I am NOT Speckled!

Be Careful what you say as it will definitely come back to haunt you one way or another.
Last Tuesday (January 5th) Makenna decided to repeat things that either I’ve said or her father has said.

The first was while we were visiting my grandmother, (her great-grandmother,) Theresa G. We came just prior to her dinner and the nursing home is now puréeing her food. The meal was hamburger – but for her, it looked like cat puke! My grandmother even turned up her nose and made a funny face. She doesn’t have much of an appetite not sure if it’s because of how they are giving it to her, or her age…as she turns 100 tomorrow!!!!. While we were there, Makenna was saying to her, “You’ve got to try it grandma, just one bite, come-one, try it.” That was the first thing I heard that sounded a lot like what Chris says to her, and occasionally me.

I decided to let grandma try to eat and took Makenna for a brief walk. As usual, she ran right for the fish tank, but she ran right past it. I was calling her back trying to tell her that it was back where I was. Her reply…”No mom, come-on, let’s go! Are you coming?” “You’re not?” “Okay, see-you then.” Then she started to walk away. This had me laughing. I don’t know how many times I’ve threatened to leave without her as a way to get her to move and go. She’s never, as of yet, said, “Okay leave, I don’t care,” and I’m sure soon that day will come. This is the first time she’s used it back on me though and it had me quite amused.

A little while later, we were in the car to go pick up Chris and as we were driving I was muttering about another driver under my breath, as usual, and Makenna decided that the car needed a “count-down.” She told the car to move or she was going to count to three, “One, two, alright car, if I get to three, you’re in trouble.” This again had me chuckling. This is something she picked up from Chris. I don’t do the whole counting thing, or I should say, I didn’t start it, but I may use it occasionally. She’s used this count down method on a couple more occasions since then.

She also started swim lessons again but now on Saturdays. She was a bit hesitant to jump in as she fell at pre-school a couple of weeks ago while swimming. I’m not sure if she fell getting up, or getting down into the pool, or jumping in. She had quite a bruise on her cheek and eye but it has now faded. I was just grateful it wasn’t something more serious.

She also started Sunbeams two weeks ago (a class at church for 3 year olds). I took her down there and she did not want to go in. I didn’t have the time to explain to her why she had to go instead of going into nursery where she could play with toys as I had to teach. When I was done teaching I went into the nursery, got her back out and took her to class. She was upset when she found out they got to make snowflakes. I took her to the last hour and stayed with her. She did okay. This past week I had my mom go down with her to “opening exercises” – this is what she balks at. I asked my mom later how it went and she said, “Oh My Gosh!” She got to see Makenna’s stubbornness. She said Makenna was literally screaming and did not want to go in. When the kids broke up into their classes, she was fine and went right into her class. I checked on her the last hour when all the kids get back together again and she was fine. Hopefully we won’t have such a display next week. I asked my mom if I was like that as a child and she said, “No!” She feels Makenna got her, my mom’s, stubbornness, and strong will. She said she felt it skipped a generation. I told her that Chris would beg to differ.

There was also a day a week or so ago, when Chris was in the back seat with Makenna and they were arguing like kids. He was then telling her that she was being disrespectful. She replied, "I'm NOT speckled!" This argument went on as he was then trying to correct her grammar of the word and she kept insisting she wasn't speckled. I have to say it's nice to not have Chris in the back seat as a back seat driver and longer and as another child arguing. I thought I'd have to pull over a couple of times to stop them from arguing and picking on each other.

On another note, Chris is on his quest of turning her into a geek. He lets her play his on-line computer game. She gets to press a button on the keyboard and he has it do actions. She really enjoys this. She asks to have the character go over bridges, swim, and run down ramps. His master plan is to have her be a geek like he was so that she won’t date until she’s out of college. As nice as that sounds I don’t know how well that’s going to work.

I just hope this stubbornness, and strong will translates into getting ahead in the world and fighting for what she wants…and not against me or her dad. I’m not sure if she’s going to be a “geek” per se but it would be nice if she didn’t date until she was out of college, and look how well Chris did right? Okay stop chuckling.