79 months old

 

Sometimes Britton doesn't want to take a bath with Barrett and she takes a shower instead.  One of many things on the "she's growing up whether I like it or not," this whole shower business.  Showers seem so "adult" to me if only because they are utilitarian - in and out as quickly as possible.  Baths are for lounging, playing, bubbles, toys, when you're a kid.  

We told Britton something I haven't announced officially - we're moving to Houston, Texas in July.  We held off on telling her, so that it didn't become this thing hanging over our lives for months on end.  But we also wanted her to have enough time to get used to the idea, to be involved in staging and selling the house, and to adjust to the inevitable "lasts" that come up - last day at her school, last time riding her bus, last karate class, last Daisy meeting.  She took the news well, admittedly better than I did when I first found out my company was closing our office here (Britton asked if she could have purple walls in her new room; I sat in my car in a parking lot and ugly cried).  We're trying to focus on the pluses, like having Sea World close, having the beach even closer, and swimming in a pool 10 months out of the year, balanced with the need for Britton to ask questions and be upset or sad.  We're not "Mary Poppin"ing all over the place and readily tell Britton that we will miss the house too, miss her school, miss the snow, miss our lives here.

 

Britton has been getting all "smiley faces" in school (based on paying attention, staying on task, not talking during read time, you know the drill), so she wanted to throw a "smiley face" party.  I figured that celebrating the good behavior might be a good way to keep it coming (getting more bees with sugar and that whole thing), so we were off to Party City.  They were out of smiley face balloons, so we got a minion and the smiley sunshine.  Britton picked out yellow plates and pink silverware, and of course we picked up Eat 'N Park's smiley cookies for dessert!

Likes:  riding her bike without training wheels, karate (4 more classes until her camo belt!), knowing all the major muscle groups - I had to explain what the "gluteus maximus" was today)

Dislikes: getting a start on her bike without the training wheels, when Barrett refuses to be quiet and yells generally just to annoy her