Didn't I just say that?

I was telling my daughter something tonight for the millionth time and I realized that I repeat myself a lot in parenting. Here are some of my favorites *sigh*:

"Turn around, sit your BOTTOM on the chair, and eat." This to Mikayla, who has to constantly lay down, sit on the side of her chair, and twist in every other contortionist way while she's eating.

"What do you say?" to Tyler after he has repeatedly hit Mikayla with his imitation of a sword or stolen something she was playing with. Of course, I usually say this after he's had time out for the behaviour.

"Careful..." I say this to both children who insist that picking up the baby, jumping over objects larger than themselves, and playing tug-of-war with a jump rope in the house are things we do for fun.

"Ya, look at that..." to both children who have to involve me in every activity, sound, game, and food art. Usually I'm involved in doing something else...oh, like changing someones diaper, getting lunch, dinner or a snack, or just plain, *gasp*, doing something I enjoy doing while they play around me so it comes out less than enthusiastic. So far they haven't noticed.

"Tyler, do you need a spanking?" Notice I said, Tyler. It seems that, as of late, his excitement of the day is seeing how close he can get to a spanking by ironically not "listening" to my instructions. Oh, don't worry, he has seen the wooden spoon more than once for his behavior but I try the time out first. Usually works.

"Later." Wow, I say this way too much. What exactly is "later" to children? To mine, "later" means, "ask me in one more minute." I've got to come up with another word for my version of "whenever you're good and not asking me every 2 seconds."

"gUYs," said with that inflection. I can't call my kids "girls" and I can't call them "boys." I can only hope that Mikayla doesn't develop a complex from the more masculine calling card. Even while I was doing Lynnea's scrapbook, I put the word "siblings" in a lot. Who wants to write out Tyler and Mikayla all the time? Instead, I have to resort to a true "honors English" word.

"Did you dry your hands?" to Mikayla who thinks that washing your hands somehow doesn't involve a towel in any of the process. Usually the evidence pointing to this fact consists of droplets on the floor from the restroom or the observance of hands being wiped on the couch. Glad we haven't bought any new upholstered items.

"Can mommy sit here for a few minutes and finish my...?" Don't all of us moms want this?

"Where is the juice I gave you this morning?" Almost every time we get in the car, the kids have to have their juice. Almost every time we get home from where we went in the car, the juice gets left in the car. AND EVERY time I get home from wherever we went in the car I ask them to bring their juice into the house. When I have to ask where the juice is, guess who goes looking?? yours truly. It's getting to be a bitter subject so I'll leave it at that...

Well, now you have a taste of the Lee household every day. Do you ever feel like you use the same 100 words each day? I long for a stimulating conversation about anything other than what do you want for lunch or can you help mommy as I crawl on my hands and knees picking up all of the toys YOU left out in the living room...sorry...another source of mommy bitterness. All this to say, I wouldn't change it for the world but it does get a little repetitive.