Busy Saturday

Today Gillian and I had a busy day. We had our slumber party last night and it must have wiped her out because she slept until 9am which is not normal for her. She is normally up by 8am at the latest. Once she was up, I told her the plans for the day which got her excited to be busy. Had breakfast and we were out the door.
First stop was to recycle which Gillian calls “cycling”. I want her to understand the importance of recycling so I started bringing her a couple months ago and recently started letting her get out with me and actually put the items in the correct areas.

Second stop was to buy Fall flowers a.k.a Mums. Our summer flowers died a couple weeks ago and I got rid of them and Gillian constantly brings it up when we come in the house so I’ve been telling her we needed to get Mums but she never would call them Mums so I called them Fall flowers and that stuck with her. I had told her that we would go this weekend so when we got there we had to inspect tons of flowers and finally settled on purple and yellow ones. Once we got back home we put the flowers on the front porch which is where the summer flowers had been previously which made Gillian happy.

Next Gillian and I were making Peanut Butter Blondes for a family gathering that we were going to for dinner. Gillian did her normal helping; I separate all the ingredients into separate bowls so she can pour them in. While the blondes were baking Gillian and I did a project which entailed making cards out of construction paper and gluing leaves. Gillian has discovered the joys of playing with scissors which she only has access to under adult supervision. She was thrilled and I enjoyed watching/helping her be creative. I also learned that Gillian can write the letter “i” which surprised me. Yet another thing she has learned at her wonderful daycare.

We went to the family gathering with my family tonight. Gillian and I had a lot of fun visiting everyone. I think Gillian and my niece Emma enjoyed playing on the swing set the most. Gillian enjoyed swinging and sliding down the slide doing choo choo with Emma. I’m happy that they get along so well, Gillian being an only child I’m glad that she has other kids almost her age to relate to. I know she picks up a lot being around adults so much but I want her to be able to be a kid too. I want her to have kids she can relate to.

Pool

Yet another 90 degree day and the pool is where we all wanted to be. The pool was actually 76 degrees which is the warmest I think it has been in the 6 years that we have lived here. Craig and I immediately jumped in. Whoever put up our pool did a very poor job and with how little we normally get to use it, we have yet to fix it. It is an above ground pool and the deck that is build off of it is about 6 inches above the actual pool, the deck is above the filter area so we can’t put stairs into the pool so we have separate stairs that go over the side of the pool. I will have to take a picture because I don’t know if my description really does it justice. Anyway, normally Gillian sits on the deck because she thinks the water is too cold and watches us swim. So I came up with the idea of her sitting on the stairs that go in the pool so she could touch the water. She thought this was great. She was splashing her feet in the water and actually interacting with us instead of just watching. So I convinced her to start trying to go down the stairs a bit and that the water wasn’t as cold as it normally is. I helped her learn how to turn herself around and go down the steps which she was brave and made it all the way down the 3rd step which went up to her chest. Craig and I saw this as a complete success. But the best was yet to come. So Gillian started playing with our alligator thermometer and felt that it made the perfect magic wand. So after much time spent splashing the alligator in the water, it was magically. When she screamed magic Craig turned into a rock and sank to the bottom of the pool. After numerous times doing this she was really starting to get into it and was waving her arms all over screaming magic. So Craig was under water and I was watching Gillian just amazed at how excited she was and she is waving her arms and waves right off the ladder and to the bottom of the pool she goes. I immediately grab her and bring her out and start laughing. I knew there was no way she was hurt and I knew if I laughed she would calm faster and she did…she started laughing. Poor Craig missed the entire thing and I kicked him so he knew he wasn’t a rock anymore. It is the best thing that could have happened…She now wants to go in the pool; she think s the pool is great. I have some pictures of Gillian finally enjoying the pool…

Santa's Workshop

We took Gillian to Great Escape and Magic Forrest in early July and she had so much fun. Craig's parents had mentioned wanting to take Gillian to Santa's Workshop so today was the day. Gillian, Grammie Miner and Grampie Miner had a blast! They rode rides, fed animals, ate ice cream and watched shows. It was definitely a memorable experience for all of them...

Loving Life

I hate going to work everyday…most people do. I drop my daughter off at a daycare that I absolutely adore. I feel she is safe and learning so much there. Then I go and put my 8 hours in and when I get in my car to drive home I look forward to walking in the front door and hearing - “Mama’s home!” Love that sound. Over dinner, I talk to Gillian about her day and of course I talk to Craig. Craig had mowed the lawn today and I hate when there are grass clippings still on the lawn so after dinner it was outside to rake the lawn for me. While I raked, Craig and Gillian played catch and Gillian pedaled her tricycle for the first time up and down the driveway…wish that I had had my camera outside at that point to catch it. Very exciting stuff! After catch Craig and Gillian started picking up the piles of grass. After that Gillian, Craig and I worked underneath the bush from Saturday again trying to get that cleaned up. Finally Gillian went for a ride on the lawn mower. She usually runs in the opposite direction away from the mower but when you see the pictures, she obviously learned that she was missing out on some amazing fun. Then we watered the plants, went for a walk and time for bed! It was a fabulous day!

Fair 2009

July 22nd, Craig and I took Gillian to the fair. I’ve never been a huge fan of the fair…I know that the rides in amusement parks can be taken apart but to me they are permanent fixtures and that makes me feel better. So I’m not keen on the rides at the Fair that are put together in a couple days and taken down in the same amount of time or the people that come to town to run the rides…that is a story for another time. My goal for the fair was for Gillian to enjoy the animals and I wanted some bread dough. We saw horses, goats, a pig, ducks, rabbits, cows and a brand new calf. I know I come from a small town when the news on the front page of the paper on the July 23rd was the calf being born at the Fair….not sure how that it was that important for front page but I guess there were limited stories. I had never heard of digging in sawdust for money but Gillian did and I took pictures. She made a quarter off the deal; apparently there was $600 in quarters in the sawdust. I loved that they had to wear goggles to be able to dig for money in the sawdust. Gillian had a good time and I got my fried bread dough so it was worth the trip.

We have also started to get use out of our pool which is a very nice change. We are avoiding buying a swing set since we do have a pool. We don’t see the point in having both so it has been nice to finally have a bit of weather that allows us to use our pool and Gillian is finally adjusting to the temperature of the pool.

Day at the park

Gillian spent the day at the park with Grammie and Grampie Miner. I didn't have tons of time with my grandparents when I was a child. I hope Gillian will look back at these as very cherished moments...

Last couple days...

Sunday Gillian spent at the beach with Grammie Miner. She loves the beach. We took her for Memorial Day and when Grammie was getting her ready to go, she reminded Grammie of everything she needed for the beach. Her memory amazes me.

Monday was my 1st day back to work after vacation and Gillian’s 1st day back to daycare. There were 2 new little boys at daycare that apparently started sometime last week. Gillian had her normal poop accident at daycare. She gets one more chance and if she poops again, it’s back to pull ups. She is good about peeing on the potty but pooping she doesn’t tell anyone before or after she does it and for sanitary reasons she may need to go back until she is ready to tell when she has to go. She has been told that she needs to tell or no more big girl underwear…hoping that works. So far we have tried rewards, candy, small gifts, big productions, punishing and nothing is really working with the pooping problem…I know she will do it when she is ready so we will just have to wait and see.

Today was a crazy day at work and I can’t believe that tomorrow is already Wednesday! I love when my week flies by. I got home and got my big greeting of hello from Gillian which I love to walk in the front door and see her. We had pictures taken of Gillian for the 1st time in a while and they finally came in so I brought them over to show my parents. When I got home, I got into my exercise gear and did my workout which is a video….trying to get a bit of exercise these days to work on being healthy. At the end of the workout...Gillian comes over to me and says, “Great Job MaMa.” I can’t think of anything better to motivate me to workout:)

So close to summer...

It is not quite warm enough to go in the pool just yet in Northern New York. That does not stop Gillian from checking on the progress of opening the pool daily. Normally she is out supervising her Dad working on the pool but Craig had to work today. So I told her after dinner we were going out to turn it on and clean out any bugs that had collected. It was obvious by her immediate smile that this was great news. So we get outside and she starts telling me what I need to do. Plug it in here, empty the bugs (from the thing attached to the pump) and of course she had to show me how to stand properly so I could skim the top of the water. I was stunned by my 3 year olds managing skills, she didn’t think twice about it. And she was polite saying please and thank you. She obviously realized my knowledge of the pool was limited which she is correct. I did teach her (although I knew I probably shouldn’t) that with my assistance she could lean over and feel the water so she now realizes that it is still quite cold. She also discovered that it is fascinating to lay on the deck and watch the water being circulated. I know in 10 years I will miss days like these.