LADYBUGS AND WEEBS

Dear Weeb,

Walking home from school today, you spotted a Ladybug. So we had to dash home for the cameras and take some pictures. You somehow got the little red buggy to crawl up onto your shoe. You were quite delighted with yourself too, since I hadn't been able to get him to crawl onto my shoe.

The first two shots are with the small point and shoot camera. I took the one of the lady bug on your shoe, but I think you might have taken the other shot. The last two photos, I took with the bigger camera. You are quite delighted that the small camera, that you use now, took better pictures than my fancier camera! I love taking pictures with you - you see the most amazing stuff!

DADDY, WEEB, & MUMMY

Dear Weeb,

I love your art.

TINY FIELD FLOWER BOUQUET

Dear Weeb,

You're back in school and you and your friends are back out in the field, enchanted and delighted by the little flowers / weeds that grow wild along the back of the field, near 'the forest'. Yesterday, you presented me with this cute little bouquet, after school. I'm amazed how very well you put this together. I'm not sure if you tied it together or taped it together, but it looks wonderful for a little bouquet of tiny, wild, field flowers. It's the sweetest bouquet that anybody has ever given to me. Thank you.

BARFED OUT BEANS

Dear Weeb,

Daddy got up early today, braised some ribs in the oven, then put them into the slow cooker with BBQ sauce. We have been drooling over the smell all day!

It's nearly 3PM and you just informed me that, "The chicken in the slow cooker smells just like barfed out beans."

LOL Fine, more for me, kid! Grilled ham and cheese for you, for dinner, I guess!

And here's another picture of you and your cousin J, just because you guys are cute and I have a ton of pictures of the two of you.

POLLY POCKET IN THE PERIWINKLE

Dear Weeb,

A little more fun with the camera. Here are some of your Polly Pocket pals, frolicking in the periwinkle.

SLEEPING BEAUTY WITH BARBIE DOLLS

Dear Weeb,

We are still taking photos using your toys. We set up 'Sleeping Beauty', er, I mean, 'Sleeping Barbie' in the gardens behind our house. Granted, the ivy there isn't in great shape, but it made for a better background than some of the other attempts we've made with this shot in the past couple of days. You were terribly worried that we were going to get into trouble for putting your toys in the ivy. I had to repeatedly promise that we weren't ruining any plants and were not breaking any rules.

The Barbie bed was made by Grandpa, for me, when I was about your age, I think. Grandma made the bedding and aided with the material parts of the bed. I think it is awesome that you get to play with something that my parents made for me when I was a kid.

THE UNO GAME

Dear Weeb,

Two of your fuzzy friends borrowed Barbie's car and took a trip to have an outdoor Uno game. They drove to their spot, played a fabulous game of Uno and then headed back home again. Did you know they did this kind of thing when you weren't looking?

SPIRITS INSIDE US

Weeb, on the crack in the wall: Maybe ghosts did it.

Mummy: I don't believe in ghosts.

Weeb: Well I do. They are the spirits, inside you. And when you die, they escape!

Mummy: Okay...

THE MOUNTAINS, PART 2

Dear Weeb,

Yesterday, as we were driving, I commenting on how beautiful the mountains were. The sky was clear and it has been cold, so the mountains have a lovely layer of snow and they just looked completely marvelous!

You remarked, "They ARE beautiful. Do you know they are graves?"

Um. What?

"It's true," you continued. "The good people are buried there."

Um. What?!

You began to tell me the good people are buried at the mountains and bad people are buried in graveyards and that's why there are scary ghosts there.

I explained that that is not the case and that we buried people in grave yards because... well I'm not sure why, but it doesn't have to do with good or bad and why would all ghosts be bad when not all people are bad?

Then you thought for a moment, and I'm pretty sure you were playing with me, based on your nearly 2 year old comments about how you and your cousins made the mountains.

"Mummy, I mean the good people from before there were dinosaurs and cavemen."

Kid, sometimes you freak me out. You come up with these things and it makes me wonder if you're remembering things from before you were born, from before we started tracking time, from before the beginning.

I will now forever see the mountains and think two things; one, you and your cousins made the mountains before you were born and two, the mountains are the graves of the gods.

BARBIE GOES RV-ING

Dear Weeb,

Some of your Barbies and Monster High dolls went on a trip in a Barbie camper that I had as a kid. I must have got this camper in the late 1970's. It's an OLD camper. Grandma packed it up nicely and saved it, hoping she'd have a granddaughter to pass it on to. Lucky for you both! It's so cool seeing you play with my old toys. We had fun setting up all the little stuff and taking pictures. I took these shots, but you wanted me to post them on your blog.

SOLID AS A WEEB

Dear Weeb,

For the past few days, we've been playing a lot of Uno. We played tonight before bed but you agreed to just one game, because it was already past your bedtime - EVEN if it was a quick game and EVEN if I won.

It was a quick game. I won. You were upset.

Nearly in sobs, you said, "But that wasn't solid, Mummy! The next game I'll be solid as a rock! One more game?"

I had to thumbs down, despite my laughing pretty hard at 'solid'. You had agreed to just ONE more game. It was already past your bedtime and it was clear from your impending hysterical tantrum that you were overtired. We'll have to play a 'solid' game tomorrow, baby. Goodnight.

SEEING WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

Dear Weeb,

As you were eating dinner tonight, I noticed you closing your eyes and moving your face into the bright sun that was shining in through the window and then into the shadow. I asked you what you were doing and you said nothing. I said whatever you were doing looked interesting and I was just curious. Again, you insisted you were doing nothing. It took me a few more requests and a bit of prompting before you admitted what you were doing - noticing the difference between light and dark, with your eyes closed.

Then you said, "I am learning how to see with my eyes closed." I thought that was really cool.

About 5 minutes later, the sun was gone from our window for the day.

WEEB ART MAR/12

Dear Weeb,

I wasn't too keen on letting you use scissors when you asked me for them. You tend to do things like put holes in your pants. But I relented, gave you the scissors, a glue stick and some construction paper. You started by cutting out hearts. The next day, today, I came home from work (you are on Spring Break and Daddy was working from home to be with you today) you showed me this wonderful artwork that you had done. I think it's fantastic! I asked if you had done anything like this at school or your friend's house earlier in the week and you said no. Regardless, I think it's just wonderful and had to snap a picture. I love your art.

HEARTS AND BUTTS

Dear Weeb,

You and your father seem to enjoy toilet humor. I'll admit I participate more than I care to admit (and often instigate it, but I won't admit that out loud).

This is a special game that one of you invented called 'Hearts and Butts'. It is Tic Tac Toe, but with hearts. And butts. I've mentioned that you two are very strange, right? I'm just glad you're not wasting paper on this.

EAT YOUR CHICKEN!

Dear Weeb,

You're the only kid I know who takes an hour and a half to eat your favorite dinner. Chicken and rice. Just eat the chicken already! I'm not quite sure how this conversation came about between you and your father as I was in the kitchen doing dishes, but overheard him say, "Eat your chicken, Tooty Rooster has decreed it!" Later I found this visual aid. You two are very strange.

SPRING BREAK, BUBBLES, AND WIND STORMS

Dear Weeb,

Day 1 of Spring Break and we got to spend it together. We watched some movies, washed all the bed sheets, vacuumed, and we got to blow bubbles as the wind gusted like crazy outside.

Yes, I often let you play around large hydro boxes that clearly display someone being electrocuted for daring to go near it. We used to sit on these when we were kids. Don't sit on them. Don't lick them. It's probably okay to blow bubbles near them.

I am aware that for this photo, I asked you to sit on the hydro box. Is it that I'm Mother of the Year or was it a test that you failed? Yeah, it was me being Mother of the Year.



I had a really nice day with you today. I love you, Stinkbug!

SPARKLY PINK NAIL POLISH

Dear Weeb,

Trying to get an interesting shot of sparkly nail polish and you wanted to try painting your own nails. This makes me cringe. I don't know why, but it just does. But I let you do it anyways. You did a pretty good job. And then you wanted to paint my nails. You must understand how much I love you that I let you do it. Enjoy the pink sparkles, my girl!

HUNTING FOR 4 LEAF CLOVERS

Dear Weeb,

You wanted to help me take my daily photo today and nothing we were doing in the house was turning out how we wanted, so we decided to go hunting for 4 leaf clovers. You said that you and the kids in your class have been hunting for them at recess and lunch and you knew where there was a really good clover patch. So we went for a walk when the rain stopped for a little while and these are the pictures YOU took. You used my Canon PowerShot SD1000. I think you've got a very good eye. A lot of your shots were blurry, but we're working on how to best hold the camera so you get a good shot. And I have to keep telling you to hold the button down half way and look at the screen before pushing it the rest of the way. You'll get it. And you still managed to get some wonderful shots!

Clovers! Do you see any with 4 leaves?

Periwinkle!

More periwinkle!

You chased some ducks and managed to get a pretty good shot of them running away from you.

This is 'The Forest'. It's on the outskirts of the school field and you guys aren't allowed to go in there, so it's a HUGE attraction. You tried to convince me that there was a fantastic clover patch in there and maybe a leprechaun. Yup. A leprechaun. Well, I suppose if there was a leprechaun somewhere, it would be in The Forest.

It was fun taking pictures with you today!

RAINY SATURDAY PLAYING

Dear Weeb,

You were taking pictures with my little Canon PowerShot SD1000 today. You wanted to take some shots of your toys, so I said go ahead. You spent about an hour setting them all up the way you wanted them and snapping pictures. I think you did a pretty good job.

This is a little La La Loopsy, propped up against your pink castle.

Your little La La Loopsy has two cousins. Aw!

This is your little Strawberry Short Cake / My Little Pony / La La Loopsy / miscellaneous dog village and tea party.

You tell me that this picture is of a girl who is in the flowers, looking up at the stars.

COLORTASTIC RAINBOW ROCK

Dear Weeb,

You painted an awesome rainbow on a rock a few weeks ago. When it's gloomy outside, I look at the rock and it cheers me up. Good job, baby!

PLANTING GRAPE HYACINTHS

Dear Weeb,

Last weekend, you got to plant some flowers into a pot that you painted at your Cousin C's birthday party. You chose some pink flowers and grape hyacinths. They're really growing quickly! You're quite proud of your green thumb!

THE PARK NEAR THE SCHOOL

Dear Weeb,

I wanted to take a panorama shot so I used the park behind our house to test out my photography / Photoshop picture merging software. This is where you went to school in Kindergarten, and now, in Grade 1. We didn't usually stand at this spot. From here, if we walked a bit and turned left, we'd go through a gate to our townhouse complex. I'm going to try and get a close up shot of your school and playground another time.

RED BALLOON

Dear Weeb,

You got a red balloon from your Cousin C's birthday party. You have a love / hate relationship with balloons. Looks like a nice picture though, doesn't it? Maybe I shouldn't tell you about the grand drama and whining that took place when I asked you to raise up your arm with the balloon so I could try and get a picture. You are clearly the most hard done by little girl with a red balloon that I have ever seen.

A WEEBY PORTRAIT

Dear Weeb,

You reluctantly posed for me today as I practiced my portrait photography skills. I'm still not terribly good at it and goodness knows you cannot sit still for more than a moment, but I did get a couple of good shots. I couldn't pick just one to post. I edited them both quite a bit in Photoshop. But you ARE this beautiful.