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.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Grammy and Grandpa came to stay with us while Jeremy was in Orlando for his quarterly state committeeman meeting. They are worn out. This home remodel has required them to go through every single thing they own and decide what to keep, what to trash, what to give away, and what to try to sell. It’s been physically exhausting, emotionally traumatizing, mentally draining, and just all around rough. When we stop and think that they really started the process back in April and are now in the heavy throws of it… that’s a long time! And now they’ve been displaced from their home for about a month. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Selah June has enjoyed their company — even if it’s had to be a bit low-key. Dad found princess songs on YouTube as well as little home videos of a person playing with Ana and Elsa dolls. She took to wearing Jeremy’s super big headphones and vegging out to videos. We watched Married at First Sight – the Reunion. It was nice to watch adult shows for a change. When the cat’s away!!

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Do you see this mess? Selah June discovered all kinds of clothes in her closet, and this felt hat was in the mix. She insisted on wearing it to school. (Keep in mind it is in the high 90s right now.) She couldn’t wait to show all of her teachers her hat, and she still had it on when I picked her up later that afternoon.

Apparently, her arch nemesis, Gage, is a really physical kind of kid. Everything Gage does is aggressive. He hits – why we don’t like him. And he hugs – especially all the moms. When Selah June gets to school, the first person to greet her is Gage. And he wants to give her a bear hug. She leans over next to me, sometimes grabbing my leg, and whines “noooooo… No, Gage!” And the teachers tell him, “Gage, not yet.  Give her some space, Gage.” It’s almost like she needs her morning coffee before she can interact with the intensity of Gage-style friendship that early in the morning.

The other thing that’s been a thing this week is that the kids all need to play outside, but it’s way too hot. So they have a few activities that they can play in the shade. One of them is a sandbox with toys. She loves to make things with all the sand, building things on the table by the door. But she’s very proprietary. If I come to pick her up, and the other kids are waiting to play with her toys and sand, she has to mess it all up. It has to be a disaster so that 1) she’s not leaving some she wants to play with and 2) they will not have the advantage of benefitting from her labor. It’s really funny (and a little dictatorial).

Monday, August 7, 2017

She is really exploring pretend play, and she’s beginning to play in her room by herself. It’s really weird to have your kid go from needing your constant attention to disappearing for long stretches at a time lost in her own world of wonder. She found baskets of hats and tutus and necklaces in her room, and decided to play dress up. At one point, she came out of her room with no panties and just a tutu. Priceless picture – not for the Internet.

Daddy and Mommy went into her room so that she could make us treats. We had ice cream and sandwiches and juice and all kinds of delicious food. You can see the devastation…

Saturday, August 5, 2017

This was just the week of play dates! Harrison’s mommy asked us to come over to dinner at their house over the weekend. We played with all the toys and jumped on the little indoor trampoline. We ate kabobs and had grilled peaches for dessert. Then we played outside with Harrison’s water table before the sun set.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Sheila and Catherine joined us at the splash pad downtown to enjoy a little bit of summer. It was funny to see all of the moms there at the same time, planning a play date and picnic in time to make it home for afternoon nap.

Catherine loved all of the pigeons. She also loved to explore the boundary limits of the park. That freaked a lot of the guys that were getting ready to fish off the end of Palafox out. Sheila seemed totally used to it. Catherine is a runner.

Selah June wanted to stay right around the water. She liked exploring the splash pad, but she wasn’t so sure about going in the water. She ran all around it and got me to chase her “very carefully” so we didn’t slip and fall.

I brought tons of fruit and granola bars. Sheila brought the girls big lollipops. So sweet…

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Today was Daddy’s birthday. Selah June and I got home a little early so that we could surprise Daddy with a birthday card. But he ended up beating us home. So she snuck upstairs to “roar” him (scare him). He was definitely surprised. They spent about an hour visiting, and she turned a plain envelope into a lovely card with lots of circles just for him.

We then went to his “birthday party.” After picking up some chicken nuggets at Chick Fil-A, we went to Small Cakes and bought all the cupcakes and ice cream we could collectively handle. (And, yes, I could handle much more than either of those two.) I have no self control.

Selah June wanted to sit at the little table, so that’s where we started the birthday party. Before too long, she decided we needed to move over to one of the bigger tables.

Does that look like a party or what??

Monday, July 31, 2017

Selah June loves to ride with the windows down, the wind blowing in her face. When we turn corners or go over bumps, she squeals “whoo hoo!!!” She definitely loves the open road. And when Daddy is driving, the music is turned way up. Usually it’s the piggy song (“Shake It Off”) or the mouse song (“I Did It My Way”).

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Selah June picked out some window markers at Target for our post-nap activity. They were like magic. Though they went on clear, they dried into a color that looked like it had been crystallized. They were super cool, and we had fun drawing on both back doors before making dinner.