Serious Weeding

Aidyn came out of the house two days ago and took one look at our flower bed in the front, shook her little blonde head and proclaimed in her most serious voice, "Daddy needs to do some serious weeding."

Each of Our Eyes Are Stuck to Us

I love to listen to Aidyn sing! Sometimes she gets songs stuck in her head which I find hilarious...she's only 3!! The other day she had "Hey Diddle Diddle" stuck in her head and we got to hear her sing it about 25 times on the way to dinner at Chili's.

One of the cd's she really likes is called...well, I don't know what it's called because Aidyn just refers to it as "the shine shine songs." She likes to listen to shine shine songs at bedtime and sometimes they get stuck in her head the next day. Last weekend she was singing one of the songs from that cd which goes:

"God loves us so much
That He gave His only Son
To come and save us
Each and every one
And if we believe in Him
We'll have live that never ends
This is how God shows His love."

One of the 20 times she sang it through she stopped after "each and every one" and asked me, "Mom. What does 'each' mean?" Now, for just a second, try to explain the word "each" in language a three-year-old will understand. It's hard!

So I answered, "Well, um...it means like every one...um...or like individual ones...um..."

And then she rescued me: "Like, 'Each of our eyes are stuck to us.'?"

All I could do was laugh and say, "Yep. Each of our eyes are stuck to us."

We Need to Show That to Daddy!

Last week at dinner Aidyn was talking about a movie she likes, Veggie Tales' "Rack, Shack, and Benny" which is loosely based around the story of the faithful Hebrew friends who were thrown into the fiery furnace in Daniel 1-3. She was pointing out one particular part of the movie and said, "Remember that part, Daddy?"

"I haven't seen that one," he said.

Aidyn looked from him to me incredulously and said, "We need to show that to Daddy!"

I Don't Think It Worked

Aidyn loves her Daddy. A lot. She has always adored him and is only now starting to come around to the idea that she has two parents to love. No, seriously! On Tuesday she demonstrated that she is still Daddy's Girl. He was at work and we were home together just hanging out when I informed Daddy's Girl that it was time for a nap. She began crying for her Daddy (I think just to stall on the nap a few minutes longer) and I calmly informed her that Daddy would be home in a little while, after her nap. She eventually settled down and took a good long nap.

When she woke up she came down the stairs with Hailie Bunny in tow and looked around the downstairs. Then, very dejectedly, she came and stood before me saying, "I don't think it worked."

"Don't think what worked?" I replied.

"My nap didn't work. Daddy's not here."

My Butt Burped

Plagued by an episode of gas, Aidyn complained, "Excuse me. My butt burped."

He Died

Today I was a little worried that I was going to have to try to discuss death with Aidyn. Recently we watched the movie Faith Like Potatoes and Aidyn happened to come into the room just as a little boy falls off a tractor and is crushed by the wheel. She commented that there was a lot of "jelly" on the boy's face and on the ground and wasn't sure what to think when the doctor said it was "too late." They never actually said that the boy was dead, so I'm not sure that she made the connection when he didn't show up in any more scenes.

Today she was playing with her guys in the kitchen and the daddy fell off the back of the chair she was playing on. As he hit the ground she said, "He died." I was already trying to plan what I would say if she asked me anything about death but she just continued, "He needs new batteries."

Where Did It Go?

At the museum today Aidyn was fascinated with the coin-spinning vortex bank thing. You know, where you put the coin in the slot and watch it spin around and around? Matter of fact, the coin vortex and the escalator were probably her favorite exhibits. The first time she put a coin in and watched it she was very surprised when it disappeared and actually bent down to try to look underneath and see where it went, exclaiming, "Where did it go!?"

This Reminds Me...

Today at the museum after we went to the Planetarium we were walking down the stairs and Aidyn said, "These stairs remind me of different stairs as ours." I just thought it was funny that she even knows what "this reminds me" means!

I Hear a Macaw

I'm not going to lie. This kind of freaks me out. But those of you who know Donnie really well will probably just agree that this is some kind of weird genetic thing.

Today we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum. Aidyn was very excited to go in the rainforest area after lunch and she really enjoyed seeing the fountain and the big trees that they have in there. The museum has ambient sounds that they play in every area and the rainforest part is no different. The sound loop includes lots of different bird sounds and at one point Aidyn exclaimed, "I hear a macaw!" Sure enough, right above us on the ledge was the macaw exhibit. I have no explanation except maybe genetics and Diego.

Consequences and Considerate

For all of those who still somewhat disbelieve that these are Aidyn's actual words, here are her two newest ones, both four syllables.

A few weeks ago Aidyn was behaving terribly in the store and we were forced to put back something we had planned to buy her. She learned the meaning of the word consequences that day and the lesson has stuck. She understands that there are both good and bad consequences and frequently discusses which one she plans to get based on a desired action.

This past week while Nana and Papa have been visiting they've taught her about the word considerate and it's meaning. Aidyn has always been very polite (under threat of pain :-) and she now understands that being considerate is part of being polite and learning to live with other people. She is not perfect by any means, but having words to go to in some of the more difficult times with her really helps her stop and think about her actions. Are you being considerate? and Will there be good consequences or bad ones? have been some of our best questions lately to help her make good decisions.