Random Bits

Here's something I set up for the girls today... really today, the day this post was posted. The rest of the stuff below happened previously. I set up some "caves" and the girls crawled through to pretend to take pictures of hibernating bears (I hid stuffed bears throughout), and they caught some of the bears, brought them food, etc. A fun winter activity, and thanks to Carrie for the idea!

While Cecilia and I were eating lunch together recently, she suddenly looked at me and said randomly, "I don't like coffee." Uh, okay. Good... I guess. I mean, you're only a toddler, after all. [What was really cute was how she used to pronounce coffee as "kwoffee." She sounded like she was from Boston or something!]

"Mommy, smell that," said Caroline, holding up an old feather from one of our chickens. "Doesn't it still smell like a chicken?" We presume this feather came from the original More, who was eaten by "Creepy" the dog. Cecilia was laughing while holding the feather, and Caroline said, "No, Cecilia, we shouldn't laugh - we should be crying since this is from the chicken that Creepy got!"

As we were heading inside today from the back yard, Cecilia propped a small board against the side of the chicken coop. "Keep chickens warm," she said. Then she called out to them as we walked toward the house, "Bye, bye, chickens! See you later!"

Tonight in the bath, Caroline commented on something to Chris with, "If that happened, we would have great sadness in our family." Later it was remembered what she was referring to: if we got baby chicks and they died.

Cecilia lately... hmm, she still asks us to "blow loud" on her food if it is too hot. She asked me to do something else loudly once, too... it seems that she thinks "loud" must be a descriptor for how intense something is. She has also been looking closely at our eyes and saying, "Have gooey eyes!" I guess since they look shiny and wet when one inspects them up close?? She also has some cute pronunciations currently (she doesn't have man

y of these, so I am trying to hold onto them while they last!): "cloffoff" for washcloth, and "Mrs. Swinserd" for Mrs. Swinford, our neighbor.

Speaking of, Mrs. Swinford took us out to lunch yesterday, which was so sweet of her. The girls love talking to her when they see her outside, and they were thrilled to go to lunch with her. Mrs. Swinford is in her 80s, and her husband died last year... Caroline was holding her hand as we entered the restaurant, and she proudly announced to the greeter, "That's our neighbor!!" Cecilia always wants to hug her and be held by her... it's like she has adopted her as an extra great-grandparent!

Anyway, something else Cecilia said recently... Chris put a new faucet in our bathroom because the old one was leaking, and when Cecilia first noticed it, she said, "New faucet. Has wheels." This is because it has round knobs for the cold and hot water instead of the elongated type like the old faucet had.

Caroline noticed the size label on this pair of pajamas a week or so ago... and she referred to them as "La Leche League pajamas." [La Leche League is abbreviated as "LLL" much of the time.] Hee hee... it just shows what she is exposed to and how she reasons based on her "prior knowledge." Aaaah, I just used a college education class term! At least I didn't say anything about "scaffolding!"

In other news, I got a toddler formula sample in the mail the other day - Enfamil. I have gotten lots of formula advertising lately - mostly from Nestle, but this is the first sample I have received in probably two years. So I called to ask to be removed from their mailing list. I told them that I don't like getting samples of stuff I don't want, because the way they send so much "free" stuff out to people who don't want it increases their expenses, and therefore they have to jack up the price of their name-brand formula to cover their costs, and even though it is nutritionally the same as generic brands of formula, parents will keep paying the inflated price because they were given this kind of formula in the hospital and don't want to switch... while some babies are more sensitive and need a certain "gentle" variety of formula that is only sold by the name brand companies, most can switch to the cheaper variety just fine. Oh, and how much WASTE with all the pages of coupons and ads they keep sending me! I have asked to be removed from Nestle's mailing list and need to make a follow-up call since it appears I have not been removed (I asked about a year ago now). We'll see if Enfamil will also need to be badgered. The guy I spoke with was very polite about removing me and even provided a phone number for where they got my information. It just irks me to no end how parents who buy the name brands pay so much more for a product that is pretty much the same thing, because their doctor/hospital endorses it, because of all the waste these companies are making. No other industry sends sample after sample and booklet after booklet of baby "information" and coupons... so wasteful. And Enfamil just got sued (for the third time for this same reason!) because they have been making false claims in their advertisements that their product is superior to generic brands. So, perhaps now Enfamil formula will cost even *more* than it already does, to cover their lawsuit expenses? There is something unethical about providing a more expensive brand in the hospital... it is like a medical endorsement, but not for health reasons - for money reasons. Maybe I should have done a separate post on this topic!

Caroline said yesterday, "If King Herod came after Cecilia, I would tell him that she was *three* years old so he wouldn't want to get her! That's what sisters are for!"

The chickens are up close to the house today... like, six feet from the back wall of the den. We can look right out the window at them. They are baffled when we knock on the window, or open it and talk to them through the open window. And I am noticing how chatty they are throughout the day! They only get up this close every few months, and then they are gradually moved down the yard until they run out of room. Chris did the big task of hauling the whole tractor up close to the house last night. This ruffled the chickens' feathers a bit... they woke up and came out of their enclosed area, and they squawked angrily when Chris tried to put them back to bed. Something very weird about seeing nocturnal chickens... Once he turned off the flood lights, they went back to bed, we presume!

And we are getting ready for Cecilia's birthday tomorrow... she is having a snowman party! I have to make the cake and snacks and other things... time to get going, and get some outside time in since it is nice out there! And it's an early bedtime tonight since Little Miss I'm Almost Two took a shoerter than normal nap, although she doesn't seem crabby about it, thankfully!