Vocabulary & the Dora Dollhouse

The Dora Talking House has been a hit today. We've been pretending. There are bunkbeds for Dora & Boots, and now there is a shower/bathtub thing which she is loving. But here's her favorite, which just cracks me the heck up!

I swear to you, that the daddy ("poppy"), sat on the toilet the entire time. When I asked if Poppy was going to go sit on the couch, or eat dinner with the family, or go to the treehouse, or whatever, it was always, "Nope. Poppy has to make more poopoos."

The therapist tells us that how she plays with a dollhouse is a picture of her real life. Can't wait till Brian hears about this one!!

Some of the words that Brian and I were talking about today that Melanie loves to say:

• fusterated (you can probably figure that one out)
• louder (this is not volume. this is the thing that her daddy uses to climb up to fix things)
• banded (this is what you put on a booboo)
• lemonlaid (the yellow drink made from fruits)
• libary (the place you go to get books)

I'm sure there are more. I'm thinking that we may create our own dictionary.

We're getting ready for vacation. The beach is top on the list for little miss thing. She has a list of things she wants to take with us. Bucket. Shovel. Rake. Water pail. Beach chair. Towels. Camera. (She's very insistant on the camera.) Time goes so slow when you're 3. She has no concept of 3 days, really. Every time she gets into bed, it's a nap - whether it's for 2 hours or 12. Like right now (11:45pm), she is taking a nap. She is going to be taking my kind of nap man. I wish I could take a 12 hour one.

Ok, gotta go get a few things done before church tomorrow. The cousins are coming over to play, so I need to get the camera ready, and make lists. Tons of lists. Packing is not my forte.

Crafts are very important...

Play Doh is one of life's most important things. Not only is it squishy and you can make any shape with it, because it HOLDs it's shape, but it cleans up fairly quickly (as long as it's not squished into the carpet) and provides hours of entertainment. Add to that the smell...

I could seriously sniff play doh all day long. I used to eat it like candy as a child. Fortunetely, I have not passed that trait along to my daughter.

Today we did the play doh barber shop. I think it's the pet barber shop. And we have 24 colors of play doh to play with (yes, you read that correctly - 24 colors). She sat there for about 2 1/2 hours making assorted snow men. Snakes. Giving hair cuts. Making shapes. Etc. It was a good morning!

Lunch today consisted of chicken nuggets, a cheese stick, some pickles and jello. She ate 7 nuggets. SEVEN! I don't know where she puts all this food - because seriously, I eat 3 goldfish and I can't button my pants! She was just hungry all day today. But here she is dipping her nuggets into the "dip it" - aka, Ranch Dressing. I'm not sure which she likes more...the chicken or the dip.

Probably the dip.

Later after nap time, we had sprinkler time with the cousins. That was a blast. Kids everywhere. It's been really hot, so the sprinkler felt great. I even went in there fully dressed. They laughed at me. Here are some assorted shots of the kids in the sprinkler and the pool. Notice the big hairy child. He has more fun than the short ones do!

3 years old...

Well, the birthday celebration was a hit. Princess Party gone wild. Check out all the royals.


And Kollin :)



We played games. We had all princesses present and accounted for. There were fur collars, cyrstal necklaces, pearls and sequins. It was a happening place.

There were presents. A lot of presents. And just tons of girlie fun. Hot dogs. Cake (with princesses on it, ya know), vegetables (because the grandmothers thought of it - not the mommy!). It really was fun.












The rest of the weekend was really fun, too. It was great to have Grammy & Poppy, and Grandma and Grandpa all in town at the same time. I'm pretty sure Melanie thought that she was the center of the universe, but ya know - on your 3rd birthday, you kind of should feel that way! I know for sure that she enjoyed the people more than she did the presents, which is kind of what you want in a situation like this. She was a sweetie - so thankful for the things she did get - and did so well making eye contact with people all weekend, even in the big crowd at her party. I was very proud of her, and fell in love with her a little bit more, if that's possible!

Some of her favorite things (ok, and my favorite things too) were the Dora Talking Dollhouse...man, she is getting use out of that thing! It speaks in Spanish and English, so I'm sure she's going to start saying Spanish words that I don't know. She also loves her Sprinkler Ball...it's this huge 44 inch ball that squirts water all over the place...check her out...



She runs around it - in circles - screaming at the top of her fool lungs. "It's getting me wet! It's getting me wet!" Duh.






This is her new swimsuit - found it for $2. The bottoms still fall off; she doesn't have a hiney even at age 3.

Must be nice.








The other thing she is really loving is her new table and chairs. We've been having a lot of tea parties up there, and playing a lot of games (CandyLand and Chutes & Ladders). I'm trying to convince her that she can have tea parties with her babies or some "pretend" friends, so that I don't have to sit on that little chair all the time, because I think she'd stay up there all day and play. Plus, she got some new books, and other things that she likes to play with at her new table. That thing is the bomb!

She got a new lawnchair and towel, and a bag with her name too. She loves that - wants to carry it around all the time.

Some of the other stuff got put away in hiding places around the house so that we can pull them out at random for a surprise for later. She couldn't possibly remember it all - and I don't have room for it all! But she will have lots of surprises in the days to come :)

We did have a terrific weekend. Thanks to all that celebrated with us. I can't do a party like this every year (please, Lord!), but it was fun this time!!

Isn't my 3 year old too cute?!

Camera Crazy

Ok by now, all of you know that I am completely addicted to my camera. I take pictures of everything - from Melanie's elbows (which, on a completely different tangent, I LOVE - they have these little dimples in them, and there's still a little baby fat there, even though the rest of her little body is slimming out so quickly...but I digress!) to the walks we take, to the food we eat, to my stamping creations...etc. Bascially, I almost always have a camera within reach. And it's paid off - I get some pretty good shots. Enough to fill scrapbooks and frames all over our home.

But now, look what I have done.

I have created a monster.

She has been asking for months for a camera, and we have been putting her off. Then, the other day, while we were picking up pictures (ironically), we walked thru the isle, and this little camera caught my eye. Less than $20, takes pretty low quality pictures (as you can see below), but will at least teach her the principles of Point & Click. I promise you, the child is walking around saying, "I'm just like mommy! Let me take a picture of my Pez holder. Let me take a picture of the princess couch. Let me take a picture of mommy - CHEEZE!"

It's humbling to hear your own words come out of an almost-three-year-old mouth!

Here I am. Notice the smirk. Notice the lack of hair. I'm supposed to be "posing."

Oh brother!

6 Days & Counting

Too long since the last post. I need to do better at keeping up with things, because truthfully, there is so much that happens in our life every day, that if I don't write it down, I know for sure in a few hours it will be gone from my mind. It hurts me to think how little brain power I have left.

We got a big box this afternoon on the porch filled with birthday party supplies. I haven't opened it yet, because I want at least something to be a surprise for Melanie. There are grandparents coming from out of town, and lots of guests. I still have no clue what to get her for her present; I know we need to aquire a princess dress somewhere. I will go tomorrow and order the baloons, and I need to figure out if I'm brave enough to make the cake or not. We'll see about that one.

Most of our days as of late have been spent at the pool. I have an actual tan, Melanie has a "glo" - not really a tan, although she does have a slight line from her little polka dot bikini. She is so fair skinned - just like her daddy - that without sunblock, I'm afraid she would scorch. I'm a little anal about the sunblock factor because of my family history with cancer...so she's just going to smell like sunblock all summer long. It's ok. It's coconutty.



We're having a great time with the cousins at the pool, though. She now has a little vest type thing that she wears and she is all over the place in it. She even goes under the water now - not thrilled with the under the water thing - but it doesn't freak her. To be honest, I don't particularly like going under the water, either. I'm not a confident swimmer in any stretch of the imagination, but I don't want those fears passed on to her. Thankfully, Brian is a very confident, strong swimmer, and he's also very gentle and encouraging with her. It's working out well.

We got this cd from the library called "Baby Go to Sleep." I know, original. It has lullabies on it, but the background is all heartbeats of a child - the beat that they're supposed to have, and it's kind of the drums of the music. I thought we'd try it out, as she has had a hard time in the past few weeks falling asleep before an hour or two is out. Let me tell you, this thing WORKS!! Brian has fallen asleep on the floor while I'm rocking Melanie at night (which, on second thought, isn't all that rare :)), and it's all I can do to stay awake myself. There's something so repetitive about it that it just kind of lulls you to sleep. At any rate, we'll be purchasing this cd to take with us when we go on vacation, since she'll be sleeping in strange beds, etc. That way it will lull her to sleep even when we're away.

I'll keep you updated as we trudge towards birthday party number 3. I think almost everyone we invited will be attending, so it's going to be a full house! Fun stuff :)