summer girls

My apologies for being a viable contender for the Most Neglectful Blogger of the Year award. Life is trucking along just beautifully, and it's hard to find (or make) time to stop to write it all down. It's the busiest time of year at my job, and most of my days there are so exhausting that I have no mental capacity left at night to want to write...so thank you, Netflix, for being there for me. :)

Millie is officially a Summer Girl. It makes me happy to say that, because I've always been a Summer Girl myself. In fact, that was my go-to screen name for chat rooms back in middle school (aka when the internet was invented, and we accessed it via America Online CDs that came in the mail, ha!). Also, all I did in those mid-90s chat rooms was lie. I thought that was like the whole point of chatting...to invent an identity. My go-to identity was that my name was Lyndsey Allyson (I really liked Ys, I think?) and I was a twin. That was pretty much my standard...all other details might change, but apparently the Ultimate Dream of middle-school-ish me was to be an identical twin named Lyndsey Allyson. DREAM BIG, LITTLE ONES. (PS Dream never came true, shockingly. But I survived.)

ANYWAY, back to things that aren't weird.

Millie is ALL ABOUT the summer. Homegirl has mastered the art of running into her room, opening her closet, and dragging out her bathing suits and/or swim diapers. We'll find her in random places around the house in various states of trying to put on her swim gear and it is just TOO cute. "Pool!! Pool!!" (except she doesn't really pronounce the l, so it's funnier. But I know what she means) Luckily she isn't picky- she's equally excited about the kiddie pool on our driveway and the lovely real pool at her grandparents' house.

We're working on her selfie skills. It seems like I have to pick whether I want her to have open eyes or a smile- rarely do both at the same time occur!

She is completely fearless (with her puddle jumper on...a little more hesitant without, which is good!) and loves being thrown in the air. She jumps off the side to Mommy or Daddy, and in about two days progressed from jumping while holding our hands to now jumping completely on her own! She also sprinted to the diving board and tried to jump off the end after witnessing her (4.5 year old) cousin doing it and getting lots of attention and praise!! Luckily I nabbed her before she did it, but she did proceed to "jump" off twice with my help (and Daddy catching her in the deep end).

When we're at home, she will go into the garage, pull (or attempt to pull) her kiddie pool out from behind our mower, and drag it to the front yard. She will then pull the hose out of the garden and put the end of it in the pool- homegirl knows exactly what she wants!

If we happen to not be in a body of water (rare but unfortunately happens occasionally), Millie entertains herself on our new couch and ottoman, aka best toddler jungle gym ever. We'd been planning to get a playscape for our back yard this summer, but upon further reflection, I might just put a sectional out there. Ha. But seriously. She runs herself ragged on it! And then Matt and I put her to bed and marathon How to Get Away with Murder on it, so really, it's been an extremely excellent purchase!

And that's pretty much been it. We spend as much time as possible outside, and then we crash. Lather, rinse, repeat.

She loves these eyelet lace sandals and she only gets to wear them on Sunday mornings (when there is almost no chance of ruining them, haha). That doesn't stop her from pulling them out and attempting to wear them around the house almost every day, though!

A smile AND open eyes- a true rarity!!

Despite the craziness at work, this summer is blissful. I sometimes just want to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. And thank you, God, for closing the door on those middle school dreams...because there's no way becoming Lyndsey Allyson (and her twin Elizabeth Rose) (and yes, we both went by our full double names!) would have been nearly this great.