Rose-isms --- stream of consciousness edition

Today Rose found the little beauty mark / mole thing that I have behind my right arm, up by my armpit. (It's been awhile since I last wore a tank top!) She asked me what it was, since it protrudes a little bit. I explained, and also told her it's kind of like a skin tag. She just laughed and said, "people don't have tags!"  So then I laughed too and said, "Okay, it's a beauty mark." She replied, "maybe you put too much food in your belly and it's coming out there!"   Uhhhh...maybe...

Yesterday we went to her cousins' birthday party at the Minnesota Historical Center, a really cool museum in St. Paul. Seeing her cousin Annie reminded me that Rose still pronounces all "a" sounds as "ah."  So cousin "Annie" always comes out as "Ahhhhhnie," which always makes me think of Ani DeFranco and I start singing "32 Flavors" in my head because that's basically the only Ani song that I know.

Speaking of birthday parties..... yesterday, for the very first time we tried to be flexible with Rose's nap time. As you all know, we are pretty militant about enforcing nap time (or, at least, rest time) between 1pm and 3pm every. single. day.  Well, yesterday we were at the museum until after 1 and we still hadn't eaten lunch, so we all went to Cossetta's together. We figured it was time to test out whether she could occasionally skip a nap or not. The answer was very, very clearly "or not." We experienced a full-scale, exhaustive "threenager" melt-down. Oy vey.  Well, now we know.

10-signs-you-are-living-with-a-threenager

But how can you be mad at a kid who also says things like, "Mommy, I want to stay with you forever. I love you SOOO much."  cue: heart melting...

Today we had some beautiful weather - 70 in MN in March! - so Mike and I spent some time cleaning up the garden in the front yard. Rose was kind of bored, so we let her play in the backyard while we were in the front yard - the first time we've allowed her out of our sight while playing outside. She was SO thrilled to be such a big girl today!! Wish us luck as we embrace the "free-range parenting" movement. So far Rose seems to enjoy it, while I struggle to temper my innate neuroticism.

Speaking of neuroticism, we also had a pancake breakfast at Rose's school yesterday morning, and we sat with a family whose daughter is one of Rose's best friends. I really like this family because they are similar to use in age, SES, values, etc. But, to be perfect honest, what I really like about this family is that the mom makes me feel cool as a cucumber. It's not often that I have a reference point of a parent who is more anxious than I am, so I lap up the opportunity for such comparisons! I left feeling so relaxed since I wasn't worrying about Rose spilling on herself (no bibs for my kid! and no more sippy cups either!), about her choking on her sausage, or about the risk of her plastic fork breaking in her mouth and stabbing her. (Yep, for real.) See, that's me - cool as a cucumber with this whole parenting thing.

Let's just not talk about how anxious I was when Rose started going down the slide head-first today.



Have a great week, everyone! :)