I can't believe the things she remembers

This morning my mom called to chat with Violet and say hi. Violet was very excited to talk to her. She isn't all that great with flowing conversation yet on the phone, but she's getting there. At random times during the phone call she would just say "bye!" But the first thing she asked my mom was if there was still a telephone in that bedroom upstairs. Ok, so MONTHS ago, she slept in that room and was awakened by the phone ringing. It scared her something silly - so much so that she is very concerned about the phone by our bed every single morning. She asks if it rang every morning. Just last week on Sunday as she headed off to Puggles, I told her to be a good girl and listen to her teachers and obey them. She said "Okay mom. I won't push Vada and I won't throw toys at Evan." Yeah...so that happened sometime in September, or August? I can't even remember. She has barely mentioned it since, and last night pulled it out of nowhere. Calvin is changing a lot too. He usually is happy to just walk everywhere very quickly. As soon as we get home from anywhere, I set him on the floor and the first thing he darts for is the staircase. He just loves climbing stairs. We have to make sure the gate is in place before we leave somewhere. He also has a very healthy appetite. He ate a huge bowl of oatmeal with a whole banana mixed in for breakfast, and for lunch he had a bowl of applesauce and half a grilled cheese sandwich. He even got two little teeny bites of chocolate brownie. He needs the paci to sleep. When he gets the sight of his bed if he's tired, he's practically lunging as hard as he can from my grip to grab his paci and his favorite shiney blue blanket and as soon as I set him in bed, he's humming and already sleeping by the time I go to close the door. He just snuggles right in and I cover him up with another blanket so he's warm and cozy to sleep. I put both kids down at 1 pm and Violet just woke up at 2:44 pm and he's still sleeping - I love it when they nap together. This morning I didn't even check the TV or the news (I know, dumb me, I should have learned my lesson the first time) to see if school was cancelled. I rushed to get the kids fed and dressed by 8:45 am this morning, loaded them in the car, took off, and as I drove up to the parking lot, nobody was in it. I thought "no way! The sun is up, the roads are clear, whats up?" I called my friend Trisha and asked her what was up. She said the busses are down and won't start, that is why they cancelled. Ughh...so I almost turned around to go home, but Violet started crying and freaking out that we were turning around. She was so excited to see "the two Kathys" (both child care workers who watch the kids while we work out are named Kathy) and was very disappointed that class was cancelled. I decided to make a run to Aldi for some basic stuff...eggs. milk, and some other ingredients I needed to make something for tonight. Violet was so cheerful in the store. There is no music that plays at that store, so it was weirdly quiet while I shopped. Calvin is always happy to sit in the shopping cart, twist his body to look forward, and just sit there calmly while I shop - its nice. Violet walked with me, telling everybody she saw "hi!" and then she would ask "what is your name?" and "what are you looking for?" Last night at small group, all the adults were upstairs at the Wilson's house talking about the study that we're currently doing. Violet had random times when she needed to come upstairs and sit in my lap for a few seconds and then she would get down and go off to play. Well, there was a quiet moment upstairs while Gary was talking about something. She was on her way off my lap and heard Gary talking, then she noticed he stopped talking. She looked up, and said "Amen!" and everybody just laughed. She thought he was praying and stopped! haa!! It was too funny. I don't know what she thought of everybody laughing, but she got up and went off to play like nothing happened. We tried calling her friend Ivy this morning to sing her Happy Birthday but didn't get through yet. She said as we tried dialing the number "oh! Did she open her present yet? shh!!! Its a secret! Don't tell her what it is!!"