Darla's Mom

The morning after: cartoons and cake.

Sleepover

Canoe and Darla had a Super Day as we celebrated Darla’s 4th year of life

Fresh and clean calendar with only the important stuff as we start.
There is plenty of room for other things that will come along

My girls: climbing the walls for over a decade

Checking it out

Happy 2015.
This is the first time Darla is old enough to understand what New Year is.

We are watching the parade because "you are a So Cal Girl", I’ve told her.

It feels like negative 5 million degrees outside. She just asked why we aren’t sitting on the route.

I showed her photos of the Belknap/Shores and their Girl Scouts sitting in the route and now,10 minutes into being awake this year: she is disappointed in me.

I’m under 3 quilts and blankets and snug in my bed.

Kid, this is only the beginning of your dissatisfaction.

Wonder Woman on the t.v.

Everything is taken apart "to see how it goes" and then reassembled. This flashlight pen has been thoroughly inspected.
She is my future mechanical engineer.

Yesterday was a long day to be Darla.

Church, sisters, candy, candy, cake and friends.

She ran into her sisters in the morning and when they did not hug her and react with the same joy she was feeling – it broke her heart. She is 3 years old and missed the subtext of some outsider instructong them not to return her affectionate greetings. All she felt was rejected. – So Darla looked at me and said "My heart , it broke. When we get home I need to take down their pictures". My heart broke for her. I was, however, impressed with her long range thinking.

So we went to visit her oldest sister Jackie. Jax and Darla always make each other smile slyly at each other.

Someone fed her handfuls of chocolates…Stephanie. ..ahem. so there was a brief sugar rush that burned out in a party with other small children.

As she fell asleep in the car, she told me she felt warm and cozy and loved. Then she asked if Melanie and Abby would remember and look even her again some day.

I hate the politics of grown ups and I am sad that Darla already has coping skills for them.