She's got the fever

The KU basketball fever, that is. One night last week Grace declared that she's going to be a Jayhawk basketball player when she grows up. With that announcement, she rushed off to her room and came out looking like this:

I may have been a little proud.

What, you didn't know gliders double as basketball hoops?

Here's Hubby as KU's newest recruit. Shame on him for forgetting to suit up. He passes the ball to Grace and....

Alley-oop! The crowd goes wild!  

Surprises

I am no photographer, but I am a photo junkie. When there's something I think I might want to remember I'll snap a picture of it. Digital cameras are wonderful inventions, especially for us crazy sentimental types who don't want to forget anything. What were things like back when you had to buy film and only had a very limited number of shots to take? I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure people cried a lot more in those days.

Sometimes I find things around the house Grace has done that I can't help but smile at. Silly little things that only a small child would do, and things that I don't want to forget. They're only tiny pieces of her childhood, but I want to hold on to them anyway. So I take pictures. It's fun to look back on the some of the things her young imagination led her to do. I suppose I am a bit of a memory hoarder. Oh well.

Sometimes these little surprises make me proud.

But usually they just make me laugh.

Elmo got hungry.

Off to find Giraffe a neck brace.

Barbie Boot Camp

"I haven't seen my shoes in months, have you?"

Baby taking a bath with her bath toys.

No, the girl isn't obsessed with clothes at all.

Sometimes I'm not very happy about the things I find.

But at least I don't find things like this anymore:

Trust me, I have come across much worse things than what was in these last two pictures. But in those cases I was too busy with my tears and [insert your pick of cleaning supply] to take pictures.  

And of course, sometimes Grace is actually part of the surprise. 

Hope you come across something unexpected that makes you smile today! 

Death of the LeapPad

Last Thursday morning I experienced what was quite possibly the worst thing I've had to deal with thus far in my parenting adventure. The heartache of my child. It was horrible. Horrible.

So as I've written before, Grace has a LeapPad that she absolutely loves. The only thing she's ever loved more than it is her old friend Giraffe whom she was given minutes after her birth.

Believe it or not, this is when he looked good.

Anyway, Thursday morning at 7 a.m. Grace came running into our room in hysterics saying that her LeapPad wouldn't work. I was barely awake and didn't think anything about it until she handed it to me and to my horror, I saw that the screen was broken. Very broken.

I pulled her onto the bed and Hubby and I gave her the bad news. We tried to be gentle about it as we explained that it was broken forever, and that she couldn't play with it anymore. Then we watched as she felt grief for the first time. Her face scrunched up and the tears started to flow. She sobbed and sobbed and insisted that no, it wasn't broken. Straight up denial. So then I was sobbing and sobbing. I was so sad for her.

Through my tears I pressed on, explaining that I was so sorry but the screen was broken and so it couldn't work anymore. She finally understood and got even sadder. I didn't take a picture at the time (of course) but this is kind of what she looked like:

Only worse.

She was bawling saying things like, "but I want to feed my dog!" and "I can't watch my singing video anymore??" And then she said the worst thing she has ever said. She looked me right in the eyes, still sobbing, and asked, "Are you going to throw it in the trash???"

Oh God help me. What was I supposed to say to that?

So then I became an even bigger blubbering mess. I am convinced that there is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain. This is just about a toy, I know. But she's only four and at this stage in her life a busted favorite toy is a huge deal. If I was this sad for her over a broken toy, what am I going to do when she walks through the door with a broken heart?

Suddenly she stopped crying and looked at me with deep concern. She said, "don't cry Mommy, it's okay Mommy! Some music will make you feel better!" Then she rushed out of the room and came back with her little toy computer you can play music with and proceeded to give me a little concert.

What a great kid.

Later that day I went out and bought her a new one. Seriously, how could I not? If it would've been any other toy we either wouldn't have replaced it or she would've had to wait a while. But she loves this thing so much and her little heart was completely devastated. You should've seen the way her face lit up when I gave her the new one. She was a happy girl. She looked more like this (my own kid this time):

And this is what I like to see.

Back to craft night...

Here is the yarn Christmas tree I made at last night's craft night. It was fun and easy to make and it actually turned out pretty good too. I still think I should keep away from paint for a while though. One step at a time, folks!

One of my craft night friends was making owl stones last night. They were so cute that I had to have one for myself, so she made one for me. I'm over the moon for this little guy and have named him Oliver. This is surely the cutest thing you've seen all day, so you're welcome. 

Hope you're having a great weekend! 

Clumsy and crafting

I'm excited for tonight. Not only because it's Friday but because I'm getting together with some friends for a craft night. This is something I never thought I'd want to do because, you see, I am a total klutz with crafts. I never know what I'm doing. Put a paint brush in my hand and watch me squirm. I was always the kid in school who spilled glue, used too much paint, cut the wrong things, and just generally screwed up every art project we ever did. You could always tell which project on the wall was mine. It was the sticky, gloppy, crooked mess in the middle of the pretty, properly done ones. Maybe some of that clumsiness has worn off since elementary school, but that's a pretty big maybe. It was really bad!

Tonight will actually be our second craft night. My friends know I'm not crafty and asked me to join them anyway. Makes a girl feel pretty good! I chose to start off with the most simple thing I could find. All I had to do was put strips of masking tape on a jar, paint it with shoe polish and cover it with Mod Podge. I figured even I couldn't screw that up. I had to buy some Fast Orange to get the shoe polish out of my fingers, but other than that I did okay. I'm too lazy to take a picture of mine, but if you're interested in what I'm talking about, it's right here on The Craft Floozy.

Tonight I'm trying something a little harder - a yarn Christmas tree I found on Pretty Ditty.

First grade Krisi, back off.

I'll post a picture of my tree tomorrow. It may turn out to be an ugly tangled mass of yarn and "berries" but we'll see. Luckily I have friends who won't laugh at me if it does. At least not out loud. ;)

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore....oh wait.

Happy (late) Halloween! Grace had her whole heart and soul set on dressing up as Dor-uh-fee (Dorothy) again this year, so that was that. I guess the girl just knows what she likes!

I looked back on last year's Halloween pictures and can't believe how much she's grown since then. She says she's going to be Dor-uh-fee when she grows up, so this little blue gingham dress won't be going to Goodwill anytime soon. I have a sneaking suspicion I may need to hang on to it for next year! 

Grace as Dorothy, 2011

Grace as Dorothy, 2010

Trick or treating in 2011. Lucky girl got some cotton candy!

Dorothy and Toto are serious trick or treaters. (2010)