These Boots Are Made For Clompin'

Somebody stole her momma's boots, and she is currently clompin' around the house.

Mere minutes after snapping this picture, The Princess and I were face-to-face in the middle of a monstrous community giggle fit.  She snorted like a pig and then found that so hilarious that she flailed around like only she can do...and whacked my nose so hard I saw nothing but a flash of white for a moment.  Now it's numb.  Here's hopin' I don't end up at the office with two black eyes tomorrow.

But, ya know, even if I do, it'll totally be worth it.

I am simply amazed every single day by this little girl.  It's all of the little things, really, that are just so BIG in our house.  Even a year ago, I don't know if I would have been able to take a picture of my girl looking at the camera.  At that time, she wasn't so engaged.  If I laughed, she usually didn't.  Her idea of playing pretty much consisted of sitting alone in her room and stimming on one object past the point of obsession, screaming bloody murder when she finally realized that she simply couldn't stop what she was doing, that the activity had taken over and she didn't know how to move onto something else.  Interactions by that point largely consisted of prying the object out of her fingers while she screamed and cried and ran away.

So you see why this would be worth two black eyes, right?

Yeah.  Me, too.

Cousin E's Birthday Party

Where does the time go?

I can hardly believe it's been a year since our beautiful goddaughter, E, was born.  Okay, well, it'll be a year tomorrow, but her party was this Saturday.

This generation of girls, with The Princess being the oldest and E the youngest (so far), well...they amaze me.  I love seeing how they interact with each other and assert their independence in their own little ways.  It seems like their personalities are ingrained almost from day one, and it really is a joy to sit back and observe them.

E, the Birthday Girl, showin' off her bunny ears.

K helping E out with the cake...E really wanted to see what she was doing.

The Princess and Nana

The more of these parties we go to, the more comfortable The Princess is with the huge rowdy group of folks we're lucky to call our family.

And, though I don't like to dwell on the negative, I've kind of felt as though I've been missing out the last few years.  The last big party we had for The Princess was at her own first birthday, for what should be fairly obvious reasons by this point.  I freely admit to my crying jag last year when I realized I wouldn't be able to throw a big party for her fifth birthday.  Five is one of the big milestone years in my family, and it broke my heart that I couldn't have the party, but it was more important to me for her to be comfortable.

Now, seeing how well she is interacting with everyone and self-regulating when she needs to, I'm starting to think there may be hope yet.

That's right.  We're going to have a birthday party this year.  Lord help us.  We'll probably ask everyone to sing in whispers, and she likely won't last more than a minute or two opening gifts, but we're gonna try it.

Here's hopin' there are half as many smiles that day as we saw this weekend.

Keeping a Straight Face

Okay, you're all aware of The Princess's shiny new ability to mimic.  She's parroting actions, gestures, facial expressions, even some sounds.  It's amazing.

But.

How the hell am I supposed to keep a straight face when I'm trying to scold her and she mirrors my stance - hands on hips, stern eyebrows, the whole nine yards?

The answer: I'm not.  It's cool.  It's new.  It's fun.  And there's no way I'm keepin' a straight face.  At least not yet.

My girl, who will be turning six in three months, is finally starting to play some of the games we've been trying for since she was a baby.  I think I'll just soak it all up and enjoy every moment, thank you very much.

Age Appropriate

If you're anything like me, those two words together make you cringe, grind your teeth a little, and - perhaps - start to twitch around your right eye.  Not that I would know anything about that.

As moms, we all have those pet peeves we can't seem to get over.  While they may seem trivial to some outsiders, they are very real and very big to those of us who take issue with them.  "Age appropriate" is one of mine.  You know, those seemingly harmless little numbers on every toy on the market...the ones that guide the consumer by telling them what age group said toy should be appropriate for on a developmental scale.

I vote we do away with these damned things altogether.  Who's with me?

This Christmas, The Princess received a gift card to Toys 'R' Us and some cash from a couple of her great aunties and uncles.  A couple of months before Christmas, The Hubbs' iPad crapped out, so our girl had been without her touch-screen educational apps for a while by that point.

Thinking we were doing something good, we threw in about $30 of our own money along with the gift card and cash, and we purchased a LeapFrog LeapPad2 from our local Toys 'R' Us.  The age range on the package was 3-9 years.  The Princess is going to turn 6 in April.

Well.  You can see where this is going, can't you?

The LeapFrog LeapPad2 is lightyears ahead of my girl's abilities.  Forget the fact that you have to purchase games and apps separately...I'll just focus on the developmental challenges. 

On-off switch?  Fine. 

Login screen where the child has to choose his or her picture and name from a field of at least 5 choices, even if he or she is the only user?  Discouraging.

The fact that the Internet cannot be accessed on the machine itself?  Perfect.  Exactly what I wanted.

Level of verbal instructions given for each and every game/app the thing came with?  Far too advanced.

General process for getting into desirable locations and getting things done?  Way too complicated.

Thankfully, our local Toys 'R' Us agreed to let us return the tablet for a cash refund and $25 store credit that same day.  I was feeling about "this big" by that time.  You know how it goes.  The fact that they were willing to work with us made it a little better.

Once I got over myself, we made another trip to the same store a couple of days later.  This trip was miles better than the one before.  The Princess found two toys she absolutely loves.  The fact that they each have an age range of 9-36 months does not bother me in the slightest.  In fact, I believe I've learned a little lesson here.

I'm done with age range labels.  Who the hell are you, you pretentious, colorful cardboard box, to tell me what's appropriate for my kid.  She smiles, it's all good.  And you can shove those age ranges where the smiley-face yellow cartoon sun don't shine.