"I'm gonna kick your butt,"
"G-L-A-M...S-D-M-U-V-etc. etc."
& "Holy Gosh!"

Okay, I now know that there is something seriously different from having a three-year-old all by herself in the household or even in the household with a seven-year-old sister, than having one with eleven- and fifteen-year-old sisters.

When McKenna and Delaney were three-years-old, they were singing the "Barney" theme song and telling cute little stories about ponies and rainbows (or, something akin to that!)

But with Sydney things are a tad bit different...

Now, Sydney still loves to watch "The Wiggles" (alas, it's true!), sings "Jesus Loves Me" and tells cute little stories (usually involving penguins, or her super-powered family), but she also shows the tell-tale signs of living with a pre-teen and a teenager in the house.

Take the following two examples from yesterday as cases-in-point.

~ We were driving down the road, after eating at McDonald's, and Sydney was playing with her penguin toy from her Happy Meal when I heard "I'm gonna kick your butt." What did you say? I said, as I tried to stifle a laugh. (I seriously couldn't think of where she might have heard that, when I remembered an old rerun of Spongebob that had been on a few days before. A school bully kept telling Spongebob that he was gonna "kick his butt." And, I'm not kidding you, Sydney remembers EVERYTHING she hears, no matter how long ago it is. She has some sort of photogaphic memory!)

Anyway... I tell her over my shoulder, "We do not say that. It's ugly and I don't want to hear it again." Her response? "I didn't say it." My response? "I heard you say it, and I don't want to hear it again." And then her again: "I didn't say it. My penguin said it." She somehow convinced me that she didn't say the phrase, but her penguin did. She told me to tell the penguin not to say it again, so I'm driving down the road telling a Happy Meal toy: "Penguin, I don't want you to say that again. It's mean and we don't use that word."

~ I really don't know how it's happened, but Fergie (despite my protestations!) has become a favorite singer to just about all of us (well, except for Gary, who prefers country and an occasional Avril Lavigne; lol). I try and listen to contemporary Christian stuff, golden "oldies" (you know, from that glorious decade of the 80s), and I keep the Pop-40 as mild as possible when kids' ears are tuned in, BUT something about summer makes pop music more appealing (you know...driving down the road with the windows down, stuff like that!) and we're listening and singing along to grown people with names like Fergie, Akon, and Rhianna.

Well, I knew I was in serious trouble when Sydney started singing and spelling out "G-L-A-M-"... Am I a bad Mom or what? (But it's also kinda cute, because for the rest of the song she just starts adding random letters to it. "B-V-U-R-D-E-M-S.") I was most afraid that the Parenting Police would stop me when, at Walmart the other day, she was singing at the top of her lungs, "Champagne... champagne...champagne" in the same tune as in the "Glamorous" song. Dang it if she doesn't have that photgraphic memory and some musical ability to boot!

(and, yep, she can sing the song on my sidebar. ~ hangs my head in shame! ~ )

~ She just popped out with this one yesterday... "Holy Gosh!" I actually kinda like that one...it has a snappy ring to it!

So now, I'm going to...

Read Sydney some Bible stories and nursery rhymes,
put in a "Dora" dvd,
give her some goldfish crackers and a glass of milk,
have some serious cuddle time.

Anything to make her young again!!