November 3 - Candy, Day 3

Oh my, the candy. Note to self: you cannot expect to finish a swim workout after having consumed Halloween candy all day. Not gonna happen.

So, this past weekend Tray and I ran our first 5k together. I've been running since last winter, but had not done an official race yet (time and finances being key issues there). Tray's only recently started back running, but used to run before so he actually runs better/faster/farther than I do. It was a tiny little race down in Brundidge. I think maybe 15 or 20 people ran/participated. We didn't come in last, but came close to it. We pulled up to the race site as the race started. (We thought the race started at the festival, but it actually started about 2 miles away.) We had to run to get our numbers and pin them on mid-stride. We had a really good time just being together and running, though. That was the best part, the togetherness. I run while he watches Penny, and he runs while I watch her. Our first race together was actually the first time we've ever run together, period. It was very nice. Here's to more fitness-oriented togetherness!

November 2 - Qualifiable

Quantitative methods = statistics
Qualitative methods = interview people

I'd say Penny's behavior isn't quantifiable, but I think I mean qualifiable. Right? Is that even a word? Outside of competitive sports? Anyway.

I was reading this great blog post about how parenting is wonderful because it gives you the first four years of your life back. You get to see them grow and change and go through all the developmental stages that you don't remember yourself. Those early milestones are easy to mark - when they first roll over, first walk, say their first word, first jump on two feet (*ahem*). The other stuff is less quantifiable (qualifiable?). Every so often Tray and I will remark on how much more "grown-up" Penny seems. This is now funny to us because we keep saying it every few months, and obviously she must not have been all that "grown up" the last time or we wouldn't be noticing the change this time, yet we keep feeling that way. I can't fully express what it is that makes me sit up and take notice that she's "changed," but she has. I don't know when exactly, or even what exactly, but I know it has to do with how conversational she is. Like, I guess I keep expecting simple short answers to my questions, but she busts out with a narrative - and I'm sitting there like, "where did you come from?"  Her ability to think logically has really progressed recently too. We can play "Blues Clues" together where I'll give her three clues and she has to figure out whatever it is that I'm asking her about. I mean, I don't make it difficult or anything, so she always gets it right, but I don't think she could have played it a few months ago. And she's always working her little brain to outsmart us. For example she likes going to the bank b/c she gets a lollipop. Well, obviously, we don't have anything to take to the bank very frequently, but she will ask if we can go every other day or so. She asked yesterday and Tray told her he didn't have anything to deposit. She told him we should go to the bank, take some money out, and then go and deposit it so she could get a lollipop! I guess I should be thankful she didn't tell us to work harder to make more money - lol!

November 1 - Halloween Recap

Today is the first day of the national blog posting month wherein you are supposed to post to your blog once a day for the whole month. I never discover that it is NaBloPoMo until several days of it have already passed, so I am excited to get in on it from the start this year.
November 1 seems like a good day to start since it offers a nice chance to recap Halloween. Sadly, I have no pictures of Penny from trick-or-treating currently in my possession. Her friend Ally came over along with her parents (they live out in the styx sticks)  to trick-or-treat our neighborhood. I fixed us some black bean and butternut squash chili (Halloween or no, it was still meatless Monday after all) and made a pan of flat cornbread that I cut out into ghost and pumpkin shapes using my cookie cutters. The meal got rave reviews (and by "rave reviews" I mean everyone going back for large second helpings).
We stopped by all our neighbors first and then made the loop through Woodland Circle where I usually go running. There weren't a whole lot of houses participating, but more than enough for a 3 year old and 2 year old. On the return approach, Penny actually said that she was tired of trick-or-treating. Renee and I laughed that we couldn't remember ever having had that problem. :) Most of Penny's candy "disappeared" to Tray and my respective offices overnight, but we left her with a solid handful of things. She got a couple little bags of skittles and reece's pieces that are nice b/c we can dole them out one skittle at a time for a week or more - although the red dye 40 in those does concern me. Her most favorite thing in the world though are Tootsie Rolls and she got a ton (since she could often pick what she wanted out of the bowls being presented). I did regift the large size ones and about half of the little ones to my college students, but she has enough of the little ones to last a while. It was a good haul, especially combined with everything she got from Haunted Sorority Hill, and the harvest festivals at Southside Baptist, First Baptist, Park Memorial Methodist, and Bush Memorial Methodist that we hit up in the week preceding - lol! 

Now this is taking eco-consciousness to a whole new level

Penny's latest complete-and-total freak-out trigger is.... littering? She becomes concerned when she sees a piece of loose paper or a napkin or anything like that blowing around on the side of the road when we're driving. She always asks who it belongs to and if they know they lost their napkin/paper/whatever and if they are going to come get it. Last week at our play date with Ally we were eating a pop-tart and it was windy and the foil pop-tart wrapper blew off the table. Penny hopped down to go get it, but the wind kept blowing it so that I guess she thought she'd never be able to catch up to it. She lost her ever-loving mind and had a massive melt-down. Even after I successfully retrieved the wrapper and assured her it was all fine, I still had a hard time calming her down.

Then Tray took her to our property this afternoon and they flew a kite for the first time. They were apparently having a really good time, until the kite caught on the side of the barn, the string broke, and the kite blew into the pond and got hung up on something so that it didn't float on over to the bank. Tray said Penny's freak-out was horrendous; he almost had to yell at her to reach her enough to even listen to him so she could calm down. And I know it wasn't (just) because she was upset they had to stop flying the kite. It was way beyond that. I think it has something to do with things not behaving in ways she expects them too - or in ways beyond her control. I'm not sure, but I would love to know how to help her out with this one.

(Oh, and also loud noise, while we're on the topic of advice-seeking. Every single time an ambulance or fire truck blows a siren anywhere within the Troy city limits, Penny asks very worriedly if it is coming here. And I always tell her that no, it is not. The hospital is not very far from here, so we hear them daily. And we have the same conversation. Every. Single. Time. She also still runs from the vacuum cleaner, power tools, kitchen appliances, or anything else that is "too much loud" -- including people. The child has never had a smoothie because I can't operate the blender in her presence. We've also had to leave the playground because they were mowing the field next door. Although, to be fair, I haven't worked with her much on this one considering that I also dislike people/things that are "too much loud.")

Field of Flowers

Sunday morning Penny and got up and drove out to the Rabbit Pond to eat breakfast with Tray (who'd camped out there once again). We spent the morning walking around and generally enjoying one another's company. I've uploaded several photos here to show. Penny took a bunch of pictures with our camera, some of which are surprisingly good. I'm gonna put together another post to show a couple of the funnier ones. So, these are mom or dad taken photos. 

Eating grits, eggs, and sausage at basecamp.

Picking flowers.

Artie! Actually, I think this is one that Penny took.

The big field looking south.

Penny emerging with her spoils.

Here Daddy, yellow flower #85 for you.

This is the background photo on the blog. All the fields on our property look like this - yellow and pink flowers everywhere.

Our land came complete with dilapidated shooting house. It is missing part of the floor (maybe it has an escape hatch?). I think the picture shows how pretty the flowers are too.

Loving on Lindy.

Redesign

I may not leave it this way, but I've been playing around with some of the design settings in the "updated Blogger interface." I selected a different template and changed the background image to use a picture of the wildflowers on our property. They are so pretty. I'm going to try to upload some other pictures that we took this weekend - that include people and not just flowers!

Friends

 These are some pictures of Penny and her friend Ally at the local playground. For Penny's birthday, we'd invited her gymnastics class which at that time consisted of 3 other girls in her age group and 2 in the mommy-and-me class. The only person to rsvp was Renee with her daughter Ally from the mommy-and-me class, so we basically just had a play date with cupcakes for Penny's birthday. Since then we get together at least once a week, and most weeks two times. Ally is two, but they are about the same size so they seem to be the same age. They get along great. It's reassuring to be around a two year old to realize that Penny had similar social skills at that age, and see how far she has come in a year. Penny really looks forward to getting together each week, and they sometimes "write" letters to each other that us moms mail for them. It's too cute.

Here they are about to slide simultaneously.

But Penny jumps the gun and goes first. Unrelated: she has chosen to wear this Lightening McQueen shirt for several get-togethers causing me to feel compelled to reassure Renee that Penny does in fact own other clothes.

Swinging together.

"Playing Hands" at the hand wall.

Both skeptical of Renee and her camera.

In the gazebo.

Finally smiling for Ms. Renee.

Conversing in the tunnel.

Yesterday we got there early and saw two other friends from gymnastics: Abigail (4) and Anna (3).  They started yelling, "There's Penny," almost before I had her out of the car. They go to the playground every Friday with their "Grandy" - their great-grandfather who keeps them each Friday. He used to be Chair of the Education Department at Troy, so we talk sometimes. Friday was the first time I'd ever seen Penny go off and play with someone by herself like this. I almost could have gone and sat down and let her play except that she would look for me to "check-in" every other slide or so. Ally's too young to be willing to play without parental involvement, so Renee and I are usually out there with them. Anyway, it didn't last long, but it was a glimmer of things to come I'm sure.

Later in the morning after Ally got there, another deep conversation in the big tunnel. 

It's so fun to watch Penny grow and change and develop her social skills.