Nipples and daddies and more--oh my!

Did the title catch your attention?

Today, as I was getting dressed after Kylie's swim class, Kylie announced to the changing room, "Mommy, I see your nipples!" Ah yes, a toddler will say anything. In that flash of laughter/embarrassment, I remembered when Kylie first learned that word. She had been playing with the moles on my face as I gave her her bath. As I was drying her off, she touched her nipples and asked, "Are these my moles Mommy?" And I had that moment of decision. Would I do the easy thing and say "Yes those are your moles" or would I be honest? I chose honest and told her that those were her nipples. And a part of me knew that one day soon I would hear that word spoken very loudly by my daughter. Today was that day.

We had another one of those moments just this weekend. Kylie was playing and started saying, "Momma, Mommy, Daddy" over and over. My eyes met with Karen's and we had that instant of silent communication of "Well, she's heard that word-probably at Sesame Street or in one of her books or classes. Is this starting already? Do we ignore it or address it or what?"

Kylie was doing that thing where she repeats something over and over in the hopes that you will repeat it too. She was saying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" over and over. So I looked at her and smiled and said, "Daddy." She smiled back and said "Daddy" to me. I said it back to her and she said it back to me. She was looking at me a little expectantly so I asked her, "Where is Daddy, Kylie?" and she replied very quickly, "Outer space". Good answer kiddo.

Which brings me to a recent question asked by long-time reader Bethany on this post:

I think Kylie is a beautiful, well-rounded, lucky little girl to have such loving mommies as she does...I dont want to insult you here, and if it's not my business, just say! But did you know her "dad" (donor)? If you didn't, does it ever drive you crazy when you look at her and see a look that doesn't look like you? Do you wonder things about him? If you do know him, does he see pictures? In either scenario, what a wonderful child he helped produce! Again, I am just curious as a long-time reader and Kylie fan!

Thanks for your question Bethany--it is a good one! We don't know Kylie's biological father; we used sperm from an anonymous donor through a respected lab/facility. It's funny. I don't think of him as "father". I think of him as "biological father". When I speak of him, I usually run the word together so it sounds like biologicalfather. I guess because the word father has an emotional meaning to me because of my wonderful relationship with my father. I think of our donor as DNA; no more and no less. And about the only time I think of him is on Father's Day when I send up a prayer of thanks to him. I even created this scrapbook page about him.

I think of Kylie as her own unique person. Every once in a while, I'll glance at her and think, "Oh, with that expression, she sort of looks like me". Occasionally, I'll see my grandmother in a gesture. But mostly, I just see HER. Not a reflection of anyone else.

I am absolutely fascinated with Kylie. It's a dichotomy to hold the thought that she is heart of my heart and blood of my blood and to also hold the thought that she is her own unique soul that simply passed through me. And that it is my job to get to know her and to be the best mother and strongest support possible for her. I truly look at her with eyes of wonder each day.

But, I will confess to a little white lie that I tell pretty frequently with regards to her DNA. Kylie gets compliments on her curly hair. And sometimes the person complimenting Kylie will ask me, "Does she get that curly hair from you?" For a while, I would say, "No" because I have straight hair. And then the person would ask, "From her father?" And I would sigh a deep sigh and depending on my mood answer, "Yes" or "I don't know" or "Maybe" which would lead to more questions. So my little white lie is that when the grocery clerk or Starbucks barista asks me if Kylie gets her curly hair from me, I smile and say "Yes."

It's sort of like when someone asks you "How are you today?". And instead of saying, "Well I'm embarrassed because my daughter yelled nipples really loud and my feet hurt and I'm really thirsty", I simply say, "Fine, how are you?"

Anyway Bethany, I hope this answers your question. Feel free to ask any other questions and thanks for being a great reader and commenter.

Lastly, for those of you who stopped by to see a picture of Kylie, I'll share this one that I shot today. She was looking at the water in our birdbath and these cool blue sparkles passed over her face.


And here is a recent scrapbook page:

Ballerina

Our Divine Miss Kylie was a ballerina for Halloween.


A special thanks to Aunt Amy for cousin Emily's ballerina outfit and to Nanna for sending it to us. Her crown was a special touch from me because I know how much my girl loves her bling.


Kylie loved her outfit. She kept twirling around in pirouettes.


We went to our nearby shopping center and trick-or-treated at about 10 stores. Kylie saw lots of kids and adults all dressed up in costumes and she got a good amount of candy.


The moment we got in the car, Kylie wanted to know which of her treats were chocolate and she ate, for the first time, a small pack of M&M's. Then we were off to Burke Lake Park where Kylie got to ride a carousel with Momma.




While I waited for our turn to ride the Ghost Train.


There was a short wait but they made it entertaining with dancing.


Soon it was our time to ride.


Kylie got to ride her first train. We went over a bridge, through a tunnel and saw lots of entertaining characters like Mother Goose, Winnie the Pooh, the Scooby Doo gang, and some ghosts and monsters.




It was a wonderful Halloween!


It started raining in the early evening. I don't know if it was the rain or the fact that the folks around here either go to shopping malls (like we did) or their churches or something but we only had six trick-or-treaters at the house. So now, I get to figure out what to do with four bags full of skittles.

What Kylie is reading- Week of Oct 26

I have just four books to share with you for this week.


Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae
My blog friend Soupy recommended this book to me and I'm so glad she did. It's a delightful story about a giraffe who thinks he can't dance and is teased at the annual jungle dance. But a cricket helps the giraffe find his song and his dance.


Keeping with the dancing theme, we read Hilda Must Be Dancing by Karma Wilson. This is a fun story about a hippo who loves to dance but really shakes the jungle. Her animals friends encourage her to try other things such as knitting and singing. But it's not until she finds water ballet that Hilda finds a way to express herself that doesn't also disturb the jungle. I liked all the various dance costumes Hilda wears. My favorite is the 70's costume.


From our own bookshelf we read Bear of My Heart by Joanne Ryder. Its singsong prose makes for a nice story before naptime. It's sweet but not too sweet.


Kylie's favorite book of the week was Hairy Maclary Scattercat by Lynley Dodd. It's about a dog named Hairy who likes to joyfully chase Slinky Malinki's cat friends. It's fun to read some parts of the story slow and other parts fast. Kylie especially likes it when cat Scarface Claw doesn't run from Hairy but chases him all the way home. Why, just today she looked at me and said, "Scarface Claw" with her serious look and then ran away laughing.

I hope you've read some good books this week too. I'll leave you with this picture of Kylie eating an apple taken on our backporch. Stay tuned for Halloween pictures!

Fish in the leaves

We found a new activity for Kylie's pool toys. Kylie tosses her plastic fish and mermaids into the big pile of leaves that I sweep off the deck


And then she jumps in to find them.


She swims with the fish.


And practices coming up for air.


But then magically, it's no longer the ocean or a pool with fish and mermaids. It's just a wonderful pile of leaves. Leaves to hug...


and to throw


and to enjoy.


Have a great weekend everyone!

At the table

My darling Kylie eats like a bird. She eats healthily-lots of fruits and vegetables. But she eats so little. And in my desire to see her eat, I've formed some bad habits. Well, it's time to break them. So I resolve to no longer:

Say "Eat, eat, eat" in a vehement and/or pleading voice at every meal.

Load her fork and hold it to her mouth for her (even though this works and she'll take a bite).

Say any derivative of, "If you eat two more bites of meat/veggies, you can have dessert".

Whew. Such bad habits. It's time to get over them. I'll just keep reminding myself that she won't starve.

Parenting....the most rewarding and the most challenging thing I've ever done.


Makes me want to go back here.

Painting

This sweet little girl has a strange habit.


She likes to lick the glass on our front door.


And then smear her spit all over the glass with her hands.


She calls it painting. She's a strange little critter. Of course, I'm the strange mommy who takes pictures of it.

But speaking of painting, she did two watercolor paintings last week in art class.



And two watercolor paintings at home. I was tickled at how well she got the process of swishing the paintbrush in the water, dabbing it in the paint and brushing the paper with the color. She is very conscientious about her color choices.

Way to go Kylie!


Here's two recent scrapbook pages:

Leaves

Our landscape crew came by and blew away some leaves. And this is what our yard looked like just a few hours later.


Dude! Mommy! There are a LOT of leaves falling. Yes, there are Kylie!


I knitted Kylie this cap last year. I thought it would be fun to make extra long cap dreads with the extra yarn.


Kylie thinks they are fun too.


Needless to say, we've had lots of fun making leaf lines, trains, and collages.


Floating them in any puddles she can find.


Getting mildly reprimanded for splashing in puddles. She looks really scared of me and my "No splashing" remark, doesn't she?


She's having so much fun with the leaves.


You can even say.....


They are mind-blowing.

What Kylie is reading- Week of Oct 19

My favorite of all of this week's library books was Cat & Mouse by Ian Schoenherr. This book has exquisite, expressive illustrations. It's a story about how a mouse and cat play together. It's absolutely delightful!

First the Egg by Laura Seeger. I found this book via Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. . What I liked best about it, is that after reading it together once, Kylie felt like reading it by herself and would say the words aloud.

Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend was also found via the Mouse Grows blog. And it is a delightful story about a cat that makes a perfect nest to lure a chicken, to get her egg, to make an omelet. But a duck and goose also want the nest and the cat ends up with his hands full. But the best part are the delightful exclamations of the animals. The chicken exclaims "Caramba" and the duck's says "Sacre bleu" and the goose's cries a southern "Great Balls of Fire". This is very fun to read aloud in different voices. I've put it on our wish list.

I think it was my blogging friend Soupy who recommended I check out the many Eileen Spinelli books starting with Silly Tilly. Silly Tilly is a funny goose. She upsets her barnyard friends with her shenanigans and they tell her to cut it out. But then they realize how much she made them laugh. So they apologize and she goes back to being her silly self. It's a lovely rhyming story with lots of exaggerated facial expressions on the animals. A fun read.

Another Spinelli book we read this week was Hug a Bug. This is a simple story about how a hug can brighten anyone's day and how good it feels t hug. The soft colored illustrations made this a great book to read before naptime.

The last Spinelli book we read delighted me way more than Kylie. I Like Noisy, Mom Likes Quiet is about a toddler raccoon who likes stomping and yelling and such. And about how his mom likes quiet things such as reading or knitting. The toddler does all the things his mom likes best to honor her for Mother's Day. This would be a great gift for any mom anytime but particularly for Mother's Day.

Wiggle by Doreen Cronin was a fun little story about a wiggling dog. Kylie cracked herself up by saying, "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" for days after we read it.

I think our least favorite book this week was Monster Toddler by John Wallace. It's about a boy who puts on a monster suit and acts out by making messes and misbehaving. His sister pretends to be a super hero and comes to his rescue.

I hope you like some of these books that Kylie and I have enjoyed this week.