"When I grow up..

.. I will be a big tall DADDY!"

So says Gemma today as we are brushing teeth. Teacher was her second option.

Juicy

Maybe she's watching too many princess movies, but when we got married today I got a VERY long and juicy kiss. Sorry, Gemma, no romantic kisses until you are much much older.

She knows some numbers. 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10. She doesn't know 6, 9, 8, and 2. I didn't realize she knew them. we have a preschool readiness workbook so we've been doing school a bit. She doesn't want to work in order, which of course kills me but I want her to have fun and learn so I go with it. She loves cutting out the little matching cards and when we play games with them.

OH, and she has started to earn her own money. I give her about 5 minutes to pick up as many toys as she can from around the living room and put them on a spread out blanket. Then we count them, and for every two she gets 1 NT (1NT = 3cents). She is earning roughly 10NT a day; about 30 cents, which I think is high but I want her to be excited about it and I wasn't sure how many toys she's be able to pick up and how much she'd be earning in a day. I think after the summer we will change the ratio from 2:1 to 3:1; 3 toys for 1NT.

What do you pay your children and how?

When Guinness grows up...

Gem and Guin were bathing together, and Gemma was admiring his 7 teeth. "Wow, he has teeth now! He's getting so big!" She then went on to talk about how big Guinness was going to be. She pointed to herself and said "He will be this big one day." And I started listing things he will be able to do then that she can do: get dressed, go to the potty, eat by himself, and she interjected, "Wear makeup!!!" Uh, hopefully not. Although with Gemma as a sister it is likely. The boy is already in love with Dora :)

We then pretended Guinness had a baby in his tummy. Hmmm..

Trickery

Gemma is refusing to take her medicine. *(Is this my punishment for staying up late to read the My Sister's Keeper???)

I told her to take it quickly and get it over with.

I told her she would be sick forever.

I told her we would never play with her friends because you can't play with friends when you are sick and she will be sick until she takes her medicine.

I told her fine, you don't have to drink your medicine but you have to have this glass of cherry juice. (with medicine in it; ha ha!!)

So how far should the trickery go? What is the most outlandish trick/lie you've ever told to your children?

Sick, too

Gemma is not throwing up, thankfully, but is having some interesting moments on the potty. Yesterday I was talking to Chris and she went to the bathroom and farted so long and loud that I just burst out laughing; it was so funny because it sounded like a 50 year old man or something. I guess she heard me and our sudden silence because then she called out; "Mommy? Are you laughing at my poop sounds?" Busted.

She's having a hard time because poor Guin doesn't want to be put down ever, which limits play time with her. And I want to clean when Guinness is finally down, so I am trying to resist that urge and focus energy on her.