Simple Smiles

It says right under The Gerichs Ohana that this is a blog about the "simple smiles brought to us by sweet Sydney."  I have too many simple smiles to count and I'm afraid if I don't write them down then I'll forget about them and pretty soon she will be 5 and I'll never get to go back and cry about how my baby has grown up.  (Nope, not at all feeling anxiety that she'll be 2 next month. Whaaaaaaa....and it ain't just pregnancy hormones, people.)

All about Diapers
She must be somehow getting ready for the baby?  She is obsessed with giving EVERYTHING a diaper...and not just a diaper change, but always diligently wiping them also. Minnie Mouse is the most common victim as she's the perfect size and obviously doesn't fidget when she's patiently opening the diaper and instructing Minnie that "Diaper change, OK? OK?  Okay."  She tries to give 3 inch moose figurines diaper changes (ummm...impossible?) and when she goes to Granny Jo Jo's while I run I come back to a living room full of opened and sprawled out diapers laying around.  If you ask her about what she's doing she'll reply- "Minnie Mouse ca-ca.  Diaper change Minnie Mouse."  It's so adorable hearing her talk to her "babies" which all have to accompany her to bed at night.  We now have 3 blankets and 5 animals that must be in our crib...how did we get to this?!?!  I go in after she's asleep and remove almost all of them, just sure that she's not going to get comfortable rolling around on lumpy stuffed animals all night.  The security it brings is sweet, and the hugs and kisses that each of those animals get make me a bit jealous.

We are still very NOT ready to use the potty and I've come to terms with it...she'll get there when she's ready.  She's good about telling me when she's going ca-ca, but refuses to sit on the potty chair even though she loves talking about it.  I figure talking about it is a good first step.  Anyhow- when she is going "ca-ca" as we call it, she'll yell out- "Mommy, caca!" to which I reply- "Thanks for letting me know, Sydney.  Are you all done?"  She replies- "Nope, still ca-caing."  I have to be impressed (hello, I am the Mom here) that she knew to put an "ing" on the end of ca-ca to indicate that she's still in the process of.  Now it's more of a way to get out of changing her diaper...but once I threaten that it's going to squish and that's yucky, she's all game. 

While we are still on the diaper subject, I walked in on a surprise yesterday when she was supposed to be napping.  I heard some banging and thought I should check it out...when I walked in, there was Sydney sitting at her desk with a diaper and 6 wipes.  "Hi, Mommy." was the reaction I got and I was speechless.  We've never before climbed out of the crib and the wipes in hand was a dead giveaway that she scaled the side of the changing table to get out of the crib, grabbed her diaper changing materials and went about her business.  I tried hard not to laugh, and nicely put her back in her crib...where she actually stayed and slept.  Today before I even walked out of the room she told me bye and immediately turned to the changing table and started climbing.  I walked back in and said- "Oh, Sydney...did you need me to move this diaper table so that you can stay in your crib?  OK."  That pissed her off- a couple huge screams for a minute and then all was silent as she fell asleep.  Upon waking she got to talk to Gramma on the phone.  She told her "Mommy move the diapers."  I cracked up that she remembered and thought to tell her this.  When she was off the phone I said- "Why did Mommy move the diapers?"  She replied- "Stay in."..and guess what?  It worked.  Thankfully- because we are not ready for a big bed yet!!!

Goat Food and Dog Shirt
This is disgusting, and I'm blogging about it anyway.  On our way to a play date today Syd was eating some frozen peas (yuck and I even like peas!) when she started gagging and making this horrid face.  When I looked back she had brown stuff on her hands with the pea so I figured it was a rotten pea.  I wiped her hand off best I could without slamming into the car in front of me.  She continued to eat her peas but continued to say "yuck, yuck" and shudder.  Pretty soon she said- "goat food."  I started laughing hysterically because the rotten pea must have tasted like the pellets that we feed the goats at the zoo that try as I may, still make their way into Sydney's mouth.  Spurred on by my humor she continued to repeat "goat food" until we got to our destination.  And then I went to get her out of the car.  And then I saw her shoes.  And then I knew....it wasn't a rotten pea.  It was poop.  Dog poop, goose poop, deer poop...I don't know, but it was smeared all over her shoes and my daughter ate it.  Fast forward 20 minutes- our shoes, pants, socks and hands are all sanitized and I'm telling my girlfriend about the incident.  Not long after Sydney walks up and says "wearing dog shirt" (her new favorite) and it really sounded more like "wearing dog sh#@"  My friend immediately looked at me as if to say 'why did you tell her it was sh#@' to which I had to explain that she was literally talking about her dog SHIRT.  Ahhhh, I could use humor like that daily.  Seriously- could I have timed that better myself?!?!

Mommy
I don't know when.  I don't know how.  I don't know who.  But if I find out...trouble.  Sydney has started to drop the "my" in mommy.  I'm sad.  Period.  I don't want to be "Mom."  I remember my Mom hating when I called her "Mother" and I would do it purposely when mad at her just to prove a point...and now I'm here...not that Syd is mad at me or that she comprehends what she's doing, but I'm slowly turning from the endearing "Mommy" to "Mom".  Who is that 9 year old talking out of my two year olds mouth?  STOP!!!  Her new thing is to say - "Look at this, Mom!"  It could be a book that I've seen a million times or it could be a rack of 20 gift bags that she's taken down at Fred Meyer because I let her walk and took my eye off of her one minute to decide what wrapping paper to buy this year.  The excitement in her voice when she says "Mom" at the end of it is nothing that I can express here in words...but I love it, and I can't wait to look when she says it.

Baby Seester
We're waiting until birth day to find out what cute little bundle is growing in my belly (now 21 weeks).  In Sydney's mind, there's no doubt it's a baby sister...at least that's the only way she refers to the growing bump.  She can't "talk" to the baby, rub the baby, or kiss the baby without my shirt being pulled up...which makes it kind of interesting when someone asks her "where's the baby?" as she doesn't just point, she must pull UP the shirt.  That could get awkward...?  Anyway- she daily tells the baby good morning, kisses the bump and always has her hand on the baby during prayer time at night when we pray for baby.  She sometimes looks at me with hands up and says - "Baby grow.  Come out?"  We went to our midwife appointment about 2 weeks ago and she got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time.  When Daddy asked her later what the baby was saying to her she replied- "Swish, swish, swish."  I could cry it was so sweet.  Every once in a while she'll say- "Hear baby's heartbeat?"  Man, a Doppler could come in handy.  Maybe I should put that on my wish list for Santa.  I can't wait for all the big sister moments ahead of us.


She challenges me daily and keeps me remembering that I am all-too-human and need to work on patience and flexibility.  She gives me unexpected hugs and kisses that leave me wondering who I would be without her in my life. And the smiles?  They're sweet.  They're simple.  They're abundant.

Said Dog Shirt

Our little turkey adorning her turkey hat for the feast.

Just a moment in time captured for me...and every Mom knows what I mean.