Valentine's Day
Yup, we were snowed in and the snow quickly turned to ice. It was too cold to make snow balls or snow men, but Julia managed to find some pieces of ice to build a baby dinosaur house -- Have I said the everything is dinosaurs?
And the girl who hated to put on socks, tights, and real shoes, doesn't fight the heavy coat, boots, scarf, or gloves.
After as "played" in the snow -- I was digging out my car -- we went inside and baked a cake for Daddy. We made devil's food cake with pink icing, and according to the expert below, the uncooked batter wasn't bad. Later, there was lots of sprinkles on the pink icing and a very happy Daddy.
Lost tooth & Madison, WI
So week 3 of this new SAHM stuff. With our snow this week and school cancelled, I feel like I've taken a few steps backwards in my goal of getting the house ready for sale. If I was at work, I'd put in a few more hours and finish what I set out to do, but at home -- well, there are only 24 hours in a day and shoveling snow and running after a 6 year old are exhausting -- there is no move time or energy to expend.
On the upside, I have no trouble falling to sleep at night. On the downside, I don't feel flexible enough to re-set priorities on a day to day basis.
But truth be known, spending house time with Julia, just doing little things -- cutting, playing with play dough, chasing the pets -- is doing good things for her and that is half of why I am home. Watching her day to day, I see her shoulders dropping more and more, I see her playing more and more with her little people and dolls, and I even see her getting more comfortable with the pets. We are seeing less reason to sit her in her naughty chair, and a bit more patience to sit down to listen to a story or color.
So I am not winning mother of the year but maybe I will get the hang of this full time mothering.
Julia has lost a tooth. It was loose for a long time and she stopped eating apples and other crunch food to keep it in her mouth. Finally, finally, it popped out last week. She was confused a bit by the tooth coming out although she lost at least two teeth before coming home.
Our first trip to Madison was successful -- we explored neighborhoods, Julia and I visited a school and were so-o-o happy and excited about public school in Madison, David spent his Thursday and Friday getting to know his office and the court, we had brunch on Saturday with a bunch of co-housers and met some very nice people, and on Saturday night we had dinner with a couple of Indy friends who had moved to Madison a bit more than a year ago. We came back a bit depressed that the houses in the school district that I visited are too expensive for us; but there are other great schools, we expanded our search, and re-set our priorities in terms of the dream house search. I didn't expect to find our house anyway this time.
We spent time in the Madison kids museum. Nothing like the grand affair that we have in Indy, but a nice place for young kids. Julia enjoyed the cow exhibit -- two life-sized plastic cows showing how cows are milked. Julia liked petting the cows and liked getting very close. Then of course, we found the dinosaur exhibit. She put on a tail and had a great time digging up bones. I'm not sure if this means she will be a scientist or just will like diging in the garden with me. Either is fine.
Julia has discovered adjectives! She is also putting more words together, making semi-sentences more often than not. She is pointing out similarities between things because of shape, color, or purpose. I think when she starts telling stories, she will be very good at it.
At our brunch with the co-housers in Madison, Julia met a little boy named John. John is an only child who is also an "alfa-dog" like our Julia. The two of them recognized their need to be top dog and were at each other immediately. They competed for toys and attention, and who would sit where at the brunch table. Julia has not met anyone like this before (at least since she has been home). I hope that she can make friends with John or someone like him. They need each other.
Yup, we were snowed in and the snow quickly turned to ice. It was too cold to make snow balls or snow men, but Julia managed to find some pieces of ice to build a baby dinosaur house -- Have I said the everything is dinosaurs?
