Family at Heart

A and I had a great time today.  She desperately needed a trim, so I booked her an 11:30 at a salon where they specialize in little girls.  She calls it “the place where they treat me like a princess.”  She was so excited to go, and so it dawned on me to take along the camera and get a before and after scrapbook page/blog post out of it.  Only on the way did I decide to make it about our entire day.   We followed the salon with lunch at her favorite place at the mall, shoes shopping, a yummy cookie, and visits to the play area and the Disney store.  Fun times!

Before we left, I took this.

At the salon…

Shoe shopping…

She settled on her still-favorite character – Dora!

Can you guess what color icing her cookie had on top?

This last picture really sums it all up!  Great day

Yesterday A had preschool, and Hubby and I usually meet up for lunch at least one of the days that she’s not with me. It’s been our little lunch date pattern since October. I was browsing at the scrapbook store when I got his call to meet him for lunch at the mall. So we met up and had a wonderful lunch. But then he hesitated to go straight back to work. He is a workaholic. He says that I’m the hardest working person he knows, but he’s the hardest working person that I know. I of course had some time before I was supposed to pick up A, so I encouraged him to take some time and just relax for a bit. He had just gotten back from a trip to Detroit; he had been short on sleep; he really needed a break. To my surprise and excitement, he agreed. So there we went walking around the mall, holding hands like teenagers, you know with fingers all interlaced It really did take me back to when we were dating. So we began searching for a hat for him. A few years back, it became apparent that Hubby’s hair line was receding, so he embraced it and began shaving his head. I’ve loved it from the beginning. He likes it too, except for at the moment, he is FREEZING. We looked all over for an actual hat and not just a baseball cap. We had so much fun trying on the hats in Macy’s. He had never worn anything like that. Couple that with his silly expressions and the stuff that he was coming up with just had me giggling out loud. We had so much fun. I really didn’t want our date to end. We hadn’t just walked around carefree like that in years. Our lunches have been wonderful, but have been at most for an hour each. We took an hour and a half and just had fun. I had talked about reconnecting with A earlier in the week. I got to reconnect with Hubby too! Now I am wondering when our next date will be.

By the way, he got a great knit cap at Dillard’s, and at $9.00, we’re both happy about that!

Well, it’s 9:46 and I just finished my dishes from yesterday, yes you read that correctly. I had plans to get that finished last night but after pulling in a 12+ hour shift with my little buddy, I was too wiped out to even get back up when she went to bed. I haven’t done that in months. It’s hard to know that the break isn’t coming when Daddy gets home around 6:00. Traveling is necessary for him, but none of us enjoy it one bit. I had a post all written in my head too for last night. It was about what a rough day I had, how A wouldn’t listen to a word I said, blah blah blah. But it really is a wonder what a good night’s rest will do. That and a 3 year old that’s in a better mood the next day and the slow passage of those couple of days each month that just make me insane. I hope that’s subtle enough not to offend anyone. Some women use those days as an excuse for everything. I don’t do that at all, and in fact forget that is the reason that I am literally acting like some crazy person, one without patience and one that snaps at even herself. Then it dawns on me. Snap out of it!

Anyway, A had preschool this morning and I got my errands run and made some important calls, so I had a lot accomplished by the time I picked her up. I just concentrated on her this entire afternoon. We played tea party, hide-and-seek, mommy and baby (total role reversal), and made Yo Gabba Gabba puppets. Then we read umpteen books and watched a few cartoons. It was so great to reconnect. Now bring on tomorrow

Here’s a few photos from our dress-up session the other day, the Yo Gabba Gabba cutouts that are now hanging on my dining room wall, and her little tea party from tonight just before bath and bed. It sure feels good to be caught up on everything again and looking forward to Hubby coming home!

Now I will go and check in on the residents of Port Charles. Me time begins at exactly 10:15 pm tonight!

Not much time or energy to post at the moment.  Fido was born on Friday at our pet rock play date.  A loves him, and I agree that he’s pretty darn cute too.  More posts and pictures to come while Daddy is out of town and Mommy can get caught back up

A has been making art masterpieces for us for some time now, so when she was drawing me a picture on Tuesday it wasn’t unusual at all. I was impressed though with the sun that she drew. I save everything anyway, so I put it aside to show to Daddy when he got home from his business trip. She was in bed by that time and when I showed it to him, he immediately noticed something that I didn’t. She had written MOM on it!!!! She’s been writing her name for several months, and she will write letters to her friends. I’ll tell her which letters to write and she does it. But this was the first time she ever did it uncoached, and on top of that, her first word to write on her own was MOM. I asked her what she had tried to write just above it that is all marked out. She said she was trying to write TO. My feet still haven’t touched the ground. Love that girl! I still can’t believe that I didn’t notice it; I was just so darn impressed with that sun

She drew it with a pencil, so I had to contrast it a bit with Photoshop. I am brand new to doing anything in Photoshop, so hopefully this will work okay.

I was cleaning out some emails and found these that Hubby had sent to me a while back. I am at a loss to describe how much she’s grown and changed, and I say that with such joy and sadness too. I miss holding her as a baby, but I am so excited for her to learn and experience new things. It’s always a Catch 22, but we are always winning too because we get to be with our precious girl. We love you Baby Gosh!

Well, as usual this child has me in stitches again. She insists on completely disrobing from the waist down when she goes to the bathroom and then parading around the house until I help her with her clothes. She denies doing this at school and she’s probably telling the truth since it’s much harder to get undressed when you’re wearing shoes. Anyway, she just realized that she can wear her pants on her head and so the gypsy girl has arrived. This particular day she put on her ballerina stuff as well and just added to the hilarity.

This morning she insisted on having pasta for breakfast. Hey, as long as she’s asking for real food and not crackers or M&M’s, I’m all for it, so I cooked up some Italian fare just for my funny girl.

This would be a deep, thought-provoking picture if not for the pasta sauce all over that pretty face!

“A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.” – Dorothy Canfield Fisher

I can’t even begin to get my mind around this. I left A at preschool this morning and cried almost as much as I did the first day. I had really gotten used to having her around all the time again. She, on the other hand, literally ran into her classroom and announced that she was at school and yes, for everyone to look at her ponytail that Mommy had fixed. I got the sweetest goodbye kisses too which really didn’t make it any easier for me. But like the first day, I survived. I went shopping and got her a really cute horn for her bike and a new shirt. And I literally counted the minutes until I could pick her up. There she was in her little circle of classmates listening to a story. She beamed when she saw me and returned my blown kiss. That was a special moment for me. We had a fantastic afternoon. We got the backyard playdate-ready (our neighborhood group is meeting here tomorrow afternoon) and took the bike to the park. We’ve been everyday since Saturday and she’s making impressive progress. She just needs to understand steering and she’ll have it! Anyway, I saw that quote in my latest parenting magazine and I’ve been thinking a lot about it. It’s true, but I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to have it become my reality. I want her to be independent, but not for at least 20 more years

A got a Disney Princess bike for her 3rd birthday in June and until Saturday she refused to even talk about wearing a helmet. So it sat in our extra room for seven months. For some reason, Saturday was the magic day that she decided to ride the bike. So off we went to the toy store to get a helmet. Surprisingly, she chose a Hello Kitty helmet with matching elbow and knee pads. She has made great strides since Saturday in learning how to pedal and steer. This is even funner than I thought it would be. I see several scrapbook pages about this bike in my not-too-distant future.

She was more about pushing it that first day, but she really looked cute in her new gear

This was from this evening. She will be racing down the sidewalk in no time!

Grandma G has made A some very sweet things. She made A a lovely pillow and blanket before she was born. But here recently, she’s made a little leopard dress with a purse and also a robe. As soon as A knows that something is coming in the mail, she gets so excited. She adores both of these and there’s no wonder. They’re adorable. By the way, she sleeps with that pillow every night.

I know that Ma G has started reading this blog, so I am posting some pictures of Hubby that she might enjoy. That’s really a bit of sarcasm since she’s not too happy about him riding motorcycles. She’s a mommy and she worries. I understand. But don’t worry too much Ma, Hubby is one of the safest people I know whether it’s on a motorcycle, in a plane or a helicopter