Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Weekend Notes

It was a long weekend here this past week.

 We had rehearsals for Isabel's dance showcase

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Which was held near a common area that has ducks, so we had to go visit them

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Her showcase was on Saturday. We used a ton of hairspray and bobby pins. 

She did very, very good.

 (And I am not saying that because she's my kid and that I'm partial...Matter of fact, that makes me even more critical of her performance).

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No photos or videos allowed during the performance, so will have to wait till the "official" video is released for purchase so we can get ripped off $100 for a copy of it

The rest of the weekend was spent picking weeds flowers...

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And picking paint for her bedroom

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Found a dim sum restaurant in New Haven that I "bravely" ventured out to -- I may have overdone the ordering bit

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We spent a little time in the garden

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Hehehehe....yes, I'm a nerd.

I think the gnome is adorable. And there's nothing like a gnome for an English patch. Fits those Enid Blyton stories.

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We found a "festibal" in the mall's parking lot.

Izzy was excited. And yes, we call it a festival. Because according to Izzy, "A carnival is a festibal, momma." Which I suppose is true, to an extent.

It is scary how quickly $30 goes in a place like this. 
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She's rocking her new shoes that she got that morning. It has almost all her favorite colors (purple, silver and pink. Green is missing)

And the most important thing to note for this weekend...She has decided that she's not going to suck her fingers anymore because she doesn't want her nail polish to disappear.

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I've heard her promise numerous times before that she's "not going to suck (her) fingers ever again!" so I didn't think too much about it. But she really hasn't in the past 4 days. Sometimes, I'll get the occasional request of "Momma, can I suck my fingers for three minutes?" and she'll count "1,2 and 3" then stop (so it's really more like 3 seconds) but she's really refrained from it.

The one thing that is consistent with her -- for all her "momentous" achievements, once she decides she's ready to do something, she does it completely without turning back. It was the same when she learned to walk, for potty training, and now this. She goes from 0 to 100 pretty much overnight.(although she did say this morning that she may suck her fingers again once the nail polish has rubbed off)

She's very, VERY stubborn. We've had a one hour showdown with her crying and screaming and no amount of bribing, threatening, scolding or cajoling convinced her to change her mind.

This was over a pair of pants.

I didn't want to back down either (perhaps I was trying to see what her limit was? Or perhaps I'm also very, VERY stubborn) but in the end, she wore something different from what she wanted, but it was also not the pair that I wanted her to put on.

She is absolutely someone who will stick to her guns for something that she thinks is right. This is the girl who will whine when it's time to leave the park, but 10 seconds later will be bounding ahead of me back to the car, picking flowers along the way. So thankfully, her stubbornness works alongside logic. Else I don't think I'll bring her anywhere.

So I think it is definitely true that a person's character is developed when they are really really young, if it wasn't already present when they were born. Either that, or I am a bigger influence that I could ever comprehend.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

In Remembrance


My grandmother passed away last year. I was unable to be by her side.

One of her loves is her garden. And I promised myself that I will have a garden in memory of her. 


Remember my white picket fence?

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It's time to toss it out and start anew.

After the months of digging through the dirt, I finally have a spot worthy enough for a dedication:

In remembrance of my grandmother and Izzy's great-grandma...
  
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It reminds me of a little English garden -- something about the foxgloves and the brick wall behind it
  

Purple Salvia 

English Garden corner - purple salvia


Foxglove - this one has a tinge of purple, and the other, yellow tones.

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And of course, a hydrangea - this is of the original Endless Summer variety that was planted last year as a trial. It came back this year, much bigger, and there's quite a bit of flowers starting to grow - I am excited. It should have blue flowers, assuming the soil is the same -- the flowers change colors according to the pH of the soil.

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And a little rock grouping - the ornamental stone with "Grandma's Garden" was brought over from my grandmother's garden when my mom came for her visit last year. I believe that I may have been the one who gave it to her -- it looks very familiar.

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The brick wall is not complete -- I have one more trip to make this afternoon.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Sleepyhead


I think....that her right eye is slightly smaller than the left
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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

My mind has been preoccupied with all things creepy crawly for the past 2-3 weeks. I even dream about them. Sometimes, I hate Mother Nature.

Last night, I finally got so sick of it that I refused to do anything house/yard related this weekend. Instead, Izzy and I had a stress-free day goofing around in our favorite store after our morning snack time at Starbucks

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She walked away with sunglasses - I caved.
Sucker.
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AND she claimed MY $2.50 straw bag (always wanted one of those, for some reason)when we got home after crashing a boyscout festival in a nearby town


Her dance showcase is in 2 weeks time

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She did very well at class today (for a 3 year old)

The weather warmed up very nicely today (it was actually quite hot, especially when one sits in the middle of a field for an hour to watch a magic show)

Spring is starting to give way to summer

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Other random Izzy photos:

Monthly grocery shopping at Costco 

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She's really not much of a morning person. So she'll bring her blanket, pillow and babies with her into the bathroom while I get ready. I don't know why she just doesn't stay in bed, where it's infinitely more comfortable than the cold (and cramped) bathroom floor.


Happy mother's day to my mom and all the other pseudo mom-aunts. =)

I got a lovely gift of a liter bottle of diet Coke Lime (which I've already drank half of in the past 5 hours  -- I may not be able to sleep tonight) and candy apple pink hydrangeas from "Isabel".