My Three Loves

Random pics from 1st week of camp

This is how she looked when she got home each night.  Hot, sweaty, covered in sand, and naked by the time she got 1/2 way through the house.  Then out cold.  It was all I could do to get dinner in her, get her bathed and into her nightie and in bed.  

On day 2, Kendall got an award for patience.  Patience???  I am convinced that she uses up all of her patience reserves, and other select good behavior reserves, and by the time she gets home, the goodness is gone and Veruca Salt has possessed my child.  But yes, I will dutifully put it on the fridge to snort every time I pass by it show it off.

And we have more sleeping.  This was the night she demanded dinner at 4:45 and then was out for the night sometime between 5:30 and 6.  Had to carry her to her room.  She was much easier to dress as a baby.

New bathing suit purchased after the first day when it became apparent that out of her 3 suits, one fits but is "bumpy," another fits but the straps are oddly "crunchy," and the other one is obscenely small.  She is very proud of her first tankini!

Here is her Tribe, Ephraim 2.  All girls.  They've split all of the tribes into girls and boys and I think this is brilliant.  Out of the 7 other girls in her tribe, Kendall knew 5 of them, either from the JCC or Lamplighter.  She appears to be having fun despite the regular complaints about the swimming, the heat, the sand, walking too much, dislike of the water cones, etc, etc. 

She was most excited about Shabbat.  She hadn't been in school at the JCC in over a year, but she remembered every song!  And remember how she used to sing "Shut Up Shalom" instead of "Shabbat Shalom?"  I never corrected her because I thought it was so funny.  She sings the correct words now.  *sniff*  Going to be another sad day when she stops calling the balance beam the balance BEAN.

I have high hopes that maybe we can have a tear-free morning or two on week 2 of camp.  Fingers crossed.

This could be the start of something beautiful ....

... or ugly.  Not sure yet.  Last weekend, Kendall was up for an undetermined amount of time before I got up.  Mind you, I got up at 7, it's not like I was reliving my youth and sleeping 'til noon.  Kendall had fixed herself breakfast and was extremely proud of herself!  She moved a chair around the kitchen to stand on it to get a bowl, cup, spoon, cereal box and milk.  Only glitch was the milk hadn't been opened and she couldn't figure out how to pull the little round plug thing off the pour spout.  So she stabbed it several times so milk could (sort of) flow out.  She initially told me she did the "stabbing" portion of this project with safety scissors.  Then later in the day admitted that she used my good Henckels knifes.  I didn't want to know any more.  There was no blood on the counter or on the child  There was, however, milk all over my refrigerator.  But it was such a sweet gesture to let me "sleep in" that I'm encouraging it.  Tonight she got out two types of cereal, a bowl, a spoon, and put two pre-filled cups with milk in the fridge.

This new independence development both thrills and terrifies me.  Ginger follows her around watching her every move.  As much as I'd like to think that Ginger is "babysitting" my child, I'm pretty sure the dog knows where she's gonna score big time in the dropped food category.  Also pretty sure the dog isn't going to stop her from stabbing a carton of milk with a very sharp knife.

So my 5 year old daughter is getting up before I do and is making her own breakfast. This is good for both of us, right?  If she opens a door, the alarm goes off so it's not like she's going anywhere quietly.

We'll see how tomorrow morning goes.   And um, where's MY breakfast???

Update from the morning after:  Every single marshmallow from the Lucky Charms box was gone.  She ate colored marshmallows in milk for breakfast.  But I blissfully slept until 7:30!  

Home

Kendall's first week at Camp Chai has had it's ups and downs.  The main "up" being the fact that she's been so tired that she's been in bed and asleep BY 7:00 every night.  2 nights by 6:00.  The "downs" include crying every morning, the vehement hatred of swim lessons, the equal hatred of sweating, and the hour long carpool line.  This morning she was, as usual, in the car crying and asked "can't I just stay home?"  My sarcastic response of "you can't STAY home because you've already LEFT home" was met with an immediate guilt trip response of "But YOU are my home, Mommy."  So sweet.  And ouch.  

Dance Camp - Mini Recital

Kendall attended Dance Camp at the JCC last week and on the last day, there was a mini recital.  There were 8 girls in her class, ranging in age from 3 to almost 6, and they were allowed to wear anything they wanted to the show.  It was absolutely adorable and I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at how graceful Kendall is!  She is starting a weekly dance class at a studio up the street from our house next week.  The principal reason for this was because I didn't want to feel like I'd spent over $50 on dance shoes for a 5 day dance camp .... but after I saw her show, I realized that she really might be ready for it now!  At one point, she looked directly at me and said, "Look mom!  I'm not running off the stage!"  LOL!

Best Friend v. Poopy Head

Kendall: "Mom, if you get me some ice cream, I'll be your best friend."
Me: "Get your own ice cream. You're already my best friend."
Kendall: "No I'm not!" 
Me: "Yes you are. I get to choose my best friend. It's my decision."
Kendall (storming to her room): "Well I think you're a poopy head!"
Me: "Does this mean you're not going to get me some ice cream?"

Cue dramatic door slam. I didn't want ice cream anyway.

Mommy/Daughter Trip to Glen Rose, Texas

The weekend after school ended, 6 delusional enthusiastic single moms decided to take our five year old girls on a trip together.  

Below is a picture of Kendall's "packed" suitcase, which she refused to alter in any way shape or form because "there are socks, tee tees (underwear), a fancy dress, and two bathing suits in there!"  What more could she need, right ... besides the 3 fairies, 5 my little ponies, 1 stuffed pink bunny, 5 sparkly headbands, and 3 changes of clothes for the doll?

We all got there around the same time and met up at this sweet little restaurant called Storiehouse Cafe. A lady named "Storie" owns it and it is filled with books, toys, and retro toys from my childhood.  I would like to point out that these toys are retro.  Not antique.  Yet.  Anyhow, it was a really neat place!

The restaurant had a playroom.  This is what it looked like after our 6 tasmanian devils were finished with it.  When asked to clean up, they all just stood there looking around in amazement at their "work" and not one of them could figure out where to start.  Some (still enthusiastic) moms jumped in to help.  I opted to take pictures. 

I had one of these when I was little too.  Cocoa.  Pretty sure he was brown, though.

After we checked in to the hotel, a few of the moms and girls went to see Dinosaur Park.  Kendall and her friend Silke had no interest in dinosaurs and both Silke's mother and I were more interested in having a bit of downtime before a dinner that was most likely going to be an event that would test the patience of Job.

The girls had a bath together and had a blast and the moms had a mini happy hour.

All clean, dressed up and ready to go eat in the country!

I grew up in the country, but this was some serious country!  After about 30 minutes on a windy and pot hole filled dirt road, we came to this little farm with a little store and a little steak house restaurant.  It also had the friendliest dog in the world who appeared to be the personal greeter of the establishment.  He even put himself right in the photo of the girls like he's asked to do it 10 times a day.

Tatanka.

The place had a kids playground that looked fairly out of place, but provided entertainment for a while.

The food was amazing!  I think we had at least 3 little girl tiffs during dinner and at least 5 of them in tears at some point.  During this trip, there was always at least one girl crying, at least one girl who had just finished crying, and at least one girl who was just getting ready to cry.  The drama surpassed any reality show or soap opera I have ever seen.

The next morning, we all woke up at various times and had breakfast.  Then we headed out to Fossil Rim.  Fossil Rim is an animal sanctuary and they allow cars to drive through and the animals come right up to the cars to be fed.  None of us wanted to drive so we took one of the guided tours in a bus.  I'm pretty sure driving through that place would've scared the bejeebers out of me so I'm glad we did the tour.

I held the esteemed honor of having the only child actually fall asleep while on a tour through the wilderness to see exotic creatures.  

By the end, Kendall had to pee so badly that neither one of us was having fun anymore.  She didn't even want to feed the giraffe who stuck her head into the bus.  But I got to!  :)

Not sure what this little guy was, but he was hilarious.  And clearly starving.

Ostriches are hilarious.  They are also nasty.  This one got a finger of one of the little girls.  (that is not a finger in its beak in this picture, btw).  Didn't break skin, but scared her pretty badly.  Tour was over for her by then too.

This is how all of the moms felt at the end of the tour.  

We went out to one more meal together and the service was even worse than the previous meal.  The girls were losing it one by one.  Actually, two by two.  Pretty sure I heard at least one suggestion to just  to hand them weapons and tell them to make sure there was a clear winner.  Time to go!  3 of us left that day and the other 3 stayed one more night.  From what I heard about the dinner fiasco that night, I am really glad we came home when we did!  

When I got home, Kendall showed me the pictures she took with "her" phone.  I have to say I was shocked.  She had walked around the table and taken one sweet and one silly picture of each girl.  Best pictures of the trip!

Sweet Silke

 Sweet Ava

 Sweet Indigo

Sweet Lily

 Sweet Quinn

Silly Silke

Silly Ava

Silly Indigo

Silly Lily

Silly Quinn

Kendall keeps asking when we're going back.  Not until the brain cells in my head that are responsible for remembering the negative portions of the trip have been sufficiently killed.  Hopefully next year!