Messy Night and more

Tonight was Messy Night for kids under 3 at a park in town. They had finger painting, bubbles, a sprinkler, picture making, shaving cream painting, sand play, and much more that we didn't get to or even see. We took Libby thinking that she'd really like it but she was too tired to enjoy herself much. I wanted to get a picture of her standing in the middle of the sprinkler but she fell and started to cry before I could get the camera ready.


Libby didn't want to play with the shaving cream at the table. She'd rather grab a handful and take it with her.


"Bubbles are over there... I like bubbles."


Libby would rather just put her hands into the bubble soap than try to blow one the bubble wands. If we give her a wand, she tries to eat it anyway.


This picture is from Sunday. Libby and I took a little walk up the street. I thought she was styling with her sunglasses. She likes to walk on the street, although she sometimes will walk up to other people's houses with a very determined attitude. Maybe she wants to be a door-to-door salewoman someday.

TLA

Can I sleep now?

It's been awhile since I've blogged. This was the first week of school for me and I have been exhausted at the end of the day! One night I went to bed at 8:30. The school I work at 4 days of the week does not have A/C so that doesn't really help the tiredness, but the week went pretty good because 3 days this week the kids got to go home early because of the heat... too bad the staff have to stick around and work.

Libby is doing GREAT with her new sitters! If you haven't heard about it, we're taking her to new sitters because her sitter we loved last year decided it wasn't paying her bills and took another job. We were sad but now LOVE these new sitters - they are sisters who have been stay-at-home moms for many years and decided to try their hand at daycare. They are wonderful and they love my Libby - which if you're going to be spending that amount of time with her, I want to feel like you love her like your own. Libby comes home totally messy which tells me that she had a great day exploring and figuring things out on her own.

I'll try to get some pictures this weekend to put up.
TLA

Doors are fun

Today was my last summer day with Libby before work starts. We went by school this morning to pick up some paperwork that I wanted to look at before tomorrow morning. While we were there, Libby did something she LOVES to do - she closed a bunch of doors. One of which was locked and she locked herself into my principal's office while he was not in there. Needless to say, this was a little scary for mom. I had one of the secretaries track down the custodian to open the door all while I'm trying to keep her entertained through the window in the door. I did not want her to go around the office and mess anything up! She got a little scared when the custodian walked up to the door to unlock it though - I think because she doesn't know him.



This is something new she has been doing with her pacifiers. It looks like a gas mask to me.

TLA

Timber... again

Last night we woke up to hear a loud crash. I thought it was in the house but it was actually outside. Here's the view from our front door this morning.


Yes, that's right. More of our Bradford Pear tree fell during a storm last night. It did not hit the house or either car so that's a good thing. It's so badly damaged that we're going to have to take down the whole thing. We are sad. This tree was very big and pretty and we will now have zero trees in our front lawn. We're going to have to start from scratch next spring.


You can't see it in the picture but the tree took out our yard lamppost. So, we'll have to replace that too.


You can see the huge chunk that has been taken out of the tree trunk. That's gotta hurt!


It missed the house by a few feet.

Luckily we have a neighbor who LOVES to play with his chainsaw and is willing to take this down at a minimal cost.

TLA

Mean Daddy

Libby has figured out that she can get sympathy from us for something she is upset that the other one of us did. Last night we were putting her to bed and she was getting her last bit of milk before bedtime. She was taking her dear sweet time as is her newest ploy to stay up late. Mike was very sweetly urging her to drink by saying, "Drink, Libby". She wanted him to drink it and was holding it up for him and saying "gink" which we determined was supposed to mean "drink". Anyway, she became very upset that he wouldn't drink and was trying to get her to drink and got out of his lap walked over to me saying things like "da", "gink", and "Bibby", among other unintelligible words. We think she was complaining about him to me and was trying to get me to take her side. After she got it all off her chest she was happy again.


Libby the Strong - this litter container is actually empty. Notice the little play soda bottle in her right hand. She LOVES this thing and really sucks on it as if she can get something out of it.


Libby thinks it's funny to put her Mr. Potato Head pieces in our mouths but will not put them in her own. Here she is putting a smile into Mike's mouth.

TLA

We're melting

Just as an update, we're very hot here lately. The past week and this upcoming week are predicted to have heat indices over 105 everyday. It's very hard to go out and do much of anything. That leads to another problem if you know me. I get very bad cabin fever when I'm home too much. I try to get out in the morning with Libby but usually getting out in the afternoon is a bit much for her with this heat.

So far this week I've missed 2 videotaping opportunities. The one I wrote about a few days ago with the tantrum and yesterday I missed a very funny one after bathtime. Libby is now wearing ear plugs in the bath because of her tubes and can't hear too well (I imagine, not like she's told me). After the bath I got her out and was trying to get her to sit on her towel like I usually do. She refused and just walked out of the bathroom dripping wet and naked. She walked all around the living room before I was able to catch her to dry her off and get her dressed. All the while I'm calling her name forgetting that she can't hear too well with the plugs.

A big difference we've noticed now that we have a walker is that she seems to follow us around more. We call her our shadow. It seems I can't even turn around without possibly knocking her over. I think she's more underfoot now because when she was crawling she was looking down and was interested in things on the floor. Now that she's walking she can see ahead of her better and knows where we are all the time, so she comes along. It's cute but it's also a little annoying at times, like for example, I think I might be able to use the bathroom or something without her noticing and then here she comes down the hall ready to tear apart the bathroom. Luckily all I have to do is turn off the lights to a room that I want to shut off from her and she will leave it behind so I can close the door. That's a great trick! I wonder when she'll catch on to it.

TLA

Libby's Rug

Last night Libby was playing with her play kitchen and she was pulling on it knocking it into the wall. It seemed like she was trying to pull it over. I told her to stop and moved one of her hands off of the kitchen. I think she thought I was telling her she couldn't play at all though. She stood there with her back to us and her arms at her side and cried! I wish I could have gotten it on video. It was so cute and funny! I felt a little bit bad for laughing at her but she didn't see us doing that. When she turned around we were all business again.

This week we really started to notice that Lib is turning more and more into a toddler and is less an infant. She is walking almost exclusively. She is throwing more and more tantrums. She is eating more grownup food. She has started saying her own name but calls herself "Bibby". We've heard her walking around say "Bibby blah blah blah blah." more than once.


We loved this picture. What you can't see is that she has a snack in her lap while she's watching The Backyardigans. The other thing that we think is pretty funny is that she has some CRAZY hair in this picture but all the time! We joke that she has a bad toupee or comb over or something. It curls in the back but is straight in the front. She also has about 3 cowlicks on the back of her head.


Libby loves spaghetti. When she eats something she likes she says "MMMMM".



TLA

We're Yellow!

With the Simpson's movie out now, it seems that every one and their brother is trying to capitalize on the popularity of the show and of the movie itself. Burger King has put out a website where you can "Simpsonize" yourself. Last evening, we were Simpsonized - thought I'd share those with everyone:

Tricia Simpson


Mike Simpson


Libby Simpson


MK