A Visit From Miss H

A couple weekends ago our niece Miss H spent the night with us. She is 9 and Lucy pretty much thinks she is the coolest person ever! She loved showing her cousin all of her toys and playing dress up. Anything H did, Lucy had to do, too. It was adorable, and both feel asleep pretty early, so I think the "wearing out" was mutual! H was very patient with our girl and we loved having her stay over.

What's Been Going On?

I have no idea. I just realized I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. Just been busy, I guess. But doing what?

I've been reading a lot more, which is probably why I haven't spent much time on the internets (therefore not blogging). I finally got on The Hunger Games bandwagon. My typical MO on these popular book series is to resist all the hype and then succumb when all of the books are available for me to read one after the other. No waiting, instant gratification! I did the same with Harry Potter and Twilight. Those young adult fiction books are so easy and quick to read, it's a nice diversion from my other reading. I've actually been keeping up with my book club, too. Small wonders.

So OK, I've been reading. What else? Working, trying to do fun things with Lucy on the weekends, the usual stuff. With the summer-like weather lately, we've spent a lot of time outside. It's hard to reconcile the fact that it's just getting into the later part of March, and we've got daffodils coming up and trees budding. Oh, and we've been sick. Lucy with a cold and ear infection, and even as I sit here  my ears are about ready to explode and my throat hurts. I don't have strep and it's just a virus so the doctor's official treatment plan is "deal with it." Awesome.

So this post has no point, other than to let you know I'm still here. I'll try to come up with something more interesting next time.

I'm off to self-medicate and try to get some sleep.

Peace.

Step Inside My Snow Globe

This morning Lucy and I were heading out of the house to get to daycare. She was being her typical putzy self, and I was being my typical impatient self. Mornings are my most difficult time of day, because it seems that each one is a struggle – she wants pancakes instead of cereal, she doesn’t want to get dressed, she doesn’t want those socks, she didn’t make it to the bathroom in time, she wants a barrette, she doesn’t want a barrette…you get the idea. It takes forever to get out the door, and it is infinitely frustrating.

So back to this morning. We were actually on time heading out the door. A small miracle, so I was determined for it to stay that way. We usually go through the garage, but this morning I had gone to the gym early and just parked my car in the driveway, so we went out the front door. Naturally, Lucy had to inspect everything on the front steps, while I am putting the stuff in the car, trying to hurry her along. It wasn’t happening. She was standing in the yard, looking around, paying no mind.

When I realized she wasn’t budging, I resigned myself to having to trudge up the yard from the driveway and go get her. Time was a-wasting.

As I walked up my gaze fell on the top of the bare lilac bushes, and I spied a flash of red. “Look, Lucy – a cardinal!” She couldn’t spot it, so I crouched down beside her and pointed it out. “It’s a boy one!” she said. We have a male/female pair that visits our yard from time to time, and we had just seen them both the other day and talked about how the red one was a boy and the brown one was a girl (ah, the cruelties of nature…). Lucy continued to look around and said, “Mommy, lookit!” She was pointing up the big ash tree, where I saw a little nuthatch staring at us. He is a frequent visitor to our feeder by the big window. “Cool!” I said. I looked around more myself, and I spotted little chickadees flitting around, and some juncos darting through the bushes. Snow had just started falling – that dizzy sort of snow that seems to float about with no urgency, and lands lightly on you, leaving hardly a trace. Crouching there in the yard at 7:30 in the morning with my daughter, snow falling, birds chirping…it was a rare moment of peace.

There are times I feel like my snow globe is constantly being shaken – always moving, no time, chaos… but it occurred to me that when I take time to just STOP – even for a moment…I notice so much more. Things come alive. I feel more at peace. And you know what? I was five minutes later for work. And the world didn’t end.

Sometimes it takes that same stubborn little girl who frequently shakes it up, to take the globe and SET.IT.DOWN. Take a look around and just be. Thanks again, Lucy.

 

Lucy's First Movie

Tonight we took Lucy on her first movie theater experience to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. We are great fans of this book at our house, and since our little one has taken an interest in movies lately (and has a decent ability to sit still and hold her bladder), we thought we'd give it a shot.

So how did she do? Really well, I'd say! We made two trips to the bathroom, but both were "productive," so I didn't mind (and was happy she told me). She was surprisingly very interested in the popcorn, and hoarded the bag for most of the show. She may have eaten a little too much though, as she had a bit of a bellyache about 3/4 through and spent the rest of the movie on my lap. She was very interested in the movie and made several (sometimes loud) proclamations as she recognized certain characters or found things funny.


This was before the movie started, and she was saying "Mommy, I really 'ecited'!"
(and hello, can you believe this is a small popcorn?! I had forgotten how nutty the sizes are.)

I thought the movie was great. I was a little worried that because I love the book so much, the movie wouldn't stand up. They are certainly different, but the environmental message carries through and the specific Dr. Seuss phrases and tongue-twisters were featured appropriately. The animation was cute and the music had Lucy bobbing her head. I'd give it a parental thumbs up! I'm sure we'll be owning this one when it comes out on DVD.

Now that we know Lucy can do this, I have to admit, I am excited at the prospect of having an excuse to go see some of these cute animated films!

Snow...Finally!

The last time we actually had enough snow to sled across the yard was back in mid- January...and that was barely enough. We just really wanted to get out there! Lucy had a ball (aside from ending the excursion with a face plant in the snow) and we've been patiently waiting for another chance to get out there.

This week finally brought some decent snow to our corner of the Great North. Lucy and Husband have been outside after work/school nearly every day and today I finally got to share in the fun, too.  Luckily it was nice, wet snowman-making snow. The first day they made three tiny snowmen and a snow bunny, but those melted a bit then got covered with more snow (yay!) The second round they made a big snowman, and on my turn we made another little snow bunny and a "fort." Such fun! Temps of 50 degrees predicted for next week, so we're getting in the snow time while we can.

On a side note, Buddy is not a fan of our snow creatures. He sat in the window and growled at the first trio of snowment, and promptly "christened" the snow bunny on a trip outside. :)