Pieces of Josie . . .

Josie and I are VERY lucky to have a wonderful family that both understands my need for "me time" and WANTS very much to spend time with Josie. So, after church on Sundays we head down to Salem to my brother's house where Josie is doted on by their family (they have 3 kids) and she gets to spend the night. Josie has so much fun at their house-they have pretty much every D*sney toy known to mankind as well as the corresponding movies. All of their kids are in a sport of some kind so she gets to go to their games. Somebody's always baking SOMETHING and there are teenagers popping in and out all the time. And they LOVE her-even the 17 yr old boys. They treat her just like the princess she thinks she is! And of course she idolizes my 12 yr old niece and her friends. My 9 yr old nephew alternates playing really well with her and being annoyed by her, which means they are basically siblings! And it's just generally loud and chaotic and very much unlike home. Which is a nice change for her. Uncle Jeff is a surrogate father and she's definitely got him whipped. If I never get married and give Josie a father-Uncle Jeff will be walking her down the aisle. And I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way . . .

On Mondays-Josie's Aunt Mimi drops her off at my mom's and it used to be that she would drive up to my house and stay the night and watch her on Tuesday. However, she wasn't getting to see my dad very much and my mom really prefers her own bed and instead of Mom calling me every Monday afternoon to ask if she could spend the night down there for various reasons-we just made that the default.

So-I have the house to myself on Sun and Mon nights. I get home in the eve on Sundays and try to clean up the house or just veg if I'm tired. It's a nice break that I really enjoy. Monday nights are a bit harder-I have plenty to keep my busy but when I wind down for the night it's SO quiet and I find myself missing my girl.

Then I look up and see this and it makes me smile. I just love this gallery canvas wrap photo-I put it up on the mantel for now until i figure out how to arrange everything.

And then I'm getting ready for bed and go to turn off the lamp and almost scream.

Can't see it?  Here's a close-up.

Then I go to pull the cord and notice this:

Closer . . .

Wanna know what those are?

Fridge magnets.   This one was Ariel of course!

Everywhere I look there's something strange-Buzz Lightyear wedged under the lid of the piano bench.  A princess crown on top of the lamp by my bed (she has a thing with lamps).  Bracelets and necklaces draped over each bedpost.  Generic Silly bandz wrapped around photo frames:

She's everywhere I look and it's very comforting.  Boy I love the little stinker!

Halloween

Josie is still obsessed with Ariel and wanted to be Ariel for Halloween. Not a problem since she got the costume for her 3rd birthday! I found the wig in with a box of Halloween stuff in the garage-I don't even remember wearing it. It's horribly cut and very cheap-but it kinda looked cool with the costume. She wore the costume all day-church, lunch, Grandma Baker's house, Jeff and Mimi's house, trick-or-treating with her cousins and then to a harvest party at a church. Full day.

All day she would only wear the wig for a few minutes when we first arrived somewhere and then it would come off (don't blame her really)-but when we went out to TorT I told her she had to keep the wig on to get candy. She didn't even try ONCE to take it off! She was so excited-after every house she would yell, "I got candy Mama!" and show me her bucket. Every.single.house. We (the adults) called it quits after an hour and got some protest-but they got to go to a harvest party after that so it was all good.

I took these pics at church-she would not hold still-he was dancing all over the room.

This is my "Ariel in the water" pic: