"Mommy, if somebody's not happy, they should just turn their face into a smile"

Kerry said this yesterday while we were in the car having a little talk about how you can often choose your attitude, and whether or not you feel happy, or positive, instead of sad, or grumpy. She, umm, sometimes needs a gentle reminder of this. But, then, don't we all? =).

Kerry seems to be trying to add some bigger words to her vocabulary lately, which has led to some pretty cute phrases lately. My favorite is from earlier in the week. We were in a fitting room with a three way mirror and she said " Look Mommy, there's your collection! And there's MY collection, too!" She either meant to say "reflection" or, since it was a three way mirror, she was indeed referring to a "collection" of us.

"God only gave me two arms, I'm not an octopus!"

Can't remember why she said this, but it made me laugh.

"I'm so dexcited!!"

She's been saying this a lot lately, hee hee.

And just this morning:

"Mommy, I got a little problem here."

Kerry is still doing well in her mother's day out program on Thursdays. After two years, I can finally say that her separation issues are pretty much a thing of the past. Another one of the biggest reasons we put her in this program was to give her a little more socialization with other kids her age, and I can already see a difference in how she interacts and plays with other kids when we're ..say..at church, or at the park like we were earlier today. She seems more interested, whereas before, she would sometimes kind of ignore other chidren her age and either just do her own thing, stick close to us, or interact only with adults. But this is probably typical for her age. Anyway, it's looking like she's (hopefully) on her way to becoming as emotionally and socially ready for Pre-k as she is scholastically when it comes around this time next year. Our plan is working =).

You know how some days leave you feeling physically and mentally exhausted, out of sorts, spent? And then there are days that leave you feeling ridiculously happy, energized, and utterly content. Well today was one of those days. It was just a really good day, and for no particular reason other than it was spent with with two of the people I love most. We went to church, cousin Sydnie was there and was in sunday school with Kerry...which thrilled her. We had a nice lunch with Nana, Papaw, Sydnie and baby Kinsley..along with our friends Joe and Polly. We did some grocery shopping later, and took Kerry to a nearby playground. Really no different than any other Sunday, but it was just....a really, really good day.



This little girl was feeling it, too. She was a super-hyper, giggly, bouncy bundle of three-year-old bubbliness. She was going full speed and full volume all day. She seems to be getting over a cold that had kind of had her wiped out this week, and she was able to take care of some overdue potty business, to put it nicely, so I think she was making up for her week of feeling not so great.

Have I mentioned how loud this girl can be when she's feeling a bit...exhuberant? I'm sure I have, it was something we noticed about her before we ever left China. I keep saying she would do great in theater because she can really make her voice carry when she wants to. Seriously...while we were at the store today, at one point she and Daddy were three aisles away from me and I could not only hear her but understand everything she was telling him, haha. I love this about her, but we have been working on teaching her to control her volume depending on whatever setting she's in. It's a work in progress =).

The cold she's getting over...I think she's given it to me. But that's okay because even with a scratchy throat and sore ears, it was, like I said, a really good day.



Daddy asked her if she had fun in Sunday school to which she replied:

" Yeah! And I listened really good, too!"

When he asked her, then, what she learned she said:

" I don't know."

I love my girl's hair.

And I love that she still lets me play with it and put it in barettes and braids and pigtails. From day one, she's never really given me any fuss about fixing it. That could be because I usually do it while she's distracted by something "fun" ( see the Wii

remotes?)

So, aside from a few trims to even it out, I've just been letting it grow. Most of the summer I've had it up since her little face and head sweat like crazy if the temps get above, say, 78 degrees. I've thought of giving her some cute bangs but haven't for this very reason. Well the last few days we've been enjoying some nice fall-like temps so I just let her wear it down. I was struck with how long it's gotten. And I'm thrilled to see that it's finally reached the length that it sweeps to the side on it's own and doesn't hang in her face as much if she doesn't have a barrette in. (It seems grown straight forward and that had been an issue that nearly led to bangs a few times)

So anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, as much as I'm sometimes tempted, don't expect to see a cute little bob on my girl just yet. I'm still having too much fun with her long hair.

I kinda knew I would when I saw the head of hair on her in this photo taken at 4 months. =)

We went to "Worldfest" last weekend (I've been meaning to post about that) and there was a little workshop where the kids could build wooden race cars. I found out that Lowes has a "Build and Grow" workshop every other Saturday so we decided to join in this morning. Todays project was to build little wooden police cars with working lights. My brother is a police officer who's birthday happens to be next month. Guess what Kerry is giving Uncle Dale for his birthday =).

Since it was her first time participating she got her apron and goggles today. Pretty cute, huh? She also got a certificate and a patch after completing her project. They give out a different patch for each project completed so Kerry is going to have fun collecting them and having Mommy add them to her apron. I think I've mention how much my girl loves to collect things.

She's so silly =).

So we went from a sunny 102 degrees on Saturday to upper 60s and rain today. We really had no reason to leave the house today so, well, we didn't.... except for one trip about 3 minutes up the highway to Wal-Mart and then to our favorite nearby Chinese restaurant for some take-0ut Hunan chicken. We've been going there since Kerry came home and they absolutely adore Kerry... and we've come to love them, too. Seriously, even one of the men came all the way out of the kitchen to give her a hug and kiss. It's our "thing" to get lunch from there at least once a week one of my off days and now Kerry just walks in shouting "Ni hao!!".

Anyway, aside from getting lunch, the whole reason we went out was to check out Wal-Mart's craft department for something to do during our afternoon indoors. Kerry ended up choosing a bag of foam alphabet stickers. Not surprised as she's very interested lately in what things "smell" (spell) lately.

Once we got home she went right to work ended up doing this...

It took her singing the alphabet song about two dozen times to complete it, but complete it, she did, and all on her own =). Then she noticed that the bag contained numbers as well as letters so she added the bottom part...and after that she added her name in the blank space between the zero and the ten. This little project occupied her for a good hour and now hangs proudly on our refrigerator.

She gave some letters to her babies to "look at". She's playing with her dolls more lately and its so sweet to watch.

I often get a "Shhh, Mommy, they're sleeping".

She's playing more with her dollhouse too. We even spiffed it up with new wallpaper made from heavy scrapbook paper. Ever tried to wallpaper a dollhouse? Trimming around those little windows is tricky!

These are a few of her "friends", as she calls them. Baby Panda, Big Panda, Baby Penguin, Pink Bunny, and Robe (not pictured) are her constants. She sleeps with them and keeps track of where they are during the day. Then there are the others that are rotated out and new ones brought in every few days...some just leave me scratching my head. We have here, all lined up, a pink towel, glow worm, Baby Panda, Pink Bunny, Baby Penguin, a Care Bear, a frog slipper, Big Panda, a storage container from Christmas currently filled with "groceries", an orange race car, and a little box that something was shipped in that currently contains the cards from her Candy Land game and some other random items. Sometimes I wonder if this is normal three year old stuff, as opposed to "hoarding" behaviour. Hmmm..would love some feedback on that from any of my Bloggy friends.