Random fun(ny) kid stories

Staying true to the real reason behind this blog.....here are some kids stories that need to be documented for eternity.

We'll start with the wee one.......
Jane Gracen, turns 20 months old on Sunday the 7th. Jane is a sponge. Her vocab is growing every day and her body language is pure Martens. She loves to put on a show to make anyone who is watching laugh......and we always laugh, not because we want to be supportive parents, but because she is funny! My favorite form of entertainment currently is her animal sounds. She can do a dog, cat, horse, cow, duck, pig, lion, monkey, and is working on a frog. I love how she will just look at us and say "Moo!" then smile a real cheesy grin. And finally, if we want Jane to do something, we just need to talk her sisters into doing it first.....she loves copying their actions.

New words are shoe, apple, baby, Kevin, shower, moni(macaroni) Gego(Diego) Dora(and all the characters from that cartoon) Tess, Kate, Sissy,Grandma, Papa. She can also identify her hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tummy, and toes.

Kitty Kate is 4 years, 2 months, and 5 days old today.
-One day Kate says to me "I know who's house the church is.....it's God's house!" when I told her she was right, she said "When you say stuff like that, I learn it!"
-My hands are always cold. One day I was complaining about my cold hands when Kate says "Here mom, you can hold my hands....they're warm......um, and a little sticky."
-We were playing a game and she needed to go to the bathroom. As she got up she looked at me and said "Pause it, mom!" I must have given her a huh? look because she said "mom, pause it until I get back!" Turns out she watches a little too much on the DVR
-Do you know any other 4 year olds that requested "The Perfect Brownie Pan"(as seen on tv) for their birthday? Mine, did! (and she got her brownie pan from her Aunt Pam!)
-Ever heard a four year old ask if she can please have broccoli for lunch?
-Kate thinks it is so annoying(which means she loves it) that Jane mimics her and cannot believe she use to(still does) copy Tess.

Brogan Tess, 8 going on 18,makes me want to scream, smile, cry, laugh, throw something, and then smile again. I have no idea how we are going to survive her teenage years. Last month we dealt with lying, kissing, attitude, confidence, respect, self-esteem, sportsmanship, math facts and piano practicing.
In a nutshell, we had to start enforcing consequences for lying......it is a big deal to lie, even if the lie is about something small! We also had to discuss attitude, which co-exists with confidence/respect/self-esteem/sportsmanship. Tess's 2nd grade teacher brought to our attention that she(Tess) was acting above reprimand for obnoxious behavior. Bad attitude at home, shame on us....bad attitude at school? Shame on Tess. So after a brief weekend of AA(attitude adjustment) we have noticed some improvement.
The kissing issue turned out to be a lesson in self-respect/self-esteem/lying/confidence. Tess rides the bus home every day and sits 3(!) to a seat. Turns out 2nd graders get very bored during their 20 minute bus ride home and challenge each other to do stupid things. Tess kissed a boys arm(gross! I know) and felt so guilty all evening that she burst into tears right before bedtime, causing a majorly dramatic ending to the evening. She first denied that she had done anything wrong, stating she had just been accused of doing wrong. Five minutes later, she felt so guilty for lying that she literally lost her mind right before my eyes.
We had to do some crisis intervention, then some tough love(if you did something wrong Tess then you deserve the consequences!) followed by some more crisis management. We ended the evening discussing how even smart people do stupid things (I could write a book on that topic, with myself as the main character!). The most important thing is to learn from the mistakes.

I sure hope I learn from all these parenting mistakes I am making.