Spring is in the air for sure

Spring is in the air alright, because it's up our noses and in our eyes. Darn hayfever! I've been feeling a bit snuffly the last few days and as irritating as that's been, my lil poppet has the worse end of the deal. We went for a walk this morning, all was good. Not long after we got home she started whining, and rightly so..

Her eye was very puffy, red, itchy and all round annoying. Leaking it's stickyness all down her cheeks. I gave her some antihistamine and hoped it kicked in quick. it didn't and the eye is still slightly enlarged. Poor kid. But today she's also walked into a table and bumped her tummy, got a paper cut on her thumb and had a headache. Wow. Talk about melodrama. School resumes next week and if this is what she looks like today I can only imagine the panicked phone calls I will be getting as of

next week. Not to mention how hard it is for Jess to concentrate when all she wants to do is rub at her eyes and she can hardly see out of them because they're so gummy and feel like they are made of sandpaper. How the child manages to learn anything at all the entire school year is beyond me! She's such a little trooper, and grumble as she may she still gives it her all. You can make out the small hives under the eye too.

We had a big argument the other day (yes Jessica and I) about her attire. She had on stockings/tights and a t-shirt and I told her we were going for a walk to the shop and tights are underclothes, please put a dress over them or swap them for some pants/shorts/skirt. Basically, anything but what she was wearing. She huffed and puffed and rolled her eyes and I was starting to get quite annoyed as she'd been in one of those "ugh!" moods all week. So I yelled. And I told her "if you can't dress yourself, I will dress you!". Well, didn't that go down well :-/ I chose her a dress and she begrudgingly went and put it on and left the tights underneath. When she emerged I told her the tights had to go. More huffing and groaning and the tears were stinging her eyes but she fought them off well. I then had to brush the rats-nest that was her hair. I had bought her some lovely flower clips and a sequined headband at Cotton On Kids our last trip to Perth which she had refused to wear, so keeping with the "ok, I'll dress you" theme I decided it was about time she did. I braided a section of the front before wrapping the tail of the plait into a bun and securing with bobby pins, and sat the flower up by the bun. Then for her comfort, I neatly brushed back the remaining hair into another bun. When the heat makes you itchy the last thing you want is hair hanging down creating heat.

She cried, she yelled and she sooked something cruel about the whole process, but she looked great! When we got to the shops many people told her how lovely she looked and she was in such a foul mood she barely grunted at them. That was my patience done for! I really can't tolerate her being so blatantly rude! Needless to say we had a big discussion when we got home about how talking to people like that makes them feel bad, and it only makes you feel bad, how she needs to watch her attitude and a myriad of other things that had been bugging me that whole week (like how she sulks when she's asked to be careful with Tian and other ridiculous things). We've had a better couple of days since and when I mentioned we were going for a walk to the shop this morning, she did her best to describe what I did to her hair the other day and asked me to put it up the same today (I plaited the big bun before coiling this morning). SCORE! Sometimes I have to enforce my mother's law only for her to realise she likes it. Like denim, she flat refuses to wear it. I forced encouraged her to wear a denim pinafore while in Perth and whaddya know, she decided she likes it. She can have her independence when she's like, I dunno, a mother or something. For a little while yet she is still my little girl and I will ask her to do things my way. Like it or not. (you can still see that puffy eye)

Jessica has decided riding her bike is awful, and all but refuses to ride it. Not impressed. The last couple of mornings she's wanted to take her doll Lucy for a walk, I don't mind a bit. Until we have to stop because Lucy needs something, or Jess is cranky because the sheet is flying away in the wind (the sheet is one of Jessica's old bassinet sheets, a number of her old things were delegated to the dolls). This pram (stroller, pushchair etc) is fantastic, we bought it for her a few Christmas's ago. The handle is high, it's a good solid pram, has a basket under it and even seats for two dollies! She tried walking with the el-cheapo plastic stroller the other day and it's so low she had to walk all hunched and crouched. It looked awkward, and painful! I don't know why she still insists on using the small one. I think Lucy enjoyed tis morning's walk. I sure did.

Just for fun, a photo of Jessica showing me just one of her many (many!) tricks. She, of course, think's she's extremely clever. Thank goodness she's only fallen the once. Not like that was fun when she ended up in hospital in a makeshift neck cuff. Our swingset is used more for hanging than swinging and we have a big, dome shaped climbing frame in the backyard too. Jessi hangs from it by one hand and spins. I just cringe! I don't think human bodies are designed to do what she does. It's like she turns herself inside out somethings. The kid needs a gymnastics class to focus her energy. No chance in this town. (see all those ugly dead weeds where once there was lawn? oh what to do)