[svgallery name=”2010_bear lake”]
Bear Lake Trip May 2010
//Category: Nem Nem Niamh
//Easter 2010
//[svgallery name=”2010_easter”]
Our first vacation in three years
//[svgallery name=”2010_disneyland and beach”]
Our Backyard in spring
//[svgallery name=”2010_backyard”]
backbpost to 05-17
//This is a temporary post linking to this backpost for Mago’s birthday.
Disarmed
//So, a few days ago I fairly lost my temper over something. (Surprise – I’m human! Shocked? Jealous?)
But within a few minutes Tia pointed out how I was being unfair, and I snapped out of it and apologized. I then apologized to the kids. In reply, Nem-nem again manages sweet and sour, (and plaintive, earnest, and emphatic), in her characteristic somewhat staggering speech.
Me: [Kids], I shouldn’t have spoken that way to mom. It was mean. I’m sorry.
Nem: Yeah, and I did say to you stop!
Me: Yes, and I should have listened to you.
Nem: Yeah, and you’re too heavy; I couldn’t put you in time-out!
Suddenly picturing this tiny 2-year old girl of mine hoisting me up, carrying me to a room, and informing me I was in time-out, I could only laugh. The kids realized it was funny, too.
But it’s also incredibly endearing.
(And sobering.)
Nem’s Offerings
//During sacrament meeting at our local LDS church, Nem will take cheerios out of a bag one by one, pressing them to my lips, looking at me intently, earnestly, expectantly. She pleasantly but fairly firmly instructs:
Eat it!
If I shake my head and say “No, thank you”, she presses the cheerio harder into my lips, and with a consternation that is somehow pleasant, insists:
No! – Eat it!
Until she is pressing the cheerio past my closed lips and I can’t refuse without spitting it out. Okay, thank you, I’ll say, amused.
This morning before my breakfast she hands me one of her chwakate chips (the same spoken of among recent “tweets”) from a little gumball machine she has full of them. She pleasantly instructs:
Here, eat it!
Me: No, thank you, I haven’t had breakfast yet.
Again she returns a consternation that is somehow pleasant:
No! – Eat it!
Me: Okay, I’ll have it after breakfast, thank you.
She is her great-grandfather’s great-grand-daughter.
I’m tickled, and I’ll accept gifts more often.
Mago at 5
//[This is Alex, transcribing a choice entry from a hand-written journal Tia has been keeping about Mago.]
Mago’s 5 now!
Mago – “I got a dinosaur toy from [a friend]!”
Nem-nem – “You got teddy bear cookies for your party!”
Mago – “I got an alien sleeping bag! I had a transformer birthday party!”
I’m trying to get him to talk about his cake, but he’s blowing a paper towel across the table and making Nem-nem laugh. “Chaotic”, he says. Now he’s making monkey noises and climbing on the table.
Nap
//This was my conversation with Nem-nem just now.
Nem, did you have a good nap?
Yes.
Did you sleep well?
Yes. I did go to sleep in my bed, and then princesses came in my room, and then I did wake up.
Did you dream about princesses?
Yes. And they did come into my room, and then they had babies, and they were mommies, and then I did wake up.
As I wrote this, I heard a whack and a loud scream, and found she’d hit her brother hard on the head with a play tea set plate. For that, you get to sit out on the front porch in the cold for a minute until you remember how much you like a warm room and your brother. It came back to her attention.
Princess training takes time..
Fix
//Nem-nem comes running to me.
Nem: Dad, [Mago] took a flashlight from me.
I pick her up.
Me: What did you do?
Nem: I did something mean. I said [scowls and yells] I! WANT! THAT! FLASHLIGHT!
Me: How are you going to fix that?
Nem: Um, hug.
She lowers herself out of my arms and runs off, calling her brother’s name.
Nem-nem reading
//
[audio:2009-12-13a-Nem-nem.mp3]
(Download mp3, ~1.8MB, 1 Min 21 sec.)
Fire and Water
//Nem-nem stands on top of a two-foot tall bureau. Mago is on the floor. Nem switches the light for the room off, and squeals. Mago crouches down in a ball and starts shaking his head, or wiggling around on the floor.
Mago (squealing and whimpering): WATER! I’M UNDERWATER! I’M UNDERWATER! AHH! HELP! I’M UNDERWATER!
Nem (brightly): Oh, I sorry!
Nem switches the light on. Mago stands up and starts waving his arms, twirling or running around.
Mago (still squealing and whimpering): FIRE! FIRE! I’M ON FIRE! HELP! I’M ON FIRE!
Nem (again, brightly): Oh, I sorry!
Nem switches the light off and squeals. Mago crouches down in a ball, and the whole cycle repeats again, a dozen times, or two dozen, or more..
There are so many little things I have not written down!
//