Repetition

Well, another day in the Harrison household.  It's been exhausting.  

It's funny, I can still recall being young and wanting to do something over and over again because it was so much fun.  Now that I'm on the flip side of it, performing things over and over again for Eleanor, I begin to wonder when she'll tire of it.  (or secretly fear she NEVER will and four hours later I will have to break down in tears telling her I just can't bear to make Minnie Mouse tap dance anymore)  How do moms have this kind of stamina?  I feel like I barely make it some days.

I think I'm also a tad concerned Eleanor isn't as independent as she could be.  She often asks us to do things for her that she can clearly do herself like put her book away or open a certain toy or such.  I want her to learn to do things all by herself, but if she's REALLY too stubborn about it, there's not much I can do.  I'm hoping that once Garrett gets older it will help her want to set the example for him so she'll take off with wanting to do things all by herself.  I sure hope so.  The words "Mama do." and "Dada do." are getting a bit old when it IS something I know she can do.

Speaking of repetition, Eleanor has a bit of a pine cone obsession.  Or should I say a love-hate relationship with them?  She spots them right away, announces their presence, then points at them.  After a while she gets close to them.  Then she may ask to touch them and either do it but stop right away or won't touch them (even after I have).  She thinks that the springs on Garrett's crib are pine cones for some reason.  No matter what kind of logic I use, it doesn't seem to convince her.  "No, those are springs.  They're part of the crib.  Can you say springs?"  "Spring."  "Good job!"  "...Pine cone?"  "No, see those are metal.  Pine cones aren't metal."  "Oh.  ...Pine cone?"  "No, look it's shiny silver like mama's shoes.  Pine cones are brown.  ...Brown."  "Shiny silver?"  "Yes, exactly!"  "...Pine cone?"  

The other big one today was "Minnie hide?"  She hides from Minnie by Garrett's crib and she waits for me to have Minnie guess where she is or make up silly rhymes about her.  I do a high pitched Minnie voice and ask her things like: "Where is Boo Boo?  Is she in a shoe?  Is she wearing blue?  Is she going poo?"  (she once responded yes to this very quietly, but none of the others- it was hard not to laugh)  Then I poke her around the crib.  "THERE'S Boo Boo!"  Then toss her at her.  She thinks it's hilarious, tosses her at me and says "Minnie hide."  Then hides again.  Really, could my life be any more fun? I need to keep a rhyming dictionary on me, though, I got stumped a couple times.  Does nothing really rhyme with orange????  Man!


Repetition isn't working as well for Garrett recently.  Just the past couple of days he's been really hard to put to sleep.  He sleeps pretty well once he's out, which I probably can never be grateful enough for, but it's still rough.  What used to put him to sleep isn't working as well anymore.  We'll just have to keep trying, I guess.  In general he's such a happy baby, though.  I'm almost done making his picture frame that has all the names for him (Chinese, Japanese, & the meanings we picked for his English name) & it really makes me wonder what kind of an adult he'll grow up to be someday. 


We are so blessed to have such great kids.  They wear me out, but that's still so much better than being so bored that being bored wears you out.  Yes, it can happen to adults, and it's awful.  :)  So, here's my happy thought of the day:  No matter what you spend your time doing, if it doesn't bring you lasting happiness, it's not worthy of your time.  Time is too precious, our lives here are too short.  Enjoy!