Road Trip! (Part One)

This week Aaron went to Omaha for a business trip.  He left on Tuesday and was set to come home Friday afternoon. After making sure it was ok with him, Jenna and I decided to join him after I got off work on Wednesday. On the ride there, I told Jenna that we were going to Omaha and she said, “Elmo!” It was so cute, but I felt bad that she wasn’t going to get to see Elmo!

 

Cheesing it up as we were leaving:

We were able to leave by 1:00. I’d been stocking up on new (to us) books and toys for the trip and made sure I packed lots of snacks.  She napped from our house to the northern edge of the city and then played with her new toys and books for a while. We had to stop once (in a cornfield in Iowa no less) for a diaper change, but the drive was otherwise pretty uneventful.  We got there just as Aaron was getting done with work, so we met him in the lobby, then went to the room to relax for a few minutes before meeting his co-workers for dinner.  There were 4 others, two that work in his office and two from other sites.  Jenna loved meeting them and sat on a couple of their laps, but she was too wound up from being in the car, so we walked the hotel during most of our wait for dinner (it took about an hour for them to get our food). Although it was a long wait, the food was excellent. Jenna and I split a chicken quesadilla and a bowl of fruit.

By the time we were finished with dinner, Jenna was getting tired, so we retired to our room.  We let her play for a while because it was only 8 and we didn’t want to go to bed yet. By 8:45 she was getting fussy, so we tried to get her to go to sleep while we watched TV. No such luck.  Finally we decided to move her pack and play into the bathroom and she went right to sleep.

Thursday morning we got up when Aaron went to work and then headed to Lincoln to visit my childhood friend Audrey and her boyfriend Jon.  As I got Jenna loaded into the car, she kept asking about Elmo. Maybe she really was expecting to see him! In Lincoln, we had lunch at a bar and grill that had the BEST cheeseburgers ever. Yum! I don’t get to see Audrey very often anymore, so it was great to catch-up, even if we just got to visit over lunch. After lunch we drove back to Omaha and rested for a bit in the hotel before heading down to the pool. As we were getting ready, I realized I forgot the swimming diapers, so we ran over to Wal-mart.  When we got back, the hotel was swarming with little league baseball teams. Guess what that meant, the pool, which was about 8’x10’ was SWARMING with them.  I kid you not, there were whitecaps on the pool from so much activity.  Luckily, Jenna was deterred from the pool by a walk.  There were some shops near the hotel that I wanted to check out, so we walked there.  Meanwhile Aaron got off work, so we headed back to the room and then went to dinner at a bar and grill. This time I had lettuce wraps and they were so good.  After dinner it was back to the hotel and bedtime for Jenna. We watched the basketball game. We were rooting for the Celtics, well, maybe we were just rooting against the Lakers. 

Thursday morning:

Well, this post seems pretty long, so I’m going to break it up into two. Check back later for an update on the rest of our trip!

Hi!

The binky fairy visited our house last week. Jenna was only using it at night and for naps, but I decided (very suddenly btw) that it needed to go before she got much older. We kept reminding her that the pacifier was gone because she is a big girl. She got weepy a few times, but after the first day or two, she seemed excited about the idea of being a big girl and has done quite well. The last couple days she hasn't asked for or about the binky at all. She has started asking for a book every time she has a nap or goes to bed, but a reading habit sounds good to me!

The pictures are (1) of her after we had pictures taken (I'll post them another day as they are on my work computer...which is at the office this weekend). The photo shoot was terrible, but she was in a good mood when we got outside, I used my phone to snap a shot and (2) of her play kitchen which I bought at a 2nd hand store for $6.99. Today when I was shopping I saw that it costs $125. I am so proud of my good deal!

18 month appointment

Jenna's 18 month appointment was yesterday morning. She was excited to go because she was going to say, 'hi doc' when we saw her doctor. It was cute. But, as they took us from the waiting room she heard a little boy start to cry and she got nervous and started to whimper. I put her on my lap when we got to the room and she felt better. The nurse had me undress Jenna and then measured and weighed her. She weighs 30lbs 6oz and is 35 inches tall with a head circumference of 19.25 inches. The height and weight are still really high for her age, but the doctor says that they are still perfectly proportional, so as long as she's continuing to eat healthy she's just fine. Her head is at the 95th% for her age.  The doctor looked her over, commented about how inquisitive and smart she is and then answered some questions. She cried a little bit during the beginning of the doctor's exam, but he gave her a small plastic green duck and she then she wasn't as nervous. She got one shot at the end of the exam and screamed and cried like crazy, but I reminded her that she had a new toy waiting in the car since she was so brave and she calmed right down. It didn't hurt that she had a new owie to tell people about.

When we got home we babysat Lexi, who just turned 1. She was a sweetie and it went really well. She went down for a nap after lunch and Kim and Jocie stopped by to play as Kim had the day off. Jenna loves Jocie so much. Jocie is full of energy and has the sweetest personality, so it is a lot of fun watching them together. Jocie's just enough older that she has lots of new tricks that Jenna hasn't even thought of. For example, Jocie stood on a 2" thick book and jumped off it (it was a big enough book that it was safe). Jenna can't actually jump yet, but she tried and now today, everytime she steps on something she has to 'jump' off it and she says 'Jocie'. So cute! Lexi woke up around the time Jocie had to go, then I gave the girls a snack and put Jenna down for a nap and I played with Lexi. I don't think she knew what to do as she has an older brother and sister and goes to daycare. She had no one to steal her toys or to boss her around. She spent about 30 minutes cruising all over the room and making silly faces at me. Then she got tired again, so I put her back down for another nap. I got her up 30 mins later when her dad was due to pick her up. I brought her downstairs and she fell asleep in my arms. It was so nice. Jenna's just not one to sleep when other people are around, so it has probably been since she was 2 or 3 months old since I got to have a baby sleep in my arms.

A Trip to the Zoo

We had a great day at the zoo! As we pulled up, I started regretting our decision to come before school was out for summer. There were no less than 10 school buses lined up and oodles and oodles of parents and kids waiting to get into the zoo.  We got in line (the school kids and parents were not in line, so we didn't have a long wait) and then entered the zoo. The first few exhibits were a bit crowded, but as we moved farther from the entrance the crowds died down.

We started in the Australian section. This exhibit was new the last time I went to the zoo (in the mid-90s) and Aaron had never seen it. It is section off from the rest of the zoo by a train station. Oddly enough it looked a lot like a train station that we visited in the Australian rainforest, so I'd say they did a good job in making it look Australian. We walked through the gates and into an aviary, then on the other side of the aviary there were a few exhibits of larger birds and a few other Australian (and New Guinean) animals, including some free roaming kangaroos. The 'roos stuck to a field and didn't cross into areas where visitors went, but they could if they wanted to. Unfortunately, unlike in Australia, we didn't get to pet the kangaroos, but we did have fun looking at them and remembering the fun time we had petting them in Australia. Hopefully someday we'll be able to take Jenna to Australia so she can pet them, too!

After Australia, we headed to Africa and got sidetracked by the elephants. I don't think Jenna realized how big elephants are, so it was cute to see her face when she first saw one.

Along the way we got to pet a sheep (which Aaron kept calling a goat - drove me almost as crazy as the lady at the petting zoo that kept calling the shetland pony a donkey!) and some small deer.

Happy Wednesday

A few weeks ago I remembered that a decorative trunk we had on our fireplace was full of big kid toys. I decided to open it to see if there was anything Jenna could play with yet. Pretty much everything in there was ok! Of course since it is all new stuff (to her), she constantly wants me to open the trunk so she can play. Today she pulled out a huge roll of smiley face stickers and unrolled about 8 feet, then took orange crepe paper and shredded about 4 feet of it into tiny pieces, then she pulled out every necklace and put them on (I think there are 10) and then took a piece of gold pirate treasure and bit it, just like you see treasure hunters on tv do!

We have a busy rest of the week ahead. Friday we are going to the zoo. I'm so excited to take her and hope she enjoys it. Then Saturday we're meeting up with some friends from Colorado whom we haven't seen since before Jenna and their youngest son were born (plus Jocie is going to be there, too), then we'll be heading to Aaron's cousin's graduation and subsequent party. In the meantime I'm hoping to get Jenna's room painted and we're going to get supplies for tiling our upstairs bathrooms. 

A fun day

Now that Jenna’s getting older and the weather is getting nice, I’m excited to start doing more family activities. But, we don’t have a lot of extra money to spend and we have a hard time thinking of activities that are truly entertaining to a young toddler.  As part of my mother’s day gift, Aaron suggested that we go to the Arboretum at some point over the weekend, so we loaded up and drove the 10 miles, unloaded and explored.  They had a plant sale going on, so we checked it out first. We didn’t need any new plants and decided we’d see how our garden does this year before buying more herbs or veggies, so we headed into the park.  Last year Jenna and I went by the arboretum a couple times, but it was mainly for me, not her, so I was excited for her to see everything again.  I was also excited for Aaron to see it, too. He’s not a huge nature person, but he does like to learn the names of native plants and he loves water (he is a Pisces), so I thought he’d enjoy the grounds.  We started out by pushing Jenna in the stroller, but she’s at that age where she wants to walk or push the stroller, so we let her out and figured she’d ride again if she got tired. Boy, she can walk a lot farther than one would think! I held her hand at first, but mostly she stayed close to her Daddy.

Here are a few shots I snapped during our adventure:

Checking out a water feature (Jenna loves them as much as her dad does!)

 

I love the look on her face in this one. She’s inside of a covered tunnel, I guess she thinks that’s pretty darn cool.

 

Another one in the tunnel

 

Doesn’t this one remind you of being a kid?

This is the view I had most of the day. Doesn’t it melt your heart!!!

Sitting on a stone bridge in a meadow

Such a big, happy girl!

First Official Haircut

Jenna got her first “official” haircut on Saturday. By “official” I mean that a professional was paid. We went to a salon that specialized in children cuts.  Since it was her first cut, they were going to do this big package with a before and after picture and a special lock of hair. Since we’d already trimmed her bangs a couple times, we already have a lock of hair and the before/after picture was just a quick b&a shot printed on a piece of regular paper. So, if you know Aaron and I, we figured we could save the extra $20 and take a picture ourselves. Heck, it was like pulling teeth for us to pay for the haircut! So, here’s a picture from last week (doesn’t the look on her face scream – get the bangs out of my eyes Mom!)

 

 

here is the big reveal!

Ends up, this place puts the kid in a chair shaped like a car, flips on Dora, and faces the kid toward a mirror. Smart folks, I tell ya! They also stocked the first half of the store with toys, tiaras, bows and candy.  Very smart indeed (not that we were willing to pay for any of it!). Jenna’s not interested in Dora, but she is interested in driving…and in Jenna, so the mirror and car (mainly just the steering wheel) were helpful.  She was a happy girl and held still when asked. We think the stylist felt bad for getting paid $17 for about 3 minutes worth of work, so she did a little side braid in Jenna’s hair. It was cute. Right now the way her hair grows, the top hair goes forward, like bangs, so for now, we need to keep it corralled with a bow, barrette, or pig tail, until it is long enough to go behind her ear. In the picture above, part of the non-bangs were missed in the braid, so it looks like she has a long spot in her bangs, but rest assured, they’re even and that rouge hair is kept pulled back.  Will we go back to the special kiddy hair salon? Probably not, but it was a good place to go for the first “official” trim.  I watched closely, so I’ll probably keep trying my hand at managing the bangs.  Hopefully by the time we need to cut the back, she’ll be older and I won’t feel bad taking her to a different, less expensive salon.