Boyfriend blues... and ramblings of a mother.

Apparently, Madisen has a boyfriend.

She declared it so yesterday.

Ummm. What?!  

I was stunned.


Still am.

I didn't even know she knew what a "boyfriend" was?

Either I was being naive to the fact that she knew these things, or I just thought she was indeed naive and didn't know any of these things. (did that even make sense?)

Guess I was naive.

This is how it all went down...

Madisen and Avery were playing together in the living room when I over heard her from the bedroom say, "Avery, you don't even know...."

I walked over and opened the bedroom door a little more to hear her continue to say, "...I have a boyfriend. His name is Trenton C. And he is cute. We even traded Dinosaur cards."

First of all, those that know Madisen well, know she can be very timid. She has been labeled "shy" ever since she was one. She is a afraid to try new things, turns bright red when the spotlight is on her and cries easily when others, especially her sisters get hurt. She is very sensitive and naive...or so I thought, till now. She probably knows more than I give her credit for. 



I wasn't that into boys growing up. I never had a boyfriend until my Junior year of High School. (And I was not considered nearly as shy as she is.) Glad too. They, "boyfriends", really weren't all they were cracked up to be.


So can you understand now, WHY I am stunned by this revelation, that SHE has a boyfriend??




Speaking about being shy, it made me think of another subject. For years Madisen has been asked, "ARE you shy?" OR, they just presume it, "You ARE shy."

Which by the way, I HATE. I hate when people in the store, total strangers, say that to her. They don't know her. They barely met her, 5 seconds ago! Don't presume to label my child when you don't even know her! (I am really passionate about this subject can't you tell?)

It just makes her conform that much more to it, when told it. She is being label "shy" therefore she tells herself, "I am shy"  and acts "shy". 

So to correct this, every time someone tells her that she is "shy" I (politely) correct them by saying, "No, she is not shy. She is friendly and talkative and funny." (Mother bear comes out to protect her cub).

I just don't want her labeling herself anymore as being "shy", just because someone else tells her she is. She can be anything she wants to be, darn it! :)

And that subject makes me think of another closely related subject, (I should probably just write another blog post or make this into essay form...a, b, c...etc.) when talking to other people about your kids whether on the phone or in person while your child is in ear shot of the conversation you should NEVER talk negatively about them or put them in a negative light. It's not healthy.

For example, I overheard a mother one time on her cell phone talking about her child in a very negative way, stating many bad behaviors the child had done, even to the point of using swear words, and calling her daughter names that I would need soap to wash my mouth out with. And the sad part was, her daughter was right there in front of her! How sad. Imagine what that little girl felt and how it probably crushed her spirit and embarrassed her. My heart went out to her. 

I am grateful that my own mom taught me this very important lesson early on when Madisen was younger. As I, too, made the same mistake of doing just that, right in front of her. I said out of anger, "Ugh! Madi is being such a little brat today!"

Oops. I shouldn't have let my anger get the best of me. And I am embarrassed that it did that day, but I have learned the importance of this, not only for my kids but for me. It makes children feel bad, worthless and they come to not trust you as a parent over time. 

But one of the best things you can do is say POSITIVE things about them in front of others. As I have done this from time to time, I literally have seen my girls' heads rise in pride, and their self esteem just sky-rockets! We, as mothers have such power! Let's use it for good.


And please don't tell my child that she IS shy. :) But I will allow you to tell her anything positive. :)

OK...so back to my first point of this post...(I know, I am rambling, but I did warn you about it in the title.)

Madisen has a "boyfriend". 

Obviously as a kindergarten-er this doesn't mean the same thing as it would to a 17 year old girl. But I am just not ready for this stage yet and it's here knocking at my door. I thought I would have years to prepare for this knock. 5 years is just not enough time. Especially when I still vividly remember the day we were finally able to bring this bundle of joy home from the hospital, on Mother's Day.

Now 5 years and 10 months later (give or take a few days), she is trading dinosaurs cards with her "boyfriend".  

Pretty soon they will be painting dinosaur characters with hearts around it on each other's cheeks...what's a mother to do? 

Boo-hoo.

  

.

Obsessed...

These pictures speak for themselves... our little Madi is absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. Obsessed might be an understatement. I don't think you could find a child as obsessed with dinosaurs as she is! Every moment of the day, it's nothing but dinosaurs. Even when she is taking a bath, she wants all her dinosaurs in the bath with her, and is not content with just a few. Tonight during her bath, Madi started crying frantically in the tub, so I ran in to see what was wrong thinking that she got soap in her eyes or fell down, but what I found was, both her arms full of dinosaurs and she was panicking that she couldn't hold all of them at one time! haha! I started laughing so hard!! I guess it was one of those things where you had to be there...haha.

Dinosaur Heaven!

***Warning!! Warning!! Lots of pictures!***

Madi’s love for dinosaurs has gotten us all ROARING for them! Yay for Dinosaurs!! What great and amazing animals they were. After our fun-filled, kids-free day and night, Ryan and I met up with Grandma and the girls the next morning and went to this great dinosaur museum in Ogden. A good friend of mine told me about how incredible it was!(Thanks Haley!) We all had such a great time. There were a lot of dinosaurs that she hadn’t learned yet or seen before, so it was fun to learn some new names!

Grandma and Avery
Avery wasn't sure what was going on, but she was a trooper the entire time even though she didn't get a nap. Boy was she tired though!
Madi was a little frightened of some the museums dinosaurs, they had a moving T-rex and Triceratops that made noises...
The fam and a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton
Inside the museum they had a lot of displays of different things...what a rock, eh?! A girls' best friend! Under the massive Brachiosaurus!




There was a little kid park, with slides, swings, and several dinosaurs to climb on! Madi riding a baby brachiosaurus! We asked Madi is this cool or what? She said, "This is very cool!"

We would ask Madi if we should put our heads in the dinosaurs mouth, and she would tell us "No!" She knows enough about dinosaurs to know that is a very bad idea! Luckily for Ryan it was just a model! ;)
Daddy and Mommy being silly!

This is a dinosaur cave, and it had fossils embedded throughout! As you can tell, Madi is not a child that smiles all that much- she is very serious! But we could tell she really did have a great time, as we all did! A triceratops!
We decided to try our luck down the Mystery path...we made it out alive plus spotted a bunch of hidden dinosaurs! A mommy Maiasaura and her babies. She would make a big nest out of mud for her eggs!


The Ferocious T-rex!

There was a place where the kids could also do puzzles, play dinosaur games on the computers, color and then there was this sand area for them to dig for fossils! Madi really enjoyed that! Avery getting a different view of the dinosaurs.

kisses from grandma


It was a fun trip and the dinosaur museum was a BIG hit! (Grandma bought Madi this velocirapter. Madi kept saying, "This is my favorite dinosaur, okay?!" And she has been sleeping with it everynight since! Ryan and I were joking around saying that most little girls sleep with dolls and teddy bears, our little girl sleeps with a velocirapter! Funny kid, huh?)

Madi fell asleep on the way home...Avery however didn't sleep but five minutes and I didn't know why she wouldn't just fall asleep...but then I noticed about ten miles from home she had been working on a project for me....

Ahhh...Avery! Thanks! She thought she was pretty funny! I kept lifting her leg up saying, eww!!! It's a poopy! She would laugh, and grab both legs and hold them high to show us! What a great way to end the trip, huh?! It's like she knew I didn't have enough to clean up when we got home so she had to add to the load... haha!

Digging for Fossils

Madisen has been so engaged in dinosaurs, ever since Grandma Graf bought her a book on dinosaurs. She loves dinosaurs and acts like a dinosaur all the time! I have posted a little bit about this in a past post. She is always asking Ryan and me, "Come play to-(with) me and be a Parasaurolophus to (with) me, pleeeese!" So at least a dozen times a day, Ryan and I are running around the house with Madi, growling in different octaves with each different dinosaur we are trying to imitate. (I am sure if the neighbors saw and heard us they would think we were periodically transforming into some supernatural creature from the Twilight Series.)

A few of her favorite dinosaurs are the noisy Parasaurolophus, the tough Ankylosaurus, the big horned Triceratops and of course the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. This last weekend I thought it would be fun to go "digging" for dinosaur fossils...of course it was just pretend, but Madi got so into it! She really is quite the explorer and loves going on adventures. She would say stuff like, "Look Mom! A Tyrannosaurus Rex footprint! That's a baby Compsognathus "posseal". Come over this mountain Mom. There are more dinosaur footprints up on the mountain."

Digging for "posseals" (As Madi calls it). So funny!

Avery watching Madi dig.

Finding a Tyrannosaurus rex footprint...

Avery in a high pursuit of her own...searching intently for fossils....or maybe just something to eat.Ah-ha! She found a dinosaur "fossil"! Only, she was disappointed, as she soon found out it is not something that she could eat...
More dinosaur bones... Madi still very much on the hunt...

I have always thought, We need to take Madi to a dinosaur museum. That's the only way she will really see what they were like and how big dinosaurs actually were... Which is true. Yet, she can have just as much fun or more, as she imagines being a part of their world! I mean really, who needs a real dinosaur museum when you have a park, some digging "tools" and a BIG imagination! What an adventure!!!

A Visit with the Animals...

I know I have said this before, but Madisen absolutely LOVES animals!!! She is always wanting to either read books about animals, watch movies about animals, or pretend to be an animal... always growling, barking or crawling like one. She even at times eat likes an animal...hands becoming like paws as she pretends to be a dog, or vicious claws like a lion. I know, it's kind of weird, but cute at times too. She has also developed a love for dinosaurs lately, and can even name quite a few of them...Maiasaura, Ankylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, Deinonychus, Seismosaurus, Parasaurolophus, etc....it's SO cute to hear her say those words! She doesn't pronouce all of them exactly perfect but she says them pretty close and can identify each one of them. (Ok sorry, I am done bragging now...every once in awhile you just can't help but be a proud parent of a future archeologist)

Anyway, this morning when I got up I said to Ryan, let's go visit an animal store, we haven't done that in awhile and we know how much Madi loves see and be with animals! Madi watching the big turtles

Madi petting a "kitty cat". The kitty-cat and the turtles she said were her favorite when we asked her what animals she enjoyed seeing the most.
Madi, Avery and Daddy looking at all the fish...

Avery and me looking at more fish... "Say... Fish"

More "kitty-cats"

She squealed with delight when she saw these little puppies... I could definitely see her doing something with animals when she grows up.

Madi and Daddy feeding the sheep and horses.

This Parrot was really cool looking, it was like a peach color, (you can't tell in this picture too well...) It also talked to us, but we didn't quite catch what it was said. It kept tilting his head down until he was looking at us upside down! "Pretty bird..." This was a crazy monkey that they had locked away...I guess it was going to be put down for biting someone, but this animal store (McKee's Pet Store) said they would take care of it but could never let the public near it except behind a glass wall...sad huh? :(Madi riding a horse

This turkey seemed pretty upset the whole time we were there...I guess he doesn't like visitors, or maybe bright lights flashing in his face...OR maybe he knows that Thanksgiving is only 6 months away....??Avery and I were next to this Emu, and it kept leaning over and would get right in Avery's or my face. A few times it came so close that I was afraid of it biting us, so I would scream and and then jump back ...Ryan thought it was pretty humorous for some reason...He always gets a good laugh from my fear of stuff... lol.Once it was time to go, it was hard to get Madi to leave the animals. We had to tell her that it was time to go home and eat lunch and then nap time. We told her that is was time for the animals to eat lunch and take a nap too...she eventually understood, but was sad to leave. We will have to visit again soon...sorry so many pictures!

Sally the Horse

I love to take pictures, mostly pictures of my kids and I like to take videos clips of Madisen when she doesn’t know I am listening. It's so cute when she is playing with her animals and having a conversation with them or between them. Here’s a quick preview of Madi's conversations she has between her animals, “…I am going to bed. Night night. I love you! I love you too daddy…” She wanted a picture of her animals. These are her favorite animals and this small yellow horse is named Sally, and it is one of the first things Madi asks for when she gets up every morning!