Language Barrier

I tend to believe that most parents make certain assumptions regarding their children. We assume that they will eat if they are hungry and sleep if they are tired. We assume that when they are cold they will keep their clothes on. All of these assumptions have been proven false by my children. They often don't eat when hungry, especially if there is something more fun to do. They resist sleep or the same reason that they reject food. There is something more fun to do. Katie would prefer to sit on the bathroom stool in the dark then to lay in her soft bed and sleep. Then of course there is the issue of clothing and the weather. I'm hoping that my daughters will have grown in their thinking and will wear clothes this winter. Katie spent last winter in a windbreaker and tennis shoes and a diaper. That's all. Most of the people at the grocery store thought I was a bad mother but you can read all about that here.

So, although my children prove my assumptions wrong daily, I still make assumptions. I assume it is because I do not have enough brain power to consider all the possible scenarios. I just assume that I know what is likely to occur.

Tonight as we are leaving Perkins (Tuesday is kids eat free night), Hannah looks at me and asks, "What does yeah mean?" I stop, I look at Jesse with this incredulous look.
He asks her, "What does yeah mean? Is that what you said?"
"Uh, huh." She replies.
Surely she knows that yeah and yes are the same word with nearly the same usage, so I say, "You know what it means. You tell me." I say it in a playful tone but she really can't answer me. "Hmmm, I dont' know. What is yeah?"
"Hannah, yeah is yes."
"It is!? I never knew that before!"

Oh, dear. I sort of assumed that my child speaks English. I was wrong.

Actually, this is an interesting issue. Usually if Hannah asks to do an activity I respond in a variety of ways:

Yes (meaning yes and that it is fine)
Sure (yes, what a great idea)
Yeah (yes, but what a pain, I'm trying to do something else right now and this is very bad timing, why do you always what to water paint while I'm cooking dinner and the phone is ringing and your sister is pouring lotion in her hair and the baby has locked himself in the bedroom. Why are you hiding in the kitchen cupboard when you just asked to paint. ugh)

So, really it is no wonder that she doesn't know what yeah means. Yikes. I'll have to work on that.

And the Answer Is:

Katie



Sheesh. I didn't think it would be so easy. Even Katie knew it was her. She ran up to the computer yelling, "Mommy! It's Baby Katie!" Hannah thought it was Elijah.



So why was Baby Katie so distressed?

Well, when your big sister is still a baby, life can be tough!

We took several pictures that morning, before Katie became upset. Here is one of my favorites:

Sweet Babies

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Up Close

Proud of Our Record:

Wannamaker Park

(This above picture is from the Wannamaker Park website. This is not our kids. The camera is out of batteries. I'll post pictures as soon as possible. )

Our family went to Wannamaker Park this year for the annual Fourth of July picnic. We decided to leave Elijah with a babysitter so that Jesse and I could each take one of the girls. We had a great time. Hannah loved the kiddy slides. She went over and over. I even convinced her to go down the kiddy tube slide. It has water jets that speed you down the slide. The first time down she went on my lap but the second time I convinced her to go alone. She is so lightweight that she flipped over going down. She flew into the water sideways at the end of the slide. I was waiting there to catch her. I grabbed her quick but her head went under for a second. Man, she was mad at me!! But she got over it and continued going down the regular kiddy slides. She even went down the tube slide again for Jesse.

Katie was not such a fan of the waterpark. She didn't like the slides and she didn't really like the water. Hmmm... maybe we should have left her with a sitter and brought Elijah! Katie did fine and she didn't complain but she didn't really enjoy it. She did enjoy the picnic. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, soda, and brownies. Katie ate a pretty hefty serving of brownies (it was even heftier because she stole a brownie from one of the Kennedy kids!). Between the brownies and the sodas, she had a good time.

I got to go on one big slide. Jennifer (my friend who was also at the picnic) and I went on a slide early while Jesse fed the girls a morning snack. It was great! I hadn't been on a water slide in 11 years. I was a little concerned that I wouldn't enjoy them anymore. (As you get older, you get dizzy faster and things like water slides and rollercoasters aren't so much fun. It's a medical thing, ask Jennifer. She explained it all to me.) So, I was delighted to know that I still love water slides. Jesse also went on one slide late in the day. It was similar to the Kamakazi slide at Hurricane Harbor. Hannah was really upset that she was too short for the slide, although I don't believe she would have actually went down it. We waited at the bottom for Jesse to come down.

We also played in the wave pool for a while. A wave pool 45 minutes from the beach? Is that weird to anyone else?

Elijah had a great time with his babysitter. He stayed at Bethany's house. Bethany is only 13 but she is going to make a great babysitter. Elijah had a great time. She played with him and changed his diaper. She made him a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and then she put him down for a nap. He was happy and clean and dry and rested when we returned. Yay! Good babysitters are worth their weight in gold. Of course, Bethany doesn't weigh very much, so maybe she is worth more than her weight in gold.

After the waterpark we picked up Elijah and headed home. We put everyone down for naps, including Jesse. Hannah kept talking in her bed. I went in there and remined her that she needed to be quiet so that Katie could sleep. She replied, "But if I'm quiet, I'll go to sleep too!" That stinker! She never did go to sleep so finally she and I ran to CVS. Going to CVS together is one of our favorite thing to do, just Hannah and I.

Alright, I'm going to end this post for now. Stay tuned to hear about our fireworks adventure.