Another Manic Monday...

I have no idea why I am quoting music from my teenage years. It does feel like it's been one of those weird, thoughtful kind of days though. I keep thinking of things from a year ago, and how much progress we've made - and then in the next breath, how much further we have to go! Arg. Thankfully, God is not finished with me yet, much less little miss.

We had a great time at gymnastics. She's grown so much -we even saw a little bit of toddler bum on her hiney - she never used to have much butt. She's growing so much though - and she's STRONG. She had a great day though - and listened well, learned some new stuff. She actually did a handstand today - with the teacher's help of course. It's fun to watch that, although my heart jumps up into my throat each and every time she tries something new. She was also swinging back and forth on the rings today. Crazy stuff!! But she loves every minute of it.

She also helped with the laundry today. Normally, that just means a little extra work for me - but she loves to help, so we make it work. I get a big basket (which is actually a very small basket, but it works for Melanie) and she sorts socks and rolls tights. She thinks she's big stuff, and we get to talk and stuff in the process. It works for us.

She saw commercials today for the first time I think pretty much ever. We just hardly ever watch commercial tv with her around, and I think it's paid off for us - because she doesn't normally ask for things. But man - she was all over the commercials today. "Can I have that mermaid doll? Can I have a house like that? Can I... Can I... Can I?" I was dissapointed, and learned my lesson. We did have a nice talk about not getting and not wanting everything that you see - but that's so hard to learn as a three year old. Who am I kidding?! That's hard to learn as a 30-something year old, too!!

Anyway! Off to do another load of laundry - number 7 from today...I'm playing catchup!

Happy Thanksgiving - a day or two late...

Whew - it's been a little bit crazy here lately! We had a terrific Thanksgiving at Aunt Lori & Uncle Kevin's house - it was so fun to just relax with the family. Melanie was all dressed up in her party dress - picked out especially for Zac - and stayed in it all day,which I didn't think she'd do. I thought she'd end up changing clothes, but she was good. She even laid down for a bit, even though she didn't sleep. It worked out ok that way though, because then we were able to put her to bed pretty early Thursday night. She even slept in curlers the night before so that she could have "curly hairs" - and they stayed in pretty much all day. I think I've finally learned the special combo of stuff that she needs to let the curl stay in her hair without being all heavy and yucky. Live and learn!





Friday, she had a very special day. She and Doctor Miller went on a date for his birthday. He took her to see Happy Feet, and out to dinner at Macaroni Grill - her favorite! Man, she LOVED that! I was a little anxious about the entire thing - no one has ever come to pick her up and take her away before - but she didn't have a qualm at all. She was ever so patient trying to instruct him how to fasten the carseat, and all the other little details. They even did the bathroom thing ok - they worked out a system. It was adorable to see them together. Connie (Dr. Miller's wife) was so sweet to her as well. They're wonderful, and Melanie just thinks they rock :).

Today we have a somewhat relaxing day. I had a class this morning, but the rest of our evening should be restful. I also have a rehearsal this evening for the youth band, but that will be after Melanie goes to sleep. She'll be home chillin with daddy.

You Are My Sunshine

Here's a little preview of our daily lives. She is a rising star :)

We have had an interesting few days here. She has let her personality out or something...I'm not sure what is going on. She is curious, and very outspoken. And FUNNY!

We went to a Chinese restaurant the other day. I'm not sure if we haven't done that before, or if she is just more aware of her surroundings now. We walked in, and she asked, "Are we in China?!" Even after we had explained that we were not in China, she was asking about everything.

Well, when I went to the buffet to get her food for her, she and Brian stayed at the table. The waitress - who was obviously Chinese - came to the table to ask for drink orders. Melanie looked up at the girl, and asked in this hushed voice...."Are YOU Chinese?!"

I'm so glad I wasn't there....

The lady answered, "Yes, I am Chinese! Are YOU Chinese?"

Melanie looks at Brian and says..."I have no idea!"

Oh, brother. When Brian tried to explain to her that she is American, she thought that he told her that her name was Meredith. No matter how we explained it, it never really made a click there.

Faltimores & Such

We finally had a family day! Whoohooo! Brian has been working so many extra hours lately, which is good, but it's hard on our quality time. Sunday, I actually had a morning off, so we took a trip to Baltimore (aka - Faltimores - no matter how many times you tried to correct that). There is an awesome children's museum there called Port Discovery. They have a Clifford exibit right now, and I knew that she would dig that, as she adores Clifford and Emily Elizabeth. So off we went. Here she is with Clifford and Emily Elizabeth - that dog was HUGE! One of the pictures above is of her and Brian - and Brian is standing straight up to reach her up to Clifford's nose. She had a blast. They had the entire neighborhood there - all Clifford's friends' homes, and the stores, and the postoffice, etc. She got to deliver mail, and plant flowers, and sail a boat, and do a music show, and build sandcastles, and....well....needless to say - she did a LOT!

That took over 4 hours of our time. And we could have spent longer there! That is definetely a place that we'll go back to.

One of Melanie's current passions is Hide & Seek. We take turns hiding and counting, but unfortunetely, she always hides in the same place. Lying on the couch, with her head under the blanket. No matter how many times we hide, no matter where in the house we start from.

I think she thinks that if she can't see us, then we can't see her. I'll play along for a little while :)

Gymanstics today was really fun. Here are a few from today - we started the rings. (I say "we" like i had something to do with it - thank goodness, the mom's are not required to perform!!)

That's Melanie in the black. She's practicing how to start a cartwheel.



Here she is with her teacher trying the rings for the first time. She's strong. She'll do great.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Not our best day...

This picture pretty much says it all. She has been all attitude, sass and just plain ornery. We have had more trouble with disobedience today than in the past 4 weeks combined. It's really not a great day to blog happy thoughts.

I would like to say though, that even at her most disobedient, she is creative. And darn it if she's not still cute!

Sigh.

A Melanie list...

Today, I thought I'd share two things with you. One, a new song that Melanie wrote. And secondly, a list of questions that I've been hearling lately. One can never have enough wisdom.

First, the lyrics of the song, which was sung in my backseat on the way home from church last night.

Why Do I Have To?

by Melanie

Why do I have to be kind to my friends?

Why do I have to wipe my nose when it runs?

Why do I have to use a tissue when I pick my nose?

Why do I have to wipe the front hole and the back?

Why do I have to obey with a happy heart?

Why do I have to go to bed before the grownups?

Why do I have to be three?

I was trying so hard not to laugh. She was singing in this really high, little girl voice, and the "why do I have to" parts were always the same notes - it was like a real song, but no rhyming. Too funny.

Here are some of the questions I've been hearing in the past few days, just so you know what I am dealing with.

• Why doesn't all the "stuff" come out of one hole when I go potty?
• How do eyebrows know where to grow on your forehead?
• How come girls can't stand up to go potty? We are much more busy and in a hurry than the boys are, that just doesn't make sense!
• Why do we have to have 6 different "memotes" (remotes) to work just 1 tv?
• Why do the fingernails have to be cut? Why don't they just stay the same like real nails?
• Why can't we SEE the trees and grass growing when it rains?
• How does a body know where to grow the hair, and where not to grow the hair? What if it grows in a wrong place? Can it suck back in?
• Why does the mailman carry a purse?
• Why can't letters just make one sound instead of like fifty-two-hundred-nine?

There's a glimpse into the day in the life. I'd appreciate your prayers :)

Gotcha Day

Happy Gotcha Day! And what a full day it has been...lots of fun stuff to make memories with!

You know the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words?" This picture says it all.

We started the day by waking up at 5:45. Mom was not happy about this. At all. And little miss never did go back to sleep, even though she was sent back to bed. It was not the ideal setting for a warming family moment :)







We then went to gymnastics, and today was Bring a Friend Day. FUN STUFF! We took Kollin with us, and spoke on the way there about how Kollin was "counting on Melanie" to be his friend and show him around today. Both kids did so well. Here they are in their glory.

You can tell by looking at the picture - Kollin was so into this. Melanie was so NOT. Not gymnastics, specifically, but into the entire photo-with-her-cousin thing. She actually almost got into trouble, because she got really sassy. But finally, we got this one, where at least you can tell who they are. The other photos on the camera were poor at best, so we'll take this one without too many complaints.






Today, we really wanted to do something special for Melanie. We wanted to give her something commemorate this day, but didn't want it to be something too expensive, and we also wanted it to be symbolic and special. We researched and thought and talked and prayed, and finally decided to get her her first bible. We chose "My First Bible" - it has the entire scripture in it, as well as some "story book" sections, where they have pictures and a story-type reading. It also has some scripture memory parts, and lots of other things that we really liked.

Her comment when she opened the bible up was, "Wow!" I told her that a bible was God's special words to us, and that we must take very special care of it, and try to read it often so that we can learn about God. She said, "You have a special bible, right mom?" yup. "Dad has a special bible, right mom?" yup. "Now I have a special bible too! I'm really part of this fambily!" I had to do a lot of blinking on that one! I dont' think you ever really know what will get them. She did love getting that bible though. I thought she might be dissapointed because it wasn't a toy or something, but we never heard that at all, nor did she ask for anything else. I think God blessed that choice!

We also went to Chuck E. Cheese tonight, and celebrated with some of the families that prayed for us while we were picking Melanie up. I'm telling you, I think Chuck has some kid drugs or hypnotic music or something. She LOVES Chuck. She wanted to follow him (or she dressed as he) all night long. It was pretty funny, actually! We had a great time with our friends, and they prayed for and with us for Melanie tonight too.

I still can't believe it's been a year.

With a wink & a smile...

Well, here's the smile part. She is eating dinner, and told us that she had finally learned how to wink. Now, this is a big deal. She gets very upset at us for winking at her, because she can't do it. Do you think she's competitive? Anyway, here is the shot of the wink.






The wink is really more of a turn-the-head-to-the-side and close-both-eyes, but since you can only SEE one eye closed, it counts. And you have to do your mouth like this, she says. That's what makes it a winky face.

I learn so much from my daughter! I didn't know you had to hold your mouth like that for the winky face. I need to remember that!




Tomorrow is "Gotcha Day!" I can't believe that it's been a year already. Some days it feels like weeks, and other days I can't remember what it feels like before she came home. We're going to celebrate tomorrow, and I'll let you know how the party goes :)

I leave you with our local pirant, complete with spyglass. I really should scout the dollar stores and get a pirant costume for the dress up trunk. That way I don't have to save all these toilet paper tubes, or keep going trash diving in my own house.

Melanie the Swift

Well, I'm not sure what she's been drinking, even though she has to ask for everything that goes into her mouth. But today, she decided that she was Melanie the Swift. I asked her what "swift" means, and she said "weely, weely fast, Mom!"

At least she knows her vocab.

I'm pretty sure that the Melanie the Swift thing comes from The Backyardigans. One of the new episodes is "The Legend of the Volcano Sisters" - and Pablo is Pablo the Swift. She also was telling us stories - but they were all "The Legend of" such and such. She knows what she's talking about.

At gymnastics, they are learning how to do sit ups and push ups. To teach them muscle control, discipline, etc. Melanie is supposed to practice these at home. So, here are pictures of Daddy and Melanie "working out."














She loves it. We had to make her stop to get ready for bed. She is stronger than a 3 year old should be. Brian is really sore now, which is a little bit funny, I have to admit. He told Melanie that he'll have to start doing his pushups and situps so he can catch up with her.

I'll just take pictures!

Bathtime tonight was a hoot, too. She had a haircut, and we removed fingernail polish and trimmed her nails. She calls it "grooming" when you do all those things together. So now she has shorter everything. And she's "shiny" clean - but not sparkling, because I won't let her have the soap with the glitter. It's a weekly battle.

She told us when we got her into bed that her mouth was "waggly". We can not find a webster definition of waggly. Not sure exactly what that means, but we told her that waggly mouth or not, she is going to sleep.

An hour and a half later, she is still upstairs with her waggly mouth. And still not asleep.

Life with a 3 year old is not all fun and games.

But she sure is cute!!

Ahoy, Mighty! I'm a Pirant!

That's right. A Pirant. And no matter how many times we try to get her to call us "matey", we get "mighty" each and every time. She has been carrying around the same toilet paper tube for about 5 days now as her "spyglass".

Sometimes I wonder why I buy toys. She doesn't need them. We just need to sort thru the trash can every so often. There are tons of "buried treasures" in there.

Today we ate lunch at Panera Bread. (Tasty stuff there, by the way...but I can never decide what I want, so I always end up getting their "You Choose Two" option - works out better for me!) Anyway....I digress! We got our food, and Brian said, "Melanie - will you pray for us?" Normally at home, this means a nice quiet singing of "God Our Father" (sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping"), and then on we go to the eating of the food. Not so today. Today, my little angel folded her hands, closed her eyes, and belted out the song at the top of her not-so-little lungs. And I mean it was LOUD! You could have heard a pin drop in that restaurant...everyone got all quiet. And this isn't a little hole in the wall place - this is a nice, big, crowded restaurant. Brian and I sat there with our eyes wide open looking at each other - not sure whether to shush her, or to just go with the flow. We floated. What else can you do? But boy, it was hard not to laugh!!

We had pasta the other night, and I asked her if she wanted some parmesan. Her response:

"Who's a John?"

I almost spit drink out of my nose.

She's turning into quite the little card. She knows she's funny. She also knows she's sassy, although she's starting to show sincere remorse for things. Those moments are few and far between still. Age three is not as easy as I thought that it would be.

But she sure does look pretty cute in the hats, doesn't she?

We're only 4 days shy of having her for an entire year now. It doesn't seem possible. I can't really remember what life was like before she came home. It seems like she has always been ours. I guess she always has been, we just didn't know it yet...

Just Pictures....

Especially for the Grand Parental Units. I haven't done a lot of pictures recently....

Twick or Tweet

Well, we did it. Our first trick or treating night. I know it's funky - we trick or treat here on the Thursday before Halloween; I've never really thought of it before I guess - because we did it that way where I grew up in Ohio too. But my hubby says that it is weird. I think it's a saftey thing.

Anyway. I digress.

She went as a bunny. A white bunny with a pink tummy. Pink nose. Whiskers. And a little pink tale (which she says feels weird when she sits on it). I gotta tell ya, she was a cute bunny! I got her costume at a second hand children's store for less than $5. You GOTTA love that! Here she is in her glory.

Bri says that she even does the bunny teeth. I thought about painting teeth on her face, but she kept making that bunny face, anyway, so there was no need. I didn't have any pink lipstick, so I made face paint (the joy of the internet), and used an old eyeliner for the whiskers. The bucket is a princess bucket from Target; it opens up from the bottom so that you can safely sort thru the candy and pick out what you want after the kid goes to bed :) (Just kidding!) It is a saftey feature though. It worked for us.

She made out like a BANDIT! It's the cute face, I think. And she said "twick or tweet" so nicely, and thank you after each and every piece...and most people gave her HANDFULLS of candy. I'm gonna have to hide the stuff...it's a little sad.

Here she is rooting thru a candy bowl at Aunt Normie's house (thank you Normie & Mr. Normie's dad!) She got presents there too - and read her new book tonight with her daddy before she went to bed.


















Here's her haul. The bag on the floor, the bucket is full, and the pink bag in her left hand is full to overflowing.

We're going to need to go on a diet after this!!

Princess Lulee

Well, as I write, Princess Lulee's creator is upstairs crying. Our new monitor (which is, actually, a used monitor we got at the second hand store) is picking up every sigh and sniffle. Sometimes these things work too well, I think.

Anyway, here is the bedtime story I was told this evening. (Does anyone else see something a little backwards about that sentence?)

"Once upon a time, there was a princess named Lulee. She liked to go to sleep with her pet dragon, whose name was Homemadeish. Her mudder was bery grumpy, and she told Princess Luleee that she had to go to sleep right away, with no fussing! Princess Lulee was not bery happy. And they did not live happily ever after."

I'm seeing some similarities there, aren't you? I'm not sure where Homemadeish came from - I think because we were talking today about things being home made...I'm not sure. Actually, now that we're talking about it, I have no clue where Lulee came from either.

Melanie is definetely becoming a little story teller though. She narrates, and says "he said" and "she exclaimed" and things like "with a deep sigh" - and I'm not sure if she's getting it in books, or in the made up stories that Brian and I tell her. But it is definetely entertaining to listen to her tell stories. They're a lot better than mine!

Today we were on the way to a friend of mine's house because I was getting my hair cut. Melanie was going to go there to my friend Lori's house, and take a nap while I got my hair cut, because Brian was called in to work today, and he was supposed to be off. Anyway, it's about a 25 minute drive to my friend's house, so we were chit-chatting away. She was talking again about Baby Kayana, and how Aunt Nykki feeds her with her boobies, and how that is a little bit strange. She then asked me, "Do babies eat on the daddy's boobies too?" I said, no, that it was just a mommy job, not a daddy job. Her response: "Whew, that's good! Those hairs on the daddy boobies would be really nasty!"

Point taken. That would explain why God gave that job to the moms, huh?

We also talked a lot about how Jesus and God help her do things. She had a whole list of things - from being kind to obeying, to making up songs. That one was pretty funny. She had samples of all the songs that Jesus had helped her make up. The thing is - she remembers her made-up songs, and sings them over and over again. Now, part of that is because she only does 1 tune - but still...for a three year old, I'm finding it rather impressive.

We were stopped at a stop light today on the way to Lori's, and she saw a sign for Babies R Us. She said, "Mom, is that Toys R Us?" (her favorite store). I said nope, that Toys R Us has a "t". She said - "Oh! I get it - that one is B for Babies. Is that how all signs work?" I don't know what little light bulb clicked in her head, but it was pretty cool. She's still all over big signs that have any of the letters of her name in it. Home Depot gets high marks, because it has an M and an E - and she informed me today that those are her two favorite letters in her name.

So, the new haircut. I went thinking I was going to get a little bit trimmed off. I mean, my hair was LONG - down below the middle of my back. I hadn't had it cut since well before last year, and it was pretty healthy overall, but just heavy. It's thick and straight. Not much you can do with it at that length. Here you can see the average picture of me - it's either in a pony tale, or up in the "buns" as Melanie called it. So, I took my little magazine picture of some Herbal Essences woman with the haircut that I was going to get. I got there, and the stylist - whom I've known for a few years - started commenting on my hair when it was shorter, and how I used to tuck it in these little clips in the front, and how well it suited my personality, etc etc etc.

Peer pressure.

So, now here it is. Cut a little above my chin, in all these razor-y layers. I'm not 100% sure of the way she dried/styled it, but I can see some potential here. I'm looking forward to playing with it!! Needless to say, I have a lot of scrunchies and assorted hair doo-dads I won't be needing for a while, but ya know - I'll grow it out again or shave it all off. I have an adventurous spirit when it comes to my hair. It's just hair - it grows back.



Good news: I found a few pictures from the weekend that I had forgotten that we took. Uncle James & Aunt Ashlee, and then Poppy, bookreader extraordinaire! :)

That picture of the story-reading cracks me up. Poppy did the voices of the characters, including singing the songs when Pooh made one up. Melanie was really into it - and the rest of us enjoyed it as well. Poppy is a good sport. Melanie even told me tonight that I didn't read Winnie the Pooh as well as Poppy did.

Can't be the best at everything, I guess!

P.S. - Princess Lulee & creator are now snoring in the monitor. Time tells the real story - she was TIRED!

Need to catch up...

Man, I need to get better at this blogging thing. I know that some people might actually want to read this. (I may be totally decieved there - thinking I'm more important than I really am...but it's a decent feeling). Seriously though, I'm going to forget things of I don't keep up with it, and I sure don't want to do that.

It's been a crazy week. I have a new niece - Kayana. She was born on Friday the Thirteenth - and mom and baby are doing fine. Here's a little picture of Baby Kayana, as Melanie calls her. Brian called her just "Kayana" today, and Melanie got all bent out of shape, telling him that her name was BABY Kayana. It's hard to explain that the baby is not really part of her name. We've said it that way for so long!













We also had a visit from Grammy & Poppy, and Uncle James & Aunt Ashlee this weekend. Do you know I did not take ONE picture? That has to be the first time that's ever happened. Something must be wrong with my clicker finger. Very weird.






Other than that, we're plugging along. Melanie is three - and all of it. She is sassy and moody. My girlfriends who have been through this before all assure me that this is part of the age, but goodness! I feel like I do a lot of correcting - a lot more than I used to, at least. We have had some really fun times as of late too, though. A tea party with real tea (which now she wants every morning) and some great times reading and playing Polly Pockets.

I'm not getting much work done though. Ah well. You only have each day one time.

Speaking of Polly Pockets, I think that there is a "force" of some sort that eats the clothes and shoes. I know that we have plenty, but things just keep turning up missing. That drives me crazy. I wish you could just replace pieces of each of the little kits, but you can't. Which means that the pink and purple swirly shirt no longer has a skirt or pair of pants to match it.

Bummer.

We've really been into the original Winnie the Pooh book by A.A. Milne. I didn't think she'd be as into it as she is, because it is kind of chapter-book-ish, and, well...long! But she hates to put it down! I actually have ordered her some other Pooh books for Christmas from Amazon.com. They'll be here sooner or later, and hopefully I don't forget where I hide them in the mean time. Heck, who are we kidding? I will probably give them to her long before Christmas. I can't keep a present that long.

My friend, Normie, is a Christmas shopper extraordinare. She knows how many days till Christmas already (I think she knew back in January and on June 11th, too), and she already has almost all of her Christmas shopping finished. I haven't even THOUGHT about it yet, except for the books for Melanie. It sure does make more sense to think about it all year long. Much less stressful.

Gymnastics are still going well, although Monday's session was kind of a zoo. The girls were just not focused. But man, they sure are cute in those little leotards with their hair up and bouncing around on that springy floor. Cheryl is their teacher, and I think she is going to get extra jewels in her crown in heaven!

Backyardigans has began season 2. I have to tell you, they are just as good!! So far we have seen three of the new episodes - and we have the DVR scheduled to record the other two that air this week. She really liked the Samarai Pie one that we saw yesterday. More on these as we review our favorites on the DVR later in the week.

First post from dad

Here I am. This is my first blog post. I am the dad.

The phrase of the day was "It's not there!" This was said with arms crossed, a frowny face, and a size 6 shoe stomping in anger. Most kids would say "It's not FAIR" in this situation...but Melanie doesn't realize what she's saying doesn't make any sense. She whispered it in bed tonight as we wouldn't give her an entire glass of water to drink. She said it about the rain today when we couldn't go apple picking. She said it about the lack of birdhouse when she couldn't paint another craft with me. Life's just not there when you're three.

Before bed, Miss Melanie was using the bathroom. Her mom told her to wipe her hiney, and with her lowest voice, she replies "Wipe it up, Dude!" We have no clue where she got this; neither of us have ever said it - but of course we are cracking up, which is making her say it all the more - and in all of her different voices! I'm not sure where she's getting all this personality she has. We'll blame it on the mom for now.

I think that Re is trying to figure out how to put video on here to show you some of the silly stuff she's been doing. For now, enjoy a gymnastics moment. Happy Saturday.

Welcome to Fall!

Well, life has been pretty darn busy as of late. We have had an emergency appendix removal (NOT ME! for once!), the beginning of gymnastics classes (again, not me), and the general business that the fall brings along. Add to that Aunt Nykki finally settling in about 10 minutes down the road, a busy church season starting up, and Stampin' Up! starting to take off again, and what you have is slightly organized chaos. At least I'm striving for that!

We have been working hard at keeping things interesting. We are still doing school work almost every day; Melanie can now write her name with no help, and very little prompting. She sings it to herself to the tune of the Micky Mouse Club theme song (thanks to me - I always memorize to music!) - M-E-LLLLLLL-A-N-IIIIIII-EEEE-EE-EE-EE-EEEEEEEEEE. (It's kind of hard to picture, but hopefully that will give you a guess! :) She is very proud of her writing accomplishments. She told me recenty that she's ready to start working on her "small" letters now, as we have only been concentrating on her capitals. We might start those in October.

We did curly hair today. THAT was a hoot. What a mess, trying to get the little twisty things to stay in. I think next time we will do sponge rollers instead of the twisties. She looked deformed, but pretty cute too. She told me next week she'd just like to wear her hair like that instead of taking it out.

I don't think so.

We are finally free of the wacked out laptop that never worked. I am now the proud new participant of a Dell computer with a 17inch screen. And let me tell you - it rocks! It is speedy fast, and the screen is bigger than our tv. Fun stuff.

One of the things I like about this computer is that it has a movie maker software on it. So I can build movies of Melanie with songs behind them of pictures of her. I might try my hand at one of those this evening. Too bad I'm such a computer wienie - I have no clue how to post the link or even the file for you to see the video.

Wouldn't that rock?

I'll post more often now that we won't be crashing as we try to upload photos. TTFN!

You rock, Mom!

That's the quote of the day, for sure. She had gotten up from her nap time (nap time is a joke...it was 3 hours of fooling around going up and down stairs to try to get her to lay still...might have been easier to just let her stay up...but you won't hear me say that in her presence....) Anyway...she had asked for a snack and a drink, so I brought her some animal crackers and some juice, and she said, "Thanks, Mom! You rock!"

I was pretty much speachless. I'm normally mommy, not mom. Now, I do tell her that she rocks. Quite a lot. Because she does. I didn't expect to hear it back quite so soon though.








We've had a fun couple of days. We're finally getting back into the groove of things, which is really nice. The weather hasn't been too hot, either, so we've spent some time outside. Sometimes I watch her play and can't believe how like me she is, and then on the opposite side of the spectrum, how like Brian she is. Look at how she lines up her chalks to draw.





That's totally her father. I'm not that precise about anything. My stamps are where they are because my office manager brought her label maker to my house to tell me where to put things. I'm sure that this is a learned trait from her father.

Here's my girl doing her "I'm so big" dance. That is probably like me. She and I dance most of the day. The Backyardgians have a new cd, and we have been shaking to that one (that's the name of one of the songs). She asks to hear it all the time; thankfully there's lots of fun music. We're both getting excited about the new episodes coming this fall too.

I've finally figured out that if she has fancy hair or lipstick (aka - chapstick) on, she'll let me take about any picture I want of her. I'm going to use that little piece of info to get more photos that I want.








The fam. On the swing. Just chillin after supper in the backyard. We're liking to spend our evenings that way these days. It works for us.

The Zoo

Sunday, July 31, 2006

Today, we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park, Asheboro’s claim to fame (besides Brian, of course!) It was hot as fire (a nice southern expression I heard about 50 zillion times this weekend), and it’s not a typical “zoo” per say – it’s more like a wildlife reserve. But we saw the animals on the list. Thank goodness for the stroller.

Melanie had a blast. Grammy and Poppy went with us, and Danielle – better known by Melanie as Daniel (she couldn’t quite get the name right) – one of Brian’s second cousins (don’t even get me started on the sheer numbers of the 2nd cousins – remember that he has 42 firsts – the seconds are the rest of the state of North Carolina, I think!). Anyway, we saw lions. Giraffes. Chimpanzees. Bagrillas. (aka – Gorillas.) Rhinosaurs. (aka – Rhinoceros.) Snakes. Assorted other monkeys and birds. And zebras. Our favorites were the elephants.

The elephants were huge – and dirty! I don’t know if they had been rolling around in the dirt or what, but they were nasty clay colored things – on top of their brownish gray bodies. There were 3 that we could see at the time, and it was seriously hot out there. There was a little pond – I say little pond, because it kind of looked like a puddle from where we were – out in the middle of the field, but none of the elephants were anywhere near there. We were talking to Melanie about how the elephants went out there to cool off in the water, and she was talking to us about how it was like a bathtub for them. Right on. Well, don’t you know that the biggest of the 3 of them walked over there and stuck his trunk in that water and started spraying himself off – it was the coolest thing!! There was water everywhere (they were a good ways away from us) – but he took a little shower out there. We were figuring that the water was pretty shallow, because he was up to about his elephant ankles in it, so we figured it was a showering facility. We were wrong. All of a sudden, he turned with his butt towards us and backed up into the water – all the way in – and laid down in the “puddle”. Let me tell you – any water deep enough to cover up an entire elephant is not a puddle. He went all the way into the water – and then just stuck his trunk out to breathe. It was really, really cool. One of those moments I wish I had had a video camera, although I did do some continuous shots with the still camera and got like a little slide show thing happening. It was one of my favorite things about the zoo.

The other part we thought was really cool was when we went to the chimpanzee display. It’s all outdoors, but they have these little caves and tunnels that you walk in that have like observation glass in them. We went in with Melanie, and got her out of the stroller, so she could stand next to the glass to watch the chimps. The trainer was there in the tunnel sitting on the bench, answering our questions and stuff. While we were talking about random things about the chimps, who kept walking by the glass, but not really stopping, a HUGE female chimp walked up, and the guide said that she wouldn’t stop at the glass either, because she was the alpha female, and had no patience for people. I was asking questions about her (because I’m nosy, I guess) – found out she’s 32 – same age as me – and is so well groomed because she’s the boss :-D I said she looks better than I do and we’re the same age – the guide said that he didn’t know about “better”, but she’d give me a run for my money. I didn’t quite know how to take that one! Don’t you know that she stopped right in front of Melanie and just sat there looking at her. We got the greatest pictures of them – it was soooo cool! The guide was totally amazed, because he said as the highest ranking female in the clan, she hardly ever “graced humans with her presence.” She sat there with Melanie for about 10 minutes. Then, a little male monkey came up, and he was posing and stuff there by Mel too…until he got frustrated with something – I’m not sure what – and whapped on the glass really hard right at her stomach, then stalked off. Everyone around us – me included – jumped about 10 feet. Not Melanie. She turns around with this huge grin on her face and says, “Mommy, he got my tummy!” Then of course, more oohs and ahhs from the gathering crowd who were all watching the little girl and the chimps.

We’ve got a diva. And I’m not sure how to break that habit. I think she thinks that she’s the star. The sad part is, she mostly is most of the time. Good grief.

We also got some time at the camp today. Melanie and Brian went out on a canoe, and had a great time. Played some soccer. Ran. Swang. Basically, got the lead out. It was fun to watch.