(no subject)

[geminigirl]

Today I taught Naomi to sing, "The zombies on the bus go "Brains, brains, brains." I'm very lucky, I think, that I haven't actually gotten a phone call from school about things that Naomi has said-nothing about "Simon says touch your vulva," yet or "I'm a little teapot" (which we taught her a non-traditional version of, involving the line, "Uh oh! I'm a sugar bowl.")

I am amazed at Naomi's kindheartedness and empathy sometimes. She watched a Sesame Street video not long ago where a monster took Elmo's blanket and wouldn't give it back and declared that it was, "too scary." Today we were in the car and Miriam was unhappy. We tried a lot of things that typically work to soothe her and nothing was working. Naomi has a princess book in the car that she's very possessive of, but she turned to Miriam and said, "Here Miriam. You can share my princess book." Miriam was much happier, and I was overwhelmed. It was sweet. Naomi then asked, "Is that better, Miriam?" And Miriam answered her, "Better." Naomi has had a gentleness towards Miriam for a long time-she has often turned to Miriam, patted her on the head and said, "Don't worry Miriam. We help fix it. Mama make it better."

Speaking of books, Naomi has chosen to bring a book for show and tell for the last two weeks. This warms my book-loving heart, of course, but her teacher also loves it when the children bring books to share.

And speaking of things that Naomi says...today she was playing and came up to me and said, "I'm the mommy. And you're the mommy. We're a family. And we have two mommies."

I often marvel at how much of an influence Naomi has on Miriam. Fortunately at the moment, it's a positive thing-Naomi will remind Miriam to be gentle with the cats, for example. Miriam has also picked up Naomi's habit of coming over to me, patting me on the head and telling me, "Don't worry Mama, we make better." Miriam has her own sign for "all done" which Naomi taught her. Naomi has taught Miriam that when we come in the house we're supposed to take our shoes off. How to eat with a fork. Little things like that. I know that not all the influences will be positive, but right now, I'm enjoying it.

Comments

[compulsivelyme.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU for teaching her that her genitals are a vulva and not just a vagina. I know it's dumb but that's my pet peeve.

:)

[geminigirl]

Yeah, we haven't gotten into the parts beyond "vulva" yet, but she does know that word. If you weren't reading back in September-ish, you should go back and see the story about Simon Says and the one from a few days later when she had no clean underpants in her drawer.

[melaniesuzanne.livejournal.com]

Aww. The heartstrings, they are tugged.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

That's really great.

Also, I will have to add zombies to our wheels on the bus rotation. Kelly is already a bit exasperated with me because the bus contains robots and lots of animals, and occasionally some sports fans, but The Bean really likes the song and I needed some extra verses.

[geminigirl]

One of my friends includes Wookies, babies and dinosaurs in her renditions of "Old MacDonald"-I know our bus usually has babies, but you could certainly include Wookies and dinosaurs on the bus.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

I love your posts about Naomi and Miriam. Although I have to say, between you and me, I have a special place in my heart for Naomi.

[geminigirl]

That's awfully sweet of you, Kathy. While I may not give her the same time here, Miriam is an amazing creature in her own right, and brings me great joy in ways that are very different from what Naomi does.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know :). I have four, and it was really amazing to have someone who knew *me* as a kid comment, at my niece's wedding, that my four have such distinct personalities! Yes, they do, and they're all very special in their own ways. I know Miriam does, you've written about her in much the same way as you've written about Naomi, if not as much (so don't think you've neglected her, because you haven't!) I've gotten to know Naomi here in such a great way, and I'm a First Child myself, so that may have something to do with my bias :):).

[geminigirl]

I do wonder how people perceive the fact that I've said less about Miriam-there just isn't time to write about her the way I did with Naomi, and so there's just less documentation. Miriam is pretty terrific-I've never described, for example, how her bedtime routine (different from Naomi's) involves making sure she gets to put Puppy into her bed, or the way she loves watching Snoopy cartoons ("Puppy" is a Snoopy puppet that my sister gave her about a year and a half ago.) I don't think I ever wrote an LJ post about how we took the girls to Build a Bear when they put out a Snoopy stuffy, but we made Miriam leave Puppy home that day...which is a difficult and rare thing. We got to Build a Bear, showed her the un-stuffed, flat, Snoopy and she lit up and squealed "Puppy!" She snatched it from us and was very unhappy when we made her give it back to get stuffed, and the way she loves to make Snoopy "sing" (the Build a Bear Snoopy plays the Peanuts theme when you squeeze it's hand.) I haven't told people about how she wears her bunny slippers and gets very sad when she misplaces them, or that she walks around saying "hop hop hop" and trying to jump (which she's just learned to do) whenever she wears them. She's a talker-talks much more than Naomi did at two, and so there are very different stories about her. I wish people could see the way she gets excited and the way she reaches for the TV when we let her watch Ni Hao Kai Lan so she can "tickle Mr. Sun." I haven't talked about how she hits me with books to get me to read and demands from both of us, "read" constantly-right now it's usually either a dinosaur book or the book that she calls "Puppy book" which is "If you give a Dog a Donut," and how she makes pirate noises when we read the book. There are a thousand stories about her, I just don't have time to write them down anymore!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

My kids complain (mildly) that the only photos that exist of them when they were little are of the oldest and the youngest! Not totally true, but it's true that there are a *lot* more photos of Megan and Danny than there are of Mary and Tommy.

I perceive it as knowing how much more work two are than one, and that the ability to journal/photograph the second is harder than the ability to journal/photograph the first. You're a kick-ass mom, which counts for far more. And the above is a lovely testament to that.

[geminigirl]

Thanks for the complement. I find that one of the hardest things about being a mostly stay at home Mom is the loss of the external validation and sense of accomplishment-the simple reminder that you're doing a good job at what you're doing. It means a lot that other people, especially other people whose children are grown think that I'm doing a good job with mine,

I do absolutely understand what my mother meant by "I love you all the same, but I love you differently" now though.