Water Fight

Back in the winter, I posted  a link to the funnies snow ball fight ever.  It was in this post about Doodle in the snow and her snowball fight with Jayburb.  The season's may have changed, but these two are still up to some silly antics!  We spent a lovely afternoon at Sisterwife's house celebrating Butterbean's first birthday.  He is one and his favorite thing right now is to be in the water!  So baby pool party it was!  The bigger kids had fun with water gallons, and splashing around.  Jayburb had fun having a water fight with Doodle.  I didn't have my phone, so these are all still shots, but I will try to caption them with the conversation that took place between these two!




J: Come here Doodle, I want to get you with this water
D:  Whatever!

June 9 (324/365) 

J: I am getting you (but this bucket is a little cumbersome and I am going to be very slow about it)

D: Jay-burb!

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 J:  There you go, a little water never hurt anyone
D: Giggling fit

 J: Just a little more and I will have 1/4 of your body soaking wet!
D: That's enough Jayburb

 J: Wait, be still, I am almost finished
D: That is enough!

 J: All done, but don't move, I am getting more water and will be right back
D: Okay!

And I think that went on for about 3 more bucketfuls.  They cracked me up!  Never once did Doodle think about getting the bucket and dumping it on Jayburb:)

Kate, Little Hayden, and That Girl

When I left for college my parents encouraged me to go through the sorority rush process.  I was not a sorority girl, and although I joined one, I never fit the mold.  I made wonderful friends from those days. One of the best side benefits of the whole rush thing was meeting my friend Kate.  We ended up in the same rush group and lived in the same dorm our freshman year.  That week of bonding before the rush of freshman year lead to a friendship that has lasted over 15 years.  She has lived far and wide over the country following her former soldier from post to post, but we have managed to stay in touch.  Moving to VA brought me closer to her in NJ, but not close enough.  Fortunately for both of us, her in-laws live in Richmond and this has afforded us a couple of quick visits.   Kate and her two kids made a visit earlier this month.  Before they came, I was telling Doodle about who was coming to see us.  She had no trouble remembering Kate's name because it is her middle name.  Hayden was a little confusing because she has a Haden in her class.  She decided to call him Little Hayden.  And then she pretty much ignored Kate's daughter.  They stayed with us for 2 nights and for 2/3s of the visit Doodle referred to her as "That Girl".  She was having fun with "That Girl" and didn't want her to go, but refused to call her by her name.  It became almost comical.  At one point "That Girl" told Doodle that her name was puppy.  You can imagine how well that went over!  Finally, the last day that they were here, Doodle started calling "That Girl" by her name, Elizabeth.  Here are a few pictures of our visit together:)

Somehow Hayden managed to make a pink sippy cup look manly!

June 6 (321/365)
Late night (past 7:30) popcorn party for Doodle and That Girl:) 

Even with 3 years age difference the girls had a great time!

June 7 (322/365)
The best shot I got of all three of them.  You can't tell, but Doodle had to have her hair done just like "That Girl's" hair.

Sadly for us, it was way to quick of a visit.  Even sadder is that The Pitty isn't much closer to NJ than here.  But, we will be making a trip that way!  While we were sad to see the gang go, Kate did leave us with plenty of reminders of "That Girl"... an entire bin of clothes for Doodle (and later Sadie) to grow into!  Also, please note Doodle's pigtails done just like Elizabeth's:)  

June 8 (323/365)

Find It!

We at the West house like our routines.  Doodle likes knowing that after a good nap she gets to watch TV.  I like knowing that after dinner, I only have about an hour and half left on the clocks.  The pup-pups like knowing that once we come downstairs after putting Doodle to bed, they get treats.  Literally, as we are walking downstairs the barking starts.  My Favoritest plays a game with them called "Find It".  He gets their attention, throws a small treat somewhere in the room and says "find it".  And they do!  This leads to the picture part of the story.

June 5 (320/365)

The small piece of treat landed in Doodle's bucket of balls.  Neither dog would be satisfied that the treat was found until they both found one!  Needless to say, My Favoritest and I were laughing.... a lot! 

Pretty Piggies

I love my kid.  I really do love everything about her.  But I am not to proud to admit her faults.  One of those faults is that her toenails have only just recently stopped looking like knarly infant toenails.  They grow funky and are generally just icky.  I blame her daddy's genes for those nails:)  In the last 6 months or so they have finally gotten long enough and normal looking enough to ask her if she wanted me to paint them.  Each time I asked I got either a horrified look or a laugh and she would say "that's sill-eeee".  She even commented on Ms. Beth at the Little Gym and what color her toes were.  Still, no interest.  Well, the other morning I was painting my toes (Be impressed I could get around the belly), and she asked me to paint her toes.  I jumped at the chance.  We slapped some paint on those toes and she was so excited.  Jayburb came back from the beach and spent the morning with us.  She tried to show him her toes at least 3 times..... he was unimpressed.  But she was loving them!

June 3 (318/365)

When there is nothing else to take a picture of I tend to look around the room for inspiration.  I found none.  But I did find my ever expanding stomach with my painted piggies peeking out (if I leaned forward a little).  In reality I can no longer see my feet due to the fetal girth, but I just loved the way this looked.  Reminded me of those feet you can stick on the bottom of a balloon.  

June 4 (319/365) 34 weeks

With A Burp and A Giglle

When we moved to VA, Landlords' Youngest was only a few weeks old.  It is hard to believe that we helped to celebrate her 3rd birthday a couple of weeks ago!  The event turned into an all girls affair and they sure did have a good time.  When I took this picture, it was right before that table full of sweet femininity mysteriously turned into a bunch of burping banshees!  You read that right.  All of the sudden we hear a fake burp and 4 small giggles.  Followed by another fake burp and even louder giggles.  By the time they finished their dinner it was all burps and giggles.  I just sat there amazed at how entertained they were by their fake gassiness:)  

June 2 (317/365)

 After dinner the girls all decided to claim a grown up chair because all the adults were talking and standing behind the chairs.  We quietly moved the adults out of the way to try and get a picture of the four of them smiling, looking at the camera, and sitting shall we say "lady like".  As Landlord is fond of saying, it was like herding cats!  But here is the best shot we got!

Show Day

Oh Little Gym, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways:)  Doodle has been going to TLG since we moved to VA.  Over the last 3 years she has learned lots of useful skills and had lots and lots of fun.  We celebrated 2 birthdays at the gym and countless hours of fun.  The better share of her time at the gym has been spent in Parent/Child classes.  I loved going with her.  Loved the time to focus on her.  And loved watching her grow and discover new skills and things she could do.
Recently she started going to the big kid class by herself.  I will admit, it was a bit of a joy/sad moment.  I was thrilled to have an hour to hang out with my mom friends while the kids went to class.  I will also admit that I was a little sad to give up that time with her.
The end of the session came and along with it was Show Day.  In the past, Show Day hasn't been much different than a regular day at the gym.  I had been there with her and knew what she could do.  I have also been to school shows and seen her shy bug come out.  So, I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much of a show from her.  Boy was I wrong!  Straight out of the gate, I could tell she was pumped!

June 1 (316/365)

That kid remembered her "batinis" or routines to the rest of us.  She did skills that normally would have terrified her.  She showed confidence that I often see one on one with her but that she rarely puts on display.  At each station of the gym the grin of pride on her face got bigger and bigger.  She knew she was doing good and showing off.  It was a joy to watch her!

Doing an arabesque on the beam that terrified her a few months ago

Flipping on the bar and actually keeping her grip!

Jumping off the mountain (that she climbed up)

Hanging from the bar

At the very end of the class each child got a medal.  She was so proud of herself.  And I was so proud of her.  It was also one of the first times that I had very little to do with her accomplishment.  She did it on her own. She made the choices.  She was self motivated.  That made my heart sing even louder and sweeter!  Beth, Cecily, and Sarah can convince that kid to do just about anything!  We are going to miss you guys tons and Doodle has already asked if there is a Little Gym in Pixburb.  And although I know there is one, I don't think they could ever hold up to the standard she now has!

Getting her medal

And in case you haven't gotten enough of her, here is a little video clip of her giant climb!

Graduation

Sadly this will be my last post singing the praises of Doodle's preschool.  The school year has come to an end and graduation is all done.  In preparation for the end of the year, I wanted to do something special for the teachers and staff that have made MSP so special to us.  And by special, I mean I wanted something that Doodle helped me to make and create and give.  I decided on a craft project and a baking project.  For the craft project I made a conscious effort to use things I had around the house (part of the use don't pack plan).  I happened to have some small 4x4 wrapped canvases and acrylic paint.  I also had some fancy Martha Stuart brand painters tape in different width.  
I asked Doodle who she wanted to make a present for at school.  She chose her teacher, the director, the aide, and her teacher from the previous year.  I had her help me figure out the first letter of each of their names and then I made that letter using the painter's tape.

Then I devised a paint brush/stamper of sorts.  Please remember that Doodle doesn't like to be dirty or messy.  Soooo I have to find other ways for her to be crafty without fighting her about paint on her hands.  I came up with sponge squares and bulldog binder clips. ( I also used some round daubers that I had laying around the house, but didn't have enough of those to satisfy my colorful artist)

Once we had the tools worked out, I got the paint and put it on a plate.  My original plan was to have Doodle stamp 2 colors and try to cover the entire canvas.  To my surprise, she got into the painting thing and stamped, drug, pressed, and mixed the paint on the canvas.  They didn't turn out as I had imagined, but she did have lots of fun doing it:)

May 29 (313/365)

Once we had all 4 canvases painted, we had to wait and let them dry.  Thankfully this was nap time so the wait wasn't painful.  

Once Doodle woke up, we got busy peeling the tape off the canvases.  She was very patient and helped me do this part too!

Here's a picture of the finished product.  I ended up adding a little black puffy paint to outline the letters.  That was really the only part that Doodle didn't help me do.  They weren't beautiful on the outside, but the love and hard work made them beautiful to the recipients (I hope).

Part two of our gift plan was to make some yummy pound cakes for all 4 of the teachers.  Doodle loves to bake so she didn't need any encouragement to help me out in the kitchen:)

May 30 (314/365)

So, gifts were made and graduation day was upon us.  I will admit, I cried.  Not because she graduated from one class to the next.  I cried because I knew that it was the first of many goodbyes that we will have to say in the coming weeks.  In order to save face, I pretty much tucked my head and ran out the door!  Here are a few pictures of Doodle and her friends!

May 31 (315/365) 

Doodle shaking hands with Pastor Neil 

While she has grown up and grown out of many things while at MSP, she has yet to get over things being too loud!  The music to the slide show was a little loud on the stage, so of course Doodle closed her ears:)

The best picture I got of our little grad:)

After graduation we went to Applebees with some of Doodle's Bluebirds:)

As we head onto new schools, new teachers, and new friends, I will always hold a special place in my heart for MSP.  They gave this stay at home mom a chance to be alone a couple times a week.  They helped me to be a better mom because I got some time to myself.  They helped me to be a better wife because I wasn't at my whits end every single day when My Favoritest got home.  They helped me have the energy to do fun and creative things with Doodle. Around here there aren't many preschools that take 2 year old.  We were lucky enough to find them!

Funboy

I've been posting a lot about my friends lately.  Not sure why, but I am going with it.  I am a lucky girl to have the circle of friends that I do!  Among those friends, is Funboy (he picked his own blog name:).  He is my best friend from high school. My earliest memories of him are centered around the fact that I thought he was a total and complete jerk.  I can't count the number of lunches I spent with Funboy pestering the ever living crap out of me.  One day, I had enough and snapped at him.  From then on out, he stopped pestering me.  Much later he told me that he was just seeing how far he could push me.


In the 17 years since we became friends, he has almost totally erased that memory of a complete jerk.  We have seen each other through many ups and downs.  He was my rent-a-date all through college.  He kept me safe and held my hair on nights I had too much.  He called me when giant imaginary cheeseburgers were chasing him.  I called him after my first date with My Favoritest to tell him what a bad date I was!  I bought him a drink before he walked down the aisle (sorry KAD).  He did a reading at my wedding and is still bitter I didn't let him be a bridesmaid.  I have had the joy of watching his daughter and now his son grow up and make him an even better person.  He's tried to set my backyard on fire.  He was one of the first friends to come visit Doodle when we got home from the hospital.  In short, we have been a constant in each other's lives for 17 years.


There's that famous movie line about men and women being friends.  We have definitely proved that saying wrong.  I am convinced that the reason our friendship has endured this long is that Funboy's wife (KAD) and I have become good friends, and My Favoritest and Funboy get along well when they get the chance to spend time together.  We can spend time together as families.


Recently Funboy upgraded to and iPhone and I get lots of texts and pics of the kids from him.  He refuses to join FB (and I don't really understand google+), so this has been his way of staying in touch.  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago my phone rang and it was him.  Only he didn't realize he had called.  I sent him a text telling him he butt-dialed me.  And this is what I got back in return....

May 28 (312/365)

So, I didn't take the picture, but I am using it.  Mostly because his friendship is a story I wanted to share:)  Love ya Funboy!

Memory Weekend

At about 4:00 on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, my Favoritest called from work asking if I wanted to bring Doodle and meet him downtown for Friday's After Five.  The city has a free concert every Friday from late spring to early fall.  We always talk about going, but it just never works out.  My Favoritest also complains that I am never excited about going to hear live bands (something he really enjoys).  It's not that I don't enjoy it, I just sometimes get wrapped up in the "getting there" part that becomes my responsibility.  That is my reaction on any given day.  Now add to that at the time of the phone call I was 33 weeks pregnant and it was almost 90 degrees outside, you can imagine my initial reaction.  
After I told him no and hung up the phone, I started to have Wife Guilt.  Equal to Mommy Guilt because you know you are hurting someone you love with your decision (even if it isn't important in the grand scheme of things). Even worse than Mommy Guilt because the other person can really rub the guilt in:)  So I picked up the phone, called him back and told him we would pick him up in 45 minutes. I woke Doodle up and we headed to town.  I have to admit, even though it was hot I am so glad we went.  We had a relaxing evening as a family.  Doodle enjoyed the music and the chance to dance.  She had a blast riding on her daddy's back.  All in all, a great start to a great weekend.

May 25 (309/365)

Memorial Day weekend is also opening weekend at our local pool.  This is monumental on several fronts.  First of all, you can almost see the pool from our house and we definitely see it every time we take a walk or drive out of the neighborhood.  Second, the shower coming on ( mushroom shaped spray thing) has been a major milestone in our timeline for Sadie's arrival.  Doodle was thrilled to get to go the pool.  Trying to give My Favoritest some time to get some work done, I took her on my own for a picnic dinner.  It was a bit chilly, but she had a great time at our first pool picnic of the summer:)

May 26 (310/365)

We spent Sunday afternoon at Landlord's house with the neighborhood gang.  We laughed a lot! Beer was had by some.  And there was lots of good food!  When I got home I think I posted on FB that hanging out with my friends makes me equally happy and sad these days.  I try not to be Debbie Downer, but can't help but be a little sad that I know it is all coming to and end.  We have great friends in our neighborhood and I can't help but be a little sad about leaving them.  Speaking of great friends, here is a pic of our neighbor who always knows how to bring the good times!  I will admit, I was a little disappointed upon his arrival because his wife told me he was bringing beer in a wheelbarrow.  I guess the wagon was just a good:)

May 27 (311/365)

And here is a picture of Doodle doing her favorite thing to do in Landlord's yard.... climb the tree.  

Fear Factor

Doodle doesn't like to be dirty, sticky, messy, etc.  She doesn't like things that stick to her.  So a couple of weeks ago when Doodle asked for a bubble bath, I gave her the stink eye in response.  I told her she didn't like bubbles.  She adamantly demanded bubbles in her bath.  Being a good mom, I grinned and poured in the bubbles.  As we did her medicine and the bath water ran, her apprehension grew.  She was talking about the bubbles and the growing pile.  When it was time to get into the water she told me she didn't want bubbles.  Once again, being a good mom I made her get in the water.  Hey, sometime you got learn that you get what you ask for and you have to deal with it.  Well, she got into the water but I am not sure she dealt with the bubbles.  She cowered in the corner and would not go anywhere near the mountain of suds.  

May 24 (308/365)

I have a fantastic video of Doodle screaming with equal parts fear and delight as I tried to put bubbles on her.  Unfortunately, she is a little too exposed to share the video with the world.  Needless to say, we haven't had anymore bubble baths at our house!

This and That

I try to be thoughtful about taking a picture, so that I have a story to tell.  Some days, I just have a picture to share.  So here are a few days like that:)


Here's my little dancing queen!  She loves music and loves to shake it:)

May 21 (305/365)

I am not too proud to admit that the more pregnant I become, the lazier my inner housewife becomes.  So lately, when My Favoritest has been on call and not making it home for dinner, well dinner has gone the way of Doodle.  Pretty much whatever she decides sounds good is what we have.  This has lead to some serious gourmet meals around our house.  I snapped this picture and sent it to My Favoritest so that he wouldn't be too sad about missing another meal with his girls:)

May 22 (306/365)

Two things that say summer... strawberries and watermelon!  And in our house we can't get enough of either!  While I was cutting up these berries I realize how ready I am for summer.  I also love all the texture that came through in this picture.  The warping of the placement below the glass bowl.  The reflections on the spoon, and of course the gritty sugar before it melted into strawberry goodness:)

May 23 (307/365)

Bluebird Picnic

Sadly, the end of May also meant the end of school.  As I write this, we are 2 full weeks into summer break.  Right now I would pay Main Street Preschool triple their rate for summer school!  It's not just that the 9 hours a week made me a happier mommy, they made Doodle a happier kid!  She loves school.  She really loves her friends.  She was so excited about the end of the year picnic at her favorite park.  When ever we mentioned the picnic she would jump up and down and  scream "I so excited for my bluebirds to be at the park together!"

May 16 (300/365)

Picnic day came and it was all she expected it to be.  She spent the entire morning playing outside. She and her best school buddy D were inseparable!  They had so much fun playing with each other.  We are so lucky to have landed in the right school at the right time. MSP is definitely on the list of things that our whole family will miss! 

May 17 (301/365)

Eye Of The Dog

Anyone who says animals don't have feelings or emotions, didn't have pets!  I don't care what kind of a pet you have, if you love it and care for it you learn to read its emotions.  With our pup-pups one look into their eyes can tell you so much.  With Lo-Lo the eyes almost always tell you that he is hungry or looking for trouble:)  Zoe is a little older and wiser and projects deeper thoughts through her eyes.  I can often tell that she is worried, happy, or curious with one look at her face.  That being said, these pictures aren't really a fair glimpse into their minds.  They were both taken later in the evening when the dogs were sleepy and still.  

May 14 (298/365)

May 15 (299/365)

So now that I have shared my oldest children at their calmest, here's a little pic of them at their wildest.

May 19 (303/365)

Zoe was my first child.  She was my companion before My Favoritest came into my life.  She was the first Big Sister when we got the beagle.  And then she became protector over Doodle.  I can remember (even before I was pregnant with Doodle) worrying that Zoe would die before I had kids, or that she would die before my imaginary children would remember her  as their childhood dog.  I know it sounds crazy, but she has been my constant for 12 years (I got her just after graduation), and the thought that I would have children who didn't remember her broke my heart.  So on nights when the pups are playing and rough housing my heart sings along with the joyous song of Doodle squealing and giggling in perfect harmony with barks and playful growls.  

I know that Doodle will have memories of her Zoe Girl and Lo-Lo.  And I know she will think of them as her childhood pup-pups! Now, we just have to keep them both healthy and happy so Sadie can join in the song!