Thursday, September 7, 2017

We left today for our big trip to Branson to see our huge network of half-siblings from all over the country. Jeremy found cheap flights on Allegiant Airlines flying out of Destin, so we decided to make an adventure out of the transportation and take the kids on their first airplane ride. We had to leave around 10am to make it to Destin in time to get through security and on our plane by 1:00ish. The kids fell asleep on the way there, which was good because we were coming up on Selah June’s nap time.

Jeremy and I knew that the other kids would have their backpacks, so we made sure to find her backpack and fill it with lots of snacks and toys. She was all about wearing it on her back just like the other kids, but she wouldn’t let me pull her hair in a ponytail…so it made it a little challenging to get on her and get her situated.

Here she is at the gate. She would not pose for a picture no matter what I offered by way of a bribe.

And here she is with her security sticker. Who knew they handed these out?

She wanted to be right next to Satie, so Jessica sat with the girls on one side and I sat with Sebastian on the other. As you can see, she was totally fine. Of all the kids, she was the least freaked out. The engine noise didn’t bother her. The feeling in her stomach didn’t bother her. She didn’t mention her ears feeling funny as the pressure changed. Nothing. Calm as a cucumber.

When we landed in Branson, the kids suited up with their backpacks and we all made our way to baggage claim.

Monday, September 4, 2017

I love this picture. I know that it might seem inappropriate or maybe even that I shouldn’t let her play in the front yard without being fully dressed. But I love the little moments of baby that she still has. In a few weeks, she’ll turn three. We’ll be faced with different developmental phases. But for now…right now… she is two and taking in all the freedom and beauty that is in the small things of her every day. This is the beautiful result of children coloring with sidewalk chalk on our paved driveway. They created this masterpiece on Saturday when everyone was over to watch football. The sprinklers ran both Sunday morning and Monday morning and created this beautiful watercolor effect.

On the porch, I worked on refinishing the living room furniture passed down from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. This piece went from being my least favorite originally to my most favorite refinished. Abigail took a sander to the top of it and revealed beautiful variation in the wood. I decided to leave it natural and paint the rest.

Meanwhile a little monkey sat enjoying the weather and watching me work away.

Sunday, September 3, 2017

So you have to look closely to see the significance of this pic. Yes. That is right. We are YARD OF THE MONTH! That is something I never thought that any member of my extended family would ever achieve. (And of course we didn’t earn it. We pay a lot of money for a yard service.) Honestly, I think that this is an effort on the part of our busybody homeowners association to shame our neighbor across the street to mow their grass.

On the inside of this house, we are excited about brand new pjs that our daddy bought us! They are paw patrol and mickey mouse! Selah June decided she needed some pjs, and within 24 hours she had them. And these were just in time for our trip to see all the half-sibs.

Grammy and Grandpa stopped by to check in on us. And Selah June decided she needed to teach them how to make snowflakes. She even took their colored coffee filters and folded them  like I do for her. (I had to be very sneaky in order to refold them in a way that actually could be cut into a snowflake.)

Friday, September 1, 2017

Selah June is pushing 3, and her daddy made it very clear that she needed some new clothes. She is turning into such a big girl!

So I found some 3T outfits at Carter’s with her name on them on Thursday and even bought the necklace to match. She loves getting surprises, and was all about getting a huge bag of clothes. I told her to show her pretty outfits to her daddy. She picked up one hanger at a time and said,

“Look, Daddy! This one is for a big girl. This is a good one.”

This morning, she had a play date scheduled with Satie and Sebastian. I told her we needed to pick out an outfit from her new clothes to wear. She ran into her room and picked out the flouncy skirt with hidden shorts right away, and then she wanted the bright orange shirt to match. And don’t forget about our necklace!

i told her I needed her picture in her new outfit, and she was totally ready to pose for one. That’s how you know she was happy with her new look! ❤️

Be still, my heart.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Somebody only wants to eat chips. CHIPS!!!  We’ve very clearly discussed that they are “junk food.” And junk food is NOT good for you. But she says that “junk food is good.” Here are some of the ways she’s communicated that message to me over the last few days.

Junk food is perfect.

It’s awesome.

Chips are good.

They are junk.

Healthy food is yucky.

Broccoli is not junk food.

i told her about hat she needed to see herself with those chips. She thought it was very funny. You can see how much she is flaunting her love affair with “junk food” (and specifically chips).

Monday, August 28, 2017

We needed a new project – some creativity to inject inside the four walls of our home. And I had some random coffee filters. It’s an activity!

Selah June loved gently coloring each filter and then passing it along to me to “cut it” before taping it to the glass door.

Her little face expressed such unadulterated excitement when I would tell her another one was done and begin to unfold it before her very eyes.

Were going to have a fun Christmas season.

I put put on this mask the other day because I had 10 minutes to myself (a rarity). It never occurred to me that it would make me look like the axe murderer. Selah June came running up behind me in the kitchen, and when I turned around she let out a blood-curdling scream. I’ve only heard that scream a couple of times, and never were they forebearers of good tidings of great joy.

Of course, I scooped it of my face as fast as I possibly could, but she didn’t know what to think of me for the rest of the night.

Sorry, kid….  I let the cat out of the bag. ?

Saturday, August 26, 2017

I had honors orientation all morning, so SJ and Daddy went to the grocery store and to get donuts without me. When I came home, they were indulging in a huge bowl of watermelon. Does anything say dog days of summer quite like this??

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Grammy has reintroduced SJ to the piano. She’s really liking the song “Holy, Holy, Holy.” She even got mommy to dust off the keys for a bit.

I did take another vacation day this week to spend time with Selah June. We planned a play date with Harrison and his mommy. I had never been to the bounce house off of Davis Highway. It seemed much more age appropriate for Selah June. They had a whole toddler zone with all of her favorite kinds of toys.

In particular, she was in love with the Thomas roller coaster. Once she claimed it as her own, she dominated that ride for a good long time. Ultimately another little girl wanted to ride it, and we had to convince her to take turns. She was actually really good about it. And the funniest part was that the other little girls was really loud in her excitement over riding the roller coaster. She squealed with delight, and SJ thought that was awesome! So Selah June squealed and laughed too! It was so infectious to hear these little girls enjoying the stew out of this little ride. I loved it.

P

Then we found the “peg game.” It was basically a really big Lite Brite, and Selah June discovered the need within herself to put every single one of the pegs in a hole. At one point another little girl ran up and just started grabbing pegs out of the board and throwing them down. I got so mad! And SJ started to completely lose it. My intervention worked, and no blood was shed. But it was really close. On the way home I told Jeremy to buy a Lite Brite.

August 14-18, 2017

Grammy and Grandpa were back with us for a few days, and we took advantage of their company for some good play time and adventures. Selah June read books with Grammy and snuggled. I told them they couldn’t dump me. That I was the mommy!  And then they started chanting “dump! dump! dump! dump!”

How did I get so marginalized in my own home??!!

Grammy won Selah June over with a Paw Patrol coloring book with magic wonder marker. There are a lot of rare finds hiding in her school room. SJ happened to benefit from this one.

SJ really concentrated on coloring in all the details on several pages. And then they were so beautiful that she wanted to immediately hang them up on the wall.

I love it!

On Friday, I took annual leave, and we stayed home from work. Selah June didn’t have school this week, so we planned an adventure with Kessica and the kids to go to the beach. It was hot, but it was also very beautiful. The kids helped carry all of the stuff out to the water, and Selah June was a big girl and walked on her own alongside Satie Isabella.

Once we got out there, the other kids ran off to play. But Selah June wanted to stand under the umbrella next to us and eat snacks.  ALL the snacks…

She liked the sand toys, but she didn’t really want to go near the water to fill up her buckets. She kept asking Satie and Sebastian to do her bidding. A couple of times she wanted us to go down to the water with her. And she enjoyed standing about waist-deep holding our hands until she had something sting her on her boodle. I’m still not sure exactly what happened, but we did end up spending a bit of time going to the restroom, rinsing ourselves off in the outdoor freshwater showers, and stripping down out of our “scratchy” swimsuit.

All in all it was a great way to end our week and cap off our summer. I need more days like it. She’s getting way easier to manage at the beach, and the other kids are now super independent.