No We Can Play With That Later

For Christmas Isabella got a game called Elefun from her aunt Margie and cousin Katlyn. It is a little plastic elephant with a 3' long plastic trunk. There is a fan in the elephant that blows little paper "butterflies" up it's trunk. It was given with clear direction to not let Bryce play with it. He will eat the butterflies. Isabella wanted to play with it so I took it out of the box to show her. I told her when I turn it on it may be a little loud but is just the fan blowing the butterflies out. Wrong thing to tell her as she is not a fan of things that make noise. Good news for Isabella, I didn't have any C batteries Isabella said thats ok. Bad news for Isabella, Tammy was at the store so I told Isabella she would buy some and then we could play with it. She said "we don't need to play with it right now we can play with it later with Katlyn". Tammy got home and Isabella told Tammy we don't need to play with the elephant right we can play with it later. I told her we could just put the batteries in it. She then sat on the box and said "it just needs to stay in the box". Needless to say once the batteries were in, it wasn't very loud and she loves catching the butterflies.  On a side note Bryce has not eaten a butterfly yet, I don't think. He does love to pick them up and put them back in the elephant though. Maybe he is just trying to distract me.

Proud Moment Spoiled

       My little boy Bryce, he sure can get into some trouble. It seems he is always reaching on top of counters or shelves to grab whatever he shouldn't be playing with. He tastes everything before he plays with it, sometimes this includes people. He steals his sisters drinks if she leaves them unattended. He has learned that if he shakes his sippy cup while it's upside down he can create a puddle on the floor. I'm not a big fan of red Kool-Aid right now. He has learned a piano is fun to play but even more fun to stand on. That bookshelves, if not attached to the wall, will fall on you if you try to climb them. That at bath time there is a small window of opportunity between diaper removal and entering the bathtub if you want to pee on the floor. That yellow highlighters don't taste good but if you keep trying maybe they will. How to climb out of his highchair while strapped in. How to take the back of the remote off to expose the batteries. How to empty a tissue box in under 10 seconds. When to raid the bag of peppermint patties. Most importantly how to smile and giggle to make none of that matter.
     Well all the things he has learned I was very proud when I saw Bryce pick his diaper off the floor, open the trash can lid and throw it away. It almost brought a tear to my eye. Then he pulled a soda can out of the trash and my moment was spoiled.

No Sympathy

I wasn't feeling very good last night. My stomach was upset, I was getting the chills, and I thought I had the flu. Tammy had put Isabella to bed but she said Isabella wanted me to give her a hug goodnight. Well I was headed to bed so I stopped in her room to say goodnight. She had other plans. She said "read me a story". I told her I wasn't feeling good so I was just going to give her a hug and go to bed. With a chuckle she said "nooooo you'll be alright just read me a story then you can go to bed". No sympathy.

Beware Bryce is Here

Just a couple of things to warn you in case Bryce is at your house.
1. Bryce likes Christmas tree ornaments. I mean yeah I'm sure he thinks they are pretty and all, but he likes them as a snack. You will notice at our house our tree is half way decorated, just above Bryce's reach. I'm sad to say we lost a couple of ornaments while we were decorating.
2. If its foam it is considered edible by Bryce. I think there is a theme here. Some jump ropes have nice foam handles and some jump ropes HAD nice foam handles. They never had a chance.
3. Bryce likes to share drinks. What I mean is he will finish his drink faster if he sees that you have one that he may be able to steal from you. Isabella has lost her drink a few times.
4. There is baby-proofing but I have not seen Bryce-proofing. I think it is an urban legend. Bryce only wants things if he has to reach for it or if it is on the floor and shouldn't go in his mouth.
5. Bryce has a ritual while eating his cereal. We let him eat his cereal in the living room. He will empty his bowl of dry cereal onto the floor and then eat it. It doesn't matter how many times you pick it up it will end up back on the floor. Maybe we should use his high-chair.

More to come

Where's the Love?

Poor Isabella has had a fever for the past 4 days. At times it is high and other times she is bouncing of the wall because she feels better. It is almost impossible to prevent a child who starts to feel better to take it easy. Last night or this morning, however you look at it, at 3am Isabella called me to her room and she was burning up.  I told her if she would take her medicine I would stay in the room with her. We have to bribe her every time she needs to take medicine and it is still usually a struggle. Well after taking her medicine I started to move her stuffed animals off her bed so I could sleep next to her. Every toy I picked up she said "oh I need him, oh I need him too". I told her I needed to move them off the bed so I could sleep she said "you can lay down there" and pointed at the floor. Where's the love huh?

Dialogue with a 3 year old

I noticed a black mark on the wall and I asked Isabella "What's that?" She stated the obvious "it's a black mark". I said "What is it from?" She said "it's from a marker." I said "How did it get there?" She said "my shadow did it." Apparently you have to ask the right question to get the answer to your question.

Story Time

Isabella likes stories. Not just the ones in books, she also enjoys when I make them up. Luckily she is only 3 and they don't have to be very elaborate. She isn't very particular on the topic, they can range from a story about the beach, going to Disney, walking in the rain, really just about anything as long as they contain two things. Every story must start with "Once upon a time" and every story, trust me on this one, every story has to be about Isabella. I tried to switch this up once. I started it out correctly "Once upon a time" but she didn't agree with the direction it went. I continued "there was a little boy", "no" she says, ok "there was little girl", "ME" she chimes in, "no, a little girl name Stephanie she lived in a little house", "I don't like this story" she concluded "I need another one". I lost my creative license apparently.