Cleaning Power!

Do you have Cleaning Power in your house? We do! It comes in the form of Betty Crocker's Rich and Creamy Chocolate Frosting. The house was a complete disaster, 99% of that mess being from my three lovely children. I needed chocolate, and I needed it bad! So as I raided the house for chocolate and came upon a half eaten tub of frosting, a thought began creaping into my oh so tired brain.
I gathered the children around me, and told them that I had some Magic Cleaning Power. I explained to them that I would give them each a spoonful and if it worked really well and helped them clean up quickly, I would give them some more when it "wore off" and they needed a boost to start a new job. The first spoonfuls went down the hatch and the kids scurried off to show me how well the Cleaning Power was working, because remember, if it doesn't work there's no need for me to give them any more. They raced back and forth time and time again with requests of "I need more Cleaning Power; what can I do next!?!?!"

Within about 15 minutes, and 5 or 6 shots of Cleaning Power, my house was clean. Ahhhhh....blessed, teeth-rotting, bribery.

The organized mayhem....

So my friend watched my children this afternoon for two hours so I could get some work done around the house. I had these fantasies of cleaning the entire house and getting my to do list all crossed off. Of course I snapped to my senses, and realized that I should make a more obtainable goal and set out to clean my bedroom. In two hours? Who was I kidding.

First of all, you have to realize that my bedroom also houses my computer desk and filing cabinet. A computer junkie can not, and I repeat, can NOT work in an environment with her biggest temptation humming right beside her. Of course I had to get on a few times to check email, read a blog or two, etc (and by a "few" I mean 59).

Anyhoo, back to my cleaning. I started with one simple pile on the top of my filing cabinet. But as I started separating the loose paperwork into catagories such as Primary papers, doula papers, Modbe papers, papers for Emilee, papers for Megan, financial papers, catalogs I haven't looked at for a year but might need some day, etc, I realized that separating them all out wouldn't do me much good unless I had somewhere to actually put them, aside from shoving them back on top of the filing cabinet which is what got me into this mess in the first place. So of course I needed to start clearing out some drawers in the filing cabinet to make room. Then of course there were items in the filing cabinet that didn't actually belong there, and would be better to put in the large closet in the hallway. So of course I had to start clearing out THAT closet to make room for the stuff in the filing cabinet to make room for the stuff on TOP of the filing cabinet. You see where I'm going with this?

2 1/2 hours later, I have 3 wonderfully empty cabinets. I also have 10 piles of crap to go through instead of the 3 I started with. I've thrown away an entire bag of old paperwork and yet my house does not resemble the neat and organized haven I had imagined when I dropped my kids off. Who was I kidding? Next time I ask someone to babysit, I'm going to be honest with myself and ask for 2 weeks, not two hours.

More on Megan

So this will be a little brag thread on Megan, becasue she's just growing up so fast right now! I think age 4 is so amazing because they just really start to mature into little children at this point.

I was standing at the counter with Megan, and she emphaitically informs me that she knows Heavenly Father loves her. My heart melts...can you truly hear any sweeter words come out of your child's mouth? She tells me that she knows that because she had a dream about Heaven and Heaven was wonderful. "Yes, Mom. It was so wonderful and Daddy was there! But you weren't!"

You know those moments in a movie when the music comes screeching to a halt? Yeah, it happens in real life too...I think I actually heard it. But her conversation marches on as she tells me about Heaven and how her swing set had banana seats.

Do you remember my post about how Megan taught herself to read? Well apparently she taught herself to tie her shoes as well. She was at tap class and needed to put on her tap shoes and we went through the quite common conversation of "I want to do it" "Ok, try it" "Ok, I can't do it, I need help", only THIS time, she did it!! Perfectly! Both feet! I asked her where the heck she learned it and she informed me all by herself. I didn't teach her. My husband didn't teach her. I asked her sister and she told me about the time she tried to teach her and she didn't understand (and I remember that time about 4 months ago). At some moment it clicked though...and again without my knowledge.

It makes me sad. I was there for every single one of Emilee's "first" moments. But Megan is just charging forward, full steam ahead wether I am there or not!

So anyway, she was tying her shoes for tap class. Megan is at Itty Bitty Dance Camp this week. I let the kids pick a camp to attend at the YMCA this year. It's for 2 hours a day for a week. Emilee took tap the last 6 months and while she enjoyed it, I vowed that my kids weren't going to take Dance anymore. While the actual classes at the YMCA were not expensive, the costumes, shoes, recital fees, tickets and videos of the production are outgrageous!!! It's just more expensive than I think is worth it. So I made a firm decision that the girls will have to stick with Gymnastics (which is completely free at the Y). Of course, then Megan's instructor pulls me aside privately after class on Wednesday to tell me that Megan is quite the littletapper, was the best in the class and that she has picked up very quickly and really seems to have a knack for it. I just about plugged my ears and start singing right there in front of him. I do not need to hear about how my child has a talent that needs to be developed. Well, I want to hear that, but I need to hear about a talent that doesn't cost so much money! Now, of course, against my better judgement, I REALLY want to put her in Tap classes this fall.

Besides being a little Tap Prodigy, my little Megan is the biggest sweetie you'll ever meet. She loves to cuddle and to do nice things. This morning she brought me breakfast in bed (prompting this little ode to Megan today). Cinnamon toast with actual butter (I didn't get any butter on Mother's Day!) and a cookie on the plate, with a nice cup of apple juice. The cookie was in about 4 pieces which she informed be was "becasue the cookie kept falling on the floor", but unfortunately I didn't get to try that cookie because I offered the kids some and there just wasn't any left! And when she cuddles, she doesn't just sit on your lap, she wraps her little arms around your neck and can stay that way for a long time. In fact, I have a hard time if I have to sleep in the same bed with her because she likes to sleep that way, completley plastered to the side of my body with her arms around my neck and her hot breath by my face. It melts your heart, but doesn't help you sleep!

I'm insanely in love with my little Megan, absolutely positively crazy head over heels for her.

And just for fun, some common Meganisms (I'll let YOU figure out what she means!)

"Moooom, I can't find the hooker!"

"Look, I flipped off the fly!"

Speaking of kids growing up...

My oldest last night asked me why guys smelled better than girls. Then she proceeded (in her most dramatic tone) to say, "Guys smell SOOoooooooooo good and girls just don't have a smell. But guys smell.....oh....SOOOO good" *insert a died-and-gone-to-heaven facial expression on her face here.


I swear...we don't even have cable. I don't know where she gets this stuff! I was going to wait to lock her in her room when she was closer to the teenage years, but now I'm thinking six might be the right age to start.

When did she learn to read?

Megan came up to me the other day and said, "Look Mom! I wrote apple!" There are the paper were three perfect little letters.....A P L. Oh my goodness, she actually sounded that out? But wait...Emilee is the reader in the family, Megan's just a little preschooler, she doesn't read, right?

Ha! Boy, what an unobvservant mommy I have been. I sat down with a few books to spend some quality time with Megan. That girl can READ...no thanks to Mommy. I certainly haven't been aware. She read things like "Pam has a hat." and "Spot is black", although she said Spot is Blask, but hey, I don't blame her...stupid English language and it's changing sounds.


It always amazes me how different children are. I've always been aware of that, but sometimes something comes along that just really drives home the point. I guess Emilee was about this same age when she started reading but do you ever notice that your oldest is always older? Even when a younger sibling becomes the same age the oldest once was, they're not as old as the oldest one was at that age somehow. Was that even English? Did that make sense?

When did Megan become old enough to read? I was so busy trying to teach Emilee how to read and become a little more "fluent" at it, that I completely neglected the fact that Megan is now old enough to begin. When we read together she never asked to read and I always assumed she wasn't ready. Anyway, back to how kids are different.

Emilee learned all of her letters and the sounds they make pretty early on. She knew them all extremely well and she knew most of them before she even turned 4. However, it took us quite a bit of practice to learn how to blend words together. A sample reading session would go something like this:

Emilee: C = Cuh A = Aaaaa T = Tuh Which obviously spells "Cuhahtuh!!!"

We worked a lot of figuring out how to blend those sounds. Megan on the other hand, seems to have no problem blending sounds (seeing as she figured it out on her own). Perhaps part of the reason I didn't realize she was ready though was the fact that she doesn't even know all of her sounds yet (maybe half?). So what she can read is quite limited, but man, if she knows those sounds she doesn't even seem to have to sound all of them out. We were reading the word "kids" and she started by making the "r" sound. I corrected her and told her it was a K. She immediately shouted "KIDS!" No need to individually sound them all out and figure out how they go together. She's just amazing me right now. I love this age when they are figuring things out and learning these new skills that prepare them for school. I'd just spent so much time watching Emilee do them, that I forgot that Megan was entering that phase. And by the way, when did I get old enough to have TWO readers in the family?

Which brings me to another thought. I've always classified my children to a degree. I mean, I don't have favorites or "good" children vs. "bad", but we've had some stereotypes. Emilee was the "thinker"....she asks 100 questions a day or more and analyzes everything. She was the one who loved to learn how to write and do her "schoolwork", etc. Megan, on the other hand, always seemed to be more physical and rough and tumble. She had little desire to sit around for long periods doing "work" and more desire to be doing, doing, doing. I guess more focus was placed on her physical feats. The thought occurred to me that perhaps I don't tell her how smart she is as often as I tell Emilee. So yesterday, when we were cuddling and reading I told her how incredibly smart she was. She beamed at me, and said, "And Brave! Don't forget Brave!"

She may be smart, but she's still rough and tumble too!