Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, the luck of the Irish shone on us today - the sun came out! And it was a mild day - still wore turtlenecks and jackets, but that's okay. We weren't freezing.

Today was my day to volunteer in Amelia's preschool. We have to volunteer once a month but we get to pick which day. I purposely picked St. Paddy's Day and brought green iced cookies and provolone cheese - the one kind of cheese Amelia can have without a reaction. (I also buy her yogurt cheese and goat cheese but I am not spending that kind of money for an entire preschool class.) I also brought some of that wire stuff with the shamrock tinsel and fashioned circles out of it for each person's head (including mine and Ms. Donna's) so we each had a shamrock crown of sorts. The kids made Irish soda bread and Amelia kept trying to sample at each step of the way, much like she does at home. Ms. Donna was impressed at how fast I was to stop her each time - she clearly doesn't understand how much experience I have in the kitchen with Amelia!

On another note, Amelia is fascinated with being a cat. A few weeks ago she came home from Meme's saying that next week she would go into the barn and catch mice and that afterwards she would go in the house and have some milk. She meows a lot and at first would say her name was Tom but now prefers Tallulah (the name of our little black cat). She calls her food cat treats as in, "I need some grape cat treats," rather than just grapes. She says I am a dog and daddy is a bunny. Tonight when Dodah stopped by with a cute shamrock pin for her, Amelia called Dodah a horse. Dodah went with it ... after all she is used to being called Laustin Dodah by her Pablo Amelia. She also now asks if it is kitty day or doggy night (rather than her standard, "Is it today or is it tonight?"). She sometimes crawls when she is a kitty, too. Not too great when she is wearing corduroys and suddenly drops to the sidewalk so she can walk on all fours like a kitty cat. I hate how the knees on those things wear thin so quickly on cement. However, I love her imagination and am amazed at the way she can really carry a theme.

It was warm enough to play outside when we got home from preschool and she was able to play with her new favorite toy. She received it for her birthday back in late September, but with so many other new things we didn't get to it before the weather turned. It's a plastic grill that is a bubble maker. The best thing so far is how she can dip a brush on the tray that clips to the side and pass it over the grill which has a fan below it. This causes lots of bubbles to be made, much to Amelia's delight. I have an old beach chair that is low to the ground that I set up beside it for her.

While we were in FL we stopped by a consignment store and when we were leaving I looked for Amelia. I found her trying to ride a cute orange bike with a tiger on it. She was enjoying it and it was only $19 - a Schwinn already assembled with training wheels, and it was just her size (maybe just a little too big). How could I say no? And how could she when I asked if she wanted to take it home? I let her ride it out to Grandma's car and we took it to Aunt Amy's house where she tried riding it while Jack drove his Cadillac SUV toy. She wanted so badly to keep up and I looked back as I was holding her and she jack-knifed and fell, scraping her elbow and knee (the elbow got the worst of it). After that we let her ride and then even drive Jack's toy SUV and she loved it.

Now she talks about how she got hurt at Jack's house, but she still loves her bike. When we got home from FL, Tia Polly and Cristian drove up to welcome us home. We were chatting at the top of the driveway while Daddy was unpacking the Jeep. A few minutes later when Amelia saw Daddy take the bike out of the back of the jeep, she left her beloved Tia Polly, delightedly screaming as she ran down the driveway, "My tiger bike! My tiger bike!" Yes, I think she loves it.