Our three-year-old requested a glass of warm chocolate milk before going to bed. While the milk was warming and she was waiting snugly in her bedroom, I decided to make a swift detour to the computer. If I hurried, I figured, I could finish a few last-minute tasks and my daughter would never realize I'd been shirking my motherly duties ( Read more... )

Her: Mommy, I can't find my toothbrush ( Read more... )

"We go to Copenhagen. And Mommy will come. And Daddy will come. And Alex will come. And Aubrey will come. And Janika will come. And then... I will buy something!"

Why no, we're not caught up in the neverending rush of commercialism. Not at all.

Through sheer Power of Cute, Janika convinced me this morning to buy a pink and orange totebag she found on sale. She loves it. She took her nap with it. It's nearly as big as she is, so she can't really carry it, but she drags it around the house looking for more treasures to stuff inside.

Yup. That girl definitely has the pack-rat gene.

Janika just came home from an evening excursion with Daddy, flushed and saying, "Mommy! I go with Daddy and I look up at the sky and it pink and purple... and then it pink!"

Spoken with the inflections of a two-year-old, that is the most poetic description of a sunset that I have ever heard.

Alex was off to swim lessons. Janika was visiting her friend Niklas -- a prospect so exciting she willingly ditched swimming to accept the invitation. Aubrey went skipping and grinning down to kindergarten for a super-special slumber party with the Butterfly Group ( Read more... )

Me: Janika, are you playing with all of your sister's precious things?
Janika: Uh-uh.

(Her expression of utter innocence would have been more convincing if she hadn't been holding Aubrey's Princess Wand, pencil case, and red silk purse.)

* * * * *Janika's hair is just barely long enough for troll-like tufts masquerading as pigtails. Today she ( Read more... )

Two-year-old Janika has discovered that when you're two feet tall, a six-inch stepstool is the key to a broader world. With it, she can reach light switches. The refrigerator shelves. The bathroom sink. The center of the table ( Read more... )

The kids are home from Fasching ( Read more... )

Especially when you're two. On Sunday Janika raced through the house as if her life depended on it to show Daddy her new pigtails. Yesterday she dragged me away from my computer to display her carefully arranged building blocks. Today it's all about locating a misplaced piece of bread.

Yup. Children's time-sense is definitely different than