A Quick Gwennie Story...

When you are 3 ("3 and 1/2, and ALMOST 4") like Gwennie is, Halloween is a big deal. She loves nothing more than to debate what she is going to be, and to decide Darcy's Halloween fate for her. Gwen has never been anything "pretty" for Halloween. She has been a skunk, a duck and then last year she decided out of the blue that she had to be a dragon. Every single girl in her daycare class was a princess/ballerina (I am not kidding, every one) and Gwen showed up in a huge dragon costume that roared. Gwen recently announced that she wanted to be a "Bear. Or a Wolf or a Fox" for Halloween. When we reminded her of all the princesses last year and asked if she would care if the other girls were princesses, she replied "No. I don't want to be a princess. I just want to be something that eats people." Then later she expanded her criteria to be anything with a tail.

So the other day a "Costume Express" catalog showed up and Gwen's life has not been the same since. She takes it in the car with her, in her backpack to preschool "so that all the kids can look at it and decide what they want to be" and the latest? She wants the catalog read to her as a bedtime story. This catalog has been taped back together (lovingly, by her) and errant pages have been stapled back in. So the other night, Lance was reading to her, and I walked downstairs to hear (and imagine this in Lance's very best bedtime story voice...)

Hear your lion cub RRRRRRRROAR! It's fun to be king of the jungle in this shaggy
hood and faux fur jumpsuit.
Polyester, acrylic
Imported
Kid's 2
piece set
6-18Months
2-4T (to which Gwen joyfully exclaims "4T!!!! It
comes in my size!!!!!")

And then he moves on to describe the "Country Singer" or the "Woodland Fairy", etc.

And that has been our bedtime routine now the past few nights.

A Quick Darcy Story...

Darcy is suddenly talking up a storm - I love it! She is like a new girl! She tends to say a lot of words with a "B" instead of whatever it is supposed to start with, which cracks us up. So, here are her favorite words:
Wipe (she loves to "clean" with a baby wipe) = Bipe
Cup = Bup
Sip = Bip
Chip = also Bip
Cooper (her cousin) = Booper
Please = Bease
And my favorite, Soup = Boup. As in, "Boup!Boup!Boup!" when she sees it. : )

Pursuing the Dream

My friend Sarah Wood from Miami has a blog that she has had since like 2005. You should check it out at: http//sablog123.blogspot.com. (By the way, if someone call tell me how to make that a link, i would appreciate it!)

Anyway, the other day she wrote about needing to make a "life list" about things she wanted to accomplish b/c life just goes by too fast when you are working 8-5, etc.

Anyway, that is really one of the main reasons we took a chance and moved out here. It was something we had always wanted to try, but we could easily see ourselves retiring from P&G and thinking, "wow, what did we accomplish? we should have left years ago". Not that P&G isn't a great company, because it is, and there are great people there which makes it fun. However, it wasn't personally fulfilling to Lance and me.

So this weekend I couldn't help but feel proud to be driving to Denver for my first "Lighting and Portraiture" class at the Denver Darkroom. Everyone knows I really want to get into photography, so I am starting my journey by taking some classes. I am so excited! Despite all the trials that go along with moving to a new town, and a small one at that, it is nice to feel that I am taking the first step into doing what I really want to do.

Plea for Music

So... Another thing I meant to mention in my Welcome to Granby post is that we have no radio stations up here! Actually, that is not entirely true, we do get one pretty good station from Boulder, sporadically, and apparently we are not supposed to get NPR but the signal from Denver happens to bounce perfectly off of a mountain nearby and shoot NPR into our little town on occassion. But the bottom line is, it is not enough, and I am way out of touch on music. Not that I have been super in touch with music since I had Gwen, but I'd like to avoid getting farther behind that I already am...

My sister used to think I was cool and now she thinks I am a total dork... I need help!

So my question for you all is - what are you listening to now???? I have some serious iTunes shopping to do, but I need some guidance. Help!!!!

Exodus

So we've admitted defeat as far as the 1-bedroom living goes. It is not cozy. It is absolute HELL. I'm sick of having our crap everywhere, I'm sick of pulling our bed out of the wall and basically sleeping in the kitchen, I'm sick I'm sick I'm sick I'm sick I'm sick of it. So while lance's parents are out of town, we are staying at their house. A real live house with bedrooms! I can't wait.

I thought I'd start getting our stuff ready to load the car. I made the mistake of mentioning it to Gwen.

Gwen: Immediately digging into her drawers and throwing her stuff, cartoon style, over her shoulder (literally, I am not exaggerating here). "Mom, we are staying there 7 + 7 days, what is 7+ 7?"
Me: 14, but we don't really need to pack 14 days worth of clothes
Gwen: frantically tossing, "1...2....3...."
Me: Gwen, we're bringing our laundry so we only need a few things
Gwen: "7...8...9..."
Me: Gwen, we can come back anytime we want, so we don't need much"
Gwen: "And a belt, just in case"..."And another belt, just in case"
Me: giving up and sitting on Gwen's chair, lifeless
Gwen: having made a huge pile on her floor, moves onto the closet
Me: sigh
Gwen: "And I need this easter dress, just in case we need to dress up"
Me: Gwen, we aren't going to dress up, I promise
Gwen: "And this winter sweater, and these fleece pants, and a vest, just in case it gets cold"
me: Gwen, it is not going to turn into winter while we are there, I promise
Gwen, exasperated with me now: "Mom, we need these in case it gets cold for RE-AL!!!!!" (with 2 syllables)
me: leaves the room, completely giving up
Gwen: enters the room, "MOM. DON'T WORRY. I am not really packing all of these things. I am getting them all out so I can look at ALL of them and choose which ones I want to bring."

Great...

Gwen's First Day Preschool!! Sniff, Sniff

Today my baby started preschool! She was so excited last night she couldn't wait to go to bed, but then she couldn't sleep! At dinner she said, "I'm so sleepy I think I need to go get in bed right now. And then when I wake up I can go to preschool!".

I thought her outfit for today was hilarious! I bought her the brown shoes before we moved and told her she could wear them to preschool, and then somehow she got the idea that she needed tights to wear with them. So I bought her some tights, which of course led to her needing a skirt. Anyway, we came home from school shopping yesterday with some new clothes and Gwen disappeared into her bedroom. Next thing I know, she has her entire outfit for today laid out on the floor, including her backpack laying under her shirt, her undies laid out under her tights, her pillow (she needed a little pillow for school) laid out at the top of her shirt, and her hat laying on top of her pillow! It was hilarious.

So today she woke up early and got out of bed and went potty before I even knew she was awake. Then she got herself all dressed (with a little help on the tights) and came out of her room READY! Here is our first glimpse of her. We couldn't stop laughing.

Here is Gwen in her classroom. As soon as she got there she sat down at the table and said "Ok Mama, I'm ready to play now." Basically saying, see ya later! Fine by me, I'd rather have that than tears!

Darcy's First Sentence!

Our Darcy girl said her first real sentence yesterday! Her talking is really improving a lot lately, so we are really excited!

She brought a book over to me and said "Read it. Read it. Read it" over and over again (even this alone was HUGE). Lance grabbed the book and said, "Here Darc, I'll read it to you" and then Darcy grabbed the book back and said "Mommy read it." Yea! Not only was it a sentence (kind of), but she also used her first sentence to show her preference for MOMMY!!!! Ha! You have to know that Darcy used to cry when Lance passed her to me. She was completely into Daddy. But Daddy made the mistake of going out of town for a work a few times and BOOM, Mommy is the favorite! Score one for Mommy!