It Ain't Easy Being a Princess. . . .: Lovie

*adorable, crazy smart, great sense of humor UNTIL it comes to laughing at herself. Super sensitive. Bit of a drama queen. Silly with Mommy and Daddy, usually quiet around others. Extremely well behaved where ever we go. Becoming more and more of a picky eater. Introspective. Adorable little lisp. And just a little bit weird :)

height: 42"
weight: 37 lbs.
shirt: 5T (barely)
Pants 5T (again, barely. She still fits into an 18 month in her waist, but needs 5T for her long leggies)
Shoes: 9.5

loves:
*Lovie. Forever and Always. I asked her the other day if she was going to give Lovie to her little girl one day, after reminding me AGAIN that she is NOT going to grow a baby in her tummy, she is going to get one from the baby store, she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "NO! Lovie is MINE!"
*Dresses. Dresses. Dresses. Period. The end. Dresses.
*the color pink.
Pink Dress? DOUBLE BONUS! She has recently informed me that she wants me to paint her room pink and get pink "covers for her bed" and a pink rug for her floor. (little overload maybe?)
*Drawing.
Morning, noon, night. In the dark. In the light.
It doesn't matter. The child LIVES at her whiteboard. LIVES. As in, sometimes I relish the hours, yes HOURS, of silence it provides, other times I start to get a little concerned that she has no interest in doing anything else in the whole wide world..
When she can't be at her whiteboard, such as in the car, she has her "notebook". This is any spiral notebook with enough blank space on a page for drawing. We have about 40 of them.
Seriously, drawing is all the kid does.
When I force her to take a small, begrudged break from the whiteboard, like to eat or go to the bathroom, she likes to play with her doll house. Briefly. Until I say she can draw again. Are you starting to understand??
Lately, something new has developed, with each drawing comes a song, long and detailed about the picture she is drawing AS she draws it. I've tried and tried to catch it on video, but she refuses to let me.
*her imaginary friends.
Jacob, Alice, ET, Destiny, and Alexandra are just as much a part of our family as Beau and Lily.
*Beau and Lily.
*playing on the computer.
Nick Jr. and Starfall are 2 of her favorites.
*cities.
She loves them. The big buildings. The bustling atmosphere. The noise. The lights. She loves it all.
*Barbie.
I can't wait for this phase to pass.
*Princesses
*having her picture taken.
Good thing since I'm her mom!
*tulips
*Ballet
Mostly just making up her own in the living room.
*the #8. It's her favorite #. When we first started math she could not write a nice 8 to save her life, but quite unlike her, she didn't give up, and now writes them like a #8 writing professional!
*snuggling and having her arms and legs rubbed. (Just like Mommy. Poor Daddy. )
*broccoli and cheese
*cheeseburgers with NO CHEESE. But not hamburgers!
*grilled cheese
*classical music
Suites from the Nutcracker are her favorites
*being at home.
She comes by this naturally. Like me, she is a homebody.
When we CAN get her out of the house, she loves
*going to the movies
*the Children's Museum
*THE ORPHEUM. Musicals. Ballets. It doesn't matter. It's wonderful and magical to her. I love that.

*the book Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis.

dislikes:
*the colors black and brown. They "are not beautiful". I happen to disagree.
*pants in any form: long pants, capris, shorts. If it's not a dress, she doesn't like it.
*not being able to draw. It's her own personal version of hell.
*the dark. It scares her. A Lot.
*having to go anywhere in the house alone, without Beau and Lily at her side. Something about their company makes her super brave and able to conquer anything. Even the dark.
*anything remotely scary. Even if it's funny, but a little scary, she does not like it and will fret over it at bedtime.
*anything that is not "beautiful". This mainly means things that are not pretty colors, sparkly, or uber girly.
*dips of any kind-no Ketchup, no ranch, no nothing.
*the thought of actually having a baby. Growing it in her belly, delivering it. According to her, none of that is ever going to go on inside of her body! She is getting her future children from the baby store.

Current favorite baby names:
Girl: Lay-lo. Don't ask where this came from. I have no idea. All I know is that she was seriously ticked off when we told her we weren't naming the new baby Lay-lo.
Boy: Troy Bolton. From High School Musical the movie. Kill me please.
BUT she is not naming HER baby boy this bc she is not having any boys. Only girls. She wants me to help her make sure she only gets girls at the baby store when we go one day.

Currently learning in School:
-addition.basic $$ counting. Telling time to the hour, half, hour, and quarter hour. Counting by 2s,5s,10s. Bless her heart. She inherited Mommy and Daddy's "gift" of math. Poor darling. At least in real life, basic math is all you really HAVE to know. Maybe by 3rd grade we will have mastered addition.
-reading. Not really doing a structured phonics/language arts curriculum. Just doing a lot of reading together. Her ability here never ceases to amaze me. As a book lover, it makes me so proud every time she reads me a story or new word. Daddy and I are constantly surprised at the words she can read. Each night as she reads us her bedtime story (yes, she does that now. It's a little sad) there is always a word we think she will stumble on, but more often than not, she just reads right along without any hesitation. We get prouder and prouder every time.
-State capitals
-science. this year we are learning about our bodies. The skeletal system. Our heart. Nerves. Veins and Arteries. The senses. etc. We are covering each topic lightly, and will get more in depth next year. I think we might do a little study on the planet Saturn soon though. It's her favorite planet. . .because it's the prettiest. Love that girl.
Sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down and not get caught up in the whole "are we learning enough" guilt trip. She IS only in Kindergarten. There are going to be many, many more years to learn the essentials, and she will have the rest of her life to learn anything else she wants. Maybe we won't be adding double digits or know every bone in the skeletal system by the end of the year. But we will have learned a lot, laughed a lot, snuggled every day, and spent immeasurable amounts of quality time together. And those things are more important than anything else.

Funny things she says and some she has outgrown :(:
"Accordion to" instead of according to
she doesn't call band-aids "boo-boos" anymore :(

"Praptice" instead of practice
When she sings Mama Mia's "It's a Rich Man's World" she says, "It's a Rich Man's Squirrel"

"Strawberrian Orchestra" instead of Trans-Siberian Orchestra
"As you insist" instead of "if you insist". The mere fact that she says anything resembling "if you insist" is funny to me.
Now she just asks for Lucky Charms instead of "Delicious Yucky Charms." This was one of my most favorites. I'm super sad to see it go.
For the longest time, she'd ask for a drink of "fresh, cool water before bed. now she just asks for a drink. Boo.

This list is constantly growing as I think of more.

Well it never fails. Every time I finally decide, this is it, I am going to start updating my blog regularly, I fail. Months go by. Nothing. Then after some ridiculous amount of months, I have to do some massive update. I tell myself I'm too busy or too tired or just simply don't feel like it. Then I see a friend's blog-someone who is WAY busier that I am, and it's beautifully up to date with entries almost daily, and I really feel like a loser.
This time is no different. It's been months; be ready for a billion pictures. I'm not promising anything, but just like you can't give up when you fall off the diet wagon, I am not giving up on my blog! Wish me luck, and let the picture bonanza begin!!

July was a fun month, we went on our annual Pickwick trip/family reunion. This was a pretty big trip for the Princess as it was a time of many firsts:
This year she decided that it was time to be brave, and boy was she ever!!!!

She did a little jumping

She did a little skiing. To say she loved it would be a massive understatement! She was quite upset when we told her she wasn't quite big or strong enough to do it by herself. So she settled on skiing hands free with Papa.

Of course there was some swimming (but this year she wasn't afraid to go under!) and a whole lot of tubing! She even did a little "extreme tubing" just like the big kids!

And was generally just plain cute!

August was another busy month for the Princess.
She started Kindergarten

And then we very quickly decided that homeschooling was the way to go for us! We couldn't be happier with that decision. Since the Princess has been able to read since she was 3 and a half, but isn't quite as super awesome at math, it has really allowed us to personalize her education. In fact, even though technically she is in K, she is actually doing first grade work in all of her subjects except math (and even it is an advanced K math program)! Little smarty pants! I'm so proud of her!

Also in August, was another major family development. . . we found out we are pregnant! SURPRISE!

Then came September.
WE WENT TO DISNEY!!!! That little announcement deserves its own post, which I promise to do. But here is a pic to get ya in the mood. It's crazy cute, so be prepared.

September was a little slow; we didn't do much because we were too busy getting ready for our Disney trip.

On to October.
We spent lots of sunny afternoons playing at Papa's

And of course there was Halloween! It was a lot of fun! We had tons of family and friends over for yummy pre-trick-or-treat dinner, and then set out for a night of candy getting!

Although a lot has changed over the past few months, the Princess has gotten taller, her reading has gone from good to really great, she is actually starting to grasp the concept of addition (PRAISE GOD!!), so much is still the same.
She still spends hours, and I literally mean HOURS a day drawing

She still has her imaginary friends (which I LOVE) and although her list of "friends" grows almost every day, the old favorites are still around. I really will miss Jacob and Alice when she eventually outgrows them.

She still adores her Lovie