Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Friday night, tired and not in the mood to go out, Selby and I had a girls night in. We watched one of my all time favorite movies, The Wizard of Oz. I pretty much never watch movies with Selby at home because her movie time is my free time, but on Friday I asked her "Do you know why I'm going to watch this movie with you?" Selby: "Because you're so tired?" Me: "No, because it's one of my favorite movies!" But Tom was working that night and she wasn't that far off. It was really a pleasure to share this cinema moment with her. The next morning when I went in her room, she pretended to be asleep, but was muttering "There's no place like home," with smirk on her face. It made me smile. I can't explain the feeling it brought me to watch this classic with her. It was very similar to the first time we listed to the CD Free to Be You and Me. Can't wait to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with her (the original, of course)!

The Little Giver

First I want to talk about how much fun I'm having doing arts and craft projects with Selby. It's this whole new side of me that I never knew existed. I've always been a lover of books and theater, but now Selby is bringing out my inner creative artist. Probably the fact that she loves painting and crafting makes me like it more, but it does feel good to create things. We've made mobiles, magnetic picture frames, rings, necklaces, etc. I actually get excited about going to Michael's Craft Store.

Secondly, I want to talk about how amazingly generous Selby is. I don't know where she gets this from but she always (ALWAYS) wants to give her friends and others presents. When she makes something, her first thought is who to give it to. We were making a treasure box out of popsicle sticks the other day and after spending quite a bit of time on it, she immediately wanted to give it to her teachers. Then she started drawing and putting stickers and sparkles on extra sticks and wanted to give them to all the girls in her class. Well, actually she wanted to give a few sticks to her favorite friends but I explained that if we gave it to one or two girls we'd have to give it to all of them. How would she feel if she didn't get a present from Lily but Bela did? She understood immediately and decorated more sticks. I decided they were bookmarks (a better present, I think, than just fancy sticks) and she happily wrote her name and each girl in her class's name on them and we gave them out the next day.

Unrelated to the above, here she is in her beautiful flower dress in our beautiful garden this weekend and one of us at a BBQ.

Makes me smile.

Selby and Snakes and Lizards -- Oh My!

We went to the annual JCC Family Festival yesterday and had a ball and stayed, as usual, until the very end. We saw our friends Eric and Ari, Nancy and Emmett, Rich and Alexandra/William and a few other old BMH friends. We did face painting, animal petting, rocket firing, jumpy castle jumping, train riding and bagel and cream cheese eating (three mini ones!). But the most amazing thing was the snake and iguana petting. Selby was a bit too comfortable petting and squeezing and teasing the gigantic boa constrictor. And then when it came to the giant lizards, she kept cradling them as if they were here dolls. I had to put my foot down when she started kissing the the blue-tongue that was darting in and out of the lizard. Not only was she holding them like a baby (as her dad instructed her to do earlier in the day) but she was giving all the other kids instructions and lessons on holding it, as if she worked for the animal handler. It would've been hilarious if it weren't so disgusting.

Father Daughter Dance: The Money Shots

Shall We Dance?

Last night was the annual DMIS Father Daughter Dance. I admit I was a little jealous. How fun to get dressed up and go dancing with Selby and all the other DMIS moms? I did get some good photos. Unfortunately, the ones below are not them. The good ones are on Tom's camera, which means there's a good chance no one will ever see them again. These are from my iPhone, and they'll do the trick for now.

Unrelated to the Father/Daughter Dance ... Selby brought up the subject of death (as she would say: for real). It went something like this:

Selby: I'm little so I'm not going to die for a VERY long time.
Me: This is true.
Selby: Ammy is old. She's going to die before me.
Me: Yes, Ammy is older than you but I don't think she's going to die for a long time.
Selby: Good.

And then one last Selby nugget. After dinner the other night: "Mommy, I like dessert." Me: "No shit." Kidding, I didn't really say that. But I thought it.

Mama's Day

Before I describe our great mother's day, I have to brag about Selby grasping a concept about age. We were in the car talking about Emerson's birthday...

Selby: He's going to be 5 or 6, right?
Me: He'll be 5
Selby: So he's older than me, right? Because I'm going to be 4 1/2?
Me: Yes
Selby: So, when you had a baby in your belly, Emerson was already born, right?
Me: That's right! You are so smart!

It's a simple concept, but pretty cool that she put it together, right?

Mother's day was great, as expected. Brunch at the Kirk's, prepared by David, to order. Flowers from Tom and a bunch of gifts and cards from Selby. She sort of piled them in front of me in the middle of breakfast and then told me I couldn't open them until everyone was finished eating. Breakfast was followed by swimming with family and then a hike and dinner with Amy. I've said it before but I'll say it again...I really think Mother's Day needs to be more of a week.

Here's princess Selby from the Steele Street School Fair this weekend.

New York, New York

We just returned from a great trip to New York. My mom had Selby to herself for three full days while I attended a journalism conference and did NYC things, like go to the Museum of Modern Art, "do" coffee, and meet friends for dinner. Selby was a natural city girl, riding in cabs, buses and subways and walking the streets of New York. In the subway, she only wanted to hold the pole, and not sit, for some reason -- and then wave and smile to Grandma who was sitting down. She LOVED spending time with her cousins. We were lucky enough to be in town for Sophie's third birthday. She also got to play with Izzie, Jaime and Alexa. Unfortunately, we missed Eric and the other brood of cousins but we're looking forward to seeing them over the summer. Waiting for photos from Grandma since my camera didn't work, but here's a subway and bus stop shot. She's like the happiest public transportation rider ever.