Empty house

It's hard to believe how big Summer is getting. I can hardly lift her 40 pounds anymore, but notice I said hardly. I still lug her around when she needs a lift, but not to the extent I would've a few years ago when she was Lexie's size. The other day she jumped and landed on my belly. It was not a good moment, for me anyway. It hurt, and I was trying not to get too mad. I think I succeeded. I know she didn't mean to do it, but nonetheless, she pounced on me like a dog on a cat. I'm not a big wrestler or brawler so I'm not sure how much more I can take of her climbing on me like she's a monkey. I still like to play with her in the floor, but when she steps on my hair it can be painful. We need a yard with a playground so she can monkey around out there when she's feeling frisky. Well, maybe we don't "need" it, but I guess we all want it.

This morning we took a walk. After waking me up at 7:02 with the words "Mom it's morning," we proceeded to the couch for an episode of Little Bill. (I think that's what it was.) It inspired me to get up and get going so we had ourselves a little walk just like the boy on the cartoon had with his grandmother. Of course, we didn't get to see a goose and her goslings, but we did enjoy a sculpture garden. Summer lucked out because the sprinklers were watering the plants which gave her the opportunity to run through the water. And, yes, she made me do it too. It did get rid of her bed head hair so it was like a blessing for us both. I let her lead the way until we got back. Then I announced we were taking the stairs. She did pretty good alternating her steps all the way up. She did try to tempt me into a confrontation by starting off not doing it that way, but I ignored it which seemed to work. :) Go me. We have not been doing a whole lot of working on her motor skils, but she is pretty active and not having any problems so I think she will be okay. We did do a follow the leader type activity on our walk where we walked on our toes, heels, hopped, kicked and walked backwards. Her contribution to the activity was hopscotch type jumping. She loves to get her exercise. Sometimes when we do something physical, she will say we are exercising. She enjoys it too so that is icing on the cake.

Art camp started today. The teacher said they would be painting and making clay so I hope Summer gets her fill of crafting for the day. We have been working on a frog puppet for a few days now. She hasn't really had the attention span to finish it. The coloring of the tongue seems to be too much for her to do at one sitting. We both colored an eye, and I colored the arms. Maybe one day it will be complete. In Sunday school yesterday, we made puppets. Summer got to make the Jesus puppet for our puppet show. She didn't put any clothes on him, but rather drew the body, belly button included. She also gave him pink hair. Now granted, I did give the kids the option of white, pink, black or brown hair, but I didn't think the pink hair would be the one used on Jesus. I guess I should've when I gave it to Summer though. She was so excited to be the one who got to do him when I was handing out the bags. Before church, Summer's angel Brenda gave her $7 to buy something special with. This lady has always had a special thing for Summer and brings her gifts on holidays and special occasions. She has Summer's pictures hung on her walls at home. Well yesterday the occasion was just because there weren't any holidays coming up. Anyways, later that evening, we took Summer to the Learning Express toy store. She had found $4 in her wallet which she put all her money into before we left. I also put a 20% off coupon in there that I had found the day before. On the way there, she talked about this air pogo toy they have. We discussed that is was a lot of money ($200), way more than the eleven dolloars she had. She always loves to play on it when we go there. So, I was surprised that she did not even go near it the whole time we were in the store. She looked things over. She searched for the winged horse she had seen in there once before and wanted. But, it was not there. She looked over the expensive furry animal dolls. I was glad she didn't pick one of those because one little family is $21.99 (or close to that). She saw a wood picture frame with a cat that would be a fun craft and initially picked it. Then she saw the mosaic art kits and set out to find the perfect one for her. She got the one with unicorns. When we got to the car, Daddy noticed the price tag said $16.99 and he remembered her only having $7. She explained that I had given her the rest of the money to pay the $14.?? total. I didn't think it was worth it to make her pick something else when she was so excited about a craft that we can all 3 do together. And, that's just what we did when we got home. We sat in the living room floor making a beautiful picture of a unicorn and a rainbow. And, that was priceless.