You Matter.

Yesterday afternoon I took Adeline to our local library to pick out her weekly stack of books. We found a suitable pile of reading material and then found a spot at a table so I could read a few to her before checking them all out. I really didn't want to dawdle because the list of errands was high so I zoomed through two small books.

On our way to the check out counter she stopped by the movie shelves. I was trying to coax her away from the stacks and stacks of VHS tapes because we really needed to get to the tire shop to have my car serviced.
She seemingly ignored me and scanned through the videos to make a selection. We do actually own a VHS player at home so I couldn't really pull the "nobody watches VHS tapes kiddo, let's go" line. I was trying everything I had up my sleeve to get out of there without adding to the already heavy pile in my arms.

Alas, she was already clinging tightly to two VHS tapes. I urged her to hurry and that we probably didn't need to bring home movies and books this week but she insisted: "I have to take these home". So I said that was fine let's go. The child chose these two movies:

Of course, later that evening we heard of the passing of Robin Williams. My heart sank. 

It is hard to imagine what other people are feeling and fighting, especially in a world where many of us are more worried about what we are feeling at any given time. The demons in your head can be very, very real. I have loved ones both alive and gone who do and have battled with depression and substance abuse. I have only two words for everyone, currently battling or not, to read: 

YOU MATTER. 

Period.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide please contact the National Suicide Helpline at 1-800-273-8255 - or for young adults and teens to chat anonymously on line: 

http://www.remedylive.com/

Making the choice to call a helpline is essentially an act of courage. It takes a great deal of strength to admit you have a problem and begin the recovery process of putting your life back together. If you or someone you care about is struggling with an issue related to an addiction to drugs or alcohol, the best thing you can do is to reach out for help by calling 1-888-299-5213 at any time of the day or night, seven days a week. http://www.recovery.org/

Rest in peace Mr. Williams. You will be severely missed by many. 

Adeline Decides - RECAP SEVEN

Recap time!
Day late and a dollar short, but I am ok with this. On top of the dozens of odd jobs I take on I decided to try a personal project. I found through a friend a challenge for 100 happy days. www.100happydays.com 
The deal - Daily you post a photo of something that makes you happy, for 100 days. It makes you take the time to think about things so I signed up. Because, I totally have time for that sort of thing right? Oh good.

If you want to see what makes me happy you can take a gander at the instagram account I am using for this project instagram.com/stefmcjones. 90% of the photos involve my kid, so there is that. What can I say, when you grow a person inside of your uterus you tend to be pretty proud when you finagle the bugger out of there 9 months later.
I mean really, what did you make today? If what you made is cooler than this I will give you a dollar: 

Disclaimer: I won't actually give you a dollar, it's a trick. 

I digress! You want to know what life altering decisions my three year old has been making right? She has pretty well secured her fate as an entertainer. I present exhibits A and B:

Neat right? If you want to book her for your next gig you are going to have to contact her agent, Bacon Jones. He will probably be busy getting shot in the face with air from a Minnie Mouse hair dryer though so be sure to leave a message and he will get back to you when he isn't being tortured to hell and back.

She has decided more often than not, to make insanely silly faces all the time. On or off camera.

I have no clue who she gets it from...

She's actually wearing a funny face, while making a funny face. Silly squared? I think probably yes. 

Likewise, she cuddles more frequently too:

And this experiment has brought about a new whirl of imagination and confidence. She decides to be anything and everything. Tiger girl:

She feels like she can help out with just about any project that anyone in our family might be doing. Like gardening:

If you liked this post, but don't know why or what experiment I am referencing. I started a project almost 6 months ago to let our toddler make a lot (like, a lot) of decisions for herself. If you would like to take a gander and the previous recaps and reviews you can check those out by following this link: http://littlemrsjonesss.blogspot.com/search/label/Adeline%20Decides
We are basically at the end of the project. That flew by didn't it! I will do one last Recap post as a finale of sorts. Stay tuned!

Adeline Decides - Recap SIX

Greetings beautiful people! I am not going to discuss what a slacker I have been on here, let's chalk it up to me being awesome at other things. I wear too many hats/too many irons in the fire/ possibly some sort of attention deficit disorder/ OH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY. Maybe one day I will grow up, settle on one job that pays superbly vs. 10 small jobs that pay not as superbly, if at all. Meh probably not. Anyways, Adeline has been very busy making wonderful decisions so I shall recap for you now.

         Adeline has found a new hobby that she both enjoys, and is good at. Fishing! She only does this in 10 minute increments, and stops as soon as she catches anything. At any rate, catching her first fish at 3 years old is putting her on the fast track to becoming a redneck. She can boast about this later. Oh wait, she probably won't want to mention any of this. Good thing I am PUTTING IT ON THE INTERWEBS. Sorry sweet cheeks.

 Yea right dad, I am not touching that...

She has also found a new love for baking. She prepared (all steps aside from touching the oven) a birthday cake for her nanny: 

 It was crazy good for a three year old. She's got skillz. 

             Recently my company was asked to participate in a vintage fashion show at the local nursing home. Another freebie job but very rewarding. We had a blast, and Adeline decided that the nursing home is by far one of the coolest spots to hang out ever.The kid would have stayed if I let her! We brought over a wardrobe of vintage threads for the models to use, and naturally Adeline had to take a stroll on the cat walk as well. And to think, I was sure she would be too shy to waltz around in front of strangers. HA. I was probably just projecting my own nervousness because the staff gave me a microphone and let me do ALL THE TALKING. Yikes. 

Here she is in one of her fashion show ensembles:

              Summer festivities are upon us, and school has ended. Her gymnastics classes have wrapped up as well and she snagged a trophy at her final performance. She decided it was much too wonderful to hide from the world. The trophy made it around everywhere the days following. Restaurants, stores, grandma's house, etc. 

Here she is with the coveted trophy at our favorite mexican spot. 

This was post performance, so she still had the leotard and refused to put on pants, so we compromised by pulling her leg warmers way the hell up her legs to make pseudo pants. 

                Adeline received her passport this week. She was so proud of it, and said that it was her story. She had to read her story to everyone around, and she even told grandma that I was in it. 

She explained that the illustration below is mommy at a party:

So if you ever wanna party like it's 1799, I'm your girl! 

In case any of you are wondering if this little project of allowing a toddler to make so many of her own decisions has blown up in my face yet, which I am sure a few of you are... Trolls. I am happy to report that it has not blown up in my face at all. I now present some observations.

Adeline Decides - Observations thus far in our experiment:

She is more outspoken, less shy, yet still polite. We get constant compliments on her demeanor in general, especially in public places where a majority of toddlers act bat shit crazy. She is cool as a cucumber. Her diet has improved, as well as her appetite because she has more of a choice in what she consumes. Don't get me wrong, she asks for treats more often than not, but we compromise by getting those treats after we have regular meals. In most cases she enjoys the meals so much she forgets all about the treats. Sleeping patterns have improved a bit as well. 

If you would like to read more about Adeline and her antics, and what exactly we have been doing the last few months click here. 

Adeline Decides - Recap CINCO

          Has it really been an entire month and a half since the last recap? Ouch, sorry folks. This recap of Adeline Decides is days away from Cinco de Mayo, which really means nothing to Adeline because she is half Canadian. I don't know where I am going with this. Proceed to the recap!

Ahem, if you need to get caught up and figure out what the heck Adeline Decides is you can go here and here.  In a nutshell, I am spending at minimum, 6 months letting my 3 year old make decisions for herself and for our family. We are at the halfway mark and I have zero regrets with starting or completing this project. It is hard to recall what decisions are notable on here though, as it is becoming second nature for me to get her opinion on a whole lot of things.

But here is what you might have missed in the last month and a half:

-We hopped in the van and drove down the road...TO TEXAS. I gave a detailed synopsis of that trip on our business blog that you can view here. Adeline did things like con an old lady out of some bacon, and play with cows, you know, the usual.

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          Moving along, I have been getting my nails done in a nail salon by my cousin for, 17 years now (what can I say, I am high maintenance). So we visit the nail salon every other week. Adeline decided it was high time she got to sit in the chair for a fresh coat of polish:

Is this normal? 3 year olds aren't supposed to stay willingly stationary for this long right?

Since the last recap, Easter happened. That weekend was a blur, but Adeline did decide to make Easter cards instead of buy:

She made the lil guys with her finger prints! I drew the faces and such. 

Everyone together now: "Awwww".

             Another month of March achievement for the books, Adeline became a knight. Wasn't her decision initially, until she saw that she got to hop on stage and have a captive audience. Oh, people are watching? Give me that crown and let's do this:

She did pick out several outfits for herself and I that I thought to snap a pic of: 

Not entirely sure why I look frightened in this photo. The outfit isn't scary at all. 

The dress she helped me buy from another recap. 

A shirt she got for a song during the Texas antique show. The vendor loved her to pieces. 

Remember from last recap she picked out her outfit for school picture day? I'd say she was pretty happy with her selection...

        Since the beginning of this parenting project I have had a few friends ask me if Adeline could decide for them too. While I don't plan on daunting her with everyone's life questions, if you have one you would really like to have Adeline give her sage advice on you may send it to us. Comment here on the blog with those, or email them to us at junkdrunkjones@gmail.com (subject line: Adeline Decides). If I feel like asking her, and she feels like answering, we will get back to you with her words of wisdom.  

Adeline Decides Recap #FOUR

Business as usual over here. Since Recap #THREE we have been pretty busy doing important stuff. Like building big forts and sleeping in them:

 Family Fort Night was wildly successful according to Adeline. The mister and I have to disagree, we slept terribly. We also had to keep up with her waking every few hours to cry because she forgot she was in a fort, and then had to change positions.

 Bacon found a crack in the fort walls for them to peek out of. 

 Everybody together now! Awwwwwwwwwww.

  Bacon seems to be oblivious to the fact that his partner in crime is total lunatic. Total. 

Adeline took a trip to her first buffet. As we can see in the photo she made this particular selection after eating a plate full of random crap (I want to say majority black olives and ham). Dessert was an interesting assortment of jello, pudding, grapes, and gummi bears. Yummmm  ?

Still can't decide if this is the look of a full belly, or of total regret. 

       Over the weekend I (Junk Drunk Jones) was working an antique show, because that's my gig these days. After visiting with me she decided to take her dad for a little tour around the show. She found an old guy who sells cowboy hats and saddles and decided to take them for a test drive. I am extremely happy to report neither of those actually made it to our home.

But this did:

She took her first trip to Ikea with her dad and after playing Goldilocks and trying out all the beds she snagged the lovely fish pillow for our house. She says it is for our couch. It is THREE AND A HALF FEET LONG. And shiny. Thank baby jesus Ikea doesn't have an entire line of fish decor (yet). 

Here's the Goldilocks shenanigans:

Picking out extremely weird couch cushions can be exhausting. 

       For all of you who are exceedingly jealous of our new couch cushion I am pleased to let you know that you too, can own one. You can find out how to purchase your very own here. I am going to say it is probably for a very limited time only, these bad boys are going to go fast. 

*Correction: Ikea's website says available in store only. I bet that is so they can limit how many you purchase at a time. They have to ration this kind of crap out you know. My kid is a visionary, and is probably just ahead of the fish decor craze before it explodes. Hurry.

Thanks for recapping with us. 

Want to know what we are up to? We are letting our toddler make decisions, for her health and well being (or something like that). You can read all about it here and here. 

Adeline Decides - Recap #Three

So far so good with our little experiment. We are one month down, five (or more) to go.  I am realizing this recap that I should have taken more pictures. Ah well.

The vegetables I mentioned she selected from our Farm to Fork CSA program were delicious. She did well:

She ate half of that broccoli the first day. Let's just say that the resulting sounds and smells that venture produced she got from her father...

She decided this week it was prime time to start doing her own makeup, she was channeling her inner Frida Kahlo and only used my black eyeshadow to create this look:

She selected her outfit for preschool picture day:

She looks thrilled right? Pffffffftt.

My dad decided to teach her the art of being still and taking a nap:

She decided to call shenanigans and just moments later:

Adeline - 1                My dad - 0

On the topic of naps, we sort of let her decide to no longer take naps. NO MORE NAPS?! I would have laughed straight in my own face if I heard that this would be a consequence of my little experiment less than one month into the project. It was painful for me at first because I am a routine, overly organzied, go by the schedule, complete freakazoid. We transitioned from full on naps to "quiet time" in her room because she was too occupied to fall asleep, to not even trying to go there and fight with her to rest. There have been a few slip ups where she has dozed off against her wishes to stay awake, and a few car naps but that is about it these days.

BUT guess what? Bedtime is an absolute dream now. She falls asleep instantly. No more hopping up, water requests, extra stories, multiple fruitless bathroom trips, lost stuffed animal retrievals, *and enter here any and all other wacky requests we've heard her come up with to prolong bedtime. She also sleeps in later in the mornings, giving me time to get some stuff done around the house.
I would have happily traded nap time in a long time ago if I had known.

I didn't have any life decisions to make this week. She did get to select a few outfits and my hairstyle the other day though. She decided to select a hair band, and pigtails for me. Done and done:

If you want to know more about our little Adeline Decides project/get caught up on what we are doing for the next 5 months you can see all of the goodies here. 

Adeline Decides - Recap Dos

I am realizing that the blog is turning into recap posts only. My apologies. It's a big experiment so it is taking up a lot of our time.

If you are new you can catch up by clicking HERE.

If you are not new, and you have actually read the garbage exceptional material that I type - congrats and high five for being awesome. There were some close calls this week with Adeline being the captain of the ship better known as my life. Now for some highlights.

I let her order my sushi:

I let her pick our Spring wardrobes. We took a trip to Target for a pair of flip flops. A PAIR. 2.5 hours and an undisclosed amount of dollars later and she and I both have lots (and lots) of new threads. I did direct her to the sale sections so that helped. She even nabbed this dress which she claims is hers, but that I can borrow when I need it. So sweet. It is pretty isn't it? I would love to wear it this week but Ms. Georgia Weather is being the usual bi-polar bitch that she is and I can't quite wear it yet because of another "cold snap". Blah.

 Disregard the demon and dead guy as part of the backdrop.

She decided on how to fill a lot of our free time this week, and that consisted of lots of craft projects and operating of large motor vehicles:

She almost had the liberty of deciding what the next household pet would be. I am not sure why she thinks the three absolutely insane dogs she already has aren't sufficient, but she really thought outside of the box this time. She requested a pet bat ( I blame the Great Mouse Detective). I made a few futile attempts to talk her out of such a crazy idea, one being a trip over to Pinterest to show her that bats are ugly and creepy. Um, that blew up in my face when we came across:

and:

I know right? The kid is onto something.

I was at that point convinced that we did indeed, need a pet bat. Thanks to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources - Wildlife Division for taking the wind out of everyone's sails. According to their handy dandy website we now know that will not be able to obtain such a pet, legally. Thanks a lot rules. You can see the list of things we are not allowed to have as pets by going  here. I think maybe some permits would fix that? But apparently bats are expensive, and you need to buy like, a whole slew of them (I think the technical term is a "colony"). Hindsight, acquiring a "colony" of an exotic species does seem like a bit of an undertaking.Totally a project that will happen should we win the lottery. We will have a full staff to tend to the colony. *sigh and end daydream*

Oh and she also selected our vegetable list for the week. We placed our first grocery order for farm fresh goods through Farm to Fork CSA. 

It was a pretty successful week for -Adeline decides-.

*Sidenote: When my dad brought home that pet turkey when I was little, that was apparently a big no-no too according to the exotic pet list. You can read about that debacle here.