Friday, February 26, 2016

The Rise and Fall of Skippidy

Maybe it's not good to need to dedicate another entire post to just one of my children but....Skippidy has had a lot of really memorable moments over the past month and I am just going to go ahead and do it.

Let's see...what are the things I want to remember?  Lets start with something positive.  Skippidy is starting to figure out how to text.  I know this really isn't a very big deal, but her first text ever to me was so cute that I had to screen grab it and save it forever:


Yes, I know - the spell check did a number on her spelling but I thought it was adorable.  And then on a drive the other day she got ahold of my phone and left me this very sweet little note.  I'm going to have it framed: 


Keeping it forever!  And I'm going to need it because my next story is also about her leaving notes for people but is slightly less charming.  The other morning Skippidy and Bitty got into a fight and got pretty nasty with each other.  They both got in trouble and I decided that as part of their penance they had to do something nice for each other.  Bitty took a few minutes to settle herself down before finding a little treat and bringing it to Skippidy and saying something nice to her.  Skippidy, however, was much more stubborn and stayed pouting in her bed for a very long time.  I finally suggested that she write a note to her sister to say she was sorry and she agreed, so I brought her a notecard.  Skippidy carefully wrote her note and delivered it to Bitty before heading off to recover and play.  Remind me next time to read her notes of apology before offering her forgiveness.  It wasn't until the next day that I came across the note and here's what she had to say:


In case you didn't get that, it says "I said sorry like 100,00 times and you didn't listen! from Emma. P.S. Did you listen?"

Very apologetic I'm sure.  Little stinker.

Luckily our little gal has many more adorable moments than stinky ones.  One of the best ever was a day early this month when her class celebrated their 100th day of school.  In her class, her teacher has the kids dress up like they are 100 years old.  Skippidy took right to it and absolutely threw herself into her aged character.  It was HILARIOUS.  She instantly started hobbling around with her little umbrella/cane, glasses perched on the end of her nose, and for some reason speaking in a British accent.  Oh my heart, it was so funny.





Her wrinkles were done by her big sister and a washable marker.  It was actually quite impressive!  





And now a confession.  Almost every night, little Skippidy crawls up into my lap as we're having family story time.  She curls up like a baby and falls asleep.  And I do nothing to stop her, I just rock her like she's still one year old.  I can't help it!  At some point I know she'll stop, and until that day, I'll let her get rocked to sleep as much as she wants.












Going on Dates

We are having some warm weather now that we've hit the end of February, and although I'm sure we'll get more cold and storms, looking back on the wintry month of January, it sure feels like we've accomplished something just by making it through. Troy and I have been really making a conscious effort to be more active and actually leave our house with the kids, taking them on little outings and dates.  We've had some fun times over the past few weeks.

Here are a couple of our favorite excursions:

One fun evening was when Troy took the girls out to go spend their Christmas money from Grandma.  Skippidy couldn't make up her mind but Bitty only needed one glance at the BB8 mug sitting on the Disney store shelf before her heart was won.  We have since discovered that BB8 holds a very large amount of liquid.  It's really more of a family mug.  Bitty has found that a pint and a half of hot chocolate really is a bit too much at any one time.


Another really fun outing was the night that I ended up driving some girls to a birthday party in Draper and I brought Skippidy with me. I needed to find a way to kill two hours that wasn't staying with her at Boondocks because my brain would have exploded.  I'm so sorry if this comment is offensive to anyone but those indoor arcade game pizza party places test my will to go on living.  So. Loud.  Anyway, I decided that Skippidy and I needed to check out Scheels - the giant sporting good store in the south of the valley.  Not that we needed any sporting goods, it's just that that place pretty much has all the attractions of a mini amusement park.  A ferris wheel, a shooting gallery, a bowling alley (although the place is so huge I couldn't actually find it), a little restaurant, treats everywhere.  We had so much fun.






Skippidy finally spent her grandma money by picking out some Shopkins toys and this wretched little game called "Beanboozled."  We had heard it was a fun and daring game played by flicking a spinner and eating a jelly bean of the color it lands on, each color of jelly bean having the possibility of being one of two flavors.  One would be a normal flavor like pear and one nasty flavor like booger.  We thought it sounded silly.  The next day when we gathered around our new jellybean game with excitement.  We hit the spinner and each popped a jellybean in our mouth.  And then the game wasn't fun anymore.  My first bad flavor was moldy cheese and the only good thing I can say about this game is that the makers really went above and beyond to make some seriously nasty flavors.  This is not a fun game.  Do not play it if you ever come across it.


This is the gang of girls at the birthday party who were bravely enduring (aka LOVING) Boondocks

Another sunny but cold Saturday afternoon Troy and I really wanted to see ourselves as a happy active family who goes on outings together.  We were kind of thwarted as we tried to head out, finding a few destinations on our idea list to be closed.  We ended up bowling.  Skippidy beat me.  I am not a good bowler.  Of course, she had the bumpers up, but still.  We munched on french fries and fried mozzarella (a revelation of a snack to our kids).  The only sad part was that we didn't discover until the shoes were rented that our darling daughter Bitty really hates bowling and refused to participate.  She bravely endured the sidelines while the rest of us did our best to knock the pins down.




I have a feeling that some day she is going to really hate me for posting this picture.



So yes, we did our best to get out and about a time or two in the winter months.  Now the sun is shining and the kids are all off with friends and don't seem to need us to provide activity and entertainment quite as much.  I'm glad we put in a little extra effort during those chilly days!