maybe I'm not so bad at this...

Love the little moments that make me think I might actually be okay at this parenting thing:

First time she's spontaneously drawn something like this for me.
Normally she just does shapes and squiggles... this is a person!

Saturday evening Ro, Pat, and the girls came over to celebrate Trav's birthday. During the course of play, Gwen dove out of the way of a bouncing train, and got a carpet burn/scrape on her chin. It was bothering her a lot, and she was quite nervous about me putting some ointment on it, but I explained that it would help her scrape heal faster, and hurt less. She braced herself and let me do it, after which I praised her for being brave. I told her that someone is brave when they know something might not be fun, or might not feel good, but they do it anyway because it is the right thing or best thing to do. Since then she's been walking around repeating, "Mama, I'm a brave girl!" Damn straight sweetie! Of all the things that she could label herself, this is one of my favorites!

"Reading" to me. Love the imaginations these two have.

On Sunday night when putting Gwen to bed, she told me, "I need to put good things in my belly so it feels good. My belly feels a little funny, so for breakfast maybe I'll have peas, or fruit. Whoever gets up with me in the morning, I'm going to tell them to get me peas because I want to eat good things."

Uncle Pat stuck these two in the empty cushion container at Jerry & Kerry's.
They thought this was pretty much the best play place ever!

Monday we were at a picnic, and there were a lot of foods Gwen has never had before, so she wasn't eating a lot and had a few more chips then I normally allow. We were passing through the area with the food and she turned to me and said, "I should really have some good foods so my belly doesn't hurt." At which point I offered her some carrots, which she happily accepted... and ended up eating a ton of!

With my high school girl Cassie's daughter, Riley.

On the way home from said picnic, we saw a farm with some sheep, which sparked a conversation about what animals live on farms and what they eat. She would list animals, then we would mention some. At one point Trav asked, "Do you think alligators live on farms?" Gwen thought that was hilarious, and pronounced, "NO Daddy! The alligator would eat all the other animals!" She has a point!



Sometimes this kid of mine is pretty awesome.