Scarlet's Aunt Kellie's Aunt Chris made her this bunny towel and it is so adorable! I just love it and so does Scarlet! She also made a blue one for baby Ginger (if that ends up her name).

Scarlet loves jumping in the shower with me; It's been an every morning thing lately. I try to talk her into a bath but she wants in with me. I'm trying to put my Americanized view on this aside and remember my days in Germany where this is no big deal, because it feels like it shouldn't be, but then it feels like it should be. I dunno, we'll see how much longer this lasts...

Scarlet and Presley playing paints together! She has so much fun playing finger paints. It's another way for her to practice getting her hands messy and getting used to the feeling of sticky mess. I've realized over the past few months at how much I dislike having anything on my hands and I'm wondering if I've subconsciously instilled that in her. I think I need to start playing whipped cream and paints now, too!

Turning each other into beautiful butterflies! It was the only thing I could think of to say to get Scarlet to explore more with it. It worked, she loved trying to be a butterfly!

Scarlet and her therapist working on decreasing her messy hands anxiety. Three giant sized cans of whipped cream and an hour in the bathtub helped a lot!
She didn't want to touch it at first but after a while it got everywhere and she loved putting it all over the walls and licking it.

A word of advice if anyone out there is bored on a rainy day and wants to let their kids have some fun: clean up IMMEDIATELY after the mess and don't let them wear good clothes-or at least wash the clothes right after, too. There were grease stains on her alien shirt that I love and it was a pain in the back to scrub the whipped cream once it dried.

I couldn't clean up right after because Scarlet's second therapist showed up while I was drying her off and then I was busy the rest of the day with a meeting...and then, well, I just forgot about it.
Scarlet had a ton of fun and by the end of it she was so messy and didn't mind having her hands sticky. So it was all worth it!

Aprons

I did it!! Finally! All three aprons are totally complete. They are reversible and the pockets have embellishments so, for me, that's what took so long. Oh, and the multitude of times I had to pick out stitches because for the life of me, I can't sew straight and that was an important part on the pockets where it's really noticeable. That and the embriodery took forever! My first time working with an embriodery machine and might be my last for a little while. My apron says "Mom" and Charlie's says "Spidey Dad" if you can't see it. And you'll notice, his are spiderman colors. :)

Ok, so if you know me well, you know that I hate seeing recent pictures of me. I love most of my old ones, cause that's when I look back and say, "I wasn't fat at all then, I'm fat now, but I really wasn't then." So, this picture was taken a few days ago and it's difficult for me to post because I haven't had that recovery time. But, here it is anyway. I am 34 weeks pregnant and will be having my baby on April 26th at around...7:30am. That's my guess anyway. I'm scheduled for the surgery at 6:30 am and as I've learned from most hospitals and surgeries, they are never on time. As I look at this picture, I've noticed that everything has increased in size...except my rear. It's no wonder I've been having back problems, I'm surprised I can even stay upright and gravity hasn't pulled me completely to the floor!

We went to cousin Parker's birthday party this Saturday. I've been wanting for so long to take Scarlet swimming because she loves it so much and we were finally able to go. I had a nightmare a few months ago that still makes me sick to think about it, but I saw her drowned in my dream and have had massive anxiety about it since. It was one of those crying in your sleep dreams and when I woke up I had to say a prayer of gratitude that it wasn't real and she was sleeping safely in her room. Anyway, I was a little worried about taking her swimming. I have an inner confliction myself, I struggle with being logical and irrational. I find that I'm often irrational first but I have this second-self that is rational and can usually, with some thought, overcome my irrational nature. So, I thought back to my lifeguarding days and reminded myself that I am a responsible parent and would never leave her unattended and that she would be fine. And, she was. We had a great time swimming, even though it was pretty cold water and lots of splashing going on around us. I wish I could say she was eating the birthday cake, but she was just licking the frosting. She'll get there someday.

It's been a very blustery Spring...is it Spring yet? It feels like it. I've been in organizing mode and feel like I have a bizillion things to get organized before the baby comes, so we started with the front closet and we re-discovered Scarlet's kite from her birthday last year. Charlie was home for lunch so we walked across to the church and tried to fly the kite. It's poor little plastic frame was no match for the gusts of wind we were having. It seemed a couple times it was going to break into pieces. Scarlet hates the wind so much that she couldn't even enjoy the kite. It's usually a little windy here most of the time, so we'll get it out again later.

Tutu's and Chocolate Pudding

Once again I've forgotten that my pictures post in reverse. Oh well, here are all the tutu's Debbie and I made for Scarlet's 3rd fairy princess birthday party. Debbie was leaving for Arizona for a couple weeks before the party and I just wanted them done because I still have other things to be working on for it. They turned out so cute! I used the tinkerbell colors...sort of... and all of them are different, which is really fun. I tried to make Scarlet's the poofiest and most adorable of them all because she's the birthday girl, but I just know all the girls will love theirs. I've made 7 so far and still have 2 more to make. I have been planning this party for months now-mostly in my head- and have been picking up fairy princess things here and there and now I feel like everything is gathered and only needs to be assembled now.

I haven't decided on whether or not to use fondant to cover her entire cake this year. I plan to use it for parts of the cake, like Tinkerbell's house and other things. I can never really plan anything too much, it just kind of comes as I'm working. I was going to venture and try using gumpaste to make flowers, but the tutu's are enough venturing for a seriously pregnant person and so I am going to use real flowers instead. This cake has to be awesome though. We have her cake as our wallpaper on the computer and every morning Scarlet comes in and talks about it and how much she likes it. I don't really care if other people think it's amazing, just so long as Scarlet does.

She just looked like such a big girl sitting at her little table coloring and trying to use scissors (child bladeless scissors!) for the first time. I just had to take a picture.

Scarlet LOVES to help me in the kitchen. I try to let her help when she asks to, but sometimes I have to shoo her away. We decided to cook together and make chocolate pudding. Scarlet is a funny girl sometimes. I feel like she is torn within herself. Like, sometimes she is so stinking independent and refuses help and then other times she is completely helpless and wants me to do everything.
This night she was Miss Independent and needed to stir all by herself. So she did, and she did a great job of keeping everything in the bowl, except what needed to go into her mouth. She was still pretty sick with her cough at this point so,...she had the whole bowl to herself.

I love seeing her in her apron. Mine has been done for awhile, but poor Charlie's isn't finished yet. I kinda put it on the backburner. I bet it would only take me an hour to finish it.

Ok, my official goal for this week is to finish his apron and post it by Saturday night.

February Days

Valentine's Day was a lot of fun this year. Scarlet was a helper in the kitchen with her pretty pink apron I made for her. She got a rose from her Papa and a chocolate card from her Daddy. She insisted on wearing this "Kate&Ellie" dress even though it was a 4t! I had to pin up the straps so she could wear it to church and not look like an orphan. It took a lot of talking to get her to put an undershirt on...we had our first talk together about modesty. I think the only thing she really got out of it though was, "No boobies at church."

She loves flowers. Well, she loves to smell them and then destroy them. They were going to die soon anyway, I guess she may as well have some fun with it.

I love my family! Such precious moments...

Scarlet dressed herself that day...in the latest fashion of "Kate&Ellie" clothes. Athena brought us a bin of outgrown clothes and Scarlet put on as much at once as she possbly could. I just love this kid.