Fear Reaches New Heights

As a child I had many fears, but I don't think any of them every held me back the way I see Miss G's fears stop her from enjoying her childhood.

I know I was afraid of the dark and was one of those kids that would run from light switch to light switch - turning on one, before running back to turn off the previous light and them moving on to the next to make it downstairs to the basement to retrieve something for my Mother or Father. By age 6/7 I was riding my bike with no training wheels, had played in my Grandmother's basement by myself, sleeping with the lights off/went to bed by myself, rode a pony, elephant and a camel, ate more types of foods then you could count on both your fingers and toes and had started to learn to swim. I was a Tomboy and proud of it.

I look at Miss G and see how she struggles. At one moment she is afraid of her own shadow and can't be two inches from Mad Dog and the next moment she is trying to be all tough and show attitude about being a big girl, when she hasn't done a single big girl thing since coming back this summer.

• A little girl that once wanted to go horseback riding is afraid too.
  
• A little girl that could go to bed on her own at age 5 is now six and sleeps with the light on.
• A little girl that couldn't ride the escalator, but would ride an elevator won't ride either without a fight.
  
• A little girl that would let her Father dangle her from his arm and flip her upside down and back around again screams in terror if he even attempts to now.
  
• A little girl that would run to make friends with others, is afraid too, because she is afraid she will be moved away again and lose them forever.
  

Her fire has been extinguished. We don't know if we will find a spark to build the flame up again, but if we don't it might be lost forever.

Little Girls with Ca$h

In the hopes of teaching Miss G about the importance of saving money and the value of a dollar, we had started to give her an allowance. Before she moved away it was for keeping her room clean on the weekends when she was with us, but now we have upped the resposiblities for the cash earned each week. She has a list of chores to do and for that she earns $10.00 - yes, you read that right. I don't know how old I was when I started earning that amount, but it wasn't 6 year of age. Our thought process behind this was to give her this amount and that is what she has. We go to a store and she has THAT money to spend and she has to make choices based on the amount she has. If she wants something more expensive she needs to make the right choice to save her money, and if not...she has to realize that it might be a few more weeks before she sees it or she might have to wait for a Birthday or some special holiday.

This weekend she started out with $3.00 from last week. Her $10.00 for this week. $8.00 her Grandmother gave her and $3.00 dollars she had in her bank from sometime around Easter. Putting her at $24.00 which was burning a BIG old hole in her little pink purse.

Since Mad Dog and I forgot bottles and nipples for Little Man (see previous post - Lions, Tigers and Bears Oh MY!) we stopped at Target. Miss G who can't help but look found herself in front of a huge temptation - HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL DOLLS!
Yes, she forgot all about the Fiona Barbie that she had been eying last weekend at the toy store and tried to justify which doll to purchase. It was rough - I actually thought we were going to have sleep there while she went back and forth over who would come home with us, but she finally picked Gabriella. Mad Dog the softy he is chipped in $5.00 so that she only ended up parting with $15.00 of her cold hard cash.

Later that weekend she used her remaining $9.00 on grey wolf from the Zoo. The best part is Mad Dog fronts the cash for the wolf in the zoo, since she forgot her purse in the car. We get back to the car and she opens that pink safe of her's and says, "So, is this money mine?" Mad Dog responds no to her question. She turns and says "Fine take it then!" She was shocked when we offered to take him back to the nice Zoo people if she wanted her $9.00 back. Lets just say Grey Wolf has a home in Miss G's pink room and the $9.00 didn't stay in the pink purse.

Lions, Tigers & Bears OH MY!

This weekend was a Mansfield Weekend. This meant that once Mad Dog and I made it home from work(me on-time for once) we had to pack for the weekend. This is our first full trip with both Miss G and Little Man. Miss G in the past has pretty much taken everything, but the kitchen sink in the past when we have gone away, but with the addition of her little brother we were all limited to what could fit in the car. Having said that, I was very confused when I came home to find that Miss G had been given the go ahead to pack her SUITCASE, where the rest of us were going for the backpack route. I didn't say anything, thinking Mad Dog had given himself enough rope to hang himself with (knowing that with everything else it might not fit). I managed to get everyone out the door somehow - for some reason I'm the Timekeeper of the family. After getting on the road with a cranky Little Man we were on our way to Eastern Massachusetts.

This trip usually takes an hour and a half, for Little Man & Momma it's only one hour and 15 minutes, but for this trip it was 2 1/2 hours. Due to traffic and the fact that Mad Dog and Momma were trying for parents of the year and forgot bottles & nipples. This meant a stop at our favorite store, Target.

We managed to get there and make it through the night in the guest room...which is a WHOLE other POST. The next day we went to Southwick Zoo.

Southwick is a zoo we went to as children. I remember it being very far away (it was only 45 minutes) and huge...not so much. It was strange going there with Little Man, knowing I had been there in a stroller when I was little. Uncle Kevin & Uncle Brent joined us with Brent's nephew Andy. Fun was had by all, even Little Man. It was Zoobabies weekend at the zoo and they were introducing the new members of the Zoo family to the public. The kids got to feed baby goats and Miss G even found out that one of the Monkey's had the same name as her.
The rest of the weekend was a blur of diapers and playing ball. Chasing the dog and wedding talk.

Mad Dog and I even had our Baptism class so that we're okay in the eyes of God for Lex's big day.

We're home now, and Miss G is getting ready for bed while Mad Dog and I are ready to fall down.

Culture 101

This Saturday we took a visit to the art museum, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. (It's no MFA, but it tops the Springfield Art Museum.) They hosted a special kids day at the museum where there was face painting, button making, soccer ball design and an animation class. I think Miss G enjoyed the day, though she felt some of the art was "inappropriate", oddly enough she never says anything about the art hanging in our kitchen. At least she was exposed to something more than Bratz and High School Musical. As for the Little Man, he love the quiet of the galleries and how his voice echoed!