Ford is adding a MyKey system to their 2010 cars. It’s a separate key that is assigned to your car specifically for your teenage driver(s).

The key limits the car’s top speed to 80 mph (although I don’t know why any teenager needs to be driving that fast.)

The key limits audio volume to 44% of the stereo’s ability.

The key gives a more persistent seatbelt warning (it beeps obnoxiously until a seatbelt is put on).

The key also chimes at 45, 55, & 65 mph.

Personally, I think this is a great idea for teenage drivers. It would also be nice if it was able to somehow block cell phone use while driving. I just wish it wasn’t an optional package for new car buyers. I think this should be standard on all cars. I also think OnStar should be a standard safety feature but I doubt that will happen.

Lexi woke up at 10 this morning. And that’s never a good sign. That usually means a sick day is upon us. Sure enough, I went into her room and she had thrown up. Here’s how our conversation went:

Me: Did you throw up?

L: Yeah. I froed up on my jammas and my bed. Can you get me my bucket. I’m supposed to fro up in my bucket.

Me: Let’s get you cleaned up.

L: Then I need to go downstairs and watch T.V. in my chair with my towel and I’ll fall asleep in my chair. I want to watch the Jonah movie and then the Muppet Show.

Me: uh…okay. Good to see you have a plan.

So, the reason for our trip to Target. Tomorrow Lexi is getting potty trained and we needed supplies. I read a book called Potty Train Your Child in One Day. And I’ve also had quite a few people recommend this method. At this point, I’m willing to try anything

We went to Target to get supplies for tomorrow’s “potty party”. Yup, we’re having a potty party. It’s Elmo themed. The basic concept behind the book is that your child wakes up to a party at their house. They get a present which is a new “big kid” doll. And the doll wears big kid underwear. Preferably underwear that matches the big kid underwear they will be receiving later in the day. You spend the morning having your child “potty train” the doll. So, yes, the doll has to sit on the toilet, sometimes has accidents, gets rewards for staying dry - the whole bit. Then after lunch/nap your child gets big kid underwear and it’s her turn to sort of practiced what she preached all morning long. On top of that, you feed them juice and water and fruit and smoothies and anything else that will make them need to pee more than normal so they can have more success at it. At the end of the day, they get a big reward and you repeat the process the next day with less fanfare. (No party, but still little rewards here and there).

Oh and Lexi’s party is Elmo themed because a) I can draw a semi-decent Elmo b) she’s in love with her Elmo underwear that she picked out and c) I had some random Elmo fabric that I can make “big kid” underwear for her doll. That and her little toilet seat ring to make the hole smaller has Elmo all over it.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

“So…” She says this at the start of a sentence, often with her hands on her hips.
“Packanoni” Her word for pepperoni.
“He’s got new rain brother, in His hand” translation: He’s got you and me brother, in His hand.
“Ee-oh-pee-opah” translation Ethiopia
While at Underwater World “Look! It’s a zone, zone, zone” This took a while to figure out. Her favorite movie is Finding Nemo and Mr. Ray (the sting ray) sings “oh, let’s name the zone, the zone… and she’s decided that sting rays are called zone, zone, zones
Another Nemo, she retells part of a joke in the movie that starts “so there was a mullusk and a sea cucumber” and then at some point they finish with “with fronds like these, who needs anenimeas?” Lexi will randomly say “a mawwusk and a sea cumber fronds like these who needs ananemies?”
“Really?” We’ll tell her the name for something or what we’re doing and she’ll give us a very incredulious/disapproving, “really?!”
ex:
Us: Lexi, that’s a school bus.
Lexi: A school bus? Really?
She has started calling Kevin and I by our first names and shorting Kevin to Kev.
“PPL” translation peanutbutter
If you ask her what a sea turtle says she will answer with “Dude, totally, sweet” (another Nemo reference).
“Salts and Peppers” is salt and pepper.
She’s a big fan of the letter “w” and points it out all the time.
She calls band-aides “bandanas”
“Spacket” translation basket
For a while she was introducing herself to strangers as a 3 year old named Emily.
“I’m carefulling.” translation I’m being careful.

Those of you who know me and have been in public with me and Lexi know that I don’t worry too much about her running off. Okay, that sounds like she never runs off. Not true. The kid takes off like a rocket all the time. I just don’t worry about it too much because she’s so loud that I can find her no matter how far away she is.

These might come in handy. At first it seemed a little close to micro-chipping my kid, but then I realized that if Lexi ever were truly lost, she’d really have no way of telling anyone any information that would be of any help. And as a classroom teacher, these would be great on a field trip (as it is, we always put a piece of tape on the kids’ backs with the school name and our cell phone numbers and those have come in handy on a few occasions).

Here’s Lexi’s afternoon, from about 4:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

4:00 - 4:45 She stood at the kitchen sink playing with bubbles and water. And the kitchen rug, counter top and her shirt look like a tidal wave hit. Oh well. It’s just water. It’ll dry and tomorrow I was planning on washing the floor.

Before that she unloaded about half her toy baskets into her bed. No clue why but she was entertained, happy, and completely focused on something for over an hour.

4:45 - 6:00 We ate dinner. She tried to entertain the restaurant and then offered to cut everyone’s food.

6:00 - 6:30 Took a bath. Repeatedly put cups on her head and called herself a birthday cake.

6:30 - 7:00 Took all the couch cushins off the couch and piled them on the floor. Tried to get Mazie to sleep on the “bed” she built but Maize wasn’t having it.

7:00 - 7:30 She wanted to color. With markers. I gave her a box of markers and a huge piece of paper. She colored happily for about 30 minutes. She also got some on the table (on accident) and her hands are very rainbow colored but it all washes off (and she liked washing it all off too). Should’ve waited with the bath.

7:30 -7:45 Now she’s back at the sink again - more bubbles and water. My favorite part was when she set the cup with holes in the bottom on the counter and tried over and over to fill it up. Took her about 3 tries to realize there were holes in the bottom and water pouring on her feet.

7:45 - 8:00 Okay done with bubbles again. Now all the toys that are on the living room floor are going into her doll buggy because the baby wants them. Nevermind. There back on the floor again.

8:00 - 8:11 Went into her room packed up several little back-packs and bags with her toys (for the baby) and is back to piling them on top of the baby in the buggy. The baby has just been dumped on the floor because “the baby is crying and doesn’t want the toys”.

8:11 - 8:12 Pulling empty yogurt containers from the Tupperware drawer and filling them with water to feed the baby. (Which really means she almost dumped a cup full of water on her doll’s head.)

8:12 - 8:14 Back in her room. Came back out wearing 2 necklaces and a bracelet. And all her doll house furniture is shoved in a backpack that she is desperately trying to zip shut.

8:15 - 8:30 (This has not happened yet, just a prediction) Bedtime. I tell her it’s bedtime. She runs, yelling no and telling me she can’t because she’s “finishing.” I put her to bed and tomorrow the day starts all over again. (Which by the way, today started with her shouting over the baby monitor “Daddy! Hey Daddy! Come get me out of this bed now!)

And you wonder why parents of toddlers are tired.

Tonight’s activities included a haircut and baking cookies.

First we went to Kid’s Hair in Highland Park but they were booked for the rest of the evening. So we got back in the car and drove to the one in Roseville (after the nice lady at Highland called ahead and made us an appointment). We were the last customers of the evening. If you’ve never been to a Kid’s Hair, I’d recommend it. They only deal with kids’ hair (hence the name) and so the stylist can get the cut done in about 10 minutes and there are little T.V.’s at each station to keep the kids entertained. Lexi was a little freaked out because yesterday we mentioned to her she needed a haircut and Kevin made a comment about shaving her head like Daddy. To which she replied, “I don’t want to shave my head like Daddy.” When it was her turn she wasn’t too excited to sit in the chair but recovered when she got to watch cartoons - although she was more intrigued by the mirror than the television. We left with a happy kid, a cute haircut, a sticker and a sucker (which she didn’t understand how to eat or enjoy the taste of).

After the haircut adventure we made cookies which is always exciting. She was in charge of dumping the ingredients in the bowl. She would pour something in and then ask, “And now the choca-chips?” She asked after every ingredient. When the choca-chips were finally dumped in she picked them out and ate them as fast as she could.

And after the chocolate buzz she ran a few laps around her room, doing interesting jump-turns while I attempted to change her diaper and then crashed in bed.

So, I while back I started thinking about using cloth diapers for our new baby. Kevin wasn’t 100% on board with the idea. Start up costs are a little pricey and there are so many options, it wouldn’t be fun to buy one kind and discover you don’t like it, etc.

Anyway, my sister gave me all of her cloth diaper supplies so now we are all set to give cloth diapers a go.

I’m a free-range parent. I’m a big fan of letting kids become independent. I don’t like to hover over her. When we go shopping I don’t insist that she stay in a stroller or keep her on one of those kid leashes, she wanders around, picks things up, sometimes gets out of my sight and comes back when I ask her. I didn’t do too much baby-proofing. We put those locks on the cupboard and the little plugs in the outlets. There’s a baby-gate at the top of the basement stairs but it’s rarely closed.

I don’t panic about dirt and germs. When her nuk dropped on the floor, I just picked it up and gave it back. My kid is the one who spills her box of raisins on the floor and then sits down to pick them up and eat them

She climbs stairs by herself, without us watching and plays in the rooms that we aren’t in.

When she’s older she’ll get to stay home by herself. She’ll ride her bike to the park. She’ll take the bus to friends’ houses.

I’ll teach her about strangers and crossing the street safely. She’ll always wear a bike helmet and wear her seatbelt. But I think she’ll enjoy her life much more with out me hovering over her worrying about if she’s hot, cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, if the kids aren’t sharing, if people aren’t being nice, or that they didn’t get the toy they wanted.

Lexi is a big fan of our friend, Josh. Which is interesting because (including today) I think Lexi has seen Josh in person about 3 times. She’s seen lots of pictures of him and his family. And he’s made it to the top of her “people to pray for” list. At dinner we usually have to pray for our food and for Josh. It always goes something like this, “Dear God, Pray for Josh. Amen.”

Anyway, today we spent the day at their new house (Yay for friends moving back to Minnesota!) helping move boxes and put together IKEA bookshelves. Needless to say, Lexi was thrilled. She jabbered the whole way there about seeing Josh and Stephanie and Caleb. And while we were there, she would wander around, look for Josh and give us the play by play on what Josh was doing or where he was.

When we were eating dinner, Lexi decided that she should pray for Josh. Very thoughtful of her.

The ride home was also fun. Lexi sang the whole way. Mostly her version of ABC (it goes something like “ABC HIJ Sing with me QUST, WXYZ Now I know next triangle with me.”) But there was also the Wheels on the Bus/This Little Light of Mine/Bob, Larry & Mr. Nezzar/ABC medley.