Sunday, January 28, 2007

Odd things encountered while waiting

I'm still here waiting for a baby to decide to be born. But in the meantime, I thought that I'd share something that made me laugh. Our oldest daughter (4) gave her younger sister (2) a timeout today. It was while I was down for a nap, so I heard it from the grandparents. Child number one was getting frustrated with her sister knocking over a town that she had made. This kept happening until she gave her sister an annoyed look, pointed her arm to the corner, and told her "you get a timeout." Whereupon, little sister dutifully grabbed a kid sized chair, moved it to the appropriate corner sat in it and happily said "timeout." Child number two sat in said chair for a very short time and then announced "all done." It is amazing what a two year old picks up from watching her older sister get punished.

Another thing that amused my husband and me had to do with some potty time success our oldest has been having lately. This child has been fighting pooping in the potty for the longest time, but for some unknown reason lately, she has been successful if given a book to read on the potty about once a day. We have now had eight days of successes. While this was still a new thing this week, Mommy mentions to Daddy at the dinner table that child number one had a successful poop in the potty. So Daddy, in an effort to be supportive and encouraging asks, "So tell me the story of this successful potty time" (expecting Mommy to give bland details). Instead, child number one launches in with "Once upon a time..." whereupon Mommy and Daddy start giggling. She continued on telling a very elaborate story of kids, animals, and dancers pooping, giving lots of circumstances and contexts. Her very sincere rendition, and an utter lack of self consciousness right there at the dinner table, just worked like a battering ram to any pretentions we might have tried to have on the occasion and we just laughed and laughed as the story kept going and getting better and better. We now refer to it as the "Lays of the Potty Times".

As for my health, my sinus problems are still lingering as I am waiting for the baby to be born. However, I seem to be improving slightly. I noticed for instance that I was able to sing some at church today. I have noticed the phenomenon before with colds, that if I can get to the point where I can sing, the singing seems to help the medicine move the gunk out. Do you suppose anyone has done a study on the efficacy of singing in curing sinus problems? My guess is that the singing vibrates the sinuses and loosens things up.

These are a few of the oddities I have encountered this week to lighten my mood. I think I may be getting hysterical at times with all the waiting. My family is accusing me of laughing way too much over really simple things. I think I am just open to the absurdities of life a little more now. I saw a seagull eating fast food garbage in a parking lot this morning and wondered to myself, was the bag there first or did the bird chase off the previous owner, like in Hitchcock's "The Birds"? My husband told me that sometimes you need to unthink the thinkable, and that thought needed to be unthunk.

That's all for now. Hopefully, the next time I post the baby will be on the outside where he belongs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's too funny!! Please continue to laugh at the "unthunk" stuff...it actually keeps you sane! Most importantly, write it all down! You will treasure your thoughts later on. When Wendy was about 3-4, there was this show on TV called "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman". There was some sort of verbal exchange between Wendy and I, and she made the FUNNIEST comment in reference to that program, and I cannot remember what it was! I laughed so hard, it hurt her feelings. I wish I had written down what she said.

Wendy Power said...

I remember that, Mom, but I still can't remember what I said!

T&T are faithfully writing down the good stuff; between blogging and that book they won't need a baby book for kidlet #3.

Anonymous said...

The "MH Show" was very avant-guarde, much like that other program "Soap", and all I can remember is that your comment was SO far above that of most kids at that innocent age of 3! That's when I really learned that you were quite special and blessed with a heightened sense of humor. But then, 2-3 years later, your teacher made the same observation! Linda would make some ironic or sarcastic statement as an aside, outloud, and you would be the only one in the class cracking up with laughter!! Where did you GET that???