GoGo Grows Up

My sweet and sassy GoGo turned 8 today.  At 7:03am, to be exact.  She is just as precious as she was that morning - love this girl to pieces.
She received the only thing she really asked for, which is an electric scooter.  I hope that wasn't a mistake.  She had a longer list, of course.  GoGo likes to ask for the Moon and then some.  But she kept coming back to this one thing.
She's getting her ears pierced too, which is a huge deal for me.  I wasn't allowed to do that until like my freshman year in high school or something.  But she's proven to be very responsible with her glasses for  almost a year and a half.  And I take that to mean she's ready to have holes punched in her ears.  Whatever.

This girl is really smart, funny and creative.  I see the most evidence of birth order/gender/nature with this child.  I try to be cognizant of that when I parent her.  She is quick to have an outburst but also quick to apologize and I dig that about her.  It's called being human.

She is a great helper with her little sister.  Of course, they have their moments.  

Sometimes I can hear "POOPYHEAD!" being screamed by one or both of them.

Such is life with siblings.

This girls likes to win.  I mean take someone down kind of win. 

 I think I know where she may get that from.  Tenacity, especially in a girl, is a good thing.

I love those lashes and blond hair.

She is Silly.  And loves to make people laugh.  And she likes to dish some sass sometimes.

She likes her some glam-sparkles, "cute" clothes, etc.  

She is a girly girl who doesn't mind a little dirt sometimes.

She tells me she wants to "do hair" or be a singer.  Sweet Mercy.

But I find her reading books about volcanoes and sharks and playing school more often than not.

I am confident this girl will do great things.

She has a good heart, a great imagination and is very bright.

Love you, Sissy!!

GoGo Makes It

So this is late in coming but GoGo celebrated her First Holy Communion about 2 weeks ago.
It was an incredibly cold and windy day for May-more like November.  Her hair blew out of it's original "style" by the time we even made it into Church.  But her dress was beautiful and she was excited.  Naturally, my big camera's battery died about 2 pictures into the whole thing.  Thank God for the iPhone.

I asked her where she wanted to go for lunch after with the entire family.  Her suggestions?  Five Guys or Chik-fi-La.  Definitely my non-foodie child.
We settled on Brixx.  This allowed my kids to play on the playground after we ate.
So there was GoGo in this beautiful white dress, running around screaming as she froze her behind off.

I pray she never forgets this day or what it really means for her.  Love you!

Masking the Crazy

So the kids made these incredibly sweet Mother's Day cards for me.  It cracks me up the things they sometimes think to include.  Makes you really wonder what's going on in those little minds sometimes…
This is by Squeezalicious…all of the moms were supposed to guess which kid wrote what.  As the teacher was reading Nora's, I totally was not thinking it was me.  Except for the nuggets and fries comment.

Not sure why GoGo's loaded in sideways…this is so sweet.  I almost had to read it in the bathroom to hide the tears streaming.

Or D's…not sure why he thinks I love country music only.  

Must be my thing for Keith Urban's guitar work.  I thanked D for not including the things like I'm terribly crabby without my coffee or that I yell sometimes.  He said, "Yeah, I didn't want to say all that."  Thanks, buddy.

In other news, we continue to treat Kitty as a 4th child.

So Squeezalicious went to a friend's bday party and it was Dinosaur themed.  She scored this purple mask.  It reminds me more of something from He-Man cartoons but she loves it.  In fact, all 3 loved it and fought over it one day in the driveway.   This girl here has been heard singing "Going Potty Like a Dinosaur" while wearing said mask and on the pot.  Memories.

I hope this isn't some elementary school gang sign that I don't recognize.

Shortly after this mask extravaganza, they were playing "family".  This is something that very rarely happens now that D is getting older.  But maybe the mask sharing made them feel all warm and fuzzy inside because before I knew it, they were in the back of hubs' car.  I overheard them assigning names to one another.  Squeezalicious was BISCUIT.  How appropo.  They pretended to drive the the Teeter, Target and school.  Life, in a nutshell.

Our pool opens this weekend - getting our beach towels, sunscreen and pool toys ready!

A Few Firsts

This girl is a trooper.

She and I enjoyed a few firsts together this past Sunday.

*  First Merlefest 

*  First Avett Brothers concert

*  GoGo's first real concert.

Good Stuff.

It rained to beat the band.  

I mean a steady, hard rain.  Temps in the very low 50's.  In the mountains of NC.

Mud galore.  Bog boots, ponchos and layers of clothing.

I know in my heart of hearts that D would never have survived.  Not many would, however.

But the people who did were definitely my kind of people.

Nobody cared how cute their outfit was or the escalating frizz factor of their hair.

There was no alcohol (except for the older gentleman next to us) and no tobacco.  

The buzz was from the music only.  

Real music too-with actual instruments!  That people shredded on!

I was in heaven.  We scored kickass seats that we never had to vacate, thankfully.  Our ponchos kept our behinds fairly dry and GoGo held her new polkadot umbrella.  Alright, then.

GoGo was good for about the first hour and half.  She took videos and danced around a bit in our soggy seats.  Then she was done.  

But guess what?  The whole reason we drove 2 hours in the rain hadn't even taken the stage yet.  

The Avett Brothers.

And so began a 2 hour game of "What Will You Give Me If I Sit Here Another 30 Minutes?"  

And guess who won that?  GoGo = 1.  Mom = 0.

In the end, 2 bags of candy from the gas station were enough to keep her there.

I'm sure the people around us were wondering what kind of mother I was, making my young child stand in chilly, pouring rain to watch a band she had clearly lost interest in.  

As she begged me to leave and as I kept saying, "Just One More Song!"

We started walking back to the car just as they started their encore.

I was a bit bummed about missing one of my fave songs when GoGo grabbed my hand and smiling, said "That was fun, Mom!"

And it was.

Love this girl!!!

Slumber Party

So at 8am on a Sunday morning, who wouldn't want to roller blade, bike and screech through the yard?  I know my 3 would.

This one is getting pretty good on her bike-she apparently can ride and kick her leg at the same time.

Hence, this one yelling for me…"MOM!  D needs you!  N just kicked him in the NUTS!"  And I seriously hope all of my neighbors had enjoyed at least 1 cup of coffee before hearing this.

This one and her recent fascination with all animals - stuffed.  

Her newest pal is Raspberry and they do "evrefing togedder!"

This photo reminds me of John Lennon and Yoko when they were married at Gibraltar in their white suits.  White long johns are not quite the same but they'll do in a pinch.

This guy just started roller blading like, yesterday.  He isn't quite as agile as GoGo but he'll get there.

Something he is quite good at - stilts.  Yes, of the circus variety.  I do not know what possessed his father to order them but he did and they are a big hit with both D and every neighborhood child who comes this way.

Thank God the strawberry plant shows signs of life.  

D thought he killed it, like Charlie Brown did the tree.

This picture just cracks me up.  She looks like she just let a SBD fly and he looks like he is being forced to smell it during Church.

In reality, they were enjoying a fun day at the zoo with oodles of friends.

Yesterday I took GoGo to pick out her First Holy Communion dress.

It gave me a good idea of what prom dress shopping will be like.

We settled on a really beautiful dress complete with a bolero.  Jeez.

At her retreat on Saturday, she seemed a bit scared of going up to the Altar.  

A little bit of fear in this child is not a bad thing.

The finish line is in sight-about 7 weeks left of school.  Thank God.

If we can just keep up with all the end of year events, checks to write, things to donate and tests to take between now and June 7th.  

My kids are super psyched I'm letting them skip the last day of school to take a trip to Texas instead.  How often do you get to visit your best friend in another state AND mommy gets to see Mumford and Sons?  Yep.  Well worth missing cleaning out desks and packing up pencils.

My Wee One

My youngest is…

a singer, sweet, hilarious, stubborn, smart, active, incredibly cute, expressive.  My baby.

She loves to be outside.  She loves to do what her big bro and sister do.

She is a clown.  Big Time.

She cracks the rest of us up.

And her lisp.  Please don't get me started.

Becuthz sthe is sthooo pweshush!  

And yes, I probably should look into speech therapy.  But hey, she's only 3.

Have you met Sammy?  The pink horse on the chair, enjoying peanuts with my little friend?

He used to live in her preschool classroom and take turns going home with her classmates.

But it seems Squeezalicious had a serious thing for this horse.  In fact, I spent a rather insane amount of time and money, attempting to find a Sammy to keep at our house forever.

Well.  Just last week Sammy was "retired" and Blueberry the Bear has taken over.

Guess where Sammy's forever home is?  Right here with Squeezalicous.  

Somebody couldn't be happier.

Did I mention she was adorable?  I could seriously eat her up.

She is growing up so quickly.  Plus, she is off the charts tall so she looks older than she really is.

But she'll always be my baby.

And for that, I am so very thankful.

A Letter to my Sweet D

Dear D,

I.Love.You.  Let's start there, okay?
I am your biggest fan.
Your turned 10 this past Sunday.  You are a decade, dude.  Unbelievable.

I genuninely enjoy the person you're becoming.  The young man I see when I look at you is someone special.  Cue my he was  born on 3/24 at 4:23! line.  You are not perfect, of course.  You are my child, remember.

There was a time, roughly from 3-4.5 years, that I thought I would not survive.
There were days when we were like oil and water, you and I.  You had some clothing issues that led you to only want to wear soccer shorts, short sleeve shirts with the tags cut out and Crocs.  Every day.  Weather be damned.  Being a first time mother who knew nothing, I fought you on this.  And lost.
Your preschool teacher told me to pick my battles better and to let go.  As soon as I did, your stubborn streak broke.  Not that we haven't had other glimpses of that side of you-but I know now to give you space and let you make your own choices.  You are a person who requires space and a bit of unstructured time.  I can appreciate that.

No Napoleon Syndrome for you.  Although it helps you are off the charts tall for your age.
You are sweet and sensitive.  Not in a weak way.  You are certainly capable of dishing it out to your sisters.  I have seen you dish to friends when the situation called for it.  But those exchanges bother you a bit.  It's not in your nature to hurt someone's feelings intentionally.  But if you feel cornered, watch out.  I can appreciate that, also.

You are incredibly creative.  I wish I had more of what you have in that arena.  You are a great artist, writer and conceptual builder.  You can see something in your mind and replicate it on paper or through Legos.  I really dig that about you.

You are like me and can get lost in good fiction for days.  You are reading series books now that even I enjoy reading.  Cool stuff.

You love to be outside.  Building forts, playing flashlight tag, fishing, archery, Nerf wars, shooting hoops, riding bikes.  I love that you appreciate nature so much.  You have a huge heart for animals and remind me so much of my dad sometimes in that way.

I wish I could shrink you back down to 3 again, after having survived another 2 kids.  I would re-do that year and half.  Push less, listen more.  Thankfully, you seem to remember very little of that time.

I am thankful that you have made it to 10.  The Paranoid Patty in me is always worried about your health and safety.  To the extremes, sometimes.  I don't think that apple fell too far from this tree, with you.  You are a lot like me in that any health situation could be cause for a freakout.  Whereas your sister's arm could be hanging by a thread and she would probably tap it to see it swing.  Different strokes, I guess.

You are insanely handsome.  And you don't even know it.  That will change, someday, when some PYT starts chatting you up.  Better hope she gets my blessing.

You are an amazing kid-funny, thoughtful, smart and creative.  You are going to do big things.  The road will not always be without bumps-you have already seen that.  But I have faith in you.  I see the husband, father and man you will become.  And I really dig it.

I adore you!!

Love and happiness always,
Mom

May love and laughter light your days,

and warm your heart and home.

May good and faithful friends be yours, 

wherever you may roam.

May peace and plenty bless your world 

with joy that long endures.

May all life's passing seasons

bring the best to you and yours!