Just another week...

This week has been a mix of torrential rain and warm sunny days. And because of that, daffodils are popping up everywhere! Selina, always thinking about marriage, asks me if we can pick the daffodils for her wedding. I have to tell her "no", as it's likely someone had worked hard to plant them. Later we drove by a cemetery, Selina once again noticed all the flowers adorning the grave stones and thought those would be a great alternative to picking people's daffodils.
I said to her,"Um, how about instead we see if we can find some flowers at the park?" And so off to the park we went. She quickly got to work picking a bunch of dandelions and brought them over to me to put in my pocket. I am so not a fan of putting nature in my pockets so I carried them around for a while. Of course I got tired of that too. I let Selina know that mommy is going to put the flowers back on the ground - for the bunnies to eat. I always try and put a nice spin on things because I don't want to just say, "Look hunny, mommy doesn't want to carry half dead flowers around all day! It's not my style!" Note to self, must put pails in my car for Selina's "collections".
After saying good bye to the flowers, Selina kept on playing at the park. She swung on the swings, went down the big slide, and crossed the bridge. But what she really wants to do is try the monkey bars.
"Can you help me reach them mommy?" She asks me.
"I think you need to wait until daddy comes to the park next time, so he can lift you up." I said back to her.
"Oh ok." And then she went on to tell me a story about her daddy who she calls "The Beast."  (Note: She calls her daddy "The Beast" because she thinks she is Belle from Beauty and the Beast and naturally her Daddy would be her first love interest. Her daddy often has to explain to Selina-Belle that he is already married and can not marry her. Oh the mind of a 4 year old!) Anyhow, this is the story Selina told me. Keep in mind all the other parents in ear shot heard this too; "Ya the Beast has to come to the park to help me! But I don't like The Beast. He's scary! He put my Nana's Papa into jail! And she (Selina-Belle) was so sad! What am I gonna do?"
"Well I don't know!" I said. My mind was preoccupied with what all the other parents were thinking. I bet they thought, "Wow, that family sounds troubled! The poor young girl thinks her dad is a monster! A scary abusive one!"
I just wanted to say to Selina, but for all to hear, "You know, even though The Beast is a fictional character, your daddy loves you so so much and takes good care of you! He is always glad to help you at the park and we all love him don't we? Right?"
Before she answered, she ran off and left me to deal with the sideways glances of the adults standing around me. And moving on now!!

This week Keira has learned something new. She's learned to *gasp* at things. She loves the attention she gets when she does her gasping trick. We were doing some grocery shopping at my fave store Publix and every 2 seconds, Keira would gasp. She'd make her eyes huge, take an inwards breath, and bring her hands to her mouth. It was like she was suddenly surprised by something! We would be passing another shopper and Keira would *GASP* rather loud. The the shopper would stop and look around for something, like a bug, or a box about to drop on their head. Don't worry shopper, it's just my kid trying to throw us off!

Sometimes I gasp when Selina jumps into my bed an hour before I want to wake up in the morning. She has gotten into this awful routine where she thinks it's time to get up between 5:45 and 6am. She immediately gets into my bed and starts putting hair clips into my hair.
"No No NO! Mommy does not do her hair until she's at least had her coffee. Mommy does not plan on making coffee for another hour. SO GET BACK IN YOUR OWN BED!"
Selina may be a little sad by this, but if she knows what's best for her, it would be a good idea to rise after the sun does. I am not cheery until day time and I need at least 10 hours to recover from yesterday. That's how I roll.

It's getting to be that time of the afternoon now when my kids wake up cranky from their naps and I need another kick of caffeine. I am going to get that started now!

Cheers!