Imagination explosion

We have found ourselves playing an awful lot of dress up lately. Not only are we emulating animals in both sound and movement, Miss C, in her attempts to grow up a whole lot faster than I want, is now all about dress up. We used to play dress up, it's like that only 100 times more involved. Don't get me wrong, its still a lot of fun! Check these latest shots out:

I know that there are so many more changes to come, but I have to tell you. One of the most wonderful parts of my day is when I get Miss C ready for bed and she still tells me "Sit with me, mama, I need you." I need you too, little one.

An ode to my BFF - Alphagal

A is for alpha, which describes both our personality types and while in most cases it would drive
people apart, I think it helped us become better friends
L is for lovely, which is what you are. You are a truly lovely friend.
P is for punny, which anyone who knows you realizes your ability to make puns out of almost
anything!
H is for healthy, which is what you have to be to run triathlons, crazy!
A is for amazing, enough said!
G is for genius, they don't just hand out PhDs to anyone, you know!
A is for always there, you are always a friend, regardless of distance and time, I love you for
that!
L is for leader, you know how to take charge and make things happen!

I can't believe it's been, gasp, shall I even say it, two decades since we first met! I know that my life has been truly enriched since the day we met and I can only imagine what the next couple of decades have in store for us (school, driving, boy friends, prom!)! I hope you have a wonderful birthday, Alphagal!

Yes, Virginia, there is such as thing as too many toys

I was looking around the house the other day only to discover, gasp, that my house has become one rather large toy box. I decided, there must be too many toys here.

Miss C has many relatives and friends so we find ourselves the recipients of many very neat toys. The problem is getting rid of them.

How do you do it? I mean, I know how to pick out what I think are "little toys" but how do you remove them without someone getting upset?

My technique, thus far, is to go through them and pull out ones I remember her playing with a year or so ago and putting them aside. I put all of those toys, and yes, there were many, in bags trying to sort by age group or type, and moved them into the garage. I have put them under a tarp for now.

The next step is waiting to see if Miss C asks for any of these toys in the next week or so. If not, I intend to offer them up to friends here with little ones. Any that remain after that, I will bring to the thrift shop.

How do you deal with the toy situation?

PS Teething update: Miss C is still working on 2 of her 2 year molars but we have found that slices of apples and baby carrots seem to help. Hopefully it won't be much longer until we are out of this fun phase!