A Girl and Her Bear

"Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, 
in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, 
a little boy and his bear will always be playing."

- Winnie the Pooh

In our case, it's a little girl, 

and the enchanted place happens to be around our house...  

But this little lady carries her furry little honey-eating friend everywhere!

So SO cute!

Here Comes Fall

The last couple of weeks it has been raining... a lot!  And I mean real rain.  With thunder and lightening and everything.  It's been awesome, I love big storms!  And as it turns out, so does the Little Miss.  As soon as the drops start coming, she has to be out playing.  

The rain play is quickly coming to an end though.  We watched the rain fall all morning yesterday, and when we finally ventured out for the day we had to put on jackets.  The "4th quarter of the year" chill is starting to poke its head around the corner.  The weather is still teasing us some - cool one day, hot the next. But we've officially opened up the sweater boxes, and Brin has latched on to our first official Fall home decor, lovingly referred to as "baby pumpkin".

I'm a little anxious to see Fall actually, I love Fall!!!  I really need to get our house looking a bit more festive.  

The real priority for now though: What should our little doll be for Halloween??

Any suggestions?

Fair and Hair

I tried to deny it for a while, but we have officially come to terms with the fact that we are no longer the parents of a baby.  Brinlee is ALL little girl these days.... 16 months going on 16 years and already quite the drama queen.  She carries around a little pink purse full of toys.  She loves wearing dresses and tutus.  She twirls around and shakes her hips.  She refuses to let us help her do anything and throws  pretty impressive fits (real nice).  She carries around a wash clothe and broom and cleans everything.  And she loves ice cream.  Little woman in the making.

She's even gotten super good about letting me play with her hair, which is good because I love hair-do's!  We're still waiting for real hair to show up.  But we have been able to do pigtails for a while now, the other day I got 4 in, and yesterday we successfully did 6.  

Having a little girl really is fabulous!

We are 100% in love with this little busy body  :)

On a less hair-related note, the Eastern Idaho Fair came and went.  The ride cost us 5 bucks, but Brin loved the merry-go-round.  Every time they came around the little smile on her face was priceless!

We spent way too long in the animal tent so she could pet every furry thing, all of which, according to her, make a "woof" noise like a dog.  Minus her picking up, and sucking on, a nasty rock from the sheep pen (seriously, gag me!), it was darling.  I wore out my bottle of hand sanitizer that day... but we had a good time.

Tiger In Our Tub

The other day Brinlee and I took yet another trip to the DI and Goodwill.  I frequent there looking for toys and books.  Not that Brin doesn't have more than enough to keep her entertained (seriously, her room, wow!), but you never know when you are going to find that one perfect thing.  Well this time her little eye happened upon a silly little tiger toy... not my idea of "the perfect thing", but she just had to have it.  Her eyes lit up and she started pointing and growling and as soon as I handed it to her she was complete.  It cost me 50 cents, and she loves it!  It has been drug all over this house and has set up permanent residence with her toys in our tub.

I journal quite a bit.  That is not to say that I'm fantastic at keeping up.  I play catchup... a lot.  But I keep a written journal (kind of), jot down notes on a calendar, take way too many pictures, and blog probably too often (as Tim has lovingly given me a hard time for more than once).  It takes a decent amount of time, but I find myself already forgetting things.  And I want to remember.

I want to remember Brin's sweet smile, her first steps, first words, and how she dances so cute in her tutu.
I want to remember how she makes a sweet little woof noise when you ask what a puppy says, or that she brings me book after book and climbs in my lap so I can read them for the hundredth time while she points and talks.
I want to remember that Tim brought me flowers for our anniversary.
I want to remember that I get super frustrated with work and cherish when I can just be a mom.
I want to remember how Tim makes Brin laugh, how cuddly she is when she's sleepy, or how she's so proud of herself for running fast or throwing a ball.
I want to remember us as newlyweds and brand new parents, how Tim smiles when I laugh goofy, and how Brinlee giggles when we chase her around or make animal noises.

50 years from now, I want to remember what four years of marriage felt like and what our young little family was up to, what we worried about, and what we looked forward to.

Someday, I want to remember that silly little 50 cent tiger toy in our tub.

Goose Egg

Maybe it just comes with the "first child" territory, or maybe it's lazy mother syndrome... but I feel like Brinlee doesn't get much time with other kids.  She does some at church, and she plays with cousins fairly often, but for the most part she spends her time with us at our own house with her own stuff all to herself.  Bad thing? Maybe not.  But lately I have felt a little bad for her.  She is fascinated with other kids and loves to watch them run around.  A lot of the kids in our neighborhood are a little older, but there are a few little ones I've seen toddling along out there with siblings, and the other day I told myself we should let her out anyway.  Well, yesterday I made good on my promise to myself... and it did not go well.

Scene:  We are pulling into the parking lot from the grocery store.  Several young kids are running around.  Two of the kids are playing with one of those Flinstone-type push-with-your-feet cars, and Brinlee is mesmerized.  I think, oh fun, we should let her stay out for a while and watch.  I say "Tim, why don't you put her down and keep an eye on her while I run some groceries up."  Tim sets her down.  Brin takes a few steps away from the car to get a better view then stops, picks up a couple rocks, and stands there with her prizes, happily watching the kids.  Tim is close by, so I grab a few groceries and run up the stairs.

Enter Stage Left:  Kids in (correction: one kid on top of and one kid pushing from the back of) the little push-along-car, without their "watch for small child" glasses on, getting a little too brave.  They're moving fast.

Scene:  Child on top of car yells "watch out for the baby!" just in time for Tim (who had been replacing the registration stickers on our license plate) to look up and see them barreling out of control toward poor oblivious Brin, rocks still in hand, smile on face.  Tim is moving toward Brin now, but he of course is in slow motion and before he can reach her, she is completely mowed over by the car and the kids.

I return on the scene just in time to see the tears, I missed all the real action.

Needless to say it didn't turn out to be the exciting social experience I had pictured.  She actually handled it really well.  She recovered quickly and came up decently unscathed.  She went down hard though and did end up with a good sized scratch on her leg.  Oh, and a nasty goose egg right on the back of her head.  Real nice.  Poor baby.  We felt terrible.  I suppose those kids weren't the best option.  We'll have to wait for the next time the other little toddlers are out and see if that goes better.  But for now, we are back to just us in our own living room with Brin's own toys, all to herself.

Maybe next time.

Mary Poppins Parenting

Green Smoothie Face...

vs JELL-O Face.

You know what they say (or at least what Julie Andrews says anyway), 

"a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down"  :)