Poor Traumatized Child

I told Evelyn that every time I caught her in a lie, the whole world would know about it because I would write about it in my blog. I am such a mean awesome mom :D. You can tell she doesn't lie much, BUT here we go!


Today I asked Evelyn what she learned about in church. Here was her answer:
 
Evelyn:  About being kind.

Me: Hmmm...you have learned about being kind for the last 6 weeks.

Evelyn: Yeah, we learn about it lots.

Me: --Or you just say that every time I ask you what you learned about.

Evelyn: Yeah, but today we really DID learn about being kind!

Me:  But not the last 6 weeks?

Evelyn: Not so much.

"If you say that again, I WILL wash your mouth out with soap!--Love ya, have a good day at school!"

    Ah the wonderful, scheduled, frantic onset of school! Evelyn has been most anxious for school to start: wondering who her teacher will be, planning all the things she will brag about to her teacher ("I read 64 books this summer, Teacher!"), whether or not a certain not-so-desirable boy will end up in her class, dreaming about a much-more-desirable boy sitting next to her, and oh yeah: if her best friend will have the same teacher! It has been very amusing to listen to her verbal ponderings. 
   Last night was Back to School night for Evelyn. We were very pleased with her new teacher who has many glowing references by trusted friends. Everything went smoothly, with only slight threatenings of my tears spilling over. But I held them back successfully! WHY MUST CHILDREN GROW UP SO QUICKLY?!?! And why do I have a shortage of children that makes my "empty-nesting" years loom much too close for comfort?!  Ooookay, pardon the pity party: I just dropped off my first grader to her very first day of school.

   Speaking of which, I was very proud of my organized and successful morning! I got up with an hour to spare before school started. I did my daughter's hair, made her a nutritious, if not slightly sugary breakfast. Then I read her scriptures while she ate! (I am very impressed with this fact, mostly because it's what my mom did for her children before school, and thus, it's the BEST way to do things, right?) After which, we had about 25 more minutes, so I got Evelyn to do her work chart job, AND practice the piano before school started! Mom points!

    I would have given myself props for the perfect first day of school, if I hadn't had to threaten to wash Evelyn's mouth out with soap literally right before I wished her a good day at school.
    How's this for a first day of school memory? While rhyming words with "itch," Evelyn discovered her first swear word, and thought it was the most fascinating discovery since what women look like pregnant. (That was another embarrassing discovery, full of pointing and screaming out that random strangers must have a baby in their tummy--this proclamation was not limited to actual pregnant ladies, but extended the elderly, the women still recovering from their birth, and the occasional tubby male. Fun days.)
   Anyway Evelyn's potty mouth simply served to remind me that truly my baby is growing up, and while not purposely swearing, she is definitely going to stumble upon unpleasantness of life. And perhaps maybe even introduce some of that unpleasantness to your kids. (Sorry  if your kid comes home knowing a new swear word.)
   So I got a Good Mom Reward today, followed almost immediately by a slap in the face and a "Give that medal back!" But I have learned a valuable lesson: If your child is just making funny sounds with their mouth, don't point out the swear word. Oh, and don't define the swear word. Sometimes in trying to be educational you just give too much information.

"You think you can do these things, Nemo, but you CAN'T!"

   Where is that limit when you stop hovering protectively over your child and let her feel the natural consequences of life? I know it is very good to let children learn from their actions, so I have a tendency to want to let Evelyn discover things for herself.
   Having said that, I must admit I'm horrible at putting those beliefs into practice. For instance, we have been trying to teach Evelyn how to swim for years, but last summer especially, we really focused on it. It wasn't super successful, because when we want her to learn something is when she decides to cling terrified to our necks. This year, we have been continuing to work on it, but without the same emphasis. She had sort of got to the place she had left off last year, which meant she could swim about 5 strokes before having to stop and breathe. If she couldn't reach the bottom or cling to someone, she would just take her breath underwater.

   So you can see why on the Fourth of July I almost ripped the clubhouse door off it's hinges trying to reach my little girl who was drowning! At least, I thought she was...We were having a family party at the clubhouse, and all the cousins were swimming together. Evelyn had her swim noodle, and we also had an adult or three supervising. But, just the same, I kept peeking out the window to see how she was doing. You can imagine how I felt when I saw her climb out of the pool with her noodle, walk to the deep part and chuck her swim noodle in. Then she plugged her nose and jumped in after it. The only problem was her splash pushed her noodle farther away. She swam after it, but her strokes continued to push her noodle across the pool. Her swimming was a little frantic and spasmodic, and I thought any second she would go under, but she just kept swimming, ...and swimming...and swimming. She ended up swimming across the whole pool! She was so proud of herself she did it about 100 more times.
   I was proud too, but it didn't stop me from going outside and preparing to jump in should anything go wrong. She did fine.
   Of course whenever we go swimming now she does the same thing, only she wants nothing to do with her swim noodle, and I keep finding myself ordering her to take it with her, just in case! Am I being too over-protective?

Hair Cuts Everywhere!

We cut off all of our hair!!! Actually, we only cut off the majority of all our hair. Michael's isn't that interesting (sorry, Michael) so I didn't include a picture. But Evelyn's: we cut off at least 5 inches! I think it makes her look 4 years younger. I'm finally getting used to her in it and most the time I recognize her now when she comes in a room.

Before we cut it.

And here she is with her hair cut. Her hair grows so fast that I am pretty sure it's already grown an inch since we cut it a month ago. When it was first cut, it was barely brushing her shoulders.

 I cut off about 5 inches of mine too. I hate it. But I'm trying not to get impulsive about it and cut the rest off, because then I'll probably never grow it out again. So I'm trying...to ...be...patient! AAAARRGGH! I still hate it!!!

Anyway, Evelyn's haircut does make it harder to put up. Her hair just likes to slide out of anything I put in it. But I did manage to get it to stay up for an hour while she went to a friend's birthday party. Here she is, dressed up as Cinderella.

 

 

New Bike and Graduation

 We finally succumbed to our guilt of having deprived Evelyn the last 4 years and we bought her a new bike!  She is learning quickly how to not depend so heavily on the training wheels.  We'll pretend it was a kindergarten graduation present, but really there was just a bike sale at Walmart.

Evelyn's Kindergarten graduation was on Tuesday the 27th. I was so proud of her. She has come so far in the last year. I was pleased with the way she carried herself. I loved the way she sang right to the audience.  I loved  her confidence. I love her little choreography. I loved her disgusted little face when one of the kids of the front row puked. She's so fun to have!
   Here is the video of their first song. Don't worry, there's no kids puking in it.

Sitting so straight and tall!

Evelyn and her teacher, Mrs. Rigby

"God Is"

Written by Jane Evelyn Adams age 6

 

God is Sweet.

 

God is in Heaven.

 

God is Good.

 

God is Strong.

 

God is Smart.

 

God is Happiness....

 

 



Easter Pictures

Finding the Easter Eggs

Evelyn's Easter basket was well hidden in a bunch of plastic bags

Easter was so fun this year. Evelyn filled the eggs with surprises almost a month ago and has been waiting for Easter to give them to members of the family. But the Easter bunny added his own surprises and hid the eggs for her. She was thrilled with the hunt. Then it took her forever to find her basket. She got the new Pirate Fairy movie, and little hopping blue bunny (and she DIDN'T name it 'Blue!' She named it 'Hoppy' instead!) and a picture book with hilarious illustrations of a pug. ("It's Duffy Time" by Audrey and Don Wood)
   We saved a little bird, went to church, sang with the choir and spent the evening getting ill off our Easter candy (which we probably won't get through until July--What was the Easter Bunny THINKING?!?) and watching the Ten Commandments.