Small Pleasures

The amazing teachers at Berry Patch had a fun theme at school last week: Dreams and sleeping! They talked about dreams at circle time, on Wednesday they had pajama day, and on Friday they took a field trip to the fabric store, where all the children picked out their own material to make pillows for themselves! Rosalie's is pictured above. This girl loves her star pillow.



Another thing she loves is strawberries-as-thimbles.



Cute story unrelated to strawberries and pillows: The other day we were playing a game we made up called "The Hugging Game." It goes like this--- I sit there on the couch and do nothing, and she runs into the kitchen. Then, "unexpectedly," she runs towards me from the kitchen, and she hurls herself at me. I scoop her up, hug her, and attack her with kisses and a cookie monster munching sound. She laughs. Then she gets down and says, "I want to do it again," and trots back into the kitchen.

After a few rounds of this, as she heads back into the kitchen, she suddenly stops and turns to me with a grave, teacherly expression. She warns me, "If you get up, we won't be able to play this anymore."

"Okay," I reply seriously, understanding the consequences. I continue to sit on the couch.

Getting Rolling for Valentine's Day

In this picture, Rosalie is explaining how to fold a Valentine, and how a person opens it. Michael's out of town tonight, so Rosalie and I took the opportunity to assemble Valentine's Day cards for her friends at school. Her teachers are hosting a cupcake decorating party tomorrow evening, and I believe we'll also be exchanging valentines.

We recently bought some Hello Kitty cards and she helped me pick out stickers that we could tuck into the envelopes. She picked out three types--smiley faces, fish, and butterflies. When we stuffed the envelopes, I'd tell her who the card is for, and she'd tell me if that person would rather have the faces, fish or butterflies. Then she stuffed the envelope, licked it closed, and decorated the front. I went ahead and wrote the names, in case the other kids didn't recognize her interpretive abstracts in their honor.

I must say, this process was very fun. I must also say, we were high on chocolate. Look closely at Rosalie's face in the picture. She's sleepy, sugar buzzing, and she's rockin' a chocolate goatee. Do I know how to solo parent, or what?

Anyway, cuteness updates:
Rosalie's recent favorite activity is to "make a show." I'm not 100% sure what this means, but it's orchestrated on her blanket, as pictured here. This is Rosalie Making A Show.


As you can see, it involves significant, favorite props, such as the "pom balls" as seen on Bear's lap, the sticker shapes from her birthday party, her two new kitties, and a cup of iced herbal tea. This is truly the life. She loves to do this.

We went to Michael's parents' house this weekend and had a lovely time with Grandma and Grandpa, along with puppies Bailey and Zoe. Rosalie's favorite times were playing ball with Zoe and playing with sand on the beach. She took the shells I collected and then hid them by burying them in the sand. Then she would say, "Where are my shells?" I would not recommend this form of hide and seek with valuables. It lead to a wee bit of beach drama.

When we were driving home to Seattle, Rosalie enjoyed the winding roads, and she requested more of them: "Can we go on more curly roads?"

Supercuteness!!!