Girl's Day

The Thursday before I left to come to Denver, Blakely and I had a girl's day.  I had about a million things I needed to do to get ready for my trip but I blew it all off and focused on my girl all day long.  Which is probably why I was up all night Firday night preparing everything for me and for them while I was gone.  Worth it.  

I told Blakely that we were going to have a super special day but I didn't tell her what we were going to be doing.  I told her it was all a surprise because, of course, she loves surprises.  

The day started off with a big bubble bath.  

After her bath I got her dressed and told her the first thing we were going to do was to go get fitted for some new tennis shoes.  She has needed new ones for about a month and I have been putting it off.  

We all know my girl loves shoes so she wanted about 5 pairs but we settled on these colorful ones.  Hopefully they will last through the summer.

When we left there she asked where we were going.  We drove for a while and when I was in the turning lane about to turn into the bowling alley, I stopped and asked her if she saw something fun we could do.  I snapped some pics of this little scenario.  

We took her bowling for the first time on my birthday a few months back and she talks about it a lot.  Every time we dive by there she wants to go in.  We had a blast.  She calls it the "bowling ball game".  She isn't as concerned with knocking down the pins as she is with rolling the ball as many times as possible.  

Miss Independent wanted to carry the balls by herself.  

Then we ate some greasy bowling alley food for lunch.  It was awful and awesome at the same time.    

After that it was getting close to nap time but I had another place I wanted to take her.  When we pulled in the parking lot I told her we were going to get her toenails painted by a professional.  She kept saying, "Mommy?"  I was like no.  This is where Mommy goes to get her toenails painted.  Oh!  I wasn't sure how she would do.  She is a total wiggle worm when I paint her nails.  I didn't want to do the whole pedicure the first time.  I wanted to see how it went first.  It went well.  She picked out orange first but at the last minute she changed her mind to neon pink.  She has showed them off to anyone that will look.  We will definitely be doing this again when I get home.  

We ended the day with family movie night, her pick.  All day she said she wanted to watch Froz.en.  But, my indecisive little thing, changed her mind to The Littl.e Mer.maid at the last minute.  Like riiiight when Frozen got started.  Ha!  

It was a great day.  At one point she told me that she really liked girl's day and wanted to do it again.  I can't wait to get back so we can plan another girl's day together!  

day date with my girl

Last week I took Blakely to Little Rock (about an hour away) so we could go to The Won.der Pla.ce.  I had heard great things about it and after how much fun she had at the birthday party a few weeks ago I just knew she would love it.  

It is designed for kids ages 8 and under.  So, just like Younger Years (where the b-day party was in my town) it caters to toddlers and smaller kids.  

We spent about 3 hours there and B would have stayed all day if I would have let her.  Here are a few highlights...

The ginormous water table.  She wanted to climb in it and I had to tell her no probably 30 times.  

The sand table.  I kept trying to steer her away from this.  Not because of the mess (oh the mess!) but because there was a group of 3 older girls that were meticulously building a sand castle and I could tell by the look in Blakely's eye that she wanted nothing more than to knock it down.  

They have a different type of art project each day and it was dot art on the day we were there.    It was also messy but she really liked it.  I wanted to buy the markers because they were so great but then I pictured dots all over my walls and thought better of it.  

She loved this little activity on the wall.  Different shapes with pegs on them that you can put in the little holes.  We spent a lot of time talking about shapes here and it was great for her fine motor skills.  She actually loved the lego wall next to this as well.  

Velcro wall.  I think the sound it made when she ripped them off the wall was the funniest for her.  

They also had a bunch of puzzles, a tree house with a slide, grocery store with all of the grocery items, a stage with dress up clothes and a vet clinic with all kinds of fake animals.  

When I finally got her to leave without a huge meltdown (bribed her with promises of macaroni and cheese and strawberries) we went to a local cafeteria to eat.  I love this little place and I remember going there by myself when I was in college for a change of studying scenery.  And yes...the food!  She ate her weight in mac and cheese and then forgot about the strawberries.  

She slept the whole way home and then went to bed early that night.  I guess I wore her out!  I love spending days like this with my girl and taking her to these fun places.  I can literally see her learning new things right in front of my eyes.  I look forward to going back very soon!  

Better than expected weekend

I didn't really have high expectations for this past weekend.  Lonnie was on call for the 3 day weekend so I figured it would basically be like any other day of the week!  Me+B

Fortunately he didn't have a terrible call.  He had to go in each morning but he didn't have to return once he came home.  He had to take a bunch of calls but that is so much better than having to go back up to the hospital for a case!  

So we got to have lots of me+B+Dad-DEEEE time. 

The weather was beautiful and not too hot.  The past few years it has been 100 degrees by Memorial Day.  That is Arkansas for you.  Anyway, the holiday weekend is pretty crazy on the lake here.  I don't like to get out on the boat just because there are so many people and most of them don't know how to operate a boat safely!  Damn...I sound like my mom.  Yikes.  But we did get out yesterday morning before all of the crazies made it out.  It was perfect.  Sunny with the perfect breeze.  Blakely fell asleep after about 5 minutes of riding.  The boat is a wonderful baby sleep machine.  I remember taking the best naps on the boat when I was little.  She slept for about 45 minutes just like this...sitting straight up.  

On Sunday B went to my moms per usual.  I consider that my "day off"...even though it is only a few hours.  I'll take it.  She had a big time swinging, playing cards and just generally entertaining GranDi, Jenni, CiCi, and Grandmama.  Lonnie and I took the opportunity to take a jeep ride.  We packed up a lunch and then took a long drive.  We stopped for lunch at a baseball park and then drove around some more.  I got too much sun but it was a great ride! 

I am looking forward to the short week and then my honey is off all next week.  I really couldn't be more excited about that.  We are planning on taking B to the zoo and I know she will love it!

OH!  One more thing....  Look what we came up on when walking up to the house from our dock!  I knew the geese had eggs because I have been watching them for a while.  While we were in Florida they hatched!  I hadn't seen them so I figured either something got to the eggs or the babies didn't survive.  Then this!  3 BABIES!

How cute are they?  I wish I would have had my good camera but I didn't so phone pics only.  And don't get it twisted.  These geese are mean as hell.  We stayed quite a ways away and they were still all puffy and hissy.  I guess I would be too though...

All in all, this Memorial Day weekend was way better than last year even though Lonnie was on call.  Why?  This was my baby last year.  We were in the middle of salmonella hell... 

I'll spare you all the other pictures of saran wrap diapers and poop in red solo cups and just leave you with a sicky non-smiley babe.  Gosh...she was so itty bitty....AND BALD!  

day dates

Recently Lonnie and I have been making an effort to go on more dates.  A few months ago we had a talk about how we sometimes just felt like we lived together and didn't really spend much time together.  I would say we were in a rut.  We decided that spending time together, just the two of us, needed to become a priority.

We realized that we needed to change our idea of a date.  Going out to dinner was just too hard.  I felt like I had to get all fancy (took too much time).  He felt too tired after working all day.  We would get to the restaurant, eat and then look at each other like ok let's go home and go to bed!  We came to the conclusion that we needed to go out when we had energy and do something that didn't require getting dressed up.  DAY DATES!  

Day dates were the perfect fix.  We could do something fun during the day...like when the sun was out!  Genius, really.  My mother in law comes to town about once a week so we decided to start having her come on Saturdays.  If she couldn't then we would have a date on Sunday's while B was at my mom's house.  Sunday wasn't an option until football season was over ;)

For the past 6 or 7 weeks we have had a day date once a week.  This has helped us tremendously.  We weren't in a bad spot or anything.  I just missed my husband.  I missed dating him!  We used to do all kinds of fun things together and it has become hard to put us first since adding one to our family.  I know how important it is for us to keep a healthy relationship and that is the very best thing for Blakely.  Spending time with him has been good for my soul.  He is my best friend and he "gets" me like no one else.  He would say he likes it...not sure he would say it was good for his soul ;)

Here are a few of the things we have done!

We went to see the movie Lincoln.  LOVED.  We are both history nerds and he is a total movie buff so I knew we would like it.  I cried, of course, even though I knew what was going to happen.  Great movie.  We hadn't been to an actual movie in a while.  I felt like a teenager holding his hand and stealing kisses.  We may have acted like teenagers.  

We played pool.  Actually, he taught me how to play pool.  People in there were staring at us because they were all regulars (on an early Friday afternoon?) and we just looked funny hopping in there for pool and some drinks.

One Saturday we went downtown to a gun show and then we went to to a shooting range to shoot our guns.  I had never been to a gun show before and was not all that excited to go.  I am not comfortable around guns but Lonnie was raised around them and likes having them.  A few years ago all of his guns (most were given to him by his dad) were stolen.  Since then he has wanted to sort of rebuild his small collection.  The gun show turned out to be very interesting.  It is very safe.  They have zip ties on all of the guns so the triggers can't even be pulled and all the guns that are brought in by patrons are emptied and zip tied.  That made me feel better.  Anyway, then we went and shot the few guns that we have.  I have only shot them once before so I was a bit nervous.  It turned out to be super fun!  I like knowing how to shoot in case I ever need too (hope not!).

We went to see Silver Linings Playbook.  We were going to do something outside but it was pouring rain the day of our date.  We had been wanting to see a few more of the Academy Award nominated films so to the movies we went.  We both really liked this movie.  There were a few times I was thinking ok...on with it.  But all in all it was great.  Sometimes it was even hard to watch.  It was the kind of movie that you are still thinking about days later.  Good.  

We go all out at the movies.  Popcorn, hot dogs, drinks, and candy!  

He took me to the driving range.  I haven't hit golf balls in like 20 years.  That makes me sound old.  We had a great time.  He used to golf a lot so he was trying to teach me how to hit the ball.  After a while I got the hang of it.  

These dates have been so much fun and I can't wait for our next one.  We missed a few weeks with all of the IVF stuff going on.  He is already planning a few for when the weather warms up and I have a few in mind as well.  I feel like I am dating my husband again..almost like it was back in the beginning.  Excited to see him on our date...even though I see him everyday...it is different.  We can focus on each other and, most importantly, HAVE FUN TOGETHER!