Daddy's Girl

To preface my “quote of the week” below, I have to explain that Macy has made random comments throughout this past school year when she plays with some of the boys in her class. She’ll tell me about her day and who she played with, etc. and will then sometimes say “I like ____(Luke, Brock, etc.), but I usually don’t like boys so much. I like to play with the girls better.”

So, fast forward to a couple of nights ago, where the girls and I are having dinner, sitting around the table (Gregg was gone), and Macy was telling me about the little boy that is in her swimming class this session. Then she continues eating for a bit…pauses, and says….

“I don’t like boys as much, but I love my Daddy. I have the best Daddy in this world.”

Oh! My heart! She had the biggest smile on her face when she said this, and I wholeheartedly agreed that she is very lucky to have such a wonderful daddy, and that he loves her just as much.

Gregg and Macy have always been close, but she has most definitely become “Daddy’s Girl” over the past few months. She wants him to brush her teeth, wants him to read bedtime books, wants to go wakeboarding with him, always wants to help him drive the boat, help him in the yard, etc, etc. And when he was gone on this last trip, she asked me the following several times a day: “When is Daddy coming home? He said he is coming home on Sunday. Is it Sunday yet? What day is today? How many more days until Sunday?”

You get the picture. And when he comes through that door….man, oh, man….does he ever get an enthusiastic welcome home! I love watching it. Every single minute of it. My heart just soars when I watch them together, or listen through the closed door as they’re reading together at night or discussing their day….I can’t think of a sweeter sound in this world. She is truly a Daddy’s girl, and I can already see Morgan following closely behind.

A Breakthrough!

(I actually wrote this two weeks ago, but I decided to leave it as is. See, true to my word, I am always 2-3 weeks behind!)

Today we had a breakthrough. May not be big to anyone else….but to a mom of a sometimes-shy, slow to warm up, difficulty adjusting to new situations, clinging to mom for dear life with tears in her eyes when I’m about to walk away, little girl….it was a big day.

We started swimming lessons today. Big girl lessons. Lessons where mom would NOT be getting in the pool with her. Truthfully, I realized that I’ve been avoiding getting her back into lessons, because the thought of a screaming, crying 4-year old at the edge of the pool, clinging to me for dear life as I lowered her down into the water to her teacher…..not so appealing. Not at all.

But something magical happened last weekend when we were at the Jump family birthday party, where Macy was able to play in the outdoor pool at Jason & Karli’s condo. The girls started by sitting on the steps and splashing and kicking and playing, but soon, after encouragement from her Aunt Leslee and cousins, Macy was in the water, floating around in a life ring, kicking, giggling, and loving being in the water. And then? We couldn’t get her out of the water. Seriously….the girl was about to turn into a prune. But finally, I think shear exhaustion convinced her that it was time to go. As several people commented to me that night “you have got to get that girl into some swim lessons.”

They were right. It was time.

So, I did some research and we ventured out to the local high school swimming pool last week, where we observed the other kids during their lessons. Macy was very excited about being there and watching, told me that she really wanted to do this, and we came back for the sign up day, and were told “see you Monday morning!”

So, in preparation for this morning, I took the girls by myself (I mention this fact, by myself, because I consider this an accomplishment) to the YMCA for a family swim. It’s no small feat to have a 4 year old that doesn’t swim, and a 19-month old that doesn’t let go, clinging to you for an hour in the pool. Not to mention, getting said children into the shower, lathered up, rinsed, dried, and in their clothing on a slippery wet tile floor without someone cracking their head open. But we made it….mission accomplished. And I’m truly so glad I took them….they had SO much fun – and were giggling and splashing and kicking all over the place…and the zero entry pool is the best design ever invented. Macy asked me the next morning if we could go swimming again, and kept asking me when it would be time for her lessons to begin.

Fast forward to this morning as we pull up to the high school, get into the locker room, and Macy heads right into the showers. After she gets her head & face wet without complaint, she takes my hand as we head out to the pool area. Her steps slow down a bit at this point, as we head toward the instructor at the far end of the pool with clipboard in hand. I could feel her grip tighten a bit once we got there, and as she turned to give me a hug before she sat down, her eyes started filling up with tears. “I don’t want to. I just don’t want to.”, and she starts to put her arms up around my neck again. I kneel down to talk to her….and all of sudden she looks at me and says the following:

Macy: “Mom, I want you to go in the other room.” (Say what?)

Me: “What other room?…Oh, you mean you’d like me to go out front?”

Macy: “Yes, I want you to go back out there to the other room.”

Me: “Okay. I can do that. And you will stay here?”

Macy: “Yes. You go out there and come back in when I’m done.”

Me: “ummm….Okay. I can do that”

Macy: “Okay, one more hug.”

So, she hugs me, then turns and sits down on the edge of the pool in front of the instructor. And I walk away, not daring to look back until I got closer to the door. In my mind, I’m waiting to hear a scream or cry coming from the end of the pool, but I hear nothing. Then, as I’m about to push open the doors to the front desk area, I glance back and see my little Macy practicing putting her arms over her head and listening to her instructor. Of course, I had to sneak back in and watch from afar, and I could see her holding on to a kickboard and floating on her back. Mind you….for the entire half-hour, I was pretty much stunned, as I couldn’t even believe that she actually went through with it. I was beyond proud of her. At the end of the lesson, she came quickly over to me with a very excited look on her face, and I could tell that she was equally as proud of herself. She excitedly asked if she could come back tomorrow, and was even more thrilled when I said “YES!”

So on the way home, I asked more about her request that I “leave the room.” And after asking this question a few different ways and discussing it, this is how she explained it: “Mom, when you are there, I want to come over and give you a hug. But when you’re not there, it’s easier for me. So can you please leave again tomorrow?” I assured her that I would leave again the following morning (seriously, did those words just come out of my mouth?). She also shared this: “See mom, that’s why I can do ballet. You wait out front, and I go into to ballet class, and then I come out when I’m done. And I’m brave when I do that.” (there is no viewing area for her ballet class, so as not to distract the kids.)

So…I call this a “breakthrough’. A big one for us. My four-year old is articulating the coping mechanism that she has developed in her own mind, and it involves Mom not being in close proximity, especially with new situations. For her to be able to tell me that is huge – and who knows, this might end up helping us in the future too. And that is fine by me ….this falls under the category of “whatever works!”

***So, a little update -fast forward to tonight as I post this – she has now gone through an entire 2-week session, 4 days per week, and has literally gone to bed every single night asking if she gets to swim the following morning. And upon waking, she asks where her swimsuit is so that she can “get ready to go swimming!” I’m sure all the parents sitting in the bleachers think I’m some callous, uncaring mom that rushes out and doesn’t even care to watch her kid swim. But I don’t care….it works for us…and we’re sticking to it!  As of this morning, she was jumping from the edge of the pool, out to her instructor, without holding a hand as she jumped and fully submerges and pops up (she dropped the hand-holding last week), floating on her tummy with her head face down in the water, and doing 10 bobs (dunking under water) in a row when they start class. If you would’ve told me she’d be doing this two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed you in a million years. YAY for our breakthrough!

 

First Hair Cut!

So many other things to share, but I have to start with Morgan’s first haircut from earlier tonight. Macy led the way by getting her hair cut first in the “big girl chair”, and we made sure that Morgan got to watch her and see how fun it was to sit in the chair and watch a movie! So when it was Morgan’s turn, she was excited to go sit in the little airplane chair, and started flying it right away. Before she knew what was happening, movie was in, smock was on, hair was being sprayed, and my little girl was getting her very first hair cut! I was standing there, taking a few pictures and laughing to myself, as I had been so worried about how little Morgan would react – but she barely even realized what was happening – all she was thinking was “I’m flying an airplane and watching Elmo on TV – sweet!” At one point, she realized that she was by herself in the chair, and that I wasn’t the one messing with her hair – and a little whimpering began. But, a quick-thinking, well-prepared salon owner quickly brought a smile back to little Morgan’s face with a handful of pretzels – hooray! We were so proud of her. Whew…mission accomplished. She just looks so little in these pictures to me – given that Macy never needed her hair cut until she was well over the age of two.
Here is a before:

Then during;

And after:

Dance Fever...

There has been a new phenomenon to hit our house in the past several weeks….Alvin & the Chipmunks.

The girls were first introduced to this movie by my cousin Norm when we were visiting Minnesota, and then Grandma Miller bought the girls this DVD a couple of months ago. It’s actually a very cute movie, and the girls just loved watching the chipmunks (it must be their voices?)…but all of sudden, Macy just could not sit still when she was watching this movie. The music was just too good….and that girl just had to dance. So quickly, this movie was no longer for watching…it was for DANCING! Macy would start dancing around the room and hit the “previous scene” button (I didn’t even know such a button existed until Macy showed me) over and over and over, just so she could listen to the songs again and dance with her beloved chipmunks. So….smart Grandma Miller went out and bought the soundtrack on CD, I dusted off my old portable stereo….and the girls have since spent HOURS dancing around Grandma Miller’s deck when we’re over at their house. Grandma has them on video…but today was the first day I was able to capture them at our house. Seriously….they make me laugh so much when they’re dancing that it is difficult for me to keep the camera still. Macy gets so into it….but the really funny part is watching Morgan try to keep up and creating her own dance “moves.”

Hopefully you’ll find them as entertaining as I do….enjoy! :)



And one more... :)

4th of July!

Are you detecting a theme here? That it takes me approximately 3 weeks to get around to completing just about anything these days? So….here you go, pictures from the 4th of July, 3 weeks later.

The night before the 4th, we always decorate our wagon for our neighborhood 4th of July parade – and Macy was more excited that ever this year about decorating, given that she was moving on from the wagon….on up to decorating her own bike, like all of the other “big kids” in the neighborhood. Exciting stuff.

But our fun-filled, decorating, flag-waving, “grandma & grandpa are here!”, race to the front of the neighborhood to start the parade morning, seemed to be anything but fun for the girls as the day started out.. After both sets of grandmas and grandpas arrived, we took the girls out to the garage to get ready to go – and Morgan started crying and trying to climb out of the wagon. (you’ll notice the less than excited look on her face below)

Then, after pushing her bike past a few houses, the formerly excited Macy decided that she didn’t want to ride her bike, she wanted to be little again and join Morgan in the wagon (tight quarters these days for both of them, mind you) and she started whining, crying and carrying on for the entire walk to the front gate, and quickly discarded her bike in the neighbors driveway. (insert mom pulling her hair out at this point...the one and only happy picture with the bike is below)

So, we eventually make it to the front gate, and find our way to the pack of the large group of other happy, exited kids. Meanwhile, Morgan was still crying intermittently, trying to unhook herself to climb out of the wagon and Macy was whimpering, refusing to push, pull, ride, or consider doing any of the above. Finally, the parade began, and it seems that the shared excitement of all of the other kids seemed to help lift the mood. And of course, it’s always exciting to have both sets of grandparents cheering you on!


And finally, once we reached the end of the parade……Macy quickly remembered part of the reason she's always been so excited about the parade -there’s nothing like a good ol’ fashioned otter pop to add a permanent smile to your face for the morning.

So, with red otter pop dripping from our happy faces, we made our way back home, and enjoyed a fun rest of our day, beachcombing during the very low tides, and barbequing with Grandma & Grandpa Miller. We also congregated with several neighbors in our driveway for a fireworks show – with our kids being ages 9 mos., 16 mos., 19 mos., and 4 ½ and 5. Can you say “ground bloom flowers”? Actually, the dads were not willing to keep the show on the ground, so we learned the art of “stick your fingers in your ears!” and Macy was seen peering out of the office window during one particularly loud display. We all ended up having a great day though, despite our rough start!

The Recital

I’ve been meaning to get these pictures up from Macy’s recital from back on June 22nd– but I think it took me the entire two weeks (okay, okay...nearly three) to recover from the big day! I didn’t realize it until after it was all over, but I was pretty nervous about whether or not Macy would be willing to go up on stage in front of hundreds of people and dance. Not to mention the anticipation of having a squirmy, teething, 18-month old “I haven’t had a nap this afternoon” child on my lap for the entire performance. (For the record, Morgan did amazing – surprising us all, barely making a beep the entire time – AND she stayed on my lap too) With that said, we tried to be very laid back about the whole thing and just encouraged Macy to have fun up there-that’s what it was all about! She has just been so excited, nearly obsessed, with ballet all year long, and actually cried once week when she was sick and unable to go to class. When we arrived at the theater, Macy was VERY excited – nearly giddy, and was so excited to see Morgan and all of her family outside of the theater waiting for the recital to begin.
I left her with the “backstage mommy helpers” and we went out to our seats. When it was finally time for the “Pink Rose Princesses”, little Macy tiptoed out on her “Cinderella toes” (as her teacher Ms. Kristine calls them) and made her way across the stage right on cue. I have to say that I had tears in my eyes as my little girl walked across stage – flash backs to my little baby and thoughts of “how in the WORLD did she get so big?” Anyways, she did wonderful and had a sweet little smile on her face. But, with about 30 seconds to go in the routine – I could see her pause for a split second, as she was trying to remember the rest of the routine – and that was it. She turned to find her teacher in the wings for some assistance, noticed the very large audience, and then slowly started to walk (quickly progressing to a run) off stage to the loving arms of Ms. Kristine, who I could see lift her up in the air in a hug of reassurance that it was okay. My heart just went out to her…she was trying so hard to be brave out there on stage. To tell you how much we love Ms. Kristine, she actually called me the next day to make sure that Macy was doing okay. Now that’s "above and beyond" in my book.

After the routine ended, all of the dancers were to remain in their “waiting rooms” until the end of the recital, so that they could all participate in the “curtain call” in their costumes. I knew Macy would be hesitant to go back out at this point, so during the intermission, Grandma Miller & I decided to surprise her with some of her congratulatory flowers. Her face absolutely lit up…and the beautiful “just for me” flowers somehow gave her the confidence she needed to go back out on stage. We waited out in the audience….anxious to see whether she would join the other dancers….and out she ran – leading the way for her class, clasping her special flowers tightly in her hands as she ran. It was just what she needed. She was very excited for the rest of the day, posing for pictures with family….it really did end up being a special day and experience for her. Here are some pictures:




We’ve since asked whether or not she wanted to continue with ballet classes next year….and we’ve received nothing but an emphatic “YES!”

What a beautiful night!

We finally put the boat in the water today, and enjoyed a relaxing dinner cruise on the boat. After so many weeks of waiting for a nice stretch of weather – it looks like we’re finally getting one here! So…we decided it would be worth putting the boat in the water for several days to try to take advantage of this weather.

Macy was beyond excited to “go boating!” and we were all curious how Morgan would react, given that she was only 9 months old the last time she had been on the boat. She was fine with the life jacket and was fine with walking down onto the dock and climbing onto the boat. But, once we started moving, Morgan started crying. I could actually sense Gregg tensing up and starting to stress about the prospect that one of his children might not enjoy boating. Morgan cried all the way to Wollochet Bay and was pretty cranky throughout our little sunset dinner, but after an hour or so, she was an ol’ pro! She was climbing all over the place and Macy & Morgan were making their “beds” up in the bow and were covering up & hiding with towels. Then we saw the little fish jumping all over the place (it was sooooo calm out) and a seal came swimming right by the boat. Morgan was giggling and having so much fun….and we were all relieved that the night ended on a happy note, I must admit. Here are some pictures from tonight:

Pure Joy...

These days, it’s pretty rare that I’m able to capture the girls smiling or posing at the same time. They are just SO busy right now…so I was excited to catch this shot when the girls were playing together at Macy’s end of the year picnic at her preschool. They were just having so much fun….nothing but laughter and joy….and this picture just makes me smile remembering the moment. :)

Okay, when it’s a little “too quiet” upstairs…

Sometimes your “mom instinct” just tells you that it’s just a little too quiet around the house, and tells you that you’d better go check out what’s going on. We had heard Morgan waking up over the monitor, and Macy jumped up and raced upstairs, yelling “I’ll get her up! I’ll get her up!”, and she usually runs up ahead of us and reads books to her and puts toys in her crib until we come in to get Morgan up. Well, given that it was “too quiet” I decided to go upstairs and check things out, and this is what I found….

Macy was SO pleased with herself and they were both laughing hysterically (as were we) when we came in and discovered Macy’s handywork.

"Just a couple more to add.....there, we're done!"


Thanks for making me look so pretty!

Sneak Preview!

As all of the Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts & Uncles know...Macy is going to be in her first ballet recital next week! Macy had her first "dress rehearsal" and pictures this past week, so all of the girls were able to try on their costumes and pose for pictures. I can't tell you how cute it was, with all of the little girls running around with their tutus and buns in their hair. I know we'll have more pics at the recital, but I wanted to share a few pictures from this first rehearsal.

18 months!

Morgan had a great 18-month check-up last Friday. Everything looked great, according to the doctor, and she's growing like crazy! She was 32.5 inches tall (75%) and 25 lbs 11.5 oz (70%). Which means, in the past 3 months, she's grown 2 inches and gained 2.5 lbs. Also, she is only an inch away from the height that Macy measured at 2 years old!

Morgan has been full of all sorts of surprises this week. Right at 18 months, she decided that she wanted to start to use some words. To start, she finally decided to try to say "more", rather than using the sign for it. That was our first exciting start to this new phase, and these are some of the others she has been trying out this week: socks, shoes, dog, duck, baby, bye bye, kiss (and several more I can't remember at this point.) On Monday, on the drive home from Grandma & Grandpa's, Macy played a "repeat after me" game with Morgan, and had her attempting to say all sorts of things. Very exciting for us all...especially when screaming has been her main form of communication over this past month!

Fun in the Sand!

Okay, here’s a question. Does anyone know how much sand a person can safely ingest? Because we’re really not sure how much sand Morgan actually swallowed earlier this week. It’s funny all the little things you forget that you have to teach these little ones….for instance, if your piece of peanut butter & jelly sandwich falls in the sand, it’s best to just toss it & reach for a new piece instead. You assume that the child will see that it’s “dirty” and just hand it over like she does everything else that falls on the floor lately. But, to a hungry 18-month old child….all they think is “Okay, my sandwich fell onto that grey stuff…I’m hungry.…give me my sandwich back…..NOW.” So….said child reaches down and shoves the sand-coated sandwich in her mouth faster than we can lunge at her to grab it. Sigh. What do you do? Hope for the best it seems. And guess what…the mouth full of sand wasn’t enough to deter her either….the attempts to grab sand-coated food away from her resulted in a lot of screaming…but eventually she was so fascinated by playing in the sand, that she no longer cared about the food!

So the fun part….she LOVED playing in the sand! Macy was having fun searching for sea glass and throwing rocks in the water with Dad, but Morgan was all about the sand, the shovels, the bucket, and the mountain that we were making in the sand. And you know what…I really get why it was so fun. After snapping several pictures, I put away the camera, kicked off my shoes, and started digging right alongside Morgan. And you know what? It was so relaxing, and mesmerizing for some reason. We must have dug in the sand together for the better part of 45 minutes. Digging and digging, and scooping, and dumping the sand….we made some really big holes and some really big sand-mountains. Who knew that playing in the sand was so fun? Actually…I think I *knew* that it was, but sometimes it’s good to just jump in and get dirty, and remember just how fun it is to be a little kid. :) It was a fun afternoon.

Hmmm...I wonder why this tastes so crunchy?

What a pleasant surprise!!

This morning, I was looking around Morgan's closet trying to decide what to dress her in, and given the forecast for a cloudy & rainy weekend, I put her in a sweater and some pants. So what a surprise when she woke up from her morning nap, and it was already in the mid-70's! We did a quick change into a sundress, and it reached nearly 80 degrees this afternoon! Yay! We were going to put the boat in the water for the weekend, but decided not to, since it was supposed to be fairly cold all weekend - so what a surprise that we were still able to enjoy being outside all day. It was wonderful...and the girls played out on the deck all afternoon! It was so fun and relaxing....Gregg was actually home on a Saturday, we were able to enjoy lunch & dinner outside & we BBQ'd out on the deck tonight, and the girls were so happy playing outside all day....it was great. Here are some pictures from earlier today:


Okay, I have to share this next picture too, because it just makes me laugh. :) The girls were playing with their sand & water table for much of the day, and Morgan kept dumping water down the front of herself. She finally came over to me with a sad face and pointed at her drenched dress, and when I asked her if she wanted to take it off, she said "Yep." (Her new favorite response) So off came the dress, but she insisted on leaving her sun hat on...so funny...

Also...one of Morgan's new favorite things to do...when I bring out the camera, she thinks it's hilarious to charge at the camera and get her face as close as possible to the camera, and then she smiles, makes some sort of loud sound, like she's scaring me, and then laughs and runs off again. A couple of her "close-ups" from earlier this week (and I'm also throwing in a picture of her new swim suit/rash guard, which I think is adorable. :)

Pool Party!

Oh, how nice it was to have those nice warm, days last week! Aaaahh….to walk outside without a coat, to close your eyes and feel the sun on your face, and to just be outside feeling warm….so, so nice. Last week, we were getting ready for a little weekend get-a-way, so we quickly blew up the little pool and put it on the deck for the girls to splash around and play in. Last year at this time, we had done the same thing for Morgan – we were so excited to put her in her little swimming suit & get her first “pool pictures” – just as we had done for Macy. Well, Morgan was having none of that at the time. She screamed the second we put her little feet in the water, and screamed louder when we sat her in that cold water. So this year, we weren’t sure what to expect. We put her swimming suit on & let her run across the deck to the pool….she quickly stepped in, sat down right away without flinching, and started splashing around! She had SO much fun. And so did Macy…it was so fun to watch them…and of course I had to pull the camera out. Here are some pictures from their pool party:



Also….last weekend involved our big adventure to L.A. to the American Girl store….but that will have to be saved for a whole different post!