came out of the shower and was told by Nicole "Mommy, did you hear the good news, we're going on safari!" And then the questions began. After we answered 50 questions about various animals, various modes of transportation (buses vs cars mostly), and various foods (she was hungry while we were getting ready), we headed out.

Car rides have taken on a new meaning since having children. I've never really enjoyed car rides, but I have since learned that I was crazy to not like them. Car rides pre-children are wonderful, wonderful things. Car rides with one child are tolerable. Car rides with 2 children are torture. There is a reason children under 12 are not allowed in the front seat and it has nothing to do with airbags. It is so that we can't reach our children and kill them.

Anyway, I won't bore anyone with the details. Suffice it to say, they yelled, I ignored, it was all good.

We got to the park (oh, and I've learned that you can't call things parks unless they have slides and swings, just an fyi for anyone who hasn't learned that yet) and waited in the car to pay. There was only one line open, so we waited a while. Julia doesn't understand the concept of waiting, so she cried while I cursed the African Lion Safari people and Nicole asked over and over again why Julia was crying. It wasn't all bad though. Nicole was actually very sweet and was trying to cheer Julia up. Unfortunately Julia took offense to Nicole's attempts and cried even louder.

The first thing we did was go see the birds. This was not terribly exciting for the kids, so we moved on to the petting farm. We couldn't go in with the animals because both girls are terribly afraid of anything that moves. But we did watch them from outside their pens. Julia almost touched an animal if that counts. Most of the time though she just whined at them. Nicole hid behind Mark and then needed to be carried. Good times were had by all.

Next we went to catch the bus for the ride through the animal reserves. Some people drive their vehicles, I call them crazy. Both girls were pretty excited about the bus. We saw way too many animals to talk about here. The highlights were the monkeys, lions, zebras, and giraffes, or "cows" to Julia. Every land animal is a cow. I was pretty excited when we did seem some cows (african cows, I don't remember what they're called) and quickly pointed them out to Julia. I'm pretty sure I got the "mom, we've been seeing cows all morning" look from Julia.

After the bus ride we went to watch the elephants swim in a big pond. Nicole was really interested. Julia played in the dirt and glanced at the "cows" occasionally. One of the older elephants was trying to drown a little elephant. It was entertaining in a morbid kind of way. But the little elephant just kept sticking his truck up out of the water. So he was fine.

We then had lunch. Nothing much exciting there. Julia ate well, Nicole ate something at least, story of our lives.

Then off we went to see the elephant show. We had a small issue with bees (they apparently like the smell of our stroller which should be no surprise since I'm sure many things have been spilt on it), but once we abandoned the stroller we were fine. I think the kids were getting tired by this point, so they watched the show fairly quietly. Julia had fun clapping along with the crowd. Nicole got to pet an elephant on the way out. She will touch an elephant, but not a tiny deer, go figure.

We were about to head home when Nicole spotted the train. It does a 15 minute ride through the park. Nicole stated "it will be a nice end to the day Mommy". We agreed. And it was.

Then back in the car we went, relieved that the girls were both exhausted (it was 2:15, way past nap time) and we would have a quiet car ride while the slept. Hahahahahaha. Julia slept for 10 minutes, Nicole not at all.

But all in all, it was a fun day. I think the girls really liked seeing all the animals. Nicole told me at bedtime that she is going to draw pictures tomorrow of us and the animals. She said she might need my help because she can't draw elephants. I didn't burst her bubble by telling her I can't either.

Thunderstorms, I used to like them

Thunderstorms have always facinated me. I love the smell of the rain, the flash of the lightening and counting down the seconds until the thunder sounds. I used to think that one second meant the storm was one kilometer away, but someone later told me it was 3 seconds for 1 km. Who knows, but it's fun to count anyway. I remember thinking as a kid that thunderstorms meant that God was mad at the clouds and he was cutting them in half with a lightening rod. Then the clouds would bang back together. I always wondered what made God that mad and I sure hoped I never did anything to make Him that mad at me!

I'm not sure if I was afraid of thunderstorms as a kid. I would guess that I was, it seems to be the kid thing to do. As a parent, I have discovered that thunderstorms are not nearly as entertaining to me when I am woken from a deep sleep by a paniced 3 1/2 year old at 3am. Yes, Nicole is terribly afraid of thunderstorms. She came stumbling into our room, clearly shaken and scared. I didn't even know there was a storm going on. I am a deep sleeper, especially since having kids. I think my body has learned to take any sleep it can and make the most of it. So being woken up like this panics me. My first thought was that someone had broken into the house and was chasing Nicole (because I'm sure that's what people who break into houses want to do, chase 3 year olds around). Mark quickly told me that there was a thunderstorm in his own special way. "Duh, what do you think all the flashing lights and loud noises are?" He obviously wakes up easier than I do. So anyway, we haul Nicole up into our bed to wait out the storm. We try to sleep, but there is no way Nicole is going to sleep through all the racket, and if Nicole isn't sleeping, no one in the bed is sleeping either. The storm finally slowed down around 4am. By this point Nicole is pretty comfy in our bed and has no intention of going back to her bed. We have a brief discussion about her going back and she starts to threaten us with the I'm going to scream so loud and wake up Julia voice. So, the good parents we are, we give in and she gets to stay in our bed. But of course a queen size bed is not big enough for 2 grown people and 1 little person. In fact, that little person could stand to have a queen size bed to herself the way she sleeps. So off Mark goes to sleep in Nicole's bed. I move Nicole over to Mark's side and pray that she stays on that side of the bed so I might get to sleep a bit before the alarm goes off. She didn't stay on her side, but I did get some sleep, with a little, warm body snuggled behind me. :D