Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Courtney LOVES shoes! When she was a baby and wouldn't calm down, all I had to do was put her shoes on her and she would be fine. This worked on more than one time when she wouldn't calm down and go to sleep. Yes, she slept with shoes on.

Every time we go to a store, she wants to go to the shoe section and look around. This is usually followed by a massive fit when she is told that we aren't going to buy her yet another pair of shoes and then she gets a time-out in the middle of Target while people look at me like I'm a horrible mother. Courtney will even find pictures of shoes in books and tell me that those are what she wants for Christmas.

So you can imagine just how much I love little old women who sweetly bring shoes over to Courtney to look at when we are in the Thrift store. Yes, we went there today (it was 50% off day and I just can't resist a deal, I bought a couch for $25 that I'm going to try and reupholster and put downstairs and all the money to go getting a Life Flight helicopter) and Courtney was trying to find some shoes. They moved the children's shoes, of which I was glad, so she couldn't find any. This nice little old woman saw Courtney's stress, took Courtney by the hand, led her over to where the shoes were and showed her this LOVELY pair of silver shoes. Courtney fell in love! She put them on, ignoring the fact that they were about 5 sizes too big, and began to plead her case. She "had to have" these shoes because they were so pretty and she needs new Church shoes (yeah, that was her argument last month). After a long debate, in which the little old lady got involved by telling me that she would "eventually grow into them," I caved. Hey, they were 50 cents, so I wasn't giving in that much. But she hasn't taken them off. We even had to run to Bryan's office to show him her new shoes. Yeah, it's only going to get worse!

Here are her new shoes:

First Names

I remember when I finally realized that my mom had a first name and it wasn't "Mom." When I was in 2nd grade, my mom would have me write the notes to my teachers (excuse notes, etc.) and then she would sign it. I remember her signing it once and I noticed that she didn't sign it as "mom." That's when I realized that she had a first name.

Courtney, on the other hand, loves to call me "Michelle." Today is one of those days when that's all she will call me. "Let's go for a walk Michelle" or "Thank you for dinner Michelle." It was cute the first 100 times, but it's starting to get old! It feels like the kid equivalent of having your middle name used by your parents. ;)

Pickle

Courtney has this thing with the word "pickle." Sometimes when Bryan or I will read her a story we will substitute words to see if she is listening or to make her giggle. When I read her stories before her nap she likes me to put in the word "pickle" whenever I can. Today we made up a pickle song that made us both laugh. It's to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Pickle
How I wonder where you tickle.
On your belly or under your chin?
Now let's play this game again.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Pickle
Now I know just where to tickle.

Then I tickled her and she laughed and laughed. I guess you had to be there but we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I had her so wound up after that, that it took her 2 hours to fall asleep. Oh well, at least she finally did fall asleep.

Gotta Love M&Ms

Ethan has been having a rough time with piano again lately. He loves his teacher and his lessons but he hates practicing. Every night he asks me what we do in the morning and then says, "And don't tell me piano because I already know I have to practice and I hate it!" Last Tuesday we had a really rough piano morning where Ethan, once again, told me that I'm a "wicked stepmother." I was frustrated and just didn't know what to do to help him.

My visiting teachers came over later that morning and we were talking about children taking piano lessons. One of my visiting teachers mentioned that her mother-in-law teaches her daughter and she uses M&Ms to help learn the notes. Inspired, I ran right out and bought a huge bag of M&Ms. Last night I told Ethan that I had a sweet surprise for piano practice. He was actually looking forward to it.

When he woke up this morning he was ready to go. He sat down, I pulled out the flashcards and the M&Ms. I put an M&M on each note that corresponded with a flashcard and we started. The rules were that if he could name and find the note, he could eat the M&M, but if he missed it, I would put that M&M back for next time. He only missed one! He was so happy and the rest of the practicing went great. He did so well and was so much more relaxed. He even gave a mini recital for Bryan before he left for work. I was so impressed and grateful to my visiting teacher for sharing her idea.

Tonight after dinner when Bryan left for Mutual, I saw Ethan by the piano. I asked him what he was doing and he told me, "I want to practice the piano some more. I beat up this piano today!" (That's his way of saying he did a good job.) And he played all his pieces another time without any help and did a great job! Yeah!!! Hopefully this will last.

Want To Donate?

If any of you don't know who Robert Jordan is or what the Wheel of Time series is, let me enlighten you. Robert Jordan wrote a series called the "Wheel of Time" which you can read all about at www.wikipedia.com. It's a series of fantasy books about a boy named Rand and is all about bringing balance to the Wheel of Time that was made in the creation. I have read the first 5 or so then I just don't have the brain power to keep up with all the characters and their different journeys.

Jordan had written 11 books and was in the process of writing the 12th, and final, book when he died in 2007 at age 58. A new writer was chosen, Brandon Sanderson, to finish the final book so it could be published. Brandon Sanderson is a BYU professor of fantasy writing and in each of his previous books, he has auctioned off the right to name a character. According to his web page, he has usually done this with church groups auctioning with cans of food for the local food bank. With the last book of Wheel of Time, he is doing a silent auction for not only the right to name a character but a walk-on part in the book (meaning that the character will have lines and everything).

Bryan really likes these books and usually is on the library's hold list for the book months before it comes out. When he read that you could name a character he was excited...until he found out that the latest bid on the silent auction is $10,000. Yes, someone is actually willing to donate $10,000 to a food bank in order to become a character in a book! Bryan turned to me and said, "If we had a spare $11,000 I would do it!!" Well, I think he is going to either have to do a bunch of fund raising or have a long lost relative die and leave him money. But he did find out that in the final battle of the book there will be a huge battle and anyone who donates over $20 will be put into a drawing for rights to name those characters. So that's an option.

This series of books really has a following, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out! The book is due out in the Fall of 2009 and is estimated to be more than 700,000 words long!

It was only a matter of time...

I was checking my email yesterday when Courtney came in the room looking like she had chocolate dripping from her mouth. I asked her what she had eaten and she said, "nothing" so I investigated more closely and realized that it was lipstick. I knew it was only a matter of time before she started getting into my make-up and here was the evidence. I laughed and called for Bryan but Courtney ran into her room yelling "I don't want Daddy to be upset!!" So I took a picture instead. After the photo shoot, I googled "how to remove lipstick from the face" and found that babyoil is the best way to get it off a little girl. I sat Courtney on the sink and realized that she had not only put lipstick on her lips, but that she had used it as eye shadow and eye liner. She really looked like a clown.

We got it all off her face, and her arm where she had tried to wipe her mouth, and she was fine. But it brought back a lot of lipstick memories I have from when I was young. I have quite a few memories of climbing up onto our bathroom counter when I was little and wiping lipstick all over the mirror. I even remember being yelled at by my mom and thinking, "But it was fun!" So I know this probably won't be the last time I'm going clean lipstick off of Courtney.

Panda

I saw this and just had to share it because it is hilarious! I am so jumpy so I can relate to this mom.