Freckles & Jellyfish

Thank you God
for taking me to the end of myself and replacing me with you.









It's fun to teach kids things.
It's always the little things in life that are brought up when you babysit.
You know, the small things that fall by the wayside. Things like freckles and if jellyfish have legs.
(And why I even thought these were important things to learn I'm not so sure.)

Case in point:
"These are freckles. See? I have a lot!" as I point to the many freckles I have.
"Freckle."
followed by a long contemplative look and his bitty 2-year old hand slowly moves to point to my freckles.
"Yep, lots of freckles! But that's not a freckle."
"No freckle. Owie." (puts hand in my face to show me)

&

"What are these?"
"Bubbles."
"No, it is an animal. Can you tell me which animal it is?"
silence -crickets chirp- looks confused
"This animal is called a jellyfish. Can you say jellyfish?"
"Jellfsh."
"Yes, jellyfish. Do jellyfish have legs? Do they have feet that they walk with?"
"Jellyfish walk. They go everywhere. They always going." (& 2 more minutes of made-up info about jellyfish)
"I don't think jellyfish have legs. Let's look."
I point to one.
We look.
"Do jellyfish have legs?" (point to my legs)
Long-drawn out, "Noo.o.o.o....."
"You're right. Jellyfish don't have legs. They don't walk. How do they move?"
deer-in-the-headlights look, again
"Where do jellyfish live? On the land or in the water?"
Interrupts quickly- "water! In da ocean!"
"You're right. Jellyfish live in the water. They swim and wiggle around because they don't have legs."


or random thoughts kids have that they just have to tell you:
As we're sitting on the couch watching some little kid train show,
the three-year old says, "Sometimes mom pops our toes."
"Oh"
was all I said, but not all I was thinking. That was more like, 'Why are you telling me this?' and
'You're so strangely random that it's super cute!'


or when I asked the three-year old how old he was,
he said, "I'm four." (followed quickly by:) "No I'm three and a half!"
And then when I said, "You're three and a half? You're a big boy!"
And he quickly said, "I'm three."

hahahahahahaha
embellish much? Ohmagosh! So stinkin cute!
And of course, all of this was said while his two-year old brother was going 'potty'
and I had to remind him to hold his peepee down.
Hahahaha. I seriously wanted to videotape some of our conversations that night.
They were that random.


or when you do something you see on a show or in a book with kids and they get super excited and hyper about it. Case in point: when we saw a bouncy ball on the Mickey show, I said, 'bounce, bounce, bounce' as the ball bounced in the show (which made the boys turn and stare at me like I had three heads).
But then when I realized we were all getting restless, I suggested we bounce like the bouncy ball (hey, it was a boring show for me. And I like to make things interesting/relevant for 2 & 3-year olds which I surprisingly have experience with now.)
So anyways, we got up and started bouncing, each in our own different way. I started jumping and hopping around a lot, while the three year old bounced around like he just had a hit of speed, and the two year old was bopping away (somewhere between jumping and trying to move around at the same time- when he moved he had to stop jumping and then when he jump and tried to move he couldn't do it- oh so cute). So after 'bouncing' for awhile, I started getting tired and a tiny bit bored (I'm not as easily enthralled by such a glorious activity as the boys were:). After suggesting we bounce to the kitchen, and then to the rug, and then to the couches, and then to the bedrooms, I was kind of bounced out.

And they remembered, even a week later. After one got bored, they would start bouncing and say, 'Bounce!'
And then when they were all ready for bed, the oldest said/shrieked, 'Let's bounce! Bounce!' and started hopping away. Almost stopping him, I then realized it might help him to move before getting in bed (sort of a shake your wiggles out thing). And boy did he move!
When I told their parents what had happened, they smiled and said, 'Yeah, it's like he's on speed when he gets ready for bed. He gets so wound up.' Thank goodness, I thought it was me:)




or when a bitty kid clings to you when they are freaked out & super scared.
Like when they see an imaginary bug right after they pee and they hold onto you so tightly you have to pick them up nudie butt and all and try to figure out what happened.
And after asking 'what happened? What is it Mackie?' at least four times, he says "bg." (which you somehow deduce means bug).
And then you tell him over and over again 'it's okay. It's gone! That bug flew away!' and then make up a story that the already embellishment-happy older brother says about 'smacking' the bug and making him go away (his word not mine- must have heard that one from someone though).
Oh man, it's moments like those.



Thanks for those moments God!