Fickle minds and ice cream

Claire and i were at an ice cream shop today while we were waiting to pick up Skye from preschool. it was sort of strange but nice to be just the two of us. we'll have to get used to that, especially since Skye starts kindergarten in September! while we were enjoying our ice cream cone, we saw another mum with two girls come into the shop. the mother was trying to help her older daughter decide what flavour to order. what flavour do you want? i want the white one. vanilla? yes, vanilla. are you sure you want vanilla? what about strawberry? are you sure you don't want strawberry? no, i want vanilla. are you sure? you're not going to change your mind? no, i want vanilla.

i couldn't help but smile. i have probably done the same thing with Skye. she always goes and changes her mind about things, so you can never be sure she wants what she initially says she wants. it's maddening and i try to cover all my bases, but of course, when i'm feeling scattered or forgetful, i forget.

well, Claire and i enjoyed our ice cream--we had a flavour called "imagine whirled peace". :)

Trials of growing hair

Skye has been wanting to grow her hair for a while now and i reluctantly agreed, hoping she was old enough to realize that long hair meant lots more time and care. at first, things went alright, but for the last week, we had been struggling every morning over tying up Skye's hair. finally, i told her she had to let me cut it off. if we don't tie up her hair, she complains she's getting hot and sweaty, yet she puts up a fight in the mornings over brushing (her hair gets pretty knotty) and whines whenever her hair hurts when i'm tying it up. i thought she'd be really sad over the hair cutting, but i think deep down inside, she is glad that her hair is now short and she doesn't have to do much with it. i asked her if she wanted bangs so that she won't even have to wear a barrette, but she decided that she wasn't quite ready for bangs.

i hope i gave Skye a fair chance. i really don't want her to feel like i'm forcing her to look a certain way, but at the same time, i'm weary of the constant battle over hair. i mean, come on, i have short hair for a reason and spend hardly any time in front of the mirror in the mornings. i'm not about to spend all my mornings trying to get my daughter to brush her hair so that it's not a tangled mess and then to tie it up so that she's not sweating like crazy.

for now, we are all happy with the new shorter bob; at least, until the next time Skye has a "i want long hair" phase.

Shopping for school supplies

so i thought i'd be smart and buy Skye's school supplies early. plus, we'll be travelling abit in August and i'd rather get it over with. so the girls and i were at Target and i was glad the section with the school supplies wasn't too crowded. i thought, oh good, we'll breeze through this. clutching the list, we made our way SLOWLY down each aisle. there was too much to choose from. what kind of glue stick? what kind of notebook? what kind of tape? i mean, you can spend an entire day doing this if you wanted to!

Claire wanted to participate in everything and grabbed all kinds of things off the shelves. at one point, she had even managed to pull out those price sheets in the plastic sleeves on the shelves!! when Skye was trying on backpacks, Claire had to try them on too and refused to take one off. i gave up and let her follow me around the store carrying a backpack as big as herself on her back. i managed to put it back on the shelf when she got distracted by something else. and then in the middle of all this, she pees all over the floor. i'm looking for an employee and there's none to be found. fortunately, i was prepared for once, with clean clothes in my bag. i stripped off all of Claire's clothes, hoping she wouldn't run off naked down the store, mopped up the pee with the wet clothes, got Claire dressed again, all in a matter of minutes.

i'm really glad i have to do this just once a year. :)

Skye's latest

didn't i worry about when Skye would ever learn to swim because she absolutely refused to put her head in the water? well, Skye is swimming like a fish now! check out the new movie of her pushing off the side of the pool--can you spot her among all the other kids? one day, it all just clicked. without any prompting from me, she decided to put her head in the water and when i asked her when she started doing that, she said she had been doing it during swim lesson, but of course had forgotten to tell me about it. after a day of doing that, all the other things started to come together. she is no longer doing doggy paddle, but actually swimming! and she is even going to the bottom of the pool to get rings and torpedoes!! it is unbelievable how quickly she is progressing now that she's made that decision to stick her head in the water. the next thing to conquer is swimming in the deep end...

Claire's latest

here are some things Claire is up to these days. because it is so hot, she has taken to going about the house in nothing but shoes, usually shoes that are too big for her. check out the new movie of her playing at the pool. she's such a happy baby when in the water.

Hey, Mama, take a picture of us for your blog!

yes, that is what Skye said to me the other day. so, here is the photo she wanted me to take! :)



and here is a shot of the girls looking very girly!

Starting night weaning

for the last month, i haven't gotten a good night's rest. Claire, who's actually been a much better sleeper at night than Skye (who used to wake every 2 hrs to nurse), was waking up quite frequently after a bout of illness. we decided it was time to night wean. i was a little concerned. night weaning Skye was not easy, so i was expecting it to be just as difficult, maybe even harder. well, it's been 3 nights and Claire actually hasn't cried much at all. she calls for me (i am temporarily sleeping downstairs) and Phil goes in and then she eventually goes back to sleep. she doesn't wake up as frequently, but i won't claim success until after a couple of weeks.