Off the record, I loved it.  I loved hearing the kids all pipe in about how they thought each other had played that day.  I loved seeing the joy on their faces when THEY talked about what they thought they had done well.  Hopefully I will post some pictures soon!

Last night when I put Squeaky to bed, she just wasn’t tired.  So after I read her a chapter for the book I was reading to her, I handed her this book for her to “try” on her own.  I knew she could do it without any help and the confidence boost might just be what she was looking for.

I could hear her yelling to me from her bed “Mommy, I know these words!” I was so proud of her.  And happy for her.  She fell asleep last night after reading this book to herself outloud many many times.   Never once asking me for help.

Today after dinner I asked her to read it to me…and well the dogs.  And I think she totally “rocked” it!  Great job, Squeaky!!!

Here you can see her!

Bug has been talking about how she would LOVE to have a black mustang. It would be black, and she would name it “Beauty.” (I know, real original)

Squeaky heard this and couldn’t wait to chime in.  She was sooooo excited, talking about her pink Mustang that she would name “Princess.”

Funny how totally opposite two sisters can be!!

Swimming wasn’t a joy either.  She might sit on the steps of the pool, but when there were no steps, she wanted to be held.

Then, one day about 4 weeks ago she must have gotten brave.  Or maybe she realized how much fun she was missing out on, or how short baths could be, if she just got her head wet!  She finally began letting me dump water over her head.  This simple step made my life (and hers) 100% better.  She could bathe and still be happy at the end.

After about a week of her letting me dump water over her head, Tim got her to put her face into the water.  Amazing, I know.  4.5 years old and she was just figuring out the joys of bath time!

The other day, my sister and parents took her to the pool…I have to say a miracle happened….watch for yourself.

For now you will have to click here to see it…

Through her tears and sobs “but you HAVE to be good! I can’t play with you any more if you aren’t going to follow the rules!”

Broke. My. Heart!!  Though I am sooo glad that she understands that we don’t want her to play with the kids that aren’t playing nice (at this age, it’s just keeping your hands to yourself and following all the normal rules…but in 10 years it will be the kids that might sneak a cigarette, or worse!) I hate seeing her upset.  I am very glad she was successful in convincing the kid to stop, whatever he was doing wrong he stopped once he saw her upset.  I am glad she stood up for herself too.  I am just not ready for her to grow up.

There are also days when I am up at 4am for work…or I am not getting into bed after 11pm after working all night.  Neither are good for her sleeping habits.  I am sure Tim hates being woken up at those times, but at least he is an adult.  I need her to get a full nights sleep, and not be woken up mulitple times throughout the night.  (plus, I have to leave even if she is awake at 5am when I leave, so it really sucks for the one still home and wanting to sleep if the 4 year old has decided it’s wake up time!)

Once we figured out what it takes to make her a “big girl” the rest was easy.  She has done wonderfully sleeping in her bed.  She picks out three books, 1 for me to read, and 2 for her to look at to fall asleep on her own.  I read the book, give hugs and kisses, leave her light on so she can read and I am out the door.   Some nights she needs a drink, but it goes easily if I just give it to her…the nights I try to ignore that request take her longer to fall asleep.

One night, she wanted soooooooo badly to still be a big girl that she brought her pillow and blankets into my room, made a pallet on the floor and slept beside the bed on the floor!  I am not sure what had scared her, but she did what she could to NOT crawl in bed with me.  This was all done after I had fallen asleep and before Tim had come home from a late night working.

And Away She Goes….

Nothing is necessarily “magical” really.  I mean, we have special cookie cutters just for the boring peanut butter and jelly sandwich they might eat everyday.  Occasionally we cook our dinner over a bonfire.   We have a canoe for days that would normally just be spent fishing off a dock, they turn into a day spent fishing from a canoe.

We make a lot of things that most people just run out to the store and purchase premade.  (don’t get me wrong…not everything is homemade!!)   We wanted froghouses for the many frogs that live in our backyard.  Squeaky and I went and bought some terracotta pots, and she painted them and we assembled them to be a frog house.  It was fun, entertaining and cost effective too!

You get the idea.

This summer however I am determined to get my fairy garden started.  I love the idea of fairies in the woods and garden.  I have been slowly collecting ideas of little items that fairies may need in order to live in our backyard.  Small table and chairs, a tea set, maybe a bridge…these were the first items to come to mind.

Then the other night, my niece was spending the night.  The kids had had a fun filled day of doing chores and cleaning up messes (this was the 2nd night of a sleepover) so after dinner I thought we needed some fun.  I gave the kids a few rules : Only natural materials, no distrubing animal habitats, a safe area (for kids and fairies) and be creative.

I showed the kids where I wanted my fairy garden to go,  and I explained how if we wanted to attract fairies to my garden the fairies would need to know they had more than one safe spot.  So the kids went about the woods collecting sticks, bark, rocks, wood chips, leaves, moss and even some little trinkets they collected. (I agreed that as long as they were not adding more trinkets to the forest floor, they could use what they found)

They worked together first deciding on a location, then started working together on the perfect fairy house in the woods.  They even made a bed of moss for the baby fairies, found acorn tops for cups and a white feather to show they were peaceful fairies!

After finishing their fairy house in the woods, I surprised them with “Barbies Thumbelina” on DVD.  They got ready for bed, as it was almost 9pm by this time and I put in the movie.  It was the perfect ending for our magical fairy evening.

It took a good thirty minutes to get her nails “just right.”  And she loved every minute of it! 

I know for Squeaky by the time she comes home from school today, you won’t be able to tell she had any attention at all last night from her mom.  But I hope at least she remembers the time I spent with her last night.