More girl friends

Little Trig had yet another wonderful day in the world of meeting and making new friends.

She had been talking non-stop about her friends Isabelle and Cassy from the pool. She even started asking about her friend Marissa who she hasn't seen since March. She loves all of her girl friends.

Today she met a quiet little girl at the pool. Her name was Abrianna, and Maddie kept referring to her as "Friend." At one point she goes, "Friend, do you wanna race me in the big pool with our noodles?" and the little girl said quietly to Maddie "My name is NOT 'Friend,' my name is Abrianna." Haha. The little girl was very quiet and sometimes so shy that it could have come off as a little mean, but yet very sweet and would giggle at Maddie when Maddie would fall off her noodle. This in turn would make Maddie laugh and smile. She was so proud that she had made someone laugh. Beebster sat on my lap and she had a blast watching while Maddie would wave to us.

When Maddie had asked the little girl her name, she then went on to tell her her name and Faith's name. She goes "my name is Maddie. But, my real name is Madison Crannie. This is my sister. Her name is Fafe Beebster." The grandmother of the little girl could not stop laughing.

The little girl left with her grandma shortly before we did. Maddie could see her walking way up at the top of the hill while we were just about to start our trek home. She literally SPRINTED to them as fast as she could go (and this child will most likely make a career out of endurance running, because she can really go and for long distances too!) yelling at the top of her lungs, "ABRIANNNNNNNNA... WAIT!" It was a sight. She would stop at all of the intersections and wait patiently for me to catch up, and then take off sprinting again. We finally caught them at the newspaper stand and they gave each other a huge hug. It was so sweet. Of course, right after that the little girl put her head down and walked quietly while Maddie kept talking and talking and talking. My little Cran does not stop talking! I love it!

So, it was another great day for her at the pool. I'm so very thankful that she's got her best friend, her Beebster. Those two are the best of friends and they do everything together. I'm so very thankful that Cran's got such wonderful cousins because she has the relationship with them all that I never had with any of my cousins. They are all each other's best friend. And, I'm so thankful that Maddie is able to make little friendships here and there. She may not see these girls very often, or in some cases, ever again, but she is just one of those kiddos that appreciates anyone who is friendly enough to give her even a few minutes of friendship.

On top of all of that, she had her 2nd girl's night of the week since she took another great nap. Tonight her choices for her night were to play Hungry, Hungry Hippos, practice pedaling her bike on the deck a little bit, and "Cinderella" for her movie of choice. She also was very proud to take the cookies that we had made yesterday over to the lifeguard today since it was her birthday. Maddie asked to go down with the bag all by herself while I put sunscreen on Beebster, and I heard Maddie say "These are for you, friend lifeguard because it's your birthday. Happy Birthday. Sorry these are broken, my friend Beebster did it." Hahahaha. The lifeguard busted out laughing and so did I. Poor Beebster. The cookies were slightly broken, but it was because they were in my backpack and not because of poor Faith! It was funny though. The lifeguard loves both Maddie and Faith, and she loves that Maddie always makes up songs while she's swimming and then sings at the top of her lungs. Today, the lifeguard found a big goggle mask and put it on Cran and asked her to sing a song. Maddie starts singing about "I'm not a boy.. I'm just a princess... twinkle twinkle little star." That is roughly how the chorus of the song went, and she'd sing that over and over again.

All in the day of a Cran.

Great Day

On our walk back from the pool today, Crannie told me that today was a "great day."

I took them out to play chalks this afternoon since it looked cloudy to try and attempt going to the pool. She and Faith were mesmerized with the little lightning bug she caught last night (the one out of five that survived the night in her bug container!) and were playing with him for a good while. Maddie called her pet, 'Rufus Chocolate.' She's been calling everything- dolls, stuffed animals, carousel horses, etc- either Princess, Chocolate, or versions of those two. But, this was cute because 'Rufus' was thrown into the name mix. After a little while, I thought of trying to go up to go swimming even for a little bit since they love it.

There were two sweet little girls up there today playing in the baby pool. They are 7 and 2 1/2 and we've known them since we've lived here, but rarely ever see them. Maddie was so excited to have little girls to play with today. Not only that, the 7-year old is a sweetheart like Maddie. They had the best time making up games in the baby pool while Faith and the little 2 1/2 year old looked at bugs (and in the midst of it all, actually squished poor Rufus Chocolate... unbeknownst to Maddie though!) and searched for baby frogs in the pool drain. On the way back from the pool, Maddie kept giggling and telling me about how she and Isabelle had been playing "that we were ordering Chinese food.. and I ordered chicken nuggets and french fries, and my friend ordered munch munch... she's so silly, Momma." Hahaha. It was so cute to see her having a great time. It's very hard to find genuinely nice kids for Maddie and Faith to play with these days, so it's extra nice for me to know that they're having fun and not being bullied like usual.

Not to mention, she had a great weekend too. She had a blast with her Guy and Ella on Thursday and on Sunday got to visit with her Grammy and hold Tyler. On top of that, she got to go to Nene's house that same day for her birthday. At dinner she kept wanting to do "Cheers" about 12 times in a row and then says to everyone "I love you all, fellas!" Haha.

Sleeping Beauty

Been on a 'Sleeping Beauty' fix lately.

I showed Cran that I put the "Once Upon a Dream" song on her webpage, and she was thrilled beyond words. She immediately started singing the words.

She took a nap today so she got to stay up for a "girl's night" ("family night" if Dan is off and "girl's night" if it's just Cran and I) and picked "Sleeping Beauty" for her movie of choice. It always takes her longer on these nights to finally get to bed (usually by 9:45pm) and she sat Indian style on our bed playing with her 2 bins of Disney figures and reading her American Girl catalog, her Playmobil catalog, Poky Little Puppy book, Sleeping Beauty book, and the Little Mermaid book. When she finally zonked out, I noticed she had Prince Phillip, Merryweather, Flora, Fauna, and Maleficent the Dragon all laying right next to her. So cute!

Little Crannie

My  little pal makes me laugh constantly. I don't know what I would do without my Cran and her little sissy. The best two little pals there could ever be.

She says the funniest things all the time, and a lot of times without knowing what she said was so funny. Her little voice makes it even funnier. In fact, just today at Giant a sweet old lady at the cashier told me about Cran, "those freckles, that voice. What a sweetheart." Totally summed up the Cranster.

At dinner tonight she turned to me, patted me on the back, and said "Momma, this is the best dinner. I just love it. Thank you for making such a delicious, nutritious dinner" (although in Crannie language she says 'tishious nutritious' to be funny). After dinner and after the fiasco of having to wash them twice and rinse out all the toys and disinfect the tub- oh yes, Faith did poop in the tub yet again- Maddie and Faith were playing "showgirls" and this time Maddie was being the mother and Faith the daughter. Maddie tells me very sincerely, "Beebster is my daughter. I'm her momma. She's the best daughter in all the lands. She's a sweet girl. But, boy is she a sneaky girl when she poops in the tub" and starts laughing at Faith. Hahaha.

Cran also caught Dan and I off guard today. She's always known about little Alexa in Texas and just loves seeing all of her princess pictures, but hadn't asked anything about her since about a week before she passed away. When Alexa had first gone to the ICU, Maddie and I had been baking brownies and Dan and I had been stunned about it and Maddie overheard. She asked me why "the little girl in Texas" was so sick and if she could draw her a picture to make her feel better. She hadn't mentioned anything about her since then. Until lunch today. Out of the blue, Maddie turns to me and asks me "Momma, how is the little girl in Texas feeling?" I didn't even know what to say. Heartwrenching. I turned to Dan and he asked her if she remembered what we had talked about when we had talked about a 'place called Heaven.' It was a conversation I didn't even know how to address because I felt like crying. Maddie didn't seem to understand, and just continued to ask if Alexa was feeling better and if she could draw her another picture if it would help her. I left it at that and smiled.

Cran's still on her 'fancy' kick. She's so funny. She's such an awesome little girl- she can be 'fancy' and yet she's never been a typical 'girly girl.' A lot of times since I always dress Faith first, if she notices something that Faith is wearing that she knows she has a matching or coordinating outfit to, she'll run straight to her closet and ask to wear that similar outfit to 'be like Beebster.' It's so cute. And, other times she'll ask to choose what she wants to wear just randomly. Sometimes it's dresses. The other day she wanted to wear her Ronaldo soccer jersey (bright yellow) with purple shorts AND decided that she also wanted to wear her dressy Easter shoes. She looked hilarious. Dan convinced her that the shoes would be uncomfortable for playing outside, but she still went in her yellow and purple attire. She later informed us that the shoes had been chosen because they would help make her outfit more 'fancy.' Haha.

Today her 'fancy' kick was in making a cake. I've been letting her pick something from the baking section every week to make because of how much she enjoys making 'treats for Daddy.' Considering we never eat it all anyway, I guess it's not so bad. Dan and I said though that we'll have to get her those 2 cookbooks she loves so much for Christmas because she is still asking for them everyday and will sit forever at Barnes and Noble browsing through them both looking for stuff that she thinks would  be fun for us to make together. Anyway, she chose a rainbow chip cake today with cherry icing. On her own this afternoon she asked if we could put princess figures on it to make it a princess cake. I thought that was a cool idea, and it looked really cute. She was so proud! Of course, she loves making just about everything. At Donovan's house she loved making Chex Mix Muddy Buddies and she LOVES making different pizzas for dinner (we've been experimenting with a few different ones).

Yesterday before we went to the pool I'd been telling them that they needed to wear hats because of how hot it was and because we had a  UVA/UVB advisory for the day. I put on Faith's hat, and Maddie told me she'd be 'back in a flash' with a hat she had chosen. She came strolling in to her room where Faith and I were, and she was wearing Ethan's old Rugrats winter hat. I couldn't stop laughing. Faith was cracking up too because she looked so darn funny. Such a goofball. A sweet little goofball!

Fanciness

Got a book out today that I'd gotten for Maddie a long, long time ago when she was still a baby back in Shreveport. It's called "Fancy Nancy." I figured it'd be something new we could read and she loved it instantly. She laughed so hard at her favorite page in the book where the little girl's head can't be seen from beneath her stack of fancy things. Then when Cran went for a nap, I heard the infamous whisper of "Momma.." from her room. I went to her room and she told me, "Momma, I need lots of fancy accessories like that fancy girl." It made me laugh so much! She wanted me to root through her closet for stuff that she thought was 'fancy.' She wanted her snow boots and Faith's snow boots, her dress-up puzzles that Aunt Lisi and Uncle Nate got her for Christmas of '06, and her 3 scrapbooks. I still haven't quite figured out how these things were exactly considered to be 'fancy,' but her room looked so funny within minutes after she had made it fancy. She's so funny.