I was struck by a picture I took of Baylor this weekend. I occurred to me just how fast she has grown. Here’s what I mean:
March 20, 2010 October 22, 2011
Same kid. Same bench. From cruising to climbing. Several inches and a lot more hair in just a year in a half!
Yeah I know this is a day behind, but trying to create Halloween too far in advance is just too much work!
We had a great weekend filled with lots of pumpkin carving – or drilling in Peter’s case (don’t ask because I can’t explain). We had a blast scooping out the guts, trying to interpret what Baylor wanted hers to look like and watching Peter create a master piece using pipe cleaners. Here’s how they turned out:
{Baylor’s classic “pumpin”}
{Peter’s. Enough said}
{And the pièce de résistance – Cannibal Pumpkin!}
This is the first year that Bay really got the whole enchilada. She likes to dress up and she totally got the hang of trick-or-treating once she realized there were M&M’s involved. We were also lucky to inherit a hand me down Minnie Mouse costume from Bay’s cousin Madi. It was the real deal too; dress, ears, gloves, ring, tights and shoes. She was in love. Minnie is one of the only characters she really knows so she was excited to look like one of her favorite “amimals” or stuffed animals.
The gloves didn’t last long and the tights were too hot, but the important parts were there! Including a Minnie bracelet from our super cute neighbor.
First stop of the night
Aunt Christiane (Titi) and cousin Zoe the Gnome
Enjoying all the candy she could eat!
There are a thousand adjectives I can think of when describing our weekend; fun, exhausting, sweaty, family oriented, precious, memory making…the list goes on. We planted flowers, played in the yard, made waffles and watched College Game Day, went to a friend’s surprise birthday brunch, to a school carnival and read lots of books and snuggled in to watch a movie. In a word, I need a weekend after our weekend. But my favorite part is this picture of B after the St. Theresa’s carnival:
The look of sticky satisfaction over the cheap stuffed animal she won and her sucker is priceless!
Mr. Bear, our sweet old man Wheaton Terrier had a little doggie lypo suction this week. He has had two fatty cysts for over a year and one keeps getting infected. The vet said they were having a teeth cleaning special that included anesthesia and then while he was under, they would lop off the offending lumps.
I was nervous dropping him off yesterday. All I could think was “Are we being silly about this? What if he doesn’t make it through surgery? What if he doesn’t recover because of his age?”. But I trust our vet and have always appreciated her realistic approach to pet care so we kissed him and he scooted through the swinging doors.
They called a few hours later and said he did great. The surgery went very smoothly and the cysts didn’t look cancerous so that’s another win. I picked him up that afternoon and they carried my old man to the car practically held together by what seemed like 1000 metal staples. He sat next to B in the backseat and she said softly “I no touch your ouchies, ok Bear Bear? Feel better Bear Bear” all the way home.
After removing his cone and making him a special dinner of kibble and chicken stock, he started moving around. He is standing awkwardly which I’m praying it temporary, but he’s wagging his tail and moving around so I think he’s on the mend. I can’t believe I’m actually excited about the return of our kid toy eating, jumping on guest, rug peeing fur face. But I am. Get well soon Mr. Bear!
“Seriously Girl? Pictures? I’m trying to recover here. I’m so peeing on your rug when you leave today.”
Fallen? I guess if Spring has Sprung, that makes sense.
Anyway, it’s finally cooled down a little and we’ve been so happy to have all the doors and windows open all the time. This also means we’ve been playing outside as much as possible. We broke out the water table and toys, the sidewalk chalk and the paint brushes. Yes, I said paint brushes.
We discovered at the Children’s Museum one of the simplest and most fun activities – painting with water. Yes, you read that right. We get out the paint brushes, rolers and sponges, get a bucket of water and head out to the patio to get our paint on:
No clean up. No mess.
Also another all time favorite, the sidewalk chalk. And PW showed Bay how to make a hop scotch pattern and jump around:
I love this…
So if you’re looking for us, we’ve gone chalkin’. Be back soon.
The first time I met Melissa, she came by on a sunny afternoon. As I answered the door, Baylor and her cousin Zoe were having a hair pulling / screaming match in the background. The pretty lady at the door said “Hi. I’m Melissa. We met a few weeks ago – but I was wondering, do you drink wine?”. My sister-in-law and I burst out laughing. My response? “Do you hear this shenanigans? Of COURSE we drink wine!!”.
Flash forward a few months and PW and I have become friends with Melissa. We’ve gotten to know her and it’s been a blast!
The other night, I realized while making dinner for friends (who were due in less than an hour) that I was totally out of balsamic vinegar. Despite my obsessive list making, the vital ingredient in my balsamic reduction for the caprese salad was no where to be found. Thankfully, in addition to working for a wine supplier, Melissa is a trained chef so there’s a good chance she will have whatever item I’ve forgotten at the grocery store.
Sadly, she too was out of vinegar. I hung up the phone and began dialing PW to ask him to stop on the way home when my phone rang:
“I felt bad that I didn’t have any vinegar so I’m running to the store. See you in a few minutes!”
And not 10 minutes later, there was smiling Melissa with a full bottle of vinegar. She explained she didn’t want me waiting too long to make the reduction as it leaves the house smelling quite pungent and she didn’t want our guests to arrive and immediately fall over from the smell.
seriously, who does that?! Best. Neighbor. EVER!!
We don’t usually get to eat together as a family during the week so we make it a priority to eat almost all our meals together on the weekends. This Saturday we got take out from one of our favorite places, Dozo sushi. It is by far, one of the hidden gems in Scottsdale.
While PW and I enjoyed salmon sushi, a Vegas roll and a Rainbow roll, Bay enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a fruit smoothie and carrots. She was loving using the plastic forks that came with dinner – but then became obsessed with using the chop sticks. So we handed her a pair and cut up her sandwich so she could grab a few bites. And I have to say, she did pretty well!!
What?? I use chop sticks all the time.
allllmossttt got it….
Success!!!
The best part? The novelty of the chop sticks means she ate every last thing on her plate!
We spent the holiday weekend in Coronado, CA. We’ve take a trip there, long or short, every year since I can remember. It’s our happy place and it’s so much fun to get to share it with Baylor.
We met my mom, sister Ali and her husband Gary (or Jerry as he was known for most of the trip) and my step sister Nancy and her kiddos Blaise and Madi. It was a big group with high expectations for doing as little as possible. Which we did quite well.
Our first day on the beach, we pulled our wagon full of toys, boards, towels and snacks to the perfect piece of sandy paradise. We ran out into the water, caught a few waves, threw the football and then settled in for some gossip magazine reading. I kept waiting for B to run over to me and demand a new activity, snack or some other form of entertainment, but it never came. I watched her and Madi contently dig in the sand. They dug, poured, washed, filled and held the sand. All while silently enjoying each other’s company.
It occurred to me that not only does Bay really love Madi, but the reason she was so content to just play was because it was just play. No one was asking her what color the shovel was. Or how many buckets had sand in them or if the water was hot or cold. There was no overt learning going on, it was just quiet play. I realized that had I been sitting there, I would have been making it a teaching moment – and not that that is a bad thing, but sometimes we just need to sit and dig.
So the next day we did just that. No talking. No fuss, just patted sand castles into place and washed them away with a watering can. All while just enjoying the sound of the waves. Lesson learned: less talk and more play.
Well, I guess technicall it’s just “to school” at our house. Ms.Baylor started her first day of preschool today!
A few weeks ago we found out that the cost of our favorite Little Gym class was going up – like way up. And because my little lady is such a social butterfly, we decided to look at a few half days of preschool. I started asking around, looking around and making calls to the few schools near our home that have an academic cirriculum for 2 year olds. We’re lucky that we had several choices and all have a Christian base. The unlucky part is that apparently every other two year olds mom knew that they were going to be ready for preschool months ago and had registered them and taken up all the available spots. We’re talking registration fees to get on a double digit wait list! I always thought the story line in movies where there is a year long wait list for preschool was a joke – apparently the only joke was on me.
Thankfully we did find a school that had openings and on top of that, they were amazing! I felt comfortable from the moment we walked in an Baylor was in love with the classroom and play ground. We met her teachers last week and when it was time to leave, she cried and screamed “STAY!!!”. Her teacher thought she was upset because Baylor thought I was leaving – I had to explain that Bay would love it if I would go so she could stay.
This morning after lots of pictures, Bay scrambled to her new class room and dove into the toys. I squatted down next to her and said that Daddy and I were going to leave she turned and said “hug! kiss! bye bye!”. She all but walked us to the door.
When I picked her up, the class was lying on their tummies singing a song about fish swimming. Bay looked up, waved and then continued on with the song. Her report card said she was “happy”, “ate all her snack” (big shock since it was mini pancakes!) and “had a great first day!”. B handed me her report card, said good bye and we headed out the door. No tears, no issues on either end. Can’t ask for more.
She told me in the car that she got to show her family pictures to her class mates, that they painted piggies and played on the swings. She also told me a girl named Emma got her ears pierced and that it hurt. She repeated her story to both sets of grandparents and to daddy too. I am currently listening to her tell Minnie Mouse the same story – it’s nap time so she and Minnie are having some pillow talk.
Her one disappointment of the day was that she didn’t need to take a backpack with her to school. This, however, did not stop me from getting her a ridiculously cute one that was waiting in the car for her….
Ready to take on preschool!
I think every girl (big and small!) needs a pair of red boots in their wardrobe.
The Goon Room 
