The girls love to read about things that happened "a long time ago" on their blog. Reading is new to Keeks, Yaya is getting good at navigating the internet, so basically, they are finding all of this history of their lives and are fascinated by the stories. But they don't understand the limits of it - they want to be able to look up anyone in their lives and read and see all about that person from anytime. Case in point:
Keeks: "We want to see what it was like when you were little. Put in 40 years ago."
Me: "I can tell you what it was like or show you pictures, but there is no blog of my life 40 years ago."
Keeks: "Come on, just try! Put in 40 years ago so we can see you. We want to know!"
Me: "Keeks, listen. There were no blogs. The internet didn't exist yet. There was no computer at my house, or at anyone's house. Really. No 40 years ago."
Keeks: "Arrrrrrrggh! Can you PLEASE just try? PLEASE? I really really want to see it!"
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Me: There was this weird chick on the other end of the phone...
Yaya: Who was the weird chick? You?
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Yaya: Mama, when I run for President of the United States, are you going to vote for me?
Me: Yes, of course.
Keeks: Well what about if I run for President of the United States at the same time? Then who are you going to vote for?
Yaya: Then she wouldn't vote for anyone, Keetah. Or maybe she would vote for someone and Daddy would vote for someone else.
Keeks: Well, what about if Troop was running, too? Then what?
Yaya: Then noone would vote, Keetah!
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Troop's first little sing-along song -- he shouts "Ginch!" on "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!"
During the weeks before Christmas, he had to take breathing treatments and the ONLY things that kept him calm were a) Yaya breathing through the mask first and demonstrating how fun it was and b) watching the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. And because he loves it so much, it became our go-to to entertain him for 10 minutes while we got Christmas things handled. So now, he has seen it about 10 million times, and he apparently knows every word and his ability to show this is limited only by his ability to speak. If we all really want to thrill him, we bust into a family chorus of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." haha
And, finally, we know that he has internalized the concept of the Grinch as someone who is doing something that others don't like. We know this because Troop hates to have his diaper changed, and one afternoon when I was changing him, he fussed at me, said no to the diaper changing table, and then when I insisted, he pointed to me and said, "You Ginch!!" haha
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Troops second little sing-a-long song, he shouts "TAR!" when we sign "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little..." :) The boy is musical.
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Yaya: If Santa's not bringing me a pony, what is he going to bring me? I mean, he can't bring me little kid things, and he can't bring me all the teenager type things either!
Me: What are teenager-type things?
Yaya: You know...cell phones and IPod Touches and IPads and stuff!
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Yaya was having a hard time with the transition back to school. She wished to be little again so she could stay home and play and not have homework and responsibilities, and she was so very sad.
Troop offered a hug and kiss. Yaya reflected, "If I went back just a year or two, I wouldn't have my baby brother with me anymore! I wouldn't have how funny he is and how cuddly he is."
Keeks offered her comfort, too. "Yaya, I wish I could be you just for today so that I could be sad instead of you."