oh and btw, happy halloween!

It's been a while, eh? Almost two months. Nothing much to report on truthfully.

School is going quite well for Lovie. She still loves it. We still love it. Her teacher is constantly telling us how smart she is and the other day she started compiling a list of kids she wants to invite to her FIFTH birthday party (in less than two months #omgholdme). She sat there and sounded out each name and wrote down the letters that corresponded with the sound. I was quite impressed. She's also been impressing me with her reading lately. In addition to sight words and other words she knows from memorization, most of her reading is still figuring out the words with the picture, but she totally gets sounding out the words when I tell her to LOOK at the word.

It's pretty awesome. She's pretty awesome. And pretty. ;)


***
We went on vacation last week. We drove from Chicago to (near) Clearwater Florida. The drive down wasn't so fun. Lovie got carsick twice on the first day. What should've taken us 11 hours, took us 17 that first day. But the second day went much smoother. And of course the time spent in Florida was nothing shy of fabulous. Really and truly.

Now I'm generally NOT a sun and hot weather person. In fact, I hate it. But if you can get me right. on. the. ocean. I'm game. And that's what we did. We found a condo to rent that was RIGHT on the water. The view, the price, it was all just too much to pass up. We laid around in the sun and swam in the ocean the majority of the time. We also went on a pirate cruise (which I'd recommend anyone to do- especially if you have kids). On the last day, we left the condo at 10AM (checkout time) and headed to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium... home of Winter the dolphin.

This place was really and truly fabulous, and a great way to spend our last day of vacation. I have never in all my life encountered a place where every single employee was SO nice. And if you've seen the Dolphin Tale movies, you absolutely MUST visit this place with your kids. Worth every penny.


***
Next up is preparing for the holidays and Lovie's birthday (in less than two months #omgholdme). We already know where it's going to be and what we'll be doing, but I do still need to book it. I'm actually super excited about this party as it's not a jumpy house. Not that anything is wrong with jumpy houses, Lovie LOVES them and had her last two parties at them. I just think what we have planned, if pulled off, will be super damn fun and cute and memorable. You only turn five once, right? Why not make it a memorable one?

journal writing: the kid edition

While I'm trying super hard not to be too pushy about this, I'm super dang excited about Lovie learning to read and write. She knows how to spell several words and write them. For the most part. She can also figure out what a lot of easy words are by looking at the first letter of the word as well as the the image nearby. She's a smart cookie and I'm confident she'll be a reader and writer in no time...But I'm anxious.

I am. I don't know why exactly, but the idea of her reading and writing excites me so much. I just can't wait for it all to click. I can't wait for her to start thumbing through books. I can't wait for her to write notes unprompted. I just can't wait.

That said, the kid is only 4 (and a half!).

I want her to really enjoy being 4 and 5 and 6 and....

I want her to play and dance and sing and color and paint and fart and giggle and make bubbles when drinking. I want her to retain that innocence as long as she can. I have no desire to rush anything... I'm just super excited about reading and writing.

Enter the Mama and Me journal.

I got the idea via this pin one day while wasting time on Pinterest, and while Lovie's not really a writer and reader quite yet, I thought why not start this? She could draw pictures or get help to write something. Or she could just let it sit until the day came when she could read and write on her own.

One day last week we were talking about letters or reading or something and I mentioned the idea of the journal and how I thought it could be fun to do-- write letters to one another in a journal, just for us, and put them under the other person's pillow when it's their turn. She seemed kind of excited about it, but not horribly so, so I didn't bring it up again. Instead I printed out a cover image for a notebook I already had and started thinking about what I wanted to write and how I wanted to approach it.

I finally wrote the letter yesterday and stuck it under her pillow while she was watching TV after school. My intention was for her to discover it on her own and figure it out but then, out of the blue, while we snuggled on the couch just before bed, she said, "Hey me-member you said you would get a journal to write in and put under my pillow?"

Oh the smile that washed over my face as I nodded and whispered, "Why don't you go look under your pillow now?"

She looked up at me with such glee and ran off to her bedroom where I could hear an exuberant shriek quickly followed by the sound of her feet running against the hardwood floor back toward the living room. I thought her face might break from smiling so much as she handed the book to me and asked me what it said.

I read it to her, of course, and when I was done she immediately demanded I tell her what to write.

I laughed and told her she didn't have to write anything if she didn't want to, that she could even draw a picture. I reiterated that the journal was for whatever we wanted to share with each other. Well, she continued to demand that I tell her how to spell certain words. And when she was all done, about twenty minutes later, she dashed off to my bedroom, demanding I keep my eyes closed (even though she wrote her letter directly on top of me and I already knew what it said: Hi Mama I Love You So Much).

After I put her to bed, I went in my bedroom and opened the book and looked at her writing more closely. Her big smiley happy faces and rounded hearts made my eyes well up. She ran out of room signing her name so she had to put the last letter in front of the first letter, which made me laugh out loud.

I wrote her a little note back and tucked it under her pillow this morning before I left for work. When it's my turn to journal again, I plan on taping this photo of us I took yesterday while watching TV:

(could she look any less interested/exhausted. oh but she's not tired, oh no!!)

I will cherish this book (and hopefully many more to come) for ever and always.

here's one way to publish your own book

The other week we made a cardboard Washing Machine. It's pretty kick ass if I do say so myself.

While we were making the thing, I ended up with several scraps of cardboard box which I gave to Lovie to do with as she pleased. She was excited when I gave the pieces to her but then said, "What do you want me to do with them?"

I told her she could do whatever she wanted--she could color on them, cut them, make play food (cookie), make a book, whatever.

"A book?" She was quite interested.

I folded one of the scrap pieces in half and told her we could put paper inside and that the cardboard would be the outside of the book which she could color and design herself.

This is what happened:

See the squiggly lines in green above the blob? Yeah, that's her "story". She even read the thing to me, flipping the pages and telling me an actual story! It's called "Kashie's Seasons." It's about a girl, Kashie (probably should be spelled Kayshie), who lived Once Upon a Time and who loved going outside and loved the different seasons. One day she got sad though but then she went outside and she was happy again.

Or something.

Seriously though, how awesome is that?! And SO EASY to do (held the paper in there with [pink] tape). She literally "wrote" on each page and drew a corresponding image! I should have her read it to me again so I can "translate" it for the future when she may not be able to read her "writing" because this is one of those things that I will save forever.

how to beat the damn heat

...go to the library and spend three hours there reading and coloring and reading and having an awesome, one-on-one time without having to deal with annoying bugs and sweat dripping from your entire body.

so glad you're back!

Forever now, we've been reading to Lovie any chance we could.

It started right after we found out she was a girl and I picked up a book that soon became my favorite: I Love You So...  I read that book every night whilst Lovie curled up inside of me. And, a couple weeks after she was born (after we got into a groove with her schedule and whatnot), we started reading to her again and soon, it became part of her bedtime routine.

Shortly after learning to walk and turning one, Lovie even started requesting we read to her:

can you believe how little she once was? WOW was she cute. still is but WOW.

Which, of course, we obliged.

Happily.

Joyfully.

Life is amazing with a little one sitting in your lap listening to you read, looking at pages, etc. Amazing and beautiful and perfect.


Shortly after Lovie turned two, bedtimes became a struggle and she lost interest in us reading to her. We implemented a new routine which allowed her to do what she wanted for a couple minutes before bedtime and soon, bedtimes became less of a struggle again.

But we weren't reading.

Occasionally she'd ask us to read on the weekends but for the most part, books just sat on the shelf.

It made me sad; I really missed reading to her.


The past couple of weeks, something has changed with Lovie again. Now, she'll ask, "Can I sit in your lap and you read to me?"

"Of course, baby!" I say, scooping her up and into my lap.

She's such a big girl now. She now sits there and "reads" (or sings) along with me. She now asks questions and points to different things in the book in such a Big-Girl-no-longer-baby way.

And I love it.

Life is amazing with a little one sitting in your lap listening to you read, looking at pages, etc. Amazing and beautiful and perfect.

Welcome back!

So much.

The other day, I posted about how I was inspired by Pinterest and wanted to create a print for Lovie's room from a quote from my favorite book of hers. It's the first book I purchased for her and it was bought just an hour or so after finding out she was going to be a girl.

Here's a post from my pregnancy blog regarding the book:

8/26/2009: After the beautiful appointment yesterday, Daddy and I went to register - or at least start to register. It was actually a lot of fun because it was a brand new experience for us both to be surrounded by everything baby.

After an hour or so we gave up (for now) and handed in the zapper (which your dad thoroughly enjoyed managing), I bought a book to start reading to you, and we headed out to dinner. The book is one that I'm sure we'll spend many times reading together because it truly is a wonderful story: I Love You So... by Marianne Richmond.

I'm not going to lie: by the end of the story, I was in tears. I had a real hard time finishing the story and one day you'll understand. They were good tears, my sweet baby girl. Wonderful tears. Because the fact is that while we haven't yet met in person quite yet, I really do love you so...

All my love,
Momma

Sappy, yes? YES!

But that's me, I guess.

Anyway, I'm not even sure how many times I've read this book.

circa April 2010

But it's definitely so many times that I've memorized it and Lovie's been bringing the book to me to read since before she was a year old (though this video is from a couple weeks after turning 1):

She's "read" it on her own many times, and now... now she will actually ask me to read specifically that book to her. She doesn't just bring the book to me like she did when she was first starting to walk (and talk- kinda)!

I'm guessing this isn't a big deal to most folks, but to me it's huge. Since she was a month old or so, we've established a bedtime routine that always included reading books because reading to a child, even an itty bitty baby, to me, is SO important. I couldn't tell you WHY exactly I feel so strongly about it, but I do. I digress though, sorry. Well, about a month ago, she started to fight the bedtime routine and I was at a loss for several days until finally I thought to see if she was wanting some sort of change. So I started to ask her to pick out a book instead of just reading. This helped matters immensely.

For the past week or two, she always asks for the Choo-Choo book (a Thomas the Train book that plays sounds when you press a button). But she also always tries stalling going to bed and will start pulling out several other books so in order to control that a bit (mean mommy), I ask her to pick out another book to let daddy read (when/if he's there) or for me to read. And the other day? When I asked her what other book she wanted me to read after the Choo-Choo book?? She says to me, "So much."

But she said it in a way that sounded like one word: "Somuch."

I didn't pick it up right away and thought that she was saying "Thomas" for the Choo-Choo book again and said, "Thomas? You want me to read the Choo Choo book again?"

"No," she said. "Somuch."

I sat there and looked at her and tried really hard to think about what she was saying.  And as I thought about it and said nothing, she went to get the I Love You So... book.

"So much?" I repeated with much enthusiasm as I was smacked in the face with what she was saying.

A big smile invaded Lovie's face. "Somuch," she repeated, handing me the book.

I nearly cried. Sincerely, I nearly cried.

"I love you," I said, picking her up. "How much?"

"So much," we said at the same time.

"How much is so?" I said.
"Way, way" we both said as I nearly died, "more than you know."  (her "more than you know" came out as a "eh-ah-eh-oh")