Ready Or Not Here I Come!

I bet you can't guess what game we play quite frequently at our house?

Hide and seek is absolutely our new favorite thing to do and it can be hilarious at times. Analayne likes to hide and the places she hides are most interesting. However, she likes the hide in the exact same place over and over again! Her favorite place to hide is under the covers in her bed. Hiding under her covers is a very obvious hiding spot, but I love to walk around yelling, "is she behind the door?" or "is she under the bed?" and then tickle her through the covers until she pops out. Its also fun for her to try to find me because she just squeals with delight. If I am the one doing the counting I can actually get alot done while yelling 1---2---3---4.... Did you know that if you count slowly you can almost have enough time to wash a sink full of dishes?

Eat Your Heart Out....

This post is being written especially for Aunt Candace. First I want to say that Candace is a natural born teacher and there are two things Aunt Candace has taught Analayne. First, red is the color you must wear on your lips and second, crossing your eyes is a true talent. Candace we LOVE you!

We Are Preheated & Toasted

It is hot and Analayne and I are spending as much time as possible indoors, or at a pool. By 10:30 am, Analayne and I have already sat on our shady front porch and consumed at least 2 pop-ice popsicles (I bought a box of 700 pop-ice popsicles at Sams). After our consumption, I pretty much beg my daughter to go inside or she takes the opportunity to beg me to go to the pool.

I say its hot but honestly the hottest summer of my life was the summer of 2005. I was pregnant with Analayne and every square inch of me was either swollen or decorated with zebra like stretch marks. I recall waddling from my car to work, sleeping with no covers under a full blast ceiling fan and taking ice-cold showers. Her late summer birth brought some relief, but when you take into account the fact that my 9.7 lb newborn was pretty much either being held, nursing or laying on me, the temperature continued to heat up!

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me, now back to 2008...

The air conditioner went out in my Honda CRV and for about a week we suffered through it until Russ had a day or two off to fix it. We continually arrived at our destinations as hot and sweaty as you can imagine and usually with my daughter sporting some entirely wet hair. My hubby installed a very expensive new air conditioner unit so now its ice-cold. Not as ice cold as my beloved Volvo S-90 we sold when we got the new CRV but its still cold, so I will take it!

Analayne continues to want to go OUTSIDE to ride her scooter or trike or play in the sand. There is just something about sweat and sand (especially sweat and sand without a nice ocean nearby). I on the other hand would like to fill the bathtub up with ice cubes and pretend we are ice-fishing but that might take too much strength and energy and right now I just can't muster it up!

Anyway, if you need to find me or you want to chat, just drive on over. You will know its our house when you see us on the porch. The popsicles are waiting!

Meet Our New Nephew!

Currently, my brother and sister-in-law are in China finishing up the adoption process to bring their son home! They have named him Shepherd and his "Gotcha Day" was June 16th. He was born with cleft lip and palate but his lip has already had one surgery to repair it. We just can't wait to get to meet him personally. Check out the pictures....isn't he so handsome and cute!

She can withstand the fear of a 60 foot drop but needs her night light

Last weekend we went camping and then spent a day at Dollywood theme park.

We (oh wait...not "we" but rather Russ) had made the mistake of telling Analayne all the fun details about our weekend about 2 weeks prior and that began the spiral downward toward the official Lackey summer time kick-off. I say "downward" because for nearly two weeks I (the official care-giver, boo-boo kisser, lunch creator, teacher and entertainment guru...(also known as Analayne's mamma)had to endure several full blown emotional break-downs involving Analayne's spirited verbal desire to go camping and ride the rides.

Well, finally the weekend arrived and we took off on our adventure. Its a good thing Analayne has about as much energy as a hamster running on its wheel. She is full of life, is always ready for the "next big thing" and has virtually no fear for a child her age. Russ took her on a ride that shoots up 60 feet in the air and then falls down and shoots you back up again. Please note: Analayne wanted to go on this ride and was not forced. Anyway, as her mamma I stood on the ground watching my precious 37 inch tall almost 3 year old baby get on this ride with her manly daddy and I was squeamish. I even told the ride operator to watch the cute little girl with the green bow because I was scared she would fear for her life. I felt a little stupid later after she never so much as let out a peep! However, I can't say that she enjoyed this ride to its fullest potential because she never cracked a smile and the look on her face was one of confusion interspersed with brief moments of panic.

Since our trip she has been talking about all the rides and the experience of sleeping in our camper. She mentions the round and round tea cups, the bee ride, the ducks, the elephants, the train and the ferris wheel. However, not so much as one word has been mentioned about the shooting star ride. Since she has become quite the verbal girl who enjoys giving full reports about EVERYTHING, I have been a little shocked that she has not even said a word about the experience. I believe psychologically she is trying to oppress that memory. ME TOO!

"Alex...I'll take childhood rites of passage for 500 please."

There are many rites of passage as you proceed through childhood and one of them must be to get a hold of a pair of scissors when your mommy or daddy is not looking! We all know that you simply cannot keep your eyes on your child 24/7 so despite our best attempts to keep all dangerous or potentially dangerous items out of the reach of our children...we sometimes just fail.

Yesterday, I walked around the corner to a "play area" in our den and found some little "tuffs" of hair that appeared to have come from Analayne's head. We had been cutting with her little scissors the day before and I guess they were within reach. She apparently felt the need to give herself a little haircut and now she has some whispy bangs. My reaction when I saw her was to send her to time-out. As her mommy, I did not want her to think this "little act" was okay! Time out is like the worlds worst punishment for her, so she cried and cried. I only let her sit there for about 25 seconds (I can't stand it when she cries) and then I sat down with her and we talked about it.

Well, this is what I have to say about the situation, "it could have been much worse." Some kids basically scalp themselves with their home-made haircuts. However, Analayne managed to just give herself some nice whispy bangs that honestly look like I took her to the salon to get them done! I am not the biggest fan of bangs on little bitty round faces but I know they will grow! I can assure you that the scissors are now out of her reach---only to be used on paper with adult supervision. Nuff said about that... Now I will take "proud moments in motherhood for 200."

A loyal reader...

This blog entry is dedicated to Betty W. Betty is a woman that I have only met a few times but I have heard that she reads my blog regularly! I know who most of my "readers" are but when I found out about Betty I thought I should post a formal SHOUT OUT to her and formally tell her hello and let her know how much I appreciate all her kind words! I will keep the blog updates coming. Here's a picture of Analayne and her friend Noah that I took at the park today. I would have taken more pictures of her and her friends but its a daunting task to get multiple children, all under the age of 4 to be still enough for a decent picture. We are enjoying the beautiful spring days. Betty... I'll holler at you later!