Halloween

Clara loves skeletons, bats, rats and most things Halloween. Still, since she's shy, we thought she might be freaked out by trick or treating. So we practiced at home, and it totally paid off! Tuesday we trick or treated at a dorm at Millsaps College. She was upset when it was over!

posing.... where did she learn that??



On Halloween, we trick or treated with a group of friends, and she again did great. We surprised her by dressing up like skeletons too. (Her costume is Carter's pj's and a Target pail. Our costumes are just black clothes with bones cut out of contact paper.)




Hope you and yours had a great night, too!
Ginger

One month ago

I quit the "great" job that made me miserable a month ago today. Things have worked out beautifully (including a new job, though it wasn't in the picture when I quit!) -- more on all that soon.
Suffice it to say, had I not taken the leap, I wouldn't have been with Scott for Clara's first state fair visit today!

"School" Days 1-2

Clara has always been very fun and engaging at home, but very shy around strangers. When we take her in public, she's clingy and doesn't smile much. That's a lot of the reason we wanted to put her in this M-Th morning preschool this fall before she starts full-time daycare sometime in late winter or spring. It seemed a slow transition to dealing with the outside world might be especially good for her.

Imagine our surprise on Day 1 when Scott pulled up in the drop-off line, and Clara let a stranger get her out of the car without incident. Imagine our shock when he picked her up later that morning and she hadn't cried at all, and was described by her "teachers" as "happy and ate a lot of snacks."


walking out to dada's car after day 1
(holding a stranger's hand like nothing is amiss)


Day 2 she was described as "very happy" (and again "ate a lot of snacks") and -- get this -- she reportedly was trying to talk to and interact with the other kids. Clara??  They want to move her to the 2 year old room, where she'll be the youngest by a couple of months. (Currently she's in the 1 year old room, where she is older than most of the kids, though not the oldest.)

I'm a pessimist and Scott is an optimist, but this has gone better than either of us ever imagined. The only backlash is that she's been tired and cranky in the evenings. We're going to put her to bed earlier and see if that helps.

we celebrated a successful day 1 with a trip to the park,
where she proceeded to go down The Big Twisty Slide all by herself

Did you hear something???   (Oh, that was just my sigh of relief heard around the world!)

day 1 of "school"

I have so many updates to post!

Fun adventures...

the park

the beach

Toddler weirdness...

practicing for next time it rains

enjoying a snack of plain whole wheat hamburger
buns and water. must be served on an old
cookie sheet.

playing "car" - one of many times on any
given day

But, it's going to have to wait because we're busy getting ready for Clara's first day of (half-day) preschool tomorrow!

I draw the line at labelling socks.

very brief tips for a successful road trip with a toddler

1.  Don't go when his or her molars are coming in.

2. Chocolate chip cookies!

she's got the fever...

look at those rosy (hot) cheeks! poor baby girl.  it seems to just be teeth, and thankfully baby tylenol gets her back to her sassy self in no time.

I will only eat Teddy Grahams tonight and you'll be
happy I ate something. Trick's on you!

I pulled a few other recent pics off my phone when downloading the fever pic...

{waking hours are spent 20% playing, 30% eating,
50% reading}

{she is obsessed with the pink cup from Old Navy.
I am obsessed with the denim mini from Old Navy.}

{just in case you thought she forgot how to smile!}

hope everyone has a great week!   -gg

tuesday rituals

Clara has been taking weekly group swimming lessons since she was 7 or 8 months old. I'd never been with them until a couple of weeks ago, when I took off July 3 instead of the 4th just for that purpose.

waiting for class to start (with Pete the Cat)

dunking for sinkies

got it!

getting ready to glide to dada

made it!

After swimming, they always get Chik-Fil-A, and the hungry swimmer gets a fry or two to enjoy on the drive home.

After lunch and her nap, we just hung around the house and played in the yard...

 

 ...and tortured the cats.

It was so nice to spend an extra day with my family and to see what they do every Tuesday.

Have a great week!
Ginger

Edited 7/24/12 - Due to Chik-Fil-A's bigotry, they have now switched the Tuesday chicken meal to Zaxby's/Raising Cane's 

Dada is teaching her about manners... and zombies

Turn on closed captioning ("cc" near the bottom right) to decipher toddler-speak.

MAYbe I'll catch up on blogging soon

May was pretty low-key.  Lots of trips to the zoo. Scott's parents came to play in the Milk Bank's annual golf tournament (Scott's mom won "longest drive" to the chagrin of the 99% male golfers - ha ha!) and stayed for Mother's Day.  Scott and I fixed brunch for our moms, and I was spoiled rotten (highlights: Clara made me a painting; my dad sent a yummy edible arrangement; in-laws gave me a "nifty fifty" lens for my camera; my mom gave me a Wolfe Pottery bird; and Scott made a mindblowing vegan caesar dressing).

So far June has been lazy and warm. We attended/semi-helped-host a block party at which Clara discovered the joy of watermelon on the rind.  I've been doing a lot of soul-searching about my career path.  We're gearing up for our annual beach trip in late July.

More on all that soon. For now, here's May in pics:

loves her kitty slippers

playing in the eagle's nest at the science museum

three generations, mother's day
(also, this begins the period known as A.L. - after [awesome, new] lens)

worn out from making everyone do "jazz hands" at breakfast

independent at the zoo

"hiss cat" face

back at the zoo w/uncle Jeremy

mirror lake

Cell phone pics:

mama's (very) old toy!

future archaeologist

Hope everyone has a great week!
-G.

Happy Father's Day...

...to a wonderful stay-at-home Dada! Pics from the weekend:

swinging bridge!

Happy father's day to our dads, too :)

G.