What is in a Name?

Cody, Caleb and I have all been working with Joya Claire on her name, but when she is asked what her name is she still says "Baby" in her sweet little toddler voice. When she is told that her name is Joya Claire she says "no, no, no, Baby". I think it has become a bit of a game for her and it is causing quite a lot of laughter for all of us!

My name?

Joya Claire has been talking up a storm lately and I have been so proud of her language acquisition. In the past couple of weeks she has started using three word sentences. Today, though, she was priceless. I said "what is your name, little girl"? and without hesitating a beat she said "Baby"! I was so shocked, the poor little thing doesn't even know her given name. So after lots of laughter we worked on "my name is Joya Claire", she says "Joy Care". So then we practiced again "What is your name, little girl"? and she said "Baby", so I tried one last time "What is your name, little girl"? and she said "no, no, no"! We will try again tomorrow.

Later in the evening I had to wake Cody up for work and I was asking him for some money and the car keys. He was groggy so I had to ask him a couple times. Soon after that Joya Claire was saying "Daddy, money, keys" over and over. Cody and I laughed and we figure he is in big trouble if she is already asking for those!

Caleb's vocabulary is coming along beautifully also. Today when Joya Claire was talking about an elephant saying it "ephant" , this is what Caleb said "Mama, Joya Claire talks but sometimes she doesn't use words, 'ephant' is just a word approximation". It was so funny he said it as though he were an expert on toddler speech. The great thing about it is, if you ask him what a word approximation is he will tell you!

I am always astonished at the way children acquire knowledge so quickly.

Kisses

This morning all I wanted was a little peace and quiet so I could read the latest issue of Mothering, but alas it wasn't to be. Caleb and Joya Claire were running circles in and out of the curtains with lots of laughter and general chaos. It must have looked like a mad-house to anyone looking in from outside. At some point during the running and fun Joya Claire stubbed her little toes on the wall. She stopped running and looked down at her foot, usually she will come over and have me kiss away all of her little hurts, but today her desire to get back to the play at hand outweighed the need for mama kisses so she sat down and kissed her own toes then got up and continued running circles in the curtains with Caleb! It was so cute and I laughed out loud, but a portion of my mama heart mourns the loss of Joya Claire's babyhood as she takes her sure little toddler steps towards more and more self sufficiency.

Sick Day

It all started with baby Joya Claire, she threw up all over at auntie Robin's house on Saturday and it just went downhill from there. Think vomiting baby with explosive diarrhea in cloth diapers. I am barely able to keep up with the "sick" laundry let alone my regular household cleaning. This morning Caleb woke up with the same lovely symptoms as his little sister. He is still not quite able to make it to the bathroom every time to throw up so now I have had to start cleaning the carpet numerous times a day also. He doesn't get the whole "puke bucket" idea or is simply opposed to using one. And now, lucky me, Cody has come home from work with yes, you guessed it, the same symptoms. I can handle two sick kids, but add one sick and cranky dear husband who wants to be waited on hand and foot and well, it seems a bit much. Can you blame me for wanting to sneak out of the house while they all sleep instead of laundering pukey, poopy clothes and diapers? I am just hoping to get through it all without getting sick myself.

Beautiful Butterflies

As I was getting Caleb ready for bed and asking him about his day he started crying and told me that he wanted to be a butterfly. I didn't know where he had gotten the idea from so I asked him some questions. He told me that in his primary class at church some of the girls got to be butterflies but not the boys and he had wanted to be a butterfly. He started getting really upset as he was telling me that one little boy got to be a robin and some of the kids got to be ladybugs but he really wanted to be a butterfly and they only let little girls be butterflies. Oh! The injustice! (Good thing I am in Primary will be able to have a serious talk with the primary pres. about gender roles not prohibiting little boys from being butterflies and please could we be more equitable in role playing assignments). I really wanted Caleb to go to sleep but he was on the verge of hysterics about not getting to be a butterfly. I told him if he would stop crying and go right to sleep I had some beautiful butterfly wings that he could wear in the morning. This I assured him was much better than just pretending to have wings in Primary. It did the trick and he was sound asleep in ten minutes. At 8am he rolled over, opened his eyes and asked "can I wear the butterfly wings now". So I got out the said wings and some tutus and from 8am - 5pm Caleb ran around in pajamas and butterfly wings and Joya Claire spent most the day in and out of various tutus. During dinner Caleb said "this was a great day, mama"! It was a fun day for all.