E's first haircut

E is 27.5 months old and was finally ready for her first haircut today. Well, maybe I was ready to get her hair cut today. We will be seeing all Jut's family tomorrow and I thought that she might look a bit better with a touch of a trim. She was looking a tad bit shaggy these days. So, I called Penney's and they could fit her in this afternoon. I made a big deal about talking the experience up and getting her excited for it (the same strategy that I used for the 1st dentist visit)...and she did very well.

Arriving and getting settled into her chair


Discussing the options

Look I have bangs! I can see again!!!

Bye-bye mullet!

Random Photo Shoot

The weather has been beautiful this week to send all the teachers in the state back to work. E and I enjoyed it by having an impromptu photo shoot on Monday. It reminded me why I'm glad to be home enjoying my time with her instead of heading back to work!

We ended our shoot with these final words...Gotta' love potty training! (We are almost at the end of that journey! Yipee for E!!!)

The Holland Beach

We traveled last weekend to Holland to visit Jut's folks. While we were there, we couldn't resist taking E to the beach. She thought the walk up the dunes was fun, but it took both of us holding her hands to get her to the top. It was tough walking!


We went to the Riley beach and let E experience some waves...They were really rolling in Thursday afternoon! She thought that they were pretty neat, but kept a tight grip on her dad's hand for the first minute or so.


The waves were very chilly on her feet, but she loved it!



Sitting down and letting the waves wash over you was a lot of fun, also. However, once a wave splashed her in the face, there was no more sitting!

She was freezing after 5 minutes, but that didn't stop her fun. She kept playing and playing and shivering and shivering....

There was a little inlet that had been filled with the waves. It was significantly warmer than the lake. She'd go 'warm up' in that and then go play in the waves again. She loved playing in the water!!

Jut couldn't resist the big waves, either. He played out in them for awhile.

I finally convinced E that she needed to warm up. She snuggled right in to the towel and didn't move for a few minutes.

Walking up the dunes to head for the car.


E needed a helping hand up the dune...

A very unhappy girl once she realized that we were going back to the car...or maybe it was because we pulled her away from a berry bush that she was harvesting for the birds. But, she was not happy to be leaving!!

However, I did remember why I don't like going to the beach. We got E back to the car, stripped of her swimsuit and found oodles of sand...then we took off her swim diaper and found even more sand. We took her back to Jut's folks' house naked...and still ended up with a ton of sand in the car. However, I am glad that we didn't get pulled over or in an accident on the way home. I wouldn't have wanted to explain our naked child to a cop!

Where does brilliance end and stupidity begin???

The past few weeks were frustrating. E wasn't napping...well, she might take a nap every 4th day or so, but I'm needing one every day and it just wasn't working out well. She was waiting until I put her in her room to nap to poop. So, every day I was cleaning up poopy undies because she wouldn't use the little potty when left alone in her room. I tried keeping her up later from nap to get her to poop before putting her down...but nothing was successful.

On Tuesday, I had a brainstorm...(or some might say a case of insanity). I started potty training her commando...so maybe she needed to be commando to be poop trained too. Our only pooping successes happened when she was commando running around the house.

When I left her room at naptime, I stripped off her shorts and undies. She didn't care. She strips them off when she's playing around our house all the time anyway. I went across the hall and waited. She giggled, closed her door and I could hear her talking and playing with her animals. I could just see her and every so often she'd run to the potty. I'd ask if she'd need wiped and she'd reply "no". However within 20 minutes, she called out "I pooped. Need wiped!".

I entered her room and she said, "Mommy, big worm in the potty!" Sure enough, there was a huge log sitting in the little potty. Yipee. I cleaned her and the potty up. Put her back in her room and she eventually fell asleep.

We have repeated this scene for the past 2 days. She plays then poops and then very peacefully lays down for her nap. Fortunately, she is also staying dry while she is sleeping. Brilliance or stupidity??? I'm not really sure, but it has worked wonderfully!

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Just a side note: We put up the crib and changing table today in the baby's room. E thinks it is great fun to scale up the crib and play in it. All of her bedding ended up in the crib this morning. She's such a goof. She's taking her nap right now in her true 'big girl' bed for the first time. We let her sleep on a mattress for several weeks. Then, we added the box springs and today she has the real headboard and bedframe underneath her. She thinks she's big stuff! ;-)

First Prayer

We were putting E to bed tonight and Jut said, "Can we pray?" E bowed her little head, laid down and said,

"Dear Jesus,
Thank you for today.
Thank you for the stars (or maybe it was "storms"...Jut and I don't quite know).
Amen."

She was pretty adorable!

Playing in the Rain...

We had our annual Flegel Family Fun weekend this weekend out at G'pa and G'ma's house. It was a very loosely structured weekend with everyone coming and going at different times due to scheduling difficulties, but we had a great time despite the fact that not everyone was there at the same time.

The weather was very brisk for July but luckily it only rained for a short while on Saturday morning. However, the rain didn't keep E inside. She loved being pounded by the rain, and when she was given an umbrella, the rain was even more fun. We fortunately had her splashin' boots and rain coat in the car...otherwise it might have gotten ugly trying to keep her inside!

Can you see her tongue sticking out as she's trying to catch raindrops on her tongue? You'd think that it was coming down so hard that it would have hurt her little tongue!

Luckily, G'pa rescued the little girl from the rain. She did kind of freeze up when it was coming down really hard. So, G'pa went out and brought her back into the garage...which is when she found the joys of the umbrella.

Doesn't the umbrella just make the outfit?! The logo on the umbrella matched her boots perfectly. She was quite fashionable in her get-up.

It was really fun to walk in the rain with the umbrella...she even took off the shades when she was using the umbrella.

Does she look drenched? She was...however, my potty-training little girl had completely dry undies after this whole escapade! Yipee for E!

Now E is catching water coming out of the eaves after the rain stopped. When she looks at the picture, she'll tell you she was "washing her hands". She was hunting for black caps until the stream of water caught her attention. She disappeared numerous times over the weekend hunting black caps...she thought they'd ripen for her in 15 minutes! ;-)

The other place that she'd disappear to over the weekend was to the barn. She loved playing on G'pa's tractor. There were tons of levers to pull and push and a huge steering wheel to drive. Additionally, all of the kittens were out in the barn and she had a birds-eye view of them as she sat in the tractor. Luckily, G'pa was more than willing to share his tractor and I didn't have to spend all my time out in the dirty barn!

And of course, one must not forget the adventures on the golf cart. All the kids love to go for rides on the cart. The bigger kids love passengers and will take the little ones out if that means that they get to drive. I'd hate to know how many miles get put on the poor cart for our weekend gatherings. It gets lots of use!

Snappin' Peas

Life has been busy around here for the past few weeks. It is summer. I think everyone is busy. We went to Algonac for a mini-getaway the second weekend of July. Jut had the privilege of officiating a friend's wedding on Saturday. It was lovely. We were so glad to be apart of their special day. We found out that E still loves a good party! She danced the night away...or rather ran circles around the dance floor for hours. When we left the reception at 9:30, we thought she'd definitely sack out in the car on the drive back to the hotel, which was 20 minutes away. However, we were sadly mistaken...she was going strong until midnight! Crazy girl. On Sunday, we were able to go back to the ACOC where Jut use to minister and worship with the congregation. It was fun to see everyone again. We left when E was about 4 months old and hadn't been back, so it was nice to renew some old acquaintances.

We got back home around 4 on Sunday and Jut left for senior high camp at Rock Lake 45 minutes later. E and I were home alone for the week. We kept busy and had some fun.

One of our fun things to do every week is to go to the local farmer's market. On Wednesday, I picked up some peas. So, Wednesday evening, E and I shucked some peas. She was actually very helpful and worked with me for about 20 minutes. She couldn't snap the peas but loved pulling them out and placing them in the bowl (or eating them).

She'd say, "Momma, unwrap package!" I'd snap a pea and pull it apart. She'd pull out all the peas. Not all of them made it into the bowl or her mouth...they are slippery little suckers, but the majority of them made it to their intended destination. It was fun having her help. She is quite the little helper.

E's favorite thing at the market is blueberries. If you look carefully at her face (or plate), you can see the blueberry residue left from supper. She'll polish off an entire quart in a day if I let her. She loves her blueberries. I, however, hate the diapers the following day...so I try to limit her intake! ;-)