PreK Graduation (sniff sniff)

WC graduated from PreK this weekend! So hard to believe that she'll be going to K this fall. I've been hard at work getting things set up for her for next year (gotta warn those school admins about the tornado that is about to come their way!).

Last Friday afternoon, her teachers had a fabulous tea party for the graduates and invited the parents to attend as well. Earlier in the week, they sent home a note that said:

Girls can wear princess dresses or church dresses, and boys can wear
king/prince or superhero costumes.

Ever an equal-opportunity gal, WC took the opportunity to wear HER favorite superhero costume. In a sea of beautiful pink princess dresses and tiaras, she certainly stood out. And was quite proud of that! It's so interesting to see her personality develop, and we marvel every day about where she gets it, since the Mr. and I are both happy to be in the background most of the time!

But I am oh-so-proud of her and an anxious to see her continue to grow and change and can't wait to see what she makes of herself- because I suspect whatever she does, she'll make a mark on the world.

She's definitely my daughter

because she wanted to have her nails painted the same color as mine (Avon Mambo Melon), which totally made my heart melt.

Nevermind that she wore football jerseys to school on Tuesday and Wednesday......

Damn

The Wild Child has great fine motor skills, due in part to the listening therapy program she started at age 2 1/2 for her Sensory Processing Disorder. It really fine-tuned her motor skills.

And she LOVES to cut. She cuts out coupons for me, cuts out her coloring pages, and even just cuts pieces of lined paper up into bits. I am forever picking up little slivers of paper off the carpet.

But this morning I found that the little slivers of paper I was picking up were her SHOT RECORD. She somehow found it in the kitchen and managed to cut it in a million pieces. Lovely.

So it looks like I need to get a locking file cabinet to store all the things I need kept in one piece.

Guess Who Dressed Herself?

I laughed when she came out of her room with her boots on with shorts (so very Jessie!), but in line for the movies, I looked back and realized the teenager behind us was dressed just like that (minus the Jessie shirt!).

So I suppose it was quite in style after all.

She Who Is Afraid of NOTHING

This is The Wild Child, loving on a snake found in the yard last night... notice all the other legs, many feet away.

She was even playing with his tongue.... and letting it crawl all over her arm.

Although I love having a little country girl who likes to get dirty and is brave, I am worried about what the future holds for someone who has no natural fear. Seriously.

Little Miss Bossy Pants

takes after her mother.

The Eye Matches the Dress

Poor WC had an unfortunate accident on Saturday night involving a Giga ball and our neighbor's foot and has quite a shiner. She's been a pretty good sport about it, although she does want to keep her eye covered with her hands, which makes walking and interacting with others a little difficult.

Never a dull moment, that's our family motto.

My Daughter, The Biker

Hopefully she is getting this out of her system.

Not What I Planned

When I was pregnant with The Wild Child and found out the baby was a girl- I was taken aback! I was so sure it was going to be another boy, and hell, I'd saved all the baby clothes! The bargain hunter in me was disappointed that I'd need new nursery bedding and clothes... but wait! I'd need new nursery bedding and clothes! Fun fun fun.

So of course I started dreaming of a little girl who'd let me curl her hair, do all kind of fun hairdos, and dress her in beautiful frilly clothes- and since football is such a big thing around here, I could just envision the Sasha family at tailgate parties outside the stadium.... how cute our family would be! Of course, I'd dress in her things like this:

Yeah, it's not going how I planned. Try as we did to get her in a cute little cheerleader outfit, this is what she wore to the game:

She was still very mad at me right here because I was trying to convince her that the jersey she dug out of her brother's drawer was way too big.....


But once I gave in and said she looked "cool" (oh-so-important to her) the smile came back and we were off to the tailgate party.

Oh, it was muddy. But they had a ball and when WC was her muddiest and looked so happy and carefree, my friend Gina said, "It's like she's at her own little Woodstock!" How right she was.

WC is going to be one to march to her own drummer.... she's going to dress how she wants, stereotypes be damned, and she's going to have the best time doing it. Shouldn't we all be like that?

Happy Sunday! Hope you are enjoying the day like the Sasha family is!

I Am Just Waiting on My Heart Attack

because The Wild Child is sure to give me one some day.

Last night we had been swimming at my ILs house. The kids got out and we got them all dressed and ready for dinner. Of course, at 3.5, WC can't yet swim on her own, so we use a floatation swimsuit and arm floaties as an added measure.

So we're sitting by the pool chatting, and I see WC take off her canvas Crocs and dunk them in the pool. Fab- they'll take 2 days to dry...

Then she walks down to the first step in the pool and sits down. In her clothes. Super.

Then my brother-in-law says, "Can she swim?" just as WC is walking down the steps and completely lets herself go under water.

"Nope." I say as I step towards the pool, prepared to jump in (fully clothed) when I see a little hand emerge out of the water just in time for me to grab it and yank her out.

And she's laughing. Hysterically. She thinks it's a riot and isn't scared at all.

Holy crap. It's a good thing she's such a sweetie so I can forget about being worn slick when she gives me a big hug and a kiss!

Just When I Think Things Are Going Well

Last night the Wild Child smashed Slim's little girl's birthday cake.... before the birthday girl had even seen the cake! I was devastated. I was trying to watch her, but I was busy closing all the pizza boxes so she wouldn't mess with the pizza and didn't see her as she pushed down on the top of the box and smashed it into the cake and it picked up all the icing.

I snatched her up and apologized to Slim, and said I had to take her home as punishment. The hubs stayed at the party with The Politician. Getting home was hard- she went into a giant fit complete with hyperventilate-type breathing and I of course was crying myself.

I am just so sad..... why is this so hard?????? Why can't we go to a birthday party and have fun and not have to spend every second watching her so she doesn't do something destructive???????????????

Thanks for listening.

She Knows No Strangers

At Chic-Fil-A last Thursday, WC saw a girl taking pics of her kiddo in the play area. WC marched up to her and said, "Take my picture!". The girl was a little taken aback, but she complied with this bossy little 3 year old (her voice makes you do that) and then WC promptly said "Let me see!" while putting her hand on the girl's leg, waiting to see the screen.

At Braum's on Friday night, she sat down with a couple having hot fudge sundaes and asked them "What are you eating?"

And yesterday our neighbor was out doing yard work, getting some sun without his shirt on. WC walked over to him and asked "Why are you nekkid?"

If I had half her confidence and lack of shyness, I'd be doing big things. Where in the H did she get it?

Today

At school today, WC was at the top of the slide. Her teacher looked away for just a second, looked back, and WC had her shorts down around her ankles.

She took off her wet diaper, flung it off the slide (and they said she's got a good arm- it went far!) pulled her shorts back up, and went down the slide.

Wow.

Something that I am totally not ready for

happened yesterday!

I was doing my normal Sunday afternoon good deal round-up (Super Target, Walgreens, CVS) and Mr. Sasha was reading the paper while The Politician watched some TV after his nap and The Wild Child finished her nap in her crib.

Mr. Sasha heard WC awake over the monitor, and P jumped up and said "I'll go in there!". Mr. Sasha was just about to stand up to go let her out of her crib, and all of the sudden P and WC came walking down the hall together!

She climbed out of her crib!!!! She's only 2 years and 3.5 months old! P happily stayed in his crib until 3 and I was hoping to do the same with her because I'm just not ready for her to be on the loose unattended.

Both of their cribs are the fab kind that convert to a toddler bed (with a little rail so they don't roll out) and then to a full-sized bed, so we can totally go the toddler bed route if it's time, but I just like her being captive right now. Does that make me a bad mommy? I'm just not sure I'll be able to convince her to stay in bed and go to sleep.......

Sigh.... I think I'll wait and see if she does it again. Maybe it was just a fluke?

Effective Discipline Method Found!

Yesterday, The Wild Child did a little chomping, but that led her teacher to find AN EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE METHOD for her!!!! Yay!

Nose in the corner. She hates it, cries, and it totally hits home that she did something wrong! I am now going to be using this method at home to be consistent. Trust me, there will be plenty of opportunities. I talked with her teacher this AM and she thinks we have struck gold. Relief is washing over me and maybe I'm not the worst mom ever, we just had not yet discovered what was effective with The Wild Child.

By the way, another photobucket steal above- people, if you don't want your photos thieved, make your photobucket account private! That's a message to you, a-1tilemom!

You've got to be kidding me

Guys, The Wild Child had been doing so great at school and hadn't bitten in weeks, maybe months.

But today she bit someone. Her closest little buddy.... on the face.

I am crushed. And at a loss as to what to do.

WC is now The Enforcer

So yesterday when I picked up The Wild Child, the afternoon teacher told me she bit someone yesterday morning- but it was a "good intentioned bite". Seems as though WC was disappointed that one of her friends wasn't listening to the teacher, so she took it upon herself to do something about it and went over and bit them.

This morning I asked the morning teacher about it and she said in all her years of teaching (12!) she has never seen a child do this. Normally, the bites in the 2 year old room are realted to something territorial or aggressive. But WC, no, she is trying to help the teacher. She's enforcing the rules.

The teacher was wonderful about it and assured me we would get through this stage, but OMG what am I in for if WC is breaking new ground in the teaching field????? She'll be notorious.......

Right now Mr. Sasha is....

plunging the toilet in our bathroom because The Wild Child put an entire roll of toilet paper in there in less than 10 seconds.

And we just discovered that she also unrolled the entire roll in the other bathroom, although she stopped short of putting it in the bowl and left it in a nice pile on the bathroom floor.

And I probably kept her bottom half dressed about 45% of the time today.