Pierogis, Fireflies, and the Park of Roses

Maliana ~

I was so incredibly proud of you on Monday of this past week. After not having been to speech therapy in two weeks due to illness and the Memorial holiday, I completely expected you to be the most ornery and uncooperative 3-year-old Miss Ashley had ever seen. Instead, you surprised both of us by working really hard throughout the session and making obvious progress in your ability to say various sounds we’ve been practicing. I sat on the edge of my seat as I watched you hammering out the exercises, holding my breath, saying the words silently along as a means to somehow coax them a little bit easier out of your mouth, and yes, I cried too. You know me. Mama the Crier. After therapy, you were hungry and so we went to Cici’s for dinner and celebrated with all the pizza we could eat. You once again surprised me by counting to 30 all by yourself at the table! What a wonderful way to start out the week with two big surprises from my favorite munchkin!

Later this week, the best way to describe you was Miss Cool. I took you to the library on one of the steamier afternoons after school and we picked out some new summer reading for you. While there, you insisted on wearing my sunglasses while playing on the computers…what a character!

the future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades

These particular sunglasses you have taken a major fondness to, telling me in the car one day that I need to go buy more because they were yours now. Man! Those are probably my favorite pair I’ve had in my life! Well, at least no one can say you don’t have good taste! Ha ha. Going along with the “cool” theme of the week, you also told Daddy on the way to school one morning that you wanted to have short hair like him. Upon further investigation, you actually want hair short so you can spike it like him. You seem very serious about this, but sorry dear; this is one battle that I must win. I’m just too in love with your little pigtails to go chopping away at your hair – in spite of Daddy chiming in that “Well, it would be cooler for summer.”

Thursday this week, I got a little “mommy time” and headed to book club with some of the other moms from the Fu Social Group. These moms have all adopted from China so it was nice to be around women who have shared this experience, seem pretty like-minded, get to read and discuss some good books, and have fun conversation too. It was much-needed downtime for me. While there, you and Daddy got to have some much-needed time together too and headed over to Memaw and Papaw’s house. You loved seeing them and they surprised you with some new matchbox cars, which was a nice treat.

happy girl

Friday was a rough day. Daddy and I had an appointment with an attorney to discuss creating a will and a trust for you. It’s been something we’ve been putting off for a while because of what a difficult thing it is to think and talk about. I only cried twice, which was pretty good considering. The attorney is really great too, so that helped. Uggh. I’ll be glad when everything is written up and we don’t have to think about it anymore.

Once home from the attorney, I needed to blow off some steam and so I went running. You wanted to come with me, so we headed off down the trail, with you chatting away. As we passed the swollen creek from all the recent rain, you asked if we could go creekin’, so I promised you we’d try to go next week. Maybe if I write it here in print, it will hold me to this promise. I was happy to hear that you enjoy doing stuff like that since there’s no better teacher than a kid outside, exploring nature.

Saturday morning you and I had a dentist appointment. But as we sat over breakfast, you made me smile by asking, “How was your work Mom?”…when I told you that I didn’t have to go to work on Saturday, you put your head in your hands as if to say, “Duh!” then tried again asking, “How was your run, Mom?” You are so sweet, trying to make adult conversation with me at the table. Very cute.

At the dentist, you did pretty well at first but got quite freaked out when they tried to clean your teeth in the room next to mine, without me there with you. I did not like that at all, especially when the hygienist called me over because you were upset and asking for me. I saw a single little tear rolling down your cheek and I felt awful. I’m still not sure why they thought that was going to be a good idea. You’re only three for crying out loud! After that, you came back in with me and sat on my belly while they finished cleaning my teeth. We tried again with you, but you were too upset for them to get anywhere near cleaning your teeth. That’s okay. We’ll just give it another go in 6 months! Maybe that time, we can coax Daddy back into the dentist chair too.

1st spin-brush to keep the plaque monsters away!

Coming home from the dentist, you and I were talking about all sorts of stuff. Every once in a while (on a daily basis actually), I randomly just stop everything, make sure you’re paying attention, and tell you I love you. Well, I did this in the car on Saturday, and you got all silly and said, “Nahhh!”…so I came back with “Yes I do! And there’s nothing you can do to change it! You’re STUCK with me!” Well, you thought this was hilarious for some reason…laughing the rest of the way home.

After the emotional roller coaster of the dentist visit, you and I took a long nap that afternoon. Daddy came in while we were sleeping and snapped this picture.

this is where you love to jam your feet whenever we sleep together

Refreshed after our marathon nap, all three of us headed out for a late dinner at a local Polish restaurant, Babushka’s Kitchen. We sat on the patio and you discovered you like pierogis, but not necessarily sauerkraut.

let's see what a pierogi tastes like

wide open mouth of approval

After dinner, we went down the street to the Park of Roses to play on the playground and to take a stroll through the roses that are in full bloom right now. They were gorgeous and smelled fantastic. As we got out of the car, you asked, “Mom. Dad. Can you smell the rain?” This in particular tickled me because I am always asking you to come outside and smell the rain if there is a storm coming, or I’ll ask you if you can smell the trees, flowers or grass as we are running on the trail together. When you asked us that question, it was just another cool confirmation that you are paying attention to those little details of life that make it beautiful.

You also made another major discovery in the life of a kid tonight…the fun of chasing fireflies! They had this perfect clearing in the park where it looked like the lightening bugs were performing a light show for us. As you ran from spot to spot, chasing their little glowing butts, it reminded me of doing the same thing when I was a kid. It felt magical and had me grinning from ear to ear as we helped you capture them one by one, then watch them fly away again. I felt thoroughly content and relaxed, albeit exhausted, once we got home.

working in their gigantic sandbox

sliding

saying hi to Uncle Dustin

perfect little seat in the tree

monkeyin' around

silly family shot with some of the roses

literally, stopping to smell the roses

being soothed by the fountain

on the hunt for fireflies

chillin' with Daddy at sunset in the gazebo

Sunday morning you and I worked on a gift for Daddy for Father’s Day, which will be revealed about a week from now. All I can say at this time is that you had a ball making it! A little later, Audrey came over to visit. We were going to go out to eat, but had a slight change of plans and ended up heading to the airport to welcome home some friends of ours who were bringing their baby home from the Marshall Islands. It was fun to be in the midst of all that excitement while we anxiously watched the gates for the first glimpse of baby Tyler and his mom, dad, and big brother Collin. I always enjoyed going to airports and wondering about the people there, where they were going or coming from, who was waiting for them, etc, etc, etc. Now, being there to welcome someone home from the airport has forever been changed and has become all that much more precious to me ever since you came home. I get it on a whole new level now, one that I never understood before July 16th 2009. It’s always an amazing experience to share and I’ll do my best to never miss a homecoming again if I can help it.

You were in rare form by the time we left the airport, tired and slaphappy. Lunch was interesting since you were so ready for a nap, which you immediately took once we left the restaurant. Once home, you slept for a while which allowed Audrey and I to chat uninterrupted. Then, when you woke up, we all played and you had Audrey and me laughing so hard at you and all of your antics. One example from earlier in the week of these particular antics included one of your toy microphones, which you pulled out, stood on your bed, and proceeded to yell, “Hi! I’m Mali! My Dad’s downstairs! Thank you! Good night!” Ha ha. What a character you are!

taking a bite out of burrito baby

And, if the week started with my doing the figurative cartwheels of a proud mama, it ended on much the same note. I was ecstatic to watch you wake up with a dry diaper for 3 mornings in a row this week, even waking me up one morning at 4:30am so that you could go pee in the potty! I couldn’t believe it! Overnight, you seem to grow up more and more…it’s super exciting and awesomely humbling all at once.

Love,
Mama