May has been full of visiting friends and getting ready for summer. It has been beautiful weather outside, some days even cool and rainy. Harper is such a funny kid right now. She is always entertaining herself, doing funny dances, singing crazy songs, and running around being silly. She is independent and can be alone playing if I have things to do. But she always loves to play with friends and go to play dates. She is a lot like Cody in that she is very introverted in a large group. It takes her awhile to get acclimated to a new environment and stop being shy. But she is also a lot like me in that once she feels comfortable, she can entertain the masses. The only thing we struggle with is leaving somewhere. Usually she doesn't want to, so she gets unhappy, and won't say goodbye to anyone. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but some take it personally and it is super awkward. But she just loves people and wants to always be doing fun things. She never wants to go home or go to bed. (Also, she has become a coffee thief! When I got a cheap frappacino from Starbucks for the first time in a year and gave her some, she almost didn't give it back!)
We have been trying to do more preschool, we got a little (LOT) lazy this spring. A friend mentioned cheerio bingo and we jumped at the good idea. We used to eat cheerios like they were a main food group, and she suddenly remembered how good they were. We practiced our letters, which she knows the whole alphabet now in uppercase and started trying to match our lower case letters. We are also working on sounds, which is the next step to reading. So I say a word and sound it out and she tries to guess what it starts with. It's pretty funny because sometimes she guesses right and sometimes it's not even close. We also paint and do play dough, but I've slacked majorly on crafting lately. It's been so nice, I just want to be outside!
She still plays dress up every. single. day. It's one of her favorite things. Any day that we aren't going somewhere in the morning, I don't even have to get her dressed because she will just put on 10 different dress up outfits on her own by noon anyways. Plus, we also go naked a lot (panties only). I used to feel bad, but it's just easier and less stress and less laundry and she is seriously cute naked right now. Clothing wise, we don't struggle as much, but she still is very picky about what she wears. No tight clohes, only dresses and cotton shorts. Plus, she really wants her panties to match her outfit and her shoes. Yall. This is going to make teenage life hard!
I guess the Frozen obsession needs to be documented. We are going on 5 months of serious Frozen love. She doesn't even watch it much, but she listens to the music and dances around, makes her barbies play Anna and Elsa, and is always asking for it. I made the mistake of asking her what type of birthday party she wanted, instead of just deciding for myself. Of course, Frozen is the only thing she wants. So we have been in Frozen overload getting ready for it. She did get a new Elsa dress, but it's itchy so I need to do some mending. And she loves her new Anna and Elsa poster that Taylor and Carleigh bought her. It feels like she is so big, having a movie poster above her bed. Isn't that something teenagers do? Sigh, she's getting so big!
Oddly enough, she got a virus in the middle of May that the doctor called the summer cold. What? Now we have colds in summer? She ran a fever for a few days and laid on the couch without moving much or doing anything besides watching TV. After a few days of fever, she still just didn't feel well for another 3 days, just kinda lethargic. So we spent about a week in the house just relaxing and getting well. Lots of books, board games, and babies. Poor kiddo - she was sad!
She has all these new phrases now and all these funny voices. She likes to sing words, or say them in a low, deep voice, or string them out for a really long time. And she still has some cute baby ways of talking, like "I da boss" and "My Puter (Computer)" and "Bideo (Video" and "Member?" as in "Momma, member Jesus died?" which just makes me happy that she knows who Jesus is and that she is learning of how much God loves her. I love kid speak sometimes because it makes you feel like they might be your baby forever! We learned to Gig 'em and Whoop! one night in the bathtub and she was so funny about it. She would do it and then laugh hysterically at herself. Plus, she kept saying "Gig 'em Daddies" instead of Aggies, and it was so cute! One thing I want to remember is how she is great at talking to adults. Once she is over being shy, she likes to talk to people and tell them about her day or something funny that happened. And for the most part, she is good about saying please and thank you, which I am so proud of her for!
We have started having a bit of an attitude lately. I'm guessing she is hitting her threes. She is such a good kid, she just sometimes really dislikes not being able to do what she wants. We are definitely hard parents because we want our sweet girl to be a great kid, a respectful kid, and a safe kid who follows our rules. Some days she is great. Some days she is tired or hungry or hot. But there are some days that she just loses it and can't handle life. Cody is usually great about knowing when to tag in and out. We try to help each other out when we lose patience. We have been taking stuff away and it has made her a little mad. Or trying to explain that she doesn't always just get everything she wants. But it's a learning process and she'll get there eventually. She is still hiding stuff, which is somewhat of a problem. But I did find all of our new marbles at the bottom of the hall tree finally one day. We had been missing them for 2 months! She is such a stinker!
We haven't been back in Dallas much since Mom's Inc ended at the beginning of May. So we finally got back one day and visited some friends and family. We went to the Long's first and the kids played so well togther while the moms talked. I swear we could do it for hours and still not be done. At one point, we looked out in the play room and both of hers where jumping on the trampoline naked and Harper was just kind of looking at them like they were crazy. But she loved every minute. Then, we left and went to see Jessica at school during her lunch. Harper is so used to be at schools that she loves the smart board and projector and coloring on the dry erase boards. So it's easy for us to hang out. Plus, Jessica's classes were done with the STARR test and were just doing random projects so we got to stay longer and the kids loved her. Afterwards, we went to Argyle and spent some good time with my family. Harper loves going there because Kristi always tries to make her some homemade bread and she wants to eat it all. This days she got an entire spoonful of peanut butter. Which makes her just as happy. Then, she got to try out the concept of a shower with their removable shower head. It's the little things! And I will admit that we ended the night with a family sing a long to Don't Stop Believing while Taylor, Carleigh and I were all laying intermixed on the same cushion of the couch. No need to spread out.
Life in Denison has become normal now. It's still funny when things happen that I don't expect. Like mice just wandering around your house (outside) and cows just walking over. Or being alerted to a bull needing back in it's pen. But I'm getting used it the differences. The cows just showed up the other day from the Scott's and we hadn't closed the gate, so there was no trampoline that afternoon for us. I have enjoyed my sweet new group of friends up here the most though. It's just so easy to be friends and we can text back and forth for hours making jokes and telling about our day and our kids. We had a mom's craft night and I made a family rules sign that I think turned out pretty good. And I love that we all did different stuff this time because it was fun to see all of our personalities come out. Plus, it was just a relaxing and fun night! And we still need to figure out the group photo timer situation, because it never turns out just right! And I even crafted later that week because I felt in the mood and I love my new printable sign. Plus, I ended up being cheap and using a wood board instead of a picture frame and it turned out to be the best idea ever! I love these sweet friends. I love that MaryRuth saw the pineapple corer I had talked about and bought one for me because she was thinking of me. I love that I feel completely accepted and loved and I'm sad that eventually our kids will grow up and we won't be able to hang out all day and talk and call it a play date. But it's fun for now...
