Sing a Song

Annabel loves to sing.  She had such a blast in December because she would sing every single Christmas carol in the book. She loves to sing along to the radio or to the songs on her Hello Kitty keyboard.  Her favorite time with her GG is when they sing together from a songbook.  She will practice the songs from her preschool music class at home.

And now she has started singing conversations.  It’s the funniest thing.  I will ask her what she did in school and it turns into a song about playing with her friends.  She will draw a picture of a hippo and then walk around the room singing about it.  When she’s playing a board game with her brother, she will sing about every move she makes.  Every time she gets strapped into her car seat, she starts to sing about the last book she read or where we are going.  When we’re at Starbucks, she’ll sing about her love for chocolate milk and strawberry cake pops.

When we’re at home, these original songs will often be accompanied by a living room dance number.  But sometimes she’s just sitting on the couch and will get inspired by our search for a DVD.  She’s cute, that one.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

I grew up in Maryland so you would think I’d be used to a little cold weather.  You would think I MISSED cold weather since I now live in Jacksonville, Florida.  I did miss it a tiny little bit when we first moved down here five years ago.  But now I’m so used to living in a warm climate that the cold weather completely throws me for a loop.  Sure, even in Florida, we should expect a small stretch of cold days in December and January, but usually it’s never terribly cold here.  But the past couple of days (and nights!) have been really cold.  Well, really cold meaning low 30′s. And really cold meaning fleece jackets and (gasp!) hats and mittens.

The kids have been having fun with it.  They don’t mind it that much.  I just wish it was accompanied by snow. It’s hard knowing my kids will never experience a true snowfall. (Aside from the fun soapy one at the local Winter Wonderland.) They will never run out to build a snowman or zoom down a hill on a sled.  I know I can take them on a fancy vacation to a ski resort, but it’s not the same.  It’s not how I remember it.  I remember putting bread bags over my socks before I slid on my boots.  I remember making dozens of snow angels all in a row on our front lawn.  I remember catching snowflakes on my tongue.  I remember the sweet moment when the guy on the radio said school was canceled and I could turn over and go back to sleep.

But, then again, I also remember waiting at the bus stop in zero degree weather with tears running down my cheeks from the wind chill.  I remember slumber parties or basketball games getting canceled because the roads were too icy.  I remember shoveling the driveway only to do it all again the next day because more snow fell while we slept.  I remember the METRO being delayed while I stood on the platform jogging in place willing my body to warm up.  So, no, I don’t miss the cold northern weather anymore.  And I can always take the kids up north in the winter to experience it all for themselves.  In the meantime, we’ll be here complaining about today’s high of 60 and making plans to hit the beach NEXT week.

 

 

Hi.

Hi. I’m back.

I took a mini break because of personal reasons.  The personal reasons were all mine.  I needed to clear my head.  I needed to miss typing my thoughts and feelings on my keyboard each week.  I needed to miss it, so when I came back (and I’m back!), I wouldn’t go away again.

The big downer about it all is that I lost two months of diary entries.  And a bunch of stuff happened in those two months.  Forgive me as I will be recapping some older moments over the next few weeks.  The entire point of this website is that it becomes a memory vault for my kids.  And when I stopped writing about my kids for 60 days, I realized how big each “little” moment was.   Because aside from the standard carving of the Thanksgiving turkey or opening gifts on Christmas morning, there was Daniel running around the baseball field for the first time and Annabel as an angel in her very first school play.  And I need to capture those moments.  I HAVE to.  For them.  And for me.  And, you know, hopefully for you too.  You who reads this blog everyday or once a week or once a month or even once every couple of months.  Thank you.  Thank you for letting me share all these moments with you. I encourage you to capture your own moments.  Whether in a blog like this one, or in a word document on your computer.  Or in a scrapbook or  journal.  Use words or use photos.  But capture the moments.   You’ll be glad you did.  Happy New Year, everyone.

Happy New Year

Collide

When I had my children 18 months apart, I knew there would be days (weeks, months!) that would be tough. It’s inevitable when you have two little ones so close in age.  The first months were difficult because I had a brand new walker and a newborn.  Then, there was an awesome period when Daniel was 3 and Annabel was 2. They could finally play together and it felt like I had twins.  It still feels like that sometimes.

But now I’m going through another difficult period.  Daniel has reentered his school worry stage.  And Annabel has started an “I don’t like school anymore” phase.  And let me tell you…Whoa.  Just WHOA.  This morning was an example of the worst of it.

I put Daniel in ASC (After School Care) two days a week on the recommendation of his teacher.  Because Daniel is repeating his Pre- Kindergarten year, he is now one of the older children in his class.  There are a handful of 5-year-olds (like Daniel) and the rest are 4-year-olds.  The teacher is wonderful and has managed to teach to the different skill levels and needs of the kids.  Daniel is starting early reading while other children are in learning centers.   She works with him on his speech which is improving dramatically.  He is doing awesome. She also said we should start extending his day at least a couple times a week so he can start getting used to the longer hours when he starts Kindergarten in the fall.  Also, it would be great for him socially and I know he needs to continue to work that “muscle.”

Well, Daniel does not like change.  He’s very sensitive, like his Mama, and he gets a little nervous.  But he’s been doing the ASC for two weeks now and I thought it was finally just a part of  his new school routine.  No.  I basically have to prepare myself for a torturous morning of  anxiety each day he has ASC.  He over thinks it. He tries to be brave but his sad face makes me feel horrible, like I’m sending him off to some mean place. And it’s just a few extra hours of playtime and eating lunch with his friends.

Annabel might be feeding off Daniel, but she has begun her “I don’t like school anymore” phase.  After I drop Daniel off at his school, we have a 45 minute wait before Annabel goes to her preschool.  It used to be fine. We would pack her lunchbox and backpack, go for a walk, read some books, and then off we went.  She would smile and run into class.  She loved school. But the last two times have been a horrible watching-the-clock wait while she complains and whines about how much she doesn’t want to go. This morning I had to drop her off kicking and screaming.  It was awful. I know it’s another “phase,” but I wonder if something happened.  She won’t give me answers and her lovely teacher says she is a joy.  But the same thing happened with her dance class.  She no longer goes to dance because after three weeks of sitting and crying on the sidelines, it just wasn’t worth it.  I’m not going to force her to do a 30 minute dance class that she is supposed to love!  I was super disappointed because she was my little ballerina girl.  But I’ve moved on.  I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because she’s allowed to change her mind.  She’s allowed to CHANGE.  But she was always my “easy” one.  She was the one who ran in and didn’t look back.  Well, the universe is laughing at me now. Big time.

I’m emotionally exhausted. It’s just hard that these two challenging milestone moments are happening at the exact same time.  You’d think they planned it. Hmmm…anything’s possible with these two.

 

Just One of the Boys

Annabel is my little girly girl.  She loves dresses.

She is just like me when I was little because she is starting to refuse to wear anything but dresses to school. She rocks them with her sparkly white sneakers.

 She LOVES ballet class.  Her favorite part is putting on the pink leotard, tights, and tutu.

But, she also has a little bit of tomboy in her.  She has a big brother, so that’s to be expected.  Her playroom is filled with just as many cars, trucks, and transformers as it is dolls, ponies, and dress up clothes.  She has always been around Daniel’s little guy friends ever since she can remember.  So I don’t know why I was surprised when she told me her favorite thing at school today was “playing army man” on the playground. She said the boys gave her a stick and they all pretended they were “army men.”  As soon as she was done telling me the story, she then went up to the playroom and did this for an hour:

I think it’s cool.  I love that she is my princess diva but she can hang with the boys.  I wrote all about being girly and how I think it’s awesome as long as I also expose her to every experience and opportunity any boy would have.  She often mentions the boys in her class and how much fun she has playing games or doing puzzles with them.  She mentions her girlfriends too, but she definitely has a fondness for the boys.

Watch out, Daddy.

Annabel’s First Day of School ’11

What happened to my BAAAYBEEE?

This is Annabel heading out to meet her preschool teacher for the first time last Friday.  We had a 10 minute meet-and-greet orientation. Annabel met her teacher as well as all the cool classroom toys.  Then, we left.  Today, we went back.  It was her very first day of school.  Her very FIRST day.

Did I mention that it was her very first day of school?  Like, EVER?  You would not have guessed it.  She was so confident.  She was actually quite giddy.  First, she said goodbye to her big brother.

Then, we got everything together.  Her lunchbox, her backpack, the play-doh we were donating, and the teacher gifts.  (We bought them pink tervis tumblers.)

Her cute backpack is the “chocolate butterfly” version from PBKids.  Annabel picked it out in April and it’s been sitting on a side table for over four months.  She finally got to use it today.  She was VERY excited.  She wore her blue school T-shirt (required), with a jean skirt from Target (I couldn’t resist the white trim), and her brand new sparkly white sneakers from the Stride-Rite outlet. She picked them out all by herself.

We left early and arrived at her preschool SUPER early SO…more photos!

Oh why, yes, that IS a bruise on her beautiful forehead.  It wouldn’t be my kid if there wasn’t some type of head bump present in a major milestone/holiday photograph.

And there she goes.

She hung up her backpack.  She handed in her play-doh.  She gave her teachers the gift bags.  She was wide-eyed and ready to go.

Before I left I said, “Give me a big hug!”  She did.  And then she said, “And a kiss too, Mama.”  I kissed my baby girl and walked out the door.  I stopped and looked back.  She didn’t.

I walked away thinking about how my little BFF was out in the world without me for the first time.  I was only 20 feet away, but I already missed her terribly.

I swear I didn’t cry until I got to my car.

Sugar and Spice and Smarts

I’m a girly girl.  I’ve talked about it here before.  My daughter is “girly” like me.  She has a pink room with ballerina pictures on the wall and Hello Kitty bed sheets.  She loves the princess movies.  She has a dollhouse.  She likes to dress up and put feathers in her hair.

But she also wants to be an animal doctor.  She has a book about being President of the United States.  She plays with trucks.  She likes to build Lego towers.  We like to do puzzles and play Memory together.  She loves art and clay projects.

I believe a balance is fine.  Annabel can put on her Cinderella dress with sparkly jewelry and play with pretend make-up.  She will also help her brother set up the GeoTrax train set.  We will read Fancy Nancy, but then we’ll practice the rhymes in Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop.  We sing the Alphabet song as much as we sing Taylor Swift songs.

Speaking of Taylor Swift, Huffington Post writer Andrea Lampros wrote a piece telling moms NOT to take their daughters to see Taylor Swift in concert.  She wrote about her dismay when she saw CoverGirl stands encouraging young concert-goers to get makeovers and try on lipsticks and eye shadows. (Taylor is a CoverGirl and CoverGirl was her concert sponsor.) Lampros did not like the message it sent to girls: You’re “not really beautiful until you cake your tiny, pre-pubescent face with makeup.”

I probably would let Annabel try on a little lip gloss and then we’d be on our way.  You don’t have to go to extremes.  I’m sure lots of high school girls wearing make-up are also honor roll students who have high self-esteem.  If they don’t, is that Taylor Swift’s fault?  I happen to think Taylor Swift is an amazing role model who is not only a successful pop star, but a talented singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist.

I do agree that young girls get targeted a lot more than young boys when it comes to product marketing and mixed messages. For example, this shirt was recently pulled from the JCPenney stores.  Can you guess why?

It was a back-to-school shirt for girls sizes 7-16.  Many bloggers made a stink about the message.  Why do you have to be pretty OR smart?  Why can’t you be both?  Are they saying it’s BETTER to be pretty? And check out that tag line: Who has time for homework when there’s a new Justin Bieber album out?  ”Like, Oh Em Gee! I can’t do my multiplication tables when I’m listening to ‘U Smile!’” Gimme a break.  (It also reminded me of THIS shirt that I wrote about two years ago.)

I don’t think we can avoid messages like this aimed at our young girls.  Parents just have to be in charge. I need to be a strong role model for my daughter. I need to know what’s she’s buying and what she’s reading.  I need to chaperone her concerts and her sleepovers.  I will make sure she does her homework.  I’ll encourage her to run for student government. I will take her to museums. She’ll volunteer.

But I will let her be “girly.”  I will show her how to shave her legs and put on eyeliner.  I will take her to get her ears pierced and I’m excited for our first mani/pedi together.  We’ll have long talks about her dreams, her future, and what’s most important in life.

Over tea, of course.

Annabel’s Hair Feathers

I love trendy celebrity things.  I just can’t help myself. I had to buy Jessica Simpson’s crochet shawl when she started wearing one every week on her Newlyweds reality show.  I made Hubbie buy me this designer diaper bag when I saw a bunch of celebrities carrying it in the pages of People Magazine.  I bought this blush because I read that celebrity makeup artists used it on almost all their clients. So when I saw Tori Spelling tweet about finding new feathers for her daughter Stella’s hair, I just had to know more.  It took me a second on Google to find other celebrity offspring with feathers in their hair.  How cute are these kids?

That’s Denise Richards’ daughter, Lola, Cindy Crawford’s daughter, Kaia, and Brooke Burke’s daughter, Neriah.

Then my daughter’s friend sported some purple feathers in her hair and I asked her mom where I could buy them for Annabel.  We picked these up at Claire’s Boutique for ten bucks:

It’s a bit pricey for a fancy barrette, but she just loves it.  I think I passed my trendy gene on to my daughter.  (YES!)

 

Annabel’s First Bike

We got Miss Independent her very first bicycle this week.  She loves it.  This is the first time she is peddling by herself.  She never liked the tricycle she had and that was a bummer.  She would just sit there and want us to do all the work for her.  Daniel, on the other hand, loves to ride his bike every day after dinner.  Hubbie and I really want to get some bikes again too.   I have visions of our little bike riding family cruising around the neighborhood. (And maybe even the beach!)  So I was really excited when Annabel jumped on this pink princess bike and pedaled away.

Our after dinner bike rides are so much more fun now.

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