July 29, 2013

LOVE this little girl



This little girl makes all of me smile from head to toe.

This little girl makes me so proud, so happy, so in love.

This little girl keeps me on my toes with her questions and knowledge of stuff like omnivores and constellations.

This little girl can count to 50 with very little help.

This little girl can spell her name, Mama, Daddy, Stop.

This little girl knows her birth date, address, the city she lives in, and her phone number.

This little girl sounds out letters and may very soon be reading words other than her name, Stop, Mama, Dad.

This little girl loves taking baths but won't take a shower.

This little girl never wants me to do her hair, yet doesn't mind having woodchips or sand in it.

This little girl loves cupcakes, popcorn, hot chocolate as well as green beans, peas, cantaloupe.

This little girl loves animals, especially her cats.

This little girl could spend all day playing in the sand.

This little girl doesn't like going to bed at night and won't sleep more than 9 hours at night.

This little girl loves taking ballet and is very sad to learn that she can't also take tap because she's not yet 4.

This little girl loves listening to music and singing as loud as she can.

This little girl hates any and all bugs except for lady bugs.

This little girl is and always will be absolutely everything to me.

July 26, 2013

TILTW 7.20-7.26



*
Lovie is no longer allowed to go to school with free hair (no pony tails, braids, etc). I'm sick and tired of having to spend an hour trying to clean sand or wood chips from her hair so girlfriend will just have to deal with me doing stuff to her hair every school day.

**
Any future pants purchased for Lovie, need to be in a regular 4 or 5T. No more Toddler clothes for her. She's just too tall.

***
Everyone seems happier when it's not a thousand degrees outside.

****
I'm a judge-y parent at times and that's just the way it is. I like to try to give the benefit of the doubt but sometimes... sometimes it's just too hard not to judge.

*****
July is a long-ass month but dude, it's almost over. Already!

July 25, 2013

parenting and the playground

The heat and humidity has finally subsided a bit around here so we've been stopping at the park pretty much every day after work and school.

Yesterday was absolutely the most perfect day: blue skies; very little humidity; temperature cool enough for pants, warm enough to have to sit in the shade after a bit.


Just perfect.

The park we went to yesterday was one that freaked me out at first time we went because Lovie had no fear, but I sure did. Nowadays, I let her do her thing... but now she's become more hesitant and fearful. The slides she used to flock to and slide down with such glee now cause her to hesitate.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, on one hand I want her to pause to think before she just jumps into things but on the other hand, at just 3.5, do I really want her afraid of so many things? It's bad enough any little (and I do mean little) bug freaks her out, but now she's afraid of sliding?

For now, I've just been trying to encourage her to do her thing but if she's fearful, that's okay too. She can try again another time, I tell her. And that other time is generally when a "friend" she's just met and is playing with does something she was, just moments earlier, afraid of.


Speaking of friends, she played with two little girls yesterday at two separate times. I try to encourage her to talk more to kids, to tell them her name and ask if they want to play, but as of yesterday, she still waits to be approached. She loves playing with other kids and gets so super excited when someone asks if she wants to play, but, for some reason (and I'm praying she's not picking this up from anti-social me), she won't do the approaching.

Anyhow, the second little girl she was playing with before we left the park saddened me. She leached onto Lovie so hard, I thought Lovie might freak a bit. I know I would've. As soon as Lovie agreed to play with her, the girl (the same size as Lovie), took Lovie's hand.

I thought it was cute at first until I realized that it was also very awkward... especially when I saw the apprehension in Lovie. But I pushed my feelings aside and smiled and watched them from afar.

The little girl wouldn't let Lovie out of her sight and grasp. At one point, I thought the little girl had hurt her arm when she slid down a side-by-side slide and Lovie didn't--even though their hands were joined. (A year ago, Lovie loved this slide.)

As I watched them play, I continued to note how the little girl dominated their play time. Lovie was fine and she's got to learn when to say No if she doesn't want to do something with a "friend" so I just sat by and watched, while wondering "Who does this child belong to?" I saw not one person watching her. Did someone just drop this child off and go? Is that why she leached on to Lovie so hard?

I began to feel a bit uneasy. And sad.

After about 20 minutes (we had been there at least an hour at this point), I finally had to tell Lovie that it would be time to go when the alarm on my phone sounded. And when that time came, Lovie said goodbye to her friend and we walked toward the car where I noticed, for the first time, that there was another car next to it (the cars are in plain sight, this car must've just pulled in moments prior to us leaving).

"Daddy! Daddy!!" the little girl whom Lovie was playing with shouted.

A man in his 20s at most, stepped out of the car next to mine and annoyingly said, "What?"

The little girl said something else and the dad seemed even more annoyed as he started walking toward the little girl.

I loaded Lovie into the car and kept my eye on the girl and her dad and a woman (mother? girlfriend? cousin?). He was pushing her on the swings and she was covered in a big smile.

I closed Lovie's door and walked around my car (facing the playground) and sat down, and in that time, the dad was gone... yet the girl still sat on the swings trying to swing and looking in back of her and screaming for her dad to play with her.

Her dad was no longer on the playground; rather, he was in the grass area throwing a football to someone.

He looked at the girl but ignored her.

And with that, I had to pull away and leave.


No, I have no clue what the deal is with that little girl and her dad. Maybe they had just spent hours playing together and he just needed a little break.

But I get the feeling that is not the case.

And I drove away feeling quite sad for that little girl.

And a bit angry at that "dad".

July 19, 2013

TILTW 7.13-7.19


*
It's too damn hot.

**
The Library rocks, especially on hot days.

***
Books on CDs for kids are awesome for when you're in the car. At least my kid thinks so.

****
I don't think I could endure one more mosquito bite.

*****
I did a bit of writing this week that I'm pretty damn proud of.

******
To any readers going to BlogHer this year in Chicago... you must try Giordano's pizza. You must. And while I'm not going, I do live in the city so if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up.

July 17, 2013

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.


July 12, 2013

TILTW: 7.6-7.12


*
Getting used to a new baby is much harder the first time around.

**
I make for great cushion.

***
I'm really digging Wordpress. When I was pregnant the first time in 2008, I started a blog on Wordpress. The pregnancy and my time on Wordpress didn't last long. I didn't find Wordpress compatible for me. It wasn't easy to find new blogs (maybe it just wasn't as easy as it is now?). And I knew several people on Blogger. I like my finallyMom blog here on Blogger. But I'm finding my voice on Wordpress. And I love it. I love that I can write more freely about stuff other than parenting and my dollface, Lovie. I love that I made the decision to separate the two. Still lots of writing here on finallyMom that may not pertain to parenting/Lovie, but now I can really focus on that at the other place. And Wordpress is just awesome. I love how you get comment notification on the dashboard and that you can reply right there and that if the commenter is on WP, they get notification of the reply. I love that they feature Freshly Pressed pieces from blogs. I love that I can so very easily search for new blogs. It's awesome. I won't move finallyMom there, but I really do love WP.

****
I also am loving Feedly as my new reader (in addition to the reader at WP). Bloglovin is okay but I haven't visited in a while. I don't like having to click on each blog to get the whole story. And on feedly, I don't have to do that; it's very much like the old google reader. The only issue I have with feedly is that it didn't move my blogs over. I had to input each new link which was kind of a pain in the ass. But now that I have most of what I read in my feedly, it's AWESOME.



July 8, 2013

expensive, but priceless

I spent literally 28 hours over the weekend with a 3-week-old baby doll (and her mama and daddy).


When I wasn't snuggling up with said 3-week-old, trying to absorb that newborn baby smell, I was looking out their windows to views of the Statue of Liberty.

(they have the most AMAZING view of Manhattan when you walk outside to the riverfront)


It was a super short visit, but one that I will cherish and one that couldn't have been much longer due to missing my own sweet baby doll at home who actually scored a new bear that she got to pick out, dress, and name upon my return yesterday.

(I keep hearing this pink princess-y stage will end... WHEN?!)

That's right, I promised Lovie that when I returned from the little trip, we would all spend the day together doing something super special with her and she (no thanks to the HUB channel and their damn commercials) chose to go to Build a Bear Workshop.

It wasn't a cheap weekend, to say the least, but it was definitely pretty priceless:

Flying out to Newark, NJ for two nights, one day: $380.
Cabbing it to/from airport to/from apartment with sweet baby and amazing views: $90.
Snuggling with a newborn whose diaper I don't have to change: Priceless.
Going to Build-a-Bear Workshop: $47.
Coming home to a super smiley, happy-to-see-me Lovie: PRICELESS.

July 5, 2013

TILTW: 6.29-7.5.13



*
My sweet love bug is growing up into such a sweet little girl. It blows my mind sometimes that she can be so awesome and that she can keep getting more and more awesome. She's got such a big heart, such a love for babies and animals and friends and family.

**
I'm completely over the damn mosquitos this year.

***
Next time we see a firework show, we need to pack lots of snacks, drinks, glow sticks and not get there too early.

****
Going out to eat on the 4th is pretty awesome. So is going to Target.

*****
Working the day following a holiday sucks ass.

July 1, 2013

interview with...

Lovie turned 3.5 on Saturday. When I told her this, she lifted her hands a bit in the air, palms up, and proclaimed, "WHAT?! So are we gonna have a party and cake?"

Yeah, no. Sorry kiddo. It just means that we're halfway to another birthday.

I did interview her again though because it turned out so cute last time. I have it on video but this time there's a lot more personal information on it so the edited (took out how she spells her [real] name, took out street address) print version will have to do.

I present to you... Interview with a Three and a half year old:

click to enlarge

Oops, just realized that there's a bit of a space next to "orange fruit". I was going to put in a smaller text and in parentheses Cantaloupe. Man does she love that shiz. Also, can anyone guess what game she's referring to in number 12's answer? Hint: I'm on level 147.

Click here for the last interview from six months ago.