Big Girl On Her Bike!

Last Thanksgiving Grammie picked up a bike for Ms. B in preparation for the summertime. It's actually supposed to be for 2 year olds and up, but it seems like it makes more sense to give it to her in summer, rather than January. The bike is awesome; it's Little Mermaid, the seat is adjustable (although she still can't reach the pedals), there's all these buttons on it that make noise and light up - including indicators that blink! - and it blows bubbles! It's a very cool bike, and Anna is thrilled to push herself around on it... and stick her fingers in the bubbles. She has some trouble getting off it, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of it very soon.

Sick Little Girlie

Poor little Ms. B has had a fever for most of this week. It seems to be the worst in the night, and it has been messing with her sleep... of course, ever since we got back from vacation, everyone's schedule has been a little messed up. We're not tired when we're supposed to be, so Anna hasn't been getting to bed at 8:30 like usual. I doubt that has anything to do with her feeling sick though. She's been a real trooper though, because other than being a bit clingier than usual, she hasn't been crabby or difficult or anything. If I had a fever of 102, I doubt I'd be as high-spirited as her! We were able to get her a doctor's appointment today, and they said it could be Roseola, but the only thing to do is wait it out. If she has a fever on Monday we'll need to bring her in again, so we'll see what happens.

The only thing that has been really bad about this is that I've been hesitant to take her to public places. I don't want her spreading the illness to anyone else, and I'd rather keep her excitement to low levels in order to keep the fever down. It sure hasn't been easy - or as fun! But hopefully she will get better soon and we can continue our summer of parks, pools, and other outdoor adventures!

Pool Time!

This week has been hot and humid, which is the perfect weather for splashing in the pool! We got a hard plastic pool this year, because our inflatable pool didn't last long last year. She loves putting her hands in the flowing water (like when I have the hose on), she thinks it's hilarious when she splashes me, she gets a funny look on her face when I spray her head, and of course she loves climbing in and out.

Anna absolutely loves the water, and she would probably stay in it all day if I'd let her!

My Favorite Day

The day we went to Thanksgiving Point was my favorite. It was a beautiful, warm day, so we decided to spend it outdoors at a farm in SLC. When we got there it was about time for lunch, so we did that first and ate outside. Then there was this fun little water sculpture that the kids had fun playing with (and it was free), so there were a bunch of different levers that you pull to make different things happen... like shoot out water or make silly sounds or make some of the gears move. Then we continued on, and there were some beautiful garden areas with lots of roses that the kids enjoyed running through. Finally we got to the main part, which had a big barn with this fake cow that Anna really loved sitting on (I have no idea why), and lots and lots of farm animals outside. We saw all sorts of sheep, goats (and a 1 day old baby!), horses, cows, roosters, turkeys, pigs, geese, ducks, etc. Included in the $3.50 admission was a ticket that you could use to either have a tractor ride or a horse ride, and since Anna had never been on a horse we really wanted to do that. She absolutely LOVED it! She was all smiles the whole time, and then when the ride stopped, she did the "more" sign! We walked around a bit more, but since we had one more ticket, we let her ride again. She was just as excited the second time, and once again she did the "more" sign when the ride was over. I joked that I think we should get her a pony for Christmas, but hopefully some play toys will do! Once that was over it was naptime, so we left. But it was just a really fun, happy time for all of us!

Silly Market

Every Sunday in Park City during the summer they have something called the Park Silly Sunday Market. It reminded me a little of the Hawaiian Flea Market, where they have lots of booths selling merchandise. They also had a farmer's market section with lots of yummy delicacies, and they had a section of the market devoted to kids games and things too. Lilly and Luke enjoyed that part, because they had all these bouncy houses that they played in for quite some time. Anna enjoyed looking at the sled dogs that they had; they were all very friendly. Anna and I shared some pizza from the Red Banjo, and we had some tasty almonds, some ice cream/hot chocolate from Yellow Snow (terrible name, great food), and we were able to get away and grab a couple souveniers. It was definitely a fun day, and we were lucky that there was no rain.

Children's Museum

On Friday it was chilly and rainy, so we decided to go to Salt Lake City's children's museum... along with pretty much everyone else in Utah. It was very crowded, but fun! Anna really enjoyed this big red car that she pretended to drive, and she loved this area they had for kids under 3 - although the only thing she wanted to do there was go up this ramp and climb down the stairs over and over again. I thought she'd enjoy playing in the grocery store and riding the rocking horse thing they had, but she wasn't interested. She played in the water area for a bit, but most of the stuff seemed to be geared toward older kids. They had this little house where Lilly enjoyed ironing and Luke enjoyed making his "girlfriend" dinner, but Anna didn't stay in there long. I tried to get her to read stories with me, which she normally loves, but she didn't want to. Crazy kid. Of course, when we went to this big ball wonderland, she was in heaven. She loves balls, and we must have spent about an hour in just that area. All she wanted to do was put the balls through the tubes over and over and over again. It inspired Tim to want to build something similar in the basement, so we'll see if that actually happens. The kids all passed out in the car on the way back, which I think is an indicator of a successful day!

Mirror Lake or Bust

One of the first days we were in Utah we tried to go to a place called Mirror Lake, which was pretty much at the top of the mountain. Well, it turned out that it was still too snowy to go, but we didn't know that until we had driven all the way there and found it blocked off with big piles of snow. Also, much to Tim's consternation, we were very low on gas. Rather than making the trip a complete bust, Erin took us to a waterfall so that we could see something nice and stop to eat (driving in the car with 3 young children + not eating = bad). So we sat by the waterfall and ate sandwiches, so that was really nice. We were also able to fill the car with gas with no trouble, so Tim was very happy after that!

Utah - Planes and Bebows

A couple weeks ago we ventured off to Park City, UT so that we could have a little vacation and see my friend Erin, who I haven't seen since Tim and I got married. It was Anna's first plane ride, so I did a little reading on how to make it as pain-free as possible. She was a champ; she slept for about half of it (it was very early anyway), had some snacks, drank lots of milk, and played with some new toys that I picked up. We had great weather for the first couple days, then it got cold and rainy. Luckily it didn't stay that way, and we were able to do some more outdoor things near the end of the trip. I'll go through a little of the trip in this post and then break in down in a couple other posts, just so that it's not so much reading at once.

We went to lots and lots of bebows! Erin's kids love them, and obviously so does Anna. They even have a climber in their basement, so in the evenings the kids would go downstairs to play. Anna would climb and go down the slide over and over again! So we went to one right when we got there, we went to a couple in Erin's neighborhood, and also quite a few nice ones around Park City. Maybe they call it that for a reason!

Vacation!

I have been so bad about keeping up with this blog lately. Shame on me! I'm now home for the summer, which is absolutely wonderful. Anna is more fun than ever right now, because she understands an amazing amount of what we say, and she's even starting to show a little bit of imaginative play. Rather than trying to think of things we should do together to help pass the time, I'm finding that the time just flies by without us being able to do everything I was hoping for! It's been so long since I've posted that I'm not entirely sure what is new, but I know there are a few obvious things that Anna does now, like calling me "Mum." She also likes to climb on the ottoman (and anywhere else she can manage; she loves to climb), and blow kisses (although she puts her hand on the mouth of the person she kisses, rather than doing it herself. I think it's pretty cute). Every time someone drops something she says, "Uh oh!" She also says "hi" to everyone she sees, and sometimes, usually when she's tired, she likes to spin around! It's hilarious.

A couple of really cool things that I need to mention: Anna's love of music has grown tremendously. She will dance any time she hears something music-like, but her favorite song is still "I Saw Her Standing There." She stomps her feet, sways side to side, shakes her arms, bounces up and down, and then will do the "more" sign once the song has finished! Ha ha. She also likes "Where You Lead," "Yellow Submarine," and various Sesame Street songs.

She can also follow simple directions, although she doesn't always want to. If I ask her to bring me something, she will usually do it. Or if I tell her we need to pick out her outfit for the day, she will run to her room. Although she doesn't speak a ton of words yet, I think her comprehension is quite good, and her signing is pretty good too (she at least knows the ones we've taught her). She's even got some hair now too!

Bike the Drive/Memorial Day

On Sunday we did Bike the Drive for the second time ever, and it was the first time Anna's ever done it! We woke up at about 5:15, and I think we started biking sometime around 7. It was an absolutely beautiful morning: clear, warm, and calm winds. There were TONS of people, but we were expecting that. I wasn't expecting there to be so many inconsiderate bicyclists, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Anna loves bike rides, so of course she enjoyed herself thoroughly; however, it was a bit too early for her. She started nodding off about halfway through the ride, which made all the female cyclists "awww" over her (can I blame them?) It was a short nap, and it seemed to help her perk up quite a bit. Afterward at the post-ride festival, she was just too squirmy and it was too crowded to really enjoy. That's alright though, because we were all tired and just needed to go home. We made a quick stop by Buckingham Fountain, since Anna had never been there and that's where Tim proposed and all. We spent about 3 minutes there, and then left. Lovely morning.

Memorial Day, however, was a different story. We've had beautiful weather all week, but the day that we are supposed to have our bbq ends up being thunderstormy. It was supposed to be scattered showers, but it rained nonstop all afternoon. We had to spend almost the whole party indoors, which I was hoping to avoid (after all that cleaning, who wants to have to immediately clean again?). Luckily the rain eventually stopped, and we quickly moved everything outdoors. We were able to get things relatively cleaned up, and then Anna and I went to bed early (we were both feeling pretty sick). What an exhausting (but fun) weekend!

Too Busy

It's been way too long since I've posted anything; we've just been so busy lately. Tim started a new job, and he also has his old one too. We've also been getting ready for our annual Memorial Day barbeque, and I've been busy gearing up for the end of the school year. Anna has been non-stop lately; I have no idea where she gets all her energy. We've been having a good time playing in the backyard lately, which I like better than the bebow because I don't have to hover over her quite as much. My goal recently has been to make our backyard a bit more livable, so we've cleaned it up, planted more flowers, cut down branches on the tree, gotten a patio umbrella, gotten an outdoor fireplace, and gotten Anna a playhouse.

Anna has obviously slowed down a bit with her developmental milestones, but there are a couple new things to report. She can blow kisses now, and she always says," Mah" when she does it (which is the sound that I unknowingly always use!). Sometimes she'll even hold out her hand so that she can put it on my lips for the kiss! Too cute! Tonight she finally said "Mama" again, which made me feel good! She's been avoiding saying it for months, even though it was one of the first things she ever said. The amount she comprehends seems to grow astronomically, and she is getting much better at feeding herself. Although she is still a relatively picky eater, she will eat chicken now (especially if it's breaded... and from Portillo's), and things don't always stay in her mouth for hours... usually.