When Did you Grow? and Coeur d'Alene

I asked Reina, "When did you grow up?" She replied, "I just did."

Everyone once in a while, Reina will pass by me and I am amazed out how grown up she is. Where was the in-between stage where she was not quite a baby and not quite a girl? Yet, I remember her always in that in-between stage. The other day she asked me a question (her big brown eyes staring at me), and I think my pause was unexpectedly long because it was that moment I realized she grew up. I looked at her not as a mom who is used to seeing her child everyday, but more as a relative who only sees her periodically.

Reina offers such sweet prayers. We rotate between the three of us each night at Reina's bed, until Baelor gets his turn. One of her recent prayers included...."thank you that I could have a LONG story tonight. And thank you for the beautiful flowers that we can smell and the butterflies." Life is beautiful in the eyes of a four-year old. Life is also devastating when you have to wear a long-sleeve shirt under your dress because it's still cold outside in the eyes of a four-year old.

Reina and neighbor friends made a "shrine" for the fairies to visit. Included: flowers, grass, cheese, bird nest.

I love how the simplest things that I do for her produce a grand appreciation, "I just love you so SO much. And if you are sick I will go find a rose and pick it to give for you." One of her most recent acts of appreciation is that while hugging me she will say "Hug, hug...Butterfly, butterly...Flower, flower...Heart, heart." Basically, she wants to give me all those things that little girls love.

We just started some early reading using Bob series books! Costco has them right now. My sister-in-law uses these books and her kids are excellent readers. Reina already knows the sounds that each letter makes, just not putting them together to form words. She is at the early stages of putting short sounds together such as bag, rag, dot, mat, etc. Reina is so happy when she reads through a whole book! We try to be very patient with her as she is learning to memorize words that don't make sense like "the". My patience was really tested when she kept sounding out G-O-T, but would then say DOG. It literally took 6 minutes for her to be frustrated, and me holding back just saying the word. Finally, after much coaxing and coaching without actually helping her with any part of the word, SHE SAID IT. We were both relieved. After the book ended, I went back to that hard word. It took her another minute to remember what it looked and sounded like. I think it's just hard for her palate to form words that start with G. Get used to it my little Guinn.

Update: Just before posting this, we read through a book with GOT and she breezed right through the word. Way to go girl!

Reina seems so grown up due to the fact that she asks to go "play with friends." This is what KIDS do. She would play everyday with our neighbors if allowed. We are lucky that they have 3 girls to play with. We just recently put up our $20 trampoline so this has been a fun addition to their play, until someone starts crying. I've been taking her friend (neighbor) Ainzlee with us to Zumba at the church Fridays for some extra play time and a break for her mom. Too bad her friend starts school in the fall. Reina is just SO ready to go. I really wish she could just go to kindergarten for 2 years (so to keep with her age group).

Another addition to Reina's growth is a weekly goal chart from Dollar Tree. She has a few bad habits that we're trying to work on by allowing her to set goals and keep them. We miss some days because I'm not that dedicated to charts and lists on a daily basis. Also I don't like to tally up out what she did to earn a star as I don't think children should only do something to get a reward. We don't have a reward for her earning stars. That is the reward. I think it is just a gentle reminder for all of us to do better- us parents included. It's gentle presence is working though.

We went to my brother and his family's house a couple of times this spring in Coeur d'Alene (a little dental procedure) and Reina got her cousins all to herself! Her and Miia (4 months older) played freely in their own way. No structure whatsoever. It worked. Every now and then, a little "vacation" is even necessary for kids.

We enjoyed some delish food like this meat and cheese meal called "Raclette"; a variety of fancy cheeses melted over chicken and buffalo meat and veggies. Coeur d'Alene recently got a "Cafe Rio" which I miss having in Utah, so we had to have that!

Most of our trips there involved eating and working while the kids played outisde. I helped get the garden prepared and dispose of dirt while Paul built a shed with my brother. It was a lot of hard work getting that foundation built, but they got the roofing and siding up as well!

We did get to have a little fun on our trips. One of the trips included shooting a variety of guns (both pistols and rifles). Another trip Paul and Teem (my bro) went paintballing at an old meat-packing building. I was invited but saw pictures of welts on a previous trip and chickened out. I will go if my sisters all go this summer.