I know I haven’t posted any pics in a really really long time. But tonight I did post pictures of Allison’s softball party along with the last game, if you want to check them out – in the game, she is the one with the pink shoes. At the pool party, she was the wet one, lol. – hey, it can be like a “where’s waldo” game…where’s Allison? where’s Meredith? (Lydia is easy)
Soon I will get some other pics up. I have a lot. Just not a lot of time 
when we were picking up our fruits and veggies from our local CSA today, the girls (once again) noticed the peach trees in front of the pickup location (the local community college horticultural center), and wanted to pick some peaches. When we got inside, we asked the CSA people if they knew if we could do that or not, and they directed us to people that actually work for the horticulture dept, and we were told that the peaches weren’t ripe or ready to be picked (boy they look yummy though) but when they are, we are welcome to pick several…AND not only that, but they have a garden out back with things like tomatoes and stuff, and if we wanted, the girls could pick stuff there too! We couldn’t pick today because they had just watered, so it was muddy, but the girls are so excited to go back and pick stuff next week and so excited about the peaches here in two weeks (or so). Isn’t that nice of the JCCC Horticulture Dept?
and the biggie, Jessica started the paperwork to attend the same community college today! Right now she says she wants to get an associates degree in criminal justice. Here’s hoping that she sticks with it and gets that degree! I hate to be a pessimist, but (and Jess, you would probably have to agree), she often comes up with plans but they fall apart on the follow-through, so after getting excited about her plans on multiple times, its been hard when they never materialize….So I am excited and proud of her, but still want to say, here’s hoping she actually does it The fall semester starts in a few weeks. Will she make it in time? Who knows. Keep us posted, ok Jess?
could it be? Could it really be that my 7 year stint in diapers (not me, my kids – although who knows, we could be looking at a break before I am actually in diapers…break out the depends, her last kid is potty training) could be nearing an end???? Lydia has been in panties all week (except at bedtime), and has only had 2.5 accidents. We even went and ran a few errands yesterday…in panties (which Allison proudly told the clerk at the post office – although I was the one who added that not only was Lydia in panties, but ALL FOUR of us were wearing panties – am I the ONLY one who ever laughs at my jokes??)
I was hesitant to post, but just now Lydia did the grab crotch, shout “potty”, and run manuever that I am so familiar with – I think we are there!
on Sat we hosted the softball party in our backyard. There was one little girl who arrived who sat in the living room by herself playing with the basket of toys we keep by the fireplace. She didn’t want to get her swimsuit on, didn’t want to get in the pool, didn’t even want to go outside and say hi to her teammates, much less play with them. Her dad tried to convince her to go play, I tried to talk her into it, but she was having none of it. But when Allison realized this, she came in and started playing with the little girl. Even though Allison had a yard full of friends to play with, she sat with this little girl and played, and took her up to her room to show her the gerbils, and then took her outside to play with everyone else. Before the party ended, this little girl was swimming and playing and having a blast, and if Allison hadn’t of taken that time out to give her that one-to-one time, and help her ease out to the yard, I don’t think she would have enjoyed the party one bit.
Then today, we went to a friend’s birthday party. At one point the birthday girl got upset about something, and started crying. Her dad was talking with her, and helping her work it out, but I look down and see that Allison is crying too. I asked her why and she said that she hated it that her friend was so upset at her own birthday party. It ended fine, with both the birthday girl and Allison having a grand time, and I don’t think that the birthday girl even realized that Allison was so upset on her behalf.
Reminds me a bit of Jess…in the first or second grade, Jess actually picked the boy in the weird leg brace to be her square dancing partner. Jess was popular, had tons of friends, but she actually picked the kid who was handicapped and couldn’t even walk normally, to be her dance partner.
Don’t I have great kids?
When Jessica was little, she and I played a LOT of games. We always enjoyed games, but when she was four, she started playing games that I liked too. We played a lot of Yahtzee. That girl knew her multiplication facts up to the sixes when she was only four due to playing Yahtzee. I also taught her how to play Rummy around that age, along with various other games. Since I was a single mom, she was my only companion, and we played a lot of games and had a lot of fun. Around the time she turned 8 or so, she sorta didn’t want to play with me as much. I could get her for an occassional game of Rummy or something on a boring Sat afternoon, but that was about it. Flash forward. When Allison was around 3 or 4, I started introducing games to her as well. She loved games, we had a great time. UNTIL….Meredith became mobile. I used to refer to Meredith as the stealth bomber, because she was silent and destroyed everything in her path. Including games in progress. It was then that I stopped playing games with my children. By the time Meredith was old enough to enjoy games, I was hugely pregnant and uncomfortable wtih baby Lydia, and then after she was born I had a baby, a preschooler, a young child, a rebellious teenager, and a thriving business.
Now here we are, Lydia is 2 years old, and I, ambitiously I admit, thought maybe Allison, Meredith and I could play a game. I figured Lydia could help me and it would be fun. We pulled out the Monopoly Jr. game and got it all set up. As soon as we set it up, Lydia finds her own die and her own car and proclaims that it is Lydia’s turn. Hm…not gonna sit happily in my lap holding my money I see. She then proceeds to sort her own money, back into the bank, or to give it to her sisters. When she does get a turn (see, I tried to include her), she would plomp plomp plomp her car all over the board, ignoring me when I told her to put it HERE…no HERE…then give your sister $2. During many of her turns, she would be up and dancing, then when it was someone elses turn, she would loudly proclaim it to be “Lydia’s turn,” grab the die and run with it. Fine we deal……Then, as soon as we get a few houses on the board, you know..the point in monopoly where you start worrying about someone jiggling the board and all the houses flying…it was THEN that the dog starts his first of many failed attempts to walk over the playing board. He eventually settles on taking a nap on top of the bank, so that each time we needed to make change, or passed go, we had to sneak a hand under the dog to grab some paper money, and hope that we pulled out the right change. I knew that the ones were somewhere around his left hip. But the girls did find it enormously funny when I declared that Diesel just wanted to be the banker. After about 45 mins, and 30 mins after bedtime I proclaimed the game to be over. We counted our money and put it away.
The one thing that saved the whole experience is that I won. In fact, I kicked major monopoly jr. butt.
So maybe we will try again in another year.
Today baby Lydia (25 months old) chewed her first piece of gum. She chewed it for almost 2 hours and then threw it away. We are so proud.
During this time, however, Meredith (nearing her 5th birthday) got gum stuck in her hair.
Conversation between Meredith and her dad:
Meredith – you are invited to a party tomorrow
Daddy – a party? What kind?
M – Its a celebration!
D- A celebration? What are we celebrating?
M- PARTIES!
D – a party to celebrate parties? Whoo Hoo! (ok, this last one may not be a direct quote)
Another floaty that is….Meredith is now swimming without a floaty..thanks to private swim lessons with Uncle Bruce over the holiday weekend! She can swim from one side to the other unassisted. She still makes me pretty nervous (she seems to work VERY hard at it!), so I ask her to stay close to the wall if I am tending to Lydia (who, now that Meredith is not wearing a floaty, is protesting her own floaty).
In other news, we had a lovely visit with Grandma, PaPaw, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Bruce over the weekend. The girls had never met Eric’s sister or her husband, so this was a special visit. The girls had a great time playing games with Aunt Lisa and swimming with Uncle Bruce. Thanks for the great visit guys!
Yesterday was the fourth of July. What did you all do? We went to see fireworks. None of us like crowds, so we found a piece of land away from the actual display…one that would enable us to still see what was going on but free us from the loud noises (could be scarey to Lydia and even Meredith) and the crowd. We were not prepared though. We forgot to bring anything to sit on. Luckily I had one chair in the car and some jackets and a sling that we could sit on. We set up camp, while the girls run around like nuts. There are several other people camped out in front of the same business park we were in front of. It was getting really dark, the show should be starting at any moment…when all of the sudden we hear a strange noise. Next thing you know, the sprinklers came on and ALL the people sitting there took off running (as did we). It was SO funny!!! Oh my goodness….the girls and I laughed for the longest time (and even Eric smiled – some)
Earlier today I hear Meredith start to cry and then I hear Lydia say “what happened Meredith?” – when did she turn into a little girl? And what happened to my baby?