Um, More Morgan Stories... Just Can't Stop!

Teaching Morgan the days of the week:

Emily: "Okay, Morgan, what comes after Sunday?"

Morgan: "Monday."

Emily: "And then?"

Morgan: "Tuesday."

Emily: "Right. And then Wednesday. And then?"

Morgan: "And then twenty."

Too much drilling of 123's and ABC's?


__________________________


Morgan: "Mom, are we going somewhere where they have lunch? Because if they do have lunch then we can get lunch. But if they don't have lunch, I'll have to share my snack with you."

YES! She is a thoughtful girl!

Overheard

I saw some spots on Morgan while she was in the bath. I asked her to show me if she had any other spots on her leg. (She didn't.) Instead, she pointed to her oval-shaped birth mark and said, "Mom, this isn't a dot. This is a bookmark."

_____________________________

Emily: "Morgan, get your coat on. We have to pick up Daddy from the train station."

Morgan: "Mom! I have blue hands! Like Cookie Monster!"

(You know those blue Color Wonder sheets that are only supposed to rub off with special markers? They also work with saliva and a little elbow grease from one fiesty 4 year old.)

We were not late to the train station, fortunately.

_____________________________

Morgan was talking to an imaginary child this morning in the bathroom. It went something like this:

"Now when Mommy tells you to hold hands in the street you hold hands in the street. Do you want lemon in your mouth? Now you won't do that again. Do you know what rhymes with wathtub? Bathtub! That's right. What rhymes with ploshcloth? Washcloth! Good job!"

Question: For the sake of recording these imaginary conversations for posterity, would I be infringing on any laws of privacy if I installed a video recorder in her bathroom? Just asking.

Meatloaf

This recipe is dedicated to all my domestic friends, esp. Pam, who wanted to know what to do with her extra ground beef.

American Meatloaf
By Marion Cunningham (aka "Fannie Farmer")
"The Supper Book"

T'aint pretty, but it's durn good.

2 T butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, chopped into round pieces 1/4" wide
3 celery stalks, chopped into "arc" pieces 1/4" wide
1 lb. ground beef
2 lbs. ground pork
3 cloves garlic
1.25 cups bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1.5 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
2/3 cup water


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in large skillet. Add onion, carrots and celery and stir until tender.

In a large bowl, combine meats, sautéed veggies and the rest of the ingredients.

Mix thoroughly with hands but do not squeeze into hard brick (like most loaves). Gently pat into oval shaped mound in a baking dish. This way it will stay moist and tender. Bake 45-50 minutes or until middle is no longer pink.

If you've been begging your best friend for a movie night, this meatloaf will have him/her knocking on your door every night.

If you've been nagging your mother to come visit, give her this loaf o' love and she'll move in next door.

or... if you've been pestering the hubby for, oh-I-don't-know, every item in Pottery Barn, then he'll still say you can't have it, but he'll at least let you look at the catalog. *ahem*

Point is: It's good.

Overheard

Lately, in an effort to get Morgan to realize how bitter words taste (words like "I don't like you!" or "NO, I WON'T!"), I've been giving her a taste of lemon. Timeouts and other discipline were not proving effective, but the lemon tastings cause her to pause and think.


This morning she was playing with a pretend wooden lemon. She must have been thinking about my new discipline methods when she said:
"Mom, lemons would taste a lot better if they had M&Ms in them."


_____________________________

This morning, Morgan started the day with theology that went something like this:
"Mom, Jesus can't be with us because he's helping other people right now. And that's why I told Jesus to be with Daddy."

Anyone want to tackle omnipresence with a 4 year old?

The Gift

When my daughter Morgan was born 4 years ago, my parents were recently separated. It was immensely difficult.

Subconsciously I had reasoned that my parents gave their all to their 5 children and left none for each other; that was why they separated. And subconsciously I refused to let Morgan get in the way of the health of my marriage.

It didn't occur to me that I had these feelings for my daughter- these feelings of anxiety- as if she were a marital time bomb waiting to explode in a decade or two. In fact, it didn't occur to me at all until one day, when asking a friend how to take care of an infant, I added, "I don't want her to come between me and Dan." Yikes. Did I really SAY that? Did I really FEEL that way?

I decided it was time for counseling. I was having a hard time allowing Morgan in my life. I went to a great counselor who had me do a very special homework project. She asked me to go and buy Morgan a gift. Better yet, she wanted me to take Morgan with me (she was 1-1/2 years old then) and have HER choose the gift.

I took Morgan to a store. She chose a ball with a smiley face on it. It cost less than a dollar. I tried to get her to choose something more flashy, but she insisted on the ball. What a weird homework assignment, I thought. But when I saw my daughter light up when she chased the green sphere around the store, something grinch-like melted away in me. I'm not sure what it was. I delighted in HER being delighted.

Fast forward to present day. I was at Meijer buying groceries. Since Morgan was at preschool, I had the opportunity to browse the toy section for Christmas gifts. I picked up a Fisher Price doctor set, imagining her responsible first-born nature taking care of her Daddy and her dollies. I picked up a few other things. Each one I chose with thought, being careful to not just buy something for a gift's sake. It has to be special.

This lesson is immensely spiritual to me. Fisher Price had no idea how important this act of buying gifts was for me. It was a sign of growth and love. It meant that I cared for her and wanted her to be delighted and provided for.

And then I remembered:
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!"
Matthew 7:11
The Bible

There's a New Cat in Town

Some claim that the little feline resembled Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Halloween Fun

There are a contingent of people who really dislike Halloween. I suppose the glorification of spooky and bloody things is rather disconcerting. There is another spirit of Halloween, however, that is immensely positive. Allow me to share:

Last night was a brisk evening around the mid-50s. And when I stepped outside, costume-clad and happy for a special occasion, the evening did not disappoint. A few trick-or-treaters trickled in at the posted 4pm hour, little ones mostly. Very cute. Between the visits of each giddy child, I enjoyed the music of geese above my head and marveled at the way they know how to fly in formation. Amazing.

My own daughter, dressed like a kitten but as ravenous for candy as a lion, partook in high pitched screams to the neighborhood: "I'M SO EXCITED! I'M SO EXCITED!" she shouted to everyone who would listen. The uninhibited excitement is something adults rarely disclose to other adults. I laughed at her pre-sugar enthusiasm.

When Dan arrived home, Morgan promptly attacked him with information about Halloween. He gobbled down his dinner and made haste for the neighborhood beg. They claim they had fun.

I really enjoyed seeing the families of the neighborhood walking leisurely around the block, laughing and taking photos of their silly, cute and scary children. I anticipate that I won't see them much for the next 6 chilly months, so I welcomed the opportunity.

By 6:30, we had to turn off the front lights. We had given candy to 152 trick or treaters. I counted. (See list above.) We were plum out of candy. We all came inside with pink cheeks and full hearts. What a great night.