It’s a scary thing as a parent when you hear yourself coming back to you in stereo. And boy, is it ever starting to. Whoever thought I would be a parent that had “sayings”… things I say to my kids enough for them to start mocking me. Lots of times, it’s cute things, like when Mylie says “‘Night mom, have a good sleep!” Or “See ya soon!” But, just a little too often, it’s smart-alecky things or other saying I had no idea I even said to her.

Lately, I’ve been working hard with her on trying to look for things herself, rather than breaking down and crying for me to find things for her (namely, her blankie). I’m always losing my own things, and spending too much of my time tracking those things down, in addition to having to track down the things she’s lost. So far, I’m not having much luck, even if I try to talk her through a search, step-by-step. Finally, I’ll say something like, “just look in the middle of the floor!” and she’ll get excited and say “Oh! There it is!” and apparently I say something like, “See, I told you!”

This was evidenced to me just now when she wanted me to find her “dancing mat” that goes along with a princess dance video she has. I really had no idea where it was, and I was trying to convince her she didn’t need it. She kept insisting that she did, in fact, NEED it, and that it was in her room. I had looked once, and had not seen it. Finally, she convinced me to look one more time, whereupon I found it in a box. When I brought it to her, she smiled coyly and said, “See, ah tooood jah.” When I pulled my jaw off the floor, I asked, “did you just say, ‘I told you?’” and she just smiled, said “yeah,” and returned to the dance video. At what point did my toddler become a cheeky teenager? Anyone?

We tried. We tried sooooo hard. But alas, it was a lost cause.

Last weekend when Nick’s family was here, the kids’ cousin was sick with a nasty cold. This was particularly concerning to us because 1) we have a newborn and 2) the kids and I were without medical insurance until the 1st of February (ahh! Scary!). So, we did our very best to at least keep Nolan out of germ’s way. We asked that everyone sanitize their hands before they touched him, and we managed to keep his toddler cousin at a pretty wide berth (not an easy task!).

But, it was even harder to keep Mylie away, and I pretty much wrote it off that Mylie would get the cold. And she did. But so did Nick and I (see previous post). So we’ve all had nasty colds since about Tuesday, though Nolan seemed to have escaped the plague.

But, alas, it was not to be. Funny how Mylie, who is a great big sister, takes an increased interest into putting her face right into his and touching him all over as soon as she gets sick. But I really can’t hold her responsible. The poor kid was probably doomed from the fact that I’d have to hold him to nurse, while my eyes and nose were running like a faucet. And then I’d sneeze… a lot. And though I always made sure to have Kleenex on hand, it was hard to jump up and wash my hands in between the sneeze and having to touch him.

So, Nolan, being the winter baby that he is, got his first cold at 7 weeks. Darn. It’s so sad to see his little red eyes, and hear him trying to breathe through his little stuffed nose. Not to mention the toll it takes on his night-time routine. Doh! Just when we were starting to see a light at the end of that “sleeping through the night” tunnel. Here’s hoping we don’t have another one of these for awhile!