Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.
-- Robert A. Heinlein

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Remember when all we had to do was to keep our ponytails straight and catch fireflies?
-- Author Unknown

There is a garden in her eyes, where roses and white lilies flow.
-- Thomas Campion

Ever pet a Kangaroo?

A Kangaroo's fur is actually incredibly soft. So soft, in fact. that they don't usually have to worry about fleas or ticks (something about them not liking the texture of the fur). We visited Kentucky Down Under yesterday and Kerry had a great time getting up close and personal with them. We had a guide to tell us who to pet, and how, and to tell us all about the animals.

This is a large Red Kangaroo. Isn't he magnificent?! It was soooo hot and it was right in the middle of day so they were all resting in the shade. They have a huge enclosure with room to roam, or hop, and lots of shade trees for the animals.

See the teeny little feet and ear peeking out of Mama's pouch? They belong to a five month old

Joey. These are Eastern Gray Kangaroos.

And this is another Mama with her 7 month old Joey. We also saw a Wallaby, Ostrich, several kinds of sheep, and various birds.

Kerry's favorite thing, though, was the cave.

My little Spelunker =)

It was 65 degrees in the cave, so after being in the 90 plus degree temps, it felt awesome.

Kerry also got to go "panning" for gemstones.

She thought this was pretty great, too.

What she did NOT like, though, was when we went in to the Lorikeet enclosure and one landed on her head. This photo was taken about two tenths of a second before the screaming and tears began. Poor baby was tired and hot by this time and just could not handle it.

After all of the fun, and heat, she was out like a light soon after her little rear hit the carseat. With her good friend Robe, of course.

Kerry is very interested in where Daddy and I (part time) work and last night she asked why Daddy had to go to work. After I explained it to her she said

"When I get big I can go to work and make green money, too!" haha.

Daddy is lucky enough to be on vacation this coming week. We have a few fun things planned. Kerry is thrilled that she'll get to spend so much time with Daddy this week and says "I'm on bay-cation, too!"

She's recently learned that everyone in the family has an actual name besides just what she's used to calling them so she often tells us "Mamaw is Clara, and Papaw is Albert and Nana is Sandy and my other Papaw is John...and so on" She also knows both of our names and her full name. I guess I hadn't really taught her this yet since she really doesn't do anything independent from us yet, but I'm hoping, soon, to get her into something like a Mother's day out thing one day a week to help get her ready for the separation from us that she'll experience when she starts preschool next year

(gulp).

Another thing she's into lately is telling made up stories.

Here she's in the middle of telling one of the many "stories" that she's started coming up with lately.

You know..the kind that you can only sit back and listen to while saying "uh, huh".."wow!

''.."is that so?".

Which kind of brings me back to the separation thing. The one lingering "adoption related" issue she struggles with is some pretty significant separation anxiety. We

ll I've noticed a theme in some of her little stories, as if she's trying to process and deal with these anxieties. She tells stories about how the "Little Ein-skines" come and pick her up and she goes off with them and plays and she doesn't cry and then they bring her back to Mommy and Daddy. Or she'll tell stories about how going to the store by herself and that she's "not afraid of the big people" and that she doesn't cry and then she comes home to Mommy and Daddy. I think she's really making some progress in this area. In fact, today, she went to her "new class" (three-four year old class) at church with only a few brief tears initially, and she ended up doing great and seemed to really enjoy it and and said she wanted to go back again next week. I peeked in the window before picking her up and she looked so cute and tiny sitting in her little chair at the table, yet at the same time she's proving what a big girl she's becoming.

We decided that the new Winnie the Pooh movie would make the perfect first movie theater experience for Kerry. It was a really cute movie and it was just over an hour long..perfect length for a three year olds attention span.

She had a great time and she loved the popcorn.
She looks so small holding that popcorn bag. She slept all the way home then was ready to play in the back yard for a while. It's been so hot and muggy that the early morning and evening hours are the only times you can be outside without melting.




She still likes feeding our little pond fish.




Lately she's been trying all sorts of new things on her playset. She'll say "Watch, I'm gonna do a cool trick!". Last summer she was still in her little pink baby/toddler swing.






Her favorite new trick is to swing on her belly, and she loves twisting the swing up by going around in circles a few times then "unwinding".

I nearly gasped when I saw this picture for the first time. To me it was like catching a glimpse of what Kerry might look like as a teen. I had to resist an immediate urge to look up all-girl schools and/or convents in our area (and I'm not even Catholic). The little dimpled hands are the only clue to her real age.





Then in the very next shot, I see my baby girl again.

How does that happen!? Maybe she's just at some in between stage right now and the camera really reflects that. I'm not sure, but man does it mess with my head sometimes...and my heart.

It was HOT, HOT, HOT today. Too hot to do much but hang out in the " splashin' pool" in the shade for nearly two hours.

And maybe eat an ice cold popsicle while in the "splashin' pool".

As for me..I had a lawn chair under the same shade tree, my feet in the water, a magazine or three in my lap, and my own orange popsicle which was melting almost faster than I could eat it.

After church today we decided to check out a little community festival and "ice cream social" at a local historic site on the river. The thermometer was hovering just over 90 degrees but most of the activities were in the shade, and there was ice cream, so all in all it was a nice time.

Kerry love the little train ride.

She also got to go on another pony ride, she really seems to like the ponies.

Isn't this the prettiest little pony?

And to top it off, we got to ride in a georgeous carriage. This was a first for Mama, too =)

This was courtesy of Thunder..one of the biggest horses I've seen in a while.

All of this we did for a mere ten dollars worth of tickets, can you believe it?!

Being an "ice cream social" Kerry also got to enjoy an enormous cone full of Ehrler's strawberry icream. We ended up needing a cup to put it in since, as I said, it was over 90 degrees.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day!

I know my little Firecracker did =)

We went to Uncle Dale and Aunt Stephanie's house and made low country boil (yum), then took a dip in their pool.

Then we came home for the neighborhood fireworks display.

She started getting nervous with some of the louder fireworks so I found her some earmuffs.