The Road to Home

A few weeks ago, my mom and I were in Toys R Us with Ladybug.  After we checked out all of the clearance clothes, we headed on over to talk about possible birthday presents for Ladybug.  She was asking me about “Dress Up” clothes and accessories, and I told her that we didn’t have any.  Well, except for repurposed things that came from my closet.

I told her that it might be a good idea to get her some dress up clothes for a birthday present.  I’m not sure what I’m getting into, however.

See, at our most recent playdate with Ladybug’s newest friend, pulled out an amazing collection of dress up supplies!  They had tons of fun dressing, undressing, and re-arranging their outfits.

This dress had a fantastic Twirl Factor.

Check out the heels!

All the while, this was in the corner.  I can’t believe that he slept through the whole thing!

We will definitely be finding some dress up supplies for our little Lady.  She had too much fun doing that!

Oh Wow.

We’re watching the Olympics and Ladybug keeps saying, “Oh Wow.”

I have an idea that this will go on all evening.

Dr. D came home recently talking about a new guy that he was working with.  The New Guy also has a 2.5 year-old daughter.  And a wife that was up for a playdate!

So we went to a nearby park and let the little girls play, while the big girls talked!

I’m calling this her “Hollie Hobby Pose.”

See?  Holly Hobbie!

This is really the only picture of the two girls together.  They are exactly a month apart, and they were fast friends.  Ladybug has even been “talking” to her on the phone this afternoon!

I can’t wait to get together again!

Dr. D’s 29th Birthday was yesterday, so we celebrated by having a few friend over for cake and ice cream last night.

Black icing is very bitter…though it didn’t slow her down one bit. I still don’t know how she managed to get it all over herself!

For months now, Dr. D has been showing Ladybug trailers of WALL*E. We have all been anxiously waiting for the premier of this film. As a reward for all our hard work, we decided to take Ladybug to see it at the theater.

We LOVED it. It is by far, the best Pixar film to date, eclipsing even Toy Story which I love. Even after reading all of the high praise for the film prior to watching it, I didn’t think that it could be that good. Let me be the first to tell you, I was wrong!

It had a good storyline, fantastic characters, and fitting pop culture references. There is something in it for all ages.  Go see this movie!

We may even have to go see it again. Ladybug was enthralled.

I confess.  I took a flash picture in the middle of the movie theater.  But in my defense, it was her first “big movie”.  We’ve been to the dollar theater before, but we’ve never been to a regular theater.  I just had to have a picture!

So last week, I mentioned that our return fight from Arkansas was rather bumpy. Well, it started out fine though!

Ladybug gets so excited when we get on the airplane. I’m so glad that we decided to purchase a CARES Harness for her to use. She gets to feel like a “big girl” in the adult seat. I get to have the convenience of just folding it up and stuffing it into my carry-on bag.

It wasn’t long after we took off, however, that we started experiencing some rough turbulence. Ladybug finally allowed herself to fall asleep, but was startled awake by the little girl sitting behind her. This caused her to start crying uncontrollably. You know what happens to a child that starts crying uncontrollably? Puke. Puke Happens. Nothing like a puking toddler at 30,000 feet.

Thank goodness we had an understanding flight attendant who kept us supplied with wet paper towels and handi-wipes. I didn’t even have to exhaust my supply of wipes!

After I was able to calm her down, I thought I would try to get a few pics. I hate it when we sit over the wing! It’s all we see out of the window!

Ah. The trippy-dippy tunnel at the Detroit Airport. It’s kind of a nice diversion after being on the airplane

(Check out this video that I found of the tunnel.  It REALLY makes it look trippy.)

Tunnel Video

She has no idea how complicated things have been around here for the past few days.  Wouldn’t it be grand if all we had to worry about was how much longer we could stay at the playground?

(We weren’t able to come to an agreement with the appraiser, so we will be getting another appraisal from a different bank.  I’ll keep you posted!)

Greetings all! I’m coming to you live from what is shaping up to be a cloudy, hot and humid day here in Central Arkansas. We have had a fantastic visit so far, seeing many family and friends. Ladybug is currently in the room adjacent to me playing with her older cousin, who she has missed like crazy. They even slept in the same bed last night! Needless to say, she has been running on full speed since we arrived. Finally she found a few minutes to rest her little body!

With another jam-packed day planned, I hope she is able to catch another nap sometime today!

We actually did a few more things last week than I mentioned in my previous post.   Dr. D’s brother recently moved from Arkansas TO MICHIGAN!!  He moved up here to go to film school.  Yep.  We now have family that is only an hour away.  And let me tell you, I’m excited.

To celebrate our first “get together” we drove up to see my Brother-in-Law’s new apartment.  After that, we went to the Zoo.  His new place is not too far from the Detroit Zoo, and we had never been, so we decided to go.

While I wasn’t blown away, I was pleased.  Ladybug had a great time, it wasn’t too crowded (on a Saturday afternoon) and we got to see some beautiful animals.  The gardens were gorgeous too!  Ladybug also liked the fountain, so we decided to get a few pictures in front of it.  (These were from my iPhone.  Sorry for the quality.)

She wasn’t too happy that Uncle Pooh kept her out of the pool.

The wind blew her hat off and Uncle Pooh tried to catch it.

Finally!  We have a picture to send Grammy for Mother’s Day!

Thursday the 24th was a milestone day for us. My sweet little Ladybug started preschool!

Growing up, I never went to daycare or preschool. My sister and I were fortunate enough to have both grandmothers (and our grandfather) live in the same town with us. My parents were even more fortunate that they were willing to take turns keeping us during the day. If they couldn’t watch us, we just went to work with our parents, who had their own business. I loved staying with my grandmas. My Dad’s Mom taught me about quilting and patterns. My Mom’s Mom let us help with the garden (she always let us try to grow watermelons), and taught us to play dominoes. We cooked, played games and fed the birds. I have tons of memories of these ladies, which we often re-hash over family dinners.

I desperately want this for Ladybug. Unfortunately, her grandparents live 800 miles away. Dr. D and I are the only two people here in Michigan that care for Ladybug. While I don’t want to have her in Preschool 5 days a week (she’ll be going 5 days a week soon enough), I do need some time to myself. She has been talking about “going to school” for weeks now, so I started doing research on half-day programs.

Turns out “half-day” means 2-3 hrs. The perfect amount of time for her to start going to school.

Well…she has been to four sessions now, and she loves it. She likes her teachers, her friends, and the activities.  Most of all, she like the playground!  She looks forward to going back, though it’s terribly hard to get her out of bed in the mornings.  (She must not be a morning person.  I wonder who she could have gotten that from?)