It's been tough!

Olena riding Shadow

This is Brandy

I just love this picture, not sure why. It just seems so simple.

My little farm girl!

Just as the title states....it has been tough. These past few weeks my little darling has officially made her transition into the terrible twos :( We are back to throwing tantrums when we don't get our way. It is nowhere near as bad as when we come home, but nonetheless they happen. It is somewhat comical to watch because she dramatically runs and lunges forward throwing herself onto the floor. The second she hits the floor she jumps back up and does it again in another direction - oh and with no regard to what is in the way. She has met several pieces of furniture up close and personal the past two weeks. I have also resorting to sending her to bed when she is bad or out of hand. We were using the corner but the new fits have including slamming her head on the wall while in the corner. Today she caught the corner of the door jam and ended up with a big egg on her head so the safest place for her to be is in the bed. I don't let her get off the bed and she has to lay there until her mood changes.

We have also put the potty training on hold. There is no training involved anymore. She knows what to do and when to do it, she just doesn't want to. She did great for about two weeks, then she just started going down hill. It got to the point where she didn't even try to go, she would just pee her pants and wait until we noticed. I am not going to waste money on pull ups either because she does the same exact thing. I even tried the cool touch and those just irritated her because they were cold, so she would just take it off and run around naked. I figured she obviously is not ready so we will just wait.

We have had many good days though and have been very busy. We went to my aunt and uncle's house, and went horse back riding. Olena did great. She wasn't scared one bit, and rode the horse like it was something she has done her whole life. It was crazy. She got right on, grabbed the saddle, and away she went. My aunt was very proud of her horse...I felt bad because she was so nervous having Olena up there. It was hot and the flies were biting the horse so he was a little jumpy. And as you will see in the pictures, this horse Shadow, was pretty big. We also went to the Cherry Festival and seen some beautiful chalk drawings. It reminded me of Mary Poppins. Many of these artist were high school students too, unbelievable. Then this past Sunday we had a ladies day and me, Olena and my mom spent the day at the beach. My little fish had a blast. She has no fear of the water, which is pretty scary. But she is trying to make herself swim so I would say next summer she will have the hang of it. No life preservers or floaties were allowed so she would walk out (of course I stayed right next to her) all the way until the water was at her mouth and she was on her very tippy toes. Then she would just "run" back and forth in the water, kicking and lifting herself out of the water and laughing her butt off. It was so funny! Another thing she loves about the beach is trashing the sand castles...even the ones that we didn't make. I felt so bad because all these little kids were working so diligently on their masterpieces and then here comes Olena. She would stake out the shore....find a victim....take off and just run right through the middle....then the run of victory -she would make a full circle around back to our chairs, hide out for a minute and just laugh!!! and yes, you could see the horns :) It kills me just how smart and clever she truly is. I know she is just laughing inside about how clueless we all are. She plays us for fools, I just know it :O)

Anyhow, enjoy the pics and I will update in a few weeks. We have a lot of plans coming up and we are getting ready to do some painting in the house, so things will be busy.