Blair-isms, 4.5 years

"I'm having a bad think"
It's bed time, and I'm a little scared and thinking of things that will make me have bad dreams.

"Right, mama?"
She has to run EVERYTHING by me ... no matter who has told her something, she asks me if they were right. This may or may not be driving my dear hubby crazy since he never hears "right, Daddy?" I am cherishing every second, because I know that before I know it, she won't believe that I know ANYTHING at all!

"Be-out"
Without. She has so few original words left, I hate to take away one of her last remaining ones. Here it is in a sentence: "I jumped off the bed be-out any help!"

"Mama, how come we're a family, but we're not the same color?"
A question she posed as she sat in my lap. We both had on shorts, and my poor pale legs just didn't look at all like her nice tan legs. :)

She changes what she wants to be when she grows up daily, but one thing remains constant: the cowgirl. Here are a few of her recent declarations:
- Cowgirl princess
- Cowgirl organizer (after I cleaned and organized her playroom)
- Cowgirl ballerina
- Cowgirl farmer
- Cowgirl doctor (she's into Doc McStuffins right now)
- Cowgirl singer
- Cowgirl fashion girl (aka model)

We've come a long way, baby!

Today was Blair's four year well visit with the pediatrician. When I made the appointment a month ago, the receptionist warned me that there would be no shortage of shots for this visit. She wasn't lying. Five ... count them ... FIVE ... shots today! There were four regular vaccines, and I opted to go ahead and have them give her the flu shot too. Poor thing got three shots in one arm and two in the other. I had to hold her arms and legs to keep her from flailing out of control. After the first shot in the second arm (so the right before the fourth shot), she looked right into my eyes and said:

"PLEASE make them stop!"

At that point, I may or may not have started crying with her. She did great, however, and got two stickers and two lollipops for being such a brave girl. And McDonalds for lunch. And a trip to T*rget to get a prize. (OK ... I was mush in her hands after holding her down for that!)

The great news: our sweet little girlie who weighed 4.7 pounds at birth and wasn't even close to being on the charts for weight or height ... is now in the 75th percentile for height and weight! Go Boog! She grew 2 inches and gained 6.5 pounds since her 3 year well visit.

Her mental capacity was great ... I believe the doctor's exact words were "She's more in line with a 4.5-5 year old - she's a smart one!" They also gave her a vision test, and she has perfect vision. She's gained a lot of flexibility in her left ankle, but we're to continue working on her right ankle. The doctor said that ballet would really help in this arena.

I am so proud of her, and we are so blessed to have such a healthy little girl!

Fair Fun

Last Friday, Brian and I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take Blair to the fair in Perry that afternoon. The weather was perfect, and none of us had ever been to this particular fair. I wasn't sure how Blair would react to all the sights and smells ... the fair can be a teensy bit overwhelming to think about, let alone experience.

She did great! We got there just as the draft horse show was starting, and she loved seeing all the beautiful horses prance around the arena.

Next we had to find a horse that she could actually ride ... from the moment that I picked her up from daycare and told her where we were going, all she could talk about was riding a pony. And, after she finally got that first ride out of her system, I dare say that she would have been as happy as could be if we had just rode the pony for the whole evening!

The petting zoo was next ... this was by far the most impressive petting zoo I'd ever seen. They had a baby giraffe, a miniature zebra, a miniature donkey (my fave), and everything else "mini" that you could imagine ... and some that you probably wouldn't have imagined. Of course Blair was drawn to the petting zoo after getting a glimpse of the tiniest pony I've ever seen. He couldn't have been more than four feet tall and sooo cute! We were supposed to go through and feed all the animals in order, but we had to go straight for the pony first, then throw some bows to make our way back to the beginning so we could feed the other animals. Here she is feeding the very well-mannered giraffe.

After we scarfed down some yummy fair food, she and Brian decided to ride the scrambler. You know, the one that just spins you around in circles really fast? She liked it OK, but Brian was a little green when he stepped off! Then she wanted to ride this ski lift thingy that took you slowly over the whole fair. It seemed harmless enough, even to a mommy who is admittedly horrified of heights. Two feet off the ground, however, and I started freaking. Hands sweating, hyperventilating freaking. So of course Blair caught a glimpse of the terror on my face and decided that she didn't like it either. She screamed bloody murder, and I felt HORRIBLE on top of being horrified. Brian and I finally got her calmed down and she wound up enjoying it ... she even tried to console me several times.

"It's OK mommy. Look at the pretty lights! It's OK."

After what seemed like two hours of imagining my whole family plummeting to the ground, we finally arrived safely on the ground.

We had an apple dumpling with ice cream to celebrate. Blair got really upset that Brian got "yucky" apple stuff on the ice cream and proceeded to melt down. So, we decided that our first trip to the fair had run its course. Naturally, we had to visit the prize winning cows on the way out.

Four?!?

Where in the wold has the time gone? Blair turned four yesterday ... it seems like time keeps going faster and faster with every year that passes. She decided that she wanted to have a cowgirl birthday party with a pony, so that's what she got. Mimi and Papa came for a pre-birthday visit and gave her the cutest little cowgirl outfit ... now she's a cowgirl from head to toe! When I got the camera out to take a picture, she struck a pose and kept right on going. Wonder who she got that from? :)

Next she had to show off her "fishing" skills. She loves to go fishing ... the grass is the water, and the poor, broken Mickey Mouse is the fish. I've got to hand it to her ... she has a heck of a cast and she catches one every single time!

After the photo shoot and fishing adventure, we had a little birthday surprise for her: we went to see the Disney Princess show in Macon. It wasn't Disney on Ice - it was a stage show of Cinderella, Snow White and Beauty and the Beast. It was pretty good, but last year's Disney on Ice was much better. Mimi and Papa came along for the Princess fun, which made it even MORE fun for Blair. I do believe I heard Papa snoring at one point, but that is to be expected from him. :)

Although Blair may beg to differ ... she was so enthralled with the show that she wouldn't even turn away for a second so I could take this picture. Could be that she was tired of me taking pictures by this point.

Sunday was party day. JLOD made her the cutest custom birthday outfit! And here she is again striking the poses ... seriously, I don't know when she decided that she was a supermodel, but she's got the posing DOWN.

We had the sweetest pony named Ima come visit during the party. We had very thoroughly explained to Blair before the party that the pony was coming to visit for the party ... he wasn't coming to live with us. She protested a little, but she understood. To help the kids get a little more comfortable with the pony, we cut up some apples and carrots so that they could feed her. I'm not sure whether they enjoyed actually riding the pony or feeding her more! The pony figured out where the treats were very quickly, and she wanted to stop at that spot during every ride. They spoiled her!

Of course Blair was fearless on the pony. Right when she got on the first time, the horse did one of those shake things where she literally shook her whole body (like she was shaking water off), and that freaked Blair out a little, but she recovered very gracefully and resumed her cowgirl persona.

Next came the cake! We picked it up the day before the party, and she wanted to taste it soooo badly. But she did great and waited until it was officially cake time.

She will not tell us what she wished for. She's gotten it into her head that dreams are like wishes, and if you tell them, they won't come true (sounds like something off a princess song?). So she won't tell us about her dreams anymore either. Little stinker!

We are so incredibly proud of her ... she's so much fun at this age. FULL of personality and still nonstop energy. We go for her four year well visit next week, and I'm anxious to see where she is on the growth chart. At three, she had risen to just above average ... quite far considering she wasn't even close to being on the charts when she was born. Brian will come with us for this doctor visit ... she'll have to get at least 4 shots, and I know I can't do this one alone!

Hard questions, and even harder answers

Before I get into the Blair-related story, I need to give you a little bit of a back story so that the Blair part will make a little more sense.

When I was about four months pregnant with Blair, my dad committed suicide. I miss him terribly, and the thing that I have always hated most from the moment that I found out what happened is that he never got the chance to meet Blair. I spoke to him on the phone four days before it happened, and we were talking about the fact that Brian and I had an appointment in a couple of weeks to find out the sex of our baby. My dad said that I should just cancel the appointment, because he just knew that we were going to have a boy, and that he would have the famous "Cornelison ears." (If you know me, you know that I myself was blessed with the Cornelison ears ... which are basically HUGE ears that stick out). I just laughed and said we'd see soon enough. Four days later, I learned that he'd taken his own life with a single gunshot wound to the head (sorry to be graphic, but it is relevant to the Blair-part of the story). While I'll never agree with his decision, I'm slowly letting go of the anger and coming to accept his decision. My dad was such a good man ... he had one of the best hearts you've ever known. But, again, as much as I miss him, I am so disappointed that he never held or saw Blair.

Blair has been pretty curious about my dad for the past year ... maybe a little longer. She started by asking who my daddy is and where he is. I just explained that he went to Heaven to be with Jesus before she was born. She seemed to accept that readily enough for a while, which was a good thing because I certainly didn't want to get into an in depth explanation with her. She doesn't need to know about suicide right now.

Then, about 5-6 months ago, as we were getting ready for work and daycare, she asked me who "shooted" my daddy. Again, I've never gone beyond telling her that he's just in heaven with Jesus. I just looked at her and said "I don't know" - she caught me WAY off guard and I didn't have a clue how else to respond. A couple of days later, she asked me if he had a booboo on his head. And again, I said "I don't know" and quickly changed the subject.

Blair went to stay with my mom in Florida last month, and Brian and I joined them for a few days when it was time for us to pick her up. At dinner one night, my mom, step dad, Brian and I were talking about whether ghosts might be real. I've never believed in them, because if I allow my imagination to go in that direction, I'll never sleep again. Plus, I've always been content to believe that you either go to Heaven or hell when you die ... I like the simplicity of it. Mom and Richard had recently read the book "Heaven is Real" which was penned by a little boy who had a very close encounter with death and came back with some amazing stories to tell his family. I mentioned Blair's recent questions about my dad to them during the conversation, and mom said that Blair had asked her earlier in the week who had "shooted" mommy's dada. She suggested that if she ever asked anything like that again, that we should try to keep our composure and ask why she's asking ... how did she know that he was shot, etc.

Sooo .... we went to Shellman Bluff with some friends over the Labor Day weekend and had a blast. One morning, as we were waiting for the boys to get back from fishing so that we could all go to the beach, Blair asked me why my dad "shooted himself in the head?" After I picked my mouth up off the dock, I said: "Well honey, I'm not sure why. But I wonder how you know that he did that?" She didn't miss a beat with her response ... just as matter-of-factly as you please, said:

"Because I saw through the window in your tummy."

I relayed this whole thing to Brian, and he was pretty blown away too. His question: "How do you explain that?" My response: "I don't think that you can."

Easter, sleeping, puppies and swings

Wow ... over a month since my last post! Sorry! We've been busy.

Easter was a blast! Blair had egg hunts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday ... so she was a little bit "over" hunting eggs by Sunday.

And candy - boy howdy. She got more candy for Easter than she did for Halloween! I threw out all of the leftover Halloween, Christmas and Valentines Day candy before we added the Easter candy to the mix, and even after throwing out half of the Easter candy, her candy stash runneth over. I was a little wary of getting to in depth on the Easter story with her this year ... how do you tell her about Jesus rising from the dead, then explain why people she knows who have died won't rise from the dead? We did talk about it, and said a special Easter prayer to thank Jesus for dying on the cross so that we can spend eternity in heaven with him, and she did OK with that. I'm thinking that she'll be able to grasp it better next year.

She has been doing a GREAT job sleeping all night in her big girl bed! I had to up the bribes from candy to "big surprises" when she slept all night in her big girl bed for three nights in a row. We then stretched it to five nights, then seven, and now we're on two weeks. I heart bribery and will continue to use it shamelessly! I am SOOO proud of her ... and I had forgotten how wonderful it felt to get a good night of sleep! When she hit seven nights of sleep in a row, she got to go to Build-A-Bear. She made a cute puppy dog, which she named Miss Syler. No idea where that name came from, but she has been known to come up with some doozies. Usually they sound like Indian names, so Miss Syler is actually pretty tame by her standards.

The big news around our house is that our beloved Daisy is MIA. She's been gone for over a week now, and I'm fairly certain that she isn't coming home. Daisy would have been 14 in a couple of weeks, and basset hounds typically live for 10-12 years. She's had a long, good life, but I miss her terribly. I got Daisy when she was 6 weeks old, so she's been with me through so much ... deaths, heartaches, weddings, births, and everything in between. Her sweet face made me smile no matter how tough my day had been, and she always loved me unconditionally. She was such a sweet girl, and so full of life and personality. Blair misses her too ... she keeps asking if Daisy has come home yet. I'm not quite sure what to say at this point.

Oh, and Blair finally got to play on her swing set! You know, the one that Santa brought? :) We had a lot of work to do on the yard before we put it up, and she was very patient. At first we kept telling her that we would put it up when the weather got warm. Of course on the first warm day, she expected us to build it. So then we explained that we had to get the yard fixed for her first. Anyway, she was overwhelmed when we got home from school yesterday and saw that Brian had put it up for her. I'm not sure whether she had more fun actually swinging and sliding on it herself, or pretending to help her Care Bears swing and slide. I could just eat her up sometimes!

Princess kisses

Why didn't anyone warn me that awkward child situations could arise as early as age 3? Why?

Let me explain. We do all sorts of kisses at our house ... butterfly kisses, fish kisses, Eskimo kisses, etc. So I wasn't really shocked when Blair told me that she wanted to give me a princess kiss.

At first it looked like she was going in for a fish kiss ... you know, by sucking in your cheeks and making fish lips? But then, she tilted her head a little. I got a tad bit uneasy then, but continued to play along because after all - she's three and none of you warned me that this may happen this early. So she's giving me a kiss on the mouth with her head tilted a little bit, and SHE LINGERED. There was no moving of the head, no parting of the lips, but there was a LINGER.

I was speechless, grossed out and horrified. I literally did not know what to say, so I said nothing at all. There was still a chance that I had imagined the whole thing, or that I had simply over-reacted. So later that day, I suggested that she give her Dada a princess kiss so that I could see if he thought the same thing that I did.

Sure enough, he backed up and very quickly said that he did not like the princess kiss. She was fine and there have been no more "instances." Until this morning when she told me she wanted to give me a princess kiss.

How do I handle this? I didn't want her to think that she'd done anything wrong, or that there was anything wrong with princess kisses. After all ... all princess movies do involve a princess kiss or two. So, I did the only thing I knew to do: I told her that she needed to save her princess kisses for her prince, and that when she GREW UP and GOT MARRIED to her prince, she could give him all of her saved up princess kisses. I explained that she didn't need to give anyone else princess kisses, only her prince, whom she would meet around the time she's 30 or 40. :)

She was fine, and is now very excited about getting married. Not sure if I solved a problem, or if I just created a whole new one.