Growing up...

It's so amazing to me to watch my children learn and grow. They literally change every day! Whether it be learning something new, or developing a new facial expression, whatever!
This past week Val decided to teach Aleece the song "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". He sang the whole song to her, with Aleece asking after each verse, "Why?" It's a pretty reasonable question, I don't know why someone would swallow any of those things. When the song was complete, instead of Aleece asking us to sing it again, or commenting on how much she liked it, she replied "What a wierdo." It then dawned on me, that my first born is now much more grown up than I maybe want her to be! When your kids are young you can protect them from just about anything, but the older they get, the more they understand about the world in general and it gets much harder to shield them from the daily woes of life. But I know that it is a part of life, and I smile everyday at the new things Aleece has learned or realized! She also has learned the concept of knock knock jokes. Val thought he could fool her with the old "why did the chicken cross the road?" joke, but Aleece responded with the right answer so quickly, Val was downright shocked! I don't think he realized our babies were growing up so quickly either!!! Madelaine is learning a bit of sassiness from her big sister. I've determined we have used the counting method much to often, because now when I start to count three, I can only get out one, before Madelaine chimes in with "two". I have to admit, it makes me laugh every time. I'm not very good at being the tough parent. It's always been one of my challenges. It's just so hard to try and keep a straight face half of the time when I am trying to use a little discipline! I just love my kids so darn much!