Let's Go Fly a Kite

Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest heights. Let's go fly a kite and send it soaring. Up through the atmosphere, up where the air is clear. Oh let's go, fly a kite! Mary Poppins

Blog Farts

Blog Farts – noun. Def: Crappy ideas that are too short to make a real blog post, but when combined, join forces to make one unified, albeit half assed, post. Definition coined by Jaci.

I'm "borrowing" this idea from my friend Jen.

I need to download the photos from Easter to get all Maggie's Easter pictures in one place. She was in tomboy mode on Easter, so the pretty Easter dress (same one from last year) didn't last long. And I did enjoy her antics in church: though fairly well behaved through the service, she did take one opportunity to show off her Lightning McQueen panties.

We are going camping in Yellowstone in 2 weeks and most people, upon hearing this, either warn us of bears and/or snow and cold. I'm not all that worried about either. We went camping once in March in Virginia and it got pretty frickin' cold -- like below 30. Nala loved it. Rocky got us some 20 degree sleeping bags, so bring it on!

I really like going to the drive-in and I think this weekend we'll make our first trip of the summer. "Monsters Vs. Aliens" is playing and Maggie has already asked for this movie (darn commercials). It's always a double feature, but we've never stayed for the 2nd movie. I can't think of a time that I've even wanted to, but if I did, I can't imagine I could stay up that late (typically the first show doesn't start until around 9:45/10 p.m. as it stays light quite late here in the middle of summer).

It is looking like we are going to get a Weight Watchers at Work here and I'm exicted. While I've been doing pretty good on the Wii Fit, I think I weigh myself too often on it -- it actually recommends doing the Body Test daily, which at first seems great, until you're doing it and all you do is watch your weigh hover around the same numbers for about 2 weeks. And if you do the test at a different time of day, your weight can really jump. I'm excited about WW at Work because I know a lot of people who have successfully lost weight with WW (my mom did really well on it) and I know it will help me relearn some bad eating habits. Plus, there's the accountability of doing it at work with people you work closely with. I know my co-workers will keep me honest.

Ghosts of Easter Past

A few years ago, I purchased the book "An Easter Carol" based on the Veggie Tales DVD of the same name. A few weeks ago, Maggie pulled it off the book shelf and we have read it a couple of times. It's not too long that she loses interest part way through, but not too short that we read it over and over and over in one sitting. The book is based on "A Christmas Carol," but with a focus on Easter. As I've been working on creating some Easter traditions this weekend (taking Good Friday off, coloring eggs, stuffing plastic eggs with candy), I thought I would revisit MY Easters past.

As a child, Easter was mostly about the candy. We had Easter baskets to find Easter morning and then off to church. If Easter didn't fall too early in the year, we might go to the sunrise service out at Hartford Beach. Sometimes we went to Redfield or Hitchcock for the weekend. I kind of liked going to church on Easter Sunday because the hymns were always joyful and fun to sing. Hymns are still the reason I like going to church and one of the reasons why I don't like attending the mega-church just down the road from us.

When I was out on my own and joined a big church choir, I began to understand the other parts of Holy Week and, well, not really enjoy, but understand and get something out of the other services. Easter Sunday was several large services held in an auditorium, to hold all the extra people who showed up on Easter Sunday.

Now, with a little girl, it seems Easter has come full circle and is now, once again, all about the candy. And that's okay. I know as she grows, we will teach her the true meaning of Easter and why we celebrate.

Easter 2006

Easter 2007

Easter 2008

Maggie embraces her feminine side

Maggie loves being a girl. She loves to play with make-up and decorate whatever faces (which includes eyes, lips, cheeks and noses), feet and hands. She loves to have me paint her fingernails -- which unfortunately does nothing to curb her biting her nails.

I found a cheerleader costume that Aunt Tammy had sent (which Rocky had sent to 2 nieces when he attended the University of Memphis). She found some pon-poms and went to town. I'm not sure where she has seen cheerleaders before, but she seemed to know exactly what to do.

Then, last week, she received an invitation to a Princess themed birthday party. She carried the card around all week and talked about going to Madison's party at Chuck E Cheese where she would dress up like Snow White. She was sick Thursday and Friday, so rather than taking her out to pick out a costume, Rocky stopped by Wal-Mart and found something better than a Snow White outfit: he found a box with lots of different princess outfits. Maggie was thrilled! She pulled everything out and tried on the purple outfit first. She really loves the shoes.

She had a lot of fun at the party. She climbed through the tunnel with Madison and played lots of games. She didn't really seem to care when Chuck E Cheese showed up, but enjoyed playing with the friends who were there from day care.

Kiddie Lit

As a life long reader, one of the things I have looked forward to is sharing some of my favorite books with my children. Having a daughter, I am really looking forward to sharing the "Little House" series. Of course, at 3 1/2, she's not quite ready to listen to a chapter book so we share other books. Some I remember and some I don't. One thing that has really surprised me lately, though, is the number of really good new books out there that Maggie has introduced me to. We have developed a routine when I drop her off at daycare that includes reading a story. If certain friends are there, they have learned to run over and listen to the story as well. Maggie gets to pick out the story (within reason -- there is a Richard Scary Word book in the pile and I don't like to read that as it is mostly word recognition with no story). At home the classics make their rotation in her favorites, but the list below are the regulars at daycare. I love them because the stories are cute, typically have an easy moral, and are easy for Maggie to "help" me read.

No David This one joined the rotation today and I just LOVED it. Little David is constantly told No, Don't, Stop, Get Back Here, but in the end gets a big hug and I love you from Mom. The drawings are somewhat crude and I think David is a little scary looking, but Maggie loved it and really "read" it to me.
Don't Be Silly, Mrs. Millie Mrs Millie is so silly she gets her words mixed up. She asks the children to stand in the lion, wash with soap and walrus, get out their paper and penguins. Maggie just loves to say "Don't be Silly Mrs. Millie. I don't write with a penguin. I write with a pencil!" The story is easy for Maggie to remember, so it's fun to talk about at supper as well.
Silly Sally Silly Sally goes to town walking backwards upside down and meets animals doing crazy things along the way. This is a short book that has a lot of different rhymes. Maggie loves silly things right now, so she giggles through the whole story.
Hiccupotomus Poor hippopotamus! He has the hiccups. Maggie loves to pretend she has the hiccups with the hippo and loves the silly rhymes! "There was a hippopotamus who hiccuped quite a lot-amus!"
Hippo-not-amus Portly is a little hippo who doesn't want to be a hippo anymore and takes on favorite features from different animals along the way. What exactly does a hippo-gir-ele-bat-onoceros eat? This story is a little longer and doesn't rhyme, but it has a nice rhythm that Maggie enjoys.

First one at daycare

Below is an IM conversation between Rocky and me after he dropped off Maggie at daycare this morning:

Rocky Dailey says: another little girl got there a few minutes after us,
and Maggie was afraid she would go in before us
Wendy Dailey says: I think she likes being the first one there.
Rocky Dailey says: I convinced her they could walk in together, so they held hands and walked in once they opened the door