All Smiles...almost

Last weekend we took a quick trip to the Cities for a couple days away while Kurt had some time off. We spent some time in the hotel pool and hot tub, the Mall of America, and the Como Zoo. It was wonderful, and Myka is at a fun age to vacation with (well, for the most part). She had been to the "big mall" almost a year ago with some Seminary friends and remembered being there. Then she was much more hesitant and in awe of everything around her. This time she was eager to try each ride and went on her favorites again and again (and again).

If you look close, you can see that we were pretty much the only people there. It was a Friday morning and we walked onto every ride since school was going on. This was fun for us but Myka was looking for "friends" to ride with. Particularly Aiden and Alexa who were with us the last time.

The ride above seemed to be her favorite of the day. It lifted her up about 20 feet in the air and then bounced its way back down to the ground giving about a fourth of a second of weightlessness for every bounce. She went on it about 26 times in a row at one point.

Then we came to the mini bumper cars. This was one we couldn't ride on with her unless we paid, so we explained it to her and the worker explained it to her and then she was on her own. She pushed the pedal and got it moving, and even steered a little bit until crashing into the back corner. Then she was stuck. We were all trying to tell her to turn the wheel, which she would do a little bit, but then turn it the other way. Eventually, each time she actually started to turn it, the park worker would say, into his microphone, "keep turning. keep turning. keep turning. keep turning." And this wasn't like motivational or enthusiastic in any way, it was more like "Bueller. Bueller. Bueller." of the Ferris movie. Kurt and I couldn't hide the laughing fits we were having. Myka was not amused in any way.

And of course, she was the only one on the ride.

Eli spent much of the trip in his car seat. Luckily he is happy in there. He got some good naps in while I pushed him around and did some shopping.

Finally...

With a little help from Kurt and I, Myka managed to fill up her marble jar last week. She has been working for quite some time to move marbles from a bowl to a cup to earn a trip to ChuckECheese. Standing in her way was her love for the word "poop" and the tendency to scream at random. I wanted to make the trip to CEC over the lunch hour on a weekday knowing that it wouldn't be crowded and Eli would be in a better mood than dinner time. Kurt took a few days off last week so we secretly decided to shoot for Wednesday and made a point to get the marble cup full by then. Lately she had been doing pretty well and deserved the trip, but we were a little creative in the last 24 hours finding ways for her to earn marbles. I'm not sure that "you walked by Tetley without hitting him" deserves a marble, but whatever works I guess. (I'm kidding here. Well, kind of.)

When we got there, there was only a birthday party group and two other families. By the time we had eaten our pizza we were the only ones in the whole place. We knew it was the slow period of the day when the workers started playing the games. It was a perfect time to go and we had a great time. Now we just hope it doesn't take too long to fill the cup back up so we can return.

Hyst"hair"ical

I've mentioned before that bath time is particularly funny for Eli. It was a normal night of getting ready for the bath when he first giggled for us, and always a time of joy in an otherwise cranky period of his day. Tonight was no exception. The video was taken after about 5 minutes of chuckles, when I was sure he had no more to give but just kept on laughing anyway. All I'm doing is saying, "That's not food!" because he was trying to eat his washcloth. But I think what actually brought on all the giggles was the way I was shaking my head as I said it. Since I swam tonight and had to wear a stocking cap home, my hair was kind of all over anyway, and it made for extra craziness when I shook it around. Luckily for me, there are no pictures of that!

Enjoy!

Quotographs

"Is this heaven?"

"We're Ba-ack..."

"Because we're good enough, we're smart enough, and doggone it, people like us!"

"Hey, hey, watch. Watch me. Watch what I can do. Hey. Watch this."

"Did she say 'ice cream'?"

"Hey, Jackson, let's see what Myka had for dinner."

Captain Catnap and the Master of Underwear

It's been a slow week...

Not too much to write about around here. Our two major happenings for the week are Eli regressing on his naps and Myka fully out of diapers. Like I said, not too interesting.

Eli is still napping, only now it's for about 5 minutes at a time. Like 8 times a day. And that is definitely not OK with me. So we are working on it, and today for his last nap I propped his mattress up again and turned on his radio to fuzz for some background noise, and he slept for 10 minutes. I'm not sure that's progress, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

Myka has had her Bachelor's in Potty Training for over half a year now by staying dry during the day, but this week earned her Master's as she is now in underwear all night long as well. She has been staying dry at night for awhile and waking when she needs to go, so the last diaper was used on Saturday and that was it. I'm excited for her to get her PhD; when she can just do it all herself!

Words I may never hear again

Judging by the amount of candy on my counter and the spaziness of my three year old I would say Halloween was a success. We decided to head downtown to the Main Street trick or treat since the weather was right for Eli and it is good for Kurt to be seen at public events like that. All of the businesses on Main sit outside their doors with oodles of candy and the trick or treaters go door to door and collect their goodies. It sounds like great fun. Like kids would be skipping from door to door and happily shouting "Trick or Treat!" as they get to each station, maybe even chatting a second before moving on. But this picture was taken before we turned the corner. It was gridlock. We were part of a line moving at a snail's pace along the sidewalk, and when a merchant with candy was near, pumpkin buckets were extended with nary a word and candy was dropped in. We did this last year and knew it would be like that. Myka still enjoyed it, and Eli got his third nap in, so that was nice.
And as we walked along with Myka in her warm Old Navy poodle costume, I heard a phrase I'm sure will not be uttered during another Halloween night for a long time - "Can I take this off, I'm HOT!" It was, after all, 70 degrees out, and only four o'clock. And this costume was built to withstand typical Iowa Trick or Treating weather; wind, rain, blizzard... So we wrapped up Main Street with the hood off and coat open, grabbed our dinner and headed home for the loop around the neighborhood. The weather was perfect for the evening stroll.

Eli and I stayed home to hand out candy to our 30 or so trick or treaters, and Kurt and Myka spent an hour and a half making their way around our horseshoe street. She made quite a haul. Last year, Halloween candy became the reward for using the potty, but this year I wasn't sure how to distribute it. However, by late Saturday morning I had already heard enough "poopy"s for the day and said if she said it again she wouldn't get any Halloween candy that day, and I haven't heard the word since! So I've found my new way to distribute the candy, but if her past couple of weeks are any indication it will last until Easter. At least.
And since Eli doesn't really get to enjoy Halloween much, here is a recent picture of him hanging out. Wipe the drool off your chin, kid, you're having your picture taken!