Memorial Day Weekend

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we went up to my parents house. On Saturday, we went to Silverwood Theme Park to have some fun. Since this was Van's last weekend at my parents and we drive by Silverwood every time we go up there, I thought it would be fun to take her.

We hit the carousel first. At first, Holly wasn't so sure about the horse that moves up and down. Later, we went back again and she was all smiles, and even raised her hands over her head saying "weeee!" when the horse went up.
We rode the train and listened to a little about the history of Silverwood and their purchase of the train. Holly loves choo-choo's, so she was so happy to get to ride the train.

Then, the big kids went on the roller coasters while Nana sat with Holly in the shade. Just for the record, I took my LAST roller coaster ride this weekend. I'm not as young as I used to be!
If the only word that comes out of your mouth is a cuss word and you have to keep telling yourself to "just breathe, its almost over" its time to give them up...and I have!

Holly was fascinated by the roller coasters and wanted to get a closer look, so Nana took her over near the closest one. I snapped this picture just a moment too soon. The roller coaster is just to the left out of the frame.

After I had sworn off coasters, PopPop, Van, & her friend J. went on the big scary roller coaster. Holly thought that one was really cool, too. She knew they were all on it, but its not like she could see them.

After that, the girls went on more roller coasters while the rest of us went on some more mellow rides - like Dumbo. Holly had such a great time that she tried to put the seat belt back on Nana after they stopped the first time. She got to go on this ride 3 times!

Nana & PopPop went on the ferris wheel. Every time it went around, I had to point out where they were to Holly. And every time they were at the very top, Holly would yell "Nana (or PopPop), what you doin' way up there?!" It was cracking up everyone around us and I was laughing pretty hard!

Holly wanted to go on the helicopters, but adults can't ride & Holly's too young to do it by herself, so I found another little girl who agreed to ride with Holly. Holly wasn't so patient in line. She kept saying "Them all done. My turn. My turn." as she was waiting for all the kids who were riding before her.

She totally got into it and wasn't scared at all.

Even when they went way up high. She was smiling from ear to ear!

After eating yucky theme park food, we headed over to the kiddie roller coaster. First, Holly rode with me. Then, Nana took her on it. Then, she went with PopPop. You can see how much she liked it here...

and that she LOVED it here! Nobody told her to do this, she just started it on her own. Too much watching the people on the big roller coasters, I think! Might I already have an adrenaline junkie on my hands here?

Hands up, everyone! Yeah!

Then, Holly got to drive a real car for the first time. Nana & I sat in the back seat while she chauffeured us around the track. Obviously, PopPop had to press the gas pedal for her.

Van must have been jealous (kidding) that Holly got to drive because she talked PopPop into letting her drive the truck and the lawn tractor on Sunday. Pops even set up a little course with aluminum cans for her to weave through, going both forward & backward.

Honestly, Van doesn't have much upper body strength!

We thought we would time her to see how long it took, but then decided that a checkered flag was better. How much money do those guys who do that at NASCAR races make? Because if Holly wanted a job where getting me free ticket to NASCAR races was the reward, I would totally support that career choice! First female Asian American NASCAR flagger, anyone?

We also had a family get together where we ate some fabulous ribs that my uncle barbequed on the grill, as well as lots of other yummy food. Of course it was too short of a weekend, even though it was a 3 dayer.

Here are a couple of pictures from before Memorial Day. One if Holly's favorite activities is to go outside and blow "Dora bubbles," so named because of this Dora non-spill bubble gizmo that I bought for her. It works, too - both blowing bubbles and not spilling when its tipped over.

One evening, Holly was cranky and wanted binkie before it was even near bedtime. She kept whining, so I told her she needed to go play in her room while I made dinner. She did. And she was VERY proud of herself for bringing back a basketful of binkies from her room!

As I was unloading the dishwasher while she was in there, I was wondering where all the binkies had disappeared to and was thinking I would need to go round them up from underneath her bed. She did it for me, though! She's a resourceful girl who knows how to get what she wants, that's for sure! This made me smile and laugh a lot.

A Warning

Here's a warning for first time parents for you (and a lesson learned for me!) or just a good laugh for the BTDT crowd:

When your kid starts refusing to wear pajamas to bed, don't think its cute. Its not because its hot outside, or stuffy in their room, or even that its more comfortable. Its because he/she doesn't like having a wet diaper and wants to be able to take it off at night after peeing in it! Here's my story...

Holly goes to bed in only a diaper, which is a new thing for her recently. At 4:49 am, I wake up to crying from her, which is amazing because she is sleeping like a rock these days and doesn't ever wake up at night (or goes right back to sleep without crying, anyway). I go into her room to find her halfway out of a wet diaper that she had tried to take off at some earlier point in the night and she is lying in a big, wet puddle of pee, just crying her eyes out. So, I take her out of bed and change her diaper (still crying). I remove the truckload of stuffed animals she piles onto her bed at night, hoping there's not pee all over them. (still crying) I take off the sheets and replace them with clean ones. (still crying) Holly hears binkie fall onto the floor as I'm changing the sheets, so now I pull her bed out from the wall so that she can go back there and get binkie. Since she's still crying, she can't see binkie and I have to go back there to find it for her. I shove the bed back against the wall, and she crawles up into bed. (still crying with binkie in her mouth) Holly lies down, suddenly stops crying, says "thank you mom," and rolls over to go back to sleep.

So, the moral of the story is: Don't let your kid sleep in a diaper only unless you want to be up doing that all the time! Also, be thankful your child is still saying thank you. I know that ends sometime before the teenage years...

You'd think I'd be able to get something extra accomplished this morning since I was up early, but all I got done was a load of laundry!

Organization...help!

Trying to organize all of Holly's toys has been a challenge recently. She's getting more and more toys with small pieces that should stay together or at least "go" together. She likes to play out in the family room, which is great, but I also want to encourage her to play in her room.

I tried putting some of Holly's toys in Ziploc baggies, then throwing the baggies into some storage boxes under the coffee table. Then when she wants to play, she takes them out and has to put it away before I'll open the next one to play with something else. That has worked out pretty much OK, but she's getting more stuff than her boxes will hold.

I was at Target yesterday and decided to buy a storage shelf thing with different sized bins to hold her things. After getting it assembled, I hauled it to her room and put some of her toys in it, separating similar items, like puzzles...

And little people/animals...

Then I took pictures of what was in each bin, printed out the pictured, and taped the pictures onto the bottom of each bin. Holly and I spent a few minutes talking about how the toys go into the bin with the same picture. She said "OK, Mom" and kept playing, since things were mostly not in Ziploc bags anymore. I was kind of thinking so much for the explanation, but when I asked her to put things away, she looked into the bins, got some of the toys she had gotten out, and said "In here, Mom?" When I told her yes, that was the right one, she put all of those toys into that bin. When I told her that some of her toys went into a different bin, she looked to see which one they went in and put them away in the right place.
This could as easily be a recipe for disaster as it can be for organization, but only time will tell! I figure that as long as I can keep teaching her to pick up one thing before she gets something else out, I'm doing good. That philosophy should last until her teenage years, right?

Today is a fabulous day outside and Holly & I went into the back yard for her to "play bubbles." After she was done and we came inside, she got really cranky, so I told her she could go play in her room. A few minutes later, when it got really quiet, I went in to check on her and this is what I found.

I love that when she's tired & cranky that she resorts to her books and her bed! She's definitely in the right family. The great thing is, when she wakes up she will probably be surprised to find all those books in her bed and sit & read for a few minutes before she gets up. That is, if she's not hungry, since she went to sleep right before lunchtime.

A Visit from Nana & Pop Pop

Van was in a school play last week, so Nana & Pop Pop came over to see it. The whole thing was very funny, but Van made everyone laugh, even though you couldn't understand a word she said.

The next morning, Holly wanted to help Nana make coffee. So, she sat on the counter and asked "What's that?" over and over, while watching Nana.
She wanted to make sure she got an up close view of the coffee coming out of the spout and into the coffee pot. I'm sure she would have laid on the counter like that until the whole thing filled up if it weren't for the fact that she had to get dressed and go to daycare.

I had planned to make raspberry ice cream while Nana & Pop Pop were here, but time just kinda got away from me. I made it Thursday evening instead. Again, Holly was very interested in watching the ice cream maker go round and round. She even drug her chair over from all the way in the family room, then climbed up onto it to see.

Just in case anyone is wondering, the ice cream is delicious! Next time, I will strain the seeds out of the puree before I add it to the cream part.

Two Year Pictures

The weekend before Mother's Day, we went to get Holly's two year pictures done. Its great to have a friend do them because he took a LOT of frames and we actually got some good ones. I had to load Picasa onto my computer to view them, but the more I use it, the more I like that program!

Here is one of my favorites.

My mom says this one looks like one of those fake backgrounds when you go to Sears or JCPenny to get pictures in their studio. I assure you, though, this background is real!

Holly was fascinated by the coy fish in the five ponds. She loved them so much that she would have joined them if not for some very close monitoring! Here she is telling us all about the fishies.

Holly got to run around and smell the beautiful flowers.

Even with a friend taking the pictures, Holly was not full of smiles. It drives me crazy that she will be beaming until there is a camera around, then she gets this same look on her face every time! Of course, she's cute no matter what, but a true smile would be so great!

This is the only smile we got the whole day.

I like this one because of the green background, even though its not the best photo of the bunch.

And I thought I'd throw in one of the three of us just so you know Van & I really do exist!