Update on the older kids

Junior has it stuck in his head that he wants/needs a pet. Here is a recent conversation we had about it while I was getting ready for work:

J: Mommy, can you help me think of a pet I can have?
Me: A pet?
J: Yes, like a dog, or a cat, or an elephant.
Me: An elephant?
J: Yes, an elephant.
Me: Why do you want an elephant?

(All the while he is very serious with his answers and tells me like I am supposed to know these things!)

Junior: So it can water our grass with its trunk.
Me: How will he get the water in its trunk?
Junior: From the pool we build in our backyard.
Me: Junior, we don't have room in our backyard for a pool or let alone, an elephant.
Junior: Yes, we do!! Come see! (As he pulls me to look out the windows to our backyard, like I don't know how much room we have!)
Me: Well buddy, I'm sorry, but I don't think we have enough room for all of that.

I then go back to getting ready. Meanwhile, Junior convinces Daddy that they need to count his money in his piggy bank to see how much he has to buy a pet. Daddy and Junior count his money and then write it down on a piece of paper so according to Junior they can show the people at the pet store how much money he has to see if it's enough for an elephant. A few minutes before I leave Junior is so sure that he is going to get an elephant and I told Daddy that he couldn't let it go on anymore and tell him that he really actually couldn't have one. Junior was heartbroken! You could just see his little heart sink! So Daddy cheered him up by telling him that when Mommy leaves for work then they would go to the pet store and see what else was there to get. Daddy also told him that under no circumstances were they going to the store to buy a pet though without Mommy. He was satisfied with that and the next morning after I worked and had slept a little Junior came in to show me the list of potential animals. They were all reasonable and at the top of the list was a turtle. Daddy said they were on sale! We still don't have a pet and I thought he had forgotten about it. But this afternoon when Junior was asking me how many more days until we go to the Bahamas, I told him and then he said, "Oh, good and then when we get back we can get my pet!" Unbeknown to me, Daddy had told him that we couldn't get a pet until after our vacation because if we left then no one would be here to feed it. Well, there you go, he remembered. Daddy thought he would forget also!

Gaga has recently been telling me on the way home from the pool when we go swimming, "take nap get home. I lay down my bed." It is very odd coming from the girl who protests her naps all the other days! I guess the swimming is wearing her out. Her newest phrase, usually whenever I get off the phone is, "what you talking about Mommy?" Nana brought to my attention recently that Gaga is very independent. And I am just now realizing this. Everything she does if I try to help her she responds with, "myself, I do myself". She mostly says this with regards to going to the bathroom on the potty. She has started knowing when she needs to go and will tell me as she walks towards the bathroom. I will start to follow her and she wants me to "come out" (leave) because "I do myself". I am thinking she is really close to being potty trained! She hasn't pooped in her diaper in a week! Here's hoping for a quick transition!