Thanks Quynh for this awesome t-shirt!

She wore it yesterday and insisted in keeping it on to sleep last night too. It was quite a conversation piece.


She's a chip off the old block, ain't she? Dirty t-shirt, worn hand-me-down pajama pants, St. Patrick's Day socks (from last year) and princess shoes....all at 6 a.m.

Gotta Love "Home Days"

I call this photo "Happiness at Sula's Expense"

I cannot believe they have bowling shoes in toddler sizes!

So often, if we were still looking 45 seconds after launch, the ball went right down the middle of the lane. I thought we might have a you tube video if we could catch a strike, but it wasn't meant to be.

Sleeping Beauty...Riding Hood Quiz

Beatrice wraps her head up like this almost every night because:

a) it keeps her head warm

b) she feels safe and snug under her precious blanket, which she has decided she will "marry"

c)she wants to emulate her beloved Muslim girl cousins who cover their heads;

d)she wants to look more like the nuns she is fascinated by in church;

e)It muffles the sounds of Daddy's snoring and protects her ears

f) all of the above

Quoteworthy

Beatrice has had some great lines lately, some really funny and some just cute a la Family Circus (which my mother loved to read every day and oohed and aaahed over, and I never quite got what the big deal was as a kid)

**When getting dressed Valentine's Day morning, B. announces "I want to wear my handicapped socks." I am certain I'm misunderstanding the word "handicapped" so I ask her to repeat and she states clearly "I can't find my handicapped socks!" "What are your handicapped socks?" I ask. She starts searching around the room to give me a clue of what she's talking about, and then excitedly says "here, look!" as she points to a sticker of a candy cane on her closet..."That handicapped!" I realize she has equated candy canes with canes, which my dad walks with, AND with the word handicapped since he has a handicapped sticker and we often drive around when he's with us looking for handicapped parking spots. So her red candy cane socks= handicapped socks! She must be really confused about how Christmas fits in with all that as we hang handicapped canes all over the place....

***As I'm sitting on the "throne" this morning she is using an empty toilet paper roll as a spyglass and she's announcing everything she sees through it. She aims it directly at me and shouts "I spy a old girl!" Thanks B. (her favorite play with me these days is asking me to scrunch up my forehead and play with my "bumps" aka wrinkles which she thinks are just hysterical and feel really cool. She asks "when can I get those?" and I must've replied "when you're an old girl like mama."

***She's playing by herself, doing ballet, jumping around, rambling about God knows what and all of a sudden she puts her hands on her stomach, starts stumbling like she's about to pass out and moans in pain "Oh dear, oh dear, my belly hurtin'....I gotta stop eatin' pretend food!"

***While riding in the car a week ago, she tells me in a very serious and somewhat distraught voice "Mama I have a tough choice to make. I don't know if I should marry my blanket or Sula???"

"Oh dear" and "whoops!" are two of her new frequent and adorable expressions.

***(after getting 2 bags full of Valentine's Day goodies from them):"Mama... Jay-Jay and Weezy are too curious with me!" I inquire about what that means..."Curious! 'Cause they give me too much stuff! The need to stop and they can't they just can't! They too curious!" I figure out CURIOUS means GENEROUS.

**When she bit into a slice of cheese that the kind man at the deli gave her while we were shopping, she looked at it and said "whoa....this cheese is incredible." I just love her expanding vocabulary.

Be Mine, My Bea

Someone is very, very excited to deliver these at school tomorrow...

and even has one set us aside for the old folks as well.

While making these, I'll admit the idea did cross my mind "why the heck didn't I just buy the Dora 25-pack for $3.99 and sign them myself???" I'm a sadist. And my daughter is in heaven thinking she made the fanciest valentines ever created. Guess that's worth a few hours of my life and thousands of specks of glitter that I'll never get out of the rug.

Opening a goodie bag my sister dropped off.

Cherries are her latest obsession so she got a jar of them as a present.

"Diss my new mile (aka "smile"). Valentine's Day mile is no teeth mile."

Streaker

Here's B. last night, procrastinating getting into her pajamas by running around wearing nuttin' but her princess shoes and etch-a-sketch. The part that killed me was when she ran into our bedroom and announced "NUDIE PATOOTIE IN THE HOUSE!!!"

My Baby Has Left for College

Okay, not quite, but that's how I felt as Beatrice had her first sleepover away from both of us last night, at my sister's house 2 miles away. It was completely her idea and we would have bet the house and dog that the phone would ring at bedtime or in the middle of the night for a "rescue," but here I am at 6:42 a.m. and the phone remains silent. I called at 8:30 p.m. and Louise said Beatrice didn't want to to call to say good night, as was the plan. I slept horribly. Tossed and turned all night. I am so, so happy for her and so proud of her leaps toward independence. And yet why I am sad too....?

These three videos were taken Thursday evening. Beatrice came and handed me the camera and said "make movies of me!" and here's what I got. The last one was completely unexpected. I had no idea a marriage proposal was coming. Honestly, 3 1/2 has been my favorite age of all.