Overheard....

Our kids just make us giggle sometimes. Ella usually says things to us that are funny and we just overhear Audrey talking to herself or Ella that cracks us up.

A few weeks ago some friends came over to watch a BYU game. Ella, Audrey and their son Blake were playing soccer. They would kick the ball between the legs of a table and everytime it went by the table they would yell, "I scored!!!". As our friends were leaving the girls were giving out hugs to the boys. When Blake gave Ella a hug she turned and told me "I scored!" (Then got mad as I laughed)

Today we went to our neighbor's birthday party. They go all out for birthdays around here and had rented a blow up "jump house/slide". Ella wasn't the biggest fan (not shocking) and I only was able to get her to go down once. Audrey on the other hand had no fear and went down for literally an hour or more. The bottom of the slide could get pretty backed up and kids started to pile up or bump into each other. As Audrey would get to the top she would yell down "Look out beloooooooooooooooooooooooow". Also at the party, they have a huge playset. There were like 3 or 4 ways to climb up and then at the top a large platform that had play binoculars attached to the side and a ship wheel. It became the girls boat. Tom and I were chatting with some of the neighbors as we heard Audrey's voice saying things like "Aye Aye Matey" "Oh I see the treasure" and of course everything ended with "arrrrrggghhhh". I can't believe the imagination she is getting.

I can't believe how fast the girls are growing. They are really thriving at preschool. They love love love going. Ella has made a lot of new friends. One in particular named Alexandria who loves to play "dog family" with her. They go around being dogs most of class. I love those precious moments right after picking them up from school and hearing about their day. I try to give them my undivided attention for that time right after school. One of my very favorite things about their Preschool is that the school has a music program. It is a seperate teacher in a seperate room and they go for about 30 mins. The girls come home singing all day. They learn the same songs which makes it nice. With Ella's amazing memory she has learned her left and her right by learning the Hokey Pokey. (I still struggle with L vs R, she is putting me to shame and it just took a song!) They have also learned "She'll be going round the Mountain" and "Row your boat". Audrey was very excited the other day about learning Row your boat. Here is her version: Row Row Row your boat gently down the stream. Mary Mary Mary Mary gently down the stream.

Earlier this week I had to take Audrey in for a sleep study. She has never been a good sleeper and I always chalked it up to all the ear infections she had from just a couple months old until just a few months ago with her latest set of tubes. She still has sleeping issues though waking up at least once, sometimes several times a night. She also tends to wake up and feels like she is shaking or she can't be calmed. There have been times that I think she is having night terrors and doesn't recognize us for several moments. So we were referred to a Nurologist/Sleep Specialist who focuses on Pediatrics. She sent us to have a sleep study with an EEG done. I was pretty much dreading it. I figured Audrey was going to have a fit about being connected to wires all night. The toughest part of the night was seperating Ella and Audrey (only one person could go with her for the sleep study at the hospital). Both girls cried for quite awhile about being seperated from each other. We got to the hospital's sleep center and Audrey was great about letting her nurse Carmine hook up the wires. There are about 35 different wires they connect with this think gel all through her hair, around her face (which is where I thought she would get irrated and pull them out but she didn't), and then her chest and legs. As Carmine was hooking her up, I was explaining what they were doing and why. I explained that we wanted to look in her head and see if we could find out what was in there. She told me "mom, there are monkeys in my head". Naturally, of course that is what is in there. So I asked "Nice monkeys or are they fighting monkeys". They are fighting monkeys except when they are nice. I think Audrey made Carmine's week. She told me in all seriousness that Audrey was the best patient she ever had. She didn't cry once for her even when she was disconnecting all the wires which can pull your hair quite a bit. She said most teenagers complain and even adults can end up tearing up. But not my girl. She was just concerned about the monkeys. Did I mention she has quite the imagination? (And we don't have the results yet, we will update when we do)
*** A little background on the monkey comment. When Audrey had all her ear infections we ended up going straight to the ENT most the time. To get kids attention he would whistle these bird chirping sounds and tell the girls that he was looking for birds in their ears. So if they had an earache we would ask if they had birds in their ears. Then a few weeks ago Audrey was losing her voice and Tom said it sounded like she had a frog in her throat. She said "It isn't a frog, it was an alligator" once it was a doggie. So with birds in her ears, and either frogs, alligators or doggies in her throat, it is not a stretch that she has monkeys in her head.