If you have spent time with Faye, especially outdoors, you are probably familiar with her insatiable desire to “reorganize” things. For example, any trip to the beach ends up in a massive effort to take select sand from the beach and place it in the water, or handfuls of water that need to be placed on the beach. It is very entertaining to watch (except when she is trying to rearrange my mulch), particularly because she does these tasks with such focus and intensity.
The weekend before last brought such nice weather and I was tasked with occupying our daughter so Shannon could get some serious school work done. It was a joy for me, as I just spent the past 3 weeks away from everyone in California. We went down to our private beach for some initial rearranging work and a swim, where I came up with the perfect Faye activity.
I scrounged up what containers I could find along with some water and food coloring and wala, a homemade “science kit” is born!
Using what I call the tongue-intensity metric, you can see this activity is about a 7 or 8.
This led to hours of fun entertainment, for Faye and her parents. She explains it best, so I’ve included this short video.
It turned out to be a real fun weekend for all of us. Just what I needed after some time away from the family. My daddy-daughter day went so well, I offered another one up to Shannon so she could have another productive study session. It gave me a perfect excuse to head to Jacksonville to visit the temple I call the bike shop, since it is not far from the closest Toys R Us. Faye even test-drove a few of the kids bikes in the shop (and several more at Toys R Us).
As you can see, Toys R Us was an adventure in itself, and I was able to spoil my own daughter for a change with some Cold Stone Creamery ice cream.
Did you expect her to pick something other than blue ice cream?
Faye and I enjoyed our Halloween Day. We started the day with a parade during her pre-school class to the PX (base department store) across the street and back. She was so excited to have a visit with me during her day, and I thought the whole thing was adorable.
Later in the day, Faye helped me bake some challah and some other yummies for dinner and after. She always loves helping in the kitchen.
Finally, after a nice dinner, we headed out in our stroller. It was pretty dark on our street and there were very few kids out, so we just visited the neighbors we know. With so little kids around, Faye got hand fulls of candy at every stop. It was pretty late when we got to about the 5th house, and Faye said she was done. With that, we headed home to look at what she got, try one piece, and head to bed. Thankfully, the excitement and energy exerted during the day canceled out the sugar and she fell asleep pretty easily. All in all, a great day!
Faye and I are really enjoying our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Pilvinsky in Georgia. We got here last Thursday and will stay through this Thursday. It is great for me because Cathy and Mike are always willing to take care of Faye while I relax. And Faye loves spending time with her Grandma and Papa.
Some of the highlights so far have been a trip to the pumpkin patch and a visit from Faye’s Uncle David and David’s girlfriend Kelly. We also enjoyed visiting the Ocoee River, host to the whitewater events of the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics, to watch the whitewater rafters and kayakers.
Faye helped Grandma wash her car yesterday, and ended up washing herself and Grandma too. There are more photos from this event – that literally turned into a bath for Faye – in the gallery. We should be back in town by Friday when we will start planning for Faye’s third birthday and getting ever so close to the mid-way point of Jason’s deployment.
Faye really loves her bike. She’s not quite big enough for her big-wheels, but the red-rider tricycle is a perfect fit. When we first got it, she would make it about a half a block and call it quits. Evidently the learning curve is steep, because a couple weeks ago she started riding like a pro. Now she rides for our entire walk (a half-mile or so) with no problem. She can be a speed demon on that thing now too.
Last week, she wanted to wear her sunglasses on the ride and it made for some very cute pictures. She’s very proud of herself on her bike. So are we.
From marching with a Marine Corps pack to prancing in a pretty pink tutu, this kid does it all.
The first shot is from the Marine Corps Museum near Quantico. We made a trip there during our Virginia vacation. I highly suggest a visit to this museum. It is an incredible tribute to the Marine Corps. It’s a visually exciting museum and is a fantastic way to learn all about the Marine Corps’ proud history. If you are driving by exit 150 on I-95 in Virginia and see a giant metal mast jutting out above the trees, get off and go visit. The museum is free and you don’t even need to go on base to get there.
The second photo is from Faye’s first ballet lesson. She had such a good time and did such a wonderful job. She was so well behaved and followed all of the teachers instructions. The parents all have to leave the room, but we get to watch them through a 2-way mirror. It’s so neat to see her do stuff on her own. She was very proud of herself too and told us all about what she did. There are a ton of pictures in the gallery. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I was shooting in low light through a tinted mirror, so I did the best I could.
If she continues to do well and enjoy the class, this will be a regular thing for her (the ballet, that is, not marching with a pack).
