Mommy, Take My Picture!

She seemed fascinated

with the toilet.  I thought

she’d train early. 

She didn’t.

She took off

after she turned one. 

How cool to

move herself

with her feet, to go

from room to room. 

To explore. 

                                                      She collected balls and rocks.

Whenever we’d go

out walking she would climb

on fire hydrants and

pick up anything

she found in her path. 

She loved roly-polys. 

They resembled small balls. 

She did attempt

to put one in her mouth.

                                            She collected whatever she could carry.

She started preschool

when she was three. 

We’d walk to school. 

She would balance

on the way, walking over walls

as though she was on a tightrope. 

I would entertain her

with imitations of circus music

and emcee her “daring moves”

and I would take her picture

She dawdled

as she explored every yard

between our house and the school. 

                                                    She collected rocks and pinecones.

She loved each season

and enthusiastically greeted

anything that was new. 

The wind,

crunching leaves,

sleds,

snow banks,

blossoms,

snails

 fascinated with

every part of nature. 

                                                    She collected rocks and leaves.

Today she dawdles

much as she did when

she was three.  She explores

whatever God has created. 

She climbs trees and

snow banks and continues

to make snow angels. 

She continues to

balance on walls as she did

when she was three

and asks for me to make the sounds

of the circus as she performs

on her “tightrope” and ask

"Mommy, Will you take my picture?"

                                             She collects Pokémon cards and rocks

She will stand on top of

 rocks and stumps and ask me

to take her picture

lying on balls and

fire hydrants still exploring

as she had when

she was three

                                                        She now gives her rocks faces.

Cropped Photos

Roland brought a camera to give to me for Christmas.  Here are some of the photos that I took yesterday:

Killer Snow

            Shortly after we moved to West Valley, Jenna started hanging at Alley’s house.  Every once in a while Alley and her brother came over to our house, but usually Jenna went to theirs.  I don’t know why they stopped playing together.  But they haven’t been hanging around together for at least a couple of years.

 

Jenna and I were waiting for the bus on Tuesday morning when Alley’s mom offered to drive us to school. Her oldest attends the same junior high that Jenna will be attending.  She had already dropped him off but seemed willing to make another trip.  She said she was also willing to pick her up from school – and the junior high gets out at least an hour before the elementary school does.

So yesterday she picked Jenna up and took her to school and we picked her up last night.  Today brought the killer snow, and she was still willing to drive us. But as her children get out of school only five minutes after Jenna and the weather was awful I told her we would find another way for coming home.

Jenna had a pair of jelly shoes that she wanted to wear to the school performance today – one that I had planned to attend.  I told her to put her jelly shoes in her backpack and she could wear them to the concert but that she needed her boots on to wear to school and that she could change.   

I didn’t know whether I should just hang out at the school all day or return home for an hour and a half and attempt to catch a bus back to the school. But when Jenna got out of the car I realized she still had her jellys on and that I would have to return home for her boots (as the falling snow STILL hasn’t stopped)

The distance between Jenna’s school and our house is 10 min by car, 20 min by bus – except for snow days, which are more than an hour.  I waited for an early bus for nearly half an hour.  When I checked the time 20 minutes before her program started, I realized I would not get there on time, as it was some distance between the bus stop and the front of the school.  So I turned around and went home and figured I would return to catch a bus that would get me to the school hopefully between 12:30 and 1:00.

 

As I waited, I watched the news.  Top stories and breaking news were all weather related.  Airport closed.  Power poles snapped and caught on fire.  Many many many without power currently.

I boarded a bus that arrived on time.  Traffic was slow getting to the intersection.  After that the bus seemed to speed up and actually had to wait at two stops as he had arrived ahead of schedule.  I was the only passenger on the bus between my house and the school.

I was able to climb the street to her school in less than 15 minutes.  I was surprised when I walked through the school doors and noticed the clock.  School wouldn’t be out for another hour.  But she didn’t wish for me to check her out early.

 

As we were waiting for the bus, Jenna had to play in the snow banks, of course.  She lost a boot in the process.  I told her the bus was about to turn and she worked at tugging her foot free.  After she got to the bus stop she realized that her boots didn’t match (one was just lining) and her boot was still in the snow.  She managed to rescue it before the bus arrived – just in the nick of time.

 

We usually take the main road to/from school but on the return today we tried something different.  After school we took a route that required 3 transfers.  Outrageous, right?  And yet that route took less than 30 minutes.  Unbelievable!  It took the same amount of time to walk (or should I say trudge rather) as it did to ride.  We were home only an hour after school let out – instead of the 2 ½ it took with the last snowfall that lasted all day.

I actually saw more plows out on the roads last time.  I don’t think the weather issues were as severe on the 3^rd of December as they are today.  Perhaps the closed roads had delayed the bus I’d been waiting for this morning.  

I shoveled the sidewalks and driveway upon my return.  A neighbor assisted with the endless task.  I hope it’s still low enough as to where Roland can get in the driveway.

 

There’s a Pink Monster Near My Parking Spot!

            Regardless of what else she may say, Jenna’s favorite season is winter.  Okay, she has admitted to not liking being cold.  But she’s got to admit that she LOVES the snow. Since she was little she has been magnetized to it.  Loves climbing snow drifts, making snow angels, throwing snow, eating icicles, drawing in the snow with icicles.  Jenna LOVES the snow!

           We lived only five minutes away from her first school.  But we left the house at least twenty minutes early to give her time to dawdle.  The return home ALWAYS took twice as long.  But especially when there was snow.  Not a lot has changed in six years – except the school and transportation.  The other day she hit every snowdrift between the school and bus stop – and may have done it yesterday as well, but she forgot she said that she’d be helping out after school, and so I didn’t even meet with her until an hour after school got out.

            Morning brings the same thing.  Today the driver of the red pick up patiently waited as Jenna played in the drift next to the spot where she wanted to park.

Weekend memory lapse and lack of responsibility

 Jenna’s room was not the neatest we lived in our first house but at least she did know where things were for the most part.  Over in West Valley I think she’s become less responsible with every passing year.  Puberty has certainly not made things easier.  She flies off the handle at every little suggestion.

 I’ve been working on getting her to accept responsibility. Pick up after herself.  Get ready on time. I’ve used rewards.  I’ve taken away privileges.  I’ve been nice.  I’ve been ornery.  Nothing has seemed to work.

Roland worked only half a day on Friday and thus just happened to pick us up after Jenna got out of school. Afterwards we ran errands and went shopping and did not return to the house until after 6:00.

Before Jenna exited the car I told her to be sure and grab her backpack.  I specifically remember telling her to get it now so that it wasn’t left in the car when dad went to work on Monday.  Of course almost every child thinks he or she knows better than the parent and Jenna is no exception.  She said she would get it later.

On Saturday before Roland went to work, I told Jenna that she should grab her backpack.  I told her that she could use it to tote the origami Santas she wanted to pass out.  Of course she didn’t.

Yesterday I told her to bring me one of her papers so that I could mark it off.  She didn’t.  If she had she would have eventually looked in the car for her backpack – which by then I had also forgotten about. 

This morning it felt wrong to say, “I told you so” when she was already crying as she scrambled to find her backpack and reminded herself of where it was.  I did my best to comfort her.  I tried to do my best.  Perhaps it wasn’t my best.  I was thinking that she should have listened to me.  I was thinking, “I hope this will help her to learn”

I have my own issues though.  After closing the door I realized that I’d forgotten my cell phone.  We didn’t have time for me to get it – especially since I had also forgotten my keys.  How could I have forgotten my keys?  Hadn’t I trained myself to return it to my backpack the minute I came home from church?  Apparently not.

We do get to the bus stop at approximately the same time each day.  Sometimes the bus is early we have missed our regular bus at least three times now.  We have been fortunate enough to catch the other route – which will run on the south side only after December 8^th.

After the 8^th the route we like to take will run every 15 minutes – which is a lot better than every 30. I don’t know if that will make a difference on how soon she gets ready.  I’m hoping she will make a better effort to be ready on time.

I hope that both of us will be prepared with all things necessary.  The biggest one would be prayer – which I suspect we’ll have to start just a little earlier.

Design by Jenna

            My daughter LOVES arts and crafts.  In school she made a paper mask of a female skull.  She is quite proud of it and so wanted me to have my own skull, which she tried to make identical to her own.

            She decided that when we boarded the bus this morning, we would hold up our masks over our faces.  She made up lyrics on the way to the bus stop and sung them to the tune “Carol of the Bells”

            She made me learn her song before the bus came so that we could sing the song before we held up our masks.  I learned the song but told her that we would not be able to sing its entirety before boarding the bus.  And so she sung only the last line as we held up our masks.  Our bus driver laughed.

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            Found here and there

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            Both have yellow hair

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            Both wear a flower

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            Together we have power

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            Each wearing braces

            Twin Skeletons, Twin Skeletons

            We have skulls for faces

Okay, maybe it’s not exact, and the tune did change a bit as she sang.  But you get the jest.

            I love my daughter’s enthusiasm.

Look What I Made!

Jenna’s favorite princess, without a doubt, is Brave’s Merida.  Each November first she has announced what her costume will be for Halloween for the following year and each year she changes her mind – though there seem to be fewer changes. 

I know better than to plan her costume before October – although with the last two years she has only changed her mind two or three times compared to the initial eight (life was just so much easier when I was the one picking out costumes for her)

In November of 2010 she announced that she would be Big Baby from Toy Story 3.  Really?  After nine months I decided that maybe she really was going to go through with it and started looking for something she could use – though having my then seven year old running around the neighborhood in a dirty onesie did not thill me nor did I have a clue how to do her eyes so that she could still use both of hers in order to see.

.  I was grateful when she finally changed her mind and decided she would be Juliet from Gnomeo and Juliette. 

A red dress and white apron from Savers.  I really thought I would find something I could use.  But fortunately she wanted to change it again – this time to Tiger Lily.

Oh, Joy of joys!  I could do an Indian costume for really cheap!  I used two paper bags that I got from Winco and cut the fringe and allowed her to do the decorating.  She thought it the coolest costume ever!

Last year she decided to do something different.  For ten months she sounded serious about going as a teapot.  I had called Joh to get his expertise opinion on how I should do it.  He came up with a great idea.  But she changed her mind again.  She would be Velma from Scooby Doo. 

            I thought it would be less expensive and perhaps better made to purchase items from Savers – though Roland seemed gung-ho about purchaseing a costume from the Halloween store.  I don’t think it was worth the purchase.  The good news is that she can wear it again (at least for the time being)

            But this year she would like to be Merida.  The dress is from Savers, but I made the wig.  My initial thought was to make it out of about 6-8 boas – but I never got beyond the thought as the purchase for the boas themselves was over foty dollars – never mind that I had nothing to fasten the boas to.

I had purchased a pirate cap for a dollar.  I found Fun Fur  at Wal-Mart.  It was even the perfect color – unlike the boas I had found.  I wish I had thought to ask Joh if he would make time to make one, or if he had any suggestions for me – but I can honestly say that I did indeed make the wig all by myself adding one to three strands of hair at a time..  And it was for under ten dollars.

No, it is not true that I had done it all by myself..  Jenna occasionally helped to cut strands or thread the needle.    I think for the most part the work is pretty sloppy and the wig itself is obviously amature(as I really did have a hard time seeing what I was doing).  But Jenna is very excited about it.  And that is what counts.

I’ll push for another teapot again for next year.  Now that I have done the wig, perhaps I am ready for the teapot. I may miss another week or more of posting as I struggle to thread the needle and try to make it work.