Friday in July. What is there possibly to do when it’s One O Hades degrees outside?
Tatum came into my room early this morning to see if it was 7am. At 6:37, she was convinced it was 7. She did not find me on my chair reading my Bible as usual. Confused, she decided to return to her room. I could hear her practicing her vowel sounds. She then came in to say “I love you, mommy; I missed you last night.” MELT.
After cracking my eyes open and brushing my toothies, I told her to check my purse. That is code for SURPRISE INSIDE!
Minion cards! Doubling as her cell phone:
I taught her about the 4 sets of numbers (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds). She insisted we play N.O.W. ugh. OK. We played 2 rounds of Go Fish. How could I resist her big blue eyes?!
After brekkie and taking Snuggle Bug (Coti) to get his haircut, we did our usual gym, store, whatever-errands deal. We always enjoy seeing all of our friends at our usual places. I’m pretty invisible as they all know Tatum. She is learning how to ask others, “How are you doing today?” She also waves and smiles at basically everyone. Especially the pooches we see.
When we got home, I introduced her to Dominos. She learned how to instantly view what each pattern looks like from 1-6.
We kept turned our pattern like a snake until she wanted to outline the carpet. She did not want them to fall off the “cliff.”
We exhausted the 168 tiles because they were finally all kissing. She was very proud of her efforts (with a little help from her biggest fan: ME!)
She then felt it was time to draw a family.
This picture is of mom, Tot and me. She knew to make each of us pink. Bright pink.
I love Fridays.
Well, it continued as I had an appointment at GCU to run through my presentation for the upcoming Fall Faculty Conference. I did not want to get a sitter since I thought it would be informal. Tot could just sit in for the 20 minute deal. Bing Bang Boom. No problem. The drive is the thing that takes forever. So, I packed her goodie bag full of coloring, puzzles, and more activities.
We walked in to a room of about 20 Faculty and Development Leaders. Not so informal. Gulp. They were running behind, so we just sat quietly (I prayed) listening to the one person present prior to me. He was delightful and engaging. Gulp. Tatum sat through it too, with a couple of added OOHS and AAAHs from her. Gulp. They laughed.
Then it was my turn, and she did not want to sit in the audience. SO…..she joined me; next to me in a desk. She said, “Yeah, Mommy!” Gulp. They laughed. Anyway, I ran through my prezi with a bit of entertaining singing and dancing on my part if you know what I mean. You see, it’s on the changes in the laws in AZ for Education. Thrilling. I had to liven it up, and so I did.
I waited to be challenged, but they LOVED IT. Tatum was so well behaved too. My GULPs turned into AAAAHs. The feedback form they gave me had ZERO suggestions for improvement, so again. AAAH.
Friday festivities turned into growth for Tatum, overcoming challenges for me, and making the best of every opportunity. Fabulous.