Beneath the Wraps

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 thr...

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

            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...

            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 ...

  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 Mo...

            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.        ...

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 fin...