Monday, October 24, 2011

The NC State Fair

Against better judgment we went to the fair on a weekend. I dreaded the experience, but it was the only time we could go. I was sure it would be wall to wall crowded and just a mess. But, it actually turned out really well. Remember, we live in the Bible belt so we ventured to the fair at 930 am on a Sunday morning with the rest of the heathens.

We ate breakfast at the fair and it was so yummy, biscuits, eggs, grits, coffee. Miss M was too excited to eat, but dude and little lady ate most of the food. The baby ate half a biscuit, grits, and eggs. The dude ate every piece of egg that was on all of our plates. Miss M saw a clown and wasn’t afraid, even let the clown hold her hand and give her a sticker.

After breakfast we went to the rides and the kids loved the swing and a pirate ship. The two older ones went down a big slide. The dude rode this flying swing where he laid flat (he was afraid of this ride in years previous). It was then that Miss M wanted a snack. One of her favorite words, she asks for “snack” at least 50 times a day.

After a few rides we went to the petting zoo, the biggest hit with the two older kids. Baby napped during this. Miss M even fed the goats and a camel directly from her hand. Then, we went to the apple shack and got peeled, sliced, cored apples for the kids and a dumpling for us. Then got kettle corn (our routine) and headed to ride a few more rides. The dude went on two huge slides and then both girls got to ride the carousel and we were done. We did miss the stunt show that we watch every year and were kind of bummed about that. But we headed home about three hours after we arrived just as the crowds were piling in. Guess I would do the fair on a weekend again, but still would prefer a weekday so I could see some exhibits. We missed all of them.

The petting zoo:

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The slide:



Friday, October 7, 2011

Random Post and Updates

I forgot wordless Wednesday so I am going to start my post with a picture I took this week while out on a walk. The girls are big enough for the wagon and they are super cute riding in the wagon together, talking, playing, laughing, giggling. Purely magical.

The Wagon:

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I actually have had the wagon since my mother-in-law bought it for the dude's first birthday. It got used a lot when he was younger then sat outside for the last few years until this year when I started using it again. The only thing I had to do was order new straps from Radio Flyer and it is as good as new. Love when toys and stuff can be passed down. I think it will get a lot of use this Fall and next Spring/Summer for little walks around the neighborhood and if I get real ambitious to the pool next summer, but that is a long walk.

The dude is doing good and is actually turning 8 this week. Pretty big deal! I still can't believe how big he is getting. This was the first year that he has realized he is younger than most/all of the kids in his class. He got mad when I put 8th Birthday Party on the invite. Said, "why'd you have to write that?" Um, I think because that is what you are turning. But, he is very excited about his upcoming party. Wondering if he will get presents on his actual birthday and for his party. I think we will do a small dinner/cake/presents on the actual day.

Baby D was sick this week and I took her to doctor only to realize that she had ruptured her ear drums and had a sinus infection. Her only symptoms were she was a little cranky Sunday night and Monday she had stuff oozing from her ear. She is a real trooper and never really complained. The doctor even pointed out that she is cutting her molars. I am surprised she is not complaining much because she really let us know when her first few teeth were coming in. Screeched, cried, gnawed non-stop. Of course, when you start teething at 3 1/2 months, I am sure it is pretty uncomfortable.

In big news for Miss M, she is wearing underwear (or panties as she calls them) starting this week. I am pretty impressed with how well she has done, too. On Monday she had one accident at lunch, I am sure she thought someone would steal her food at daycare if she left the table. Tuesday it was during outside time, she couldn't be bothered to finish peeing on the potty when she could be outside playing. Wednesday was at snack time and right after the picture above was taken. No accidents on Thursday or Friday. Still in diaper at nap and bed time, but I am getting closer to only have one in diapers vs. two. Her quote of the week "Mama, I big girl, go pee pee potty!"

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Bad Hair Day

I have been struggling with M’s hair a little lately. I think part of it, maybe feeling a little insecure. I know perceive that I am judged more as a white woman doing her hair. I am learning slowly but surely and some days we have really good hair days and it looks super cute and some days I struggle and it looks a bit rough. I need to experiment a little because I just don’t feel like she needs to rock the twists in pony tails all the time. I mean there is only so much you can do to make it look different, 5 pony tails with braids, 7 pony tails with twists, barrettes on the ends, no barrettes, scrunchies, colored bands, bows, no bows, etc. I want her to be able to wear it down, but I haven’t been able to master that yet though without a 30 minute detangling session afterwards.

I also want to make sure I am taking good care of it. So I read a lot about products and have spent a good bit experimenting with products. I know I got her conditioner down and I like the leave in I am using, but not sure if her shampoo is getting it clean enough while still helping and not doing any damage. Sometimes I only condition and sometimes I wash and condition (never washing more than once a week except this week which I will get to in a minute).

I read a lot of blogs on hair and follow one in particular pretty closely, Happy Girl Hair. Ironically, I think M’s hair is very similar to her one daughter and Baby D’s hair is very similar to the other daughter. I also recently started reading Chocolate Hair, Vanilla Care. I used the latter to learn a new style, rope twists and flat rope twists and decided to try it out.

I left M’s hair out yesterday knowing I was going to wash yesterday or today. It was pretty cute, but her dad just rolled his eyes. Last night I washed it, got all the stuff together and styled it. It took about 2 ½ hours and I was so proud of myself. It turned out pretty darn cute for my first try and I was excited that it would probably last 2-3 weeks. She was so good and patient through it all. I took one picture of it.

Her Hair:

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Fast forward to this afternoon, we went to the pool but it was closed so we came back home and I decided to cook dinner. I let Miss M watch some TV and started cooking. The show was almost over (all 30 minutes of it) when I hear her say “Ouch Mama”. I rush over to the couch to find her comb stuck in her hair, her hair and face covered in hair grease, her hands covered in hair grease, nice little hand prints in grease on my couch (about 5 of them). Her hair style was ruined and that was just the start of it, she had used about 2/3 of the bottle of hair grease on her hair mostly.

I was so mad, not just at her, but at myself for leaving her hair stuff out. Who knew she could open the bottle. We finished last night around 11:30 and I was tired and didn’t want to mess putting it back in her room where the baby was sleeping. (Will never make that mistake again)

I had to wash her clothes and wash her hair four times and I didn’t even remotely get most of the grease out. It is so bad. I re-styled it tonight in larger rope twists but I think I will need to wash again soon. I just have no clue how to get it all out. Ugh! It is also not how I planned to spend my Sunday night before a busy week. The washing and re-styling probably took 2 hours.

I know people that don’t have a kid with hair to do won’t really understand how crushed I was when I saw what had happened.

Hubs says I should just keep taking her to get her hair braided but I don’t think that can be the only solution; I need to be able to fix it, too. I am learning, it just seems like it is such a steep learning curve. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, this is what I wanted a little girl to do her hair and dress up. It doesn’t mean it can’t also be a little stressful.

When I feel really bad I tell myself it took me almost 30 years to learn how to take care of my curls and I still have bad hair days, so I can’t expect myself to know everything right away. People love to be helpful and tell me, Miss D’s hair will be easier. I am not so sure, it will be different, maybe a little easier in the sense it is closer to mine and the dude’s. I think I will still need to learn some. I also don’t want to start the mindset that it is hard because I want her to love her hair (I LOVE her beautiful curls, I love how cute she looks in the water and bath with her curls circling her face). It isn’t hard, it is just different than what I am used to.

I didn’t take any pictures of the mess. At one point I did laugh to myself that I actually had something worthy to send in to Shit My Kids Ruined. I was just too caught up in trying to fix the situation.