Mel had two interviews yesterday, one for an internet spot (below) and another which airs tonight on WOLO TV. WIS contacted him and wanted to do a live spot at the first USC home game tonight, but the big star declined that one!
…becoming more culturally aware
1-She and I were discussing what she should wear to school the following day. It was a P.E. day and I was insisting that she wear her New Balance athletic shoes. She insisted that she wear her black sparkly Converse All-Star shoes(Chucks), which I guess, really are tennis shoes. (I later realized that her P.E. teacher wears black Chucks often.) We argued a bit, and finally, frustrated, she says to me, “Mommy, I have to wear these! My BROWN teacher told me I have to.” I stopped and thought for a moment and finally realized that she was talking about her African- American P.E. teacher, Ms. Selena.
2-I was sitting on the floor with Mary Clare and asked McCanless to join us and chat with me about school. She came dancing over, wiggling and swaying her arms and said, “I’ll go down to the ground like James Brown.” (Ms. Chure has quite a sense of humor and uses her tongue and cheek jokes with the kids often!)
3-McCanless was speaking of her new friend, Journey, quite often this week. “Mommy, Journey had a cool lunch…Mommy, Journey has a big cat….Mommy, I love Journey’s hair.” She even went so far as to tell me she wanted her hair to look just like Journey’s. Yesterday, I decided to go meet Journey and as I walked into the lunchroom during my break, I noticed McCanless speaking to a little girl that I just had a feeling might be Journey. She was a precious “brown” girl with a million tiny braids and beads covering her head. I’m not so sure I can get that many braids in McCanless’ hair, but I just may try.
…and a few other
4-I noticed a jar of rocks outside of McCanless’ classroom this week. Under the jar was a chart with handwritten names (by the students) and numbers of their guesses to how many rocks they thought were in the jar. Most students had written familiar numbers like 4, 8, 2, etc. McCanless had 299 on her guess line. Later, I asked her why she chose 299. Her response was, “Mom, clearly, there are 299 rocks. That’s as far as I can count.”
5-Today, I had just about had it with her. I was in the grocery store checking out. Mary Clare was fussy, I had a cart full of groceries and it began to storm outside. Mel called to tell me he wouldn’t be home until after 8pm, and McCanless was screaming for some jelly candy squirt gun. I told her no, she pitched a fit and I ignored her, which typically works for this type of incident. I paid and began to sulk over the daunting task of loading and unloading groceries in the pouring rain with two foul kids. McCanless said, “Fine. I’ll buy it myself.” Then she ran. She ran out of the automatic doors with her candy gun into the rain and all the way down to the Chinese restaurant to hide behind the Pepsi machine. Oh, not today. I grabbed Mary Clare who dropped her cookie and began to cry. Why today? I left my purse and groceries and ran into the rain. I found McCanless and pulled her back to the grocery store. After what probably seemed like an exorcism to onlookers with McCanless and I both refusing to give up, soaking wet I grabbed the gun from her and took it back to a very reluctant cashier who looked at me as if I were an armed robber with my candy gun. We spent the car ride home talking about stealing and disobeying mommy, to put it nicely.
(Just thought I’d also mention that the last time McCanless wanted to help pay for groceries, I handed her a bill to give to the cashier. She took it from me and began to flatten it and straighten it out. She then slid it down the debit card machine where one would typically slide a card. Guess I should also give the “Money doesn’t grow on trees and isn’t always plastic” lesson too.)
I found this on another HLHS Mom’s blog…so sweet
It’s a beautiful day up in heaven. Jesus is gathering his baby angels to send to earth and be born. One of the sweetest angels says to Jesus, “I don’t want to leave. I love it here and I will miss you.” He reassures the scared little angel that everything will be fine and that this is just a visit.
The tiny angel is still not swayed on this idea so Jesus kneels down and says, “How about if you leave half of your heart here with me and take the other half with you. Will that be okay?” The angel smiles and says, “I guess that will work.” But the little angel is still a little scared. She asks,”Will I be okay with only half of my heart?” Jesus replies, “Of course you will. I have other angels there that will help, and will love you so much.”
Then Jesus gives the tiny angel more details about His plan. He says, “When you are born, your mommy will be scared so you have to be strong, and when you feel weak just remember that I have the other half of your heart. Enjoy your time with your family, play and laugh everyday. When its time to come back to heaven, I will make your heart whole again. Always remember that you are not broken, just torn between two loves.”
Mom, Kate, McCanless, Mary Clare and I recently hit the road to Augusta for Emerson’s first birthday party. (Mel was at a clothing show and, unfortunately, could not be there.) It was a beautiful party with many friends! In lieu of birthday gifts, Emerson collected monetary donations for Saving Little Hearts and Annabelle’s baskets. Annabelle’s family was there, and a new HLHS buddy, Payton and his mom joined the birthday fun as well. We all had so much fun!
Nothing like fun at a birthday party with swings and suckers!
Mel pulled out his boots this weekend for the annual Antioch Rodeo. It begins at 8pm and with Mary Clare’s new sleeping regime, I felt it was best if she and I skipped it this year! (We’re on a roll, and I don’t want to mess it up.) She was disappointed, however, to learn that the boots were not for her to wear!
McCanless was also very disappointed, to put it nicely, to discover that her pink cowgirl boots no longer fit. But I just had to take a photo of her in her jeans and pony tails. (Finally, after her self-hairdressing episode last year.) She looks like such a big girl!
I heard so many stories when Mel and McCanless came creeping in around midnight! They had a ball! Mel took his camera with them, so hopefully I’ll have a few rodeo picture to post soon.
McCanless performs very often, but allows me to film very rarely! These are a few videos I’ve managed to catch!
McCanless decided to “make a video.” This was after I posted Mary Clare’s first steps. I guess she didn’t want to be upstaged by little sister! She told me exactly where to stand and how to film her for this one! I had no idea what was going to happen.
Here she is singing in the car. I pulled into the driveway, grabbed my camera and just hoped that she would continue singing. As the camera was on her, she didn’t get into her song nearly as much as when we usually drive down the road, but here is a touch of what she has in her. Of course, one of the few times she allows me to film her, my mother decided to visit us that day and walks up to the car window and McCanless stops singing as soon as she sees Nonnie!
..and lastly, McCanless’ rendition of Hannah Montana! I so tried to keep my composure during this one, but as you’ll see I couldn’t stop laughing and she became very angry with me!
Things have been so crazy around here, I’m finding I have little time to do anything! P&B is in full swing, school is now in full session and dance, gymnastics, birthday parties and life have kicked into high gear. Mel and I were able to have an adults only lunch date today so I could catch him up to speed with everything and just say hello.
Mary Clare is such a trooper and is definitely getting the hang of Ms. Susan’s. She and McCanless are so different. McCanless was never one of those children at Ms. Susan’s that would run up to the window and greet their mommy with a big hug and kiss. She loved it there and would usually pout to stay. I would always be jealous of those moms, but now I’m one! Mary Clare starts rocking and grunting and clapping as soon as she sees me. It is too funny. When I pick her up, she immediately reaches for her bag and wants her passy. She even begins to wave to the other children. I love it. I know she has a great time at Ms. Susan’s, (and I’m sure later on would rather stay like most kids do) but right now, she is a mommy’s girl and not even Ms. Susan compares to that! (Which is HUGE.) I feel so great about her being at Susan’s. She is so much more to us than just a babysitter. She loves our children and they love her, plus she’s lots of fun and feeds them all the time! Just like grandma’s!
Oh, and get this…Mary Clare sleeps most nights in her crib (alone) through the night! We put her down around 7 or 8, AND, we don’t even have to rock, sing, hold, sway, walk, etc, etc, etc, her to sleep. We place her in her crib and she rolls over and stays down until she falls asleep!! No more screaming, no more throwing things out of her crib, no more jumping up and down holding onto the crib rails!! She is such a happy and good baby girl and now sleeps like one! Life is good!
McCanless is enrolled in a tap and ballet class and an 8-weeks gymnastics class. I was worried about getting her involved in too many activities with full time school now, but Mel assured me that she needs this. (He should know.) We’ll try them out next week and go from there. She continues to love school and I love hearing her “stories” daily. She shows me cheers everyday that she learns from her teacher. (Ms. Chure was a HHS cheerleader and incorporates lots of cheering & songs into her daily activities. They are too funny) McCanless loves Ms. Chure and I’m beginning to hear more and more names of new pals…Anne-Dubose, Eliza, and Stella are a few I hear quite often. She loves being “a leader” for the class, and is dying to order lunch one day. I’ve been packing her lunch everyday. I promised her that Friday she could order Pizza Hut pizza from the lunch menu. She’s thrilled.
Which brings me to my duties…whew! I didn’t realize that once school started that my job would be that much harder. Only 174 more days until summer break! I love the teaching part of it all, but getting myself, McCanless, two book bags, one lunch and one snack bag out of the door by 7:30 is killing me, and that is just for McCanless and me. I’m hoping once our schedule becomes more routine, it will get easier. (Mel is also having a hard time because Mary Clare is an early riser. She wakes up when McCanless and I get up, which means Daddy can no longer sleep in. Although today they didn’t make it to Ms. Susan’s until after 10am, so I guess they are both still on summer time.)
After school isn’t easy either. We have dance once a week now and gymnastics once a week….and every other meeting, party, church activity, PTO, the list goes on and on… We even had a homework project due yesterday. (We…McCanless….. had to make a “mini-me” of herself.) I try to get the girls fed and in the bath before 7pm, which is much earlier than we are all used to…what a rat race, but really, it is so much fun. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
McCanless attended an art party at Black Creek Arts Center last weekend. She had a great time learning to work with clay and even saw many of her First Baptist 3K school pals. She has always been very creative and it didn’t surprise me to watch her listen and sculpt with great interest. She took her work very seriously and was a star pupil, if I do say so myself!
On the weekends, we love to meet Daddy at McLeod’s Peach Farm for lunch and peach ice cream. Here are a few photos of the girls we took outside.
