Exhausted

Sometimes I think I push her a little too much some days. Some days I wish she'd stop taking naps. Other days, I'm watching the seconds on the clock until naptime is near.

Today, I think we pushed her beyond her limits. But, despite that, she was still a very sweet little girl! Thank goodness though because we were visiting with long-time friends Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill (more like family than friends). And, I wanted them to at least get the impression that I'm a somewhat good mother.

It is 7:25 p.m. She fell asleep for naptime around 5:30 p.m. I guess we should have just waited for her to just go down for the evening. However, I've never really been good at that style of parenting. If my child is tired, no matter what the time, I generally (notice I didn't say always) put her down for naptime or bedtime. Unfortunately, that also normally means a much later bedtime.

Perhaps I should wake her? Nope! Again, not really my style of parenting. Not that I haven't done that many a time just to figure out my style of parenting. And, I'm still working on figuring out my style of parenting. But, today, that isn't my style of parenting. I mean, seriously, you never wake a sleeping baby (or toddler), right? Of course, I'll regret her napping at 7:25 p.m. later this evening.

Hubby got her down for naptime this afternoon at 5:30 p.m. I sat in the business center in the lobby of the hotel to catch up on my e-mail and the news. While I sat there, my heart ached for some reason that I couldn't quite figure out. Now I know why. When I got back up to the hotel room, hubby looked pretty frustrated. He said he had just gotten her to sleep 1 minute ago. She apparently was less than thrilled that I wasn't there. She needed her Mommy, and as a result, she made his life for the past 45 minutes pure hell.

She did finally fall asleep around 5:30 p.m., but awoke again at 6:00 p.m. I picked her up and then held her for a few minutes. I then asked her if she wanted me to lay her down in our bed. "Uh huh," she said. So, she laid her head down on one of those soft, feathery pillows, and she's still sound asleep as the night draws near.

Howard Gilman Memorial Waterfront Park

Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill met us at our hotel this morning to spend the day with us exploring St. Marys, Georgia. St. Marys is the ferry departure point for Cumberland Island.

During our visit to St. Marys, we visited Howard Gilman Memorial Waterfront Park. It was opened in 2001, and it is a beautiful park.

Annabelle spotted the playground instantly, so she spent most of the time playing on the playground. Go figure!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from the day. She has recently (over the past few months) learned to swing like a monkey, so here she is at her best.

The little girl in the background is actually home schooled. Aunt Mary and I spent some time talking to her mother while we were at the playground, and we learned that they have been traveling on a catamaran for the past 6 months. Her husband and her are retired police officers. They had worked for the police department for 20 years, and they are now both retired. They were very young too (probably in their early forties)! They have three kids (ages 4, 10 and 17), and she home schools them all. She said that the girls were very easy to home school, but the boy was apparently a challenge for her. It sounded like he had a hard time staying focused. I've always heard that is pretty typical of boys though.

But, anyhow, it was so very neat to hear their story and how she did it. She used the Calvert School for her 10 year old son, and something different for her 17 year old daughter. For the 4 year old, she said she just made stuff up since her studies are very basic right now.

Some of you may know that thoughts of homeschooling have crossed my mind for Annabelle (and any future siblings). However, I just don't know if I have it in me. I know it has got to be a lot of work! And, I just don't know if I have it in me.

The argument (for most) against homeschooling is that home schooled children are "weird" and don't receive the socialization skills that government educated children receive. I'm not so sure I buy that at all! There are other ways for children to learn to be social, and much is learned from just watching their parents. Those children today were very interactive!

So, I'm off on a tangent now, but their lifestyle just seemed so neat to me. How cool would that be for both parents to be retired at such a young age to enjoy their children and travel wherever they like? I would LOVE to be able to travel with Annabelle all the time, but at a much more leisurely pace! However, I would prefer to travel in an RV versus a boat.

Nice Legs

This morning, I was downstairs in the hotel breakfast room preparing my Belgian waffle to start my day, and a lady came up to me and said,

"Nice legs. I wish I had some like them."

The lady was an older lady, in her seventies probably, and she sounded like she was from New Jersey or somewhere up North.

It cracked me up because I have NEVER had anyone tell me that. My own husband has never told me that, and he'll admit that to you.

I mean, have you seen my legs? They are very, very white and skinny. They look a lot like chicken legs, especially when they are cold.

Perhaps I am gaining some weight as I've suspected, and the weight is going to my legs as well or perhaps she meant to say "nice....something else" and I just misunderstood her.

Of course, if she did say something else, I have no clue what else she could have been referring to. What other body part would another women have the guts to comment on besides the legs?

Singing My ABC's

Apparently, when one is at the pool, and they decide to sing their ABC's, they are supposed to crawl around on all fours with their butt high in the air pointing out the letters on the poolside.

I only wish I could have caught this on video camera! It was hilarious! As she crawled around and literally sang her ABC's to the letters and numbers written on the side of the pool, she would say, "I singing my ABC's." Of course, keep in mind that her ABC's aren't quite the complete set of ABC's yet, but she's getting there!

She knows the letter A without a doubt! She says, "A for Dannabelle!"

Mommy's Cheddar Cheese Pies

As sassy as Annabelle can be, she is also a very sensitive little girl. She is very protective of herself, her things and her Mommy.

While playing at the playground in Crooked River State Park, Annabelle made me some "cheddar cheese pies." She got the idea for these cheddar cheese pies from her cousin Molly earlier this year.

Cheddar cheese pies basically consist of playground mulch and dirt. And, a picnic table or playground bench is the platter of choice for these cheddar cheese pies.

This time, she asked me, "What kinda cheddar cheese pie wouldya dike Mommy?"

I think my response was coconut, aka as "coke-nut."

So, she prepared my coconut cheddar cheese pie on the nearest picnic table, and then she proceeded to run as far away from her Mommy and Daddy as possible (despite the fact that we yelled for her to stop)! Can you find her in this picture? If not, just look for the red circle in the center of the picture. I tried to make it easier for you. She and her Daddy are hard to see because she ran that far away from us!

Do you want to know why she ran so far away as we yelled for her to "STOP!"? Because she wanted to play on this.

She then "got a talking to" from her Daddy. Notice how she will NOT look her Daddy in the eyes. She has never wanted to look either one of us in the eyes after she's done something wrong. And, this started at a very young age. Is this an early sign of guilt? Do children this young really know and feel guilt? I guess this is just an early sign of our sinful nature as human beings.

So, after their talk, we all headed back to the playground. As we arrived, Annabelle noticed that someone was sitting at the picnic table where she had earlier prepared her Mommy's cheddar cheese pie.

She got upset and whimpered, "Mommy's cheddar cheese pie!" as she pointed to the picnic table. I caught this magical moment on camera (note the first picture on this blog entry). I love this sweet expression! She was just looking out for her Mommy!

Dear Annabelle,

I hope you will always be as sweet and sensitive as you are today. Despite your sassiness and attitude, you show true signs of love and sensitivity. You are a very caring person, and you already want to protect the ones you love.

I hope your heart will never be hardened by this sometimes very cruel world. I'm afraid you will learn all too soon the cruelty of some people. However, for every cruel and resentful person, there are many more people who are very loving and caring. You just have to find it in your heart to forgive those who have hurt you (which is often very hard to do).

May you always live your life loving, caring and forgiving others!

Love always,

Mommy

Read it to me!

Since hubby and I took our "Trip of a lifetime" across country back in 2005, I have always been interested in reading the trail leaflets normally available at the start of any state or national trail or at the visitor's center. We've always stopped at just about every marker along the trail to attempt to learn something new. Unfortunately, for me, if the learned fact is not reinforced constantly, I quickly forget what I had just learned. But, it makes hiking that much more interesting, and maybe something I've learned will one day stick with me.

i.e. Cypress Knees - This is the 2nd time within 12 months that we have visited a swampy area. I think the term cypress knees has finally stuck! Apparently, hubby is much more intelligent than me because he supposedly remembered the facts about cypress knees from our hike in Congaree back in 2008.

As for Annabelle, she is also following in her Mommy's footsteps. For every trail marker we hit, she'd run to the trail marker and say, "Read it to me!" She even insisted that we read them again if the trail circled back around and we passed them again on the way out.

I'm not sure if this little bit of information will make her any brighter, but for now, we'll hope that she's storing this information in all of those little file folders in her head. And, just maybe one day it will pay off!

This picture was taken on our hike along the Sempervirens Trail at Crooked River State Park in St. Mary's, Georgia (near Kingsland, Georgia) on May 5th, 2009 at 10:25 a.m.

Favorite Past Times

If you were to ask Annabelle what she's enjoyed most about vacation, she would probably tell you picnics, pushing buttons, playing on the playground and "distening to her moosick."

I am quickly learning that vacations will never ever again be the same, but more than anything, they are all about her! No matter how hard you try to enjoy the things you used to enjoy while vacationing (such as packing in as much stuff into one day as possible), it is the little things that make the most difference in a child's life.

I believe that every day Annabelle has asked, "We going on a pic-a-nick?" Oddly enough, she barely eats anything when we do have a picnic. Sandwiches just aren't here thing, no matter if they even have peanut butter and chocolate chips on them. This week, cantaloupe has been her food of choice!

The above two pictures were taken at St. Andrews Picnic Area at Jekyll Point on Jekyll Island on May 4th, 2009 at 11:46 a.m. And, yes, we had a very, very early lunch (for us) because once again, we got an early start on another very hot day!