Getting Spring Under Me

Thank you for all of you thoughts and prayers in the loss of my grandmother. I appreciated them. With the weather getting warmer and the sun making it's appearance much more frequent it is easier to move forward and not dwell on sad things. Shiloh and I are trying to make it outdoors as much as possible and soaking in the smells of spring.

Easter was an interesting day for us. It was planned that we would wake up and go to the early service at church, then come home and take naps before we go to friends for lunch. Then we got a call that a friend of ours that lives in Israel was in town. She wanted to come by and see us before she left. I said great what time....7:30 am before early service. Oh... that is early I thought, but I love her so we said ok see you then. Well about 7:15 am my cell phone rang and it was the hospital. I was being called in for an 8:30am case meaning that I couldn't;t be there any later than 8am. That pretty much blew our little breakfast plans and church out of the water. Rose, our friend, came over and we chatted while I got ready. Then I got Shiloh up and let her open grandma's Easter basket that she sent. It was happily received with all of it's healthy snacks and bubbles. Then I went to work for a surgery that lasted till 11am. I stopped by my friends house again to say bye and she left for the airport. So much for a restful day. However we went to our friends house and ate lunch and watched Shiloh and her little friend Bella learn the right and wrong ways to go up and down stairs. There were some tears associated with that. For dinner we went to some other friends house for desserts and some Swiss Family Robinson fun. It was a pretty good day.

Shiloh is a very independent little girl. I say little girl because she looks like a little girl and not like a toddler. She is taller than most other toddlers and the way that she makes her way around the playground you would think that she was 3 yrs old already. We try to go to the playground at least two to three times a week. She will climb the jungle gyms and find the highest slide that she can and with a huge smile go do it without any help. If you try to help her she will wave away your hand and start stomping her feet. I do follow her around the jungle gym through tunnels and down the slides because I still think she is too big for her britches and would like to be close by when she finds that out. She loves climbing and is really good at it. Outside is her favorite thing no matter what you are doing. However I have found that I need to start letting her know that we are leaving at least 30 min before we have to go so that when I finally pick her up and head to the car the tantrum is a little less severe. She has been known to arch her back, kick her feet, hit, and scream when having to go inside. I have had to kick my discipline into high gear and tame the tantrum quick. I read in one of my parents as teachers papers to ignore tantrums. "WHAT????" HOW???? It is impossible to get a toddler kicking and screaming into a truck into a car seat and ignore the behavior. I think those people are the same people who are trying to figure out why their kids are in therapy now. I had Steven look up Missouri's law on spanking in public so that I wouldn't be called out without knowing what was legal. You have to be so careful about that stuff. Most of the people around here would probably call me out for not spanking her though. "-)

We went to the zoo today with some other moms and it was great. I haven't been to a zoo in about 4 yrs, and never with my own child. It was a strange feeling pushing my stroller along with 5 other moms and strollers through the zoo. We pointed out the animals to the kids and they starred and "ooo'd". The most favored attraction for them all was the playground though. They all begged to get out of the strollers and once loosed ran for the equipment like it was a huge ice cream sundae. Shiloh too headed to play and once through the first tunnel we all looked at our soaking wet kids and realized that a playground after a good hard rain equals very dirty kids. Oh well what can you do but grad a handful of pant leg, ring it out, and let them go again. It was fun to watch Shiloh with other kids. She has this weird thing about other people touching her and tends to scream at them when they try to grab her. We are working on this. She will blow you kisses, but by all means don't try to hug her.:-) This is a problem for some of her little friends who are taught by their parents to hug little friends. They just look at her like "what is wrong with you". While she is yelling at them to let her go. It is really funny! Anyways.
Shiloh did great and amazed everyone with her eating tuna fish and pickles for lunch along with Greek yogurt. I have to admit that she is a great eater. Then she grabbed another child's blanket and said "night night". Yup that is my child. It was a great day. I finished it off by getting a load of laundry washed and dried and my grass seed and hay put out. Now work and then tomorrow I start my 12 hours shifts. At least I am only on call on Friday and not Friday and Sunday like this week.



****One thing that I love for sure is when you have been out a little past their nap and you get them out of the car seat half awake and half asleep and they wrap their little arms around you and lay their heads on your shoulders. I could just hold Shiloh for hours like that.