"I'm beautiful!"

Rory and Olivia

This is Olivia, Rory's friend. Olivia is now almost 5 months old and Rory is figuring out how to play with someone so little. Rory was nice enough to share her pool with Olivia one hot day this summer, along with Mike and Melissa. And recently, Rory even shared her blanket to let Olivia watch some "Signing Time" with her!

Just hanging around the garden

Yeah, we're just picking tomatoes, checking out the cucumbers, etc. You know, isn't this how everyone dresses to garden??

"I'll be here all week!"

Rory is becoming quite a little musician. Here she is doing a concert for all her friends in the living room.

One Dollar's Worth of Happiness

You know, they say in this economy a dollar won't get you anything. I beg to differ. If you agree, then you have never seen a kid with a one dollar snow cone. It is amazing how much happiness one dollar's worth of shaved ice and neon-glow liquid corn syrup can provide!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

All at once, we are mobile. Last week Grandma surprised Rory by sending her a scooter. Then, we went to Iowa for Fourth of July weekend and someone there asked Rory to take a bike home with her! Wow, this kid is riding in style now. Each night after dinner she isn't sure which to start with.

By the way, if anyone is looking for a scooter for the 2-5 year old set, I can't recommend this one enough. It has 3 wheels and is directed by the kid shifting their weight, rather than steering with their hands. It's AWESOME! It's the Mini Kick Scooter by Micro.


Oh, and for those of you who want to know why she's crying in the last picture, BECAUSE SHE'S THREE! But isn't it just hysterical to see her with the helmet, the tutu, and crying?! Yep, I'm sick.

Fourth of July

We headed to Dubuque for the Fourth of July. It was our first trip up since Christmas. Not everyone may know this, but it's been one heck of a spring for my family. My dad had open heart surgery in April and has been recovering all spring with the help of my mom. And two days before we were coming home for the Fourth, Mom took a fall and shattered her ankle, resulting in 4 hours of reconstructive surgery with pins, plates, etc. So, this weekend was spent visiting Mom in her bed, where she has to stay for at least three weeks with an elevated foot.

Rory didn't injure Mom, though, which is good, and she enjoyed, as always, getting to see Kinsey and Kendall.

Hidden Talent

If anyone knows a show where we can show off this hidden talent of Rory's, you just let us know.
15 seconds

From Jun 23, 2009

House Before and Afters

We are almost there!  The painting is done and we're really excited about it.  Can't wait to get our furniture in and really start to decorate.  So far, here are the before and after pictures. 

House Before After

Big Blue

We finally bought a house!  We're calling her "Big Blue" because... well, you can guess.  Here are some "before" pictures.  The wallpaper is now down, an archway has been cut between two rooms, and the paint is going up on walls as I type (not by me, obviously).  Soon enough, we will have "after" pics to show.

Did I mention that we are not really yard people?  And we bought a house on a half acre?  So, if anyone is bored and hasn't had a chance to cut grass in a while, we've got a thank you and a couple bagels waiting for you.

New House

Garden

We've planted our first garden.  Jason and I went over to the house and planted it one afternoon.  I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to growing some of our own food.  And Rory loves the idea.  Her job is, of course, to water it.  Jason even bought her a new watering can that is extremely girlie, and just her size.  He even got her a garden gnome, to watch over the garden when we aren't there.  Rory has named the garden gnome Big Baby, in honor of a player on her Poppy's favorite team, the Celtics.

Starting a bad habit

Mimi gave Rory the ultimate treat today... she took her to the salon to get her nails painted! Of course, Rory picked out fabulous shades of purple for her fingers and toes. They even painted little flowers on her thumbs and big toes. I don't think I've ever seen her sit so still!

She's gonna be a star!

Rory's school had their annual musical last night. SO cute! The theme was the Seven Continents. Each class performed songs or poems related to a different continent. Rory and the rest of Room 5 had Africa. They performed a song called "Pole Pole", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "Kumbaya". They opened the curtain and there is our little girl, front and center. Here are some pics of her costume.

Hush Little Baby...

Most nights, Rory requests that I sing "Hush Little Baby". At some point, out of sheer boredom, I started to make up new words. The song always starts with "Hush little baby, don't say a word. Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird." It always ends with, "you'll still be the prettiest girl in town." But everything in the middle is up for grabs. The quality of the song from day to day depends solely on my penchant for rhymes that day.

Lately, Rory has decided I'm a jukebox, and she can now make requests of sorts. She comes up with a word or phrase and asks me to work it into the song. She's not challenging me, per se. She just has something on her mind and would like to hear it in the song. However, her requests aren't simple, like "red balloon" or "rainbow kite". This week, a couple of the requests have been "Elmo bus" and "mocking dorn". Try coming up with rhymes for those! And don't forget, the phrase of the song says And if that mocking dorn (insert verb here). Well? What does a mocking dorn do? AND, you have about 3 seconds to come up with an answer before she rolls over and starts throwing more jibberish at you.

Now I think SHE is mocking ME.

ZINGO!

THIS is Rory's obsession. Mike & Melissa got her this game for her birthday (have we thanked you guys yet?) and she has played it roughly 3-4 times/day since she got it. It's like Bingo sort of and is honestly lots of fun. She is a competitive game-player, as I think I've mentioned in a previous post. With this game, she looks at your card and hers to see what images you both have on your card to look for. Then, she talks smack, saying things like, "Mommy, I'm going to get the cat before YOU do!" This picture is from a day when she played with her friends. The thing I love about this is that she actually played for all of them! Almost all of them have yellow tiles on their cards!

Library

Every time we go to the library, Rory has to go to the children's section and find her "friends". She picks a couple stuffed animals (Pooh is her favorite) and reads them stories. Jas finally got a picture of it.

Childhood Fears

What is a three-year-old afraid of? Well, this particular three-year-old has a couple of odd ones:

1) Ladybugs. Yep, ladybugs. No idea why.

2) Hand driers. Public bathrooms are always tricky, because the first question is, "Mommy, do they have hand driers or towels?" If only hand driers, we dry our hands with toilet paper. The noise absolutely freaks her out.

3) Dogs that can move. Or that can make noise. She has become very accustomed to Tasha, who is statue-like.

4) Public toilets flushing. The noise is the primary reason, but she's had one automated toilet flush while she was still on it and that freaked her out.

Family Picture

Rory's latest tub drawing of the whole family, including Mimi and Poppy.

The Tide Has Turned

For three years now, I have been the favorite parent. Not through anything I have done, or any personality feature I have that Jason lacks, but by the sheer magic of being MOMMY. It's a beautiful gift that I think God gives us to make up for everything we have to handle during the baby and toddler years... "Yes, you'll be exhausted and overwhelmed for a few years, but in return, I will make you THE FAVORITE."

The tide has turned.

At bedtime, the evening routine always is that the three of us read books together, then Daddy says goodnight and Mommy stays to rub Rory's back for a few minutes before she goes to sleep. In fact, just two nights ago, Rory started crying when I had the gall to suggest that maybe Daddy stay to rub her back rather than me. And now, just 48 hours later, the tide has turned.

Putting Rory to bed tonight, we read stories as usual. When it was time for Daddy to say goodnight, Rory said she wanted to go with him. And then, in the next 10-15 minutes, I probably heard 30 times in a whiny voice, "But I want to go everywhere Daddy goes!"

Oh, the knife in my heart.

But maybe this means that I'll have an extra 10 minutes every night now. :)

Mommy-Induced Nightmares

It's 8:40pm and I am sitting on the couch listening closely to the monitor, waiting for Rory to cry out. I believe I have inadvertently fed my child a nightmare tonight. At the library yesterday I saw an "Olivia" book she didn't have, so picked it up. I read it to her tonight before bed. In the story, Olivia is looking for her missing toy. She hears a noise, and, on a dark and stormy night, with a candlabra in her hand, she follows the noise to a room. When she opens the door, it shows a huge, scary shadow on the wall that turns out to be an enlarged shadow of Olivia's tiny dog, Perry, who has her toy.

When we finished the book and turned out the light and were laying on her bed, Rory said, "Mommy, that Olivia book scared me a little." She explained that the dog's shadow looked like a dinosaur and scared her. I took out her princess flashlight and showed her how even her tiny hand can look HUGE with lights and shadows. We giggled at her giant hands on the wall. She snuggled back in bed and I rubbed her back for a few minutes. As I left her room she sat up and said, "Mommy, will you please take Olivia back to the library TOMORROW? I think maybe older kids would like that book. But I don't want to read it anymore." She also made me promise to take the book out of her room with me, right away.

I am SO impressed with my kiddo! I'm so impressed that she could tell me that it scared her, and think about WHY she might not like it (her age). Now, I just hope we both get some sleep tonight...

Shrug

Rory is three now and changes constantly. However, we've realized there is one thing that has not changed about her since she was little, and we find it endearing.

Rory shrugs when she's happy.

Not just happy, but delighted. She sees something, she lights up, and her shoulders start bobbing. She doesn't even know it. But that's how we know it's a good moment.

Birthday Portraits

I took Rory to get new pictures! Here's the fancy girl!

The Big 3-0

Big day here. Jason is 30!! A new check-box category on forms. A new demographic. A new decade. My gift to him (with the help of Debbie and Harvey) is a weekend away later this month. We're going to the True False Film Festival in Columbia, MO, where we met. Should be a lot of fun. Debbie and Harvey are keeping Rory. I took this picture early this morning, as a humorous way to summarize this special day. This is Jas, eating his cereal, waiting for the dog to go to the bathroom, in about 20 degree weather. :)

Short-but-sweet sleep

Jason's tired. I'm tired. I've had more coffee in the 10 days than I think I ingested in the previous month. Rory has been dealing with a cold for about a week now, and, contrary to common assumption, she does not get tired when she's sick. She gets HYPER. This means that she can't settle down, has a hard time taking a nap, doesn't listen to instructions well, is pretty needy all day, AND HAS BEEN GETTING UP NO LATER THAN 5:15AM FOR 10 DAYS NOW! Her earliest was 4:15. "Mommy! I'm ready to get up now! I want to read books and play!" AHHHHHHHH!!!!! And because she can't settle down, she can't play well alone like she usually can. So, we are up in the dark starting our days. Hopefully she will feel better soon and this will subside. Alas, here was one moment of sweet sleep a few days ago. Daddy laid down with her for a few minutes, and this is what I found.

Rory's Famous!

I've been meaning to write a post about a very exciting event last month. MO WILLEMS CAME TO THE LIBRARY here in STL. We (along with about 600 other people) got to hear him read 3 books. It really adds to the stories to hear the author read them the way he intended them. Lots of fun! When it was done, it was past Ro's bedtime, so Jason stayed to stand in the giant line and get some books signed. He also brought Mo Willems a couple pictures of Rory in her Halloween costume. Lo and behold, Mo Willems posted them on his own blog! Check it out!

Shower art

Rory is becoming quite an artist. Starting to draw things with shapes, putting faces on, putting body parts in the right places. Here is a spider she drew in the shower a few days ago.

More Birthday Pics

It was definitely Rory's day. We went out for an early bagel for breakfast, then came home and got ready for the party. After her nap, we went to the playground (it was BEAUTIFUL and 65 outside that day) with Grandma, Grandpa and Kendall. Then, to the mall to ride the carousel and out for pizza and ice cream.