The Ducky Party

Faith and I decided to have a duck party. We gathered all the ducks from the bathroom and brought them to her room. Have to get out the Tinkerbell swimming suit and put it on. We are in a boat. She loves this blowup boat. We even use it in the bathtub when she doesn't really want to take a bath. Next comes the books. What shall we read today? How could I forget, DORA. Oh yes, Dora. She must have read to her ducks for 20 minutes or more. She really enjoys doing fun things with her animals. I've never known a child that you could send to her room to calm herself down and she knows herself well enough to go lay down and grab her Lamby and book basket.

Dinner and dancing

No it wasn't Bud and I out for dinner and dancing. It was our family and we did it in the kitchen. As the music played, in came Faith in her pink princess gown, tiara, and bear slippers. She was bound and determined to get her daddy to dance. So he put down his wooden spoon as he made the chicken and noodles and asked her to dance. Round and round they twirled with her dancing on his feet. It reminded me of the story Butterfly kisses. After dancing one song on their own Bud asked Faith if she wanted to dance with mommy. Of course. So she didn't just dance with me. She took Bud's hand in one hand and mine in the other and it was sort of a ring around the rosie with dancing feet swaying back and forth. We must have danced three dances and then she was off to her room to get her backpack packed for the ball. Dinner was great. Thanks Andma for sending the Oakland noodles. Bud is the best at preparing them. So this weekend's date night turned out to be a date night within the house.

To the best mom around!

It's a special day today. Happy birthday to my mom. What a wonderful mom. Always there when I need to talk. Always there when I want her to visit. Always there to talk to Faith. Always there to be the grandma that she is great at being. Always there to comfort when sad. Always there to share joys. No matter how far apart we may be, You'll always be the best mom there could be. Thanks for all you do. It means alot. Happy happy birthday!! I love you.

Learning to count

Faith has once again surprised me with what she really knows. Yesterday she started counting on the way home and the next think I knew she was up to thirty. Having only missed 25 and 26 she named all the other correctly. Her counting in Espanol is coming along also. She is enjoying her teacher very much and has successfully counted to 20(veinte). Then thanks to Mickey Mouse she has picked up counting by 10 all the way to 100. Not only does she enjoying counting to count she enjoys counting everything in sight. Tonight it was pennies as we counted 50 and put them in her piggy bank. After those were done she wanted more. However, I told her we would save them for another day. Last night it was counting objects in her stories. Tonight Bud said as we were hiding under the covers, "She shouldn't be talking like that. She sounds so grown up." That was after she had told us that she was going to rest. Why? "My legs are hurting me. I ran to much today and exercised in class." How she changes everyday.

The mommy mobile

Yes, I am officially in mommy mode and family mode as Bud and I decided to trade in our junk Explorer for a newer mini van. Now we have room for everyone to ride along when they come visit us. Yes, no more two vehicles to the city. No more two vehicles for Williamsburg this summer. There is ample space in our new Town and Country. Of course it is white. Seems like white is the color that everyone trades in but we got a good deal on it. Plus, with this new purchase we will now be able to travel back to the midwest in the Spring. Easter anyone?? I am excited. Faith is excited her new sibling will be riding along with her in the back in a few months. The even better news. Our payment is only $60 more than what we were paying. Nice. So come see us. Let's travel. Let's see everything there is to see. Let's go to the mountains. Let's go go go.

Indoor fun

With the frigid air outside, we have all been forced to be inside; both at school and home. So we have come up with a new game called Bottom Ball. We gather all the balls in the house and stuff them into our pants. Then walk like this....sway, sway, sway. Faith managed to get three into hers. Looked like she had mamma hips but was too cute. Another activity has been reenacting Star Wars. We take our flashlight and put it up to our face. Then we turn it on. "Luke, I am your father." Yes, Faith does it too. However, she will replace the Luke with Mommy or Daddy. She evens deepens her voice like Darth Vador. Did I show her the youtube clip? You better believe I showed her the snippet and now she gets it. What else can we teach this little girl? Besides those two activities, she has been busy playing in dr in her room with her bears and serving up hot chocolate and fried chicken in her kitchen. Her and Bud made chocolate chip cookies yesterday. I think she only ate two spoonfuls of the dough. They were yummy.

Can we be any more obvious?

Do the snow boots tell you anything? It tells me that we are so antsy and inpatient for snow that we will go buy boots in hopes that we may get to wear them in the snow atleast one time this year. I have never lived anywhere where it is the middle of January and there hasn't been one measurable amount of snow. Then do you know what the forecast says? One minute it says, "60% chance of snow tomorrow. Then 2 hours later it says, it is going to completely miss our area only to go around where we live. Whose side is the Almighty on? As I sit and vent, I am reminded by Bud, "we can move back to Motown." What is winter without snow? If it must be 3 degrees outside, the least it can do is snow. Everyone, wish for snow. A big snow storm to reach us tomorrow. Don't go around us. Dust the ground. Give us an inch or two. That is all I want.

Letters and more letters

Turns out that Faith's magnetic letters and art easel was a great gift for her. What started off as a small interest in letters has turned into more. Of course she is recognizing small words in stories or familiar words she sees often whenever we read. Now she has taken to the point of wanting to put letters together to spell things. What does she how to spell best. Mommy, daddy, and her name. So she will now sort through her letters for the correct ones and put them into order. She does need some help although it is not when it comes to putting the letters in order. It is more when it comes to keeping them in order from left to right. I really didn't think that she would want to put words together. She is so little. But I help her and she is excited as you can see here. She found all her letters and then I helped her work through her letters to put them in order. Good job Faith.

The week's end

Another week has passed and Faith had a wonderful one to share. She learned about hibernating animals this week and was particularly interested in the books from the library that were shared. When her teacher told me that she was so interested in the library books, I refreshed her memory that Faith always loves books. She came home and told me that bears hibernate and I had to disagree with her and explain why. Something that I had learned as I prepared my hibernating lessons for this week.
She was busy with painting, building, tracing her name, learning her letters, counting to 15 in Spanish, and enjoying P.E. class again after the Christmas break. She is enjoying playing with her best friend from blue class. Every evening I pick her up she is with her. They laugh and play and often ask to come over to our house and play more. She talked to Bud twice on the phone this week and told him that she went to Burger King to play on the slide. "Daddy, I am big now. I can climb the stairs all by myself." He is in Florida for two weeks and missing everyone. A good week and hopefully a good weekend of doing absolutely nothing planned.

Sleeping habits

Faith has always been a good sleeper. But how does she sleep like this? I was talking with a friend at work and he said that he and his wife will often just sit and watch their little one sleep with his little bottom up in the air too. Have you ever tried it? Do you think it is comfortable? I have to agree. It isn't. But sometimes I will go into Faith's room and fix her in her bed and recover her only to find her wiggle right back where I moved her from in the first place. It must be a child's way to sleep. I see the others do it also in her class at school. If I were to sleep like that Bud would wake up and think he was getting lucky. Children are just this small bundle of joy that seem to make you smile whenever you think of them and the silly things that they say and do.

Kiss the cook

Cooking must have been the theme that everyone was thinking for Faith for Christmas this year. Pa Pa gave her a new food and dish set and then she received a baking outfit complete with real cooking tools. Thanks Secret House. A two year old's world is all about make believe and role playing so when I captured her in this outfit I realized that she is my little cook. She always has been. Ever since she could help stir at 18 months in Motown she has been the baker of the house. She now eats salad because she has helped make it so much. The morning after she opened her new apron and kitchen tools, she was in the kitchen before I woke up getting the stuff out for muffins. How could someone not want to kiss this little cook? She is such a sweet helper.

Happy New Year

I hope this post finds everyone enjoying the new year. With so much to do in so little time before June arrives, I find myself setting the resolution for better time management. From this day on, I pledge to not sleep in so much (7am) during the school week, to do chores when Faith is asleep, to say yes more to her than no when it comes to doing fun things, to turn the computer off instead of putting it into sleep mode, to organize my classroom better when it comes to keeping it clean and ready for another day, and last of all, to try to take more time with Bud before the new baby arrives. A happy new year it will be with a little work on my part. Happy New Year. Happy resolutions!!