The Corrys were in town (all the way from Texas) and we were able to get together for a playdate at Lawton Park! Lauren and I have been friends since middle school and it is fun to watch our babies play together!
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McCanless is so ready for Halloween! She has been begging me to buy a pumpin, so instead I pulled out all of our Halloween paraphernalia! This is how she dressed for dance this week after she got her little hands on everything!
She never wants to just smile for the camera these days…
McCanless and Patric
My McCanless is always surprising me. I’m sure everyone reading this blog has some idea of the McCanless that I know… The McCanless that is very sassy, outspoken, spontaneous, and “strong willed.” Of course, she has her moments when she enjoys sitting to paint, read or listen to her head phones. But for the most part, she is wide open, 24-7. Literally.
Lately, I have been discovering another side to my little priss. Ms. Chure even went so far as to call her a little “nerd.” (In a teasingly good way, of course!) Apparently, McCanless always does EXACTLY what teachers tell her and does what she is supposed to do BEFORE they tell her. So much so, that she is usually the helper and aides with other students. (Okay, I can see the helping other students part because she is such a bossy little mama, but the ALWAYS does what she is supposed to do is throwing me for a loop.) She never ceases to amaze me!
In fact, I watched her yesterday on the playground with one of her classmates. He was assigned to sit at the table for morning recess with his stuffed animal because he was playing with it at an inappropriate time during class. McCanless was sitting right beside him making certain that he wasn’t going anywhere and that he was “following the rules,” as she put it. She even went so far as to explain why he was in trouble…over and over and over. The poor thing sat there with his lips poked out and actually listened to her.
Ms. Chure was telling me that last week McCanless and her classmates were at various centers around the room. (Playing at different stations.) When it was time for “circle time,” where everyone gathers around the calendar, Ms. Chure was busy with a guest at the door. McCanless took it upon herself to organize the students and have them sit around her on the carpet. She then began to lead the morning work without Ms. Chure. She reviewed the calendar, numbers, letters, the day of the week, the months, etc….Ms. Chure said she was amazed and just stood and watched her to see how far she would go. She did it all. The funny thing is, the students sat and listened to her quietly. Ms. Chure said she has never seen anything like it!
I’ve also noticed that McCanless has her very first crush! (I haven’t told her Daddy yet because he is in 8th grade!) I don’t even think she realizes that she has a crush on him. There is no doubt about how much she loves being involved with my big kids at school. She loves the fact that they call her by name in the hallways, and will go visit with her on the playground at school. She has always LOVED the girls I’ve taught, but this year, she seems to gravitate toward Patric, one of my 8th grade boys. She talks to him after school and even hugs him! He is sweet enough to talk to her and actually hug her in return. She left her lunch box in my classroom this morning and I had him take it to her during 1st period! (At least that’s one perk of having your mom as a teacher at your school!)
She so reminds me of the nursery rhyme by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
There was a little girl,
Who had a little curl,
Right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
She was very good indeed,
But when she was bad she was horrid.
Check out a few photos of McCanless on the playground at school on the THA blog….Hornet Happenings. (Another perk-guess who blogs for THA??)
Saturday, Mary Clare was in a fashion show for one of our favorite children’s shops here in Hartsville, Juice. (Check out the website. The photos on the website are all of Hartsville kiddos and pals of ours! Many of them are also THA students. We’ve got pretty beautiful babies here, if I do say so myself!) McCanless spent the morning with Kacy and Nonnie in Ashland because I wasn’t sure how she would like seeing her sister up on stage without her!
Mary Clare was such a ham, even stopping at the end of the runway to smile and twirl a bit for the audience. She loved it and had a ball! I couldn’t get great photos because I was busy keeping track of her and trying not to allow her to ruin the outfit she was modeling. I had to plop her on the stairs with the big girl she was walking out with, run to the audience, snap a few photos and run back behind the stage again to get her!
Mary Clare HATES to sit in a highchair. If you have ever had the wonderful opportunity to go out to eat with us, you know exactly what I mean. She will sit to eat for about 2 minutes, but then constantly stand, lean, arch, jump and yell to get up and out!! (Definitely a hazard!) No matter how many times we buckle her, sit her, say, “NO” to her, she wants to get up and go. I don’t think the cardiologists really knew what they were talking about when they mentioned that she may get “winded” or tired easily. This girl is always on go! Low O2 stats or not, she has way more energy than anyone I know!
On a long shot, to help the little highchair dilemma, I bough a booster seat for the dining room table. Wow, what a difference! She loved it and even sat and ate for about 7 minutes! She may get tired of this soon and learn to unbuckle it or figure out how to flip it over. For now, however, we all have a few more minutes to scarf down our meals before she takes off…
One of my most favorite times of the day is when I pick up Mary Clare from Ms. Susan’s house. Mary Clare and I have a bit of Mommy & MC time alone before the chaos begins. (Which is when I pick McCanless up from school at 2:30!)
Mary Clare is growing so fast and learning so much every day. I love watching her explore and discover her world. Today, I was in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher while she was in the playroom. She heard me open it, and came running. For some reason she loves to climb in it! She rounded the corner of the kitchen wearing one of McCanless’ dress-up hats, which she does so often. I laughed and decided to follow her around a bit with my camera. Here is what happened…
She loves to play peek-a-boo and was crouching below our “tub-O-babies” and popping up to scare me. Notice her two new front teeth. She now has three on the bottom and five on top and one huge tooth coming in the back. (Mel says we have “orally challenged” children. I think it looks like she is going to have that McCanless gap!) He also thinks it is a bit humorous that my most recent obsession, The Twilight Saga, a book series, is all about vampires, something I’ve never read about until my child began to resemble one!
Mary Clare loves her books and wanted me to read to her for a while. After I read this book, she sat down in her chair and flipped through it herself. I asked her to show me the yellow circle and she pointed right to it. I guess she’ll eventually talk when she wants to. I’ve learned that this is how my baby girl likes to do things. Nothing is ever as I expect, it is always her own way and in her own time.
McCanless surprised me with an original painting. She even took the liberty of “framing” it and hanging it herself on my bedroom wall.
This is my beautiful work of art! I’m not sure why she chose to paint on her High School Musical folder, upside down, or why she felt the need to use every bit of tape we had in the house…. and it is a bit difficult to take in every detail because it is behind my door and eye-level to a four-year-old but, nonetheless, I LOVE IT!! I think it will be a permanent fixture on my bedroom wall!
Mel, McCanless, Mary Clare and I went to the HHS football game on Friday night and to say the girls had a ball would be a huge understatement! We have “end zone” tickets again this year, which allows us to tailgate before the game with lots of other local Red Fox fanatics. (It is always so fun to go because Mel nor I went to HHS, and to see how excited everyone gets over small town football is crazy. It’s great!) We all get into it donning red and black and of course McCanless in her Red Fox cheering uniform!
McCanless absolutely LOVES watching the band and cheerleaders and camps out by the police line near the band. She literally goes nuts! Mary Clare wore herself out walking up the stairs on one side of the stadium across the row and down the other side…over and over and over and over. I wore myself out allowing her to do so as I followed her across the stadium over and over and over and over. We had so much fun and the Red Foxes even pulled out a huge win.
Guess who loves make-up just as much as her big sister?? Mary Clare loves to sit in my lap when I’m putting on my make-up, exactly as McCanless once did… and still does. Now I have two little priss pots fighting over my make-up bag. Occasionally, I’ll allow Mary Clare dig in my bag while I attempt to put on mascara while reaching over the two of them. This was how I found her when I was finished with my own application…
