Not Quite WW - Putting it on Paper

Lately everything she does blows my mind.

"Mommy!" she called, filled with pride. "Look! I drew a mitten! It's orange with a nice purple thumb!"

"See?" she asked, showing me how her hand fit right into the beautiful mitten she had drawn.

And I stood there with my jaw dropped, nodding in agreement.

Yes, she had drawn a mitten.

And it looked just like a mitten.

When does this happen? This ability to think it, and make it come to life on paper?

To really make it come to life - not just in her eyes, but in the eyes of everyone around her.

The most wonderful (and sometimes scariest) part of being her Mom is that this is just the beginning.

There is so much more to come.

WW - This Face

This is the face I kiss a zillion times a day.
This is the face that makes me worry a zillion times a day.
This is the face that gets me in trouble a zillion times a day.

Her soft, dreamy eyes. Her perfect little heart shaped face. Her sweet smile.

I could not love her more.

WW - Let's Get Messy

Proof for someday years down the road that I was the cool mom who let you do fun and messy things like finger-painting. And you loved it (so did I!)

WW-Fashionista

She picked the entire outfit herself.

For real. Head to toe.

We have NO idea who taught her the model posing moves. They're ongoing, and slightly annoying when it comes to trying to get good pics these days.

But if she's not the most precious thing I've ever seen, I don't know what is.

In the ever-famous words of the Church Lady, we like ourselves, don't we?

Almost WW - Summer to Winter

When the MH begged to wear a certain dress to school yesterday, I had to offer a little help in revising its original look to accomodate the weather (read: I didn't want preschool to call DCYF on me). As I did so, I thought about the last time she wore this dress, and was entirely overcome with a huge rush of emotion!

This picture was taken on her first day of preschool, at the end of August

This one was taken yesterday morning before school.

My little Mad Hatter is going to be FOUR just two weeks from this Sunday, which is hard enough to digest. Then I look at these two pictures, taken just 5 months apart, and am floored by how different she looks to me.

In the first one, she looks so little. So innocent. So full of excitement about the new journey she is about to embark on.

In the second picture (which is one of about 10 because she's quite the little fashion model poser), I see such a different person. She LOVES to go to school. She has many friends (including most of the parents). After just 3 days at school, her teachers dubbed her the official "Welcome Wagon".

I am more than anything blown away by what a different child she has become in the last five months. She is really is no longer a baby.

She will always be my baby, but she really is a little girl now.

A bright, vibrant, beautiful, intelligent, caring, and quite intuative little girl.

All of which adds up to one very proud (and pretty sappy) Mommy.

Editor's note: when I first posted about MH's first day of school, I got MANY comments asking where I got the dress. It was from Baby Gap, early summer. I saw it and knew we had to have it. And I'm so happy I was able to "winter" it up!

Edited again to add: this post probably should have been entitled "Not Quite WW!"

WW2 - The epitome of Fall

WW - Girlfriends!

I finally found my MIA camera, and was excited to find these pictures I'd forgetten I'd taken! MH and her girlfriends - she is already learning the importance of having "her girls" as she calls them!

And yes, that makes THREE of them who own "the giraffe dress"!

WW - Pumpkins!

Almost WW - Mad Hatter Style

Who says a girl can't like sports AND ballet? Not in this house! We're equal opportunity providers - Mad Hatter style.

Don't we love the bowl hat on hat look?
Notice that the hat perfectly matches the Mardi Gras beads.
No doubt, the girl knows how to accessorize.

Now we've decided to go back to our original color pallette of pink and white.
And you know, not all ballerinas wear ballet shoes.
Crocs work just fine. Even better with lots of bling.

Ever fashion forward, MH needs to model Mommy's new red sunglasses (also from this trip) before Mommy wears them. Who says red and pink clash?

Pensive . . . hmmm, what new fashion should I try out next?

Almost Wordless Wednesday - More RI Love

I am finally beginning to accept the fact that summer is over.
Yes, I'm aware that the temperatures have been dropping and there is a definite chill to the air first thing in the morning and later in the day.
However, I continue to hold out hope for a small taste of Indian summer.

Since my Top 5 Tuesday list was devoted to reasons I love Rhode Island, I thought I'd use Wordless Wednesday as a way to highlight one of my favorite reasons I live here - the absolute beauty of our summers!

One of my favorite views on the way to the beach: the Jamestown Bridge

A home I adore at one end of our beach (which without my fabulous new camera, I'd never be able to capture in such amazing detail!). Oh, to roll out of bed and onto the beach!

Cannot stand seagulls (I actually believe they are rats with wings) but somehow I find amazing beauty in this photo DH captured

The gorgeous view at the opposite end of the beach - this summer we enjoyed many family "treasure walks" down to these rocks, collecting quahog shells, stones, and anything else the Mad Hatter deemed worthy of trekking home with us (we even found a Starfish AKA sea star that we convinced her to put back into the ocean, as it was still alive)

Summer may be fading fast over, but our memories of this summer will surely be treasured for many months to come! They'll also get us through the feet of snow we're sure to endure in the long New England winter!

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday

Yesterday was The Mad Hatter's first day of preschool! A post with details will follow, but in the spirit of Wordless Wednesday, I had to post some pics! WARNING: I had a hard time choosing, so there are quite a few! Family and friend eye-candy . . .

Brushing our teeth so we don't have "dinosaur breath" (and inadvertently giving Mommy the finger! Check out the hot pink nail - we had a mini-mani with our haircut last week, and she picked it all herself, complete with bling-bling glitter overlay!)

Getting the giraffe dress on was way more important than underwear! Now we pick not one, but two pairs!

She thinks she's ready to go, but we need to do something about that hair!

A headband will do the perfect job!

My little wild woman - so excited! Still need to brush that hair!

Sharing a moment with Daddy

Ready, set, go! The new backpack is almost as big as she is!

She just had to go in Daddy's car!

So proud to be here!

Bob the Builder was there to greet us! Even though she barely knew who he was, she was enamored! Silly Daddy got a kick out of him too and borrowed his hammer!

Me and my most special girl in the playground right before going in

Oops! Those Oreos aren't real (we're going to have to work on that pretend eating thing a lot more, and Mommy's already stressing about all the the preschool germs!)

Stay tuned for all the wonderful details of the first day - she absolutely loved it! So much, in fact, that we've been up and active in this house since 4AM - she wanted to know if she could go back today. Now I have to explain why we only go two days a week . . .