"Yes. Yes Indeed."

Oh my goodness, kids say the funniest things...mostly when you're least expecting them to, which it probably why they sound so funny. Here is my funny kid saying story for the day...

So, for whatever reason (you know those days!) the girls were driving me batty today. Request, whine, whine, request, fight, whine, fight, whine, request, clean up mess, whine, clean up mess, request...you get the picture.

Ella seemed to not be feeling well and clung to my leg all morning while I was knee deep in a stew making project (and then shaking my head at myself for getting into a stew making project in the first place!) and trying to clean up the kitchen from breakfast.

Ava was FULL of it this morning. She is mostly a polite child, but this morning it was 'get me this', 'get me that,' 'I don't want this', 'I want that', to which I would redirect her and help her to come up with a more appropriate way of asking her mother for help on things (like "please'" and "may I"!)...but, after you do that, I don't know, 22 times or so, your patience starts to wear thin.

Needless to say, by lunch time my patience were shot! I was tired. I was counting down the minutes until nap time...the girls and mine! I had finally gotten Ella to bed and was about to take Ava upstairs when she says, "Mommy, I'm stilllllll hungry" in her whiniest voice.

ACK!

 I swear to you Scott and I go through this every day. The child, I swear, eats all day long. All she must think about is food. I kid you not, we had just finished lunch not 23 minutes prior to this moment. She ate a full bowl of noodles, tomatoes, carrots and hummus and then both the girls had jello (a treat!). Prior to that she had snacked on graham crackers and almonds in the car while we ran a couple of errands. Obviously we need to try to get her to eat more at meals...but that is besides the point right now!

"The kitchen is closed Ava...you JUST ate!"
"But mommmyyy, I'm stillllllll hungry."

I mean seriously, when your talkin' to a momma that hates to be hungry...

"Fine Ava. You can have peanut butter and jelly, but that's it!"

(Patience pretty much shot at this point...not so much about the food...just the whole morning).

While she is eating her sandwich at the counter I pour some vita-water for myself...

"Can I have some?" she asks.

Yes. Yes, of course she wants some.

"Yes, honey. Of course you can."

I go to take my vitamins out of the cupboard.

"Mommy, I didn't have my vitamins this morning. Can you get me my vitamins?"

I don't know why this was the tipping point...but it was...

"Ava Katherine! You have been asking me questions all morning! I love you a whole lot but NO! You cannot have vitamins right now. I am not opening one more cupboard. I am not getting out ONE MORE THING! Please eat your sandwich and then we're taking a nap!"

I look at her with wide eyes and then smile with a sarcastic smile so that she knows that I'm frustrated but  not in an angry way (I didn't want to make her feel bad, I was just TIRED!).

"Mommy," she says in a slightly smaller sheepish voice. "What lot of questions have I been asking all morning?"

"Ava! You've been asking for sandwiches, and blankets and to watch Little Bear, and for lunch and snacks and jello, and to turn the t.v. louder, and then for peanut butter and jelly and water and now for your vitamins!"

(Here comes the funny part....)

She looks at me with a grin on her face...pauses for the longest moment (I'm feeling a little bad for making her feel bad and anticipating what she might say).

"Yes. Yes INDEED. That is lots of questions!!" she says emphatically.

I just started laughing out loud. Maybe that doesn't sound funny to you, but I've never heard her say such a thing before (the "yes, indeed" part) and the timing on it was impeccable!

Two minutes later...."Mommy, are you going to go straight to your bed and take a nap because I've been asking you lots of questions all morning?"

Oh dear child...you crack me up.

"Yes. Yes indeed I am Ava."

So, thank heaven for naps and for little people who say funny things. For the sunshine today and the coffee I'm drinking right now...and the pot I'm brewing because the cup I'm drinking was a packet of instant and it's just not cutting it! Thank heaven for all of those things...the things that keep you going on the days when you just want to sleep and have a housekeeper hired full-time, but you can't do either.