New Bike

Punky Girl got herself a new bike this summer. She searched and searched to find the right one. The search was complete and this is the stylin' machine she picked out.

When we were picking out the bike, I asked her if she wanted to get a license plate for her bike. I thought we could put Punky Girl on it since we were going to have to custom make the plate. She was very excited to get the plate. However, in the cared ride home, I could hear her opening the wrapping to the plate. I asked what she was doing and she said she was making her plate.

I said, "Wait, let us do it at home so that we could get the letters straight."

Punky replied, "Okay, but I don't want it to say Punky Girl. I want it to say something else."

I could not even imagine what she was thinking. See below.

Of course! What could I have been thinking? Would her bike say anything else?

Punky's Birthday

We had the joy of celebrating another year with our unique little girl. Right now, she hates that I call her a little girl but she'll get over it. In true Punky Girl style, she had a birthday party that no other little girl would want. It was perfect for her, though. She wanted a football party, no shock there. But it wasn't just a football party, she wanted a football game with friends and family. We had a party with some classmates and friends. Her classmates that were girls cheered on the sidelines while the rest of us played a "friendly" game of tag tackle, push, shove football.

Punky Girl outrunning Grammie

Punky Girl leading her team.

Punky Girl is still very much into firemen and firefighting. She loves this piggy bank she got.

Mom School

The following conversation is true in it's entirety, unfortunately.

Punky Girl is getting ready for school one morning and as usual there is something bothering her--socks, underwear, pants, shoes, too tight a shirt on her "guns"--the list goes on. As she is fighting with her sock (I think that was it) she says to me, "I don't want to be a mom when I grow up."

me: "Why not?"

Punky: "Because I am already tired of school and I don't want to have to go to mom school."

me: "Mom what??"

Punky: "You know, mom school, where you went to learn how to be a mom."

me: "There is no mom school, dear."

Punky:"What??"

me: "I had to learn how to be a mom from practicing, talking to other moms, reading books and just figuring it out on my own."

Punky: " Oh, well then you DEFINITELY need to go to mom school."

me: "HUUUH...well I guess I will have to work on that." (sarcastically said)

I go into the kitchen and repeat the conversation, in a not so nice voice, to Nimrod. I told him that HE could go in there and help her with her socks since I didn't apparently learn the right way at mom school. So he goes in and tells Punky that I was going to mom school. She got a a little excited and said, "Really?" and he replied, "Yes, to be a teacher there because she is so good at being a mom." Punky rolled her eyes and said, "I don't think that is going to work out."

After I got over my little fit, I decided to work it to my advantage. Now, when I do something "wrong" I just blame it on mom school. This is working out just fine for me. For any other mom school flunkies out there, I hope you too can torment you children a little longer with your lack of parenting knowledge and skills. I intend to make the most of it!

But You Said...

A few weeks ago in Punky's Sunday School class they discussed praying. The kids learned they can talk to God about ANYTHING and pray when they are sad, happy, scared, frustrated, and just about any other emotion.

Later that night when it was time to get ready for bed, she did NOT want to take a shower. This surprised me because she usually loves taking showers. She gets in there and "teaches" and plays. I mean she has a running dialogue that could last hours if I would let her stay in there. Anyway, I finally get her in there with tears and screaming. She starts talking to her students and crying about not wanting to be there. FYI-this was day 7 of Nimrod being gone and I had little patience. So I leave her in there to go get Buckaroo started with his shower. I come back and she has stopped crying. She is still going on and on in her monologue. I figured she was whining to her "students" about how mean her mom is. I flippantly say as I walk in, "Are you still whining?" She immediately stops talking-"NO! I am not whining." I let it go and have her finish the shower.



A little while later Punky Girl comes into the kitchen and in her little girl voice says to me, "Mommy, you hurt my feelings when you came in and asking me if I was still whining. I wasn't whining." I kindof rolled my eyes and half-heartily apologized for her hurting her feelings and then quickly followed up with, "It sure sounded like you were whining. If you weren't, then what were you doing?" "I was praying to God and YOU said in Sunday school we could talk to go about ANYTHING so I was telling him how mad I was at you 'cuz you frustrated me when you made me take a shower and I didn't want to."



Oh...maybe I should rethink my lessons so they don't come back to bite me.

Creative Gene

By nature, I am NOT a creative person. My mother is a creative guru in her own right with an amazing artistic ability. My dad can build anything out of wood, dirt, rocks, you name it-he can do it. Somehow these genetics skipped me. But, I have managed to cope by being a copycat. I oooooohh and aaaaaaahh over all of my friends' fabulous creations for their kids and their homes. Then, I try my own version of what they have created. Most of the time it is a less flattering version of what the original looked like. However, I can live with it and luckily my family doesn't know what the wonderful original looked like. For example, these shirts. My friend Lees made these ADORABLE shirts for her twins 2nd birthday. I fell in love with them and wanted to make some for Punky Girl and my new great-niece. (Yes, I said great-If we were in the South I would be a Grand Tante'-cool, huh?) Anyway, I made these shirts and impressed myself with how they came out. Punky Girl got two, one for random wear and one for football games. It is hard to tell on the C shirt but those are doggie paw prints.

Another project was this blanket. Punky Girl got a sewing machine for her birthday and she REALLY wanted to make a blanket. We went through my scraps leftover from previous rag-tie blankets and found some patterns that fit her perfectly. There was leftover firemen print from her apron my aunt's friend made her. A sports print from some blankets I made my great-nephews. A puppy dog print from my nephew's blanket. Lastly, some blues from who-knows-where. We laid it out together and she loved it. I think it is rather, ummm, "colorful"--moving on...Punky did the straight sewing on all the pieces. I am so proud of her. She put for her best effort on her first sewing project. We also got to spend quality time together making it which is the best part about this project. Maybe she will be the ONE that will end up with the creative gene.

Meet Sally

Meet Sally. One day Punky Girl had to take Sally to the dr. because Sally wasn't feeling well. Sally came back looking like this.





The dr. told her mom that she needed glasses, that is why she wasn't feeling well. Being the great mom that Punky Girl is, she went right out and got Sally some glasses. Now Sally feels better. So much better that her mom took her to the library to check out some books (now that she can see them).

After picking out a few books, Sally and her mom sat down and did some reading together.

The End

Local Firechief

Punky Girl is obsessed with firemen and firetrucks and anything to do with fire fighting-no news flash here. I thought I'd post a few pictures of her obsession since it is part of our daily lives. Punky Girl teaches fire safety to her students in our den in the afternoons. When she is not teaching she is out going to fires and putting them out. This pretend play goes on all the time. I love to listen to her conversations with her students. She was a fire chief for Halloween.

To feed into her obsession, her daddy painted her big wheel red so that it could be her fire engine.

When it was Fire Safety Day at her school she could hardly contain herself. It was like Christmas for her (punned intended). When one of the firemen asked if she wanted to be a pretend patient and get wrapped up, total perm-a-grin for the rest of the day!

Punky Girl

As I began working on this blog, I went through pictures of the kids that I wanted to add. It was fun to go through the albums and see the many facets of the kids. Punky Girl is definitely the one with a colorful personality. As we have joked since she turned breech right before she was born, she knows what she wants and what agenda she is going to follow, no matter what anyone else thinks. At first I was dreading the whole life of raising an independent, determined little girl. But as my family and friends have pointed out (over and over), she comes by it naturally so I really need to get over it and figure out how to "harness it for good, and not evil"-a line from some movie I am sure. Having watched her interact with her friends, I have since come to realize that she is definitely a leader. I jokingly tell my friends, she might not be going down the right path, but she'll have a group of followers right behind her. Here are few glimpses into the life of one little sassafras!

They say that dogs are loyal to their owners. In our family it is the other way around with Punky Girl and Stinko-dog

Punky Girl loves to play imaginary. Her favorite job is a fireman (when it is not being a mom or a teacher) This is her original, uniquely created fire fighter's uniform.

She definitely has a little show-off in her personality

My nemesis, toads-- her favorite Summer pastime