Playground Party Animals!

As we all know, Sophia lives and dies by the park. Luckily, they have a park just a block from their house. Plus, there was another park nearby that had been recently renovated and was the absolute coolest! They had all kinds of fun climbing structures and swings that I'd never seen before. They also had the tallest slide Sophia has ever braved, probably about 15 feet or more??, and she absolutely loved the thrill of the ride, er...slide! So, forgive the million and one park pics, but there were so many cute ones!

Here's a zip line that looked so fun Steph and I even had to try it out!

George was more than happy to help us fly from end to end!

This was a huge hit! It's a bucket type chair that spins and spins all the way around and mysteriously you don't fall out of it!!

George was quite the trooper and hit the park with us every day. He is such a good playmate to Sophia and was a big helper for me too. Every morning Sophia would wake up and ask for 'Georgie? Georgie?'

Valentine's Day

Before we left Grandma Sue made a special delivery of Valentine's fun to Sophia, Charlie and me. Sophia loves anything that she can push a button and watch it sing and/or dance and Grandma didn't disappoint! She got us these hilarious Hallmark animals that have saucy Valentine's sayings. Sophia got a kick out of them for sure!

Valentine's Day in Seattle...
My Valentine!

A beautiful and festive table scape designed by Stephanie!

Notice the various candy hearts strewn about the table adding a colorful flair!

Jonathan treated me and 10 of their closest friends to a wonderful Valentine's feast! Sadly I didn't get any pictures of us that night, but we looked gorgeous! Zoe and her friend Natasha were 'hired' to do the plating and serving and they really did a fantastic job. It was hard work, especially since Jonathan cooked 7, count them...7 courses! Wowser! My favorite was probably the fillet, which was made special for me in lieu of the fish course (blech!), which was unbelievably tender and delicious! There were two desserts, a lemon tart which was absolutely to die for and chocolate ravioli, handmade, of course! The only thing missing was my darling husband!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

So, after disproving my two other theories, it seems that for the first time in 17 months, my child has the flu!

My poor little pumpkin is struck down with a fever, vomiting (which has thankfully stopped) and diarrhea. She's in pretty good spirits, but extra cuddly and extra tired. She woke up at 7 and went back to bed at 8:30, slept for three hours and honestly looks like she'd sleep some more! It just breaks my heart! We have been very lucky, however, that she honestly hasn't been sick at all her entire life. This is her first fever and we going to do it up right by spending the day in jammies, drinking Pedialyte, and reading books....we're just a bunch of party animals over here!

I'm still working on getting those Seattle pics up! Stay tuned!

Back in One Piece...Mostly!

So Sophia and I arrived back home from our week long vacation in Seattle! We are home and tired, and at least she's back on schedule! I mean, seriously...I have an amazing child. We took a flight out of KC that left at her bedtime and as planned, she slept the entire flight. When we arrived in Seattle she awoke and entertained herself through the airport, on the way home and while we set up her crib. She went right back to sleep and slept her way into the new time zone. Gotta love it.

The way home was just about as good. She only slept for about an hour, but it was the middle of the afternoon, so I can't ask too much! We read books, ate snacks and sang songs for the other 3 hours, which was tiring, but not as bad as I expected. She was really in good spirits, despite her injury...

So let me preface this by saying it is REALLY hard to entertain a toddler by yourself, in an airport, while schlepping around a boat load of stuff!!! That being said, I guess I have to make some smarter choices from now on! ;) So here's what happened; while playing in the airport upon our departure from Seattle I was hoping to entertain Sophia by swinging her by her hands. Well....not such a good idea I guess. Long story short...there was a small cracking sound, a little crying and no moving of her left arm the entire flight. So, there I was at 30,000 feet with nothing to do but fret! As soon as we landed I freaked out to Charlie and made him drive us straight to the ER. In a nutshell, she probably popped it out of socket and put it back in while waiting in the very busy Children's Mercy waiting room. When she started putting weight on it and sucking her thumb again, we bailed! It's been perfect ever since and I learned my lesson about the whole 'swinging' thing! ;)

Once we got home, she ate some dinner and since she'd only napped an hour, was pretty much ready to go to bed at her normal KC time, so there ya have it! Overall, we had a great time filled with lots of playing and family and I will most definitely post pictures soon!

A Visit from Lily

Lily made herself right at home rearranging the furniture and toys to her liking!

Everyone enjoys a relaxing lunch. The girls enjoyed cheese puffs, cheese puffs, and more cheese puffs.

Okay, look here...smile..no over here...wait, no...oh well!

This was my favorite picture! There were diapers everywhere!

For a brief second there looked to be fatigue, but it was quickly remedied!

Kathleen, Carl, Lily and Kathleen's sister, Angela, all stopped by for a wonderful afternoon of playing, talking, and lunch! They were on their way to St. Jo where their other sister lives. I was so thrilled to see them all and catch up, especially since it's been years since I've seen both Carl and Angela. The girls played wonderfully well! It was so nice for Sophia to have a play mate and they just had so much fun! They entertained each other and I actually got to have adult conversation! It made both of us wish we lived closer, but now that they're back in the Midwest, we'll have to make plans more frequently! We have plans to head to St. Louis next month so it won't be long at all! Good to see you guys...miss you!!!

Play-Doh and Slides...Who Could Ask For More?!

Only a few short weeks ago Sophia was terrified of Play-Doh, but now, not so much. I think it was because Emma and Isabelle were having such a good time with it that she figured it couldn't be that bad!

Behold my ball of white Play-Doh!

Then we hit the community center for their free toddler room. Sophia had so much fun sliding, climbing and playing with her friends! We will have to visit this place again!

Today's Latest

So this morning as I was getting out things for Sophia to eat I sneezed. She said, "bless you." And then she said, "vagina!".


Oh.


Well, I blamed Charlie for the 'boobs' comments, but this one is all me! I mean, I guess I say that word when we take baths so that she learns the correct terminology, but I just never expected it to come up at the breakfast table. Whoops.