Little Lady's Tobaggan Trouble

This morning's fun started out great. Little Lady lugged the toboggan up the short slope and waited for her turn to go down. She has learned it is better to let one of her boys go down first to pack down the snow.

She was all set and ready to go.

She gave it a little forward heave ho, but she didn't move.

Her brother gave her a little help and she started in a downhill direction.

But still no speed. None at all.
She leaned over the side and started digging herself out. All three of them were laughing so hard. Little Lady continually cracks us up. She was just so matter-of-fact in the way she decided that she could dig her sled out and gain the speed she was looking for. All the while laughing with that deep belly laugh, the genuinely tickled laugh that can not be reproduced. It is the laugh that comes out of her when she is making other people laugh. The noise that allows her to get away with almost anything.

One more little heave ho, and she was off!

Little Lady guiding the toboggan like a pro.
Can I have some hot cocoa?
I love that girl!

Curly-Q

Grandma and Grandpa were here for a visit last week and we had so much fun with them. This was just one of our many adventures.

We got Little Lady's hair wet and rag-rolled it.

Little Lady sat surprisingly still while Grandma told us stories about how her sister and her used to take turns rolling each other's hair.

She had so much fun with all her "bows" in her hair.

She slept soundly on her curlers. When we took them out the boys said "You look like a poodle!" This was fine with Little Lady, because she loves dogs and Cleo the poodle on Clifford.

We combed her ringlets out a little bit and pulled the front back into pony tails.

Here she is all ready for church.

Little Lady was very proud to look like her cousin Taylor. The curls turned into waves and then back into her beautiful straight hair after we washed it. It was fun to have a curly-Q for a day or two. Thanks for showing us how to do it Grandma!

Four . . . and 1/2

We are always looking for an excuse to celebrate around here. So, last week we celebrated Little Lady's 1/2 birthday with half of a cake and a few friends.

Little Lady loves parties and cake and of course being the center of attention. She told me today that it sure is hard to be 4 1/2.

Sing a song of Birthdays

Full of fun and cheer

And may you keep on having them

For many a happy year.

- Anonymous

Hamburger Seeds

The following is a typical dinner conversation at the Thompson Zoo.

Little Lady: "These are hamburger seeds. We should plant them in the garden."

The Zoo Keeper: "What would grow if we planted those seeds in the garden?"

Little Lady: "Hamburgers!"

Crazy Fox: "Those are sesame seeds, not hamburger seeds."

Little Lady: "No, they are hamburger seeds".

Hand Ankles

We were driving in the car the other day, and Little Lady started whining. This has been a high-whine week in our household.

She said, "Crazy Fox hurt me! He hurt my hand ankle."

Both boys started giggling and correcting her saying, "That is not called a hand ankle. It is a wrist. That's your WRIST."

But Little Lady was not convinced. She sat quietly for a short moment pondering what she should do and then said, "Mom, Crazy Fox hurt my hand ankle."

I am convinced that she has been staying up at night thinking of ways to talk about her hand ankles. There have been long, thought out stories with strange plots, just so she could say hand ankle. And other less dramatic ways, such as, "My hand ankle sure is itchy." Or "The cat scratched my hand ankle." There has never been so much dialogue about wrist's in this household. I hope nothing happens to her elbows, or things could get really confusing around here.

Here's a hand ankle tutorial by Little Lady. It takes a while for the buffering, but it will load eventually.

One GREAT Great Aunt

Little Lady happens to have a Great Aunt who is a fantastic seamstress. She has always amazed me with the things she can create with her sewing machine. She is very talented in so many ways, but today we'll just focus on her sewing abilities. She is the one I call when I have a question about a pattern. Everything she makes looks like it comes from a pricey boutique.So when there was talk of making Little Lady a dress a few weeks ago I was very excited. I measured Little Lady and sent the measurements to Great Aunt D. One week later I heard it was done and in the mail. Yesterday there was a box delivered to our door.

Little Lady opened it and said, "Can I wear it?"

Me: "Of course, let's try it on".

L L: "I am never going to take this off. I am going to wear it forever!"

I think Little Lady was feeling like a little princess with her head tilted just so and her hands on her lap.

There is just something about a tulle lined full skirt that makes a little girl feel good. I think it is similar to the way little boys feel when they see a puddle of mud.

Thank you Great Aunt D. for thinking of Little Lady and making her a dress she will love for a long time to come.

I had a dress like this when I was about her age. It was a gold floral print (hey it was the 70's) and it was long and it had lace around all the edges. I think it was a hand made hand-me-down but I didn't care where it had come from. I called it my Hundred Dollar Dress. I felt so fancy in that dress that I was sure it must have cost $100. And way back then that was a lot of money. Now that I think about it, that would still be a lot of money to spend on a little girl's dress. Anyway, I just loved that dress. I loved to twirl around in the kitchen while my mom was getting dinner ready. I wore it to my Great Grandma's birthday party and when she commented on how pretty it was I'm sure I told her it was my $100 dress. She must have thought my parents had gone off the deep end. I'm sure they cleared that up in a hurry. This of course is all how it seemed to a 4 year old girl in a long full dress that was dizzy from twirling through her life while wearing golden floral.

I'm sure Little Lady will have wonderful memories in this dress too!

"D" Day

Little Lady and the boys all had dentist appointments yesterday. I told her " We are going to the dentist this afternoon." She said, " I am going to show him all my teeth. I'm bigger now". This is quite amazing since last time we were there, she would not open her mouth except to say, "No, you can not look in my mouth".

She is four now, you know.

What a difference a few weeks make.

Here's Little Lady waiting to get a picture of her teeth.

She let her mom take a picture of her first.

All smiles waiting while the hygienist checks her chart.

As the hygienist started polishing Little Lady's teeth she said, "This will make your teeth nice and sparkly". Little Lady said "I want them to be sparkly and purple!"

Luckily they came out sparkly and white . . . and no cavities (unlike her brothers).

Skating By

We went to the home school skate day at the local skating rink yesterday. The kids had never been to a skating rink before. The boys have always had amazing balance. They asked me to take their training wheels off their bikes when they were three. I took them off but kept the wrench close by knowing I would be putting them right back on. But guess what? They never looked back. They rode around in circles on the driveway until it was too dark to see. Then they wanted to teach all their little friends how to ride two-wheelers so they could all go fast together. I can still remember that amazed feeling I had as I watched those two little guys riding their two wheel bikes for the first time. So, I was a little surprised at the fear I saw in their eyes as they clung to the wall as they went around the rink. They were holding on to the wall as if they were on the rim of a volcano, hoping and praying they would be able to hold on, lest they drop into a pit of hot lava.

Crazy Fox went through an obsession with roller blades a few months ago. He found a pair at a yard sale and has practiced for probably 30 minutes total.

He held on to the wall for a few laps, and then he stopped in front of me and said "Roller blading is easy mom! I can do it without even touching the wall." And he did.

Little Lady told me she didn't want to go skating. I thought to myself, She doesn't even know what skating is. So I asked her to just try it, we got her some skates and put them on. I helped her stand up and hold on to the wall so I could take her picture, (she is a very willing ham).

Little Lady rolled about 1/8 of an inch and sat back down.

"Mom, I do not want wheels on my feet."

I held her hand and had her roll beside me for a few feet.

"Mom, I do not want wheels on my feet."

I said, "Honey, trust me, you're going to have so much fun. I will hold your hand. I won't let you fall."

"Mom, I want these wheels off my feet! I want my shoes."

We turned the skates in and Little Lady told the skating rink lady that she was too little to skate and she did not like having wheels on her feet. The skating rink lady tried to encourage her, but it had been decided. Little Lady was not going to skate. She was happy to sit on the bench watching her friends do the limbo and open and close our locker 900 times.

As the morning went on, Digging Badger let go of the wall, but he was always within arms reach of it. We'll have to go back and practice some more.

Good Bye Split Ends

Little Lady's hair was getting a bit hard to comb through (sometimes because there was syrup in it), but usually just because it has been a while since it has been trimmed. Her ends were dry and even though her last haircut was a good one, it was still trying to recover from her baby mullet. It had a very defined vee shape to it. So we decided to even it out. She's always wanting a haircut and I really am surprised she hasn't taken it upon herself to just chop it off. I'm sure that day will come. We talked about it and she told me she wanted her hair cut short like T.S. (a boy from church). Even though his hair is not a really short boy cut I wasn't ready to let go of her tresses yet. So when I told her that would be too short for pony tails she said, "I would like it to be short like D.S.'s hair." D.S. is T.S's sister. Again, a little shorter than I was willing to go. (Even though D.S. looks super adorable with her hair cut short). So, I told her "We'll see". We got the stool out of the garage and the scissors and the water bottle and evened her hair right up. It turned out okay for just a mom-cut. The boys got a haircut too. Certainly nothing fantastic, but it will work since we don't have any family portraits planned in the next few weeks.

Here's the new do.

When she holds her head straight, it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

On a side note, I have been really challenged by this blog

http://www.inthetrenchesofmotherhood.com/

and I was more than happy to save $40 by cutting the kids hair myself.

A Plethora of Purple Pony Party Pictures

Here's Little Lady Primping for her Purple Pony Party

Posing with a Pack of Purple Ponies

Purple Ponies on Parade

Partaking of Pony Provisions

Perfectly Picked Presents from Pony Pals

The Purple Pony Pastry

Puffing at the Purple Pony Pastry

Purple Ponies Preparing to Part

Thanks to all of Little Lady's pals who came to help her celebrate!