Memories

Last night I helped the girls clean their room. I wanted to do some ‘mother daughter bonding’ so I told them that I was going to ask them a question and they each had to give me their answers no other talking allowed.
I threw out things like
“What’s your favorite color”
and “if you had 5$ what would you buy your sister?”
I got some pretty typical answers, but then I got some pretty sweet ones too. It isn’t often that my girls show love towards each other, so when I hear the occasional proof it makes me very happy.
This is what I learned
Ali’s favorite color is still yellow. (It has been for about 4 years)
Her favorite food is still mashed potatoes, and spaghetti.
If she had 5$ to spend on one person she would buy
Megan “things to color with”
Mattie “a toy”
Me a “fairy or a frog or a Make over” (should I take that personally?)
Ex (her Daddy) “climbing stuff”
Taylor (daddy too) “a new hat or something like that….”
I learned that if she could go anywhere she’d go to Hawaii, or California,
And If she could spend time with anyone in the world, it would be her family.
She also wants to have a slumber party for her birthday.

Megan When asked about the 5$
Turned and asked Ali “what would you like Ali?” which I thought was very cute. Ali said she’d like “a book”. (ahh, a girl after my own heart).
She’d buy Mattie “a toy”
Her Daddy (Ex) “climbing or camping stuff”
Daddy Taylor she wasn’t sure of….”what does Daddy like?” she asked
And we didn’t even get to me, because there was too much squirming and talking about Birthday parties that I had to move to the next question..
So I learned that if she could go anywhere right at that moment, she’d go “swimming”. After hearing Ali’s answer, she changed hers to Disneyland.
She’d spend time with her family, and
She WANTED to have a Ballerina Birthday party… including Jack! “do boys do ballet Mom?” but after hearing that Ali wanted a slumber party, she’s decided that she is going to have one too.. With Michie, Emmy, and Mia.

To keep the mood going I started telling them stories. Now for those of you who know me, I love to get lively when I tell the kids stories.. I use motions, gestures, and different voices with facial expressions.. I love to see the sparkle in their eyes when they hear stories and they love it even more when I get animated.
I began with stories of myself when I was a child. I told them of the time we stepped out of our cabin in Yellowstone to find a Buffalo right outside our door.
I told them about how when Pushing kids on the tire swing in third grade I ran into the pole and got a concussion. I dramatically re-enacted the entire scene for them, including my Teachers reaction to the giant welt on my forehead. . I told them how I was the ‘best tire swing pusher in third grade” to which Ali responded “That comes from you then, mom, cuz, I’m the best tire swing pusher too, I get that from you! It must run in the family”.
I told them about the time I broke my pinky playing kick ball, and thought my pinky was my thumb.
I described to them the temperature of the water as we jumped into the pool for the first time every spring. (I definitely burned calories re-enacting that one!)
I ran out of my own stories so I went on to tell them stories about when they were tiny.
I told about Ali’s pacifier addiction and how no matter how hard I tried to get rid of them she would always magically find one hiding somewhere, and when she did, she’d pop it in her mouth happily and suck away. She LOVED the binky!
I told of Megan when she was about barely crawling and would climb into the baby bouncer and bounce so hard she’d catch air.
The girls were giggling and begging for more. I remembered that I had Megan’s bouncer jumping on video so we went in search of the old home movies. As it was getting late, we spent just 20 minutes playing the tapes and forwarding through to the fun parts. I couldn’t believe how little they both were. Listening to Ali’s little gruff voice telling me things was just darling. She was such a little busy body. She was jumping around, climbing on things and talking non-stop just like she does today. Megan was a super chunk and she loved seeing herself crawl around ‘growling’ and being charming. I could have watched them all night. I really enjoyed it. And I think the girls did too.
I was especially grateful when they climbed into their beds and went to sleep without any protesting. It always feels good when you can tuck them in and leave with a good feeling.
When I went in to check on them a few hours later Megan was yet again curled up on the end of Ali’s bed, squished into the 2-foot space she had.
I picked her up and put her back in her own bed. I’m glad I did, because unfortunately she had an accident last night… I probably should have woken her up to go to the bathroom, but that’s okay, we’ll keep trying.. First thing she said when she woke up was “will I have to wear a pull-up tonight?”

Oh and cute Mattie had been hanging with us the entire time. He LOVES playing with the little trinkets and things that the girls have on their shelves.
He was particularly intent on getting something on the top shelf of Ali’s and kept saying "dat, pees, Dat, pees" so I picked him up and let him point it out to me. When I handed it to him he took it out of my hand, immediately stuck his hand up under his chin and said “dant-do” (aka Thank you). He’s such a smart boy. We only showed him once and he does it all the time now.