Out of the Mouths...

More Caroline-isms:
Today I was doing some spring cleaning and came across a picture of Jim and me taken about ten years ago. All I can say is - WOW. We look so young! I didn't realize how much having kids ages you!
Anyway...Caroline saw the picture . She then said, "Mama? Was that taken when you were a lady?" I told her I supposed it was, since I was wearing a dress. I then asked her, "Caroline - if I was a lady then, what am I now?" Her reply? "You're not a lady. You're my Mama."
Oh, how my identity has changed. =-)

Caroline isn't much of a girly-girl. She doesn't care for dolls. When she does play with "her babies", it's usually a bear or some other animal that she wraps up and cares for. Recently, she has taken to carrying around a stuffed snake. She feeds the snake with a bottle. She washes the snake. She puts lotion on the snake and reads books to it. I think we might have a future zoologist on our hands. She has also found some of Jim's old books and has really taken to the Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions series. I think we have four of them, but she has been totally fixated on the book about space. On Neil Armstrong and walking on the moon, in particular. She's just fascinated. It's interesting for us, too. Since the book was published in the mid to late seventies, there are questions like "Will there ever be a woman in space?" and "What will the space shuttle be like?". We're trying to fill her in on the past thirty of so years of space exploration. I think because it's not in the book, she doesn't totally believe us - so maybe it's a good thing that she's stuck in 1969!
She usually ends up falling asleep reading the books to herself. Here is a picture of her, the book and her menagerie (including Soapy, Kelley Kitty, Cupcake Bear and Lisa the Snake):
Sam is getting very into reading. He will bring a book over to me, say "READ!" and then try to climb on my lap. He then tries to close the book and rip it out of my hands multiple times while we're reading - but seems to enjoy himself. If it's a book that's familiar, he'll even "read" it with me. It's really cute. Sometimes, he sounds pretty close to what the words really are. I'm so glad he's enjoying books more.
Here are Sam and Dada taking a read before bed:

A dear friend and I just happened to have children of the opposite gender at the same time, so we do a lot of trading with the kids clothes. Sara sent up a gown that her niece wore in her wedding for Caroline to wear. Needless to say, Caroline LOVES IT (even if it is a little big). It was a fight to get her out of it and I had to hide the gown in my closet because I think she'll try to put it on when she's not supposed to. You can tell by the pictures that Caroline absolutely felt gorgeous wearing it this morning:



We've been listening to a lot of West Side Story lately. The kids love the music and we do our best to dance. Today, though, I was a bit surprised. I usually "edit" the music so that we just listen to the songs we can dance to or that are fun to sing. So we never make it through the entire musical. But I was busy while the music was playing this morning and the CD played to the ending song. Caroline burst into tears and said, "Mama I don't like this song. It's sad." I tried to explain to her that it was sad, but hopeful (I don't even understand that all the time - so I failed miserably trying to explain it to a three year old). It never, ever occurred to me that she would be able to pick up on the emotions of the music and the lyrics. I don't know why. They're written about basic human emotions, after all. I guess I just have these moments when I realize that my children are human (and I don't think that sounds the way I would like it to). And it still blows my mind.
I suppose I have a lot to learn.