Ponytail

This last week Ashley has been letting me put her hair up in a pony tail without much complaint. She mostly wants it just like Anna which is usually half of her hair up and half down. But today she told me she wanted a huge ponytail, all of it up.

For some reason she wanted to blow on all the tulips instead of kiss them :)

When Ashley has a ponytail in her hair and you touch her head she holds out one hand, looks at you with a dead serious stare and says "Be careful of my ponytail. Careful." What a hoot!

Much Love,
Jenny

Can't wait for the pool to open!

Love,
Anna and Ashley

Love Making Cookies with Mommy!

Right before this picture I looked at mommy and said, "Eating while cooking. That's crazy weird! Yum Yum!"

Love,
Anna

Hanging Pictures

The one thing Rob and I hate to do together.

Well I have been bothering him for quite sometime to hang a new clock on our mantle. We used my toothpaste method, measured with precision, remeasured with precision and felt pretty good about where we decided to drill the holes in the woodwork.

And then we got it up.... literally perfect placement vertically and about an inch off horizontally. See for yourselves.

Seriously... throw me a bone.

Makes me want to hurl and scream. Not at Rob, but at the people who made the clock. Apparently the hangers aren't the same distance from the sides and that was the only thing we didn't check. Goes to show what you get for assuming someone actually did something that made sense. Ridiculous that you have to double check that stuff. Goes back to the saying that "to assume is to make an ass out of u and me." No wonder why I so many times just feel the need to double check other peoples work and things myself so they get done right the first time.... If I had only double checked the retailer. Who'd of thunk?!

So for now our clock hangs.... a little off center.... but it hangs. I wonder how long it will take before it will hang perfect? Maybe never at the rate we work with hanging pictures :) I did notice that if you look it from the dining room that it looks perfectly centered!

Much Love,
Jenny

Hands Aren't For Hitting

Or should we re-title it to be "Hands Aren't For Swatting?"

We have a swatter on our hands; Ashley. It has increasing gotten worse over the last 6 months or so and is now at the point where we are huffing, puffing and swatting at anything frustrating, including complete strangers, family, friends and people who are trying to help her. (She is literally like the big bad wolf... I'll huff, puff and then swat at you!")

So we are on Project Swatting Damage Control. With reading this book multiple times a day (she actually requests it), talking with Ashley about being nice, and resorting to putting Ashley in time out anytime she swats we are making some progress. Yes she has been in timeout 10 times in one morning but the consistency in those three things actually bought us a whole "swat-free" Sunday. AND IT WAS SO NICE. (Fingers crossed, could be a hard Monday!)

Ashley is a smart one and knows that she isn't supposed to swat. Even when she doesn't swat, she will sometimes look at us and say "Swatting not nice. Timeout." Just checking for understanding I guess but it makes it a little easier to reason with her when she is in time out. Since she is so fluent with her speech it is so frustrating that she has the words to say something instead of her huff puff and swat.

It is such an ugly phase and embarrassing when it happens at playgroup to nice mom's who are just trying to help. All I can do is look at them and say, "she's 2.... we're working on that!" Those with kids older then s Ashley understand; those with younger ones don't (but soon will- hahahaha!)

So wish us luck on Mission Hands Aren't For Swatting! We still need it with Ashley.

Much Love,
Jenny

PS When we picked up Ashley from the church nursery today, Rob took her into the hallway while I "quietly" asked the teachers if she had swatted at them or others sin the class at all. They said they had not seen that behavior from her (thank God). When I walked into the hallway, Ashley looked at me, smiled and said "Ashley swats." That little bugger had heard me.

PSS We are still on "Mission No Hands in Mouth" with Anna. Wish us luck there too!

Growing Pains

For the past 6 months or so, Anna has been complaining about "growing pains." They usually happen when she settles down for a nap or bedtime and in the middle of the night. She will yell, "My legs hurt" or "my legs itch" and just recently "growing pains!!!" Sometimes she is even crying because her legs hurt.

I never had growing pains growing up, but my sister did. Does this mean my daughter is going to be as dramatic as my sister is??? (hahaha- love you Anne!!)

I am sure she is in pain because Anna doesn't complain about much. And "growing pains" are legitimate according to the internet (and the internet doesn't lie, right?!!?). I just hope they pass fast. It's not like they happen every day; maybe once a week or so.

This evening when she got them she wanted me to itch her legs and then started to talk about how these growing pains are happening because she is going to be 4 on her happy birthday and is just growing so fast. And she talked for 15 minutes about how she and her friends were all growing... it was pretty cute. Mid sentence and mid leg scratching she conked out... hopefully for the night!

Much Love,
Jenny

Best Friend

Last night after playing with little Lucy who lives about 5 houses down from us, Anna lay tired on her lay-z-boy recliner. She looks at me, takes a deep breath, smiles and says, "Mommy, I think Lucy is starting to become my best friend."

I just smiled. I wonder what classifies "starting to become" and how she ranks all her friends. This afternoon she asked to go see her "Very best neighbor friend.... ummm what's he name?!?!" and was pretty bummed when no one answers the door. "We can try later for my best friend," she tells me. :)

Much Love,
Jenny