I just don't know.

I remember when Jenelle was 3 and she kept asking "Why?". I did not enjoy that stage of toddler hood. I found it annoying. I had read somewhere that a parent should respond with "Why do you think?" Jenelle would just say to me "Why do YOU think?" Well I feel like we are revisiting that stage in a way.

Jenelle is just full of questions! All the time. At least the questions are interesting and not just "why why why". Today she asked why her middle finger was bigger than all the rest. Good question. I have no idea. We had a whole big discussion on her heart the other day. She wanted to know why she could feel her heart beat in her neck. So we discussed arteries and how the heart beats. She was fascinated. She was asking today about her immune system. Oh my! She is in a very inquisitive stage. I have a really good memory, but I don't remember a lot from science and biology with a lot of accuracy. I did get an A in biology in college. But that's because I bought a bunch of practice tests and memorized all the answers. Maybe not the best way to learn, but I got an A! But I digress, back to Jenelle.

She has been asking about sharks and a bunch of other things that I have no clue about. I guess we'll be getting even more books from the library. I have about 60 books from the library at home right now. Curt laughs at me about all the books. Jenelle and I love to read, but I'm not going to buy books. We read them once and return them. Some of the really good ones we'll read twice or I'll wait a few months and check them out again. I just checked out a really cute book about a Spider who wants to become a family pet. I guess I need to go get a book about sharks.

Happy New Year

Hi everyone. I haven't been in the mood to blog much. January is a tough month. I miss Christmas and all the decorations. January is just cold and depressing. There isn't much to look forward to. Just more cold and snow. I think I'm coming down off my December sugar high. :)

We've been getting back into the routine of things. Jenelle had a good week back at school. She had two birthday parties over the weekend. One was a spy kids party. We have been writing clues and doing scavenger hunts since this party. It's a lot of fun. I usually take one of Jenelle's stuffed animals and hide it. Then I write clues that she reads herself. She goes all over the house tracking down the clues. She thinks its great fun. Jenelle also takes my things and writes me clues.

We do have some exciting news. We are done with pull-ups! I bought Jenelle some new Tinkerbell underwear to celebrate. She was not happy with her gift. She wanted a toy. We are also going to buy a new trash can for her room. It smells something horrible. We are getting a plain white can so she can decorate it herself. We are in a very crafty stage right now. She is very into painting, coloring and cutting. Generally she is into making big messes. She has made a million snowflakes. Everyday she wants to make a million more. I keep throwing them away.

Ice Skating

We went ice skating today. We heard about an outdoor rink at the Belmar mall. So we drove up there. It was a warm day, but VERY windy. The ice rink was in a wind tunnel and it was shady and small. So we drove back home and went to our local indoor rink.

Jenelle has never been ice skating before. Her little ice skates looked so cute on her. She could barely hobble out to the rink. We tried skating with her, but we were doing all the work...holding her up and pulling her around. We noticed the other kids had these little ice walkers so we got one for Jenelle. Check out the video below.


Jenelle started out ice walking. She walked all around the rink a few times. Then we taught her to glide. She would walk, walk, glide. Walk, walk, glide. At the end of the day Jenelle was going really fast and turning. She had a great time. We were going to go out to lunch, but Jenelle didn't want to leave the rink. I think we found our winter sport!

The best present ever!

This present has come as quite a surprise to me. Jenelle has had a dry pull-up for four nights this week! Jenelle has had a tough time staying dry for a 2 hour nap. Two weeks ago Jenelle had a nap on the last night of Awana and she stayed dry. She told EVERYONE at Awana about her dry pull-up. Everyone praised her and told her how great it was. Of course, praise coming from someone else must make more of an impression than praise from mom. That's ok! Hopefully, this is a new trend and I can stop buying pull-ups. She is going to have a sleep over with Eme this week. She asked why. I said she could have sleep overs now because we don't have to worry about her peeing on her friend in the middle of the night.

Buyer's Remorse

Jenelle has been asking for Pixos for over a year now. It's a craft thing with a million little colored balls that stick together when wet. A little over a year ago when there were all those recalls for lead paint, Pixos was one of them. Apparently, Pixos is now out in the lead free version. Jenelle has been asking for them again. I spent way too much on Pixo and bought the starter set.

Today Jenelle woke up with a dry pull-up. She made it all the way through the night without going pee! Usually the pull-up weighs 3lbs in the morning. This is a very big deal so I gave her the Pixo as a reward.

The Pixo box says for ages 4+. It should read 8+. I was so frustrated with the thing! I thought it would be a craft that would require very little parental help I was SO wrong. She needed help loading the pen. She needed help holding the pen. She needed help switching to a different color on the pen. She needed help dispensing the balls out of the pen. She needed help getting the balls to land in the right spot once dispensed. She needed help spraying the water to make the Pixos stick. It took over an hour to make one little dog. The finished product isn't even that sturdy. I know it will break soon.

I wish I never bought Pixos. If you have one wrapped underneath your tree, take it back to the store! There are much better crafts out there.

Pixo update: She is doing much better. She even made her own Christmas tree.

The Nutcracker

I haven't blogged in a while! We've been busy this December. We went to see The Nutcracker a few weeks ago. We went downtown and had lunch on the16th Street Mall. We did a little window shopping. Jenelle got to ride on Daddy's shoulders and then we we off to the Ellie Caukins Opera House to see the Nutcracker. Jenelle has had a few years of ballet lessons and she loves to dance so I thought it would be a fun thing to do. I've never even seen the Nutcracker.

We had seats in the first row of the 4th balcony. When we were walking down to our seats, Jenelle got a little vertigo. I was even a little dizzy. We were WAY up there. Jenelle sat on my lap for the entire performance. My favorite dance was the snow fairies. It was so beautiful to see the ballerinas dance while snow floated down upon them. Jenelle was fascinated by the whole thing. I think she even picked up some new ballet moves!

Am I old or am I young?

I went to the ARC thrift store today. Jenelle is going to be an angel in the school Christmas play and I needed a white shirt for her. Well Tuesday is senior citizen day at ARC. So as I was checking out the cashier asked if I was a senior. I said, "what?" "Are you a senior citizen?" I think (I HOPE) the guy was just asking everybody. I might have some gray hair, but I'm not going to qualify for the senior discount anywhere. I won't be going to ARC on senior's day anytime soon. :)

We went to the mall after ARC. They have a bunch of skin care kiosks in the mall. You can't get around them. They seem to all be staffed with good looking young men and women with European accents. So some guy asked if I wanted a free lotion sample. "No thanks." Then he says to me, "How do you take care of your skin? You have great skin. Tell me what products you use." He goes on to lavish me with more compliments and questions. I said, "I eat green leafy vegetables." He said, "Let me guess your age." At that point I walked away. He wasn't being sincere. He was just trying to rope me into his product line. After being insulted by the ARC guy it was nice to be complimented by the lotion guy.