Amy's eyes is looking better, worse in person than the pictures convey. But she doesn't seem to notice it too much.
This evening for dessert we had banana popsicles. Amy had had popsicles at school as a snack, but hadn't had the banana ones before. They were definitely a big hit.
She also helped Dean mow the grass and work in the yard this evening. She likes to mow the grass when he does and also has to help weed and generally dig in the dirt. I wish I could say our garden is doing great, but right now I think it's still recovering from the over-watering it got when we had all the rain. Now that we've had some sunny days it seems to be perking up again.
Amy also decided she wanted to play with her bubbles while we were outside this evening. The wind blowing made the bubbles blow by themselves on ocassion, which she found to be quite funny. She also had a good belly laugh when she went to wave her bubble wand around and the bubbles blew back in her face. The bubble toyss these days are much more sophisticated than what I remember having. But they are still fun.
Monday will be her first ballet lesson. It will be interesting to see how that goes. It's a Mommy & Me class for 4 weeks. I'm curious what part us mommys will play in this class.
Here are todays pictures. Enjoy!
Let's see. Yesterday, the 28th, was Amy's day for misbehaving. Today was the day for having traumatic events happening.
Starting with yesterday, when asked why she had been misbehaving all day her reply was "I didn't know what else to do." It was mostly one little thing after another, not listening, talking back, and then moving up to hitting and general flat out disobedience. One example was when I asked her to clean something up in the living room. First she said "No!" Finally after going through the counting of 1-2-3, she started to clean up.
The next thing I know I hear her back in our bedroom playing. When I went back to see what was going on there she was playing and everything she was supposed to be cleaning up was in the living room still. When I asked her what she was doing her response was "playing." When I asked her next what was she supposed to be doing she said "cleaning up." My next question to her was "and what are you doing now?" Her response "misbehaving." Finally I asked her what happens when she misbehaves and she told me "a spanking." She then immediately went back to her cleaning up before anything else could happen. I told Dean that we now know that she knows exactly what she's doing and what the consequences of her actions are when she's doing it.
And then today. It started out as a good day. We had a doctor's appointment for her three year check-up. She did well with that, everything checked out fine. Then we came home and went up to John's house to play for a while. That's when things started to happen.
While we were there, John was playing with a small wooden baseball bat. Unfortunately he swung it at one point when he shouldn't have and hit Amy right beside her eye. This resulted in a lot of crying and ultimately a black eye. Fortunately she recovered pretty well from that and went back to playing.
Next experience came at swim lessons. During the whole time she had been taking lessons I made sure to tell her and remind her to sit down on her bottom with her feet in the pool and no horsing around while the teacher was involved with someone else. Well there were plenty of times she didn't listen but nothing happened. Today, however, she wasn't so lucky. She leaned forward to dangle her hair in the water and the next thing I know I hear parents yelling "somebody get her!" When I look over across the pool I don't see her on the wall or with the instructors and I realize she is under water. Fortunately the instructor got her quickly enough, pulled her out and got her back up on the wall. Needless to say everyone was shaken up, especially Amy and myself. She didn't react hysterically, but she did pretty much shut down for a while there. Finally she got up enough courage to go back in the pool a couple of times, but it definitely made her realize that she didn't need to be horsing around the way she was. She did tell me that she wanted to go back next week for the make-up swim lessons, so I'm hoping that she has now learned a valuable lesson and we won't be having any repeats of that any time soon.
So without furhter delay here are todays pictures. Including one of her black eye - which looked worse earlier than this picture was taken. Enjoy!
Hooray! We finally got Amy to eat broccoli. And she actually liked it too. It took some creative thinking on Dean's part, but she at least ate one almost whole piece and decided it was okay to eat. Dean told her to pretend it was a paint brush and that she was eating the paint (which was actually a little bit of lemon juice), and that seemed to do the trick. Now we'll see if she actually eats it again the next time I make it.
Yesterday was her last day of school. Now I'm trying to explain the concept of summer vacation to her. She doesn't quite get it yet.
She had another swim lesson yesterday, 3 more to go. This time she actually went all the way under the water and didn't complain. She's really starting to enjoy the lessons. I think we may continue it for another month if they have room in the next class. This will be in addition to a once a week ballet class that she will be taking on Monday mornings starting in June. Originally we were going to do a week long ballet camp - an hour a day - but this other class was available sooner and a better place to start to see if she really is interested in taking ballet lessons.
As you can see by todays pictures, Amy got to lick the spatula after I made brownies this afternoon. I think that was the other incentive for eating her broccoli. She knew she wouldn't get any dessert if she didn't try at least one piece. She is getting better about eating some vegetables, but last night she flat out refused to try the corn on the cob. But we'll keep trying.
Here are todays pictures. Enjoy!
I think we can say that summer is definitely here. Between the heat, humidity, and afternoon thunderstorms, it's felt more like July or August than it has the middle of May.
So of course there is yard work to be done, which Amy likes to help out with. And we have already gotten out the pool and have been playing in that too. She likes to practice what she has learned in swim lessons when we play in the pool, so the lessons so far seem to be a good thing.
And there are the puddles to be played in, either while it's raining (as in the case of today) or after the rain on other days.
And our garden is growing. Hopefully soon I'll get out there and get some pictures of it to post. I did notice we have blooms on our zucchini plants, the corn has all sprouted and our beans are growing like crazy. Amy's nasturtiums have also started to sprout up, so hopefully soon we'll see some flowers there too.
Amy has one week of school left before summer vacation starts. Hard to believe another school year is already over. And how much she has grown over this past year as well. Lately her vocabulary seems to have exploded again, and she seems to be comprehending more, especially in regards to behavior and consequence.
Besides a vacation to Washington at the end of June - first part of July, the only other activities Amy wants to do this summer is a week long ballet camp. It's for an hour a day, for a week in late July, geared toward 3 and 4 year olds. When I asked if she wanted to try gymnastics instead, she said no, she wanted to do the ballet. She also seems to have lost some interest in music class as well, so who knows, ballet may be her activity for next year.
Here are todays pictures. Enjoy!
Amy had her first swim lesson today. It was originally scheduled to start on Tuesday, but due to the severe weather we've been having, it was cancelled. I wasn't sure at first how she would do, but once she got used to her feet being in the water and sitting on the edge of the pool she did really well. She floated on her back, swam holding on to her instructor, and then also using a kick board with the instructor holding on too. These lessons will continue for the next 3 1/2 weeks, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Speaking of the weather, today was the first day we haven't had rain and thunderstorms in over a week. I think it all started right around the time we had the earthquake too. But while we were driving to school this morning I heard Amy talking in the back seat. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me she was spanking the rain because it was misbehaving.
She has also started riding on her big girl bike. She saw one of the other girls in the neighborhood get a new bike for her birthday and she decided she wanted to try riding on the little big girl bike that we have. It does have training wheels, and while she doesn't go as fast on it as she does on her tricycle, she is starting to get around pretty good on it too.
Today's first picture is Amy's spring school picture. This was taken in mid April, and we just got them back today. It amazes me everyday how quickly she has grown and how much she is turning into a little lady and not the baby she used to be.
Here are todays pictures. Enjoy!
