Embarking on a New Journey: Sponge

That is the new nickname that I have come up with for Sage. She is starting to mimic every little thing she sees me do and it is adorable. She learns so fast! She picked up the hand clapping for patty-cake pretty fast and that was months ago. Shortly after, at the end, she would throw her hands up in the air when you said "toss 'em up high." In the last week, she has also started to try to roll her hands around each other when you say "roll 'em up" and it is a sort of hand slapping thing that she goes crazy with. She's so excited about that part, that she starts in the second line and continues to the end, where she will promptly start clapping again to let you know that you are NOT finished with the chanting of patty-cake. She will also clap if you say "yay."

Another thing she has picked up over the last couple of weeks and continues to do is blowing raspberries. She learned this several months ago, did it for a week and stopped. Like, HA! You like when I do that so I'm going to not do it anymore. HA HA! And HA! Now she will do this on her own and when prompted, spraying baby spit to the four winds and making a general mess of things. Also, this is a good game to play while eating dinner so that her mommy can wear all sorts of non-tasty pureed foods. This is not a good thing and I need to get her to stop. Sweet potatoes in the eye ... it hurts. Stings like a mother! But how do you get her to stop when your first response to the raspberry spitting of food is to laugh at her adorable, cherub-like face? Especially when followed by a very animated response from mommy that usually includes jumping up mumbling, "For the love of ... OW. Jeebus that hurts." All while baby is laughing like a loon because look at mommy, she's funny! Yeah. She's not going to stop, is she?

So ... disciplining Sage while laughing or making her laugh ... not gonna work so good. I should have known I wouldn't be any good at this part of motherhood since I always laughed at my sister whenever Kayla did something completely inappropriate but adorable at the same time. Like when she was four and was on the floor coloring. Judy and I were watching television and we hear "damn it." Of course, Judy promptly scolded her for it and said "Kayla Michelle, good little girls do NOT say that word." Me? I'm sitting there trying to stifle a giggle. Kayla's response ... holds up a broken crayon and says "they do when they break their crayons!" Judy was still able to maintain her composure and let her know that it is still inappropriate for a little girl to say such things. Me? I was laughing hysterically running up the stairs before my sister kicked my ass for inadvertently encouraging the child to say "damn it" whenever she wanted to make someone laugh.

Sage is also waving good-bye now. Whenever she wants. She won't always wave if you wave to her, but if say "bye" and wave, 99% of the time, she'll wave back. And remember when we were kids, the cowboys and indians that we all had to play? And if you were the indian, which I always was, you would smack yourself in the mouth until your lip swelled up while making a noise? She does that. But sometimes she forgets to make the noise so she's just smacking herself in the mouth. I am trying to have this lead into throwing kisses, but everytime I throw her a kiss ... I get the indian "wah wah wah wah" thingy instead.

We are getting really close to walking now too. The other night she was standing against the chair. She wanted to be standing next to the couch which was about two feet away. She spread her pudgy little legs as far apart as she could, leg go of the chair and stood there for a few seconds and then turned and reached for the couch like it was no big deal. Well, it is a big deal!

For one, she's going to be toddling around on two feet anytime now and I'm going to be babbling in the corner wondering "where's the baby?" Babies don't walk. Toddlers walk. I should at least have my baby until she is one. That seems only fair. I waited FOREVER for a baby. I'm being selfish and want her to stay a baby for longer than she is going to give me!

Two, she's already into everything. What in Hades am I going to do when she can walk and get into more places that crawling or the walker don't allow? Again, babbling in the corner.

Three ... Cody's room! The thought of her going in there is scarier than any other imaginable scenario that I can come up with right now. Cody's room looks like the Playstation area, the army people area, and the anything tiny and chokeable area of the store all threw up IN CODY'S ROOM! I tried to walk through there the other day to get something. With no shoes on. I kid you not, I stepped on something small, hard and pointy no less than ten times in the span on six feet. He should have a sign posted on his door that says "DANGER." Getting him to clean the room is like trying to get Sage to recite the Gettysburg Address. Pretty near to being a sure sign of the Apocalypse. It just isn't happening. You can threaten that child with being grounded until he is fifty and he will not clean that room and get everything put away. You can take away the Playstation. You can threaten to throw everything he owns away. Nadda. He will make a half-hearted attempt to shove everything under his bed and sneak out when you aren't looking. But ... he will NOT clean that room. I think I'm going in there this weekend with trashbags. Either it will scare him into action or we will have a truck load of things to take to the dump! What we cannot have any longer is a refusal to clean the damn room. It is now a danger and if it isn't cleaned by him, and I have to do it ... well, let's just say there will be many tears and wailing that will make you think he is mourning the passing of a loved one, if I have to clean HIS room.

You know what I'll be doing this weekend. Cleaning an eleven year old boys room while he flings himself on his bed and cries because you are throwing away all of the junk that he is collecting. Also, this weekend ... I'm likely taking a girl from Dink's church to look at Othello, because he needs someone who has time for him and I'm not a very good horse mommy right now. It's killing me. I love this horse so much, but it's just not fair to him. So, I may be selling him.

He's so beautiful. And he's so sweet. If I do sell him, it's going to break my heart.

Having Sage has made me have to give up some things in life. She's definitely worth it, but I so wish I didn't have to make choices like this one.