L's Made-With-Love Christmas Present

A few months ago I came accross a webpage that had the idea to convert an old entertainment unit into a play kitchen for kids.  I loved the idea and I hadn't had a new project in a long time.  So, after looking on kijiji for a while I found this entertainment unit.

It was in super great shape so I didn't need to paint the entire unit.  My Dad helped me cut the door for the fridge and cut a piece to fill the whole in the back.  Then I painted all the doors with chalkboard paint, installed them and put on handles.  The fridge and cupboard open up sideways but the stove opens up and down just like a real stove.  Then we cut a hole for the sink (a $2 bowl from the dollarstore) and mounted the elements (another dollarstore find).  Then after a little paint and some curtain sewing it was complete.  I think it turned out really cute and I hope L has many years of fun playing with it.

Evidence of a Little Girl

If someone was given the task to come into our house and try to figure out who lived here I am pretty sure it would not take long for them to know, without a doubt, that a little girl lives here.  Let's check the evidence, shall we!

First, there is, at all times, either a princess dress, tiara or a play shoe laying around at all times.

The latest artwork on the fridge usually consists of at least one picture of a princess, flower or butterfly.

Our Christmas cookies are pink and purple instead of red and green.

The little people are lined up in a nice straight row ready to go to a "ball"

All our veggie tale movies feature Laura the Carrot.

The kids Bible is always open to the story of Queen Esther.

All the pink and purple crayons are used up.

The Christmas presents that are wrapped in pretty red Christmas wrapping paper have big purple bows on them.

There are dolls having "naps"in various places around the house.

The "doctor" is always a princess.

When acting out the Christmas story, Mary always has nice accessories.

If these clues are not enough to convince you that a little girl lives here, there is also a baby brother sitting in the middle of the room looking like this.....

My laugh for the day

I had a good laugh today and I thought I would share it with you all.  Today my sister called to ask if L wanted to be an angel in the Christmas play tomorrow morning at church.  I took the phone downstairs where L was playing and told her that Auntie wants to know if she wanted to be an angel in the kids play.  After thinking about it for a few seconds L replies, "No, I want to be a princess!" My sister and I started laughing and she told me to tell L that she gets to wear a halo.  I turned to L and said, "If you are an angel you get to wear a shiny halo, to which she responded, "No, I want to wear my tiara." I then explained that there are no princesses in the Christmas play.  L's response, "Then I don't want to be in it." Sheesh.  I guess she really was serious earlier this week when she told me she has "chosen" to be a princess when she grows up.

How Embarrassing!

Well, here's a new situation that I did not see coming.  Today I went to the mall with the kids to finish our Christmas shopping.  I went into a kitchen store to buy a gift for a gift exchange (the theme is kitchen gadgets).  As we were standing in line L asked me to pass me her Cheerios.  I gave them to her and she started laughing hysterically.  Then she said, very loudly, "Hey Mommy, pass me my pee!" It caught me very off guard and I was pretty embarrassed because the store was really busy and there were several people waiting behind me in line.  I leaned over and whispered in L's ear that we don't talk about pee outside of the bathroom.  I stood back up and gave an apologetic smile to all the people around me.  Then L started laughing again.  This time she loudly said, "Mommy, pass me my poop!" I immediately bent over and whispered in her ear that we do not talk about pee or poop outside of the bathroom.  I spoke quite sternly so I was pretty sure this little show was over.  Well, L started laughing even more hysterically and yelled, "Hey Mommy, pass me my FARTS!" This caught be so off guard that I actually let out a snicker that I really couldn't keep in.  Where does she get this stuff?  I got my giggle under control, leaned over and whispered some sort of speech about how potty talk is rude and not ok outside of the bathroom.  I quickly finished paying and got out of that store as quickly as possible.  How embarrassing!

Imagination

I am so in love with my little girl's imagination.  She is amazing.  I know that I am her mother and I may be a little biased ;)  L has had Little People sets for quite a while but only recently has she discovered how to really play with them.  I am pretty sure she figured it out from watching her 11 year old cousin demonstrate.  L will now play for hours (literally) with her Little People.  She drives them around in cars, sets them up at "school", takes them to the zoo, solves sharing problems amoungst them, and saves them from the giant monster (aka T) who tries to destroy their village.  It is amazing how she takes all that goes on in her life and all she has learned recently and transforms it into a wonderful story that goes on and on.  It's a great little window into what is happening in her little head.  She teaches her Little People to share, she introduces them to new Little People, and she takes them on adventures that replicate places we have been lately.  I could watch and listen to her all day long :)

One of the many locations where she loves to play.

L set up a nativity scene with her Little People wisemen and animals.  Dean was Joseph and her little brother was baby Jesus :)

 

Winter Sniffles

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything here.  That is clearly a reflection of our lives over the past month or so.  L is in preschool, T has become very mobile, I've taken up a few new things like being on L's preschool board, and my hubby is still working six days a week with one night a week being out of town.  Then we got some crazy illness in our house.  A few weeks ago I was getting the kids ready to get out the door for preschool.  It was a perfectly normal morning.  The last thing I did before running out the door was get L our of her pj's and into her clothes.  As soon as I took her shirt off I knew something was wrong.  There were little spots all over her entire upper body.  Then I saw her legs.  There were so many spots that they were all merging into one big swollen lump all over her legs.  I tried very hard not to react.  I simply told Lillian that we were just going to leave her pjs on for a little while longer.  I immediately got on the phone with Health Links.  After going through an endless list of symptoms the nurse finally concluded that it was probably just a rash linked to a cold virus and I should keep her away from people for three days or until the rash went away, whichever was longer.  Throughout the day I started to notice that L was getting sicker and sicker.  She started getting warm, her nose started running and then she took a three hour nap.  The nap was the real kicker since she hasn't napped for over a year now.  She was pretty calm about it all until she saw those spots.  Oh goodness.  When she saw them she would freak out.  I ended up putting a diaper on her because the spots freaked her out so much that she refused to take her pants off to go to the bathroom.  Poor little thing.  The good news is that by the next day she seemed almost back to normal and the spots were receding nicely.  By day three she was all better and her skin was all cleared up. 

That should have been the end of the story but then I got that cold virus.  I didn't get the rash with it but, let me tell you, that was the mother of all colds.  I am still trying to kick it two weeks later.  It's like it keeps starting all over again every five days or so.  And then, last week poor T got it too.  His came on super rapidly.  Dean was out of town for the night and T woke up with a fever, coughing and vomiting.  Every time he breathed in it sounded horrible!  The next day I took him to the doctor who agreed with me that this was a BAD cold.  She wanted to keep an eye on him for a chest infection.  By the next morning he seemed to be getting much better.  I thought everything was fine and then yesterday afternoon it came back again with a fever and cough.  And then today he seems almost back to his happy normal self.  Sheesh.  I'm looking on the bright side that at least this isn't happening over Christmas and I'm hoping that now we have built our immunity and we won't get sick for the rest of the winter.  Yes, I realise that that is kind of stupid, but I'm still rolling with it ;)