Smarty Pants

I am sure that this will be the first of many blogs that I will be able to title "Smarty Pants", but for my memory sake I have to make note of this as the week that Shelby is starting to be smarter than me.

Right now they are learning about different types of weather at school and Monday on our way home Shelby asked me, "Mommy, are those cumulus clouds?" I let a little laugh come out just at hearing her say the word cumulus. Trying not to show that I didn't commit to deep memory all the different types of clouds that learn about in school. I asked her, "What do you think honey?" To which she replied, "Yes, I think they are." Phew....just barely got out of that one.

Another cute Shelby story...she has really great speech but there is just one letter that she has trouble with and that is v. She always pronounces it as b. So today we were in the car and she was telling me that she would be bery, bery, bery, bery, bery, bery happy if we could go to the playground today. I asked her after her long list of "bery", "Would it make you bery happy?" And she said, "Yes!!!"

In Review

We have had a busy week. Last Sunday (not yesterday, but the one before that) we packed up the kids and went to the pool. They have started heating it on the weekends and since it was such a beautiful day we thought we would enjoy it. Shelby and JP had a blast. Watching them playing with Pratt and their little buddies really got me excited about this summer and all the fun times we will have. The water was perfect, but you had to make sure that your towel was ready for when you got out because the breeze coming off the lake was a little chilly. We enjoyed lunch with grandmother, grandpa and Uncle Matt that day.

Monday we had a guest come in to stay with us for the week. His name was Reed and at first Shelby and JP were a little unsure of him, but after about a day Shelby was totally smitten and couldn't wait to see him every morning and every evening. All day she would ask, "Where is Mr. Reed? When is coming home? When can I see him? What is he doing?" etc, etc. When I put her to bed on Thursday night she asked me if he could live with us. It was so funny to see her become so attached to him and bless him for going along with it and letting her hang on him, cuddle with him, and just be in his face everytime he was around. I thought for sure that we would have some tears when he left today, but Shelby just gave him a great big leg hug and waved good bye. Of course, she has already asked a couple of times when we would see him again:)

Tuesday Shelby started swim lessons with three of her little friends. Surprisingly to me, she was so excited and really did a wonderful job of listening and participating. When it wasn't her turn she sat patiently on the edge of the pool with her little hands in her lap (I like to think this was a little glimpse into how she would look sitting around the ellipse at school). It was a very precious site for me. When they were getting started she did make sure to tell the swim teacher that she didn't want to get her head wet. JP and I hung around to watch. Since I didn't bring his suit because I didn't want to get in knowing full well that the water would be freezing (which it was), we sat at the edge and he went to town kicking and splashing water all over the place. After about 15 minutes I wised up and took his clothes off and let him sit there in his diaper. Of course, that was a little late as his clothes were already pretty wet. Lesson learned and tomorrow we will make sure that he starts out with no clothes on.

Here are the girls getting instruction at the side of the pool.

This is a picture of the girls practicing "big arms" before getting in the water and doing it. It was so funny because once they got in for their turn to swim, they all did little arms and kicked just to splash water every where.

First Trip to the Salon

After Pratt asked me for about 2 months to get JP's hair cut, I finally gave in and set an appointment at the salon for him and for Shelby. This would be our first ever. Pratt had cut Shelby's hair twice in the past and since it took her so long to grow enough hair to cut it and since she is a girl, it wasn't that huge of a deal if her hair didn't get cut. But JP on the other hand will need to have his hair cut more frequently. Pratt wants it to stay shorter and I love his curls so I knew that it would need to be done by a professional to give both of us what we want. After playing phone tag for about 2 weeks with the salon the appointment was set. Even though I never mentioned Shelby by name or used the word girl in setting up the appointment for both girls, she somehow knew that she was going to be in on this too and before I could even put the phone back on the receiver she chimed in, "No mommy, I don't want to get my hair cut. Please, no mommy." I mean seriously!!! How did she even know?!?!?!?!

Anyway, haircut day came last Tuesday and thankfully Pratt was able to go with me. We tried JP first and he was definitely not having it so Pratt took him for a bit and Shelby sat on my lap and let them cut her hair. After all her protest it was amazing to see her just sitting there very still and very calm. She did great and her hair looks so cute!!!

JP on the other hand was quite the opposite. He kicked and screamed and fought us through the whole process. At one point he scaled so high up on Pratt that he looked like a cat trying to find higher ground to get away from rising water. It was kind of funny....is that bad??? Anyway, we made it through and his hair got trimmed and we also got to keep the curls. I am glad that experience is over with and hope that the next one goes better.

P-A-R-T-Y Because we like to!!

This Saturday was Shelby's birthday party. I have to admit, as much as I tried to change her mind about what she wanted to do for her party, it ended up being so much fun having it where she wanted. She was so insistent that she have her party at Island Playground, "the place where Neely had her party", is what she would say. The children ran around like crazy and completely wore themselves out. Plus, all I had to get was a cake and the Island Playground took care of everything else. It doesn't get any easier than that. It is amazing to see how different Shelby is around her friends then when she is with just me. Normally she isn't so independent or into trying things that she would perceive as dangerous, but at her party she just followed all her little friends around and went on some of the bouncy things that she wouldn't even look at before. The best thing was that I got to get in on some of the action...bounce, slide, climb, etc. It was so much fun and I got the biggest joy out of watching the children laugh and play together. Ahhhhh, fun times!!!! Here are some pictures......

Can you tell that we had to wake her up from her nap for her party? She was a little craby about that and it took her a few minutes to get into the party mood. At this point, I don't think I am looking to forward to the teenage years with this one;-)

JP and Rob diggin up some dinosaurs. JP was a little wild monkey, he ran all around and had a great time, but generally avoided the bouncy houses....not something I expect to last too long.


Shelby and Emily going down the big slide together. This is one of the bouncy houses that Shelby normally wouldn't even go close to, but here she is and look how much fun she is having...


Happy Birthday Shelby!! I hope you enjoyed your party and your pretty Ariel birthday cake!! I love you!