Mermaid hunt

One of my favorite things to do on beautiful days is get lost in Pinellas County until I find one of their gorgeous waterfront parks. Today we found our way to H.S. Pop Stansell Memorial Park.

From the parking area I noticed a little area that looked like a dock, so we walked around some vegetation and found a kayaker's nirvana. I am definitely taking my parents here if they ever bring their kayaks. The water was still and gorgeous. My new favorite activity with Rosemary is looking for mermaids whenever we see water. We saw lots of fish jumping and a heron fishing, but the only mermaid was this cutie I brought with me. Maybe next time!

See? Beautiful.

Walking down the boardwalk. Strutting her stuff.

I had to get a pic in front of this little sandbar. It was just such a nice day out that I wanted to stay near the salty fresh air for as long as possible. She just wanted to go to the playground. So I procrastinated by taking a lot of pictures.

We made our way to the playground and had a little snack.

On the way to the bathrooms, Rosemary noticed this eyeball on a tree. I wanted to take her picture near it, but it scared her and she wouldn't get near it!

Even the graffiti in the bathrooms is polite here.

Rosemary tried and tried to get up on this weird seat by herself.

She finally figured it out, but it took a lot out of her!

I LOVE the parks in Pinellas county where the swings overlook the water. Beeee-yoooo-tiful!

I got both my kiddos swinging for a while! I would alternate playing "tickly, tickly toes" with Xander and singing "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" to Romy. It's a good thing there was no else at this park, I was sort of putting on a show. I was singing pretty loud with Rosemary trying to sing with me. And I don't have a pretty singing voice ;) I sang the entire song about 12 times.

After the park, we went home and Rosemary helped me make pigs in a blanket and special celery treats for lunch. Earlier this week we did our grocery shopping and I let her pick out one fruit and one veggie- in the hopes of getting her to try something new. She chose watermelon and celery so every day this week I've tried preparing them differently. Today we had celery stuffed with cream cheese, with another piece of celery sticking out and then cut into what are supposed to be flower shapes. My mom tried explaining it to me over the phone, and mine looked nothing like flowers so I think next time they're in town she's going to have to show me how to do it! And I cubed the watermelon and ate it with a fork, which was novel because we usually eat it sliced. Either way, it's getting her to eat her veggies (fruit has never been a problem).

p.s. For those of you interested- the sticker chart is ah-mazing. It's been like a godsend. We've gone from- no exaggeration- at least a dozen full-blown meltdowns a day (usually there are 3 before breakfast) to one in the past three days (I called the pediatrician who was NO help and I've been working with a childhood specialist since birth doing evaluations on the kids and they had no answers. Was it too hard to tell me "sticker chart"?). At one point I even saw her get mad, take a deep breath, walk into Xander's room, put her head down on the bed, them come back into the room and talk to me. I have a different child. We moved on from the tree (she had to earn her way to a big star for the top) to a more traditional print-out sticker chart with about 20 boxes that she has to fill with stickers before getting something from the "goodie box"- a box we filled with things from the Target $1 section. It was fun picking the things out for the box! We made a special trip to Target for stickers and goodies for her box. I'll post an update when she gets her first goodie!

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