Family Update

 On to Alyssa. I love her. So much, I love her. But alas, I have a sad story to share about my sweet girl. She's been in gymnastics since January. JANUARY! That's 9 months with next to no problems. We started in Mom and Tots, which was WAY fun. I loved playing with her, helping her learn new tricks, oh my gosh it was fun. She was doing so well in gym, I thought we'd try dance. She went all by her big girl self the first week, no prob. Followed her teacher up to her class, came down after, told me how much fun it was, she danced all week long. Loved it! Three weeks later.... the shiz hit the fan. The girls were all lined up to go up stairs to the studio and this little girl behind Lys decided it would be great to PICK UP ALYSSA AND SWING HER BACK AND FORTH!!! (I could have smacked that little girl AND her mother up side the head.) Now, Alyssa isn't exactly big for her age... or for anyone's age really... so of course it scared the crap right out of her. She freaked, was crying that she wanted to go home, wouldn't go with her class. The next week? Wouldn't go AGAIN. And the NEXT WEEK? Wouldn't go to dance OR to gymnastics. I'm so bummed for her. She LOVED gymnastics. And now she has a complex about being small. My mom took her outside to see the moon and said "Look Alyssa, the moon is HUGE! Isn't it beautiful." Lys looked at her with these big sad eyes and pouty lips and said "No, it not big, it little like Alyssa." Seriously! That just broke my heart when my mom told me that. So now we are trying REALLY HARD to focus on what a big girl she is. I had her stand against the wall and drew a line with how tall she is (which by the way, she has grown an entire inch since June 25th, bringing her to 32 1/2 inches) We look at the molds we have of her hand and foot and see how much she's grown. Some of her summer clothes I've put away WITH her, telling her she can't wear them anymore because she's growing too tall for them. She such a sweet, sweet girl... I hope this passes soon.

On to my hilarious Alyssa. I about wet myself daily with the things that come out of her mouth. Let it be known that my daughter cusses in correct context, and has been doing for a while. Yes, she learned these lovely words from me. Am I proud of that? Not really. Do I find it amusing? Um... yes. :) Most recently she was trying to lift the blade on my paper trimmer. Well it doesn't lift, which she was clearly puzzled by because while she was trying to figure it out she said "What da hell?" Then while she was scrapbooking with me, she dropped her stamp on the floor and said "oh shit" Maybe scrapbooking isn't a good activity for us. Last week she wanted me to bring up her rocking horse. After much discussion and whining (on my part, not wanting to haul it up the stairs) I finally gave in. On my way up with the horse we have this conversation: Alyssa: Oh mommy! You make all my come true! You make all my come true! Me: I make all your come true? All... your... dreams? Alyssa: YES! All my dreams, you make all my dreams come true! It was music to my ears. Lastly, me. Obviously I've been spending some time doing our bathroom. Which I luuuuv. Thus the rest of the house is a disaster. I can't even see the top of our kitchen table, which really isn't that out of the ordinary... I'm really wanting to jump in and do Tim's bathroom now, but I don't think he'll let me, being that it's taken this long to do mine, AND I want to do my kitchen. I think I'm going to finish Alyssa's quilt that I started MONTHS ago before I do any more decorating. Towards the end of August I started watching my nephew, Evan, during the week for my sister. It has been a lot of fun, and not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I've gotten to know his sweet little personality better and have really enjoyed being able to spend this time with him. Alyssa LOVES it. Everyday when she wakes up she wants to see if "Edan" is here. I think it's good for them to have someone to play with everyday, even if they don't think so... That's us, in a freakishly long post. In the next few days I hope to have my house back in order, Mae's pictures done, and a quilt on the table. Wish me luck!