What Is In W's Treasure Basket

1. Her 3K photo album
2. Her photo album from her zoo day with her teachers and 3 friends from last summer
3. One Razorbacks pom pom
4. A pink quartz
5. A blue rock that her brother brought back for her from Petit Jean
6. A Minnie Mouse plastic ring
7. A Bible verse cut-out on a ribbon
8. Her last summer pool pass that has her photo on it, so she calls it her drivers license

W's Stocking Stuffers, Because I'm That Much Of An Early Bird

1. 5 pairs of earrings (Christmas marks the two-month mark when she can take her starters out)
2. BrainQuest cards
3. Domino set
4. Old Maid card game (my kids are bonkers for card games lately)
5. Annie
6. Minnie Mouse cereal bowl
7. Bunch of Squinkies

W's Favorite Places, As Dictated By Her

1. School
2. Story Time at the bookstore
3. Swimming lessons
4. The pool
5. Church (she especially likes getting a gold star every week for the memory verse)
6. Restaurants (her favorite restaurants are Crushed Red, Bread Company, and Zaza's)

W's Halloween Get-Up

1. Rapunzel princess dress
2. Purple glitter shoes
3. 2 foot long blond, Rapunzel wig
4. Tiara
5. Pink pumpkin for candy collecting

Our Summer Bucket List

1. Pick peaches
2. Go to Silver Dollar City
3. Bake cookies
4. Explore Elephant Rocks park
5. Go on a train ride to Illinois
6. Visit the Science Center
7. Picnic at the Arch
8. Day at the Buffalo River
9. Geocatching
10. Dessert at Crown Candy Kitchen
11. Visit the Buffalo Park
12. Host a birthday party for Puddy
13. Go to a Cardinal's Game
14. Visit the Butterfly House
15. Go to the Sea Lion Sound opening at the zoo
16. Make a bird feeder for Papaw
17. Go to a putt-putt course
18. Make popsicles
19. Visit the art museum
20. Take out the paddleboats
21. Make books

Why W Has Declared This Day "The Bestest Day Ever"

1. She got to "sleep in," which is what she said, but she really woke up at 7:00, which is normal for a school day.
2. Her and R watched Sesame Street while I was meeting with another school mom at her house.
3. I took them to Demun Park for a nice morning of playing.
4. We got sno-cones next door, and she was thrilled they had her favorite- strawberry
5. Snack-Plate for lunch (I do this when I don't know what to make them. They each have a plastic plate with 4 sections. I fill the 4 sections with random things that wouldn't normally go together. It's our version of muffin-tin meals.)
6. Movie after naps
7. They get to to to "Daddy's Office!" because I have a meeting in Clayton at 5:30, so I'm just going to drop them with him so he doesn't have to come home early.
8. I let them buy a frozen pizza for Andy to make them for supper, since I'm going to be gone. Oh, the joys a $2 Totino's Party Pizza can bring.
9. Her Minnie Mouse nightgown is clean and ready to wear tonight.

Things I Love About My Kids

1. W's hair fresh out the bath
2. How she loves to be praised and loves to be snuggled
3. When it's too late for clothes, but too early for jammies, and I put them in a hand-me-down-from-me t-shirt (because it reminds me of getting to wear one at my Great Aunt Mert's house)
4. R's love for a backscratch and rub
5. When he goes off on a monotone blabber where I don't know what he's saying but I have to respond because his inflection suggests that it was a question
6. When W works on an art project that lasts over several days
7. How they play together. It's such a sweet, precious thing for me to watch.
8. New jammie nights
9. R's imaginary play...all by himself immersed in whatever...airplanes, Legos, train track, dinosaurs....he is so content and creative.
10. I can trust them in all situations....fancy restaurants, doctor's offices, art museums, nice stores.
11. Listening to them apologizing to one another and granting forgiveness (especially R- melt my heart)
12. The joy they have when Daddy gets home
13. Baking with them
14. W's so sensitive to my feelings and hurts alongside me when I'm hurting
15. I love when R comes sleepily stumbling out of his bed in the morning, dragging his monkey blanket and Chops the bear
16. Singing You Are My Sunshine together
17. They both love to play with my hair and fix it up with barrettes
18. R says "pinkles" instead of "sprinkles," and W calls construction paper "instruction paper." I treasure those little sweet goofs.
I could go on forever...

W's Favorite Songs

1. Travelin Soldier- Dixie Chicks
2. Part of Your World- Ariel
3. You Are My Sunshine (we've been listening to the O Brother Where Art Thou? version)
4. Rivers and Roads- The Head and the Heart
5. Die Die Die- The Avett Brothers
6. Skinny Love- the Birdy version
7. Safe and Sound- Taylor Swift
8. The One That You Love- Air Supply
9. I'll Fly Away- Gillian Welch, Emmylou, and Alison Krauss
10. I Painted My Nails So Pretty- Lisa O'Neill
11. Poker Face- Glee version
12. I've Got You Babe- Sonny and Cher
13. Everybody Wants To Be a Cat- from Aristocats
14. L-O-V-E, Love That's Why- a song from school
15. Honey Come Home- The Head and the Heart
16. Poison & Wine- The Civil Wars

How I Attempt To Foster Friendship Between My Toddler Children

1. I try to brainwash them by saying at least 25 times/day, "Your brother is your BEST friend" and "Your sister is your BEST friend."

2. I want them to always root for each other, so I am constantly modeling encouragement and then praising it when I overhear them encouraging one another. Modeling is so important for kids. They have to be shown what to say in situations.

3. When the inevitable scary point of the Disney movie comes up, instead of rushing to W's side (she's more affected that he is) to comfort her, I tell her to hold her brother's hand so he can make her safe.

4. I encourage her to "read" books to him.

5. If they are playing happily together, I never, ever interrupt them. Even if they are making a huge mess or jumping on the furniture or sticking a billion stickers on each other. I can always clean up later, but I can't force them to enjoy one another.

6. I bathe them together, they sit by each other at the table, they share a room, they hold hands when we cross the street...together, together, together.

7. I model empathy between them so that they can learn to have it on their own.

8. I teach them fun, imaginative play games they can play together without me, like camping out, princess and knight, animal rescuers, fort building, restaurant, and mommy and daddy. 

9. I remind W when they are in conflict that one of her jobs as a big sister right now is showing her brother God's love.

10. I'm teaching them to help each other and rely on each other, like W putting on R's clothes, R holding the elevator for W, wiping each other's faces, etc.

11. I don't set them up to be competitive towards each other. 

*I would love to hear your ideas on the matter! This is something important to me.

W's Birthday Plans

1. Breakfast at First Watch with her friend Eden
2. Mani-Pedis with Lucy
3. Lunch at Crown Candy with Eric
4. Ears pierced (if she doesn't chicken out) and a snack with Sonya
5. Pizza and cake party at our house with Albert and his family and Stephen

What's In Our Art Center Right Now

1. Paper- construction, little sheets, envelopes, big manilla sheets

2. Magazines

3. Glue sticks

4. Scissors

5. Markers and dot markers

6. Crayons

7. Old photo cards

8. Stickers

9. Stamps

10. Feathers and pom poms

11. Popsicle sticks

12. Pipe cleaners

13. Greeting cards

W Lined Up Her Cakes For The Next 8 Years

1. Her 4th Birthday party- a Princess cake

2. 5th- a Cowgirl cake

3. 6th- a Minnie Mouse cake

4. 7th- another Princess cake

5. 8th- a Buzz Lightyear cake

6. 9th -a cake with heart, stars, and dots candles

7. 10th -a cowboy cake

8. 11th- a Razorback cake

W's Christmas List

1. Belle doll and Beast doll from the Disney Store

2. White and blue Cinderella dress

3. Ariel and Prince Eric dolls from the Disney Store

4. Sparkly nail polish

Little Quotes I Put On W's Boards I Made For Her

1. Feel the wind blow our wandering hearts like a feather (from the David Gray song, Shine)

2. Art does not reproduce what is visible, it makes visible (my favorite quote from my favorite artist, Paul Klee)

3. Don't you fear, when you dream, waking up is never what it seems (a lyric from Say Goodnight by Beth Nielsen Chapman)

4. April brings the primrose sweet, scatters daisies at our feet (a line from The Months, a poem by Sara Coleridge in honor of her birth month)

5. The glory of this imperfection (from David Gray's New Horizons)

6. Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life (a Pablo Picasso quote)

7. Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold (a line from the Robert Frost poem Nothing Gold Can Stay)

8. Hath won my affection and bound my soul fast (a lyric from Thy Mercy from Caedmon's Call)

9. We were born before the wind (the first line from Into the Mystic, by Van Morrison)

10. He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name (Psalm 147:4)

11. Turn around and say good morning to the night (Elton John lyric from Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters)

12. May the sun shine warm upon your face (a line from an old Irish/Gaelic blessing)

Names I Call W

1. Peanut

2. Peanut butter

3. Sweet potato

4. Sweet girl

5. Baby girl

6. Pooh bear

Household Chores My 3 Year Old Helps Out With

1. W can set the table

2. She can put away the laundry. I just taught her where everything goes and am okay with it being a slower and messier process that me doing it myself.

3. She is responsible for keeping her shoes and her brothers shoes in the shoe drawer.

4. She puts on her own shoes and helps her brother put on his shoes.

5. W can easily clean up all the toys in the house- I give her little jobs at a time so that it's less overwhelming- the cars, the puzzles, the babies, etc.

6. She gets (most) items off of the shelf at the grocer and puts them in the buggy for me.

7. She brushes her teeth.

8. Her favorite jobs are helping me put on a clean tablecloth and helping me make my bed.

9. She does love little jobs such as, "Would you put this bag in the laundry room?" or "Could you turn the TV off?" I think it makes her feel like my partner, which is her ultimate dream.

What W Shouts Out In An Attempt To Not Sleep And Get Out Of Her Bed

1. I need to pee.

2. I have something in my eye.

3. Well, my problem is...(insert anything here that is not at all a problem, like last nights, Well, my problem is I have these things." Or, well, my problem is I think I want to play some more.)

4. I pooped in my pull-up.

5. I peed in my pull-up.

6. I need a drink.

7. I dropped (insert any of her myriad of dolls and animals she sleeps with) behind my bed.

8. My fingers stuck in my blankie. (her blankie is threadbare and she sometimes gets its strings caught around her finger)

9. She will undress Baby Stella, then demand I come back to redress her so that Baby Stella does not get cold.

10. My boo-boo hurts. (most of her boo-boos are just teeny scratches)

11. I'm scared.

12. I just want one more super hug and kiss.

13. I want you to snuggle with me.

14. I think I'm going to puke.

15. What day is it today?

16. What day is it tomorrow?

Little Phrases W Says Because I Say Them A Lot

1. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
2. Head 'em up and move 'em out.
3. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit.
4. Let's hit the road!
5. I love you all the way to the moon.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Kids Easter Baskets

1. They both received ducks that you wind up and they swim around the bath

2. R got a Green Toys race car

3. W got a Green Toys tea set

4. W got a gremadcha headband

5. They both have Schleich figures- baby lamb for W, a rhino for R

6. My mom bought them 2 books to add- Gossie & Gertie for W and Ollie the Stomper for R

7. W has some Piggy Paint nail polish

8. R got a pair of rain boots

9. Plenty of paper grass and our reusable eggs

10. Some Sixlets

What W Sleeps With Every Night

1. Her blankie (pink Little Giraffe brand)

2. A blanket and full-sized pillow

3. Abby Cadabby doll

4. Her ballerina doll named Leah Ballerina that one of the managers at our grocery store gave her because she loves W so much

5. A Bla Bla doll named Baby Hope

6. Baby Stella

7. Chops the little bear

8. Her tiny bird named Balloon

9. Baby Penguin

10. A little bunny named Sweet Moo-Moos