I'm now being called "Gammy"

My daughter's wish came true on Thursday.

As we walked through the door on Thursday afternoon, she proudly and excitedly exclaimed, "I can't believe I'm a mom!"

She is now the proud mother of a precious little bunny, affectionately named Timbo. (I'll get to the name shortly.)

She's been wanting a "pet of her own" for quite some time now. She talked about getting a fish, but knew that wouldn't be satisfying enough since she couldn't take it out and pet it! We can't have a dog or cat due to Daddy's allergies. So we started talking about a possibilities of something from the rodent family.

I quickly steered us away from a hamster...I was afraid she'd end up smooshing it! So we considered a guinea pig or a rabbit. In the end we decided on a rabbit. Chip and I had a rabbit our first year of marriage and we LOVED that thing. He was totally spoiled, never slept in a cage...he ran free in the house. He would jump into our laps like a cat and would even sleep with us. We knew it would be fun to have a rabbit in the house again.

We've been talking about this for a LONG time, and finally decided the time was right. And it just so happened, a friend of ours had some baby bunnies ready for new homes!

So Thursday morning, Ruthi and I set out to pick out a bunny. They were all so cute, so it was hard for her to make a decision. But she finally settled on a precious black bunny, with the tiniest spot of white on his nose, and just a little bit of white on a couple of his paws.

Meet my Grandbunny:

I don't think there's ever been a more loved bunny! The first day was a little difficult for Ruthi, however. After we chose this rabbit, we headed over to my parent's house to pick up a cage my Mom is letting us use. While we were there, we found a little basket that was perfect for Ruthi to carry her baby in. Then we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some food and supplies. It was too hot to leave baby bunny in the car, so the basket was perfect for carrying him inside Wal-Mart. It had a little flip lid so she could reach in and pet him.

Before we headed home, I called Chip to see where he was. He was right down the road at our friend's salon doing some work for her. So we detoured over there to say hi and introduce him to his grandbunny!

While there, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to get my hair colored. So Ruthi and I ran quickly to grab some lunch, then went right back to the salon. A couple of hours later, we were finally on our way home.

When we got home and let Timbo out of his basket, he ran under the cabinet and hid. It was hard for Ruthi to understand he needed time to adjust to his new surroundings...that he'd just been pulled from everything he'd ever known in his short little life. She was SO afraid her new bunny wouldn't love her!

I was finally able to convince her to wait patiently for him to come out. Before she knew it, he came out and crawled right into her lap. She couldn't have been happier! And the days since then, she holds and loves on this little guy EVERY SECOND POSSIBLE! I have to tell her to put him down so he can run around for a bit.

He has adjusted quite nicely. He seems to really enjoy running around. He's very friendly and loving. He doesn't love being in his cage at night, but I don't want him chewing things he shouldn't. Therefore, he has to stay in there at night and when we aren't home to supervise him.

OK - his name. Ruthi tossed around a few names, and thought she had settled on Shadow. But then CJ brought something to her memory. From the time she was 2 or 3, she's loved watching the movie Beethoven. When she was younger, she couldn't pronounce Beethoven, and for some reason called him Timbo instead. We've always thought it was adorable, and CJ told her a long time ago that if she ever had a pet, she needed to name it Timbo. So that's how he got his name.

Now, we aren't 100% certain that it's a boy just yet, so the decision has been made, that if Timbo turns out to be a girl, the spelling of the name will change to Timbow...because a girl needs a "bow" at the end! (That was Chip's brilliant suggestion!)

Wow...this post has turned out much longer than I anticipated! So, I'll end it there and just leave you with a few more pictures.

All I Want for Christmas is...

My Two Front Teeth!!!

My sweet baby girl lost her front teeth...finally! We noticed these two teeth were loose in December last year! We thought for sure they'd come out before Christmas.

NOT! Those things were holding on TIGHT! I didn't know teeth could hold on that long. I was beginning to think she'd never lose them!

I'm a little behind here...these did come out almost two weeks ago. But the fact that I'm getting around to blog about it at all is a small miracle!

One tooth came out on Tuesday, the 12th. She popped it right out herself. The second one was being a little more stubborn...but it NEEDED to come out. So on Wednesday, her Daddy grabbed hold of it and didn't let go until it came out. This was the first time ever a tooth actually hurt her a little on its exit, but it seemed necessary. I took these pictures on the same Wednesday, and you can already see the other teeth coming in.

I must say, she looks so stinking cute with those teeth missing, and I LOVE the occasional lisp it causes. (Though she INSISTS it doesn't make her talk any differently!) I'm just sad those other teeth are already filling in the gap and I won't get to enjoy this a little longer!

And since these pictures were taken, they have descended even more!

Ruthi is Becoming My Jillian

OK, so Ruthi definitely isn't a "bully," but she is quickly becoming "my Jillian!"

She was in my room this morning before 7:30, encouraging me to get out of bed so we "can go exercise!"

I started a new routine this week. I'm trying (again) to get back into exercising and eating better. I am determined, once and for all, to get myself healthy, and to teach my daughter good habits so she won't be in the same shoes I'm in when she gets my age. I want this to be a natural lifestyle for her.

When school starts back in a couple of weeks, she will have classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. And this year, those are the only two days I'm teaching. So I decided to go ahead and start now to try to get in the habit of exercising on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sure, we can do it on other days if time permits, but those three days are the minimum.

Ruthi loves to ride her bike. And for the first time last weekend, I rode mine with her. Her Daddy has done it that way, but I still wasn't sure I could watch her well enough while I was riding. That's not the case! We rode five miles on Sunday and she did fantastic! She is an ol' pro now! Granted, I am riding a good bit slower than I would be if she wasn't riding...BUT, it got me back on my bike, and now I have no excuse not to ride! And if we do that more often, she'll be riding faster and for longer distances in no time!

I was really wanting to get back into running, but find it difficult to be able to get out there. I won't go run by myself (I just don't feel very safe), so that means either Chip or CJ must be home to watch Ruthi while the other goes to run with me. Well, with our schedules, that is rare, so I just wasn't running.

However, I now no longer have an excuse not to run either! Now, Ruthi rides her bike while I run! We go to the park down the road from us, which is my favorite place to run. If we go early, it's not crowded. Well, unless it is Saturday morning...there were quite a few people out there at 8:30 this morning - I think we need to go earlier on Saturdays!

Ruthi does great staying on the right, and I no longer have to worry about her running anyone over or her stopping short in front of someone. She rides a little bit ahead of me then turns around and comes back to me before she gets out of my sight. Even if I only do one lap (which is somewhere between a mile and a mile and a half...still can't get that confirmed for sure), she rides more than that because of the going back and forth.

I'm building myself back up, so I can't run the entire thing without stopping just yet, but I find that I'm pushing myself a teeny bit harder to try to keep up with Ruthi! It really works out for both of us...she's doing what she loves, and I'm doing what I need to do...in hopes of loving it again soon!

We went Tuesday morning, and I had no trouble getting up and going. Thursday morning came around, and honestly, had she not "made" me get up out of bed, I probably wouldn't have gone. And this morning...ugh....I did NOT want to get out of bed. But I wasn't going to let my little girl (or myself) down. And I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and went. I'm glad I did. And I'm thankful for my little encourager.

One day, in the not so distant future, my wonderful daughter is going to be able to say she had a big part in getting her mommy healthy!

All it took was me telling her my plan for this schedule, and she is making sure I stick to it! She marks days off her calendar everyday, so there's no fooling her about what day it is either!

Hmmm....maybe I should come up with a blogging schedule and tell her so she can keep me on track for that too! :)

That Girl

That girl of mine...she cracks me up. Always has. We are always entertained around here.

I love the things she says...you never know what is going to come out of her mouth next. It may be super funny, or super sweet, or a combination of both.

Back when I was better at blogging fairly regularly, I recorded many of the things she said, and I'm so glad I did. Yesterday, I had a "walk down memory lane" reading some of my old posts and remembering the conversations and other things she had said.

Then I started feeling sad that I haven't recorded anything she has said for the past year. So, I'm going to try to be better at getting these things documented so I will have all of them to look back on in the future.

She has this little wooden tic-tac-toe game that she loves to play. Last evening, she was playing it with her daddy for a while, then asked CJ if he would play with her. When he agreed, she asked him, "Do you want to be hugs or kisses?" He was confused for a second having no idea what she meant. But we got a good giggle out of it. I don't think I've ever thought of the x's and o's in tic-tac-toe as hugs and kisses!

Another thing I want to remember is her prayer at meal time. It's never the same, she prays about whatever is on her mind at the time. But she always says, "Bless this food and nourish up our bodies." I LOVE this! She has heard it said, "For the nourishment of our bodies", or, "And nourish it to our bodies." But I think her version is simply precious.

Now, if I can just remember to jot things down before I forget, until I can get them typed up, I'll have much more cuteness to look back on and enjoy when she's older.

Oh, and she actually loves for me to read these things to her too. Or rather, read them herself. She's at the stage that she would rather read to me than be read to. Either way, she gets a kick out of finding out things she said when she was "little."

Multi-Purpose

This morning I was in the kitchen scrambling some eggs. I was using a wooden spoon.

Ruthi walks in and says, "You use a wooden spoon for stirring too?"

Me - "Yes."

Ruthi - "Oh! I thought you just use wooden spoons for spanking!"

The odd thing is, she has seen me use a wooden spoon for cooking LOTS of times, and she has used it herself for stirring while helping me in the kitchen as well.

Not sure why she is just now asking that!

Especially since spankings have been a lot more rare lately. Thankfully!

Wordless Wednesday

My little angel playing dress up.

To see more participants, visit Wordless Wednesday.

Snaggletooth

Last night was interesting. I was totally unprepared for what would happen.
Maybe not totally unprepared, as I did have a teeny tiny bit of a heads up.

No...I was still totally unprepared.

On Friday, Ruthi exclaimed to me, "MOMMY! I THINK ONE OF MY TOOTHS IS ABOUT TO FALL OUT OF MY MOUTH!!!"

I checked said tooth for wigglyness.

I only felt her head wiggle. The tooth appeared, to me anyway, completely tight with no signs of being loose any time soon.

Fast forward to Saturday evening. We were all hanging out on the couch.

Ruthi jerked back and the sound of her nightgown ripping out of her mouth filled the air. The look on her face indicated it did not feel good at all.

Her Daddy looked at her as she held her hand to her mouth and said, "I bet that didn't feel good!"

A second later I hear, "I feel my tooth." And when I took a peak, there was blood in the place where her tooth used to be.

My first thought was - Oh great - she has gone and broken her tooth. On a Saturday night, when I can't get a hold of a dentist.

And then I went into "I have no idea what to do about this" mode. Not freaking out, but close.

Chip looked at me and said something to the effect of, "Seriously? You don't know what to do? What if I were at work? What would you do? Tell me you wouldn't call 911!"

I assured him that I would NOT call 911 over a tooth. I knew better than that. (I'm would NOT be suprised if he's responded to a call from a frantic mother not knowing what to do if a tooth came out unexpectedly.)

I took Ruthi to the bathroom where I could access the damage. I was still expecting to find have a tooth in her mouth. We had not located the tooth at this point, so I just wasn't sure.

I had her rinse and it looked like the entire tooth had come out. Chip went back to the couch and located the tooth.

The totally intact tooth. Thankfully.

Maybe, just maybe, that tooth had been a little bit loose after all!

She was a bit freaked out and the thought of eating or brusing her teeth terrified her after that! But after some tears, she calmed down and realized it wasn't so bad after all.

Then she got excited about the prospect of the Tooth Fairy visiting.

That's when I felt it was time to have a little talk with her. This was a talk I didn't think I'd have to have for another year, when I expected the natural time to lose her first tooth would be.

Long story short, we talked about the feasibility of someone flying around and coming into people's houses at night and leaving things under pillows. I let her figure it out, that it was really mommies and daddies who are leaving surprises.

This let me to the Santa discussion as well. The letting her believe in Santa was never really a plan. We never did Santa with CJ and assumed we wouldn’t with any other children. But it just kind of happened, and we played along to an extent. We didn’t go all out, and we certainly didn’t try to keep her from finding out the truth. But we never really planned it either.

And I was certain this Christmas that she would figure it out on her own when she realized that her stack of presents were simply the ones that had been under the tree and had just gotten moved into a nice little pile. I was totally prepared that morning for the conversation.

But it didn’t come up.

So I brought it up last night. I let her come to the conclusion with a little help from me. She thought it was kind of funny. I told her that there’s nothing wrong in believing for fun, and we can continue to do that, but I wanted her to know the truth.

And most importantly, she assured me that she knew that, “Jesus and God are real!”

I felt much relief going to bed last night. And Chip was greatly relieved. He was always careful to word things in a way that she could not come back and say, “But Dad, YOU said……” But yet he still let her have fun with it. We both are like that, but it’s very difficult. Now we don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Something tells me that when Christmas comes around again, she will still want to tell Santa what she wants and leave out milk and cookies, and reindeer food…but she will know this time it’s all in fun. And I like that!

Anyway…here’s a couple of pictures of my little girl with a now toothless smile.

Here, she's holding her tooth:

And now she's putting it under her pilow (in a baggie to keep it from getting lost). Yes, she knew it would be me putting a surprise under there, and it was just as much fun for her.

And this morning, she came to my side of the bed with her suprise in her hand. She actually thought before she went to sleep last night that she might forget about it. She didn't!

She came in and said, "Mommy, it's Sunday! Let's go to church!" (We've been embarrassingly bad about not making it to church on Sunday mornings. She is exactly what we needed to start getting back on track!) And she probably wouldn't have even mentioned the "Tooth Fairy" treats had I not asked what was in her hand!

She knows what's important. I love that girl!

It's Wednesday

How's that for an interesting title for a post? Yeah...I can't come up with anything else right now!

It's raining here. A lot.

We NEED the rain - we've been in a pretty serious drought for about 3 years now. So we need it. And I try not to ever complain about it. Because of the NEED!

However...

My first 5K race is this Saturday, and I really don't want to run in the rain!
But I will.
BUT, there is the threat of thunderstorms. And I'm a little concerned that the race is going to be cancelled. And then I'm going to be HIGHLY disappointed!

Technically, I've already run a 5K...several times...while training for this. But, this will be my first "official" 5K, and I don't want it to get cancelled!

So, I'm just waiting to see what happens.

I've been working very hard to get ready for this, and I'm quite proud of myself. Then on Sunday, I started not feeling as well as I was. Nothing big, just feeling tired, and my my throat was all scratchy. I ran anyway. I figured it was just allergies.

Then Monday came. And I felt awful! I was coughing all day and just not doing too great. When I woke up Tuesday morning, my chest felt very congested. Tuesday was supposed to be a run day. I decided it was probably best that I not run and try to rest. My chest was really tight and I was feeling pretty miserable.

Then my son reminded me that when I got sick back in November, the doctor had given me an inhaler because I had a bronchial infection. I had completely forgotten! So, I started using it. About 30 minutes after I used it, my chest started loosening up! So I continued using it and drinking hot tea.

By this morning I was feeling much better, just a little congested. So I decided to go ahead and run today...in the rain! I was prepared to take it easy and just walk if I needed to. I didn't want to push myself too hard this close to race day. But I ended up feeling great and running a longer distance without a power walk break than ever before! And when I was finished, my chest felt like all the congestion was gone! Amazing!

So, I'm feeling SO much better. I'm just having one odd thing going on that I haven't figured out yet. The roof of my mouth (at the back) is red and splotchy, and has white dots all over it. It doesn't hurt at all, but if feels like there is a sweater in my throat! I actually woke up this morning like that. Weird. I give the doctor's office a call in the morning and talk to a nurse and see if I can figure out what's going on. I'm thinking it could possibly be a reaction from the inhaler...not sure.

Anyway, I'm planning to run in the rain again tomorrow. I don't usually run consecutive days yet, but it will be the last chance I'll have to run before the race, and I feel like I need one more run.

Wow, that was a lot of talk about running!

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to get off here and try to get some sleep. But before I go, I thought I'd share a few pictures since it's been a while!

I took these pictures of Ruthi recently. She had on my hat and was just being silly, so I started snapping away. I got some cute shots, and these were my favorites. I think she likes the camera just a little bit!





This is her "kissy face". I have pictures of her doing this from way back when she was little bitty. I love this face!

In Her Words

Yesterday, Ruthi was making some silly faces. She was trying to make a scary face, but they really just all ended up cute. So she added sound to get the scary face to work. (It was still just cute though!)

That led her to talking about dinosaurs. She let out this roar and said she was making her dinosaurus-rex face! We got a good chuckle out of that.

Then she mentioned another breed - the Sci-ter-i-tops. How cute is that?

Then CJ asked her to say "Velociraptor". It came out so-lop-i-tap-tor.

I think I like her dinosaur breeds!


Lately, she's been pronouncing words correctly that she wasn't before. It kind of makes me sad, because it just means she is growing much too quickly. But at the same time, it's pretty cute.

She will say a word correctly and catch herself. Then she says (excitedly), "MOM! I just said _________!" I think it's pretty neat that she realizes that she has just said a word differently than she was saying it.

One of the biggest things is words that begin with the letter s, followed by a consonant. She would always leave the s off and start with the next letter. Here are a few words she has begun to say correctly lately:



Kool work became school work

Fire Tation became Fire Station (and gas station too)

Tairs became Stairs

Tick became Stick

Teps became Steps

And a few other words she has changed:

Kank you became thank you.

bacuse me became excuse me.

Fwidge-u-fwate-u has become fwidge-u-rate-u. Not a BIG difference, but closer to the real thing (refrigerator).
And this one makes me the most sad, because it's always been one of my favorites!

Yes, she is growing up WAY too quickly for me!!!



And on a compltely different subject - I've begun blogging on my craft blog again. It had been almost a year since my last post there - sheesh! You can check it out by clicking the link over in my sidebar.

For Fun

I was just trying to catch up on some blog reading, and I discovered this at Carrie's blog. It's a little photo contest, and looked fun. So I thought I'd submit a photo. There are two categories - adult and kids. I'm entering this one in the kids category. Just for fun.




For more info, click on the button above to go to the site.

Of course, as soon as I say something about my blogging streak, I break it. Figures.
So I missed a day. Oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later!

Today we reached a bit of a milestone.
First of all, the fact that I got up and made it to church with just me and the kids was pretty amazing. I hate to admit that our Sunday attendance to church has been sporadic this past year. It just seemed that there was always an excuse not to go. And going to church on a Sunday became occasional instead of the norm. And if Chip was working...forget about it. It was just "too much trouble" for me to go with just the kids and no help from him! I'm not proud of it, but that's the way it's been.

Last Sunday we made it...the first Sunday of a new year...a good start. I really wanted a new normal, which includes getting back regularly to church, even if it's not easy or convenient. To be completely honest though, if it had still been pouring down rain this morning, I probably would have rolled over and gone right back to sleep. But it wasn't. And I still stayed in bed much later than I'd planned...so late that I really considered staying there. But I made myself get up, and I'm glad I did.

Now, back to the milestone. For four years, on the Sundays we have been in church, Ruthi has stayed in the service with us. I never had a desire to put her in the nursery...there were several reasons, a big one being I didn't want to have to serve time in there! I love working in children's ministry, but I'm so over the nursery days...did NOT want to do it. And I just couldn't in good conscience put her in there and then conveniently not be available when it was my time to serve. So I didn't put her in there at all.

In August, she was old enough (that's when the age changeover is - when school starts back) to go to the preschool class. But I was having a difficult enough time getting her to go to Rainbows on Wednesday nights. She stayed in the beginning because I was in there teaching. So when August came, she finally would go to class without me...with teachers she knew and was comfortable with now. The thought of trying to adjust her on Sunday mornings too was just too much for me. And she didn't want anything to do with it. But I've been thinking recently that it might be a good time to try again.

Last Sunday, as we sat in church, she was getting restless. So I decided to bring it up again. I waited until yesterday, and started telling her how much fun she would have, and that she wouldn't have to sit still and be quiet for so long if she'd go to class. I let her know that her friends would be there and that I knew she'd love it. So she looks at me and says, "I think I want to check it out."

This morning as we were getting ready, she made sure I knew that she still wanted to "check it out." So I talked to her a little more and made sure she realized that the teachers wouldn't be the same, but everything else would be familiar. She was ready.

So I took her over, and after just a few seconds of encouragement, she went into the play room. (This is where they go until all teachers are ready to take them.) She wanted to make sure I wasn't going anywhere yet, so I told her I'd be around for a few minutes. Then I found out who her teacher was and was able to introduce her and make a connection (I taught her little girl years ago when she was 3). Ruthi thought that was cool, and seemed immediately comfortable with her. I was so thankful! So I gave her a hug and kiss and told her I'd be back.

When I went back to get her, she was so excited. I put her coat on and started out the door, and she announced, "I don't want to go!" I think she liked it just a little bit! She's already excited about going back to class next Sunday.

I couldn't be happier. And now that she knows that she can go there, she's going to give me a really hard time if I'm tempted to stay home! That's a good thing!

Now if I'd taken a picture of her going there this morning, it would have been the perfect photo for today. But I didn't. Oh well.



I'm still waiting for my kit - I sure hope it comes tomorrow, but I'm still getting my pictures made every day. Some days are easier than others, but I'm having fun. So now I have yesterday and today's pictures.

Jan. 10
Ruthi really loves her stuffed animals. She calls them her friends. And at least half of them are in her bed. She's not happy unless they are lined up in her bed. As you can see, the bed is getting quite crowded! There's barely room in there for her. Which I suppose is not such a big deal, since she won't sleep in there half the time anyway! But I am hoping to get that to change soon! She's never been a great sleeper, and sleeps much better ON me! But since she's turned 4, she's actually been sleeping better, so I'm hoping the next step is to get her to stay in her bed all night! Anyway, I thought her "friends" looked cute all lined up, and wanted to capture it before she outgrows it!

Jan. 11
This is Denise with Ruthi. Denise lives next door and Ruthi LOVES her! (And Denise loves Ruthi too!) Tonight the kids and I went over there for dinner (which was delicious, by the way). I had not taken a picture yet today, so this was perfect. Ruthi with her "other mom". Actually, both of the kids play around and call her mom. It's going to be a sad day when they have to move. Jorge (her husband) is in the Army, and it's likely they will have to move at some point...hopefully later than sooner. I don't think either of my kids are going to know what to do without them next door! But hopefully we won't have to worry about that for quite a while. But for now Ruthi gets plenty of hugs from mom #2!

Rainbows!

Today's photo is of Ruthi in her Rainbows vest, ready to go to church. Our church has a girls program called Missionettes. Actually, the new name is MPact. But it will always be Missionettes to me, because I grew up in the program myself.

The 3 and 4 year old girls and boys group is called Rainbows. Ruthi started going last summer, and she absolutely loves it. She looks forward to Wednesday every week.

Due to all the Christmas programs, and the fact that Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were on Wednesday, we haven't had Rainbows in a while. As a matter of fact, the last time we met was December 3rd. Over a month ago!

To say Ruthi was excited about going back to Rainbows tonight is an understatement. She could hardly wait to get there! So this was the perfect picture to choose for today.


She loved getting to see all her friends again, and had a wonderful time. Even though she had a little meltdown at the end of the night. At least that didn't happen until she was in the room with me! That's what happens though when she doesn't get a good nap. And today, she had a very difficult time going to sleep...I think it may have been the anticipation of Rainbows! But all was well.

I'm glad everything went smoothly tonight. I'm the coordinator over the program, and I run all night long. At least I got some exercise in tonight! Now if I could just keep it up! But things went very smoothly tonight, and I am very thankful. I have the most awesome team of teachers who I'm incredibly thankful for. They are the BEST!

Now I'm tired. It's been a long day, and I have another long one coming up tomorrow. And I'm trying my best to be in bed by midnight these days. So far, I'm not doing so well. But I'm going to keep trying! I have 8 minutes to go...think I'll make it?

Probably not.

My Christmas Present Came!

I asked for one "big" thing for Christmas. In November, we got new carpet in the bedrooms. So, I wanted a new vaccuum cleaner. A good one. Not an expensive one, but a good one still.

My friend (and next door neighbor), Denise, has a great vaccuum cleaner. I had borrowed it back in the summer and was amazed at the stuff it was sucking up! I couldn't believe it. So it went on my list.

I had a little vaccuum cleaner which works fine on my hardwoods, and on the old worn out carpet, I figured it was doing a well enough job. But then I had a taste of a good vaccuum. And I was hooked! I borrowed Denise's vaccuum MANY times over the past few months - just to get a little deeper cleaning done.

Actually, it seems it was living over here more than at her house, and she would have to borrow it from me!

With the new carpet in, I wanted to be sure to be able to maintain it better with a good vaccuum cleaner. So right before Christmas, Chip went to get it for me.

Out of stock. Figures.

But he ordered it for me and let me know it was on the way. And today it came!!! I've already broken it in, and I've never been more excited about vaccumming!

So, a picture of my new toy is my picture for today for the 365 project. However, I just realized that I'm going to have to take another one, because all the pictures fit in the book horizontally. But I'm going to put the one I already took and uploaded here for now.

Jan. 5



Oh, and I know I'm going backwards, but I have yesterday's picture too.

Jan. 4:
Ruthi and Emma have been begging for a sleepover. It's been quite a while since the last one. So we decided to squeeze one in before school started back from the Christmas break. So Emma came home with us after church today. I needed to run to Kroger to pick up a few things, and the girls wanted to ride in the "car buggy". They were a little cramped, but they had fun. The sun was in their eyes, so they are a little squinty!

So Sensitive

I'm still here...and I'm still plugging away at my November tackling. I know I haven't updated, but I've been quite busy. And I still am. Big things are happening this week. I will update soon, I promise! I'll have half the month of tackles to list, but I'll get them listed eventually!

This morning I woke up to make sure Chip was awake for work. (I'm the back up just in case his clock doesn't work for some reason.) Usually I go right back to sleep. But I have so much to do today I decided to stay up.

I went into the kitchen and began unloading the dishwasher when I heard Ruthi crying. I went to check on her, and discovered she had obviously been dreaming...an unhappy dream...about our cat.

She LOVES the cat, so the thought of anything happening to her upsets Ruthi majorly.
When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "The kitty leaved us!"
The cat happened to be right there, so I picked her up, showed her to Ruthi and assured her the cat did not leave us.

She reached up to pet the cat, but continued to cry, "Franklin gotted her to die!" she sobbed. Franklin is a show about a turtle and his family that she loves to watch. Apparently she was dreaming that Franklin caused Frisco to die.

Again, I assured her the kitty was just fine, and was right there. Then, as she's wiping the tears that are streaming down her face away, she says, "But I dreamed she has a broken paw - she couldn't walk without that!" Poor baby, she was so terribly upset.

By then, she was becoming more awake, and finally realized the cat really was ok. So she loved on her for a little bit, and all was right in her world again.

She is so incredibly sensitive. And when it comes to animals - any animal, she gets really uspet if something happens. She cried the first time she watched The Wizard of Oz, when the witch took Toto from Dorothy. She cried, "But the girl needs her dog!" And it took me a while to convince her that Dorothy would get Toto back.

One of her newest favorite movies is Air Bud. She had seen it a few times, but for some reason had missed the very beginning those first few time. She caught the beginning recently and I heard her crying. She was upset that the dog had fallen out of the back of the truck and was all alone. And I mean REALLY upset! I had to remind her that the boy finds the dog, and that the dog is ok.

She is sensitive about lots of other things too, and gets her feelings hurt very easily. I pray that I'm always sensitive to her sensitivities and can be encouraging and always help her though these things. The joys of raising a girl! And I love it!

By the way...it was about 5:30 this morning when she woke up. I thought she'd surely go right back to sleep. That didn't happen. It's almost 7 now and she's still awake.
She JUST now said to me, "Mom, if you don't get any sleep, you will be tired!" I told her I did get sleep. She looked toward the window where the sun is just now barely trying to come up. She says, "Oh, it's starting to get brighter...I can stay up"! She followed that up with a big yawn. Yeah...it's going to be a fun day. I hope her nap comes early before she realizes how tired she actually is!

Now I need to go get busy!

My Preschooler

I realize it's been almost a week since I blogged. I had good intentions of posting more pictures last week.

But it didn't happen.

Obviously.

Life has a way of getting in the way of blogging. Such is my life.

I started preschool with Ruthi on the 2nd. Yes, I realize this is the 16th and I'm just now posting pictures. But you are used to that by now, no?

This child has been so excited to do her "coolwork". And she absolutely loves it.
We are only "doing school" 2-3 days a week at the moment. I will probably shift into doing more in the near future...if I can get my act together and keep up with everything else!

Anyway, here are a few pictures of our little girl on her first day of school.


She looks so big!



Had to get a shot of her "big girl" pony tail!

Working hard on her circle collage:




We were working on the letter A. As in recognizing it, and knowing what sound it makes. I had no intention in teaching her how to actually write an A or any letters at this point. I had to get up to get something, and as I was walking away, she says, "Mommy! I made an A!"
I casually say, "You did? Wow!"
Then I walked over to see what she had actually done, fully expecting to see a scribble. Instead, I saw this:

That's an actual A!!
I was surprised, to say the least. Good grief, she's not supposed to be growing up this fast!



My camera finally bit the dust. So I will be scarce with pictures until I can get a new one. I still have a few pictures to share. And I've taken a few with my phone, but they never turn out as good. Hopefully I'll have a new camera soon and can go picture crazy again!

Fall is upon us and there are too many wonderful opportunities for photos not to have a camera! Oh HONEY...are you reading this? *GRIN*

She's a Big Girl Now!

(If this post showed up in your feed reader before, it was incomplete, I somehow accidentally published it before I was done. So ignore that one, this is the completed one!)

This daughter of ours never ceases to amaze me. She is constantly doing things I didn't know she could do, or telling me things I didn't know she knew. Sometimes it's just a little scary how quickly she learns things.

Yesterday we headed out on our bikes. We have a wonderful trail to ride on - it was once the train tracks and has been converted. When we all ride together, we go 10 miles, as that is as much as I can handle for now. (When just Chip and CJ ride, they go further.) Ruthi gets a nice ride in a trailer being pulled by one of us.

Chip usually pulls her, but yesterday I pulled her the first half of the way, and I even surprised myself! Chip and CJ had gone ahead on their bikes and went a couple of miles the opposite direction so they could turn around and then catch up with us. We can't pull the trailer down the access trail that is near our house, so we have to load it and my bike up and drive around the corner to a parking lot that has an access. She and I headed out and eventually the guys caught up with us. Even they were surprised how far up we were before they caught up.

At our turn around point, there is a concession stand, bike shop and park. We stop there and let Ruthi play and usually get some sort of treat. I got a really big treat yesterday, to my surprise. Chip bought me a new bike! He had planned to do it before we got there, and had even spoken to the shop owner ahead of time, so he was expecting us. I thought I was just trying out bikes for later on, and had no idea I was getting one then! However, the bike I loved, was in a color I didn't, so he ordered it and it will be here soon!

I told Chip that since I had been riding this older bike for a while, I had no idea what a difference a nicer one would make, and that I wouldn't have been able to appreciate this nice bike had I not been riding the other one for a while. I really could not believe the difference! I even said it was like moving to a Cadillac! I mean, the difference is amazing!

Anyway, getting to the point of my title of this post. While we were there, Ruthi was saying, "I want to ride a bike!"

There was a really cute pink one, so I pulled it down just to let her sit on it and try it out. Much to our amazement, she took off on it! Sure, it has training wheels, but we just couldn't believe it! And she did NOT want to get off. Nor did she want any help! So I took her down to a flat area and let her go. She was having trouble realizing you can only pedal one direction, so she kept stopping as she would try to pedal backwards. But she was having a blast.

When we got back up to Chip, I said, "Maybe this would be a great Christmas present." And he said something about if we waited until then, it would be too cold for her to enjoy it, so why wait? And she went home with a pretty little pink bike.

CJ and I headed on back toward the car. Chip stayed behind with Ruthi to let her ride until she was tired. They didn't get too terribly far.

The funny thing was on the way back, I was pulling an empty trailer, except for Ruthi's baby doll. I know I was getting some very strange looks from people as they peeked into the trailer expecting to see a child and there was only a doll. They must have thought I was crazy!

I passed several bikers on the way back that I had passed on the way there. They had smiled at Ruthi earlier. I just imagine what they might have been thinking when they saw that she was gone! Of course, if they passed her and Chip further up, I'm sure they were able to put 2 and 2 together. The others probably just thought I was some crazy lady.

Chip and I had some fun talking about it later. We decided that it would have been really funny had I introduced the doll as my daughter and really got people thinking I had lost it. I wonder how long it would have taken for us to hear talk about that "crazy lady on the bike trail"!

Anyway, I got back to the car and loaded up the trailer and my bike. CJ just rode his bike on to the house. I headed out to pick Chip and Ruthi up. She was definitely tired, but she wasn't admitting it. She kept insisting she wanted to ride her bike home. Of course, she had no concept of how far that really was!

We got home and I took a picture of our big girl. It's a little fuzzy, because I took it with CJ's phone, since the memory in mine was full. But it's still cute, so here she is:

She's such a big girl!

(And apparently our "Lawn Boy" needs to get a hold of the yard!)