I think she may be starting to look three

Exhibit A: Jayla at the Houston Comets game tonight...



She looks like a real-live little girl. I have no idea when this happened.

Almost Three

My child will be three years old in a month. I've been thinking about this for the past few days as I'm attempting to plan her birthday party. It is so entirely cliche to talk about how fast it has gone by but, it really really has. I remember telling someone last year about how fast the second year had gone by compared to the first. And oh my goodness, I was so not prepared for how fast this third year would go by even compared to the second. It is unreal.

And I say I can't believe my baby is almost three but, at the same time, she picks out her clothes now. That has been her thing lately - I am not allowed to pick out what she is going to wear nor does she tolerate me helping her to actually put the clothes on her body. She demands the opportunity to do it on her own. The best thing about this? The girl knows how to put together an outfit. I'm really not too worried about what she decides that she wants to wear because it is bound to be something that is relatively cute together.

Even this morning...I was worried about what she might bring out of her room to show me because most of her outfits that were bought together as an outfit and obviously go together are in the dirty clothes hamper. I was relieved to see that she decided on a solid yellow shirt and solid blue bottoms. She's never worn those two pieces together but, neither were they offensive together. So, yes, my child is at school right now wearing the third outfit that she has picked out and dressed herself in this week. I'm thinking that's a very "three" thing to do...sort of like her rite of passage into the club.

Company Picnics: The Next Generation

This past Saturday, my little family and I attended my husband's company picnic. They do it every year but, this year was the best yet. It reminded me so much of when I used to go to my dad's company picnics as a little girl. They were always in September, right after school started back. Their picnics were a big deal because almost everyone I knew in our small town had at least one parent that worked at the same company where my dad worked. So, "everyone" was there. I think they used to call it "Friends and Family Day" or something like that...and it was a blast.

It's still weird to me to think that twenty years have passed since then and now my own child will be gathering the same type of memories as we continue to do things like this year after year. This morning out of the blue she started talking about when we went to the "beach" and I helped her dive under the water and daddy helped her swim. "Yes, baby, I remember that too...and also, it was H&H Ranch in Northeast Houston but, you're quite welcome to call it the beach if you'd like."

He has know idea that I am posting this

Oh wow - I didn't realize that I haven't posted anything since June! Life for us has been incredibly normal and not terribly busy but far from boring. In other words, it's been very nice around here lately. And since I really don't have anything else to say, I leave you with the most entertaining aspect of our 4th of July holiday.


We went to a "block party" at our church and played BINGO like the old people that we have apparently become. My husband managed to win a round of BINGO after I left him with my card, having deemed it to be a complete loser and incapable of giving me a simple BINGO. Given the opportunity to pick any prize he wanted, he jumped at these sunglasses/straw and procedeed to drink his lemonade through it. As he drank, the liquid circulated through all of the plastic you see on his face. It worked but, he reported a strange plastic-y taste to his drink. But what is really important here is that I laugh every single time I look at him with those ridiculous things on...

Jayla even joined in the fun:

A Tale of Two Weekends

On the very first day of June I declared that I needed the month of June to just be over already! Between working a contract training gig for a week, teaching the two-year-olds at Vacation Bible School for a week, and taking a trip to Mississippi while taking 9 credit hours in summer school, it was a very busy month.

Last weekend had been on our radar screen for 7 months. It was my husband's birthday, Jayla's dance recital, and my family reunion. During those weeks where Jayla wasn't cooperating at dance, I went back and forth about whether or not we should just forget about the recital and go to Mississippi for the reunion instead. Ultimately, we decided to stay here, celebrate my husband's birthday on Saturday, attend Jayla's dance recital on Sunday, and fly to Mississippi early Monday morning to catch my grandmother who had come down from Chicago for the reunion. It all worked out as planned but, it was hectic and I lost another week of productivity because the Internet is just entire too slow to be productive at my parents' house.

My husband seemed to enjoy his birthday even though my creativity yielded him a belt as his only birthday present. We went to IHOP for breakfast because that is what we do for birthdays around here. We spent some time at the Museum of Natural Science where Jayla saw her first 3-D film in the IMAX.

She was too cute. The show was about dinosaurs and she spent 60% of the show with her eyes closed so the dinosaurs wouldn't scare her. She never flinched or made a sound but, almost every time I looked at her, her eyes were closed. We finished the day with dinner at the Downtown Aquarium.


Early Sunday morning Jayla and I had to be at her dress rehearsal (7:45am!!) while my husband picked my mom up from the airport. The recital was later that evening. I am glad that we did the recital because Jayla totally stole the show! She was adorable.


Then we left at 7:00am on Monday morning for a few days in Mississippi where we visited lots of family, including my grandmother, and I started the process of de-stressing from the month.


So, I am here to report that I lived to see the end of June and I'm vowing to spend July relaxing just a little bit more. I've still got school going and I need to spend some time catching up.

For this final weekend in June, my little family sat in the house and did nothing. Well, on Friday night we made our annual trip to Kemah Boardwalk with some friends to see the fireworks. Otherwise we only left the house to go let Jayla play at the park after dinner last night and to church this morning. The busyness of the last month made this weekend of nothing seem so very sweet.