Props to Michelle McKee for the “quick pic” that turned into a photo shoot! We wish our lives looked picture perfect all the time, but we don’t always get what we want. In the meantime, we enjoy the times we get & commemorate them with an obnoxious amount of photos :) And more of those photos will be coming when things slow down a bit…
I’m only 5 days in and I’m already living in the world of continuous laundry, daily cleaning, and constant running of the dishwasher…and I’m loving every minute of it!
Parenting Lesson #2 - Not a good idea to agree to a spend the night party when you have doctoral work due at midnight.
Suddenly, playing princess becomes more important to me than doing my work. The bathroom turns into a castle, the bath-tub a moat where princesses can swim, the toilet becomes the burial grounds for an octopus, and we spend 20 minutes hosting an octopus funeral while the whole royal family (King Daddy, Queen Step-Mummy, Princess Georgia, & Princess Ashley) bemoan the loss of Jerry the Octopus who met his death while on vacation in the moat. Speeches were made, songs were song, and King Daddy flushed the octopus down the toilet. Our home has turned into some kind of zoo. And speaking of, that is where King Daddy and Princess Georgia are off to this afternoon. Whew! Queen Step-Mummy needs to finish some work…and perhaps may even need a nap after the late night of “sleep over monitoring” and working on lit analyses! Yay for a Daddy-Georgia afternoon!
Here are some pics as I am still living in the world of obnoxious new step-mum!
On their walk to go squirrel & snake spotting.
Chris said they wanted to walk all the way to Atlanta, but by the end of the walk, the girls had many complaints of blisters and other major injuries 
The walk didn’t wear Chris out, but apparently all their non-stop chattering did!
The princesses in front of the moat.
Swimming in the moat.
The death & mourning of Jerry the Octopus.
The candlelight ceremony for Jerry the Octopus while he was laid in waiting.
The burial of Jerry the Octopus right after the songs were song.
King Daddy performing his royal duties while the princesses watched Hello Kitty Becomes a Princess in the royal suite. I thought Chris was going to hang himself watching that DVD. What he didn’t realize was my utter jealousy that I wasn’t able to be on watch. Hello Kitty or Progressive Education? Its a no-brainer to me which one I’d choose!
The sweetest part of the whole night came at about midnight. Aren’t they precious?!
I’m supposed to be working on my research, but I can’t help but blog. I’m hoping it will be a catalyst to unblock my writing! I’ve apparently made the mistake of taking a 6 month sabbatical from academia and my brain is terribly resistant to getting back into the flow. I have 2 literature analyses due tonight at midnight as well as the hypothesis for my 20 page lit review. In theory I’m also supposed to be logging something like 50 pages of reading each week from research I’ve done, but I don’t think that will get done today. For some reason, I’m completely preoccupied
Speaking of, I’m absolutely smitten with this little 7 year old who has taken over our lives at the moment! She keeps us rolling. Yesterday we had a “girls’ morning” so Chris could work on his research. We did a BodyFlow class, which Georgia absolutely fell in love with & did a terrific job following along. We then went shopping at which time Georgia got an Independence Day outfit (red, white, & blue) and exercise pants & top to wear to another exercise class again this week. Perhaps she got a lot of other things, too. I tell you what, that girl can shop circles around me and that is saying something! I did teach Georgia the beauty of the clearance rack. At Goody’s, we were only allowed to look at the racks that were 50% off or more. At Target, it was sales racks of 30% off or more as well. I did get my mama-bear dander up when she wanted to get “high heels” (the little girl version) to go with her sundress. Calmly I said I didn’t think it was a good idea (internally I was saying HECK NO…YOU WILL STAY A LITTLE GIRL!!!), but she was pretty persistent, so I did what every mature woman would do….I made her call her daddy. Ha. Throw the ball in his court! Nope. Daddy didn’t play along with that one. He told her that he’d let Heidi decide. Curses. Make me be the bad guy! So I was. All you seasoned mamas out there would be impressed with my diversion attempts and successful discovery of flowery flip flops. But I tell ya what, I was sweatin’ it there for a minute. I thought I was actually going to have to put my big girl panties on and say no. Imagine that.
So I’m getting attached. I know better. I guess it happens to even the most calloused of us. People think that this will be the catalyst to having a baby. Nope. Don’t think so. We think Georgia Rose hung the moon. Having a baby doesn’t replace her. It must be how parents who lose a child feel - another one can never possibly replace the one lost. Ah well. I’m grateful that God is building bridges between Georgia’s other family and us. God’s hand has been all over this visit and we are just praying that He will continue to restore and work out the details of a situation that is by no means ideal.
Georgia being 7 years old loves all things animal & fluffy! She has been absolutely enamored with Ashley & Amber’s 1 week old bunnies. This is the first day we looked at them. I’ll post more pics of her holding a bunny today. * disclaimer: the time stamp is completely inaccurate as Heidi put new batteries in the camera & this is the date to which it reverted *
A million pictures of the little fish…
Today wasn’t a “fun” day like yesterday, but we had fun working. Georgia had a nice sleep in. She helped her Daddy unload the topsoil from the truck into the new tree garden bed. Then they went off to Home Depot and Georgia was given charge to pick out the flowers for the flower bed. In my continuing efforts to spoil and win her over, I sent her off with a DQ coupon for a free kids ice cream cone. Upon their return from their adventures, she then helped her Daddy plant the flowers. All this work they did was good because I was able to get some things prepared for Georgia’s grandparents (i.e. - Chris’ ex-inlaws) arrival for dinner. Not to mention, I felt like there was a miniature woman out there supervising the task, all would get done properly …. ha ha ha ;) After her supervisory duties were performed, Georgia made her first Pavlova with me. And don’t think I’m not glowin’ proud of the fact that her American step-mum taught her how to make a New Zealand dessert :) She even cut the strawberries all by herself! Although I do feel terrible for fogetting to take a pic of her first pav! I did, however, get some pics of the gardening that was done by the Leonard Gardening Club Members today. See below.
My favourite part of the evening was when Chris drove Georgia’s grandparents back to Marietta, I was supposed to put her to bed, but we had “Georgia & Heidi time” (Georgia’s words!). So we climbed in the “big bed” and read Anne of Green Gables (the children’s version)! She liked Anne’s imagination. Such a kindred little spirit she is! But our favourite was reading Junie B. Jones. We laughed so hard. The main character is terribly disrespectful and uses awful grammar, but those books are a hoot! We were only going to read a chapter, but it was so funny we just had to read the whole thing. Chris was home in time for us to read our Good Night Devotional and to tuck Georgia back into her bed. I believe that is the sweetest time of the whole day is when we get to tuck her into bed
Here is Young Paris Hilton herself taking a ride around the yard on the bike with her fab sunglasses & purse pet ;o) She’s quite a little sanguine, which if you know her daddy, means you know how ironic that is!
These are two pics post-bike tumble…Daddy walking Georgia back to the house to clean up the scrapes & get some plasters (translation: bandaids).
Day 1 – Afternoon
We went swimming at my friend, Heidi M.’s house. Heidi M. has two girls, Ashley 7 and Amber 9. They swam like little fishes & had a delightful time. The swimming in the salt water pool “helped” Georgia’s knee heal better ;o) Pics will have to come later…we left the camera at home, but fortunately Heidi M. took some pics & will send them to us later.
Day 1 – Evening
Mike & Heidi M. came over for dinner with Ashley & Amber. The night was full of playing with toys, catching lightning bugs, finger painting, and dress up in my clothes from India. <Insert my excitement at Georgia’s discovery of all my Indian bangles & clothes…finally someone who has the same appreciation as I do for them!!!> They raided the wardrobe all by themselves & decided how all the clothes should look & be worn. Not exactly culturally accurate, but a good time was had by all! Georgia was hamming it up with all her poses! We decided the camera must be present with all these supermodels!
Suddenly the little supermodels started appearing in my real clothes…much to my chagrin and my “a place for everything and everything in its place” self. I like things a bit color-coordinated and I’m thinking my color sorted bangles and wardrobe (translation: closet) is not quite in its previous state. Fortunately, I’m still so new at this step-mum thing that I don’t take the aftermath into consideration until after the fact ;) Shirts became dresses for the little girls, skirts became evening gowns, and high heels were discovered. Apparently everything in the wardrobe was fair game! We got a picture of the “battle-scarred” knees all bandaged up. Georgia has a cute little faux limp to go along with it, but that only comes out when she’s real tired or doesn’t want to do something J
Somehow daddy managed to get finagled into dressing up with red plattes (translation: braids) and a bonnet. Isn’t he pretty?!
Georgia was loving the chance to sport the birthday present Granddad got for her at Disney Land.
The aftermath in the wardrobe!!! Admittedly, they did a great job of cleaning up, although it wasn’t nearly as fun as trying it all out!
Photos of Georgia, Ashley, & Amber in her room. This is right before they tried to finagle a spend-the-night party, as happens when little girls get together.
We’ve opted for another night. The girls had a long day of playing very hard and staying up way too late!
Ok, 24 hours of “parenting” under my belt and I’m learning many a lesson. I’ll share the lessons I’ve learned first thing this morning: #1 - Children will fall and you will not be able to stop them from falling. #2 -When they fall, sometimes they bleed a lot. #3 - Apparently you shouldn’t let a 7 year old ride a two wheeler down hill. Guess we learned that one the hard way. $10 worth of first aid later, we’re all OK. Georgia is probably slightly better than the traumatized evil step mum who couldn’t stop her from falling. 
Our special “package” has arrived. 7 years old, blonde hair, brown eyes, sweet little accent, and looks ever so much like her daddy! We’re pleased to announce the arrival of Georgia Rose Leonard! You can’t imagine a more excited little girl than she was to see her daddy! We love her to bits and think she’s the greatest thing in the world! She is a kindred little spirit, which does my nervous, step-mum heart wonders! I will warn the blog audience in advance that you WILL be hearing all about her. I know I’m not the first person with a 7 year old under my roof, but I may as well be right now!!!
I wish I had been able to catch the moment on camera when she first saw him - the look was so priceless, but I was too enamored watching it all. Instead, here are two pictures of Chris’ little shadow:
Ooooo…5 hours & counting until we can go to the airport to pick Georgia up! Its a good thing we have so much to do or else the waiting would KILL ME! I can’t wait, I can’t wait, I can’t wait!
Props to The Reverend Mrs. for letting us borrowing a bike for G to ride on the Silver Comet Trail! And props to Heidi M. for letting us come over & swim w/the girls tomorrow!
Yesterday I took the BodyCombat class & it was awesome! I like it way better than BodyAttack. These classes are appropriately named, though. For example, during the BodyAttack class, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. And today my body is combating what I did yesterday. A little BodyFlow this morning will hopefully stretch out all the extremely sore muscles, though. I’m starting to feel so much better after exercising for 3 weeks now. A little break from being around people, a little work around the house, & some good exercise is what it has taken for me to get rid of this perpetual feeling of exhaustion. I must complain, though, that the weight is not dropping at all! I do know my muscles are getting a lot stronger b/c I can feel them aching! So now I shall have nice muscle which is being concealed by some thicker layers of fat. My eating choices aren’t terribly horrendous, I think I just need to quit eating dinner at 9 & 10 p.m., but all this working in the yard means we maximize every moment of sunlight that we can. Perhaps I should try the Kim Whipple Diet? Or maybe not ;) Ah well…I’m off to do a little spiritual exercising (and can we talk about how spiritual exercise can make you ache a little bit sometimes as well?!), then off to BodyFlow perhaps followed by Body Pump!
I’m Heidi, a lover of God, and I’m married to Chris, an amazing man who God has brought into my life. This blog is basically a bunch of my ramblings about what’s going in life.
