tell me all the things...

So I believe it started the night we took the sippy cup out of the bedtime ritual. I said "You're big girl now who can sit in a big girl chair, help set the table, brush your teeth... You can do a lot of things now that you're a big girl and big girls don't need a sippy cup at night." Well now, months and months and months later Lea still says "Tell me all the things I can do," or for short "Tell me all my things." So we go through lists and lists of things Lea can do... Lea can say the abc's, sing the teapot song, help us unload dish washer, help Mommy make cupcakes, crack eggs, play hide and seek, and the list goes on and on. It changes from night to night with a few standards.

Then a few weeks ago Lea surprised me with the sleepy-time stalling technique of an insistent request to "Tell me all the things YOU can do." All the things I can do? ... well who knew there were things Mommy can do too. Some of the things Lea can do also... I always say "I can brush my teeth. Hey, you can do that too!"
So then after a few days of hearing what Mommy can do we started "Tell me all the things Daddy can do."
"Well... Daddy can Drive a truck, take out the trash" at which time the set dialouge seems to lead to Lea saying "lift heavy things." Yes, Daddy is our lifter of heavy things!

Once Lea learned that she can stall only so long with Mommy and Daddy things we moved on to thing Grandma can do. Then tell me the things Becky can do, Teresa can do... well it was getting out of hand.

We've pared this stall technique down to a pretty regular part of bed time where we list 5 things each for just the three of us.
5 things Lea can do, 5 things Mommy can do, 5 things Daddy can do and when I thought Lea has pretty well covered all her bases, she surprised me once again with her latest: Tell me all the things WE can do. I assumed this meant things like brushing the teeth that we all do (since I highlight the things that us grownups do that Lea can do too). So we listed the things all 3 of us can do: Brush teeth, empty dishwasher, set the table, draw pictures and dance around.

I like listing our accomplishments nightly. Its almost as big of a pick-me- up to this 36- year-old as it is to a wee small 2-year-old! And I have to admit that I started saying as one of the things I can do is "Make curtains!" since they are hanging right there. That makes feel especially accomplished while telling all my things.


And now for an awkward transition to videos that really have NOTHING to do with the "tell me all the things" story, but are cute:

One GREAT thing Daddy can do (and ONLY Daddy can do) is make Lea walk on the ceiling. This is ADORABLE!! I love when they do this, but as you can imagine its hard on Dan.


What can grandma do? Be a soft touch. When Lea is at Grandma's she gets ice cream every night. I think that's what grandmas are for right?


What can Lea do? Well Lea can throw like a champ. I guess she'll play softball in the summer olympics and hockey in the winter games! This is at Grandma's house feeding Mary the donkey. Very fun, here is a shot of Lea hurling the apple over the fence.

And a video of all of us out with the donkey.


And what can all 3 of us do? Drive a car. Well, Lea can pretend at least and she's pretty cute when she does it.