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?

I thought I would write a little update on our crew, while I have 5 minutes of quiet time.  We have all adjusted well to Gavin’s arrival, especially big sister Faye.  Jason and I are very proud of how much she wants to help care for him, and how well (most of the time) she has accepted the changes in her routine and the sharing of mommy.  On more than one occasion I have come into Gavin’s room to find Faye singing to Gavin or trying to cuddle him when he wakes.  It has scared me on occasion to find she has filled his bed with stuffed animals or that she has “given” him stickers on his arm.  For the most part, though, she is enjoying her new brother.

One of Faye’s favorite helping activities is Gavin’s bath.  She soaps him up, with a little help, and then plays in his water to entertain him.  So far, Gavin is very amused by his big sister, and loves receiving her attention.

Faye is definitely very imaginative these days.  She likes to pretend to be a “wormy” and for us to be the mommy and daddy wormies, respectively.  It is very cute, and usually involves a (pretend) wormy nap in a small place.  Today that place was my laundry basket.  I find it funny that she loves to play “nap,” but hates actually taking naps.  Oh well.

As for the little guy, he is doing very well.  He is growing like a weed and is already in clothes for 3 month olds in his 7th week.  He sleeps most of the day, and for shorter intervals at night.  I think he is starting to have longer stretches of sleep, only not yet at night.  Such is life with a baby.  Life (and my sweet Sonia) have taught me all too well to realize and enjoy the blessings that come with children.  So far, I am doing my best to do just that, sleepless nights and all.