This Kid

Lately I have been totally and completely blown away by what a little person Fern is becoming. This is her breaking out her cheesiest smile while taking a selfie to send to her Grandma.

Here are a few funny things that she is doing and saying lately…

>>> She insists on calling my mom “Ana” instead of Grandma. Occasionally she will say Grandma, but mostly it’s Ana. It used to bum my mom out, but now I think she thinks it’s kind of sweet. She doesn’t call anyone else by their first name. I think it makes it extra special.

>>> The other day after bringing our dog Marley in from outside she ran through our house and tracked muddy paw prints all over and I might have accidentally let a choice word slip out. Fern was in the other room and  didn’t really hear me, but Craig said, “Oh no Fern! Mama is a potty mouth!” and since then Fern has been repeating it “Mama issa potty mowf”. It’s equal parts hilarious and embarrassing.

>>> This girl knows what she wants. All. The. Time. When she wakes up in the morning the first things she says to me are: “Mama change a dipah!” and/or “Peanut buttah and jeh-yee Mama!” Lately she has also been swapping out her request for peanut butter and jelly with a request for “Oh Too-tahs pancakes”. This is what she calls Mickey Mouse pancakes. If you’ve ever watched the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, you’ll understand.

>>> She’s been going through a phase lately where she wants me to pick her up and snuggle her all the time, even though she’s never been a big cuddler. She will say, “Hode you Mama!” which means she wants me to hold her and she’ll lay her head on my shoulder and snuggle herself as far up on me as she possibly can – baby style. She isn’t into the hip holding anymore. Apparently she thinks she’s tiny or something.

>>> We recently switched from Fern sleeping in her teepee to a big girl bed. While Fern has done swimmingly with her big girl bed, she hasn’t been a fan during nap time. Usually during nap time we use a Pack ‘n Play, but I figured we would just ditch it now that we’d transitioned to a bed, but Fern wasn’t having it. After going in during nap time repeatedly to put her back in her bed, she looked up at me and said, “Pack ‘n pay Mama!”. So we broke out the Pack n’ Play and she napped like a champ. I told you. The girl knows what she wants.

>>> She says SO many words now, it’s insane. She’s constantly breaking out new words that I had no idea she knew. Many of these words are animals as she is mildly (OK, totally) obsessed with them. She knows all the basic animals (pretty much all pets, farm animals, and many jungle animals), but some new favorites are: baboon, kangaroo, and hippopotamus. I wish I had kept better track of all her words because there are just so many. She’s been using full sentences for awhile now and it’s nuts!

>>> Fern LOVES to help. The other night I let her help me snap green beans and the look of pride on her face was so incredibly precious. She also loves to sweep and will take our smaller broom out regularly and walk around with it singing “Seep, seep, seeping”. I can also give her directions to bring me things or do something for me and she will. Last night Craig was out in the garage and I was setting the table and asked her if she could go tell Daddy that dinner was ready. She marched straight out to the garage to find him, peeked her head out and said, “Daddy! Dinnah’s ready!” I didn’t think she’d actually do it and Craig and I were both pretty impressed.

>>> When I sing to Fern at bed time she has taken to stopping me when she doesn’t like a particular song and will let me know which song she would prefer. Also, if I stop patting her back while I’m singing, she will firmly remind me of my duties, “Pat a back Mama!” while patting her own back…you know…just in case I didn’t understand her words clearly enough she wants to simplify it for me.

There are a ton more, but these are the things that come to mind. I’m trying to remember all of these little things, because I know one day they are going to seem to far away. It’s going so fast and I already find myself getting sad or nostalgic over things. Every time she learns how to pronounce a word correctly a little part of me dies. I mean, I’m excited to see her growing, but it’s bittersweet. I know all moms say that, but I didn’t really understand it ’til I was in it. I want her to stay little forever…or at least for time to slow down a bit.

OK. Done with the sappiness…for now :).

 

Love and sappy moms,

Lauren