All Things Ryanna

I figured I had better record some of the things coming out of her mouth lately before I forget. I was reading through a journal of mine a few months ago that was during the time when she was really little and it mentioned cute things she had said or done and I remember at the time thinking, "Oh, I'll never forget this. It's so cute." Apparently, I give myself too much credit--better to get it in the blogosphere.

• A month ago we were driving somewhere and she asked me, "Mom, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I told her that I thought I pretty much was grown-up and that I was doing exactly what I wanted to be doing--being a full-time mom to her and her brother. She replied, "I want to be a chef!" Guess which movie she'd been watching? Being the liberated woman & mother that I am, I told her that she could be anything she wanted to be--including a mom and a chef.


• She has been struggling with being honest lately. This is a rather startling discovery to me as she has always been such an honest child. Even when she knew what she had done was wrong, she'd fess up. Well, without any encouragement, she has become a...how do you say liar in a nice way? Not about everything, just anything she knows will get her in trouble. I found several of her toys with pen scribbles all over them last week. When I asked her about it, she told me she didn't know who had done it first, then she told me it was her friend who had been playing at our house the day before and after I further questioned, she mentioned a friend that was going to be coming to our house. The fact that she still hasn't figured out the time & day thing yet is helping me to be a better parent in this case. After all of those fibs, she finally confessed it was her. This took an ENTIRE day for her to do. She wasn't punished the whole day, I just kept bringing it up from time to time during the day asking her about it until the truth came out. Because she lied, I made her pick five toys she really liked that she would have to give away (which meant they were put in a box where she could not reach them). I told her the next time she lied to me, she would have to pick ten items to lose. Her dad, however, had a similar lying situation happen while he was home. Apparently the loss of items didn't bother her enough and he told her she'd get a spank. I have rarely spanked her and the last couple times I have, it was so softly, she didn't even feel it. Well, her dad gave her a bit more forceful spanking than that and I think it shocked her. She said, "Don't! That hurts!" She lied again the next day and freaked out about having to get her spanking. However, since then, she hasn't lied once. Last night's FHE was about being honest and she really had a lot to say.


• She has been trying to conjugate in the past tense a lot lately and saying the "ed" portion of the word twice or incorrectly. So, it comes out, "We wented to the store." or "I like-ed to do that." Maybe she's been reading too much Isaiah lately?


• We've also reached the point where I'm having to discuss social grace and politeness with her. We worked long and hard on interrupting people and she's much better than she used to be, but yesterday we went to her violin lesson and her teacher came out with a mug in her hand. Ryanna asked what she was drinking and her teacher replied, "Coffee." To which, after many lessons in church and from her parents on taboo items, replied, "Coffee?! YUCK! We don't drink coffee!" Of course her teacher was very gracious about it and said that little children shouldn't drink coffee. Later in the car, I had to talk to her about how other people don't believe the same things we believe and we should be polite to them about what they do because we don't want to hurt their feelings. She understood that one I believe. Such a tricky thing to teach your kids that certain things you believe are wrong--smoking & drinking coffee in particular, they are going to see other people doing all the time.

That's all I can recall at the moment. I'm sure there are other things I'm missing. She is such a sweet, little girl. She is such an amazing older sister and a great help to me. I'm so glad to have her around. Our children are such blessings in our lives.