A Day at the Garden

We took advantage of the weather today, and headed to the Garden. We had such a fun time today. We were supposed to go w/some friends, but there was an illness, so they couldn't come. So it was just Linda and I. We really had a great time. We only stayed in the children's garden for a short while, and then headed out to explore. There are over 12 miles of walkway in the garden to explore. It was fun to find places we haven't been before. Linda was commenting several times on how beautiful everything was. One time she said, "thank you Heavenly Father for leaves." It was so sweet. We ate lunch near a lake and out in the sun. The sun was come and go, and at times it was windy, but it was quite warm. We shed our jackets early in the day. We stumbled upon a whole garden themed around camelias. How beautiful they were. There must have been hundreds of them, and most of them were in bloom. They smelled so good too. Linda must have walked three miles today at least. She is so active. She didn't ask to get in the stroller one time. I used the stroller to carry all my stuff (jackets, drinks, lunch, travel potty, etc). We really had a nice time. It was one of those days I wish she didn't nap so we could stay and enjoy it more. We got there at 8:45 and left at 12:10. Did I mention what a nice time we had?

Linda's reading is really coming along now. She understands that words she sees actually mean something. We were looking at cards w/pic of insects on them. She was looking at the pic and didn't know the name of the insect. She saw the word and knew it was the name of the insect. She tried to sound out the word to find out the name of the insect. Too bad the word was cicada. But the fact that she tried was really neat. She is getting good at spelling now too. We play a game and she will say what letter does the word park start with. I'll sound it out, and come up w/the right answer. Then I ask her. She gets it right almost all the time. So now we have started to move on to the second letter in the word. She has peaked interest in reading books w/me now too. I have consistently been bringing home beginner reader books, but she never wanted to read them, even though she had the ability. A few weeks ago I pretended to have a hard time reading one, and asked her for help. She liked helping me figure out the words. Now when we are reading a reader book, she will say to me, "You have a hard time reading. I'll help you." We have talked about some pretty advanced stuff now like ee, silent e, oo. I want to introduce ch and th soon too. She knows sh. She is just doing so well.

I guess that's about it for now. This has been a long posting w/lots of pics, but I wanted to share w/everyone what was going on w/us.

Gym Class

As always, Linda was very excited to go to gym class on Thursday. Here are a few pics from that. She did pretty good jumping up to the parallel bar. The steps were close enough she could have reached up, but she prefered to jump up there.

Copper, & my girly girl

I just had to include the picture of Copper. Could he be any more comfy? make yourself at home Copper, and no worries in the world, lol.

It's so funny that yesterday she was so tomboy hitting the ball, and today she is so excited about her braids (and also her painted nails). She is also practicing her wink in the one picture. She likes to do that. I am not a girly girl at all, so this is all kind of new to me. She does enjoy her shoes, clothes, nails, hair. At least she is very tom boy and athletic as well. I'm just trying to let Linda be Linda, and have her own personality. Like I said, it's kind of neat, b/c she is some of both.

Reading time w/Daddy

Here's Linda reading her new "Your Big Backyard" magazine w/Daddy. She really enjoys spending time w/daddy reading. For anyone w/kids, the National Wildlife Federation has three great age appropriate kids magazines, w/no advertisements.

My Little Slugger

Linda has been swinging pretty good using the T. A couple days ago I decided to try and toss her the ball to see if she could hit it. I tossed it to her, but she really wasn't able to swing it properly. Tom was around today, so I knew he could toss it, and I could help her swing properly. It only took a couple times, and she had the swing down. The first pic is of her practicing her swing. The second pic is one of her hitting the ball. And the third pic is also a pic of her hitting the ball. The third pic she really made good contact. Do you see that follow thru? She only turns 3 next month! Maybe she'll make the olympics!

true love

We are so blessed to have such a nice dog in our lives as Copper. He is so good w/Linda. She loves him like a brother.

It was a really pretty day today. The sun was shining, and it was quite warm. As you can see Linda is in a short sleeve shirt w/o a jacket. We spend most of the day outside, except for gym class.

couple bed pics

Copper figured out he could easily jump up onto the loft bed, so we took some pics of all of us up there. He had made himself comfy, and I had to tell him several times when it was time to get down. The big girl bed is going well. Linda still hasn't gotten out of it, which makes me very happy. I almost finished decorating the room today. We got her a quilt, and the quilt came w/a sham. I knew she wasn't going to use the sham, so I hung it on her wall. It looks good up there. I also centered her Jesus picture over her bed, and added some wall decorations. It looks really cute. She was quite concerned where her crib went. I had Craig's listed it to a guy w/a 3 month old baby. She was happy to know it had gone to a baby. Not too much going on here really. It's turned chilly again, but really not all that cold. Anyway, we are looking forward to warmer weather.

A Great Day

Today was a really great day for us. Today was one of those days where you think to yourself, "I have a really cool kid." I think that often, but today I guess I realized it more. The weather today was so pretty, in the 70s. Of course we took advantage of that, and played outside. We did spend 30 min inside the library for story time. We came home after the library and Linda and Ry played outside in the back yard for about an hour. It is so nice to have the swing set out there for Linda. She and Ry play so nicely (most of the time) out there. They really enjoy the sand box too. I hear them talking about making cupcakes, and all sorts of other pretend stuff w/the sand. Copper was out there too, and I saw them playing w/him and chasing him all over.

Linda went right to sleep after lunch. She has been doing so good in her bed. She has not gotten out once. It hasn't even been a week, but I'm so pleased w/her. Sometimes she wants to skip lunch or dinner and go straight to the bed so she can get in.

After nap we played outside while Ry was sleeping. I have written tons of words on the driveway before and she has read them, but she seemed to be getting bored doing that. So today I wrote tons of words on the driveway, and told her I wanted her to find a specific word. She liked that game very much, and we played for about 45 minutes. I am still so amazed how she can read words. She is getting better and a little faster reading the words. She kept asking me to tell her a word to find, so we went w/it.

She ate a decent lunch, but after nap she must have had some sort of growth spurt. As most of you know, she is quite the eater. But today she even out did herself. She had 1/2 lb strawberries, two oranges, one apple, and one piece of fresh warm bread. Then she ate her regular dinner! I wonder where she puts it all. But she is non stop most of the day, so it gets burned off.

Right before going inside our neighbor Paul came out and we inquired about his 2 1/2 yr old daughter. Paul told us she wasn't feeling well today. When we came inside I told Linda to wash her hands. I walked by the bathroom and the water was running. Linda was standing at the sink, w/her little arms folded, and she was saying a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help Emma feel better. Of course my eyes just welled up. It was the sweetest thing. I was so happy she thought to say a prayer, and understood the power of God. It was awesome. She really enjoys learning about Jesus. She particularly likes the story of the good samaritan, Jesus walking on water, Jesus feeds the 5000. Her newest interest is a picture she saw of Jesus knocking on a door. There is no door knob in the picture, so Jesus cannot open the door. He is standing at the door knocking, wanting to come in. But the person on the inside has to open the door to Jesus. She likes to hear me tell her she needs to open her heart to Jesus and let Him in.

So I hope you can see why today I was really diggin' my kid. She is so special. She is so smart. But more importantly, she is a nice little girl. She is thinking about other people, and how she can help them. That just makes me so happy.

zoo and big girl bed

Tonight is the night I have been anticipating and dreading. Linda is in her big girl bed as we speak. It is a low loft bed. She was so excited to get in the bed. We celebrated the end of the crib w/some pizza tonight. Tom almost made me cry several times, just b/c she is growing up. She will be 3 next month! As you can imagine, I'm terrified she will get out all night long and never go to sleep again. It really has everything to do w/my comfort. I'm used to putting her in the crib and walking out. She goes to sleep on her own and so I can relax. I'm worried I won't have that down time for nap, or at night. Just wish us luck, b/c there is no going back now! I'll let everyone know how she did. She has been in it for about 10 min now, and hasn't gotten out yet.

We headed to the zoo today w/our friends Lori and Nora. They have memberships, so we got in for free. The weather was perfect, and the girls had such a good time. Linda enjoyed running all over and just having fun. Thanks to Lori and Nora for letting us go w/them.

Another day at the Garden

What a beautiful day it has been. I think the forecasters were saying 60, but it feels warmer than that. We headed to the garden again today. Last time we went I noticed many of the daffodils were blooming. I didn't ever remember them blooming so early, in January. That is one of the pics that Linda is in. In the beginning of the visit we were in jackets. By the end we were just in our shirts. It was really nice out. One of the pics is of Linda in a nest. She was pretending to be a bird. It was so cute. We just had a real nice day at the garden. We are so blessed to have places like this to take children to.