Bird Day party!

In the last year or so I have been invited to a lot of Bird Day parties..

OK, so I have since learned it is actually called a birthday not “bird day” but I still like to ocassionally call it that.

It always starts the same way.... Mom picks me up from school and there is a little white envelope sitting in my cubicle. I know what this envelope means even before mom tells me, “ you were invited to Jacks Birthday party”. This is music to my ears!

“Birthday Party” are 2 of the most magical words a girl can hear! Let me tell you why....

• First, it is always an opportunity to play with my friends on a weekend somewhere fun like: a park, Pump It Up, Bowling, The Little Gym, and sometimes at someone's house. Frankly it really does not matter where.

• Second, there is almost always something yummy to eat, like Pizza or Chicken Nuggets.

• But the last and by far BEST reason that those 2 magical words are music to my ears is that there is ALWAYS, at every single party, CAKE!

What is great about this too, is that the person handing out the cake is not usually my mom or dad, so my strategy is to wolf down the cake as fast as possible and then go and tug on person’s leg who is handing it out and look up and bat my big blue eyes at them and ask for more. I have to do this fast before mom intervenes to tell me that 1 is enough. I can happily report that i have yet to be declined a 2nd piece.

Next comes the present opening... I still find this part challenging, because some other kid is opening all these great gifts that I want. I also like to help them open their presents but often times my  mom or dad tells me not too.


Next it comes time to leave and I usually do not want to, but then they give us something else called a “goody bag”... It usually will have some toys, maybe a small bottle of bubbles and guess what else..sometimes there is candy in there. And then to boot sometimes I get to take a balloon home.

So you can see why Bird Day or Birthday parties are pretty magical words to hear!




** The above two pics are from the best "bird day" party ever. They are from mine and Lily's 3rd brithday.

The Music Truck

The Music Truck

Every Monday around 5pm the music truck drives down our street. It is this really cool white truck with all sorts of colorful pictures on the side and a big opening. I have been watching this truck every Monday since I first heard it come down our street 2 years ago.

When I asked mom and dad where the music was coming from, they just answered “the music truck”. How nice that this neat looking truck comes to play music on our street once a week.

Except..... I am starting to wonder if the music truck does more than play music? You see, it drives really slow and sometimes stops altogether and although the music is still playing, I see people, mostly kids, going to visit it. Recently I saw some kids eating their popsicles near the truck.. I started to ask mom about it the other night when it stopped in front of our house. We were inside and I was perched on my red chair where I always look out the window and started to ask mom about it but then she said it was time for my bath and tried to hurry me away..

Call it intuition but I feel like there is more to this “music truck” business than they are letting on.. I am just not quite sure what yet.. You see I have good instincts, especially when I suspect food may be involved.. So, my advice to you is never to take things your parents say at face value but I have to admit it is nice to stop and enjoy the music once in a while.

SO MISUNDERSTOOD!

A diary of the trials and tribulations of a 3 1/2 yr old.......

first, please allow me to introduce myself to you...My name is Gillian but when I was a baby I was called “Baby G”, “Gilly-Beans”, “Gilly-Bear” and well just plain “G”. Now that we have a new baby in the house named Gabrielle, I am sometimes called Big G or G1..

I am often SO MISUNDERSTOOD. Mostly by my parents but sometimes by my preschool teachers, grandmothers, the checkout lady at Target, the checkout lady at Kroger and well maybe a few others.

I am an active little girl with a tremendous imagination, unlimited amounts of energy and the ability to push my parents buttons, test limits and boundaries better than most.The theme from Survivor comes to mind as I can “outwit, outplay and outlast”.  I am a master manipulator, negotiator and when all else fails, a terrific trantrum-thrower!

I also have a language all my own. Below are a few terms to bring you up to speed:

Chick A-Lay = Chik-fil-a (my favorite place to eat, where I ask to go every single day after getting picked up from school)
Ladybug Car = A Volkswagon Bug
A Goodea = A Good Idea
Sissy = Gabrielle, my 3 month old baby sister, who I love dearly
Gola’s = Granola (me and dad I like to put this on our yogurt)
berry simple = very simple
brown food restaurant/daddy's restaurant = the mexican restaurant with the refried beans
sassy = paci, pacifier, binky

My parents not only understand my language but they have adopted it when speaking with me and I have even caught them using it with some other adults which I find quite amusing.

They are constantly trying to figure out the best way to get me to do what they want..Their latest is counting... That’s 1.........,That’s 2........, That’s 3.... If I do not stop the undesired behavior by 3 I am sent to “time- out”...but many times I just run and hide from them and after they have chased me around the house so many times they are so tired that I can then wear them down by going into full tantrum mode. If the tantrum does not work, I then turn on my master negotiating tactics and promises to be good to avoid the dreaded “time- out”.

Here are some of my strategies I have found quite successful to avoid going to sleep at night. You may want to implement them yourselves as they have proven quite successful for me..

First I will allow mom or dad to put me to sleep as usual... Book, then patting my back, then a kiss good night.. I will normally wait about 10  minutes so they think I am asleep and I will come out out and tell mom that I have to go potty. Sometimes after that, I will come out just to ask mom or dad a question.. any question will do.. “do I have school tomorrow?”, “can we have Chik-A-Lay tomorrow?”, “can we go do see Lizzie?”, “what day is today?” after the questions and being brought back to bed again, I will then come out and say, “I am thirsty”. Lately, another favorite I use is to cry loudly and when they come running to see if I am alright, I tell them I am “falling” off the bed and need help to get up.

So you see it is berry simple to learn these methods, but don’t worry, if you do not want to use any of the above tactics I promise you there will be more....