Brinley
What’s your name and how old are you?
Aug 2nd
On Friday I took the girls to the library for a bit. Brinley loves books and really enjoys going to the library to pick out new ones to borrow. Nora, on the other hand, just wants to take all of the books off the shelves and make a mess. Thankfully they have some toys there too to keep her occupied.
Anyway, as I was browsing the shelves for some books that might interest Brinley, I noticed her walking over to a little girl that was looking for some books of her own. Brinley went right up to her and said: “Hi! My name is Brinley and I’m three and a half. What’s your name and how old are you?” This has become her new phrase of choice when we go anywhere and she sees/meets someone new. She asks the check out girl/guy at whatever store we’re in, she asked the sales ladies at the furniture stores this weekend, she asks anyone she meets at a park, and even when we’re just passing by someone she doesn’t know she’ll try to ask them. It’s cute but of course not everyone, especially older women, wants to share how old they are. Brinley doesn’t understand this and the other day a woman said, “Well, how old do you think I am?” Brinley just looked at her very confused and said, “I don’t know, that’s why I asked you.” Luckily the lady thought she was cute and we both just laughed. The lady managed to get away without giving away her age. My guess is that she was in her late 50s.
Anyway, back to my original story about the library. So Brinley asks the little girl and the girl says, “My name is Zoe and I’m four and a half.” Then they have the most adorable conversation ever!
Brinley: That’s a nice name.
Zoe: Thanks.
B: What’s your mom and dad’s names?
Z: Heather and Aaron.
B: Which one is the boy?
Z: Aaron
B: What street do you live on? I live on Rocky Road*. Do you live in Anytown*, too? What state do you live in?
Z: I live on Lovely Lane* in Anytown*. I live in Missachewits.
B: What planet do you live on?
Z: Earth.
B: ::in an extremely excited voice:: ME TOO!!
This entire time I’m standing behind one of the book shelves listening to the whole conversation. Then Brinley runs over to me and says, “Mom, this is Zoe and she lives on Earth too!! Can she come over to play sometime?”
*Street and town names have been changed to protect our privacy. 
The new baby.
Jun 10th
In the car today Brinley asked me, “Mom, when Nora is grown up what will we name the new baby?”
At first I was very confused and I said, “Huh?” She said, “You know, when Nora grows up and we get a new baby, what will we name it? Will it be a boy or a girl? I want a boy this time.”
Then I got it. And I started laughing. And then she was confused. “What’s so funny, mom?”, she asked me.
Apparently she thinks that when a child grows up (or becomes roughly two and a half) then it’s time to bring another baby into the family. So naturally when Nora grows up (turns 2.5) we’ll “get” a new baby. Right? Wrong!
I was at a complete loss as to how to explain any of this to Brinley so I simply said, “Well we’ll see what happens when Nora grows up. Maybe we’ll get a new baby but maybe we won’t.” That seemed to satisfy her for the time being. Hopefully I won’t have to get into the birds and the bees talk any time soon! Yikes.
I scream, you scream…
May 27th
“Run, run, run as fast as you can
Here comes the music of the Ice Cream Man.
Hurry, hurry, hurry he’s coming down the street
I have some money for an ice cream treat!”
Brinley came home from school one day a few weeks ago singing this little tune over and over and over again. At first I thought maybe she had made it up but it turns out that she learned it at school. Very fitting since it happened to be about a bazillion degrees that day.
I have some really fond childhood memories involving the ice cream truck. We had one in our neighborhood that stopped on the corner every single day when the weather was above 70-ish degrees. I remember hearing the tinkly music and running inside with my brother and neighborhood kids to beg my mom, or any other grown up, for some money for the ice cream truck. I consider myself very lucky because more often than not my parents happily handed over their pocket change so that we could get a treat.
There is an ice cream truck in our new neighborhood. We heard that unmistakable music ringing in the air the first week we 
moved in. I wasn’t sure Brinley would know what the music was or what it was coming from because we’d only experienced the ice cream truck a few times and it had been over a year since she last saw one. Well, to my surprise she knew exactly what it was and started jumping up and down yelling, “ice cream man, ice cream man!” All of my childhood memories came back to me and Scott ran inside to get some money. What was shocking was that those screwballs that used to cost us 50 cents were now two dollars!! A simple popsicle is $1.50 and an ice cream sandwich is $2.00. Yikes! Of course we got her an ice cream, a Dora face with gumball eyes.
The bad part – the ice cream truck strolls through the neighborhood around 4:30pm. About an hour or so before dinner time. Oh and the fact that if we let her get ice cream even a few times a week Scott is going to have to get another job so that we can afford it! We definitely don’t indulge her daily even though she asks. She understands that it’s a special treat which is good. But the smile on her face when she hears that tinkly music coming through the neighborhood really brings me back.
Holding back the tears.
May 20th
Today my little girl graduated from her first year of preschool. I don’t know where the time has gone but somehow over the past three and half years she has transformed from a little, helpless, squishy infant into a beautiful, intelligent, sweet little girl. Everyday when I look at her, I am amazed at the little person that she is. She is truly the light of my life and I can’t imagine a life without her in it.
When Brinley started school back in September she was a totally different child. She was extremely shy and cried every morning when I dropped her off at school. It broke my heart to see her like that but I knew that eventually she’d come around and love school… So what if it took almost four months. Now, eight months later, she is so sad that school is over. She tells me everyday that she doesn’t want to have a summer vacation because she loves school. I just keep reminding her that she’ll enjoy the break and she’ll be going back in September.
Back to today… For weeks Brinley and her little class of seven other kids have been preparing for their end of the year musical program and graduation. She’s been singing all sorts of songs at home that she has learned in school and I was very curious to see how this would all play out live on stage at school. The day finally arrived and she got dressed up in a cute little dress. She was so excited this morning to perform for us at school and to take part in the finale. I dropped her off at the usual 9am and ran home to finish getting myself and Nora ready. I knew that I’d need to get there a little earlier than 10am to be sure to get a seat. But when I pulled into the school parking lot at 9:35am and there was not a single spot in sight, I was a little taken aback. I finally found a place to park and headed inside. When I got inside the gymnasium I was once again surprised to see that nearly every single seat had already been taken or reserved. From talking with another mom, I learned that some parents had gotten to the school as early as 8am to reserved their seats. (At least I’ll know better for next year!) Anyway, I managed to find a seat for Nora and I but Scott would have to stand when he arrived.
The show started and Brinely’s class was the second to preform. She walked perfectly into the gym with her classmates and lined up on the stage all ready to sing. She saw us and smiled and the look on her face was of such joy. It truly melted my heart. Then they began to sing and my once quite little girl was up there as proud as can be belting out the words to every single song. It made me so proud and I began to feel my throat get tight and my eyes well up with tears. And trust me I am NOT a sappy person. I held back the tears but it was an emotional moment to say the least. Brinley recieved her diploma and walked down from the stage with the rest of her class. The entire performance (for her class) lasted maybe 8 minutes but those were 8 minutes that I’ll never forget.
Seeing your children grow up and change and be so proud of themselves is amazing. And knowing that your love, support and guidance has brought them to that place is a very overwhelming feeling. I am so proud of my little girl and though I’d like her to stay little forever, I am so excited to watch her continue to grow and prosper. I have no doubt that she will achieve great things in life.
Now, can someone pass me the tissues? ::sob, sob::
Now I know how my mother felt.
May 11th
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying that how you acted when you were a child will come back to haunt you in parenthood. Well that could not be more true for me right now. I never imagined that my three and a half year old could fall victim to a toy or clothing fad. But boy was I wrong! I keep having flashbacks to my childhood where I was demanding these:
Image from The 80's Museum
and these:
Any fellow child of the 80’s should recognize both of these famous trends. I was, to put it lightly, obsessed with the plastic charm necklaces. And the jelly bracelets (which I am just now learning signal “sexual intent” based on the color), I know that I had enough to go up and down both of my arms at the same time. So I am not sure why it came as such a surprise to me when my three and a half year old daughter demanded that she have Silly Bandz.
For those of you who don’t know (lucky!!), Silly Bandz are basically plastic bands in that come in various shapes (animals, princess, rock band, cowboy, baseball, etc) that you wear as bracelets. The slogan is “collect ‘em, trade ‘em, wear ‘em” and they’re being marketed as the “Hottest New Fashion Accessory”.
Anywho, somehow my daughter learned of these magnificent things and HAD TO HAVE them. I had no idea what she was talking about when she first brought it up but I let her explain it to me and then we went to try to find them. I wasn’t sure where to look or how much they would cost. Yesterday we were at the mall and I tried going in to Claire’s figuring that they sell lots of brightly colored plastic jewelry. I went in, asked the teenaged girl behind the counter and was answered with, “Ha! Good luck finding them. We can’t keep them on the racks!” Ummm, ok. Now what? I tried, eeek, Spencer’s. (I’m not proud that I brought my two young kids into that store, but it was a desperate measure.) Again, no luck. So, I told Brinley not to worry and that I was sure that we’d find her some Silly Bandz somewhere (though I highly doubted it would happen that day). We went along with our shopping which brought us into the Hallmark Gold Crown Store. Brinley darted ahead of me and started yelling, “SILLY BANDZ!” There they were, a huge rack of them in all different shapes and colors. She quickly grabbed about five packs of them and said, “Ok mom, I’m ready to go!”
I took the packs from her and my jaw nearly landed on the floor when I saw the price tag. FIVE BUCKS for a pack of plastic animal shaped bands? I told her that she could pick out one pack for today and we could talk about ways that she could earn additional packs. We left the store and she had the biggest smile on her face. She proudly put all 24 bands shaped like zoo animals on her wrist and kept going through them naming each animal. She stopped at least 3 women as we were shopping to show off her prize. It was really cute.
I’m sure this is just the first of many fashion fad/trends that she will become sucked in by but I really can’t believe that it’s starting at three and a half. Do your kids have these things? How do you handle their demands for trendy items?
