Gators, chalk, showers, cereal...

All of my pictures are out of order.  In March we took an airboat ride on Lake Washington.  It was really cool.  We ended up having to wait for almost two hours before we got on a boat so that was pretty annoying but the kids played corn hole and got free cupcakes and Popsicles from the owners since the wait was so long.  I have never seen so many gators and it was kind of creepy to think about all these gators hiding in this river.  I've always wanted to go an airboat ride and now I have!

Felicity decided pretty early on that she wanted to eat like the rest of us so we started giving her a spoon and bowl for breakfast.  She won't eat dry cereal but she will eat it if it's in a bowl with milk.  She makes huge messes still but she's picking it up pretty quickly.  We have to be careful about leaving food on the table though because she climbs up on the table and will eat anything left out.  

Piper is such a good sister to Felicity.  She lets Felicity play with pretty much any toy she wants to.  Piper asked for this big cat for Christmas that purrs and hisses and moves.  Felicity loves this weird cat.  It's probably as big as her but she carries that thing all over the house and Piper lets her.  Recently though, Felicity has been kind of mean to Piper and will hit her or grab things away so we are starting to have to discipline her whenever she is mean to Piper.  Piper is so patient with her.  It's amazing to watch her mother and care for Felicity.  

Piper does not like to be the center of attention.  Her class had pajama day at school and she was so anxious about it.  She went back and forth all morning long about wearing pj's.  Finally, as we are getting in the car to go to preschool she decided that she didn't want to show up at school in her pajamas and changed.  I told her that she would most likely be the only person in her class not wearing pajamas but she still did not want to wear them.  After school she told me that there was one other person not wearing pajamas and she felt a little sad that she didn't wear them. She did the same thing on crazy hair day and wouldn't let me do anything crazy to her hair.  Her teacher had brought some glitter and convinced her to glitter up her hair. She has a hard time letting go and being herself and it takes her some time to feel comfortable and relaxed.  I totally get her.  She is a mini me and I can see myself as a little girl in her behaviors and even now as an adult.  When she told me she really wanted to wear her kitty ears to school I immediately said yes.  I wondered if she really would and there were a few times in the van when she said, "Do you think I should?"  or "I won't do it if you think I shouldn't do it."  I told her I wanted her to wear her kitty ears because it made her happy and there was nothing wrong with wearing kitty ears.  She did wear her ears to school and almost wore her tail too but took the tail off just as she was getting out of the van.  She wore the ears all day and I was so happy when she got back in the van at the end of the day still wearing the ears.  I had some errands to run so we went to the grocery store and she clipped her tail to her shorts and wore those ears proudly.  She even pretended to be a kitty ninja in the store.  It made me so happy to see her doing what she wanted to do without any thought or care about what anyone would think.  I want her to be confident and happy!  For this same reason I bought her hair chalk for Christmas as well.  She chalks that hair up all sorts of colors and loves it and wears it in public all over the place.  She has made progress in the crazy hair area.  :)  I hope she continues to lose her inhibitions and be herself and be proud of herself.