First

Happy First Day of First Grade, Sweetie! Can't wait to hear all about it. Love you!

Life's a Beach - And Then You Skin Your Knees

Scene: Playground at the beach

Sweetie played while I sat and watched while Hubby went off to geocache. Sweetie made quick friends with a couple of little girls also playing on the slides and monkey bars.

Sweetie and I decide to go to our car for a minute to get cold drinks, then head back to the playground where we saw that her new friends and their mom were on their way out.

Sweetie (talking to that mom): Aaawwwww! I wanted you to push me on the swing! Because they're too high off the ground and my mom wears braces and she can't lift me up to the seat and my dad's not here right now.

(Before the poor, sob-story-inundated woman could answer, I piped up and assured Sweetie that I could can push her on the swing and I could probably figure out how to teach her to get herself up on the seat. And anyway, Daddy should be back soon.)

(Turns out, the swing seat was way too hot to sit on anyway plus, by the time we got back there were already some new friends to play with on the rest of the playground equipment. No harm, no foul.)

(But for a moment there I almost did recruit another parent nearish to the swings to pop Sweetie on the seat. In hind sight, I'm glad I didn't have to do that - you never can be too safe with you kids.)

(P.S. - remember how Sweetie and I went back to our car to get cold drinks? Well, along our way I had to get myself over a chain link separating off the parking lot from the walkway to the playground. I got one leg over pretty easily.... and then... not so much. I couldn't get my second leg over the chain. I could barely get my first leg back over the chain so that I could try a new tactic altogether. But I did. Finally. Then just ended up crawling under the chain.)

(Sweetie... She mostly just laughed at me. A little bit of encouragement. Tried to help me a little. But mostly just laughed.)

(Going back to the playground, I sat down on the wooden part of the fencing and hauled my legs over no problem.)

(Sweetie congratulated me.)

End Scene.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

It's official. Our house is up for sale. Went on the market last Sunday, with the For Sale sign appearing on our lawn the next day. We've already had one prospective buyer come to look, with another 2 scheduled to come tomorrow. Our house is wonderfully clean and tidy, with a little more tidying and organizing happening everyday. Here's hoping for as quick a sale as possible!

In Sweetie news (and completely unrelated to the above) - I've noticed yet another change in her of late. She is much, much better able to adapt to things and go with the flow. Particularly when accidents happen and/or things don't go quite the way she planned when she's creating something new. I'll still hear the "oh noooooo!!!" with just as much drama as ever before, bad enough so that it certainly seems like she's working herself up into quite the fit of drama. But then... eh. Not so much. She now tends to take a breath and reconsider how she can proceed from this point to still make a really "kickin'" craft. Or - in the case of spills and the like, she will not cry anymore. She deals. No, she doesn't so much actually help in cleaning up the problem. But she quietly sits still and seems to recognize that, no, this is not the end of the world. Life goes on, even after the last of her lemonade has just landed itself on the kitchen floor. Thank goodness.

Sweetie is growing up. Hubby and I are growing up - finally, finally actually going through with a huge change for the better in our lives (I'm so tired of announcing to our friends and family that we're definitely going to do such and such... and then letting that notion slip away into oblivion). We are looking toward the future with all sorts of emotions, but mainly looking so forward to the days after we've settled into a new home when maybe, just maybe, we can take a few wee steps away from stressing quite so much over financial issues.

Sweetie's stopped crying and over-dramatizing over problems in her life. It's about time Hubby and I do the same thing by actually doing something about our less than satisfactory current situation. I'm so happy we've finally taken that step.

Hmmm.... seems my two points for this post may not be that different from each other after all.