A Conversation

Apple: "Mommy, what kind of jobs have you had besides being a janitor and a nurse?"

Me: "Well, my first job was to work on a farm and plant vegetables and pick them."

Apple: "What? Really? No fair! I want to do that too!"

Me: "Then I worked at a potato warehouse and was a secretary. At college, I was a janitor and then I cleaned apartments. My last job in college was to figure out a bus system for the university. Then I was a nurse."

Strawberry: "When I'm in college, I'm going to be a cash register at Target. Then my next job will be a lawyer."

Apple: "I don't want to be a nurse because I think it would be pretty gross so I want to be--"

Mango (screaming): "I want to be a princess!"

Apple: "So I want to be the Queen of England. And I'm going to be the President of the United States. And I'm going to have my own hair salon and be a stylist. And I want to work on a farm."

Mango: "Me going to be a princess and a Queen of England."

Me: "Wow, Apple, you are going to be really busy."

Strawberry: "Well, if she is the Queen, she can get other people to do those things for her."

Apple: "No, I want to do them myself. You can be a lawyer for the Queen of England."

Strawberry: "No, I'm going to be a prosecutor who goes after the Queen of England and I'm going to take you down."

Apple: "Then I am going to be a ninja Queen of England that knows karate and kick your butt."

Then they kicked each other all the way in to swimming lessons. How does everything end up with butt kicking around here?

Though they be but little, they are fierce

Summer has been pretty laid back so far, especially since it has been so hot and nobody has wanted to go outside. But sometime in the last couple of weeks, my house turned into an Ultimate Fighting Championship. "We must fight ... to the death!" They spend a lot of their time attacking each other using mixed martial arts and whatever weapons they can get their hands on. There is a lot of loud squealing, giggling, and screaming going on. It didn't really bother me until yesterday when we went to Wal-Mart and Apple yelled at Strawberry "Only one of us can walk away from this!" They spent the whole time rushing at each other. If they weren't laughing so hard I would be concerned, but it was mostly just frustrating trying to maneuver my cart around them. I got a lot of comments from strangers: "Triple trouble!" People who also had daughters love to tell me how their little girls were monsters too. I love it. Mango adores this game and likes to strip down to just panties when we play it at home. It's so funny to see this teeny little streaker bellowing out war cries. I would blame Brave, but it started before then. That just made them want red wigs and bows and arrows.

So today we found this park that had some old-school playground equipment like see-saws and merry-go-rounds and some really long swings. It turns out my warriors are total weenies. I hadn't been on swings like this since I was little and they were the kind that really made you feel like you are flying. The kids were terrified and thought they were going to fall out. They were being so careful on the see-saws instead of trying to knock each other off. Mango only stayed on the merry-go-round for about two seconds. It's funny because the best part of my childhood was the thrill of living dangerously. My poor little city girls. Of course, when we go hiking and they want to climb all over everything, I turn into a psycho helicopter mom. Strawberry does tend to fall a lot--totally inherited from me. I should get them into rock-climbing lessons. Maybe then I could back off a little.

Apple is totally trying to kick me in the face here. Little stinker.

Potty Prize

Mango was a breeze to potty train, but I decided to still do a sticker chart like I had for her sisters, in the interest of fairness. She got a sticker every day she didn't have an accident (she only missed one and was devastated) and when she filled up the chart, she could go to Toys R Us to pick out a present. She was so excited about it and would have us count them all up every time she got a new one. She went in to the store really wanting to get some kind of ladybug toy. I figured there had to be something. There wasn't. There was a ladybug umbrella that she already had, but we looked everywhere and that was the only thing we could find. Plus she had her two older sisters telling her all of the things she should get, so she was feeling a little overwhelmed. But then we found these sweet little animal families and she was thrilled. They had a ton to choose from, but she adored the little kitty family. There was absolutely nothing else in the store that could sway her from her choice. Her sisters actually loved them too and I've had to fight them off so that she can play with them how she wants to. She named them Luke, Bethany, [Strawberry], [Apple], [Mango] and [Mango]. When we got home, she had me wrap it up because it was a "present" and she wanted to wait until Luke got home to open it. So sweet.