Libby Lately: Ten Moments

Successful Visit to the Dentist!

#1 In Sunday School, Libby's class was talking about that God is always with you. A child in the class whose Mom is expecting a baby chimed in that God put a baby in his mom's tummy. Other kids chimed in that they were once in their mommys' tummies. Libby commented that God put her in her Daddy's tummy?! Of all times, I decided to go her from the class to receive that report. All I could do was laugh hysterically, not just at the thought that she said something so "out there," but more so at the thought of Steven.....can't even finish that thought.

#2 Libby still says "Fra-dic-lee-us" for ridiculous.

#3 When I swatted her bottom the other day, she screamed out, "Hey, we don't hit others." Lately, when Steven swats her, she says, "soooo, I'm just gonna scratch..." and scratches her self or mid air.

#4 While sitting at Ben & Jerry's this past weekend on the brick couch outside, Libby decides to look up to the "blue 'ting" (sky) and scream, "God, why won't you talk back to me!?." I said, "Libby, what in the world." She said, "My teacher said if I cry out to God, he will hear me. He never answers."

#5 Lately, Libby has been watching a lot of "Wonder Pets" where they sing about teamwork. When asked to clean her room, she replied, "dat sounds like a time for teamwork."

#6 She threatened to trade me in for "a new mommy". I have no clue where she got that from, but from the way she was acting, I wanted to know where I could sign her up for the trade.

#7 When asked if she'd like a whippin' for her behavior, she replied, "no" and when told not to smart talk, she said, "oh, sorry, no 'tank' you to duh spankin".

#8 Because she blames everything on her cousin Kaylee, she has a cold this week and said, "Kaylee Mad-son gave me her big cough and sneeze." She hasn't seen Kaylee in over a week.

#9 She gives directions to her school by saying, "Turn at the milkshake store." She then threatens to leave school to stay with the 'milkshake girls'.

#10 Anytime we get aggrevated with her, she busts out in the "Smile Song" from Little Einsteins. She thinks because it makes the Loch Ness monster smile, it will work with us.

And The Relatives Came

"In a rainbow-colored station wagon that smelled like a real car, the relatives came. When they arrived, they hugged and hugged from the kitchen to the front room. All summer they tended the garden and ate up all the strawberries and melons. They plucked banjos and strummed guitars. When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer. "

I love that book. It's a children's book by Cynthia Rylant and I've always been able to identify with the family coming to stay for a while. Families don't come to visit anymore. Why you have to practically schedule an appointment to let your kid see a grandparent, however, it wasn't always that way. Used to, no matter how far away relatives lived, they took the time to pile up in the car and come stay awhile. I just love that book. It reminds me of fond times when relatives came.



This weekend, we had an 83rd birthday for our Nanny Ree. She is my dad's mom and lives every second of her life to the fullest. Appetizers were: apples with caramel, cheese and crackers, or chips and salsa. The main dish was: Easy Brunswick Stew and Cornbread Dessert: duh, birthday cake! We had the party at my house, And The Relatives Came:

This is Rich and Nanny Ree

Nanny Ree checking out the cake.

Rodney, in the background doing the tacky and hiding his face, Kaylee and Nanny Ree chatting.

Nanny Ree preparing to blow out the candles.

A lady that works with Steven makes delicious cakes. It was only $35 and it was a big cake.

Anna will probably have better pics on her site. I hardly got any pics as I was running around everywhere. Happy 83rd to Nanny Ree!

Yes. I mean no.

I say yes when I mean no. It's a terrible self destructing thing. After I say yes, I think, "I really wanted to say no." I then mull around in my wish of having said no all the way until I do whatever it was I said yes to. *sigh*

At 32, I am getting no better at saying no. I belong on an Oprah self-help segment with Dr. Someone who could fix this terrible, uncurable, ridiculous problem.

Here's how it usually goes:

Scenerio 1:

Nice Person A: Hey, Meleia. Are you busy?

Me: (thinking) H-Yeah. I constantly have a mile long to do list.

Me: (say) No, not at all, anything for you. What cha' need?

That's where I get trapped. Person A follows with something I SO don't have time for or don't have an interest in.

Scenerio 2:

Barely Know Person B: What are you doing tomorrow?

Me: (thinking) I'd like to do whatever the H I want to do.

Me: (say) Why? Is there something I can help you with?

Barely Know Person B: I need someone to ......

It just makes me want to cuss. Cuss really bad, loud words. It makes me ill, and not the good kind where your 'illin because Lord knows I don't even have time to do that. Here's the icing on the fake cake---NO ONE EVER HELPS ME. *pity party starts and ends here, I promise*

I have had person after person try to help me with it.

My sister said, "Meleia, if you do something you don't want to do, you just might remove an opportunity for someone who really wants to do it." I know, brace yourself, that's the one intelligent thing she has taken the time to tell me---and I listened.

My Nanny Ree says, "If you don't break the cycle of saying yes to everything, you just may model that same behavior for Libby and she'll be stuck like that."

None of it has sunk in.

I end this post leaving to do something for someone that I didn't really want to do, but I didn't want to hurt their feelings, so I said yes.

Goodbye.

Listener Supported

As a friend of mine recently said, "If you want unsolicited, stupid advice, wear a t-shirt that says, 'I just had a baby.' " He is so right. However, I like to hear what people have to say because the normal flow of my life is that which is opposite of what most experience. You know the commericals that are like, "4 out of 5 people who chew gum don't get cavities...". I'm usually the 1 out of 5 that defies the odds in an unfavorable way. Therefore, people's advice usually lets me know what I won't need to expect.

As Libby gets older, it gets easier. Now, if you are my friend Hannah, and were on the phone with me this afternoon as my child and Kaylee performed acts that would have caused Super Nanny to wince, you could disagree. The fact that they'd been studying fire safety at school and decided to have an emergency evacuation hurling everything important down the 2 flights of stairs while I was on the phone caused me to scream an explitive. See, you weren't on the phone with me, and because Hannah is a good friend she'd have never told that about my household happenings. However, because I'm honest with my 5 readers, I will tell you, "ain't no pollyanna of an upbringing over here". Nope, but I will say that the most common thing people said from day 1 is (and please use a deep toned red neck twang to read this), "enjoy it now 'cause it gets harder."

LIE. It gets MUCH easier. I mean, the afternoon phone call that overheard the 10 on the Ricter Scale moment is a several times a day happening. However, every day gets easier. I mean when Libby was little she could only cry inconsolably and puke. Now, she can tell us to, "kiss her butt," and "no". And we can gently respond with a properly aligned punishment. Well, as the days get easier, there are good moments and moments that our parents would feel proud that we are getting the paybacks we probably deserved. So, here are a few pictures of the past few days.

Libby's first decision was to not sleep anymore and to watch TV all night. VETO The old routine of daddy rocking her in the bonus room while watching old episodes of 'Seinfeld' have been replaced by her falling asleep on her "nap". The "nap" is her mat from school that she recently outgrew, but she still loves it dearly. I have no clue what the wings were about. You pick and choose your battles. Another thing that puzzles me is that in approx 2000 sq ft, she plants herself on the 3 ft in front of the bathroom. At least she got herself to sleep.

Sunday, we were just running 15 minutes behind and couldn't make it to church. Usually, if you don't make it, you feel kinda bad for like 5 minutes and then you are over it. Not Libby, she tortured us about it for about an hour. "I want to go to chuuuuurch. I want to sing about Jesuuuuuss. You don't care about any-ting. Don't eben tok to me. Stop lookin' at me. You duh meanest people eber." Needless to say, we'll work a little harder to be on time next week.

Crampin' My Own Style

Okay, so this weekend has been rather interesting. I have 4 things to do. Notice the present tense...that's because I've done about 5 things, none are the 4 I needed to have done.

Here's why my style is cramped: I went to a NW game Friday night (realized I am not young, nor cool), ate at Waffle House (so now my thighs are cramped in my clothes, j/k-slightly..), went to Starbucks (had a to-die-4 signature salted caramel hot chocolate), HAVE NO IDEA WHY I KEEP TALKING IN PARENTHESIS, and that all sounds good, right. Wrong.

Woke up Saturday morning at 6ish am, puked---puked. I'd guess it was a hang over, but I've never drank in my life. Sorry if I'm now a bigger dose of uncool for you---but, that's true. The triple S pledge from 7th grade just sticks in my OCD head and I can't bring myself to take a plunge like that of which would nullify my memory, possibly act as a truth serum (yes, I hold SOME thoughts in my head), and make me pukey. My mom, who BTW must have dropped off my frequent readers list as I haven't gotten any attitude from her about my references to her in the blog (I suddenly hear an Ali McBeal style chorus of George Michael's song "Freedom") asked if I was preggars and besides thinking she was oblivious to my lack of life being the mom of a 4 year old, I told her, "yes, with a food baby." Gross. I know. Sorry. But after an "All Star Breakfast at 11:00 pm in the presence of a football team, I couldn't resist being truthful to you my beloved readers in the single digits. So, I puked, sent an email to someone I was worried about, took a shower and got ready all by 7:30 am on a Saturday. I went to a party with Steven, Libby and Kaylee at Chuck E. Cheese's. Well, I made a late entrance in that I was still pukey feeling and hadn't gotten a gift for the birthday boy, so I dropped them off and went to NG Mall where before buying the gift I ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT 2 DRESSES for myself and 1 for Libby. It's better than the couch I accidentally bought in '95. How do those accidents happen? Just think what would have happend if I hadn't felt pukey. I might could have gotten some shoes to match the dresses. I did also manage to get a perfume sample of something I now have to add to my neverending wants list. Oh, the lottery. If I'd just play, I might could win and afford something for people besides myself. It's brutal, but honest today folks. I think I puked out my integrity filter.

Oh, how'd my style get cramped? The puke started it and then I slept 2 of my Saturday hours away. My sleep wasn't even a cool sleep it was one of those weird, "what kinda MSG did my food have" dream sequences where I was all over the place in my sleep.

Ewww. I need to get back to myself. My style is so cramped with this weekend's events. Fall Break, here I come. Peace out. (And sorry for the series of parenthesis......)