Smiley

Meet Smiley

Smiley lives out on our patio and was given to us by our friend Linda when she moved away from right across the way a year ago.  Zoe has taken on the responsibility of caring for him and she takes her job VERY seriously.  Smiley likes to eat leaves and dirt.  Sometimes he gets cold overnight so she will pile on as many of her coats as will stay on his back before she goes to bed.  Sometimes she informs us that Smiley isn't feeling well and to watch out because there is throw up all over the patio.  The other day she said to me "Mommy, someday when we can have a pet, can we get a giwaffe?"  and after I said "Well, sure..." she said "Remind me."

She's killin' me lately.  She really knows how to push my buttons of course, but her sense of humor is really shining through more than ever before so she has me laughing just as much as she has me wanting to tear my hair out.  She also breaks my heart sometimes, though....it's so hard to realize that we're going to have to watch these two kiddos of ours learn about the hard things in life.  One day while she was falling asleep at bedtime she asked me what I would do if a scary man tried to take her.  While assuring her that I would run after her and get her back, I wondered how she got that thought in her head and I mourned a bit for the little bit of innocence lost and braced myself for the inevitable, gradual and steady loss in years to come.  It hit me smack in the face that Nathan and I are the ones that are going to be there for all of that stuff  and it feels like such a heavy responsibility.  It's a lot of pressure, but I have to say I also feel up to the challenge.  I'm so happy to be able to provide these two little human beings with as much love and support as I can humanly muster. I just hope it's enough....Tonight, while she was trying to recover from something that upset her, we had this conversation:

Zoe: (sobbing)  WAAHHHH MY BODY WAAAAHHHH!!
Me:  What, honey?  Your body?
Zoe: (sobbing)  My body won't stop crying!  Why can't I stop crying?
Me:  It's okay to cry, but you can try taking a big deep breath.
We took a big deep breath together
Me:  You can try and think of something funny to make you laugh.
We made funny faces and made each other giggle
Zoe:  (voice and lip quivering a bit) Mommy?  Sometimes, when gols (girls) cwy, it takes them a little while to feel bettoh.
Me:  Well. I can TOTALLY relate to that.

Here's hoping we're on the right track with all of this stuff!

Zoe and I had a nice time on our patio today...the weather was beautiful again and I went to the store to get some potting soil and flower seeds for her to plant in some empty planters we had laying around.  She picked out the seeds and did everything herself.  After she planted and watered them, I wrote the names of the flowers on her chalkboard and we decided together that we could keep track on the blackboard of how many days it takes until we see something green shoot up.  I'm excited for her--I think she'll love it!

Filling the planters

She decided she wanted to mix all the seeds together

Planting the seeds

Covering the seeds with more soil...

Watering!

My 3 pictures are of the planters we have and she drew "a crazy pot" next to mine

Finally, I wanted to show off the birthday present I got from Nathan.  I'd mentioned to him that I really want to get into mosaic tiling so he surprised me with a class.  One day, he sent me out the door with a 6 pack of Guinness and my friends Gretchen and Jessica were outside waiting for me.  He had arranged for them to go with me so the 3 of us had a lovely, quiet evening working on some tiles.  We had to leave them at the shop to be fired in the kiln and I finally just got to pick mine up the other day.  Here it is!  Thank you so much, Nathan!!  XOXO