Thank You, Mr. Columbus

On Monday, Columbus Day, we had the sweet treat of going to the zoo with the Mullins. Both sets of our parents were out of town that day, so I had already planned to take off of work, and then we realized it was a bank holiday for John. Happy long weekend to us!

When we told Helen Grace the night before that we were going to the zoo with Thomas, she was more excited about playing with Thomas than actually going to the zoo, which is saying A LOT!

The big gorilla daddy was banging on the window, and HG was not a fan of that. She walked with her hand on his back for quite a ways. And then I asked her if she would hold his hand. Wow, then it was ON! All they did was hold hands and run around for the longest time! Waiting for the sea lion show Ummm, this picture makes this OCD mom very anxious! But you’ll be pleased…I let her eat as much as she wanted (which wasn’t very much after all) and didn’t break into a sweat. “But Mommy, I do not want to go home!” Soooo sad to be leaving

Ice Cream Date with Thomas

On Saturday, we celebrated our friend Clayton’s second birthday at his airplane themed party. This was the best pic I could get of the two on-the-go toddlers. His mom, Amy, was my grand little DG sis. Hope you had a great birthday, Clayton!

Helen Grace is loving the fall for one reason- she could play for hours with gourds, moving them from one bowl to the next, and carrying around our pumpkins.  

Her future’s so bright… 

Our friends the Mullins were in town this weekend, and we were so excited to spend some time with them and watch the kids run wild. On Saturday night, we met them for dinner at Newk’s and Gracie Bleu’s. Helen Grace is so enthralled by Thomas and will chase him around squealing, “Thomas!” Gabriella is getting to be such a big girl and loves to flirt.

Playing at Nini and Teddy’s

On Friday afternoon, we took the kitties to the vet, Cat & Cow.  It’s an awesome, rural vet with all kinds of farm animals, and Helen Grace had a great time “calling” the cows.

Some funny things she’s saying…

Bubba and I were talking on the phone the other day. She told me to tell Helen Grace hi and to be good for Mommy. When I later told Helen Grace what she said, HG responded, “Silly Bubba!”

When she’s done with her milk, she says, “Milk all gone. In my tummy. Down my throat. It’s full up.”

She loves to say, “Follow me!”

I’ve heard her singing a song with “Cosanna” in it, which I assumed she meant “Hosanna.” I haven’t been singing any songs with “Hosanna,” but she wouldn’t finish it for me to tell what it was. Finally, she told me the other day that it was a song she sang at school. Sure enough, today her teacher confirmed that they do sing a song that goes something like, “Ho Ho Ho, Hosanna, Ha Ha Ha, Hallelujah…”

When she’s ready to get out of the bathtub, she will tell me that she wants to “shake her booty.” As soon as I towel her off, she streaks out of the room and runs around our room screaming, “I shaking my booty!!!”

Last night, I laid in bed with her for an hour, and she was wide awake and fought sleep big time. She *finally* fell asleep, but I had lost all my patience and was exhausted. By the time I got downstairs and in my pjs, she was awake again and crying for me. I decided it was time for tough love and refused to go back up there. After a good while, John finally gave in and went up there, and a few minutes later, she calmed down and went to sleep. This morning when I went to get her out of bed, I asked her how she slept. She told me that she was crying because she needed her mommy. TEAR! This parenting thing is tough!!

Cousins Party

This afternoon, Helen Grace had a big treat- she got to play with Caleb (6) and Ella (3 1/2), her third cousins, at Bubba’s house. The live in Tupelo, and it’s been a long time since we’ve seen them. Normally, Helen Grace takes a while to warm up, but the girl went wild and ran around giggling the whole time. Bubba and I were just shaking our heads like ‘who IS this child?!’  While the kids ran around and played quite well together, Bubba, Helen, Catherine, and I sat around the kitchen table and caught up on life. A much needed chin wag!

Who says only boys can play with fire trucks and tractors? Helen and Catherine came too. Such a nice visit! Cackling little girls Caleb would let HG ‘push’ him over, and he’d go flying to the floor. “Cheese!” Singing the bumblebee song Wiping the bumblebee off Helen and her grandbabies

Daddy’s Biggest Fan

So sorry to have been MIA for a few days. I’m still alive- I’ve just had some technical difficulties (a.k.a. blonde moments), but I’m up and going again!

Sunday afternoon was beautiful, and I spent the afternoon on the sidelines of John’s soccer game with this cute little blonde ponytail. She looks like such a big girl, doesn’t she?!  

On Wednesday, we had another great successful day at school and then met Daddy for lunch. We tried to make it to Grandma’s office to say hello, but she pooped out a few minutes before we made it. Grandma still came out to the car to cover sleeping beauty in kisses. For dinner, we met Bubba at Luigi’s, and then Helen Grace walked Bubba down the street to church for her Bible study while I followed them in the car. Great day!

Mocha is so great with Helen Grace and lets her pet all over him and pull his tail. As he rubs up against her, she’ll look at me and say, “MoMo loves me.”

Helen Grace is a singing fool lately. She will jump off the couch whenever one of her favorite songs come on tv. Before bedtime last night, she was getting down to the “Mail” song on Blue’s Clues!

For a while there, she would tell you her name was ‘Grace,’ but now she’s really starting to nail the Helen part and will tell you her name is ‘Hewen Gwace.’

Oh, and a side note! One of my brilliant friends reminded me that Backyardigans has a character named Tasha. THAT must be where her imaginary friend’s name came from!

Easy, Breezy Saturday

What beautiful weather we’ve had these last few days! It’s been cool in the mornings and evenings with sunny, breezy afternoons. Today, HG and I ran some errands, stopped by Olive Branch Bakery for a little snack to keep us going, played with her scooter in the driveway, ate lunch out on the playset, and finally took a good nap. For the first time today, when HG woke up from her nap, she didn’t make a peep but walked out of her room, down the hall, and into her daddy’s office. Whoa!

We were running some errands today, and as we left a store, Helen Grace refused to hold my hand in the parking lot (which she normally does so well). Since she wouldn’t grab my hand, I squeezed hers and pulled her along. Once in her car seat, she was whining but eventually said, “Mommy! I happy! I stop crying!” I asked her, “That’s right! And did you learn a lesson?” To my surprise, she responded, “Hold your hand.” AMEN!

While I’m not always pleased with some things that Helen Grace repeats from me, one I heard the other day really melted my heart. We were laying in bed, and she told me that we were pretending she was the mommy and I was the baby. I started ‘crying,’ and as she comforted me and patted me, she softly cooed, “I here. I here, baby.” Glad to know that she’s comforted by her mommy.

HG and I were playing at the gazebo down the street the other day, and she wanted me to clap for her as she danced. It wasn’t enough for me to clap one-handed on my lap while I videoed- I needed to clap with both my hands. Oh, and then we had to watch Tricia, Emily, and ‘Tosha’ dance (all of whom were imaginary). By the way, when she makes up an imaginary friend’s name, 95% of the time, it’ll be Tosha….where did that come from??

Since she was such a big girl getting her hair cut, we went to Wal-Mart to buy her a scooter. Needless to say, we’ve spent most of the weekend in our driveway. While I was videoing, she started dancing on her scooter and I didn’t understand why until I just watched the video back. I said to her, “Look at that tongue wagging!,” and I think she must have heard ‘Look at that TAIL wagging’ and started shaking her tail. She’s such a mess!

Second Haircut

Helen Grace’s hair has been hanging down in her eyes for weeks, but I hadn’t had the nerve to go close to a hairdresser’s with her. I finally gave up and made an appointment with Mrs. Jeanna, and she came in a little early on Friday morning so that the salon would nice and quiet. On the way there, Helen Grace told me she did not want to get her hair cut and wasn’t happy to get out of the car.  But we immediately found her a sucker, and she sat on my lap, refusing the cape, and faced me. We put on some Barney, and Mrs. Jeanna started trimming. HG wasn’t thrilled but didn’t show out at all, and she warmed up to it as we went. Spiffer soon showed up for her appointment, so HG was excited to see her. By the end, she even let Mrs. Jeanna use the curling iron on the ends of her hair since we had combed the curls out of it. (While it does look like the curls are gone in these pics, don’t fret. They came right back after a bath.)

Some back story about the picture with HG, Spiffer, and the sucker. Spiffer was playing at our house on Wednesday afternoon, and when it was time to meet Granddaddy for dinner, HG fussed that she wanted Spiffer to ride with us and Spiffer immediately hopped in her car. As I was buckling in HG, I told my mom what a sucker she was. Helen Grace heard me and said, “I wanna sucker!!” HA! So after her haircut, I texted this picture to my parents, and my dad responded with the caption, “HG and her suckers.”

Also, as we were getting in the car leaving the salon, Spiffer realized she had forgotten to give us something and came running out to us in her cape with stuff all over her hair (you know she’s head over heels about HG when she goes out in public like that!). HG said, “Spiffer, need brush your hair. It crazy! Crazy!”