Monday, February 27, 2017

Ivy Lynnae ~ 5 years old, Winter 2017

Oh where do I start??  I can never stop singing her praises.  Oh gosh, every single day, this precious girl makes my heart burst.

I felt I needed to stop for a moment and jot some things down as I never want to forget the special phase she is in right now.  She is in a strongly obsessive "Mommy phase".  Right now, her default phrase, when there is a lull in things going on, when she has nothing else to say, when she first sees me in the morning...etc...is:  "I love you and nobody else" or "I love you more than anything in this whole world, Mommy!"  Actually, the song that is stuck in her head currently is "I love you and nobody else" sung to the tune of "Skip to the loo my darling".  She often wants to drop everything and just come into my arms for a cuddle break...several times each day.  She loves to tell me that I am so so beautiful - that I am more beautiful than any Mommy.  She has also told me several times that when she grows up, she wants to be a fun and playful mommy just like me.  Now THAT was the biggest compliment!

One night at dinner, (I was under the weather with a cold) Mark asked Ivy "how does your Mama still look so beautiful even when she is so sick?" and do you know what that darling girl said?  She replied with "it's because of her heart.  She has a kind heart and that makes her beautiful".  *Tears*  Wow.  She's 5.

This girl has stolen my heart.  It may be unhealthy, but considering our circumstances, I also think it is highly understandable - but I am extremely attached and obsessed and reliant upon this precious girl.  I feel like she is my lifeline - she gives me purpose and keeps me going.  Her love is the only thing that can even try to get close to filling the void that has been lost with Vienne.  Of course, that void will NEVER be filled...but Ivy's love sure does help a LOT.  We are best of friends and I hope to always be.












Monday, May 2, 2016

Ivy Today - Spring 2016


Now that Ivy is 4 and up to so much more, I realized that I need to start jotting things down about her and her character and the ridiculously cute things she says and does.

Overall, Ivy is so so much like her big Sister in her demeanor, character, and personality.  She is JUST AS sweet and kind and loving and obedient.  She is certainly a perfectionist...on herself and with things around her (this is something I strive to soften in her).  

She has a grand imagination and her favorite game to play each day is imagination/pretend.  She literally calls them "Princess Imagination Games".  So, how it usually plays out is this:  She will be watching a movie and halfway through it, she will want to stop watching and say "ok!  I have a new game!" and then she wants to play the main character and assigns the supporting character's role to me or Mark.  It's quite amazing...and can get a bit tiring.  But I love her imagination!  I see story-telling or drama in her future.

She is an incredible eater.  Since I raised her paleo from the start, that's all she's known and so totally love vegetables and fruits.  She barely eats grains and sometimes could care less about them.  If she has a sweet thing, she can rarely even finish the smallest portion.  Everyday, her typical meal consists of a protein, a mix of raw or cooked veggies, and a fruit.  Nuts are thrown in for snacks...and occasional gluten free crackers.

As I have been observing lately, it seems obvious that she is a second-born child.  She is definitely a follower and not a leader.  Though, Vienne was barely a leader.  But, Ivy would prefer to play with older girls...hands down, every time.  She does not care to play with kids younger than her...doesn't have that instinct to lead them.

She is a homebody.

She LOVES words and books.  I can see how she is going to excel in literature and english and the arts.  She has a very strong vocabulary and is always asking the meanings of new words...then she will use them correctly.  For entertainment in the car, I keep a basket of CD read-along books from the library.  She is listening to stories ALL the time.  Often throughout her listening, she will hear a new word and ask it's meaning.  Most recent words were:  "collapse", "brambles", and "appropriate vs. inappropriate".

One thing that has been ridiculously adorable is her increasing conversational skills.  She is an only child, now, and lives in a house with 4 adults (Grammy & Grandpa) so she is often surrounded by appropriate but adult conversations.  Typically, at the dinner table, if there is a lull she will pipe in and ask everyone around the table a few questions.  This is how it typically goes:  "So, Grammy, how was your day today?....."What did you dream about last night?"  This is all completely on her own without my prompting or real training.  It might've started from a very small seed I planted many many months ago when we were in our apartment.  Grammy would come and visit on Wednesdays and the moment Grammy would come through the door, Ivy would bombard her with requests to play with her.  Grammy always needed a few moments to set her things down and settle in and greet with me.  So, I started to prep Ivy, before Gram showed up, and suggested that she give Grammy a few moments after she arrives and maybe try to ask her how her morning is going...give Grammy some attention before making it about yourself.  But seriously, that must've planted some seed in her because she has grown to be so mature in her thoughtful conversational abilities!  For a 4 year old that is impressive!  It is so stinking cute.


puddle jumper

Cinderella dress with a mermaid crown

a rare moment in jeans!  She is wearing Sissy's clothes so it was an exception.

making dirt soup in Sissy's favorite hoodie

her eyes

Pocahontas

Ariel eating her first clams!

Simba saying "roar!"

yes, she is licking butter...I caught her!

just chill-axin'



Easter - wearing Vienne's pink tulle dress that she last wore at her 4th birthday tea party.

Just LOVE her


ALWAYS full of joy

hahahah Snow White's bum

Wanting to be like Sissy so she tried copying that pic of Vienne eating with her feet!

sunshine and daisy chains

she LOVES to be barefoot

"The meadow!!"  She loves to pretend to be Bambi and run into the meadow, shouting that.






Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Ivy's Play

Ivy is now 4 years old and her imagination is awesomely wild and wide.

Everyday, Vienne used to ask "where are we going today, Mama?" and everyday Ivy now asks "who am I going to be today?"  She likes to dress up and take on a new character everyday.  Characters are typically inspired from movies or books and she always assigns roles to me and Mark.  It is her FAVORITE game and if my imagination was as vast as hers, then we could play this all day...alas, mine is not and I often run out of things for us "characters" to talk about and re-enact.

Today's character play was a bit different.  Today she wanted to be "Sissy" and I was to be Ivy.  She decided that today was Vienne's birthday party (in Heaven) and it was requested that I wrap toys up to be presents given to her by Jesus, in Heaven.  Very creative!  And, she kept correcting my voice telling me that I was supposed to sound like "Ivy".  Oh my!  Hilarious....and so sweet.

Here are some pictures of her characters over the past weeks:

(Cinderella - of course)

(Rapunzel's hair...she has a Rapunzel dress but I don't have a pic of her in it)

(Pocahontas)

(Simba)

(Gia the Cheetah from Madagascar 3)

She is SO fun.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

My little artist

Ivy is proving to be quite the little artist:

Ivy's first collage.  She cut out all the pieces except for the circle of the sun.  She was the one that determined that the green shape looked like a kite and that the cat head looked like a cat's head and that those were wings.  I made suggestions for the rest.  She glued and drew the wind, around the kite.

Ivy's first collage "person".  This was all her except for the fingers.  Mark said that she had been quietly working with her scissors and paper and glue, while he prepared lunch.  Yes, we can trust her with scissors and glue at age 3!    She cut each shape out and then composed them altogether to creat this person!  We were quite impressed!

Here she is organizing some collected nature objects to construct another collage.


Together, she and I created this monster creature.  

This is her first practice at painting intentional objects.  Step by step, line by line, she copied my strokes.  My example is the right and her's is the left.

Same as above for a flower.

And after the previous 2 practices, this is her first independent masterpiece.  All I did in contribution was call out suggestions/instructions from the kitchen while she painted.  "Paint a line for the tree…"

My little artist…who can paint with carpet beneath her, even!

This is her most recent creation on a white board.  A man running through grass with a flower and a tree and a sun and cloud overhead.  The only parts I helped with were in suggestions for what she could add and I did the right green foot and the green fingers, as well as the base of the trunk of the tree.




Friday, July 31, 2015

More things she's said

While watching the "Going to Mars" episode of Backyardigans, Ivy kept calling the martians "Marshmallow aliens".

Ivy has taken in interest in rhyming and now requests to do rhyming words while in the car.  I love it!  She's so good at recognizing what rhymes!  Clever girl.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

She said...

"Mama mama!!  I had a Miri size poop!"

"Haha.  Haha!  I'm a crazy little girl, Mom!"

"wallamelon" = watermelon

"zweeba" = zebra

"flumb" = thumb (my favorite!)

"fligilator" - refrigerator…just like Sissy.


Saturday, March 14, 2015

the best feeling

When your 3 year old little girl runs up to you, out of the blue, and throws her arms around your neck, turns her head back over her shoulder to look at your husband and says:  "Dadda, I love Mama" and then turns back to look straight in your eyes and tells you:  "Mama, you my best friend"….

It is the BEST feeling in the whole world.

What a treasure I have.


(she is trying to reach through this hole to give me a kiss…saying "kiss kiss kiss!!!")