Teddy got new shorts!

It's been a long time coming, but Teddy's original shorts have officially been retired. They were pinned to him some time during Summer's chemotherapy treatments I think. Summer was the first to wear the pink and white striped shorts, size 24 months. They were put on Teddy sometime after Summer turned 2, but I haven't been able to pinpoint when by looking through old pics yet. I do know that she has been carrying the bear around since she was 1 year old. Anyways, the shorts are now shreds and don't resemble shorts in the least. They were replaced with a 3T size pair that both Summer and Lexie have worn. The transition was surprisingly easy. I found some shorts that had what I thought would be a cool and soft material like the other pair was because that is what Summer loved so much about them. They didn't get hot when she snuggled Teddy. Summer never complained and easily got over the loss of Teddy's original shorts while on a sleepover at Memaw's house last weekend. I had already pinned the new pair onto Teddy so when the old pair fell off Memaw put them in Summer's over night bag and that was the end of them. They are now being stored in our oak cabinet which also sports items related to our wedding and various trips to the beach. I also still have some of my original dolphin collection from high school. Some have already been passed along to Amanda and now Summer who inherited her big sister's old room. Cool thing is, they both like dolphins like me.

Summer seems to be testing me lately. Either that or she has just gotten more hyper / silly over the past few weeks. Her noise level is often irritating, and I am working on accepting it as part of who she is right now. The amount of energy a 5 year old has at times is quite amazing. Jumping up and down at the end of the day! I mean, seriously, where does it come from? She's over the nap stage so it's not an after nap second wind. She is a bundle of energy for sure and keeps me on my toes.

One annoying habit that she has right now is to tease me about how she and her dad are Alabama fans. She told me this morning after a walk with her dad that he switched teams and doesn't like Tennessee anymore. She boos me when I root for Tennessee, but I refuse to stoop to her level of poor sportsmanship. I am trying to figure out how to curb it without actually forbidding her to do it. I have tried to gently sway her to be nice and let me cheer for who I want to, but she is not going for it. Today on the way home she kept repeating and motioning "Alabama (thumbs up), Tennessee (thumbs down), Georgia University (thumbs toward each other)." She tried to get me to join her, but every time she said it, my thumbs went down first and up second. She tried and tried to get me to do it her way. But, I refuse to convert give Alabama a thumbs up. I guess you just had to grow up where I did to understand why, although my brother is an Alabama fan too. Let's just say he is a little more redneck than me. No offense Brad. :) Summer is a hardcore Alabama fan even though she never even really watches the games. She knows their color is crimson. She "roll tides" with the rest of them. She taunts me to no end. And although she looks really cute with her two new pairs of earrings and hair bow her daddy got her while we were in Tuscaloosa last weekend, I really wish that she would stop. It is not nice. She even got me to sing Rocky Top today just so she could boo me while I did it. Oh my! What is a mom to do? How do you instill a sense of respect for others in kids these days?

Who is Summer? A cat, a cheerleader or a witch?

Today was an unusually early morning for us. The girls both came into my room at 6:00 a.m. Lexie to snuggle and Summer to wake everyone up. So, Summer was redirected to the living room where she entertained herself for a few minutes by making something out of construction paper, tape, crayons and fuzzy sticks. Since they were up so early, they got to watch Barbie Rapunzel before school at Lexie's request. It is Summer's favorite Barbie movie too right now. We rarely ever cut the TV on in the morning because it considerably slows down the eating process so this was a treat. Summer had a frozen PB&J sandwich for breakfast and then decided that my potato soup looked yummy and dug into that too. She is such a non-breakfast food eater. The past few days it has been nachos with meat, beans, cheese and sour cream for breakfast. Unlike Lexie, she has to be forced to eat cereal.

The week started off great with Halloween parties at school. Summer wore an Alabama cheerleader uniform to school and saved her witch costume for Halloween night. We trick or treated on Carter Road and then went to a trunk or treat at Stuart Heights Baptist Church. They both were awesome. Clint was the only one not dressed up. Summer and I were witches and Trixie was a bat. We met up with some friends at the trunk or treat and the girls enjoyed playing games for candy. The inflatables were also a big hit and brought lots of smiles to the kids faces. Trixie was a little nervous although I carried her in a front carrier as we walked around. Of course everyone wanted to pet her. However, I advised against it seeing as how she sometimes gets snappy when she feels threatened. Kids are not always the gentlest dog handlers and she knows that. Summer is getting better though, and she loves being Trixie's mommy. She is thinking Santa might bring her a cat for Christmas this year, but I told her I didn't think so. She got one two years ago and it ended up getting killed. Evidently she thinks she needs another one, but I'm pretty sure Santa is going to say no to this idea.

Last week, we attended Disney on Ice for the 3rd year in a row. A lot of our friends came too, and we had twenty seats filled with friends when the show began. Summer dressed up as Tinkerbell and Lexie wore a fairy princess dress. It was a great time for the kids and adults. Time for mommies and daddies to catch up and little children to dream of magical characters. Summer left with a beautiful horse that she just would not let me walk away from. I tried to bet the guy selling it to me $16 that she would never play with it again. He didn't take me up on it, but I think I won that bet. Maybe she will surprise me though.

Summer's good friend Willow had a costume party for her birthday over the weekend. Summer wore a cat costume. Again, she did not want to wear the witch costume which she had chosen for Halloween. Luckily, it, along with the others, came out of our stash so we didn't have to buy any costumes this year. She enjoyed celebrating with her friends and is looking forward to the next birthday party which is at an indoor mini-golf place. Looks like along with school comes a slew of new party invitations!

She is really growing up so fast and learning so much in school. Her first report card was all plus signs. The teacher said only good things about her which of course made me super proud. She does need to work on some of her lowercase letters and numbers. Sometimes she gets them inverted. She also likes to start writing her letters at the wrong place and does not like to conform to correct penmanship as it is generally taught. I'm hoping she will get over her stubbornness and conform. There are times when conforming to other's ideas is good although I do understand that is not always the case. I am really impressed with things she is learning though and absolutely love both of her teachers. She is enjoying school too, but is looking forward to the next half day. She really wishes school weren't so long. Yesterday, she had a major meltdown when she left with her daddy so he could take her and Lexie to school instead of me. It was only the 2nd time he has done it so maybe she just wanted her routine drop-off with mommy snuggles and rock-a-bye baby in the hallway. But, she was not a happy camper when she left the house or when she was dropped off. I called her daddy to check on how it went and he said she whined all morning. Her teacher emailed me around ten to let me know she had been kind of weepy all morning, but that she was okay. I hated to hear it, but I am glad the teacher took the time to let me know how she was doing. I love, love, love this school!

I am a little concerned about Summer's health now. Scans are approaching and she has some urination issues which have me worried. She is urinating more frequently than normal (sometimes 3 times in thirty minutes) so I took her to get checked out. Her pediatrician says to just drink more water and cranberry juice and keep an eye on it. I hope this is all it will take, but I've got a weird feeling so I've got a call into her oncologist. I pray it will be nothing, and they will find nothing wrong with her. That way we can continue to live at peace and not in fear. Lord knows I love that little girl more than anything in the world and I don't know what I'd do if something else happened to her. With that said, I'm going to try to focus on happier things.

This weekend has a lot of fun in store for my little girl as she goes to a sleepover at her Memaw and Nanny's. I think it may even turn out to be a grandbaby sleepover which is great because she absolutely loves to spend time with her cousins too. I'll get a little down time, but it won't be as relaxing as I'd like. I'd say its a win-win though!! Bring on the good times.