Love Your Face.

Jackie reading animals book

Thanks Aunt Julia and Uncle Cason

Publish Post

A look inside the Mind of a Little Girl

While our little one's vocabulary expands day after day, it has been so fun to hear the combination of words she puts together. Delightful really. We've been blessed with a girl that likes to talk, repeat and learn new things. She's getting pretty amazing with puzzles: picking out the right peices for the right space, recognizing most colors and animals. Colin's planning on posting a video to illustrate her knowledge of animals. But, I could go on about how "brilliant" my kid is. Don't we all think our kids are the smartest? That's the beauty of parenthood. My kid is the best!! :-)

Yesterday, Jackie and I were leaving for work and school. We routinely hold hands and go down some rather dangerous stairs on our way to the garage. On this day, she decided she didn't need to hold my hand. I gave her two choices. "Jackie, either you hold Mommy's hand or Mommy will carry you down the stairs." She just looked at me with a half smile like, I'm just going to stall and see what her next move is. I was running late, so I scooped her up, knowing it wouldn't make her happy. She stiffened, and began to scream, "My stairs!! My stairs!! My stairs!!"

Made it to the garage with no problems other than a screaming kiddo, opened the car door and plopped her in her carseat. Jackie immediately stood up in her carseat. "Jackie, sit down please, so I can buckle you up." The same grin in return. Therefore, I began forcefully bending her legs to a sitting position. And Jackie screamed, "My stand up!! My stand up!! My stand up!!"

Then began the laughing. I couldn't stop. Something about that phrase just got me. Poor kid. Here she is, trying to assert her independence with so much emotion and her mommy is laughing at her. I get it from my Dad. He found the most absurd moments funny when I was a kid. Moments that were monumental for me. Moments that I was finally standing up for myself. It was infuriating then, and now I get it.

Oh dear.

Pigtails Schmigtails

My dear friend Kim inspired me to attempt pigtails in Jackie's hair this morning. She posted a darling picture of baby Dillan with pigtails in her hair. We thought we'd give it a try and I thought they turned out pretty cute on Jackie.

Other evidence of this girl growing up is her ability to brush her own teeth. More accurately, she's sucking the water from the brush. Mom still has to grab the brush and get after those teethies for her while making "aaaaahhh" and "eeeeeehh" sounds. She does pretty great with it as long as she can have the brush back for a little sucking.

Notice the crazy outfit. I know what you are thinking, "Kathleen must have let Jackie pick this out." The answer is no. I picked it out. It's insane and where did I get the idea that stripes and polka dots go together. Not sure, but I'm into an "anything goes" phase. I just think there is something so cute about little girls in wild mismatched stuff. Surely I'll grow out of this before she turns 5 or so to save her from true embarrassment with her peers in kindergarten. By then, she really will be picking out the mismatched outfits for herself and I'll know that I am the cause for her fashion nonsensical behavior.

I digress - Back to pigtails. Now, we were so proud of them and drove all the way to Grandma and Grandpa's house to show them off. We get in the house, look at the back of her head and there wasn't even a trace of this girly cuteness. Just Jackie's cute head looking a little disheveled from a night's sleep. Oh well, they were joyous while they lasted.

Prune Juice? Really?

Had to share our funny morning.

God love our Jackie Jacks. She loves her milk and as much as we try to keep the fiber flowing in her diet, she just has a hard time having a BM. We've made it a priority to give her a couple of tablespoons of prune juice in her milk or water every day. Well, the moment that doesn't happen, we find her struggling, turning red or weeping in a corner somewhere.

Poor kid.

Well, we had one of those mornings and after she won the battle and I changed her diaper, I said, "Well, I think we better get some prune juice for you." Jackie lit up and said, "Ya!" You'd think I said we were going out for ice cream with and to the playground. We walked into the kitchen and she was dancing around saying, "Prune juice for Jackie Jacks!! Yeah prune juice!"

The prune juice delight made it's way all the way to school this morning. I really think she is the only person I know that loves prune juice. She ca-racks me up. Love this kid.

Hold them Tight

I love this picture of Colin and Jackie. He loves it because you can't see his face. I love it because there is just nothing quite like holding you child like this. When they put their little head on your shoulder, it's just such a peaceful feeling. These two really love each other and I love seeing them both light up when they see each other.

I've been giving Jackie extra hugs lately and it's probably driving her crazy. My cousin Shannon who lives in Baton Rouge also has a 21 month child. His name is Patrick, he is cute as could be and just a short 3 weeks ago was diagnosed with a nasty cancer called neuroblastoma. They've spent time in Memphis at St. Jude's and are now back home, but the road of chemo, procedures, tests and more tests have just begun. My heart goes out to them . I can't imagine going through what they are with Jackie. Keep them in your thoughts, prayers or positive vibes. Shannon is keeping up a caring bridge site with updates on Patrick if you'd like to see how they are doing. They love the comments and extra prayers. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/patrickdiamond

A few Cute One's of our Jackie-Jack's

This snowfall meant lots of cozy hours indoors with Dad, Jackie and Mommy's first taste of snow ice cream (a Swindle family tradition), 1/2 days of wearing pj's, crunching throught the snow in snow boots, and celebrating Grandpa Dowdell's 60th birthday.

Jackie is hitting a big independent phase. She wants to do everything herself or at least try. "Mine" is one of her favorite words which can be a tad frustrating at times, but so is "cuddle," "Love you Mommy/Daddy" and a ton of other sweet things.

I just love her stares. So intense. :-)

Having her snack after nap time on her new big girl table. Love this thing, it cleans up really well so we let her draw and eat there without much of a care.

Jackie's teachers are really good at putting her hair in Cindy Loo Hoo pony tails. I, on the other hand cannot get enough hair collected to do so, nor keep her still. I guess it's a peer pressure thing. :-)