Last Day

Tomorrow is my last day of work. To be honest, I have mixed emotions. I'll miss the pay. :) I'll miss my colleagues. I'll even miss the kiddos. But I'm very excited to be home with Rylee again... even though she is going through a bit of a stinker-y phase right now... more on that another day!

Arguing

Rylee was watching TV the other day when she looks at me and says: "Mommy, they're arguing."

She was watching one of her kids shows so I was a little bit confused. "What do you mean they're arguing?" I asked.

"You know," she explains, "argh!" and she makes her little pirate face and voice.

Arguing... who knew? :)

Water Weekend

It was a hot and sunny weekend here in SoFla so Jon, Rylee and I stayed cool in the pool on Saturday. And I do mean cool - our pool has not yet reached comfortable swimming temps. Shiver, shiver.

Rylee kept us entertained with her Grease 2 performances: "Rock-a-hula Luau"...

 

...and "Cool Rider."

 

Today we hit a local park with a nice water feature. Rylee enjoyed herself immensely until a kid ran smack into her, basically tackled her, and she ended up flat on her back with a cannon full of water shooting her in the face. As the Out of Towners would say: "it all happened so quickly!" There were some tears from Rylee and some dirty looks from me aimed at the parent of the other kid. I didn't blame the kid, but I thought it was really rude that the parent never came over to apologize or even see if Rylee was okay. Rylee did venture back into the water eventually so hopefully this won't tarnish her love of that park.

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Rylee got her first pair of pumps the other day.
They are adorable and dress up she loves to play.

 

Since they are play shoes she can't wear them outside...
Hence the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!

 

Forgive me the very bad rhyme! :)

Rockahula Rylee

Recently Rylee found the hula skirt that went with one of her old swimsuits. The swimsuit is way too small, but the hula skirt still fit.

 

Here she is shaking her hula hips.

 

She likes her hula skirt so much that she decided she wanted to wear it (and her new swimsuit) on our walk the other night. Then she decided she needed her umbrella too. It was quite the ensemble. :)

 

Princess Rylee

Now that Rylee is in her big girl bed, my Mom decided she needed some big girl jammies: a nightgown! Rylee picked out the gown with Ariel on it (she's been watching The Little Mermaid lately). Doesn't she look like a little princess in this pose?

 

The gown even comes with little satin slippers which Rylee really loves to wear ("like Cinderella" - she's been watching Cinderella lately too), but the girl has a 2T body with 3T feet. The slippers are so small! It reminds me of Cinderella's stepsisters trying to stuff their big feet into the glass slipper. :)

Choo Choo!

Today we took Rylee back up to "The Farm" for train and pony rides. We met Norah and Miller and their crew at the train rides first.

Unfortunately the preggo ladies weren't allowed to ride so they watched from the sidelines and snapped photos for the rest of us. Chugga chugga choo choo!

 

After the train ride, we walked over to the stables. Miller was very excited to ride, but he wanted Rylee to go first so he could see how it was done. So sweet! Rylee got the horse named Misty again who was looking very stylish with a cute heart "tattoo" shaved into her hip. I wish Jon had gotten a picture of that. :)

It was the first time that Rylee rode alone (without someone walking along next to her). She did fine. Misty had some issues with my leading though. Twice she stopped and refused to walk!

 

All the kids seemed to love riding the horses. Norah (the little munchkin) got the biggest horse! Too funny.

 

Afterwards Jon, Rylee and I made a quick trip back to the train for a second ride, then we met up with the rest of the crew at Panera for a nice lunch. Fun times!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Rylee and I like to consider ourselves Irish especially on St. Patrick's Day. Since Rylee seemed a smidge too young to partake in the green beer this year, I decided to let her rock out in Irish tattoos instead.

 

Unfortunately she doesn't look too much like an "Irish Princess" today. We spent the day at a local waterpark hence the stringy, sunscreeny hair. I have no excuse for her "Popeye"-ish expression except that it was the best of the bunch! :)

Tidbit Tuesday

Some random Rylee pics for ya.

Rylee in a bucket.

 

Rylee in jeans! I don't know how I got "Miss Comfy Pants" into a pair of denim the other day, but I made sure to document it just in case it never happens again. :)

 

Rylee in her first pair of flip flops. Aren't they adorable?!

 

Unfortunately, like all flip flops they are a bit dangerous. This was taken about 20 minutes prior to her taking a serious face plant while out on a walk with Jon. Lucky for Rylee, Baby Elsie's face took the brunt of the fall for her so there was no bloodshed. Poor Baby Elsie! :(

Weekend of Fun

We kicked off Spring Break week with some fun weekend activities. On Saturday, we took Rylee to Jungle Island so she could see lots of interesting animals like this cute little monkey. (He was in an open area that you can walk through so we were literally this close to him when we took the picture.)

 

She and Jon "fed" some fish. They didn't eat a single pellet she threw into the water, but she still thought it was pretty exciting. There's another pic I didn't publish of Jon making a thumbs down. He thought it was a waste of his 50 cents. :)

 

Rylee begged (literally begged) for me to pay the 5 bucks to go in and pet the baby kangaroos. Luckily, that turned out to be well worth the money. She kept saying, "gentle, gentle" every time she pet them. It was adorable!

 

This little Roo turned out to be her favorite. She scratched him/her for a very long time and even stroked its ears (which she observed were "very long and soft").

 

Today, we had Miller, Norah and their parents over for some pool time and bbq. Sadly, I didn't think to get the camera out so I don't have any cute shots of the kiddos playing. You'll just have to take my word for it that they had fun! :)

The Princess & Her Pool

Rylee is very excited that pool season is upon us again. We had an especially nice day two weekends ago so we set up the waterpark in the back yard. :)

Ready, set...



... splash!



"This is fun!" is what Rylee shouted about a million times that day. :)

Big Girl Bed, Part 2

A while ago, I posted that Rylee started using her big girl bed (first for naps and then after about a week for night sleep too), but I never got around to posting about dismantling the crib! She's really not a baby anymore now!

Here she is saying goodbye to her crib...



Giving Daddy a thank you kiss for all his hard work (he does look a little sweaty)...



Excitedly getting ready for bed (I was hoping to get this posted in February for Dental Health month - you can tell I'm back in Kindergarten teacher mode!)...



The final look for now...



Someday there will be big girl bed part 3 when we actually lift the mattress off the floor! :)

It's hard to believe that our little girl is growing up so fast. It's exciting and terrifying at the same time. We're so proud of you Rylee!

Rylee Speak

More Potty Humor
A week or so ago, Rylee was having some constipation issues. Jon and I were making sure to keep each other up to date on her poop status. A couple of times she had small poops - too small to be considered anything other than "sharts." I'm sure you're familiar with the term, but Rylee isn't. So later that same week, she came up to me and said: "Mommy, you need to change my diaper. There's a shark in there." :)

Storytime
Rylee loves making up her own stories lately. They always begin with "one ponce a time..." and usually involve a princess and a swimming pool.

Patient
To Rylee the word "patient" must mean quiet (since I usually tell her to be patient when she's making noise and fussing about something instead of waiting nicely). I figured this out when she told my Mom and I: "Shhh. Be patient. I'm watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." :)

Word Girl
Rylee has yet to get into the question "why?", but she loves "what does (blank) mean?" For instance, "what does 'noises' mean?" (prompted by a reading of Goodnight Moon) or "what does 'children' mean?" (prompted by a reading of Brown Bear, Brown Bear).

I love that she's so inquisitive, but I don't want her to loose her Rylee speak too soon. What will I blog about then?

Birthday Bash Recap

Thursday was my 35th birthday and I have to say it was a delightful one. From the moment I woke up, I had birthday wishes from my family and friends in person and via voicemails, texts and Facebook. Rylee sang "Happy Birthday" to me when she woke up and was more than a little disappointed when she found out I had to go to work. She said: "no, no, no Mommy... presents and cupcakes!" :)

Work wasn't bad though. There was a card and piece of birthday cake sitting on my desk when I walked in (from the teacher next door) so you can't beat that. Plus my kiddos sang "Happy Birthday" to me as well. Even better, I left right on time so I could rush home for the festivities.

Rylee had bought me flowers and baked birthday cupcakes with Gaga.



My Mom had made a nice dinner for Jon, Rylee and I to share: country ribs, homemade augratin potatoes, salad and bread. But before we could eat, Rylee demanded we open the presents and cards. I got lots of nice things: money, gift cards, jewelry, and even a GPS for the car from Jon - totally unexpected! I got a special hug from Rylee too...



Rylee decorated each cupcake, then made sure we all got candles which she graciously blew out for us. Here she is singing the "happy" in "Happy Birthday."



It really was a delightful evening. And since we always celebrate birthday at least two (or more) times in my family, the fun didn't end there. Jon babysat Rylee yesterday so my Mom and I could have a girl's day. I was out the door by 9:30 am and didn't return until 10:00 pm. We shopped, went to the horse track to be on the ponies, had dinner at the Cadillac Ranch, and vegged and watched a Redbox. It was so much fun to just gab with my Mom uninterrupted (no offense to chatterbox Rylee).

I guess getting one year older isn't so bad afterall... :)

Happy Birthday Dad, Part 2

After graduation, my Dad continued to help me with life's big changes. He walked me down the aisle at my wedding, helped drive us across country when we moved to Texas, and helped us move and paint when we bought our Florida house. If there's work to be done, my Dad will be there!

And now he's taken on another important role: he's "Papa" to my Rylee.







What fun the two of them have together!

I know my Rylee is blessed to have someone like my Dad love her "this much" because I am loved by him too.

Thanks for everything Dad. I love you "this much" too!

Happy Birthday Dad, Part 1

I wanted to do a little retrospective for my Dad's birthday, but I've only run into snags:

- First, it was going to have to be late (between work, Jon being out of town, and my Mom having a friend visiting, there was no way to get it done for his actual birthday).

- Second, as you'll see, I didn't have any photos from 1951 - 1972 or 1978 - 1998! (Mental note: I really need to get possession of all the family photos.)

- Third, Picasa started acting up and refusing to upload any pictures. I had to upload them the old fashioned way from Blogger. Yuck! (Anyone else having this problem with Picasa? WTF?!)

So here is a much different (and much more lame) look back. Sorry Dad! :)

Before my Dad became an awesome, self-sacrificing, workaholic provider, he was just another college kid. Lovin' the hair, Dad!



Then, one day, my Mom happened to catch one of his softball games. I can't remember if he was playing shortstop or first base then, but I do remember she thought he had cute legs. So she lured him in with her feminine wiles and possibly the promise of a free haircut.

And so the two fell in love and got married. Oh, how I wish I had photo of my Dad on his wedding day. Let's just say you would have been awed by his lavender tux with black trimmed lapels. :)

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Shannon in the baby carriage! (My Dad does look pretty cute in his softball uniform!)



Much fun was had between father and daughter. Here's me, at Rylee's age, playing beautician like my Mommy. (Incidentally, this was the photo I mentioned back around Christmas when I posted the pics of Rylee fixing Jon's hair.)



So now we're entering the photoless years, but here's what you have to know. My Dad was my greatest champion. He attended every recital, every tennis match and gave me pep talks at my dance competitions. And when I went to college, he made sure I had everything I needed and sent me "good vibes" for all of my tests. They were some good "good vibes" too. I did graduate with a 4.0!

But being the wonderful Dad he is, he knew that his job (and his financing apparently) weren't done when I graduated. :)



Tune in tomorrow for more...