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She has no idea…
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!)
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Family Time
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!
Zoo Days
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!
My Little Scholar.
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?)
Story Night!
It’s 6pm on a Thursday evening here at the Tree House. I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing, as last night’s pork loin is simmering away on the stove. (It was pretty bland the first time around, so I added tons of garlic, worcestershire and some ginger. We’ll see if it’s edible.) We are patiently waiting for Dr. D to arrive from his long day at the hospital. When he gets here, we’ll wolf down the meal so we can be out the door and at the library by 7pm.
See, Thursday night is no ordinary night around here. It’s story night at the library! Mamas and Papas and Uncles and Aunts* gather the kids around on “the carpet” to listen to one of our fabulous librarians tell a few stories. In between the stories, “Banjo Betsy” gets the kids up and moving with her witty kids songs. Yes, folks, she brings her banjo just about every week! The kids have a great time listening, dancing and singing, and the adults have a great time watching the antics that go on and on around there.
*Sorry. Couldn’t resist. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is Ladybug’s favorite book right now. We all know it by heart!
Plum tuckerd out.
After seeing this website the other day, I have become obsessed with cooking better for my family. I have a stinking crock pot that just sits on my counter like a lump because I have no room in my cabinets to store it. We’ve been here for 6 months and I have only used it once.
Well, make that twice. I am currently simmering a batch of soup. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Because of my idea to cook better for the family, Ladybug and I had to go grocery shopping today. Now, I love Whole Foods just as much as the next person, (perhaps not that much), but Dr. D and I discovered a new market near our house this past weekend.
At first glance, Plum Market appears to be just another yuppie organic grocery store. But it’s not. It’s small, but packed with tons of items from local companies. You can buy local produce, local milk, local beer and even local cheeses, breads and coffees. While they do cater to the “organic” crowd, they do carry more mainstream items like coke and lay’s potato chips.
Ladybug and I spent over two hours in there this afternoon. We perused all of the aisles in the middle of the store loading the cart with items to prepare our meals for the next few nights. Then, we hit the perimeter of the store.
The outskirts are where all of the fun is to be had! There are samples galore, as well as tons of educational opportunities. We took our time in the produce department, naming all of the fruits and veggies, learning new ones, finding things that looked like each other, and practicing our colors and counting. She was baffled by the bumpy heirloom tomatoes and their funky texture, but she loved looking at all the containers of the fresh cut fruit. We sampled strawberries, sniffed limes, and studied the funny looking ginger and horseradish.
The highlight of the trip was the pizza counter. They have a true pizza hearth in the store that is quite beautiful. Ladybug was fascinated with the flames that are visible from the front of the counter. Fortunately for us, the chef was preparing a pizza just in time! So she was able to watch the whole process from start to finish.
We really had a good day at the store. Though I didn’t have any coupons to use for this purchase (it was mostly produce anyway), treating the outing as entertainment certainly helped to take the sting out of paying the bill!
Now off to stir my soup.
At least she has her priorities straight…
Me: “Ladybug, you want to go to the store?”Ladybug: “Yeah!”
Me: “Ok. We’ll walk there and get a newspaper.”
Ladybug: “I want to go to the Apple Store and then the Playground!”
She is a walking advertisement for Apple, these days. She knows how to operate our iPhones and loves to play her game on the computers. Just hearing her say “Swipe” when she scrolls through the pictures on the phone is enough to make my husband melt. She’s our sweet little tech baby.
Geez. Somedays are so hard.
Sadly, my mother probably has a set of photos just like this from when I was the same age, Care Bears shirt, leg warmers and all. I remember my pink tutu fondly!
“RAND!!! Get off of my bed!!”
“Ok Mommy. You can take my picture now!”
“I’m a Pwincess Bah-wa-rina!”
“I’m Spinning Mommy! Look!”
“Do I look like a real Ballerina?”
Yep. This is how we spend our day, sometimes. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
We gotta get out of this place
Last week, Ladybug got to spend some time with my parents back in Arkansas. They begged and pleaded for her to stay graciously allowed her to stay while Dr. D and I returned to Michigan to do some serious house hunting (and recuperating).
Well, I didn’t really get much accomplished last week. I was recovering from the two-month-long festival of illness that has plagued my house for, well, two months. Sore throats were the main culprit, but the week that we were in AR, a gross cough consumed both Ladybug and me. I chalked it up the stupid blooming Bradford Pear trees, but I’m not sure if it was really allergies or not. I’m still not 100%, but I am certainly feeling better. The copious amounts of NyQuil I consumed last week HAD to help with that, right? More likely, it was the sleep that the NyQuil allowed me to get, but I digress. I feel better and that’s all that matters.
While the little one was away, I was able to look at a few houses that interested us, but overall, I think we know which one we want. The only problem is, it’s occupied. The owners had a baby in February (my birthday, actually) so they kind of stopped looking for a bit. I know that they are still open to the prospect of moving into a larger home, but I’m not sure how quickly this deal could be executed. We are pursuing it, but I’m growing impatient with this tiny duplex. I’m ready to close and move TODAY!! I so desperately want to move out of this place.
This is a picture of Ladybug coloring at our 4-top kitchen table. I turned my computer around to get the pic with photobooth. See the stretch of kitchen cabinets behind her? Yeah. That’s all there is. less than two feet on one side of the sink where we have to store the crock-pot (notice the fruit dish ON TOP of the crock-pot), and only about three feet on the other side where the dish drying rack and microwave are housed. The kitchen table is our saving grace in here. We use it for a desk, craft table, island, and general surface to set stuff down. I would just LOVE to have at least one stretch of true counterspace that wasn’t occupied by a piece of kitchen crap equipment. The worst part of it all? See the sweet pink dish brush on the sink? Yeah. That is our dishwasher. It is not automatic.
But, my kiddo is back and life is returning back to normal. I missed her terribly and it seems she has changed so much. I always swear that a “week is too long and I’ll never do it again.” We’ll see. I doubt it will be her last vacation with the grandparents.
Like a Duck to the Water
Ladybug loves to play in the water. Dr. D and I have to work hard at keeping her out of the dogs’ water bowls in the kitchen. Fortunately, the local Children’s Museum has a water table in their preschool area. We took her there when my parents were in town a few weeks ago.
And that’s the life of a firstborn child/grandchild. We all just sit around and watch her!
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