Happy Horns Day!

I have no idea what Horns Day is, but Jocelyn is celebrating with Gusto!  She's running around the house dressed like this yelling...

Happy Horns Day!!!

I hear we're getting snow tomorrow, yes SNOW!  At least she will be prepared.  I, on the other hand, will be hunting down the groundhog that led us to believe Spring would be here by now!

She still fits!!

Pretty much since Jocelyn became mobile, one of her favorite hideouts has been the pots and pans cabinet.

St. Patrick's Day 2009

May 2009

June 2010

Tonight she headed back in .... 
I wonder how much longer she's going to be able to play in there???


St. Patrick's Day Eve 2011



Here it is!... and just in time too!

Here's my new toy!  A brand new Honda Fit!

Last night, we were FINALLY able to pick up the new car.  The dealer had a tough time getting the color, style, and manual transmission all together in the same car, so it took a while for them to find it for me.

After owning the Hyundai Accent for 11 1/2 years, I feel like I am driving a luxury car!

As luck would have it, I think the Accent heard that it was taking it's final voyage last night because (NO LIE!) on the way to the dealership, the engine light came on and it started bucking like crazy!   This was typical for when the oxygen sensor has died in the past, but REALLY!  Did it need to happen on the night we were trading it in???

We pleaded with the car to "just please, please, please, make it to the dealership so we didn't have to be towed", and luckily it listened.

So needless to say, all nostalgia and tears were striped away, and relief set in.  YES!  We had made the right decision at the right time, to get rid of the car.  And guess, just guess, how much we got for the trade in value...



$100 smackaroos! 

Yep! 



Yes... I know I am pathetic

Last week, we took my 11 and 1/2 year old Hyundai Accent in for the 120,000 mile service.   It has about 117,600 miles on it, but the repair shop had recommended, since the car is so old, and since I am a stay at home mom and don't do much driving, that we should do the service a little early, "just in case" and I'm glad we did. 

It seems my little car needs way more repairs than we want to put into it.  This is not an unexpected situation, but it has put us in the market for a new car.

But I can't complain.  I bought the Hyundai Accent in 1999, when I was a newly divorced, single woman living paycheck to paycheck.  It was my first new car, EVER, but the payments certainly stretched my tight budget at the time.   I am the: "drive it till it dies" type of car owner, so I liked the Hyundai warranty, and since I was on my own, I needed a car I could count on.  And hey, it had the two amenities I wanted, air conditioning and cup holders!
(Side note:  as to the "...  till it dies" reference, my last car was a salvage car that I bought from a junk yard for $2500.  It had previously been vandalized and they had replaced all but the driver's side door, so my key didn't work in any other door!   I traded that car in with 165,000 miles on it!   I got $200 when I traded it in for my current car.  The car before that, the floor boards rotted out, and the door hinge rusted, and the door fell off!  So it was towed to the junk yard.  How's that for "...  till it dies"???)
 :-)


Now I'll get to the pathetic part...

Fast forward 11 and 1/2 years and the Accent has been exactly the kind of car I had hoped for.  I have no complaints.  It has served me well.   But I admit, I am sad seeing it go.  This car has been with me through 3 job changes, including my current occupation as SAHM.  I had this car when I met Pat, and when I moved in with him.  I drove to our wedding in this car! 
I drove to the hospital the day they admitted me, and two days before my daughter was born.   I wrestled her bucket carseat into this 2-door car for the first 16 months of her life!   I've taken Jocelyn to every Dr's appt in this car.  She and I have sung songs, talked about the world, dodged raindrops and one threat of a tornado in this very car! 

So ok, I know it's ONLY a car, but when you hang on to a car for as many years as I do, there's bound to be memories involved.  I guess I just have to look to the new car (stay tuned, we're still working on that) for some new memories, like preschool, the first day of kindergarten, playdates and girls-only shopping trips.  And really, considering how long I keep my cars, I may just be driving this new car to Jocelyn's high school graduation!!

Potato Project

So this morning I asked Jocelyn if she wanted to try a new project with paint.  She was raring to go!  I brought out the paint, the smock, the brushes, the plastic to cover the table, etc., etc., etc.   I decided to have her try to do some potato stamping.   I used some little cookie cutters to cut shapes into a potato, gave her some paint and let her go.
It didn't quite come out as I had envisioned.....

We started out ok...

But then something went a little crazy...

And then I lost all control...

But she had fun and that's all that matters, right?
I did learn one lesson though...  Save the bath for AFTER the paint project!



Duck for dinner

Looks like Jocelyn is making us DUCK for dinner!

Jocelyn Umm... playing tennis???

There is no end to Jocelyn's imagination lately.  Yesterday, while I was drying her hair after her bath, she started playing with my head bands.  Nothing new, except this time, she elaborated a little.
Keep in mind, there IS NO BALL!

I'm sorry it's a little dark, but if you get nothing else, you can hear the delightful giggles from my little one!

Jocelyn Doggy

Recently it has come to my attention that Jocelyn is becoming very good at imaginative play.  She "cooks" in her kitchen, makes tea with her tea set, and feeds her baby doll.  She often says that something "is kina like" something else, such as cords are like jump ropes, and rice from her rice table can be like meatloaf (although I'm not quite sure how she makes that transition).
But my favorite lately is Jocelyn doggy.  My daughter has decided that she is Jocelyn doggy.  Yes!  She calls herself that!   She got a straw out of the drawer and decided "it's kina like a bone", and she wants us to throw it so she can retrieve it.  It seems odd somehow, but is it really bad if she asks us to do it???
She crawls around on all fours saying "woof woof!"  But my favorite is when she jumps in my lap and pretends to lick my face! 
I'm of the mind that she can go with it as long as she's having fun.  Why not?!  But I'm not completely sure anymore, how to answer when someone asks me if I have a pet!   :-)

Sooo Bigggggg!

On Tuesday afternoon, Jocelyn had her 3 year pediatrician appointment.  She was so unbelievably good through the whole appointment, and everything they did with her, including the shot!  The nurse measured her weight, height, blood pressure and temperature.  The doctor listened to her heart and lungs and checked her out from head to toe.  Jocelyn was unsure about what was going on, but she handled it beautifully.  It may have helped that I took her along for my checkup a couple weeks ago, so she had seen how I handled some of the same things.

Anyway, our little munchkin is certainly growing!
She is 35 inches tall, keeping her securely in the 10th percentile for height.  (Our child is doomed to be short)
But she has gained 7 pounds in the last year, jumping her up to the 30th percentile for weight!  (I knew she was getting heavy to carry around!)  This alleviates any concern I may have had for those days where she refuses to eat anything!

Last year Aunty gave me this really nice growth chart to keep track of our little one's height.  If you look closely, you can see her progress along the way.  At one month old, she wasn't even tall enough to make it on the chart.  (It starts at 20 inches and she was 16 1/2 inches when she was born!)

 But now you can see how she is making progress up the chart.  My little peanut is growing up!

I just hope she doesn't grow up too fast!

No... Not MY CHILD!

I swore my child would not be a TV addict, but it is a battle I fight daily.

If we have something to do that takes us out of the house, or we have friends over to distract her, then she is fine, but any time she has the slightest bit of down time, she wants TV.  Now that's not to say anytime she wants it, she gets it.  Ohhh Nooo!!  That's also not to say she gets to watch anything and everything.  She almost never gets to watch TV with her sisters because there's no way I want her watching the crap they watch, I don't think THEY should even be watching it, but that's not under my control.

Anyway...
On the flip side, Jocelyn is starting to get into actual movies with a plot, something more than a 13 minute Elmo's World clip.  She's also getting interested in some of my favorite Disney movies.  (I knew I had been collecting them all these years for something!)  Here are some of her current favorites.

Now if you are not familiar with Shaun the Sheep, it was created by the people that created Wallace and Gromit.  There's not much educational value, I have to admit, but it is good clean fun and entertaining for all ages.  I say that because not only does Jocelyn want to watch TV, but she wants to snuggle with me while she does. 
So, no, my child is not going to be one of those kids that watches TV 24 / 7, but when she has some down time and wants to snuggle, then I take every opportunity I can to do just that.