Friday Focus: Bolt

Bolt is a good name choice for this girlie.  She is so fierce and tough and independent, but she still rocks her pink bows.  She makes me laugh every day.

 

She's on a wicked nap boycott lately- just doesn't feel like she needs to sleep much.  Some days she refuses to nap at ALL and yells at us when we try to put her to bed.  No tears, not sad,  The chick is angry.  Just yells.  The minute you get her up she's all sunshine again and just goes and goes.  She's very much The Little Engine That Could.  Much more than meets the eye.  :)  She's one that I could easily see being an Olympic gymnast.  She's wiry and strong and so determined.  Nobody's gonna tell her she can't do something.

And she's so snuggly and koala bear when she feels like it.  She settles in and holds on tight around your neck and just grips harder if you act like you're putting her down.  It's especially fun to snuggle her in her pink bear suit.  It's full length and has ears and feet and the whole shebang.  Pretty awesome.

Being as independent as she is, feeding her has been interesting the past month or so.  She would rather die than let us spoon anything into her mouth like a baby.  Although she sees no problem with eating oatmeal with her fingers… we sometimes do.  :)  It gets pretty messy but she has such a good time and it makes for really fun photos.  I didn't realize how many I have of her eating!

Not a fan of kale the first time we tried!

Her name is one that's pretty easy for the other kids to say and so she's kind of like Norm from Cheers.  She comes in and everybody yells her name.  When she gets picked up in the afternoons, Maid Marian will yell "BOLT!" and then run to her and pat her on the back, just to make sure that her dad knows which kid he's supposed to take with him.  It's hilarious.  The other day MM was out and he joked that he wasn't sure who to pick up without her help.

She just adds so much fun to our days!  We love you Miss Bolt!

Stuff and Things

• The big girls will eat TONS of bell pepper and cucumber if I'm willing to just hand it to them a slice at a time while I'm standing at the chopping board.  They mill around my feet saying MORE and I just keep passing it out.  The minute I put them in chairs with a tray, they throw all the veggies on the floor.  Every single time.  Yesterday Cinderella ate twenty pepper slices and Violet ate five cucumber slices before they sat, and both ate nothing while sitting.  They do this every time so now I just do a first veggie course while we all stand in the kitchen.  It's weird but it totally works.
• Our snow day policy says we are closed if schools are closed.  Really I wrote that thinking that there would not be two in a row, because even after living here 25 years I forget how quickly this state shuts down for a tiny bit of weather.  My feeling is this: if there's one snow day, I'm good with being closed.  Usually a lot of your offices are closed as well and it's just kind of fun to have an unexpected day at home for everyone.  If it runs over into more than one day, I'll be open.  Anna may or may not be able to get here, depending on what her apartment parking lot is like, but usually on a second day there are enough people still staying home that I'm in ratio alone, or else hubby is home too still.  
• I'll also always post what's going on as my facebook status for Giant Steps- it's a public page and you can go like it if you haven't.  I can't invite you to like it unless we're already fb friends on my personal page.  (Also you can let family and friends know so they can see pics and stuff if they want to like it too.)
• We have many new babies who need blog names.  I know one of the boys will be Mowgli but I'm still mulling over the others.  I spend a ridiculous amount of time on this but it's one of those small things that makes me happy.
• Bolt's mom texted me accidentally the other day to ask me to put the trash out and tell me she loved me.  So I asked dad if he put the trash out when he came to drop Bolt off and the look of panic on his face was just really great.  I promise I'm not stalking y'all and I wouldn't know when trash day was otherwise, and it's okay that you forgot.  You didn't actually get the reminder, and anyway your trash can't be as stinky as mine is!  :)  
• I've had forty blog posts rolling around in my head and now that I'm writing I can't think of anything else.  And this much has been in draft for a week.  Since there might be more snow coming, this could be stuff you need to know, so I better just post!