Tent Fun - Day 69

There are several different kind of fruit on my parents' property and LSP loves to see the "Baby grapes"...

...and the "Baby apples". Sadly the deer will get to eat most of them before we do.

So, there are always apples from the store.


A little while ago Uncle M and Aunt L got a little outdoor tent for LSP to play with. Today we put it up and it is pretty cool. It's more like an outdoor screen room to sit in and escape the bugs. It's like a giant toddler cage! LSP was very fascinated by the zipper. Open the zipper. Step in the tent. Close the zipper. Open the zipper. Step out of the tent. Close the zipper. Repeat ad nauseam.

On the way home from swim lessons today LSP was in her car seat and she started saying "I love you! I love Mommy! I love you! I love you!" It was so cute. Tonight after getting in her PJs she said "I love Daddy! I love Daddy! I love Daddy!" This extreme show of love and cuteness makes up for the fact she went out of her way to push all my buttons today. How do they know to do that?

Super Nanny - Day 68

LSP, Nanny and Super Nanny!

Super Nanny makes me feel tall! (And if you know me, you know I am not. That's how tiny Super Nanny is!)

Giant Mickey Mouse shaped pancake is obscured by LSP lunging for the bacon.


Before we left for home today we went out to lunch with Soldier-Boy's grandmother, aka LSP's great-grandmother, or, as she likes to be called, Super Nanny! We had a nice time and a great lunch before we hit the road. Super Nanny is an inspiration. She just turned 90 and she still drives her own car and goes to the gym several days a week and walks her dog. Wow!

The drive home was loooong. Made longer by the accident in the carpool lane that had traffic screwed up all the way through the city. At least I wasn't in the carpool lane, like all those poor folks stuck sitting there in their beach chairs that they dragged out of the back of their vehicles. I saw one family with small kids standing on the pavement as I crept by in the slowly moving regular-lane traffic. I leaned out the window holding some bananas and yelled, "Do you need a snack?" The mother screeched in delight and the father quickly scaled the wall of the carpool lane to grab the bananas from my outstretched hand. In my rear view mirror I could see him peeling them for the kids. Glad I could help!

It was a long trip. By the last 15 or 20 miles I was singing every possible verse of "Wheels on the Bus," and then some. I was forced to make up such unlikely situations as, "The lions on the bus go roar, roar, roar..." When LSP was finally freed from the car seat she took off like a wind up toy and raced in circles all around the driveway.

Seaweed Fun - Day 67

This activity occupied her for like 30 minutes.

This photo is just for her daddy!

Check out her cute lobster dress!


We spent most of Thursday at the beach. LSP has a total blast, running in and out of the water, playing with sand, playing with seaweed, playing with other kids' toys. Walked waaaaay down the beach, chasing every available seagull in the area. The seaweed was perhaps her favorite plaything. She was interested in the seaweed with air pocket that floated, and in the dry seaweed at the high water mark. She pretended it was a fence and would move chunks of it to open and shut the "gate" and walk through. What a great imagination!

After aaaaaallllll day at the beach LSP had some ice cream and a bath and then we went out to dinner with Nanny. Despite being very tired, she did very well at dinner, I was proud at how well she behaved!

The Brown Piano - Day 66

Well I have a few days of catching up to do so here goes. On Wednesday LSP and I drove a couple of states away to visit Soldier-Boy's family who was vacationing there. The ride went well, and once we got there we went to the beach with LSP's Nanny. She had a wonderful time. We found a shallow area and she floated on her tummy with her hands in the sand, kicking her feet yelling, "I'm swimming! I'm swimming" Very cute.

The house we are staying at has a piano and LSP loves to pound on it for a bit, then give herself a round of applause. She refers to it as the brown piano. As if there are multiple pianos to play with. Off to bed early, we're beat.

Mumble, Mumble - Day 65

The Play-Doh Grampy is sitting in the Play-Doh chair. I am not a gifted sculptor.




Yesterday Nana and I got a new sprinkler toy and this afternoon LSP had a ball playing with it outside. It may be the last late afternoon playing outside she does for awhile, though. We got an automated phone call that Eastern Equine Encephalitis was discovered in mosquitos the next town over. So no more playing outside during the buggy time. Oh goody, something else to worry about.

Had a nice long IM chat with Soldier-Boy today. So nice that we can do that! I remember his first deployment, 13 years ago where he would have to stand in line for a half and hour to make a pone call that would cost us like $2.50 a minute. Technology is wonderful!

LSP has been a singing fool lately. She sings all sorts of stuff, the words only half remembered. It is cute. Ernie's "Rubber Duckie" song goes something like this, "Rubber Duckie, [mumble, mumble] ONE! Make bathtime fun! Rubber Duckie [mumble, mumble] make NOISE!" It's very cute.

She also runs quite the creative arts sweatshop. Usually it is the coloring book and crayons. She commands me to sit in the tiny chair at her table and color. Sometimes she tells me what crayon to use and which picture to color. Then she will wander away to play with something else. My job is to sit and color. If, after 5 or 6 minutes of coloring on my own, I try to walk away, she comes and drags me back with the command, "Mommy! Color!" Today it was Play-Doh. She issued orders on what to create and what color to make them, "Make Grampy. Make a table. Make a pool. Make a 'puter. Make a PINK Grampy." Don't even think about doing something different. Personal creativity is not encouraged.

Loyal blog readers, I am going out of town to visit some family for a couple of days. It is my understanding that there is not internet where we will be staying. (The HORROR!) So there may not be any blog entries for a few days. I will update as soon as I can.

Daddy's Moon - Day 64

Today LSP spent nearly the entire day playing with Grampy. He took her to a nearby playground where she had a total blast climbing all over everything. Apparently the mommies there were all wowed and scared by her daring feats on the playground. This little girl isn't afraid of much for sure. She goes right to the top of all the big-kids playground equipment, forget the toddler stuff. She will give just about anything a try. "She's not scared of anything, is she?" one mommy observed. When Grampy agreed that she sure wasn't, the mommy commented, "Well she's scaring us!"

Tonight she and I played outside for awhile and I was taking photos of her playing with a ball. You know you take too many pictures when your kid says "Mommy put the camera down. Mommy put the camera down on the bench," and points to the location where she would like you to leave the camera.

There was a BIG full moon tonight and Grampy took LSP outside to see it. She really loved looking at it, and we remembered that Daddy told her the night he left that he would look up at the same moon while he was gone. We miss Daddy.

Animal Adventure - Day 63

I mean, really, can you get any cuter than that?

See the red foot on the blue monster? She colored that all by herself! I was so proud. In the lines and everything!


She's so cute even the dogs are watching her!








Yeah, I was never big on clowns, either.




She calls this yellow toy the "Germ" and she was putting its hands on the toy piano and telling it to play and congratulating it on a job well done. Also, check out the boots.


This morning we took LSP to breakfast at the Friendly's Restaurant where I was working when I first met her Daddy. I was an ice cream scooper and he used to come on Friday nights and get ice cream and chat. How cute! We ordered her the kiddie sized pancake breakfast and I laughed when I saw the two ENORMOUS pancakes and two slices of bacon, but the joke was on me when she ate nearly all of it.

This afternoon we went to a small fair with fun stuff for kids. She had a blast doing everything multiple time. She got to ride the pony rides twice, and requested the same horse the second time. She got a balloon, she ate part of a hot dog, she jumped in the jumping house twice (by far her favorite part) and she got to pet the animals in a small petting zoo. They had a calf, a sheet, a goat and a very terrified looking rabbit. She went into the rabbit area, but was much more interested in the rabbit's stuffed toy than the rabbit itself. As for the other animals, she was fascinated by their water buckets and wanted them all to drink their water. Maybe she was concerned they would dehydrate on this 95 degree day! The first animal she patted was the goat. I said to her, "What does it feel like?" She replied, "A goat!" Well, duh, mom.

Tonight as I was getting her dinner ready I managed to smash my little toe against a corner. I let out a wail and hopped over to the corner and collapsed in a heap and attempted not to vomit from the pain. LSP saw me sitting on the floor and said, "You OK, Mommy?" Then came over to me and said, "I love you, Mommy." So cute and sweet I almost forgot about the toe. Until she threw herself in my lap and managed to step on my foot. Oh well, super sweet anyway.