Yash's birthday party

AK was honored to be invited to a birthday party while she was in Raleigh.

Here is a video I just received by email from the parents of the birthday boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-vC9zjpip0

AK is wearing a blue dress with white dots on it. You see her several times in this video.

Enjoy!!! xo

North Carolina - Part 1

I picked up AK from school during her nap on Thursday... broke rule #1 of parenthood... never wake a sleeping child. Oh well. AK was pretty groggy and dopey for a while but she perked up pretty quickly when I told her we'd be going on the airplane soon. Charmain dropped us off at the airport... and very very kindly came back about 10 mins later to take me back home to pick up my "permission to travel" letter that allows me to travel with AK... (although US Immigration, OF COURSE, didn't ask for it when I entered the country, they surely would have asked for it if I'd left it behind!). Our first flight was uneventful, AK enjoyed snacking on different things and asked for OJ when the drink cart came around. She was pretty excited to be on the plane and kept telling me to "turn the airplane off" and "turn the airplane on" and she really enjoyed looking out the window and thought it was great that we were above the clouds. I really wish she could look out the window as we take off and land but unfortunately she's too short and needs to sit with her seatbelt buckled.

We got through immigration and customs just fine and rechecked the suitcase. The Charlotte airport is not that large and we had plenty of time to go through security again and AK even had some time to sit and have supper before we boarded the next plane. Boarding went as expected then we sat on the plane for about an hour while the pilots tried to contact the grounds crew to find the airplane log book to figure out what maintenance was being done so that we could find out when we'd take off! Painful... we killed the time by going to the washroom twice and having even more snacks.

Luckily I had put a pull-up on AK for this flight, just in case, as she pooped upon landing. Nice... Our first order of business at the Raleigh airport was to find a bathroom and fix that mess! When AK saw Anna waiting, she ran right into her arms :) I don't think there was any doubt in our minds that AK remembered her! I thought AK may be a wee bit shy... but nope! We hung out for a bit when we got to Anna's house, AK was a bit more shy with John and she wasn't really interested in Baby Liam when Anna brought him out of the bedroom for his nighttime feed. AK settled into bed quite easily, she must have been pooped as it was 10pm our time when she got settled in after some milk and cheese for a snack.

Here's a sneak peek at what we woke up to on Friday morning!!!
I'm off to bed soon so you'll have to wait for more stories on our weekend! The fun has only started... xo

"Quack" at it!

Holy cow, did that holiday weekend ever fly by, despite it being extended by a day (more on that later!).

Just to get back at it... we went down to the duck pond today and here's a few pics of the sweet pea on the way there...

Walking, walking, walking on the sidewalk

Turning back for a smile

Stopping for a rest and a photo op

Look at this silly duck that was in the middle of the road!

It was tough to get back to work today. It was such a busy day and I completely crashed around 43opm. AK and I just had a quiet night tonight, which was quite a relief after all the excitement of the weekend. xo

Book club night!

Before I forget again, I want to let the Riders fans know that AK pulled out her green "Riders shirt" today and put it on. She went looking for her green "Riders shoes" as well to complete the outfit! Smart cookie!

When I picked AK up from daycare today, I let her know we were going to Karen's for book clu tonight. We had about an hour and a half at home before we could go and AK asked me about every five minutes if we were going to Karen's house yet. I think she kept asking as she figured she was going to get a treat once she got there!

True to her expectations, Karen passed over a little red box of raisins as soon as we got there. AK got to nibble on some chocolate, brownie, bananas, apple, strawberries and blueberries too. She grabbed a broccoli and I was pretty impressed with her but she didn't actually eat it!

AK took her princess encyclopedia to book club tonight. She told all the girls that it was a princess book, and named all the princesses on the cover for them. She then told them that she likes princesses very much and that she thinks they all should read the princess book! It was super cute :) I presented my books next and we left right after (it's more of a book swap... a way to trade books and keep them moving!).

AK was playing with her play phone earlier and "called" Grandma and Grandpa. They didn't answer the phone though, as they were sleeping. I suggested that perhaps they were eating supper, like we were, but no, AK insisted they were sleeping. She then told me that she wanted to call her daddy on the "real" phone, the one that wasn't broken. She is pretty creative at describing the difference between play things and real things!

Well... I'm off to bed now... big day tomorrow!!! xo

UP with the roosters!

Well not really, but something made me wake with a start at 5am... I think I dozed off half an hour later but found someone trying to crawl into bed with me at 6am. AK is too thoughtful - she'll put my glasses right next to me. What will she do if I ever get laser eye surgery and I don't need glasses anymore?

Speaking of laser eye surgery, if anyone has any experiences to share, please do. I'm at the point where I want to start researching and I have no idea where to start. Do I start with my optometrist? Google?

I have a bit of a scratch between my eyes right now. AK saw it this morning and we had the following conversation:
AK: What's that, Mommy? (pointing at my face)
Me: Well, that's a scratch, Mommy has a little boo-boo
AK: Oh, Mommy has a boo-boo (sad face)
Me: Do you want to kiss it better?
AK Yes! (happy face) *kisses it better*

She loves getting up on her stepstool to help me make my morning smoothie. She knows which button she pushes to start the blender, then she hurls herself into my arms to get away from the noise. She also turns it off for me, and helps me pour it into a glass. I've still not had any luck getting her to drink any!

When I was ready to have a shower, I told AK so and she said "OK Mommy". I left her sitting on the couch and expected that she'd just watch some cartoons while I showered. Not so much. While I was in the shower today, AK:
1. got into the fridge by herself for the first time and helped herself to a second yogurt drink for breakfast, and
2. came into my bathroom and got on the toilet by herself. I had a bit of a surprise when I pulled back the shower curtain and there she was, with the biggest grin ever on her face!

AK is very excited that we are getting on an airplane tomorrow to go to Anna's house. She knows that she'll be playing with Sofia this weekend. She has a hard time saying "Sofia" so sometimes she says "that girl". Ha ha!

Cuteness everywhere!

I got to pick Hunter up from daycare today too. I got AK from her classroom and then we went over to Hunter's to get him. When we walked in the door, Hunter zoomed right over and stopped within an inch of running right into AK! He was quite excited to see her. The two of them held hands as they walked down the hall. When we stepped outside, AK shaded her eyes and said "The sun is bright!". I asked her if she was shading her eyes and she said "Yes. Hunter, shade your eyes!" Hunter responded "No, I'll just shut my eyes'. Good thing AK was holding his hand so that he didn't stumble with his eyes closed!

Once we got into the truck and all buckled in, I let the kids know that we were going to Hunter's house for a swim. AK made sure to let Hunter know when we were driving past the street that goes to her house. Hunter said in a worried voice "We're going to MY house?". I told him yes, and that we would find his dad there, and we'd go for a swim together.

We headed straight to the pool and spent over an hour splashing in the pool. I'm actually quite glad that I wasn't able to make it to yoga today as I got enough of a workout following AK everwhere! She tried on Hunter's goggles and I was hopeful that she'd like them but she took them off right away. I think if she gave them a chance, she'd like how they keep her eyes from getting splashed. She really doesn't enjoy water in her eyes or on her face.

The kids swam with the noodles, they raced back and forth. Hunter is really good at diving down for things that are on the bottom of the pool. I wonder how old I was when I started doing that? I want to know there is hope for AK to someday get her face wet!

Ben and I threw the kids into the shower after the pool and got them all cleaned up. AK threw quite the impressive fit when I told her it was time to go. Too bad - it was way past suppertime! She gobbled up her supper, mostly the chicken and cheese, and drank a whole load of milk. Bedtime was easy-peasy although AK was quite upset that her Thomas PJs were not available for wearing tonight. She looked at the 5 pairs in her drawer and said "I don't want any of these!"

I've got our suitcases mostly packed for our trip on Thursday, just our last-minute things to throw in and we're ready to go! I asked AK to tell Hunter what we're doing later this week and she said "Hunter, I'm going on an AIRPLANE!". Hunter was suitably impressed, I think!

Backing up to Saturday...

AK and I partied on Saturday!

Milanna turned 3 - and we all know what that means - the birthday party of the year!

The theme this year was Hello Kitty and the party was held at the Grand Caymanian Resort, which looks out onto the North Sound. It was a great location for the party.

As usual, Angie and Francois went all out and no detail was missed. I really think that she should consider a career in party planning!!!

We walked past the bouncy castle, and under some Hello Kitty lantern decorations. There was a huge shady area with all sorts of tables and treats, and we had the whole pool area as well.

Here's some pictures of the tables:

Snack table!

Hello Kitty party favors for all the girls - we took one of each! Candy, makeup, toys, a flashing light saber (which AK calls her "cat wand")

Cupcakes, marshmallow candies and what I believe was probably Milanna's "smash cake"

The birthday cake!

AK spent most of her time swimming in the pool, and I spent most of my time floating with a noodle, trying to keep up with her! It was a very deep pool and I spent most of my time in water over my head! Thank goodness for AK's water wings.

AK was a bit on the shy side though... she refused to take her turn whacking at the pinata. Some of the kids were quite strong! They were all so good about letting each other take turns. We did help pull open the pinata and AK scrambled for candy along with all the other kids.

There was food to eat, but AK wasn't very interested in it. Her appetite's been bird-sized again lately. Doesn't even seem like she's overly thirsty either. Strange kid. I'm not worried, just bugged :)

I was quite worried that it would be hard to get AK to sleep after she was on such a sugar high... but she crawled into bed quite nicely at 8pm and fell right to sleep. That gave me time to sort through all her LOOT!!!

Check it out - she got less candy at Halloween!!!

All in all, it was a great afternoon and I'm sure the birthday girl enjoyed herself - I know AK and I did!

Few random stories:

• AK will tell you over and over again "I like pink and I like purple. I like pink and purple!". She will point out pink and purple things to you. She is very good with all her colors now.
  
• When I tucked AK in tonight, I said "I love you, baby girl" and AK said "I'm not a baby!" so we discussed it and settled on her being a "big girl". She will almost always say she's a "good girl" before talking about being a "little girl" or a "big girl".
  
• She has realized that the name "Paula" and the word "pullup" are somewhat similar and was calling her pull-up Paula earlier. We had quite the animated discussion about a diaper named the same thing as Mommy!
• AK's got quite a good imagination and a good sense of words rhyming. I can't think of any examples right now but she's, on a couple of occassions, come up with rhyming words, or words that mean the same thing, etc.
  
• She now knows the difference between a puppy and a dog and will often correct me as I'm in such a habit now of calling all dogs "puppies".
  
• I think she is pretty excited to get on a plane on Thursday to go away on a holiday! It is going to be a great time! xo