Ready for Round-up!

Kindergarten roundup is this Friday. Meg is so excited and ready to go to school, and I'm excited to see her go, but yet a little sad too. I can't believe how quickly 5 years has gone. I know I already posted about that so I won't continue. It's just that I just picture her in 5 more short years and she'll be a 10 year old! YIKES! Those are the age kids I'm looking forward to getting away from after next year. HA! I'm sure she'll stay as sweet as ever though, right???

Anyways, back to round-up... I know they do a screener to see what strengths and weaknesses kids have. I discovered another "strength" of hers this morning. We were in the kitchen getting ready to leave this morning and I hear her singing letters in what I thought was a random order. I was in the process of packing my lunch and it was still dark outside since school starts at the crack of dawn, so I wasn't fully paying attention. She kept doing it and I finally told her that she was being silly and she better not sing those crazy ABC's for Mrs. Stevens on Friday. She looks up at me and tells me that they are not crazy ABC's, but that she was singing the alphabet backwards. I didn't believe her so I told her to sing it again....sure enough she knows the freaking alphabet backwards! I even had her do it a second time so I was certain. She said she heard it as a song at school the other day and just learned it. Man! I wish I had half the memory she did. I'm still convinced that while I was carrying her she sucked all my memory out of me! Here's proof of little-miss-know-it-all new talent...

So my daughter....

We just finished up dinner a little while ago. I asked Meg at the end if she had had enough. Here's her response word for word- "Uh, no Mommy, I haven't had dessert yet!" HA! What meal is ever complete without dessert...what was I thinking???? Ice cream to the rescue!!!!! =)

What a "Pig" Time It Was!

Meg has been obsessed with pigs for a long time. When she was only two she helped to convince Papaw to get a pet pig after watching Charlotte's Web. It was no surprise to me when she decided upon a pig theme for her party this year. It was the first time in a couple of years that a princess theme wasn't chosen, so I was kinda glad it was different. We found very cute pig plates, cups, napkins a pinata out of a catalog and I had some great help at school create a giant pig for Pin the Tail on the Pig. This is when being a teacher with a creative assitant really pays off! :)

Meg's cousins and friend came over about noon. One friend was unable to make it because she was sick. Meg's big concern with this was that she wasn't going to get her present from her. We've got a little work to do in that area yet.....:/ We ate Pigs in a Blanket, cheese puffs and apples for lunch. Mud Puddles were our dessert (a brownie with some hot fudge in the middle...mmmmm!) Then we painted pig noses and a pot to plant a flower in a little later outside on the deck. (I forgot to tell that the weather was absolutely PERFECT! It was about 70 degrees and completely sunny. I couldn't have asked for better weather!) After that we played Pin the Tail on the Pig where everyone won a book....why wouldn't that be the prize since Meg's mom is a teacher right???? Then we went to the basement to bust the pinata. It was supposed to be a pull string one which didn't work out quite right, but that didn't matter. We eventually busted into it and the girls had just as much fun picking up all the stuff and putting in their bags. I'm sure the little horns were parents' favorites. HA HA! After that, they went back to jump on the trampoline and play on the swingset for a little while to wait for the pig noses to dry. Then, we had a pig snorting contest which was pretty cute. They all planted sunflower seeds to tend to and take home too. It was a fast couple of hours and I think it was lots of fun. Meg was pretty tired afterwards and took a nice long nap.

5 Years!

Meghan's first comment to me when she woke up today was reminding me that she was now 5 for two whole days! I'm wondering how many days she'll keep track of this and remind me about it! :) It's an amazing thing to think back over the past five years. So much has happened in life that some of seems like it was an eternity ago, yet when I think back and remember lying the hospital bed holding my sweet baby girl for the first time, it seems like it was just an instant ago. I remember the feeling of joy and also the fear of thinking I'd have no idea what the "right" way to raise a child was. Being a teacher and a believer that learning as much as you can about things is the best was to prepare, I'd read as much as I possibly could, but I still didn't feel prepared and ready to raise a child. Some how, as everyone said it would, you just know what to do and how to do it. There are so many things I never thought I'd be able to do. I had a fear that I wouldn't know if her cry was because she was hungry or or had a dirty diaper. I knew, instantly. I had this big fear that I'd never be able to give her a "fever kiss" like my mom did and know when she had a fever or was sick. Somehow I do. I had a fear that I had no idea how to get her potty trained. That was pretty easy.

If you know me at all, you know that there were a million other things I worried about, but somehow, it's all worked out ok so far. I still have fears, my most recent one is that I'm never gonna be able to teach her to ride a bike without training wheels. I'm sure soon enough though, she'll be whizzing around everywhere. Five years has passed by so quickly and thinking about all of the changes she's gone through is fascinating. I can only imagine what the future holds for this amazing little person who grows up more and more every day right in front of me. I feel honored to be her mother, even if sometimes I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and don't deserve the title. Not everything can be found in those silly books, you know?

I've got pictures to post from birthday party #1 and from soccer, which finally started tonight in freezing cccccold weather. That's for another night though. As much as I love this little angel, she's destroyed my house the past day with all of her new toys and such. I've got some picking up to do! G'night for now....

Easter Celebration

We had our Easter egg hunt and celebration with the family on Thursday night. It was a great time. Meg got lots of candy, some $$ that will be put in her Disney souvenir fund and some other little toys that she just loves.

role reversal

Meg was all set and ready for bed tonight. We'd picked out books and were just about to read (which is the very last thing in the bedtime routine), when my phone rang. I was getting a soccer update and then had a little chat about some other stuff that maybe wasn't so important, but you know....Meg was apparently very ready for bed. She looks up at me and says, "You know Mommy, you need to get off the phone and read these books to me. I'm supposed to be in bed by now!" Ahhhhh...getting parented by your child. What a great feeling. I quickly told my friend that I'd better go, I was worried at that point that I might've gotten grounded or something! :)

Magical Powers Shared!

For a while now, whenever we are sitting at stoplights in the car, I have claimed to have magical powers to Meghan. I yell out Bippity! Boppity! Boo! while watching the other light, just waiting for it to turn red. As soon as I say Boo! our light "magically" turns green. Meg just loves it and thinks it's truly amazing. If Meg wants me to do this when it's too early, it's easy to stall for a few seconds and she's been completely clueless and has truly believed that I have magical powers. (Who wouldn't, as I am pretty special, don't ya think! **wink, wink**)

While sitting at a light yesterday, I decided it was time to spill my secret. We had timed the stop lights in town just right so they were all going to be red (not usually my favorite thing, but I thought I'd make the best of it for the day!) I showed her how to watch for yellow and start the saying. She caught on quickly, but doesn't quite grasp the concept about stop light timers and such, since she is after all 4......well, she'll be 5 in seven days in case you are still counting down with us! ;) Anyways, she now believes she has these powers. We were at a light tonight and she did it. She yelled out afterwards, "It's so cool that I have magical powers too!" Yes, that is a pretty neat thing. Now, as soon as I figure out how make money grow on trees....we'll be set! That secret I will not be sharing with blog readers, you'll just be noticing our ever growing shoe collection and the crumbling retaining wall that will be finally be fixed at my house!

Finally! Something to post!

Let me tell you what a long week this past one was! Meg was with her dad all week and I hardly knew what to do with myself. I will sort of admit that I had kind of looked forward to sleeping in and only worrying about myself and not answering 3,000 (or maybe it's 30,000) questions a day, but after about 2 days, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I was productive and got lots of stuff done......school stuff, master's work, yard work, house work, etc...but I know that my primary role in life is to be a mom and I wouldn't trade answering those questions or getting up at the butt crack of dawn because Ms. Thing's tummy is growling and she needs an egg sandwich at 7:30 AM on Sunday morning for ANYTHING!

Alright...enough of that. We had precisely a day and a half to fit in Spring Break fun and that we did! (WARNING-You may want to go get a cup of coffee and settle in for a long read or skip to the end if your one of those who only gets on here for pictures ;)

Saturday afternoon Mamaw, Papaw and Kate brought Oreo, our bunny, back home from his vacation home. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not, but when the weather turned cold in December we lost his friend Belle to the cold and we quickly shipped him off to the farm to winter in the barn to spare him. Meg's glad to have him back and is excited that she now has two pets to "be responsible for!"

After they left, we primped ourselves (She did waaaay more primping than I did! Ring, bracelet, necklace, lip gloss all at the ripe 'ol age of 4...yikes!) for an evening downtown to go see the Sesame Street Live Show, When Elmo Grows Up. We had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory where Meghan walked right up to the hostess station and announced to them that it was only 10 days until her birthday. (LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!) They seated us in the train, I assume because of her pronouncement, which just thrilled her. She devoured her favorite food of the moment, Fettucini Alfredo, and even ate the Spumoni ice cream for dessert. Then we headed off to the Murat for the show. She at first didn't know if she'd like it or not because "Elmo is for babies" but she ended up thinking it was pretty neat. I had told her the day before that one of her friends Bryce (who's about her age) had seen it and she said that didn't matter because she was taller than him. HA!

Of course she easily talked her way into my bed last night so at 7:30 it was convenient to tell me that her belly was growling and needed an egg sandwich. I held her off for a little while by reminding her that she wanted to play rummy with her animal rummy cards. I outsmarted her on that one because she hopped out of bed, ran and got them and I got to lie in bed an extra 20-30 minutes playing cards before I had to fix the sandwich! =) She's a smart one, but I'm clever too! Papaw called and told us Mamaw wasn't feeling well, so that made our afternoon plans change. We had bruch with Grandpa at O'Charley's.....which included more primping on her part. She did ask to put on makeup which the answer was "No" to. She then made me explain why she couldn't wear makeup when she's getting ready to turn 5 in just 9 days!!!!! You know...that's almost like an adult....so she says. Ahhhhhh.....I can only imagine her as a 13 or 14 year old. I need to become a Mary Kay lady or something!

After brunch, we headed to the mall for our biggest news. SHE GOT HER EARS PIERCED! This is the single most exciting thing in the princess' life yet. She barely even winced when they did it (both ears done simultaneously which is nice!) so I took her by the cookie place afterwards. She had to announce to the cookie lady that she had just had her ears pierced because her birthday is in just 9 days! I also stopped to look at the Saturn vehicles in the middle of the mall area and she told the workers there the same story. Chatty Cathy would talk to the wall if it would listen, especially when she's so excited about something like her upcoming birthday or these earrings. =) We also made a trip to Wal-Mart tonight and she had the whole conversation with the WM checkout lady who made her day by telling her that the earrings she chose made her eyes sparkle. (She also had to tell the lady at WM that her mommy doesn't do a very good job of playing Barbies and proceeded to tell her all the things wrong that I do when I play Barbies.) She had to see a mirror when we got back in the car to see how her eyes sparkle b/c of the earrings. That lady has no idea what her comment meant to Miss Meg!

When we got home we finished up birthday invitations and ate some dinner. I attempted Barbies again, but failed. Does it really matter that Barbie's pants or shirt is on backwards or that her shoes don't match her outfit????? Geez! I need a handbook or something! Oh well....maybe someday my girly girl will want to go outside and shoot baskets, then she'll see that I can do something right! Until then, I'll play Barbies and House and do it all wrong. =)

I nearly forgot! She told me on the funniest thing on the way home. She said that she knew that she and the ear piercing lady "got along immediately (e-me-dat-ly)" because she had let her have that stuffed bear she was holding in the picture to make her happy. She kept trying to say the word, immediately and finally just gave up and said, "You know what I mean Mom!"