A Day in the Life of Lucy

I blog because I want to remember the normal, everyday cuteness of Lucy and all of her sweet little girl happenings. One day this blog will be turned into a book for her to remember all of our fun and my trial and errors (and some successes) as a young wife and mommy. Today was a perfectly normal and yet monumental (in 2 year old terms, at least) day so I felt the need to document.

The day began with Lucy screaming from her bed, "I need to go potty, Mommy!" Usually I hear something more like, "It's bright outside, Mommy! It's bright outside!" (She's not allowed out of her bed until someone comes to get her and she's not allowed to wake up until the sun is out.) I took her to the potty and discovered our big news of the day- her pull up was dry! For you lovely people who haven't had the pleasure of potty training yet, this is not a huge deal, but for the ones who have had this experience, you know what this means- We're 1 step closer to being pull up free which will save me about $12 a month. (That doesn't sound like a lot, but spending $12 on almost anything else is way more fun that spending it on pull ups.) Lucy has technically been potty trained since right around her 2nd birthday (relive that fun here and here) but we use pull ups for naps and nighttime. We just opened a new pack of pull ups and I'm really hoping this is the last pack we'll ever need. (Wishful thinking???)

As usual, the pants came off and the heels went on. Lucy got about 600 pairs of dress up heels for Christmas and she wears each of them throughout the day.

After putting her heels on, she looked at me and said (in her most grown up voice), "I just want to read a little bit, Mom." I asked what she wanted me to do and she said, "You go downstairs." Like any good mommy, I followed directions (just trying to be a good model) and went back to bed to catch up on Facebook and Pinterest.

After reading all of her books, she pranced to the playroom and began her daily destruction.

She plays with each toy one-by-one them puts it on the floor and moves onto the next toy until she has successfully played with each toy and destroyed the once clean playroom. Then she chooses her favorite for the day and plays with that 1 toy almost all day.

In the picture above, the playroom is clean except for the things she has played with from the random toy basket.

And this is what the playroom looks like at the end of the day. Seriously, this is just from 1 day.

After a little playtime, we got dressed. (ok, so maybe this wasn't a perfectly normal day because we got dressed before 3pm and well, that doesn't always happen.) Now, for an easy-going mommy, this is a pretty simple activity but, for an OCD mommy and a very picky 2 year old, this is a battle. You see, I have a closet system. All clothes are organized by colors from lightest to darkest, short sleeves to long sleeves. You start with the 1st shirt hanging, wear it, then hang it in the back of the closet. This way all clothes get equal use. Today just happened to be sweater, jean, and tennis shoe day and guess what Lucy hates- sweaters (their too bulky like jackets), jeans (their too tight and she can't move as easily), and socks (which are worn with tennis shoes because the seams are "pokey"). She was in such a good mood this morning that I thought I would just casually start getting her dressed while she watched Dora and see how it went.

I walked in and told her I was going to get her dressed. She said, "Ok Mommy. What princess dress do we have today?" (She calls all shirts and dresses princess dresses.) After looking at my selection she threw her body back on the couch and screamed, "Noooooooo, not that one. I no like that one. Nooooooooooooooooooo." And then the fit started. A normal mother would have said, "Ok, honey, you go pick something." But no, not this girl. This was next in line and this is what we'll wear.

You see, I have a theory about clothes- it's like food. There are certain foods (and clothes) that kids just don't like to eat (or wear), but they have to anyway. I could give in and let her eat (or wear) whatever she wants, but at some point she's going to have to eat vegetables (or wear tennis shoes- like next year when she's in preschool). So, the more you expose them to those foods (or clothes), the more they get used to them and the more they don't mind eating (or wearing) them. Sounds like a pretty good theory to me. I'll let you know when my research is complete.

So she screamed and kicked and fussed but I was determined to get those clothes on. In the end, I won and she made it to the car looking adorable and with a smile on her face because she was getting some raisins once she was strapped in her seat.

We headed to story time at the library, which she loves, and made it out without a fit. (This is a pretty big achievement. We always go to the grocery store after story time and she just never wants to leave so it's always a big fight to get her out.)

I meant to take pictures of her at the library but I forgot so here's 1 of her reading a book after we left the library. (The library always renews her love of books and she spends the rest of the day going through hers.)

Off to the grocery store we went. Several months ago Lucy spotted a princess cake at the bakery and now asks to see it every time we go. This has become her reward for being a sweet girl (not singing too loudly in the store, not taking things off the shelves and putting them in the cart, and not asking for things and getting mad because I say no) during our trip. She got a real treat today because the baker was actually decorating a princess cake when we went to see it.

Next up was lunch. This week is L week (Lucy week) so we're doing a lot of Lucy's favorite things. I told her that she could pick anything she wanted for lunch and this was her choice.

Mini pancakes and mini muffins (plan to see these again next week for M week)

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful- nap and playtime with some friends while Jeff and I went to home group.

I am so thankful for my completely ordinary days with Lucy and am 1 lucky lady to have such a devoted husband who provides for our family and makes it possible for Lucy and me to have days like today.

30 Days of Thanks (6) and My Kid's Funny!

I am thankful for my church because it's the best, Sunday afternoon naps, coupons from the Sunday paper, and for the funny things my kid does.

I left Lucy downstairs watching Pound Puppies while I went up to get her clothes. I came down and she was on all 4's with our dogs leash clipped to her neck (the skin of her neck) and she was taking herself for a walk.

We ate lunch at Firehouse Subs today. Lucy was a little out-of-sorts due to the time change and some Benadryl to clear up a rash. She likes to take my toothpicks that hold my sandwich together and eat her food with them. (Yes, I'm the great mom who give her child sharp, pointy things to eat with. Anything to keep her occupied, right?!) So she's eating her food with my toothpick and a family comes up to the table across from us to sit down. While the mom straps her child in the highchair, her slightly large hieney was facing Lucy. So Lucy picks up her toothpick and aims it in the direction of the ladies hieney then stops and looks at me for approval. I, of course, grabbed her arm but was laughing to hard to actually tell her stop. Fortunately she stopped before actually poking the lady, but my dad and I got the mental picture in our head and that was all that was needed to make this a very humorous situation.

Happy Sunday!

Potty Break

Yes, some of you are thinking, "Oh, thank goodness she's taking a break from all of the preschool madness" and while that is true, this post may be somewhat of a "stinker" as well.

Let me just say that having a potty trained 2 year old is FRUSTRATING!!! First there's the constant need to go. Lucy drinks a lot. Like 3 cups of juice (1/4 juice, 3/4 water) or milk within the 1st hour of being awake a lot. So after her 2nd cup, the trips to the potty begin. Every 20 minutes. Every. Single. Morning. Your thinking, "Limit the amount that the kid drinks and get over it, lady" but Lucy comes from a long line of heavy drinkers and she really is thirsty so I feel like that would just be neglect and I can't just deprive the kid of liquids now can I?!

Of course, when your kid goes every 20 minutes, you have to plan your trips strategically. We used to have this great ritual of me saying, "Lucy, we're leaving in just a few minutes. Do you need to go potty?" and to which she says, "No, I not need to go." Followed by me saying, "lets try" and a huge meltdown because I carried her to the potty, wrestled with her to get her pants down, forced her to sit on the potty kicking and screaming just for her to sit there and not go. Then I say, "Ok, it's going to be a little while until we get there so if you need to go you're going to have wet pants." Then I gather our stuff, get her past the bushes, pine straw, flowers, and butterflies (she likes to bring nature on her journeys), and buckle her in her seat. Then I get myself buckled, sunglasses in place, Bob and Larry on the radio, get out of the driveway and she says, "I need to go potty, Mommy." Ugh!!! Is there anything more frustrating?!

We have gotten past the meltdowns and now she will generally go before we leave without much of a fuss. Instead she now has an obsession with public bathrooms. Gas station bathrooms to be specific. Some you may know that I have a fear of public bathrooms. Bad things happen in there. And gas stations are the worst. We have actually gone to a gas station bathroom (the outside kind) where the lights didn't work. Yes, try getting a 2 year on the potty without touching anything in complete and total pitch-black dark. And she thinks this is fun. She has even said when I've asked if she needed to go before leaving the house, "I go in gas station potty." Really??? She has to get this little pleasure from her daddy.

Because I have a blog and I can write anything I want, and since we're on the subject of public bathrooms, I thought I would share some public potty etiquette.

Rule: It is not ok to share with your fellow public potty uses what you are currently doing in the potty. We DO NOT want to know!

Here's a story for you.

We stop at yet another gas station potty (we live in a small town about 40 miles from our families and there are only gas stations) and Lucy is jabbering away as usual because, you know, she never stops, and the lady in the stall next to us says, "Do you have to go potty?" (Well hello lady. We are in a bathroom and it's certainly not by choice.) Lucy, being the happy little clam that she is, says "Uh-huh. You have to go potty too?" Lady: "Yes. I'm trying to pass some kidney stones. I just passed one 30 minutes ago and I've got 2 more to go. It's like having a baby." Me: (In my head) "Oh my goodness. Is she really saying this? Hurry Lucy, hurry. Must. Get. Out." Lucy: "You're having a baby in there? What's her name?" This conversation went on but it's kind of a blur because I was really focused on getting out of there.

In summary, my kid potty's a lot, public potties=gross, kidney stones AHHHHHHH!!!

Pruitt Preschool

As I've mentioned, Lucy is not attending a preschool program this year so she and I are doing preschool together. She loved her class last year and still talks about all of her friends so I'm hoping she will enjoy preschool with Mommy just as much. Her favorite part was her friends and I can't provide that but I have lots of play dates already in the works with lots of different friends so hopefully she'll have plenty of social time.

We are doing preschool on Tues. and Thurs. mornings and using the rest of the week for field trips, play dates, and unfortunately regular household chores. (Contrary to popular belief, stay at home moms actually have lots of work to do... Who knew???)

I'm a little on the OCD side and I need a fairly strict schedule to stick with or I'll put things off until they never get done. I used a sample preschool schedule as a guide for our schedule, changing the activities to fit what I want to do. Here's our schedule:

9am: Morning Meeting

9:30: Art

10: Snack

10:30: Table work

10:45 Playtime

11:15: Music

11:30: Bible story

11:45: Review/Reading

Here is a {very} detailed look at what we will do:

Morning Meeting:

During morning meeting, we'll be using our Morning Meeting board:

• Knock Knock song (This is a song we learned at story time at the library forever ago that Lucy loves. I tried to find it on You Tube but I can't so maybe the librarians made it up??? Maybe one day I'll video Lucy singing it. )
• Greetings (What can I say? I'm an SLP and it's never too early to work on appropriate social greetings.)
• Days of the Week song
• Days section of morning meeting board
• Months of the Year song
• Calendar section of morning meeting board
• Color of the day (Lucy chooses a color from a pile and sticks it to the morning meeting board. I point out some things this color, we talk about other things that are that color then I set a timer for 2 minutes and we go on a color hunt for things around the house that are that color. Throughout the day, I point out things that are the color of the day.)

• Letter of the week (There is a letter of the week curriculum that I know nothing about other than you focus on a different letter each week. All of our activities for the week will revolve around this letter. During this time, I introduce the letter, we talk about the sound it makes and read a book filled with this letter. Ex. A is for Apple so we will read 10 Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.)
• Bible verse of the week (Ideally this will be a verse related to our letter theme, but sometimes that just won't be possible (I don't think there are D- donuts or dentists in the Bible) so I'll have to stretch it for some of these.)
• Weather (I printed this chart for us to fill in each day. We will then use our weather report to dress Lucy. I took the idea of "Weather Bear" and made a "Weather Lucy" by taking a picture of Lucy in her undies (I felt kind of creepy about this) and printed it in an 8x10, cut it out, and laminated it. Then I "shopped" for clothes for each season online and printed and laminated those. She'll check her "weather report" and dress her picture each day. It's never too early to learn how to dress appropriately for the seasons, right??? She's wearing her Fall dress in the picture below. I'm currently on the hunt for a picture of a great pair of boots.)
• The idea of the morning meeting is to introduce our theme and some basics that I want her to know. You would be surprised how many children don't know how to read a calendar or understand basic time concepts. My child won't be 1 of them!
• Originally I wanted a very small calendar so we could talk about the days of the week and learn the months so I started with this:

Obviously the words are too small and there is so much going on with the scrapbook paper you can't read anything. It just didn't turn out like I expected so I did a little research and came up with my Morning Meeting board. I really would have preferred it to be smaller but I kept thinking of skills I wanted to work on each day and didn't really want a million smaller boards to carry around if we do preschool on the go so I made 1 big one. All of the pieces are velcroed to the board so Lucy can easily stick things on when it's time. (She loves this part!) I keep all of the extra pieces in laminated envelopes on the back so everything is with me when I need it.

Art

Last year in preschool, Lucy "illustrated" her own Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? book by painting the colors of the book. I stole this idea and decided to have her create her own ABC book. Each week, she'll decorate a letter according to the theme. For example, for A week, she'll stamp A's with apples cut in half and covered in paint. This activity will account for 1 art activity for the week. The 2nd art activity will be theme related. For example, for B week, she is going to make a bird feeder by covering a pine cone with peanut butter and rolling it in bird seed.

Snack

Snack will also be theme related. For C week, we are talking about cookies and candy so she'll get to eat cookies for snack. (Any recipes for healthy cookies are welcome!!!)

Table Work

You'll notice that table work is only 15 minutes long. Preschoolers learn best through play and hands on activities so that will be the majority of our time but I do want to target specific skills each week so we will have some theme related but fun table work. For example, for B week, one of Lucy's field trips is going to Teddy Mountain to build a bear. She will use this bear during the next day's table work time to follow directions and locate body parts while putting bandaids where I tell her. (i.e. "Put the bandaid on Teddy Bear's ankle.") See, fun and educational all in 1!

1 "work" activity we will do each week is a letter hunt. I will hide our target letter around a room, on various themed toys, or in plastic eggs for Lucy to find. At first I'll hide all of 1 letter to help her learn to recognize individual letters. As she becomes more proficient at recognizing letters, I'll start hiding various letters, some for that week, some not so she learns to discriminate between several letters.

For help with skills to target I am using The Core Knowledge Sequence. Last year I was able to download the preschool goals in this sequence, but now I can't find them. This link is the closest I can find. I will also be using this book.

Play Time

Sometimes I will select a variety of theme related toys for Lucy to play with during this time (Ex. F is for food so we may have a pretend picnic) but most times I'll let her decide and follow her lead.

Music

1 of my fabulous practicum therapist created a song folder for 1 of our therapy programs and gave each student clinician a copy. It's basically pictures representing various kids songs (Wheels on the bus, London Bridge, Itsy Bitsy Spider, etc.) printed, laminated, and velcroed to a laminated file folder. Lucy picks a song, we sing it, then repeat with another song. She also likes to go on You Tube and sing songs/watch videos of kids songs. We'll also use her instruments to make our own music.

Bible Story

Since is it my job as Lucy's mom to "repeat (God's commands) again and again to (Lucy); talking about them when we are at home, and when we are going to bed and getting up," we will be reviewing Lucy Bible stories from church during preschool. Each Monday, our fabulous Kidz Creek leaders post that weeks Bible story/scripture reference on the church's blog and gives ideas for connecting church and home. I will re-read the story, talk about it, review the memory verse, and pray with Lucy during this time. I may have a coloring page for her to work on while I read if I feel the story is a little long for her attention span, but she enjoys these stories so it may not be necessary. (Just to brag a bit... last month she learned about Jonah and the whale. On Saturday, she told me the story of Jonah and said she wanted to tell her friends at dance. Yesterday she learned about David and told me that he was a shepherd and God helped him fight people. Yep, that's my 2 year old!!!)

Review/Read Books

During this time we'll review our letter of the day, verse of the day, and talk about what she liked and didn't like about preschool that day. This will help me plan future lessons. Lucy loves to "read" so she will have some time to read our themed books from the library while I make lunch.

I will {try} to post our preschool fun each Friday. Of course, this is just the preschool overview post and this week we will be beginning "C week" so I'm not off to the best start. That's the great thing about being your child's teacher; you can be a slacker and there's no one to complain about it! Happy learning!!!

My daily bread

As I mentioned previously, we have had a crazy summer. I am so sick of looking at the inside of the car. My back aches continuously, my right arm and shoulder hurt from reaching into the backseat to pass a drink, open a snack, fetch a mink-mink, etc. etc. And if I hear, "I need a go POOOTTTTTTYYYY!!!!" one more time in the middle of a tree-lined highway with no exits, I swear I may drive off the next bridge we are driving over. Let this be a warning to all: As of September 1st, the Pruitt's are taking a month off of the road. We will not take trips requiring more than a 15 minute ride so if you want to see us, fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the trees because we are DONE!!!
Oh wait, I have a niece due in Sept. Hmmmm..... Ok Kylie; you are the exception. We will travel for you but for no one else. But if you want to make your grand entrance say at the end of August, I wouldn't complain. Oh, and if you can come a little quicker than your brother did, that would be good too. Your cousin Lucy will have taken over the hospital bythe time you come out if we have to wait there for 24 hours.

Wasn't this post supposed to be about something positive? Where was I going? Oh yes...

So Lucy and I are driving tonight from my parents house in Sumter to my inlaws house in Columbia. (We have spent a total of 6 hours in the car since Thursday not including around town driving and we have an hour and a half drive home tomorrow. I'm done I tell you!) Anyway so we're driving to Columbia and my little passenger was being a real trooper (this is very rare). She started the trip with some Cars graham cracker cookie things and raisins and she was just as happy as a clam. She sang along to Travis Cottrell (she loves him which just makes me smile) and found 1 book out of the car book stash and her pink doctor kit to keep her busy for about 30 minutes. When we were about 10 minutes away from my inlaws, I realize that she's been talking almost the whole way. (I have no shame. I tuned my child out for a good 30 minutes. It was blissful. Don't hate... she was perfectly content.) Anyway so I realize that she's been talking and talking but suddenly she's gotten a little louder and she's saying, "You ok, you ok? You need another band-aid?". Curious as to which happy meal toy she's rescuing (again, I have no shame), I look back there and she has her hand open and she's talking to it like there is a person in there. She slowly looks up at me and gives me an embarrassed little grin like she's been caught doing something then glances around and quickly picks up the blood pressure cuff and says, "You help me with dis?" as if to cover up the fact that she was talking to nothing in her hand. It was so innocent and adorable that I was overwhelmed with love for that little stinker. There are so many days that I want to lock myself in a sound proof room just for 10 minutes so when sweet little moments like this happen I am reminded of how precious children are and so thankful that I have been entrusted with my little princess. It's hard to describe an interatction like this in writing, but I'm sure that (for those of you who have children) your little miracles do similar things daily so you know what I'm talking about. Oh what a blessing kids are!!! Hopefully I'll remember that sweet little expression the next time she dramatically throws her head back and screams at the top of her lungs because she thinks the bread at dinner is cake and is very disappointed to learn the truth. (That happened last night.) Oh Lucy, how I adore you!

Here, there, and everywhere!

Dear, sweet, faithful readers,

Thank you for not giving up on me. To say the Pruitt's have been busy is an understatement. To reward you for waiting so patiently, here is a long post about what we have been up to the last few weeks. Enjoy!!

We have spent A LOT of time in the car this summer. (I had a great 3 minute video of Lucy crying in the car which is usually what she is doing in the car because she hates it so much now, but we downgraded our internet service so it was taking way too long to load. I'll see what I can do about that.)

We have traveled back and forth to Columbia many times, mostly to see family. Last Monday, we had a wonderful play date at the Columbia Marionette Theater with Lucy's boyfriend (her words, not mine), Will.

Lucy and her Prince with "Cereal" (That's what Lucy calls Ariel.) Not really sure why Ariel has blue hair. It was an interesting interpretation of The Little Mermaid but these 2 were entertained.

A few weeks ago we traveled to Charleston to see a friend and visit the aquarium.

Kind of disappointed you can't see the sea turtle on Lucy's jumper, so let me point out that there is a sea turtle on her jumper.

We also spent a week with Jeff and the CC students at camp. Lucy was the most popular girl there and made lots of "friends". She loves the boys the most, especially Jeff's intern, David. The only picture I have is one of her sleeping in a real big kid bed. She looks like she's about 5.

Seriously, where does the time go???

Tomorrow, we leave for Florida for our annual Hallford Family Vacation (there is actually only 1 person with the last name "Hallford" going on this vacation, however, the vacation stemmed from my grandparents, The Hallfords, so instead of saying the Hallford, Farrout, Rohrlack, Szimga, Dempsey, Pruitt Family Vacation, we'll call it the Hallford Family Vacation).

In case things get a little crazy next week and I don't get a chance to blog while on vacation, I'll continue sharing what we've been up to this summer to hold you over.

This summer has been all about cleaning and organizing. This room obviously needed some work.

I'm not usually the type who would allow anyone, let alone the world, to see a mess this size in my house, so let me explain. We moved into the rental the weekend before the last week of school. Lucy and I returned to Columbia for a week then we left from Columbia to go to Hilton Head for a week of vacation. This picture was taken after returning from vacation and being away from a house I had 3 days to move into and unpack. I once read that you should at least make your bed everyday because the bed accounts for about 80% of the room so even if the rest of the room is a mess, by making your bed you have cleaned 80% of the room. After explaining this theory to Jeff and getting out of said bed to measure the length of the room, we determined that the bed only accounts for about 50% of the room. Either way, I don't think making the bed helped.

While cleaning up that mess of a bedroom, I decided to get started on my organizing beginning here...

Jeff's T-shirt Drawer: Before

After

Allow me to explain Jeff's t-shirt collection. When we met, Jeff had t-shirts everywhere; in his room at home, in the guest bedroom, in his dorm room, in his car, even in blanket form- a t-shirt blanket. Over the past 5 years, I have managed to get his collection down to 2 drawers: 1 for shirts he is allowed to wear out of the house (shown above) and 1 for shirts that should be in the trash but he can't seem to part with so we keep them and he's only allowed to wear at home. I like t-shirts folded neatly in drawers. He likes to pick the shirt on the bottom of the pile, unfold it (and 12 others in the process), decide not to wear it, wad it up, and put it back in the drawer. (T-shirts are a touchy subject for the 2 of us; can you tell?) I took an organization class in the spring and the "teacher" recommends the file method for organizing t-shirts (shown above). So far this has worked wonders for us! For more info on the class go here.

And because I was loving the t-shirt drawer so much, I moved onto socks, underwear, and undershirts (which used to be in 2 drawers).

In addition to all of the cleaning, I have explored my crafty side this summer. Here are a few examples.

How precious are these? And so versatile. These fabric flowers started as hair bows but while sewing a fabric flower back onto a favorite tank for the millionth time, I had an idea. Instead of sewing flowers onto the tank (like they are when you buy an embellished tank or shirt from a store) why not make it into a pin so you can take the flower off when you wash the shirt so it doesn't get deformed and fall off in the washing machine??? Enter the flower tank...

These (the flowers, not the tank-go to Target for that)will be on sale soon on our (mine and my sister-in-laws) website (snailsandpigtails.com), Etsy store, and Facebook page for $5. Don't look for these pages yet. We are working on pictures so stay tuned. (They make great gifts and can also be used to dress up bags, etc. Just saying...)

This little beauty took just about all of eternity to complete...

These will also be on sale at Snails and Pigtails for $45. Think that's a high price? Try making one. Seriously, try it. I'll see you in about 3 months.

And my latest creations...

The Sun Suit

Back of the Sun Suit

Lucy modeling the Sun Suit.

A hamburger and her Pinafore

Back of the Pinafore

These outfits were made for a cousins picture that will be taken next week at the beach. They will also be available for purchase soon. The Sun Suit is available in sizes 0-4t and will be $20-$25. The pinafore is available in sizes 0-3t and will also be $20-$25. I'm working on some flowers for the front of each outfit.

Amongst all of the traveling, cleaning, and crafting, we've had some very lazy days at home...

Lucy "fishing" in her kiddie pool. She was using a magnetic fishing pole to catch magnetic numbers and letters but, after beating the "fish" on the ground a few too many times, the fishing pole broke, so we improvised.

I had a sweet video of Lucy in a purple princess gown blowing bubbles and singing on the front porch, but again, it was taking forever to download.

We have also had some time to explore our new town...

"The Driver On the Bus..." at Tough-A-Truck day. The school bus was Lucy's favorite but the ambulance, steam roller, fork lift, and fire truck were also in the running.

And here is where I had planned to add a video of Lucy dancing with a girl she met when we went to watch fireworks in Augusta for the 4th of July but, you know, it took too long.

Hopefully this super long post with tons of pictures has made up for my lack of blogging the past few weeks. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

When Daddy's away, the Princesses will play...

In case you were wondering what Lucy and I do all day while Jeff is at work.