Emergency plan = sleepovers?

We were having a family home evening lesson this week about emergency preparedness.  We talked to the kids about being prepared for emergencies what to do in case of a fire, earthquake, tornado, etc.  We made sure they knew they could find a police officer if they were lost and practiced telling their name, phone number, parents name, and street address.  We asked them what we could do if there was a problem at our home, where we could go nearby that was safe, and they suggested we go to our friends' house that is just behind ours.  Our 5 year old then said rather excitedly, "If you and Dad both died, we could go over to their house and have lots of sleepovers!"

Um, yeah.  I guess we succeeded in not making our lesson too scary.  Hopefully we prepared them a little bit still. 

Chanting in Unison

What is it about chanting in unison that is so appealing and enjoyable to little kids? One child will start a comment, and the other child will join in, as they repeat the phrase over and over again.  This week's phrase seems to be "Go awaay, dude!" chanted as only a 3 year old and 5 year old can do.  I guess it's an improvement over "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear".  This one is still frequently chanted, regardless of the fact that Halloween was 7 months ago.  I mean, really, is the a word that is much funnier to a 3 and 5 year old than "underwear"?  Who can blame them?

I guess as adults we're found chanting things in unison at sporting events or even political rallies.  So, maybe we don't ever grow out of it.  The things we chant, though, are maybe not quite so random.  It's like joining in singing when someone else is singing a song, I guess.  There must just be something inborn in us about being part of a group.

Who's in charge?

I keep getting asked by my 5 year old - "Are you in charge of me?"  This has many variations such as "Are you in charge of what I eat?" or "Are you in charge of what I wear?" or "Are you in charge of my stuffed animals?" Keep in mind that these are not innocently asked or deep-searching questions.  They usually follow my telling her to do something like eat her meal or get dressed or clean up.  I kept telling her, "Yes, I am in charge of that", until she started asking me questions that I had to answer with no, such as "No, I'm not in charge of what crayon color you should use".  My husband and I finally came up with a standardized answer that satisfies us, and stumps her.  We now say "No, I'm not in charge of whether you do that or not. But, I am in charge of the consequences from what you choose".  It seemed like a good way to teach agency and responsibility, and really, it just seems to have made her stop asking quite so often.

Envy

The following conversation occurred between my 3 yr old son and me while I was changing his new baby brother's diaper:

3 yr old: "What's that under his privates?"
Me: "You have that too."
3 yr old: "His is bigger than mine."

I had no real response to that. Oh, the joy of little boys.

My Amazing Newborn Blog

Welcome to my amazing blog about my newborn baby.  Oh, wait.  He's 2 months old and I have posted on my blog one time since he was born. 

I had all kinds of thoughts before baby #4 was born about how I would blog about those first precious weeks of having a new baby and all the wonderful experiences I was having.  To be honest, though, it was the middle of tax season and I was just so overwhelmed and busy that none of  those posts ever happened.  By the time the baby was finally in bed (or just being held by my wonderful husband so I could work), I was furiously trying to spend an hour or two checking emails and working so that I never had time to even check other blogs, much less post my own.

So, here I am back again.  Life has calmed down, although it's still rather busy.  My newborn baby boy is now 2 months old and starting to have more of a schedule.  I guess it's time for me to have more of a schedule also and start getting things done (or maybe just blogging).