Parroting..........

I'm in an unfortunate situation. When I hear something from Mrs. Lime or if I screw up and she tells me what I screwed up, Kali 3.8 serves as a voice recorder for what's being said. As a result, if I end up making the same mistake or doing the same thing at another time, my daughter is there to reprimand me.

Rolling stops at a stop sign are a prime example. She learned that we're supposed to come to a COMPLETE stop. So if I roll the stop sign in the SLIGHTEST, I hear 'Daddy, you didn't stop! I saw a stop sign and you didn't stop!'.

If I do something in the kitchen and Mrs. Lime doesn't do it the same way I do, Kali is there to ensure that I am told exactly how Mommy says to do it.

I have a feeling this will get worse rather than better since Kali is showing signs of great intelligence. As we all know, the kid always knows more than the adult.

Wisdom from a three year-old.......

"Daddy, babies drop their bottles on the floor all the time. That's why you should never have a baby."

Heaven

Kali 3.7 and I had a discussion last night about her Great-Grandma's passing. She doesn't really understand death yet, but it was worth a try.

Me: We're going to Great Grandma's funeral tomorrow. She died.

Kali: Where is she now?

Me: She's in heaven.

Kali: Where's heaven?

Me: It's in the clouds.

Kali: She's up in the clouds?

Me: Yep, she's up there with Great Grandpa.

Kali: Did he die too?

Me: Yes, there up in the clouds together.

Kali: Are they with Baby Jesus?

Me: Yes.

Kali: Is Jesus with his mommy and daddy?

Me: Yes.

Kali: We should get on an airplane and go up to visit them.

Me: Not a bad idea. Do you want to visit the clouds?

Kali: No, I want to stay in my bed.

Me: OK, you can stay in your bed. We'll visit there another time.

Lessons

My grandmother passed away this week. She was 97 years old, so it was certainly a life that was long and lived to its fullest.

My grandfather passed away several years ago. He was a strong-willed guy and always wanted to portray himself as a figurehead of the family. While he generally succeeded in that regard, I learned a very valuable lesson after he died.

Most of the grand kids always thought that Grandma was quiet and generally played the role of subservient wife. As I quickly noticed after my grandfather's passing, it could not be further from the truth. My grandmother was the leader of the family. She was very strong and ran the family. Her personality also came out quite a bit more after my grandfather's passing. We were able to see a different side of her we had not seen before.

The lesson I took from that revelation is that you can be a good role model and the leader of your family without being the loudest or strongest personality in the family. There is such a thing as a quiet, yet powerful family role model. I'm not sure that I'm the leader of our family, but I do know that I learned a valuable lesson from my grandmother as to how to be an effective role model.

Two toother

Giselle 0.9 just had her second tooth pop in. Pretty cute smile. She has the bottom two middle teeth now, though one is longer than the other. She's also working quite a bit on chewing puffed rice snacks. We can't give her enough. I think she loves the option of feeding herself. She tries to do it by grabbing on to the spoon, but doesn't do well with that just yet. She's also becoming a better crawler. She's going with the belly crawl right now and is very good at it.

Kali 3.6 had her first day of preschool yesterday. She didn't say much other than to say that she ate lunch with Eric. Three years old and she's already eating lunch with boys. I'm screwed. She has her second day of lunch tomorrow. Hopefully she'll move over to the girls table to save her father some anxiety.