Project 52 - Mother's Day - Week 18

18/52

Mother's Day is approaching and it's made me think of the girl that gave me the opportunity to be a mom, my Riley. I've said it before here, but there was once a time I wasn't sure I would be a mom, and I didn't really grow up with a stable mom. All of this makes me appreciate what I have even more. I mean, seriously, why should I be so lucky to have such an awesome kid.

Not to brag, but my kid really is cool. Sure she does the typical 6 year old stuff - she whines, she takes forever to do what she's asked, she wants to watch too much TV, but over all she's a lot of fun and just a good kid. So, even though we are approaching Mother's Day, this post is really about my girl because without her, I wouldn't be a mom.

Interesting things about Riley as of recent (and a bunch of random pictures)...

~ She now understands the appeal of chapter books. Last time we went to the library we were talking about the books she'd get and she announced "I'm into chapter books now". Ok, then. We've been reading chapters of a book each night at bedtime, but now she's reading through another library book on her own after I leave her for the night. She was reluctant to do this at first because she didn't want me to miss out on the book, but I assured her it would be ok. We are reading Charlotte's Web right now which brings me back to a time when I discovered this book myself. Only, I don't remember the part where a 10 year old Avery grabs his gun and heads for the bus. Lol. Times have changed?

~ She still has immense love for her cat which isn't always reciprocated. She recently brought home a book about cats from school and now wants to make a cat house, cat toys, and everything else this book talks about. She hasn't been able to convince her dad that we need to get another cat... yet. Update: we just got back from her school carnival where she bought a book on cats and is now reading it upstairs as I write this.

~ She has quite the imagination. She and I were on a walk one evening and she wanted to play pretend, which is not my favorite thing, but she pretty much made all the decisions so I was good with that. She was a little black kitten named Jolly (because she loves Christmas) that was discarded by her owner because the owner got a new white cat named Cora. I was a baby dinosaur named Judy and she and I met and helped her out. It went on, but you get the idea. My favorite pretend moment as of late was when she was Rapunzel, Jesse was Flynn, I was Merida, and Lucy was Pascal. This actually ran over a couple days off and on when she picked up a book she had about the movie Home. She mentioned that Tip (from the movie) was her sister, but that she and Oh (the Boov) died by fire ants. What?? I think I should be alarmed by this, but Jesse and I couldn't stop laughing.

~ Did I mention how much she loves books? We walked to school the other day and she begged me to let her get a book out of this little library even though there were no kid's books. We went away with a book from Country Inn and Suites about friendship. Also, I now know where to drop off my old text books so they can be picked up with whoever gets excited about finding an MLA manual in here. Also, tonight her school had a carnival with all sorts of games and fun things to do. She just wanted to go to the book sale.

~ She's always hungry. ALL. THE. TIME. I thought we were going through a growth spurt, but this has been going on 6 months or so. I can't wait until she can make her own food because I'm tired of getting up every 15 minutes to feed her. She doesn't seem to get the tape worm jokes Jesse and I make and we decided it's better not to explain that one.

Neighbor's garden has all these cute hidden creatures.

~ She's a kind kid.She interrupts us all the time and forgets her manners on a daily basis, but she's generally thoughtful of others and their feelings. I'm proud of this little girl.