Like I have said before, I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend time with the girls’ one on one once a week. Hallie had mentioned again this week that I am always at work; she also asked why I was so irritated when it is time for them to go to bed. Those statements made me dislike the situation we are in even more. In my defense, bed time is a nightmare, it is at least an hour long process full of nagging and arguing, not to mention multiple trips back and forth from the bedroom disciplining and putting lotion on Shelby’s dry legs, tucking each girl in multiple times and getting water for each of them. I know that is not an excuse to be irritated, so I have more to work on. I am grateful for Hallie; she tells it like it is. She is a blessing in my life to keep me in check. I know no matter what there is always going to be something going on in life that may be less than desirable, so I try not to bring the stress of those things in the door with me when I get home. I usually do ok, but sometimes I bring the drama home with me.
Anyways back to what I was saying, these nights give me the chance to focus directly on the girls and give them 100% of my attention without any distractions. Shelby decided to go to the craze again, and she loves the cocoa beam. (Cocoa Bean). We got in the car and Shelby said that she loves riding in the car; she said that Hola means Hi. She then said that Hallie loves her and loves to get her dressed. Hallie is the one that got Shelby dressed before we left. Shelby then asked if I had race car pj's when I was a kid, I said yes and she said did grandma get them for you on your birthday? Then Shelby began to list off all of the gifts that she, Hallie and Mya had received from their past birthdays. I was surprised at how much she was able to remember, she was pretty accurate, but there were some fantasy presents that I think she wanted to get mixed in with the list. She then found my gloves in the back seat and reminded me that I need to where them, because it is cold outside.
This next part of the conversation really helped me to understand that each one of these little spirits come here with their own personality and attributes. I kind of understood that, but when you are a parent and you haven’t taught or expressed certain things to your kids and they develop those traits on their own you start to realize that you don’t have control over the way they perceive themselves or what they value in their lives. As we were driving, Shelby said, “When I get older I am going to be very pretty”. I am glad that she feels that way and I want the girls to be confident and comfortable, but this statement reminded me of an experience that Annie had had with her when she was doing her hair one day. As Annie finished up her hair, Shelby said, “I look Hot”. Annie was speechless; she didn’t know what to say or where Shelby had learned it. Apparently Shelby had learned that phrase from another girl at school. These two statements tied in with some other things that Shelby has mentioned and done have made me realize that she puts a lot of emphasis on how she looks. She is very conscientious about how others perceive her and she doesn’t want to look ugly or seem dumb. This is a hereditary trait that Shelby has inherited from her mother. I will give more details in my next blog about Annie. Needless to say, I am going to have a handful to deal with in a few years. Middle school could be rough, not to mention high school. 
We arrived at the craze and Shelby wanted to go straight to the play structure. She has a great imagination. She would say that she had to go up to the top to see the princess, and then she would come back and say that the princess was chasing her. There was a little plexi-glass ball area that Shelby would call the hairball. I don’t know where she comes up with this stuff, then she began to say ouch! Cut it out windows. She was talking to the play structure.
The great thing about the craze is that there are games that help you to win a ton of tickets easily. We racked up 200 tickets pretty quickly. There was a game that I wanted to play, but Shelby reminded me that it was her date and she got to pick what we did not me. She had a good argument, so we did what she wanted to. We used the tickets to get some candy and cheap toys then walked down to the Coco Bean. She is definitely going to miss that place when we move. She does not want to try anything else she loves it there. As we were eating our cupcakes, she told me that she can buckle her own pants now. She then remembered the red sucker that she had lost there over a month ago on one of our dates.
On the way home Shelby was talking and then kept asking, “Am I right, Am I right?" She comes up with some creative quotes and I have no idea where she gets them. It is a riot. Shelby had a little gas throughout the night especially when getting in and out of the car. When she got in the car she said oops I tooted again. I started laughing and she said, “Dad, that is immodest, don’t laugh”. That wasn’t the end of the laughing. Right before we got home Shelby was saying her name then began to say ShelbyWelby. I thought that it was cute and started to laugh as she said that. She didn’t like that either. She thought I was laughing at her. I told her that I just thought that what she was saying was cute. She then told me that you don’t laugh when something is cute, you tell the person that it is cute, but you don’t laugh.
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