Toast 2 Mom

My Love/Hate Relationship with the Sea Princess

It seemed like it took my daughter awhile to get into the whole princess thing. She wasn't initially a "girly-girl". Then she watched The Little Mermaid. It was after that when things began to "surface". Now it's princess this and Ariel that. We are constantly living in an Ariel world. (And can I just say that this red-headed princess is EVERYWHERE!)

In the beginning I thought it was adorable. I found it so precious how my daughter quoted the book, sang "Ah, ah, ahhh, ah, ah, ahhhh" around the house. She always wants to wear her Ariel jammies, panties and t-shirt. Now we have an Ariel Barbie that joins us during bath time. Ariel, Ariel, Ariel.

Naturally my interest in this land wanna-be began to grow slim. Lately I've observed another thing about this Ariel girl...she needs a little lesson in repairing that insubordination. The more my daughter watches her and quotes her, the more concerned I get.

Let's see, Ariel doesn't want to listen to her father, so she goes behind his back and disobeys and signs a legal contract with a witch. Then she runs away from home to frolic with some boy whom she's never really met miles and miles away. But what does Ariel learn in the end for her insubordination....that Daddy will let her have her way anyway! What?!! No, no, no...not a good message here.

So, unfortunately Ariel is burned on the brain in this household. There is no losing interest anytime soon. However, we are giving the movie a break. In between, though, I'm using my time wisely to explain the ways little girls should and should not talk to their Mommy and Daddy...and never run away with a boy...ever...ever. :)

My Sydney has always been pretty cautious in the water. She took swimming lessons at six months. That was a long time ago. In the bath, she cried for the longest time during hair wash time. She doesn't like to get her face in the water and definitely doesn't like water in her eyes. Now that she's almost three and a half, Hubby and I have decided it's time for her to revisit those swim lessons again. Today was her first lesson.

She's better in the bath tub now and actually enjoys it some of the time. She still doesn't want that face wet though. In the tub this morning, I filled her in that today was her first swim lesson. We've been counting it down, but today was the day. Her response, "I don't want to go to swim lessons." Hmm, that wasn't going to work...especially for the cost of these lessons. Sydney lightly splashed about, swirling her Ariel's hair back and forth...and it hit me... Use the force of the princess!

"Hey Sydney wouldn't you like to learn to swim just like Ariel?"

"Sure I would!"

"Great! Well then we better go to those lessons. Your teacher will help you swim just like Ariel. Ariel would love it if you could swim like her!"

"Umm, OK, I'll go to swim lessons."

So off to lessons we went, and the lessons were a success. Syd followed all the rules and listened intently to the teacher's instructions. Afterwards I promised Syd a sweet treat for a good class.

While we were enjoying our donut, I asked her if she had a good time. She looked at me and said, "yes, but Mommy, my teacher didn't teach me to swim like Ariel does." "Oh, well Sydney I guess she didn't," I said hoping to come up with something fast so that our lesson on Thursday is not a challenge too. "You know, Sydney, Ariel is a really really good swimmer and do you think she started swimming like that in one day?" "No." "That's right. Ariel had to practice and practice and practice until she was able to swim with Flounder and Sabastian super fast." With donut sprinkles on her upper lip, Syd replied, "oh, yeah. I need to keep going to my lessons then."

Whewwww. The nautical princess saves the day. Maybe I can overlook her manners for one day.

The End.

Our Progress

This is not a typical update, but an update nonetheless. We have family coming into town this week. This will be our fourth round of visitors to our new house in the three months that we've lived here...very nice! We try to make improvements from guest to guest.

Last week our area took some damage due to a very large hail storm. (Yes, storms happen down south too apparently!) We have many trees around our house. The weekend was sunny, so we used the time to pick up the mess and prepare for our guests.

We also used the time for a bit of fun too. Saturday we visited a yummy hamburger joint called Hut's Hamburgers. We started off with milkshakes. Well Hubby and I split one. I shared mine with Sydney. She drank pretty much all of it. I got the cherry, though.
 
We also went to a garden festival this weekend. It was held at the Botanical Gardens.
 
  

Wise Beyond Her Years

As our oldest daughter continues to age, learn and mature, my husband and I often have to remind ourselves that she is still only three years old. Her communication, understanding of situations and reasoning skills can fool us from time to time. An important part of our days lately has been discussing rules, what are the rules and what is the importance of rules. We had a big rule talk just the other day...

I was in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner. Sydney was out in the yard with Daddio, helping him plant some new bushes. Cheekers was off to bed for the night. I heard the front door open and the skipity-skip-skip sound come into the kitchen. I was just wrapping up my cleaning and needed to go to the grocery store to buy milk for breakfast the next day. Sydney asked if she could come along.

We grabbed my bag and walked out the front door. Daddio was out in the yard. Prior to Sydney coming into the house to visit me, she had been spending her time rotating between helping Daddio with bushes and playing with sticks in the driveway. When we walked outside, Daddio was walking around looking for Sydney wondering why she wasn't in the driveway, since she wasn't also with him.

When we came outside and Daddio saw us, we discussed how important it is to communicate Sydney's where-abouts. The conversation initially discussed how Daddio and Mommy need to communicate when one of us knows where Sydney is playing. Then we decided that on top of that Sydney needs to communicate if she's going to leave Daddio to go be with Mommy, she needs to tell Daddio she's leaving.

The situation wasn't very intense, but it was a good reminder that as our daughters grow and become more independent, they are still little and need to be watched all the time. She may no longer need the baby gate to keep her from falling down the stairs but a fence is definitely still needed to be up. 

After the rules were discussed, Sydney and I loaded in the van. Like most things, the more I think about them, the more my mind wanders to other scenarios. Then that results in me getting more agitated and stressed about the situation. (I'm not saying this is a good thing.) Having Sydney tell us where she's going was not a good enough solution for me.

"You know, Sydney, when you're outside helping Daddy, you need to be with him and helping him."

"Yes, Mommy."

"I don't want you to be outside running from the backyard to the driveway to the front yard and then in the house and all over. If you're outside helping Daddy, you need to be by Daddy so he knows where you are."

"Why Mommy?"

"Because Sydney if you were in the backyard and Daddy was in the front yard, Daddy couldn't hear you or see you. If you would need help, Daddy couldn't help you. You're a big girl but you're still a little girl. There are certain places that little big girls can be by themselves and certain places they cannot be by themselves. When you're outside, it's a big place and you need to be by Daddy or Mommy. That's a new rule."

The rest of the drive to the grocery store was quiet. I felt like I had made my point and hoped it came across as concerned, not scary (or overprotective....which...I am).

We pulled into the parking space at the grocery store, and I turned off the engine. It was quiet for a few seconds, then Miss Wisdom spoke...

"I'm really glad we talked about this, Mommy."

I had to bite my lip to control the laughter inside. "What are you glad we talked about, Sydney?"

"I'm really glad we talked about this new rule and how if I'm outside helping Daddy that I should stay by Daddy to be safe. That makes me happy, Mommy."

"Oh Sydney....you make me happy. Should we go buy some milk now?"

"Sure Mommy. Hey Mommy?"

"Yes, Syd?"

"Can I have a chocolate egg when we get home?"

"Sure."

The Love Fest Continues...

A few days ago I shared a story about how Sydney has a special bond with our cat, Clarisse. I continue this story today because the love just keeps on coming...

Oooohh, you're my best friend!

Q Stands for Quirky

I have a line across my nose. It's there because of my quirk. I guess I don't itch my nose the way most people do. I push up on my nose to give it a good itch. As a result, I have a line straight across. Doesn't really bother me any...drives my Mom crazy.

So it's only fair that my girls have quirks that drive me crazy.

My Syd cannot put on a long sleeved shirt without immediately (and I mean the very second the shirt is pulled on) yanking up the sleeves as to appear as short sleeves. I can barely get her head through her shirt and she's already adjusting herself to yank up those sleeves. I beg. I plead. "Please, Syd, keep your sleeves down." It does no good.

My Cheekers cannot get her diaper changed without her pants coming completely off. There's no sliding them down to make room. Nope, they must come all the way off so I may completely redress her bottom half all over again...every...time... I...change...her...diaper.

I tell myself the quirks could always be worse...

She's Crafty

I don't craft. Actually that is not true. I try to craft but really seem to lack the craft vision and... skills. Pre-kids I found myself desperate at times to take up a hobby in the arts. I have a Rubbermaid full of items from Michael's I have used once or never.

I've tried painting, watercolor and acrylic. I tried knitting, threw my needles across the room (my husband loves that story). I tried stamping. I owe a glue gun, but I'm not sure why. I'm sure I picked it up one day because it seemed that everyone who crafts should own a glue gun.

I've had visions of clothing design, jewelry design and cake design. You all saw my daughter's 1st birthday cake, right? So, we all know the cupcake store idea went no where.

When I had kids, I felt an even bigger desire to continue my craft wanna-be-ness. When you have a child, suddenly all of these kid catalogs begin to bombard your mailbox. Within them are all of these pictures of cute bedrooms and playrooms. On the shelves are sweet little picture frames. On the walls are colorful fabric hangings. Upon looking at these, my instant thought was, I can do that!

I decided that I wanted to make fabric letters spelling out Sydney's name for her baby room. In order to make this happen, not only did I have to buy fabric, I had to buy a sewing machine. This was a go all out project. For not even touching a sewing machine since seventh grade Home Economics, the letters actually turned out kind of cute. By cute I mean they spelled out her name and they were roughly attached to one another. They were certainly nothing I would have made to sell or give as gifts.

When I had Cheekers, the time for crafting has seemed to slip away. I have felt badly about this. With Sydney I made her letters. We took an art class together. I had time for photo album work and other such projects. It's been bothering me that I have not been able to share my craft toward a special gift for my second born. An opportunity presented itself, though.

A few evenings ago, I joined a Mom group for an evening of crafts and wine. The wine part I was keen on; the craft part caused my palms to be a little sweaty. I was sure that this group had to be craft professionals.

We had a choice for our activity. We could either do something mosaic or decoupage. I had heard this word before, "decoupage". I had NO idea what it was. Since this was an evening to branch out, I went with the decoupage project. We had to pick a plain item from the shelves to decorate. I chose a piggy bank. Natalie did not have a piggy bank yet. After my quick lesson, come to find out decoupage is fancy for paper and glue. Who knew!

The evening was actually quite enjoyable. It seemed that no one was a craft professional. We all seemed to look around at each others' projects and wonder if we were doing it right. In the end, though, maybe I had some skill after all. The teacher complimented my end result several times. I was as proud as the pig I did. Turns out paper and glue, I can do! Let the crafting begin!

Here's Cheekers' happy decoupage pig!

Of Course I'll Ride a Horse

We attended a charity bike ride today out at the horse ranch we visited a couple weeks ago. They had great ways to entertain the families, including horsie rides. It took a LOT of convincing, but after Mommy agreed to ride also, it was a definite "of course".

Here is Syd on her first ride on a horse.