The Beach, In Pictures.

Playing with Lightning/Taylor/Liittle Bit/The Cat With Too Many Names.

Scolding Sapphire for playing with her “toys”:

If you can’t beat ‘em, dance with ‘em.

The location of my Parenting Advice of the Week, “Ali, if you’re not sitting on the roof, you MUST hold Mommy’s hand!!”

Ali’s portrait of Me:

It’s The Yittle Fings, Part Twenty-Two.

It was time for bedtime prayers.

Ali: “I want to thank Jesus for my bed and my blanket and my pillow and my friends in the bed and my friends in the baskets and my chair and my railing and my headboard.'”

Chris: “Okay, baby. Say Thank you Jesus, then name all those things.”

Ali: “Thank you Jesus for all my stuff. I’m done.”

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I asked Ali the other day, “Is it more important to be Beautiful or Kind?”

She immediately responded, “Kind!!”

I was quite happy with my wonderful job of teaching morals to my daughter. “Great! That’s right! Is it more important to be Fancy or to be Wise?”

“To be FANCY!!!”

Oh well. I did the best I could.

However, this conversation thread started a whole new game for her. For the rest of the day, she went around asking puzzling questions such as:

“Is it more important to have lips or hands?”

“Is it more important to read the Bible or be wise?”

“Is it more important to be Snow White or to be Ariel?”

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Me: “Do you want to go to work before we go to Gramamma’s?”

Ali: “No.”

Me: “You don’t want to go see Gina and David and get Skittles from David?”

Ali: “I already have some PEZ.”

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The morning before I left her at Gramamma’s so that Chris and I could go off for the weekend, I asked, “Will you miss us while we’re in Tennessee?”

Ali: “When you go away, Jesus will come back.”

Me: “He will?”

Ali: “Yes. He’s been to my house before. He’s sitting over there – on that couch.”

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Ali: "Mommies say yes and no but Alis just say yes.”

Me: “Well, you can tell me no if I ask you a question, like if I say, ‘do you like coffee?’ You just can’t tell me no if I tell you to do something.”

(Silence)

Me: “Let’s practice. Do you like coffee?”

Ali: “I really like Juice better…”

Me: “Well, okay. That works too….”

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Ali: “Hey Mommy, what’s that long, skinny country?”

Me: “That’s Chile.”

Ali: “We ate there…we ate at Chili’s.”

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One day the washing machine was being especially loud in a rhythmic manner. Ali informed me, “The washing machine is counting to one hundred.”

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Ali was playing with her Cinderella and a Prince when she had a startling realization.

“That’s not Cinderella’s Prince!! That’s somebody else’s Prince.”

Me: “Whose prince is it?”

Ali: “It’s Prince Phillip. It’s Sleeping Beauty’s Prince. She won’t be mad.”

Mommy’s T-Shirt Makes Everything Better.

As I referenced in my post yesterday, we spent part of the evening Wednesday night on the trampoline. Ali is into wearing my T-Shirts right now, and I happen to find it pretty adorable, so I willingly oblige. And with it, of course, she could jump higher, run faster, and smile bigger:

She still let us have turns, too, of course. And, since she was getting photographed, she wanted to pay the same tribute to us. So, here is how Ali sees Chris and I:

Me: Very Fuzzy and apparently always in mid-conversation.
Chris: A Bright and Shining corner of her life.

I tried to take a picture of the sky above us, and Ali happened to run by at that exact moment, so the picture actually ended up being the sky above us, plus a bit of her crazy trampoline hair:
And really, I think I like that one better than the “Just the Sky” picture.

It’s the Yittle Fings, In Her Own Words Edition.

Ali had a very detailed dream that she was very eager to talk about yesterday morning.

I especially liked this dream and believed that it was actually a dream (and not something she made up on the spot) because of two universal dream components:

1. Peeing. Who doesn’t dream that they’re using the bathroom in the mornings?

2. Locations inexplicably changing within the dream. Nothing ever stays the same for long..

So, in her own words, here’s Ali’s dream:

It's the Yittle Fings, Part Twenty

She announced decisively the other day, "I just like to live with Daddy. I don't like to live with Mommy."

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I made her go to the bathroom before we left the house, and she said, surprised, "You were RIGHT! I DID have to go tee-tee!! You're so smart!!!"

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She got some Purell the other night, and ran out into the hallway to show Chris.

Ali: "Look Daddy!! I have hand cleaner!!" (she then dropped some without realizing it)

Chris: "Oh - a wad fell on the floor. I'll clean it up."

Ali, running back to me: "A wad fell on the floor. Daddy's going to clean it up."

(pause)

Ali: "Did the wad come out of my nose?"

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Chris and I played "Horse" with Ali for the first time last week. She named us. My horse name was "Tanks", and Chris' was "Foot". She said that I was the better horse.

However, my back has been hurting on and off ever since. I'm obviously no tank.

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Chris and Ali play football every night before bed. The other night, Chris said "Five more throws, then it's bedtime." Ali argued and bargained, "No! Three more throws!"

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We were on our way to Church, and Ali was pointing out cars and asking what they were.

I asked her, "What kind of car do you want when you grow up?"

Ali: "A purple car."

Me: "What KIND of purple car?"

Ali: "A purple Honda Pilot. Like you. With Princess Ornaments. And I might want a baby in the back seat and a flower in it too."

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We were reading a book, and there was a picture of an angel in it. Ali told me very informatively, "We don't eat angels."

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Ali's favorite color has been consistently pink for a very long time. However, in the past week, she's started changing it up. She told me a couple of days ago,

"My favorite color is pink and red and orange and gray and purple and blue and yellow and black and white and spots and stripes and splats."

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She's been saying a lot of things backwards lately.

"Get my face out of my hair!"

"I'm sick because I'm not going to Church."

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She found a tape measure. She held it up to me and informed Chris, "I'm measuring Mommy's tummy."

Chris: "How big is it?"

Ali: "It's thirteen miles ago."

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Since Ali had the flu, she's been struggling on the potty training thing, something I thought we had completed - but only during naptimes. It's been frustrating, because I've been continuously changing her sheets and washing them. The other day, I came into her room, and before I discovered some very nasty mess in her bed, she quickly told me, "I thanked God to help me not poo poo on my princess panties."

Orphaned Photos of the Week, Part Nine.

The day of Ali’s friend E’s birthday party was actually the first time we’d seen the sun in a bazillion years. Ali and AJ were thrilled to get to swing, and I was amazed at how much more comfortable Ali was on a “big girl swing” from last year:

They also played on the trampoline, which gave AJ QUITE the hairdo:

Speaking of Trampolines, we had the pleasure of getting to introduce Woods to the concept of trampolining during their visit to our house. He was a fan, for sure:

Notsomuch a fan of Ali’s mask from E’s Birthday Party, though…

We also took Woods to The McWane Center, where Ali was an eager tour guide:

She explained the intricacies of the water table,

And Woods’ Mama tried to explain the enjoyment that one gets from dressing up, although I don’t think he was convinced.

He was, however, all about some construction work.

Woods also got to experience his first Target buggy, as they are not so privileged to have Super Targets in Charleston (something so grievous that it might make his Momma move back here).

Last week, we had a get together back at E’s house again. I think Ali was a bit concerned about AJ moving in on her man during their Wii game…

After all, she’s pretty transparent about her feelings for him:

(In her defense, the day she chose that as her mood, she said “I’m love struck today because I love you, Mommy.” I think it might have been a cover story, though.)

Back to E’s house. The babies made a great cheering crowd for all of the Wii play, as long as they had all of the Concession-Stand-Formula that they wanted:

At lunch, Christen practiced what it would be like to be Mrs. Duggar, except with half the number of kids:

But all it took was half to make her realize that she was not going to be the next Mrs Duggar:

Ali had her second hair cut last week. She was so excited about wearing a T-Shirt again that she begged me to let her keep it:
She also enjoyed getting her hair washed by Miss Shannon again. There are definitely narcotic elements in their shampoo:

And, finally, I’ve been doing a lot of bed changing this week, due to one sort of accident or another. I took this picture so that one day when Ali complains about my style of mothering, I can remind her of all of the work I went through for her.

…And because I was totally stunned that enough pee could come out of my child’s body to soak THIS MANY different items.

Motherhood. It’s a Dirty Job. Mike Rowe, where are you?

She'll Grow Into It.

1

Chris and I both enjoy biking, so we bought an iBert when Ali was just barely old enough to be allowed to use it.

Now I’m pretty sure she’s TOO big for it. Notice also the helmet “fit” changing:

2008…

2009…

2010.If we can cram her into that thing for the rest of this year, we’ll be lucky.

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2

Ali’s hooded flower towel was a baby gift from one of our neighbors. It has been well-used.

2007….

2010.

Time flies when you look back, but crawls when you look forward.