*SPARKLY*

Today was CJ's second visit to the dentist and what a difference six months makes. Last time we got a tour of the office, she got a few toys and they barely got a peek at her mouth to count the teeth before Dr. Pike called it, trying to keep things positive. This time she sat up great on the table and bought into the hygienist's idea of giving her sparkly, princess teeth. She watched in the mirror while they counted, polished and flossed her teeth. She let them squirt water into her mouth and kissed "Mr. Thirsty" to have it sucked out. These guys are great with the kids and even had a cute puppy therapy dog in training next to us. Did I mention the pink toothbrush that has lights that flash? Now if you ask her about her teeth, she'll tell you they are "sparkly"!

Sibling Rivalry

The girls are at it already. CJ likes to feed Little B meal scraps and then gets upset when Little B hangs very close to her chair and noses her for more. Mama tells CJ 1) not to feed Little B people food; and 2) to be nice. CJ then (very loudly) says "NO THANK YOU, BE***!" Little B doesn't care, appreciates some form of attention and waits for more food to fall to the floor. Today Mama told CJ that we all need to get along because we are going to be living together in this house for a long time. CJ suggested that we needed to "move to a different house and get some dogs that didn't come so close to her." No matter what she says, we know she loves her puppies.

Teacher's Pet?

Mama had always figured her for the class clown, but this was the second week in a row that CJ jumped up from the stretches in dance class to be the first in line for the log roll. Maybe she just likes standing on the purple rainbow square, but later in the class she was standing face to face with the teacher, looking for her approval.

This week we did remember our tutu, but now the other little girls are upping the ante with their full leotards. We may need to go shopping.

Backyard Business

This slide is way too small, but CJ still has fun on it.



Daddy built CJ a balance beam today. She was doing great.



CJ tested out the new ramp Daddy built for Big B. Big B has yet to try it.

The tomatoes are coming! These are the Isis Candy ones and some of the heirlooms are finally starting to appear.

Beer Makes You Sleepy

Being near it makes CJ sleepy, at least. We biked downtown and after a free smoothie (thanks Starbucks!), a short visit to the farmers market (Mama was an idiot and forgot cash) and a quick splash in Salmon Street Springs fountain, we stopped at the Oregon Brewers Festival. CJ fell asleep in the bike trailer and took a good 2-hour nap while Daddy fought the crowds to retrieve a few samples of cerveza to share with Mama. The beer was fine, but the lines were ridiculous considering it was mid-day on the 3rd day of the festival. And we found a shady spot where a few other kiddos were parked in their strollers, but it also turned out to be the place where many went to smoke. On the way home we stopped for dinner, which was likely the best part of the trip.

Pool Olympics

Today we met some friends at Wilson Pool. We had planned on meeting on Wednesday, but the weather didn't cooperate. Today was perfect - sunny and warm, but not too hot. It was our first trip to this pool this summer and it turned out that they were having an Olympic day with lots of games and giveaways. For us, this meant free ice cream, tattoos, and face paint (it was technically closed when CJ got in line, but after a few tears were shed one of the nice girls gave her a quick, pink heart).

CJ and Mama went down the big, blue slide only once and CJ walked up to the toddler froggie slide, but chose not to go down that. She was simply having too much fun wading in the leisure pool and Mama had trouble convincing her to leave. When we finally did leave, four plus hours later, CJ promptly fell asleep in the car.

The only downside was when the lifeguard was trying to clear out a portion of the leisure pool that we weren't in and Mama thought it must have been for one of the Olympic games. That is, until she saw the "Baby Ruth" floating in the bottom of the pool. This caused a quick exit for Mama and CJ. A bit later, we saw another round of poop fishing going on. Two incidents within an hour or so - yikes! And apparently they do not clear the whole pool, but merely the immediate area until the fishing is done and a little bleach has been added. Good thing CJ is no longer afraid of the shower. We took a nice, long one when we got home.

Snickerdoodles

Today was a cooler day so we stuck close to home and decided to make Daddy some cookies. We've done a lot of chocolate chip "pan" cookies in the last 3 years, but today thought we try some Snickerdoodles. Mama thought CJ could have the job of rolling the dough in the cinnamon/sugar mix. It took a little bit of convincing, but eventually she got the hang of it and we were in production mode. Then, she somehow blew the sugar mix and it shot into her eyes, causing tears.

Turns out that she was best at licking the beater.

Groovy Garage Sale

Mama's Sunday run ended at a neighborhood garage sale where she found another bed for Belisima (as well as a sleeping bag, scooter and a few friends). Now we just need to figure out where they are going to live.

Danceable Activities

Not sure what that means, but today we dropped in for a dance class with the following description: Calling all preschoolers! Explore the very basic techniques in tumbling, ballet & jazz. Using 'danceable activities' improve coordination, flexibility, rhythm & body awareness.

Apparently, it has something to do with wearing a tutu as CJ was practically the only one in class without one (Ben didn't have one either). She did model hers when we got home. We'll have to remember to bring it with us next time.

Doce Anos

Maybe someday we'll take CJ to the beach where we were married, but this year we decided to celebrate our twelfth anniversary with a family trip to a closer beach - Hood River. The Gorge Games were going on so we saw lots of kite boarders, heard some live music and CJ got a few trips down a huge inflatable slide, but really the rest of the visit wasn't affected by the crowds.

CJ couldn't wait to shed her shoes and shorts and hop into the river:













Little B couldn't get enough stick fetching:













Big B got some rest on the sand:










We went to town, where Mama and Daddy enjoyed some pizza and brew and we followed it up with gelato and playing in the fountain:

Note: next time we might want to bring two changes of clothes...

Dog Days...and Years

Big B had a trip to the vet today and, according to the age/weight chart in the office, he is almost 101 years old! We are supposed to be careful about heat and excitement with him. Luckily the wind in Hood River offset the sunny weather later in the day.

The Girl Got a Bodacious Bed

A dog bed, but a BODACIOUS one. No. Not CJ. Belisima. That was the special toy for week #2 of Goldfish swim lessons. CJ finished the class with another great week. She's even willing to get into the shower now!

The toy is the Petrageous Sweet Style Sleeper. CJ picked it out when she spied Belisima at the store. I tried to tell her it was a pet bed, but she just got a funny look on her face. It is pretty cute. Hope Belisima is "sleeping pretty".

Harmonica Girl

Trying out a video...

Shopping List

While talking to Aunt R on the phone today, CJ made a list on her Magna Doodle. According to CJ, she needs:

- Ice Cream;
- Cake; and
- Food.

Later, she said "Books, too!"

STP Bike Ride

Today was the STP Bike Ride. We did our own version that didn't take us so far from home - the Sellwood pool To Pizza ride. It kept the little one happy.

Party Day

Today CJ had two birthday parties to attend.

Party #1:

Farm party with a tractor ride to blueberry and raspberry picking (and eating - Yum!):

A picnic lunch near the farm-related climbing structure:

Strawberry cupcakes and a quick rest with a full belly:



Party #2:

Backyard fun with 3 pools to choose from:

BBQ dinner followed by swings:

A princess castle cake with pink (strawberry) ice cream. And playing with this magic wand (talking fly swatter):

Only a few meltdowns and some were likely due to the very warm weather. I think she had a great day.

She Loves to Slide

Ok, so she chose not to slide during swim lessons. But, maybe the slide wasn't big enough. Here she is going up her favorite slide at the park next to the pool. Now you know why I have a mini heart attack when she swings from the bar at the top of the slide...

Week One in the Books

Tonight we finished our first week of Goldfish swim lessons.

We got there early enough to sunbathe before class:

She bounced in the water:

She floated on her back:

And when the teacher asked if they wanted to go down the slide, CJ was the first in line:

Unfortunately, that was as far as she went. She chose not to go down the slide as did one other little girl.

Overall it was a great week of lessons and when we got home, she got her special toy. She was pretty excited.

Slurpee

Drinking a Slurpee = Good. Finding a Slurpee in your refrigerator = Not Good.

The culprit? An old can of Diet Coke that froze and literally popped it's top.

Not fun to clean up!

Summer Reading

In the morning we get a lot of sunshine in the dining room. It's a great place to sit and read a book for the summer reading program - if you can claim it before one of the puppies does.

Adios Sombrero

No, we don't miss the striped hat she wore all last year. It still makes appearances in the middle of the night or the morning, but it appears that she is finally getting comfortable leaving the house without it. Today, she even wanted to wear two ponytails to show her friend K.

Ice Cream for Breakfast?

Here she is, serving up ice cream for breakfast with the ice cream set she got for her birthday. I took the picture because 1) she really seems to be slimming down to me, regardless of what the doctor says; and 2) because she found these PJ's and tried to convince me that they weren't too small, although she did say "the sleeves keep falling up".

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

Mama and Daddy are spelling more and more words around the house. We've been spelling D-I-N (dinner) for a long time to keep Little B from going fanatic when it is time for the dogs to eat. Occasionally, we spell P-O-T-T-Y. Last weekend we were going to go out for gelato and we started to spell I-C-E for Ice Cream. Apparently, CJ picked up on it. She started talking about M-N-O. When I asked her what that meant, she said "Ice Cream"!

She Surprises Me

Tonight was our first Pre-Goldfish swim lesson at the local park. I was really worried that CJ wouldn't leave my side or wouldn't get in the water without tears. In preparation, we picked up this special toy and talked about how she needed to 1) get in the pool without Mama; 2) listen to her teacher; and 3) not cry in order to receive the prize at the end of the week. The session is two weeks long, so we have a prize for each week.

She did great. Well, for 20-25 minutes of the 30 minute class. She seemed really comfortable in the water, let the teacher pour water over her head, blew bubbles, let the teacher hold her to float on her back and sat on the stairs with the 4 other preschoolers for kicking and splashing. She even bounced away from her group a few times until teacher Mackenzie reigned her in. Then, she spied me. And she possibly banged her knee. She got out of the pool and walked over to me with tears ready. Luckily I was able to convince her to get back in and finish the class. She played tag and let Mackenzie help her jump in.

I talked to the teacher afterwards and she thought CJ did great, but needed to stay with the group more. I agree. We'll see how she does tomorrow when Daddy takes her.

Independence Day - and then some...

Happy Fourth of July. I've been meaning to post about CJ's growing independence and what an appropriate day. My parenting style may lean towards that of a Helicopter Parent, but I've been trying to step back and see what the kid can do. Even though there are often tears, I've noticed a lot of strides forward recently including:

- She can put a zipper together and almost pull it up;
- She's great at washing her own hands;
- She's even gone to the bathroom on her own a couple of times without prodding;
- She's more adventurous (see Big Pink);
- She has been building her playground skills (can get on a big girl swing by herself, provided it isn't too high off the ground and likes to swing on the bar at the top of slides - this one gives Mama a mini heart attack each time);
- She's great at riding her scooter on our dog walks;
- She can pour her milk from a small container into her cup;
- She can put away/locate things in her room (sometimes this requires prodding);
- She can ride a bike with training wheels; and, of course,
- She can serve herself a popsicle and put the used container in the sink when done!

Roller Coaster Fever

Today we headed to the local amusement park for their preschool ride session.

CJ had fun on the train ride:

co-drove a purple car:

and, while enjoying the carousel:

she spied "Big Pink":

and she claimed she wanted to go down the big pink slide. Mama was not sure so she asked CJ repeatedly, but CJ said she wanted to do it. We waited in quite a line and even watched a little girl walk back down after getting to the top, but CJ wanted to slide. She said "I'll slide down the pink and you can have the yellow". So, we did. Mama was pretty surprised because CJ is usually pretty cautious and more of a follower, but this was her idea. After the ride she even told Mama how much fun it was.

On the way out, CJ was amazed by the "Looping Thunder Roller Coaster". We had to stop and watch it go around and around and even upside down. I just checked and luckily you have to be 54" to ride that one, so I think we have a little time to prepare.