Big Girls

Hyrum wanted to make brownies tonight, so he told Talea she needed to go to the store and get some oil (we live 2 blocks from a store). Even after finding out that Hyrum wanted her to go to the store alone, she was willing, even excited, to go. He gave her 5 one dollar bills and instructed her to follow the sidewalk to the store, just like they had done the other day, and to ask someone who works there where the oil is, then to give her the money and come home with it.

Here's Hyrum explaining the directions, and Talea looking anxious to go. Okay, so I'm aware that my kitchen is a nightmare right now, but I've been going to work with Hyrum every day so I never get a chance to clean it up, plus I have a bag of Weston's clothes waiting on the floor for him, paint to put on the exterior to see if I like the colors, and all the junk that doesn't have a home so it finds a home on the counter next to the front door.


Okay, back to the story. I clarified to Talea that we needed vegetable oil, Hyrum reminded her to look both ways before crossing the roads, and she headed off. At first she wanted a flashlight because it was almost ready to get dark outside, but she went without one.

She got to the sidewalk then yelled back for directions to the store. Hyrum pointed in the right direction, then she set off. Of course we weren't going to let a 4 year-old go unaccompanied to the store, no matter how small the town, so Hyrum secretly followed her. He headed down the alley to cut her off, but when she got to the mortuary one block away from our house, she yelled out, "which way now?" He had to make his presence known then. He came out from the alley and told her to keep going straight, then pretended not to follow her. She made it to the doors of the store and went in and looked around for someone to direct her to the oil. She looked back at the doors and saw Hyrum, so she told him she didn't know who to ask. He told her to ask someone in a blue vest.

She approached the busiest girl who was checking people out, so Hyrum pointed her to someone else. She approached the clerk, who leaned down, and Talea asked her where the "broccoli oil" was. Okay, so broccoli is a vegetable, but not quite what we were looking for. Confused, the clerk asked "What?" to which Hyrum clarified with, "vegetable oil". She said "Aisle 7", so Hyrum pointed out to Talea how each aisle has a number over it, so she went to aisle 7 and found some oil. She found one that had a picture of vegetables on it, grabbed it, and headed toward the checkout. Hyrum swapped out what she had picked for a different brand that was on sale, but she did pick the correct kind of oil.


She took the oil to the cashier and bought it all by herself,


then she carried the oil in it's sack all the way home by herself,


and when she got home,



she proudly announced she had bought the oil by herself and carried it home. What a big girl she is now! I can't believe that my first baby's already grown so big and I'm about to have my 4th baby now!

After all this, it was bath time. If you've ever bathed Talea before, you'll know she hates to be washed. She especially hates having her hair washed. I washed Kiersa and Hyatt, but Talea had wanted to play longer, so I let her. Hyrum ended up going in to wash her, but she insisted on washing herself. I sometimes let her try to do it, but I normally wash her myself so I know a good job was done. This night, though, Hyrum let her do all the hair and body washing by herself, and he said she did a great job. Seriously, will time always fly by this fast? I don't know if I'm ready for her to be so independent!




Hyrum keeps telling her to stop growing up, and she told him the only way he'll be able to keep her from growing up is if he puts her in a box that is too small for her to grow in, so the next time she proved to be growing up, he stuck her in a cabinet box, and the next time he put her in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She thinks it's a hilarious game now, though Hyatt gets freaked out and rescues her 2 seconds after she's put in.

And just to prove to me that Talea isn't the only big girl now, Kiersa keeps proving to me every day that she's not a newborn anymore. She's been pulling herself up on her knees for the last few days,


and just yesterday she started pulling herself up to standing.


And then tonight she decided to do a lot of crawling instead of her usual army crawl! All of this means that the new baby will be arriving soon, and just when Kiersa is getting clingy and needy. Great! Hopefully she'll attach to Hyrum and be a Daddy's girl so she won't feel so jealous when the baby arrives.