Easter eggs!

Amelia and I were playing Silly Switch today and she looked so grown up to me, so I got my camera out. She even smiled for me, but I also like this photo even though she is talking to me as she shakes the die in her hand.

She asked me to play with her and I told her I needed to unload the dishwasher first and asked if she wanted to help. She said, "No." So I went about my business. Two minutes later she asked how much longer until I could play and I told her I was still working on the dishwasher but I could play with her sooner if she helped me, so she did. She put away the silverware (her normal chore). When she first started doing that, she thought the tissue paper I used to line the bottom of each section was a blanket for the silverware and she would use it as such to put them to bed. The tissue paper has disintegrated from so much use so today I gave her some paper towel pieces to use and this is what the drawer looked like when I checked on her progress. Too cute! (Although Daddy wasn't sure what to make of it when he came home from work and was getting silverware for dinner. He was like, "Have you seen the silverware drawer?") Today for the first time the silverware had genders. I don't remember all of them, but the small forks were little girls. She didn't need any prodding today and even put the tray back in the dishwasher and put the door up. I guess she really wanted to get to that game!

We invited Livia and Anda over to color Easter eggs tonight. I put Amelia in an old white shirt and shorts in case the dye got everywhere. It was fun to see her in summer clothes. The girls had a lot of fun. I was so concerned about Amelia cracking eggs and then I went and cracked one as I was giving it to Anda. The girls were so curious about eating an egg so I went ahead and showed them how to peel it and they enjoyed sharing it. They thought it was really neat that some of the blue had gotten on the egg. In this picture Amelia is complaining that she needs a fork - even though there is one right in front of her. She is so sensitive to being slighted when I pay attention to Livia or Anda. I know it's natural, but I wish she felt more secure about my attention. (And besides, she uses her fingers much of the time to eat, despite my constant reminders that eating with utensils is more polite.)

This was the first year that Ameila has dyed eggs. Things have changed so much since I was a kid. The kits came with collapsable cups for the liquids and I had glass bowls all ready to go. (Livia's mom looked at the bowls and said, "What are those for?" I am just so old fashioned, don't you know.) No more wire egg holders or white crayons and rub-off decals that you put on before you dyed the eggs. It's all easy stickers now. I think it takes some of the creativity out of it, but I guess as long as the kids have fun, they don't notice the difference, although it may make it less interesting for older children. Amelia wasn't as enamored with making eggs more than one color, either. I always enjoyed dipping eggs in halfway in two different colors which made the ring in the middle a third color. But she is only 4 and this was her first time, so I am sure she will get more creative later.

As a surprise, Livia's mom brought some Easter baskets for the girls and they wanted to use the sidewalk chalk so we went out and the girls drew with the chalk and then hugged good-bye. It will be nice when they can play outside all the time.

[pictures dated 3/30/10]

Easter Egg Hunt

We took Amelia to an Easter egg hunt today. By the time we got there, found a parking spot and walked to the event, they were shutting down the inflatables (darn!), but Amelia was a good sport about it. We went over to the area where the Easter egg hunt was staged. They divided everyone by age group so the only kids vying for eggs with Amelia were other 4&5 year-olds. This worked out really well. I still taught her a little strategy, though. I told her that since we were all surrounding the area that she shouldn't stop right away because that is what everyone else will do. She should go all the way to the middle before she started picking up eggs and she should be sure to hold her bucket out in front of her so she doesn't unintentionally tip it over when she bends over to get her eggs. She listened and then a few minutes later she repeated it all back to me! It was so cute ... she was apparently into it! While we waited to scoped out where all the blue eggs were. I told her she might not get all of them, that she should just pick up whatever eggs she sees. Since it wasn't an aggressive group of kids, she was able to get all the blue ones! She got about eight eggs total and was very pleased. They also gave out a goodie bag with a small activity book and some candy.

We went back into the other section to see what might still be open. All the inflatables were gone, but we spied the Easter Bunny and Amelia took off for him/her. She is so fast! Here she is approaching the bunny and s/he is completely unaware! Fortunately, Amelia did not tackle the bunny, she ran around and jumped up and down to get his/her attention. Amelia was so cute talking to the bunny and then she said, "Bye Bunny!"

We were able to get her some balloons and a free biscuit from Bojangles which she scarfed down. She was either really hungry or it was really good. Then she played on the playground for a while. She loved the tire swing and in the end there were three girls total on it with her. They were so cute talking to one another. "I'm 6, how old are you?" "I'm four." "I'm four, too!" and then "My hair gets in my face." "Mine, too!"

[pictures dated 3/27/10]

Banana Split!

It snowed yesterday and it looked this morning like it was going to snow some more. It was overcast and dreary so after pre-school we headed to the mall so I could use a free kid's meal coupon at Chik-Fil-A and let Amelia play in the play area. She noticed that the DAI in Dairy Queen was burned out and that reminded me that she hasn't had a real-life banana split yet. It is featured in one of her Pooh videos (actually the episode prior to the sad, stripeless Tigger one) and she got a plastic pretend one from Aunt Amy at Christmas. So we marched on over and ordered a banana split and I lifted her up so she could see it made. We then shared it - and she LOVED it! It was fun to just do that on the spur of the moment, too.

Then we went to Barnes & Noble where instead of the train table she played with the stuffed animals - putting one on each seat around a table. Then we moved to the stage where she put one on each bench, then on the stage she put one in each child-sized Adirondack chair and proceeded to have a show - complete with an audience!

I had something I needed to return at Books-a-Million and wanted to pop into TJ Maxx real quick to check something. They had a Fur Real cat that Amelia became enchanted with (not hard to believe). It meows and purrs, blinks its eyes, moves its head. I decided to offer to get it for her IF she starts listening to me when I tell her to do something. I hate to resort to that kind of bribing, but I am getting a little desperate. The bargain was that I would take him away if she doesn't listen to me. She agreed and tried carrying him "in his crate" (his box) but needed help. It was so cute! She gets the crate thing from Max, the little dachsund that Dodah has. She likes to crawl in his crate.

Happy 4-1/2!!

Amelia turned 4-1/2 today and we decided to let her pick out a birthday cake. She's been planning her 5th birthday for months and since we have a wonderful family friend who usually makes her cakes and it's been such a long winter I thought it would be fun to celebrate her half birthday. I took Amelia to Ingles Sunday to pick out her cake. She opted for a Winnie the Pooh cake despite talking ad infinitum about the parking lot birthday cake she wanted, and briefly considering a Dora cake. We told the woman what we wanted and she went back to make sure they had the kit. While she finished filling out the form Amelia asked if she could see the pieces and had a lot of fun looking at them.

We picked up the cake today after I finished working and also got a blue balloon ($1 ... who could say no?). When we got home she noticed how she could let it go and still reach the bottom of the string until the textured ceiling won and there was a loud POP! So I got out some regular balloons and inflated four which Amelia picked out: blue, red, yellow and green. We had fun batting these around the living room and the popped balloon was quickly forgotten.

We went to dance where Amelia tried to tell Miss Angel (who knows Amelia has a September birthday) that it was her half birthday and Miss Angel said, "Silly goose! Today isn't your birthday!" Amelia liked being called a silly goose and told me about it all the way home.

After dance and dinner we had cake and I wrapped a Hello Kitty sticker book for her which she loved. So it was a nice simple family party. I took some cake to the neighbors after Amelia went to bed and tomorrow we'll bring some to Nana and also to Livia and her family. In the meantime, Amelia has had a lot of fun getting Pooh to pop out of his honey pot.

[picture dated 3/22/10]

Dreamer

Amelia has been dreaming and they're not all good. The other morning she woke up saying she dreamed she had been at Grandma's, running around in her house and playing in the sand box in her backyard. But last night she woke up at 4:20 am crying because she was dreaming of Tigger losing his stripes. (This is an episode in a video called Tiggerific Tales which she hasn't seen in a few months.) I told her she could watch the video in the morning and I took her potty so she could maybe re-set herself, but she was still upset. I put on her lullabies and rubbed her back, but she was still upset. I know sometimes it's hard to shake a bad dream so I laid down next to her thinking we'd fall asleep together. She would ask me a question or reach out to touch me every few minutes and after about an hour she started wiggling a lot so I got up, gave her the Dora flashlight and a book and went back to my bed. We both woke up at 9 am this morning - a record!

Tonight she wanted to watch the Tigger episode and then proceeded to get all teary right before bed. She was upset because she couldn't remember all the words to the song Tigger sings about not knowing who he really is. She says she feels exactly the same way. !! What is she, 4 going on 14? She said she couldn't think of any happy things to think about and I told her to think about her 1/2 birthday tomorrow (we're getting her a cake because she didn't get to pick out her 4th birthday cake), going to Grandma's, and Tad - which I set to sing to her.

It took her about an hour to fall asleep. I think a large part of it is the time change. It's just an hour but it's amazing how it wreaks havoc on her. Going to bed when the clock says 8:30 pm or 9 pm when your body says it's 7:30 pm or 8, and then being woken up in the morning when you're used to waking up by yourself ... it is taxing on a little girl.

In other news, I bought Amelia some Snyder's all natural rice & corn puffs. I thought they were pretty tasty, but Amelia turned them down. I am not the only one who likes them, however. Tallulah, the cat, LOVES them. She was sitting on my lap and stuck her nose in my bowl and proceeded to eat three pieces before I could react! Hmmmmm

Big Day

We were invited to a birthday party at an indoor pool. Since it's still wintery weather and an hour's drive to the place, I packed everything rather than putting bathing suits on under our clothes. I let Amelia pick out her bathing suit and proceeded to leave it at the house. Bad Mom! I had her cover-up and her floatie and her towel ... but no suit. So she swam in her undershirt and panties. Oh well. I felt bad but she didn't seem to notice until it was time to leave and she had to wear her stockings without panties. She had on the cutest outfit that is a hand-me-down from her cousin, Ashley. It was a dark blue fleece jumper with a blue leopard print heart and trim (and a white turtleneck).

We got to the house for the pizza and cake part and they had a 3-dimensional Thomas cake plus a Thomas balloon and Thomas plates and napkins. Amelia thought it was just fantastic. The little boy's name was Aspen which she pronounces Azth-ben. They had a playroom in the basement with a train table, a ball pit and a big toddler toy with rolling balls. Oh, and a tunnel. She didn't want to leave.

When we got home it had turned into a nice day and we went to the park for a little while with Livia and then to Nana's house so Mommy and Daddy could go out to eat.

She was exhausted by bedtime which hopefully will help her readjust fully to the time change.

Taxes ... Texas

I picked Amelia up from Nana's this afternoon and told her we needed to go pick up our taxes since they called me this morning to say they were ready. (Yay!) When we got home Amelia asked me where we went and I told her we went to get our taxes.

Amelia: "Taxes? What is taxes? Isn't there a United State Taxes?"

Me: "You mean Texas. Yes, there is a state called Texas."

Amelia: "When I was a baby I flew on a plane to Texas."

Me: "Yes, you did. We went to see Uncle Stephen, Aunt Jennifer and your cousin Austin there." (I think she remembers me telling her that when we were doing a States puzzle a month or so ago.)

Amelia: "We drove to Tennessee and then flew to Texas. Both those United States start with T!"

I adore how she says United State instead of just state. I did correct her, but I suspect it will be like some of her other things (like bessert) which stick around for a while no matter what.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you remembered to wear green. We did!

I buy a lot of Amelia's clothes on eBay. A few weeks ago I asked her if she liked this dress and she emphatically said YES!, she could wear it for Patrick's Day. (Her teacher goes over the holidays/special days in the coming months and she was aware that St. Patrick's Day was coming even though it took her a while to realize Patrick was a saint.)

This morning when I got the dress out she was so excited that she was going to get to wear "the dress that mommy bought on the computer". Dodah stopped by with some shamrock socks and a slinky for Amelia who informed her that the dress came from the computer. (When I put her tights on this morning and she asked for socks and shoes I didn't tell her that you don't wear tights AND socks since I knew Dodah was coming with shamrcok socks and I knew she'd have to wear them, but it was too cold not to wear tights with her beloved new-to-her dress.)

I didn't think to take a picture until tonight when her hair was in her face but that's okay. Here she is enjoying the cute light-up Easter bunny that Grandma sent.

[picture dated 3/17/10]

Dairy Queen

We had a great weekend. We went to Greensboro and met Daddy for dinner. He was down there watching the ACC Tournament. We then went to his hotel and swam Saturday morning before heading to see Aunt Jeannine and her family. Jeannine, Hannah, Amelia and I went shopping for the remainder of Saturday and that was fun. (Of course!) We went to church with them and then back to their house for lunch before heading home. It was hard to have to ask Amelia to stop playing in the back yard with Hannah - they were digging and exploring and it was so fun to just watch them having fun together. Plus it was sunny - we haven't seen much of the sun at home.

On the way home we had a number of potty stops and when we stopped at a Dairy Queen at supper time I decided to see if Amelia wanted to have something to eat. We had already gotten a parfait at McDonald's at an earlier potty stop so I wasn't sure if she was hungry since we were also dealing with the time change. She did want some chicken nuggets and they had applesauce as an alternative to the fries so she enjoyed her kids meal. She wanted to know what her toy was and I tried explaining that she was going to get to choose an ice cream treat for dessert instead. "They don't have toys here? Dairy Queen doesn't have toys? Why don't they have toys?" It wasn't s spoiled brat kind of thing, it was just so surprising to her. Even though there are some lame toys that Wendy's and some other places have given her, they at least had something they tried to pass off as a toy. We got her the small ice cream cone and still she was flabbergasted as we walked out to the car. There she was between licks, "Why doesn't Dairy Queen have toys?"

So today we get home from Nana's and she was playing in her room. She came across the Dairy Queen pretend food that Aunt Amy gave her at Christmas and she says, holding up one of their ice cream sandwiches with the DQ on it, "Mommy! Look, Dairy Queen USED TO HAVE toys. They just ran out and don't have them anymore!" She seemed so pleased to have figured it out, I didn't correct her.