Inara the big sister and other funny stories

Inara is so excited to be a big sister. She's started sharing our news with friends before I get a chance. One day when I picked her up from school, her teachers came running over and told me Inara shared some good news with them today. At first I was worried...what embarrassing story would she be sharing now? The teachers then told me Inara was so excited to tell them that she was going to be a big sister and that mommy had a baby "budder" (brother) in her tummy. I couldn't stop smiling. Yes, we were having a baby, but we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet. Both teachers gave me hugs and congratulated me and Inara. They agreed that Inara's going to be the best big sister.

At first, Inara kept saying she wanted a baby brother, but the past few weeks she is adamant that we are having a baby sister. I love talking with her about names for the baby. When she wanted a baby brother, she said we would name him Clifford. Sorry, but I'm gonna have to veto that one. I asked if we could name baby brother Wyatt. She looked confused and said, "But Mommy, Wyatt is in my class." Yes, she does have a classmate named Wyatt. Boo! Now I've got Shawn and Inara vetoing my name choices. When I would ask her about baby sister names, she always said we should call baby Mulan. This cracks me up because Inara's never seen the Disney movie Mulan nor does she have any Mulan toys, so how in the world does she know who Mulan is? That Disney brainwashing is amazing! Now all she ever talks about is her baby sister named Sissy. No matter what we name a baby girl, I have a feeling Inara will call her Sissy, which I think is quite cute.

Inara asks about baby all the time and loves talking and reading to my belly already, which can be a bad thing when we're out in public and she asks if she can talk to baby and starts to pull up my shirt. No need to be flashing the big belly to everyone, sweet pea. She's going to be the best big sister in the world! Although one day she told me, "I be Mommy #1 and you be Mommy #2." Brings me back to when Michael was born and how excited I was to be mommy's little helper with baby brother. Soon after we told her she was going to be a big sister, she laid a blanket down on the floor by her bed one night. When I asked her what she was doing, she said that baby could lay on it when she crawled into her room. She's already so concerned about baby's comfort. It's so adorable to see her brain working when asking about baby related things. She asked one day if she was in my tummy when she was "zero." I explained to her that yes, she was in my tummy growing before she was born just like our new baby is. She pondered for a sec and then asked, "Mommy, did I have toys when I was in your tummy?" Uh, no, sweet pea, but that's a great question. Had me chuckling for days.

One night at bedtime she asked where baby was going to sleep. Shawn and I explained that we would move her bed into baby's room and make it back into a crib and she would get a new bed to which she replied "yippee" and started jumping up and down in her bed. We did do some "window shopping" for a new bed for her one night. It was so darn cute watching her walk around the furniture store, feeling the softness of the mattresses, trying some of them out, and telling us which ones she liked. Shawn and I have had some disagreements about what kind of bed to get her. He said we should get her a double so we don't have to get one for her down the road when she's a teenager. I told him I don't want her in such a big bed yet...she's only 3! Plus, who said a teenager needs a double? I had a twin until I moved out, so she can have a twin til she goes to college too. Someone suggested that I tell Shawn that Inara definitely needs a double for when her boyfriend wants to spend the night...that should change his mind real quick.

Besides baby-related stories, Inara has many hilarious quotes and antics every day. I took her for her first dentist visit about a month ago. We've read the Dora book about going to the dentist and talked about what a dentist does to get her ready for her first visit. When we arrived at the office, she was in great spirits. The dental hygienist come out to the lobby to say hello and introduce herself: "Hi, my name is Erin." Inara got a big smile and said, "Just like my auntie Erin." I thought yes, this is going to be a piece of cake. She then held Erin's hand and walked back to the exam room. Then everything took a turn for the worse. Inara sat in the big chair but was speechless and looked frightened. I finally sat in the chair with her and had Inara sit on my lap. She refused to open her mouth for Erin to look at her teeth. Dr. Twiss came in and introduced himself. Inara barely cracked open her mouth for him to look inside. He said he doesn't like forcing kids to get examined. The first step is just getting them into the office and familiar with the setting. We'd try again in six months. Both of them said that she actually did pretty good considering that she didn't scream and cry like many kids do on their first visit. No, instead, she just sat there tight lipped refusing to open her mouth. My daughter's not stubborn is she? The real fit came when we got to the car and she asked if we were going to get Yogurtland now. I explained that she was only going to get yogurt if she did good at the dentist and she didn't let the dentist look at her teeth and clean them, so sorry, no Yogurtland. She screamed and cried. We called Shawn to tell him what happened. Again, I told him he needs to take her to her doctor appointments from now on. They are too stressful for mommy.

I always make fun of the the Shawn-isms that Inara picks up. It's crazy to me just how much she is like Shawn. It's bad enough that she has to look just like Daddy and not Mommy, but she now even acts like him and even laughs like him. Why can't my baby girl be more like me? haha. So as long as I've known Shawn, he's always driven me crazy by saying "my dogs are barking" when he takes his shoes off. Don't know why that saying drives me crazy, but it does. Of course, now Inara says it when she takes her shoes off. One night I asked her if she wanted her shoes off. She cracked us up when she said, "Daddy's dogs are barking, but my kitties are barking." Guess I don't mind that she's made the saying her own now.

I'm always on her to not turn lots of lights on because I know that it annoys Shawn. I've got her to understand that we don't want to waste electricity because it makes Daddy mad. One day when she and I were shopping at Super Target, she says rather loudly, "Mommy, Super Target is wasting electricity. Look at all the lights." Love it, sweet pea! Love it!

I love when she tells me stories about things she and Shawn do together. I cracked me up when one day she started laughing telling me stories about Daddy and says, "Mommy, Daddy always kidding me." Yes, sweet pea, your Daddy is a big kidder isn't he? Then yesterday, she was playing with her big blanket and got the biggest smile on her face and says, "Mommy, I'm gonna burrito you." She then laid the blanket on the floor and instructed me to lay on it, so she could wrap me up in it like a burrito, a favorite Inara-Daddy game.

She always misses Daddy when he's at work. We taught her long ago that Daddy has to go to work to make money for her piggy bank. One day when she was whining for Daddy to come home, I reminded her why he had to work. She sadly said, "But Daddy always works but never gives me money for my piggy bank." I texted Shawn that day and told him, so when he came home that night, he greeted her with several shiny coins to put in her piggy bank. She was happy to see him that night.

Shawn and I are both known to check caller-id and get annoyed when we see it's a sales person calling. When she's playing, I've caught Inara playing with her phone, getting upset, and saying "Ugh! Sales people." Gotta be careful what we say around her at all times because we never know what's going to be repeated later on.

Quite awhile ago, when we were driving by some new houses that were being built by our house, Inara told me that Pop should buy one of those. I've joked with my parents about that for awhile. Then out of the blue recently, as we were driving by the completed houses, Inara says in a stern, serious voice, "Pop didn't buy one of those new houses yet." Sorry, sweetie, I don't think Pop and Nee Nee will be moving out here any time soon, but I still had to share this one for Pop's sake.

I love the 3's so far. Yes, she has her temper tantrums and what not, but overall, the 3s have been much more mild than I thought they would be. I know I'm jinxing myself, right? One of my favorite things about this age is her love of role playing and her imagination. She's all into making up new games and telling us the rules for new games. During the summer, she fell in love with Red Light, Green Light. I used to love playing this game too when I was little. However, Inara added a new twist to her version of the game. She started adding new colored lights to the game along with new activities to go along with those colors. So the game is now Red Light, Green Light, Pink Light, Purple Light, Yellow Light, Black Light to which she has added falling to the ground, walking backwards, hopping, and jumping in place. She is also becoming quite the little mommy while playing with her baby dolls. She often times has sick babies to tend to and has to take them to the doctor. She reads them books and rocks them to sleep. Yesterday, when we were playing dolls, she told me she was a mommy and I was a mommy, and we were going to MOPS. I love that she knows what MOPS is and that it's something important enough to add to her role playing. So cute!!!

She's also quite the independent child now and wants to do EVERYTHING "all by myself." She now gets herself undressed and dressed for the most part. (She struggles a lil with getting her shirt on.) She loves getting her shoes and socks on all by herself. She can go potty all on her own, but still needs Mommy and Daddy to help her when she goes poopy. She always wants to get in her carseat and buckle herself without any help. It's a constant all day long to hear her say, "That's ok, Mommy. I can do it all by myself." She's always reminding us that she's a big girl now and can do or not do certain things. One night at dinner I asked if she wanted a bite of my pizza with bell peppers and tomatoes, she said, "I can't eat that pizza until I'm 5 years old." One day when I picked her up from school, she said she didn't want me to pick her up because she wanted to go in the yellow school bus. I was so shocked. I told her she was still too little to ride on the bus. "But mommy, I'm not little. I'm 3 years old now." She's growing up way too fast. I want her to stay my little baby girl forever. She's simply the coolest, most adorable thing in the world.

The one skill that still shocks me every day is her reading books to us. It amazes me how many books she has memorized now and can read them to us, almost word for her. She LOVES reading us "Green Eggs and Ham" and Berenstein Bears' "Inside Outside Upside Down." She's always loved the Mercer Meyer Little Critter stories. I was completely in awe one day when she started reading me the Little Critter collection book, which has at least 7 of the stories in it. She has every one of those stories memorized!!! I am continuously surprised by how smart she is. The best thing about her reading to us is her inflection and tone. She has such personality when she reads. It's so cute! It makes Shawn and I crack up every time she reads to us.

There was one incident recently that I know she will be embarrassed about me sharing when she's older. I was cleaning her room and noticed there was a row of Kleenex stuffed behind her bed on the floor. I called her over and asked her what that was. She said she didn't know. I didn't do that Mommy. I then had to collect at least 20 Kleenex from the floor. As I was squeezed up against the wall to clean up the mess, I noticed something on the wall. Oh my goodness...dried boogers!!! Inara Grace!!! I couldn't understand if she had stuffed 20 Kleenex down the back of her bed, then why not use them to wipe her boogies. So gross!!! When Shawn got home that night, I had her tell Daddy what we found. He was grossed out too, but later admitted he was kinda relieved that she wiped them on the wall rather than eat them. Leave it to Shawn to come up with that justification.

I love the funny things she says every day. One day she floored me when we were pulling out of the garage and she told me to close the garage so a skunk doesn't get in. Where in the world she came up with that one I have no idea. I've always said she was a gassy girl, but it cracks me up when she starts farting and says, "Mommy, I've got lots of toots in my booty."

Lately, she's become obsessed with learning Spanish. I have Dora and Diego to thank for that. We can be driving around and she suddenly will start asking me how to say random things in Spanish. "How do you say bus in Spanish? How do you say street in Spanish? How do you say horse in Spanish?" If I don't know it, she says, "I know how to say it. It's cocosaymana." Again, I have no idea where she comes up with these made-up Spanish words, but it's so hilarious. It's also impressive because the Spanish words she makes up sound like they could be a legit Spanish word. Sometimes if I don't know how to say the word in Spanish, she will tell me to call Nee Nee and ask her, and we have done that quite a few times because she's adamant about knowing how to say it right then and there. She loves the Shrek 2 soundtrack. One of her favorite songs is "Livin' La Vida Loca." She oftentimes tells me, "When donkey says livin' la vida loca, that's Spanish." I swear she is the greatest daughter in the world and I tell her that every day. I'm so excited to be bringing another child into the family and can't wait to start our journey all over again and to expand the journey we've started with Inara. I can't say it enough...she's going to be the best big sister a sibling could ask for.