The other day when we went to HEB, Jess wanted to ride the carousel out front. Thanks to Grama, she knows that it moves now. Anyway, I gave her $5 to see what she’d spend it on. We went to customer service and she got change, she rode the carousel, bought two .25 gumballs from the gumball machine and then purchased this assortment of candy. We had previously discussed her desire for popsicles so I told her she could be the one to buy the popsicles this week with her $5. She came home, tasted all the candy and didn’t like any of it and wished she’d bought the popsicles. That’s usually how she is about candy, except for blue lollipops.
I’ve been doing a little bit of sewing for some extra money. Nothing major, just sewing on girl scout patches but I happen to have a neighbor who runs 3 troops chock full of women who either don’t know a thing about needle and thread or don’t have time to think about it so I have a bunch of ladies willing to place the patches with a small spot of stitching glue and then pay me $1/patch to sew them on. Just something for a tiny bit of extra money which we’ve put towards some fun outside things for Jess. I’ve mentioned the trike. Ritchie’s been working on the newest addition to our backyard…reassembling a used playset. He finished the swings last night (in part because Jess reminded him every time we talked about it that even though the slide was done, the swings were not) and Jess and I spent the morning outside. It was glorious. Sometimes I feel like there are only few things I can share with her from my childhood environment. We will probably not have a big racous family with lots of siblings to play with. We don’t live in a place that has beautiful-great-to-be-outside weather all the time but backyard family fun is something I can definitely manage, especially on a beautiful fall day like today. We took turns flying down the bumpy slide, we played on the swings, next to each other, with her on my lap (I will be introducing her to the “kick the ball while swinging game” a bit later). We took turns rolling all of her many balls down the slide with one of us rolling from the top and the other one catching at the bottom. She came up with a lot of variations. Her first goal was to make the ball fly out of my lap and onto the grass next to me. Next she wanted me to lay down on my back with my feet at the end of the slide, she was trying to get the ball to roll to my nose. I hope I never forget her sweet little self 2 year old self, laying back in the grass with the hands clasped behind her head, her wispy blonde hair all wild around here, grinning up at me and the sky. When she hit her target she would yell out “Yep!” or “Got it!” or “Nope, didn’t get it!” We did this ball game for at least an hour and it was fabulous. She just giggled and smiled and had a great time. (Except for the time she tried to carry 3 balls up the ladder with her and she fell, but I think she won’t try that again). I loved being outside with her, distraction free, in the gorgeous windy weather that we had today. Let the backyard family fun begin.
Jess & Henry
After we came in tonight (because she was eventually too cold) she pulled out her megaphone and yelled “Hey Sister Miller!” into it. Ritchie and I looked at each other and looked at her and just laughed and laughed. Our little friend Riley was over yesterday and she calls me Sister Miller. So Jess went around calling us both Sister Miller (kind of like she called both of us “Tickle Gurl” the other night). At one point this was how our conversation (taking turns yelling into the megaphone of course) went down: “Sister Miller, how are you? Great?” “Yep, Jessie Miller, I’m great. How are you?” “I’m not Dessie Miller, I’m dus Dessie and I’m not good.” “You’re not good?” “No” Why not?” “I want my cuhsins.” This girl misses her cousins and she means it. We pray for them at dinner and or bedtime. We talk about them all the time and she misses them verbally at least once every single day. However, she’s not a big fan of webcamming. She’s interested in face to face playtime, no substitutions. I’m glad we have friendly next door neighbor kids but I’m really wishing one of you was on my other side.
Bowling. After Riley helped her roll it, they’d both squat down to see how many pins she knocked over. She’d come back defeated or excited.
Haircut at Cindi’s
Ritchie’s Lorry Friend at the zoo, it was licking his ear.
For a few weeks, she was having a sprinkles snack everyday. Her favorite part was opening each section of the 6 sprinkle jar and dumping some into her plastic cupcake “bowl.”
At the zoo
We ran barefoot for half a block to catch up with the ice cream truck for this neopolitan ice cream sandwich. See her dirty feet? It was awesome. Sometimes she wakes up from her nap to the song from the ice cream truck. This particular day we didn’t have time to don our shoes so I carried her across Manhattan Way and we caught up with the ice cream lady half way down the other side of Sumantra Cliff. “Run mom, less run!” She didn’t finish the sandwich. We usually just patronize the ice cream truck for the experience.
Again, there’s more to tell, about 3 trips to the bathroom within 15 minutes at HEB yesterday, another accident at Old Navy, my ‘I throw away really poopy panties policy’ (Not to punish but simply to assauge my own guilt about waste) and the aforementioned “Tickle Gurl” with the turqouise beaded flapper hat. If only I didn’t need sleep. Love to you all. Adieu.
Comments