October 2016 (weeks of playing catch-up)

October 16, 2016

We took SJ over to see Grammy and Grandpa after Grammy’a manipulation.  Selah June wanted all up in Grammy’s lap and needed her to read her Bible stories!!

And we had a fresh fruit frozen treat (lime).  She loved it!  I did not like the mess….

October 17, 2016

i picked up Selah June from school and we went straight to Sonic to get good drinks!!  She loves getting a little lemonade, but it’s still difficult keeping it from making a mess.

October 20, 2016

On the way to school today, I had trouble getting SJ to focus on getting in the car.  She wanted to pick up all the acorns.  I think they’ve been taking them on nature walks at school because it’s so beautiful this time of year.

Chips help with the bribery.

And then we make the trip home.

Somebody loves herself some mashed potatoes!!!!

October 21, 2016

St. Luke’s is known throughout town for its pumpkin patch around Halloween.  We took pictures of Selah June there last year, and they turned out great.  So I thought it would be an awesome idea to take her over there after school before going home. Only problem was she was EXHAUSTED!!!! What started out as a wonderful beautiful fall afternoon surrounded by tiny little pumpkins and a curious toddler full of whimsy and wonder turned into a nightmare on steroids when we had to “pick one” and go home “to show Daddy.”  It took help from the volunteers at the place as well as sheer force to get her buckled in the car and headed home (screaming her head off of course).

We brought 4 pumpkins home and managed to get a couple of cute little shots.  (Don’t be fooled by the darling smile.)

Sunday, October 23, 2016

This is my little bohemian princess at lunch after church.  I braided her chunk of hair that always falls right in her face.  It stayed that way all day, so it might be a keeper. I can’t believe how great that aqua green color is on her.  It really brings out those baby blues.

We went to Jason’s Deli because we needed somewhere that would be pretty quick so that we could all get home to take naps before Jule’s birthday party. She wanted salad.  “I love it!” “My salad. Not yours!  I’m so excited!!”

What kid says that?  And she ate it too.  I was really impressed.  She likes beans, so the chickpeas were a hit.  The raisins and the cucumbers went pretty well.  She ate some tomatoes. Anything that can be dipped in ranch dressing is going to get eaten eventually.  It just takes her a while.

After nap we went to Triple Play.  I had never been there and had no idea what to expect.  It was basically a huge indoor playground with lots of inflatable slides and bounce houses.  They had little cars and tricycles, play kitchens and train tables.  It was a hit for our particular age group – ranging from 2 to 6. Here we have them pretty stair-stepped with the 2s in the middle fanning out to the 6s on each end. They were pretty stinkin’ cute…but impossible to capture all smiling at the same time.

She really spent most of the time in this play house with a few play kitchens in it.  I peeked in the window once or twice, and she yelled “NOOOOO!!!!!  Not yours! Get out!”  We have a little bit of a problem with sharing.

The deal with this place is that you just pay them a flat rate, and they handle everything.  They provided the pizza and cake in a party room.  They had Sprite poured for all the little kids, but not a single one of them wanted Sprite (of course).  The crazy thing was that they all started having meltdowns because they wanted water.

Sebastian’s heart was broken when it was time to leave.  It was the worst thing anyone had ever done to him.  Satie started crying too.  It was drama central.

Monday, October 24, 2016

I received an email last Thursday that the UWF Early Childhood Development Center would have an opening in January because a student family is transferring because of the military.  So we apparently were next on the list for a student spot (assuming that one or the other of us actually becomes a student for the spring (and summer) semester.  One of us has to take either 2 undergraduate classes or 1 graduate class.  I’ve already decided I’m going to take a directed study with Sara on all the criminology/sociology stuff that we’re reading together and the research we’re doing for conference papers and ultimately publication. We’re working out the details, but it shouldn’t be a problem.

I had a lot of anxiety when I visited UWf.  I don’t really know why — except that she has had a really great experience at St. Luke’s.  We just started there, and I’m not really ready to make a change.  However, you don’t get to be picky with UWF because there is a horrendous waiting list.  We’ve waited for over 2.5 years to get in on the student list (not faculty/staff).

This is what somebody wanted to do with the little pumpkins on the table.

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

I picked up something special for Miss Selah June during her nap…a box of Paw Patrol puzzles!!  She calls them “pieces” and can’t get enough of them at the moment.  She had no trouble at all matching the pieces with parts of each character.  (Her favorite is Rider.) Depending on how tired she is she gets frustrated if the “knob” doesn’t fit in the hole she wants it to fit in.  When it does, though, she squeals with delight and yells “I did it! Not you!!!  Selah Junie did it all by myself!!”  Who knew putting puzzles together could be so tyrannical!

Monday, October 17, 2016

Selah June’s class pictures arrived today.  Be still my beating heart!

I can’t handle it.  Have you ever seen such a successful school photo?  I need it on a canvas for my wall.

For whatever reason, it’s like a switch has been flipped over the last few days.  Maybe it had to do with Grammy having a “hurt leg.” Maybe it has to do with our girls weekend away.  Selah June has decided she wants to lay on Grammy’s lap and read books and play her shape game on Grammy’s phone.  And she’s been giving me really squeezy big hugs. Yesterday when she woke up from her nap, she wanted to crawl up in my lap, snack on chips, and play her shape game on my phone.  She is some kind of mastermind when it comes to that game.  It’s basically puzzles that you solve by dragging individual pieces to the place they should go.  When all the pieces are in place, the overall shape turns into a picture – a tiger, a parrot, a number, a flower, etc.

She loves it and is super good at it!  It blows my mind that a barely 2 year-old can have such fine motor skills, such adept spatial relations, and such focused interest in one game for so long.

Friday, October 14 – Sunday, October 16, 2016

In anticipation of his follow-up surgery, Jeremy decided to rent a beach house for the women in our family to enjoy a weekend before  he made us responsible for home health care provision….(again).

It was really cute and had an awesome screened in front porch.  The girls were very ready to get out of the car and run around a bit. They had fun with sailor June’s bubble wand.

Unfortunately, Selah June had fun spraying bubbles in my face. 

Sister selfie.

Lots of girl hugs all around.

We went to Jim and Nick’s for barbecue for dinner. Jessica had never been there, so that was a new experience. Selah June threw a bit of a tantrum when Satie took one of her packets of sugar.  We had to “go for a walk” –  our new method of calming down. It didn’t work very well, but then Satie “gave the packet back”  and all was right with the world…  

After dinner, Abigail and Jessica went to the outlets and I watch the girls for an hour.  Abigail came back with this outfit for Jules. You can see who really really liked it! Our little snaggle-toothed lion! Growl!!!

Saturday, we took the girls to the beach. It was overcast, but we were grateful because we didn’t have to worry as much about sunburn and heat. The water was pretty rough, so there wasn’t a whole lot of interest in swimming.  The tide also kept rising, forcing us farther and farther back from the shore. It did create this neat wading pool on land that the girls had fun stomping around in.

Gotta love beach hair!!

Somebody has the right idea.

Back at the ranch, the girls changed and we went to get some chick-fil-a. They played hard on the indoor playground and then Miss Priss laid down for a great nap.  I took the opportunity to do some quick shopping, and then Jessica went to do the same.  We watched a movie none of us had seen while all snugly on the couch eating “green” chips (sour cream and onion).  And we had Olive Garden to Go.  It was delicious.

 

The next morning we took the girls on a special shopping trip to Target to get Selah June her first pack of Shopkins.  She calls them “Shaw-kins.”

So much to concentrate on!  New Shaw-kins and Paw Patrol playing on Grammy’s portable DVD player.

Then we ended our Girls’ Adventure with lunch at Tijuana Flats and ice cream at TCBY.  Selah June chowed down on some chicken nuggets and then picked around her ice cream to get all the M&Ms.  She’s a mess.

We were all sad to see our adventure come to an end, but that just means it needs to become a regular thing!

 

Thursday, October 6, 2016 – Sunday October 9, 2016

I’ve been really busy living life and not blogging about it. I think the combination of a few dinners with family and friends, a few evening business obligations for each of us, and a concerted effort this last weekend to focus on our family time at home led to no time at all to stop and think about anything.

Some of those things were genuinely stress-free and fun. Some were not so stress-free but still fun in the grand scheme of things. And some things just were and are no more.  LOL

i swear in the last week Selah June has been communicating more clearly and thoroughly her feelings about life, love, and other mysteries.  I ask her every day when I pick her up from school how all of her friends were. Invariably she lets me know that “I no like Gabe.” Or “I hit Emma.  She cried.  Don’t be sad, Emma.  Here! Have blue blanky! Now Emma not sad anymore.”

She really doesn’t need any of us to carry on a conversation.  You just provide the initial question or let her hear some noise in her environment, and then let her go!

Here is my little monkey  getting in the car to go to school.  You see that she initially tries to get in the front seat. Silly little mess…

 

 

Friday Mexican Dinner

Friday night I coaxed everyone into going to the new little authentic Mexican restaurant down the street. It seems like a really good idea at the time, but the kids pretty much just wanted to run up and down the aisles in the attached Mexican grocery.

Saturday Potty Training

We decided to try potty training on Saturday with Miss Selah June.   One method is to go diaper free for three days at home close to a potty. The thinking goes that they will feel the urge to pee and begin to put two and two together and show interest in using the potty.

Her thinking goes “Hey! I’m naked! Let’s run around the house and make dinner!”  It’s purposely hard to see in this picture but she has on nothing but an apron…   Grandpa just sat in his chair and watched football.

Sunday Walk

We went on a walk Sunday after nap time.  As we usually do, we looked for Buddy the cat.  And Buddy just happen to be hanging out in front of his house!  SElam June was very interested in interacting with Buddy until he rubbed up against her and knocked her over into the grass. Then she started telling the story over and over again about how Buddy pushed her down.  It instantly became a classic example of her having an imaginary conversation with the neighbor’s cat about how he shouldn’t push people. “No, Buddy!  No push me down!  No! No! Be nice, Buddy!”

buddy-cat-trimmed

October 4, 2017

Satie Isabella earned enough points to have a dinner date at Aunt Jocie’s house for spaghetti dinner!!!  40 POINTS!!!!  That’s a lot!

Satie and Selah June dressed up like princesses.  They had a blast racing around the house while I finished cooking dinner.  Selah June loved waving around her bubble wand while Satie drove her in her car around and around.

car

Then they had a picnic.

picnic

We ate some spaghetti dinner (very, very messy).

dinner

And finally we took baths and watched The Little Mermaid.

It was a very successful princess party indeed!

Sunday, October 2, 2017

Selah Juney got a Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood trolley with all the little characters from Grammy and Grandpa for her birthday.  She has been really exploring imaginative play lately.  This morning, she wanted all of her little neighborhood friends to sit down with her at her new table and have chips with her for breakfast.  (I know — breakfast of champions.)

 

Saturday, October 1, 2016

I actually took the afternoon to get my hair done.  It’s been over a year since I had it professionally colored and a solid 9 months since I had a haircut.  It was really time.  I’ve put it off for so long because it takes half a day for a cut and color, and it never seems to be a good time for that kind of dedicated effort.  But my loving husband made me an appointment and watched the baby so that I could have as much time as was necessary without feeling pressured.

It was really relaxing.  I almost didn’t know what to do with myself.  While I was gone, they went to the grocery store and stocked up for the week. Here’s a pic to capture the process of “getting our clothes on” (obviously) and a cute video of it.

swinging

Then, as if that wasn’t enough pampering for one day, we were invited to go to a UWF football game.  Jeremy and I actually went out by ourselves for the evening to join another couple for a sporting event.  Craziness…  Sara and Lee have four season tickets and invited us to join them downtown at the Maritime Park for the game.  It was really fun, and it was so nice to do something together with other adults that wasn’t work related.

Selah June spent a few hours with Grammy and Grandpa.  We thought for sure she would be asleep by the time we headed home to pick her up.  At 9:00pm, she was still going strong.  Grammy and Grandpa read Bible stories with her, played with her favorite magnet number board, played with her kitchen that’s still at their house, and opened even more birthday presents.  They gave her some beautiful dresses to wear to church and then pulled out a surprise present when she was starting to lose a little steam.

It was a Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood trolley with a set of Daniel Tiger friends!!! She was really excited. Here’s a little video.

present

She was still awake at nearly 10:00pm, but it wasn’t too difficult to convince her it was time to go home.  She had to carry her trolley out to the car, and it sat in her lap on the way to the house.  Here’s what the little monkey did as soon as we walked in the door.

She’s a mess…. a tired mess… but a mess nonetheless.

 

Friday, September 30, 2016

When Daddy came home he brought word of a special present on the front porch just for Selah June!  It was a present from Grandma in Oklahoma — a little table with stools just Selah Juney’s size with a chalkboard top and chalk and erasers to boot!  Daddy assembled the table for us, and Selah June and Mommy got to work drawing flowers and circles in every color.

The combination of a runny nose and chalk dust led to looking pretty grungy. With promise of baths after dinner, we went ahead and ate dinner looking like the coal miner’s daughter. Sometimes you just have to get dirtier before you get clean.

Right now everything has to be dipped in ranch dressing.  She was really into dipping her green grapes into ranch at dinner.  (yuck….)

Then we returned to playing, and, as you can see, it continued down a very disturbing path.  I don’t know what the spitting was about.  The only thing I could think was that she looked like a cross between the little boy in The Good Dinosaur, an ewok from Star Wars, and a tribble from the original Star Trek.

I proceeded to clean up the dishes and asked Jeremy to start the bath routine.  They weren’t upstairs more than a couple minutes, and he yelled down “Joc!  Come here quick!  Right now!”  I moaned and begrudgingly made my way upstairs fussing about how the dishes weren’t going to wash themselves. And then I found this…

Isn’t this the precious face you always thought you would capture on that glorious occasion of the first successful use of the potty? Mom of the Year….  That’s what I’m talking about.  Mom of the Year.

But it’s not about me…  SJ had an incredibly important night.  Daddy took her clothes off to take a bath and asked her whether she wanted to try to use the potty.  She sometimes sits down on it just for kicks and giggles.  Not tonight, buddy!  NOOOOO…..  That child sat herself down, concentrated like a rock star, and tinkled her little heart out!  She was super happy with herself and gave Daddy a big high five.  We have a great video, but I’ll spare the internet that (and her, of course).

And guess what??  She did it the next morning too…  SJ is ready! Bring it, porcelain throne!

Thursday, September 29, 2016

What makes a 2-year-old’s birthday dreams come true?

Trampoline Park + Chick-fil-a + cookie cake + presents = SUCCESS!!

Tiny little miss needed a diaper change as soon as we got to Chick-fil-a.  I gave her her blanket and her sippy cup with milk to entertain her through the process.  She accidentally banged her cup into her face and busted her lip.  She screamed for a few seconds but quickly calmed down to help me “fix her hair” and “wipe her face.”  This little monkey is so resilient.  It really blows me away.  She’s much more concerned with the feelings and needs of others than she is with herself. It’s one of her remarkable virtues, and I praise her for it every day.

The kids sat at their own table with trays of chicken nuggets and fries.  Jeremy was the brave soul who manned the table and brought justice and peace to the land.

She LOVED all of her presents. It was pretty clear to me as she opened one after the other that she 1) has clear interests and 2) communicates them clearly to everyone in her life.  Her family gave her paints and coloring sets and play-doh and play-doh tools and a picnic basket with food, and adorable shoes for her “stinky feet.”  She wanted to play with every single present, and we had to really cajole her to move on to the next gift. All the cousins wanted to run off to the indoor playground at Chick-fil-a, but SJ wanted to eat more cookie cake and have all the toys to herself!  That’s my girl!!

She really liked her color book that came with a (water) marker/brush.  It was hard to get her to move to the next present.  Good call, Ab.

Jeremy and I gave her a play kitchen for her birthday, but we had to have something to give her at her party.  She found this Minnie that she HAD TO HAVE at Target last weekend.  When she opened the back, she squealed with an overwhelmed tone of excitement M-I-N-N-I-E-E-E-E-E-E!!!!!!!

Then Minnie needed to color with the marker/brush.  (Of course.)

When it hit 7:45, she completely turned into a pumpkin.  She grabbed her blanket and said, “home?”  I told her to go tell her daddy….which she promptly did.  He sent me home with her, and I spent most of the drive trying to soothe a very tired baby.  She likes for me to rub her feet in the car.  It’s something I do to calm her down.  I asked her if she wanted me to rub her feet, but she said no. Then I asked her if she wanted to hold my hand. “Okay…” was the whimpering response I received.  As soon as I took ahold of her hand, she said “rub blanky?” and handed me a corner of her soft blue blanky.  In her mind, I’m sure that me asking to rub her feet indicated that I needed some comfort too.  Blue blanky would soothe both of us on our miserably long drive to the house.

Sweet little one…

More pics to come – as I round them up from others at the party and take some of her playing with her new presents around the house.