Stoney Creek Metropark

After we returned from vacation we received a call from some friends that they were heading to Stoney Creek Metropark on that Friday afternoon and they were inviting a few friends to join them.  Since B was still on vacation from work and we were just relaxing at home we decided we'd join them.

We had an awesome time with great friends, great fun and great conversation.  We are so fortunate to have such great friends here in Michigan, it really makes being so far from my family a little easier.

A beautiful sunset made it even more perfect!

Park = Smile

Y loves to go to the park, unfortunately her ability to go to the park is about to come to a halt.  Winter in Michigan is going to set in any moment now but fortunately we have had a few "nice" days.  Overall it hasn't really been that cold yet.  Who knows, maybe we'll end up with a winter similar to the one we had last year but I won't get my hopes up!  Anyway, the days when it has been nice has afforded Y the opportunity to go to the park and this past weekend while in Canada we had one of those days. 

I absolutely LOVE this picture of her mid-wing, I think it captures her personality perfectly!!

Each time she would come down the slide she would say, "good job!"

New Tricycle

While we were home in NC my parents bought Y a tricycle.  They had already bought my niece, G, one and they found that she and Y were always trying to take it from one another so they went to the store and bought Y her own.  They did this with the intention of either mailing it to us later or bringing it when they came for a visit.  I, however, not knowing when their next visit would be and wanting Y to get some use out of it while it was still somewhat warm outside, had a better idea.  They bought it from Wal-mart so I told them to return it (it hadn't really been used that much and when it was used it was indoors), instead of getting a cash refund get the refund put on a giftcard and mail us the giftcard at which point we could go and buy it at our local Wal-mart.  That is what they did and this is Y riding her tricycle!  She knows how to pedal but still insists on being pushed, and B is happy to oblige!

Birthday Celebration

Since Y's Uncle T was going to be moving into his new dorm room (it's his first year at college) the weekend of Y's birthday, we moved it up a few days and celebrated with a few family members and friends.  It was a really good day and Y had a lot of fun, except she was extremely tired and somewhat cranky.  Here are a few pictures from that day.



She is REALLY into Nemo right now. In fact she watches Nemo at least once each day, sometimes twice. It never fails, even though she has seen the movie many times whenever it gets to a point where something might happen to Nemo, Marlin (Nemo's Dad), or Dori she gets very upset and distraught until I reassure her that that particular fish is going to be okay!



To me it looks like she is doing a Michael Jackson impersonation here and I am just waiting for her to throw that hat off at any moment.



She opened each present very carefully and wouldn't move on to the next until every single piece of paper was off the gift.



She LOVES this Elmo!  It is called Elmo's Greatest Hits (or something like that) but it has a microphone which allows her to sing along to whichever song she happens to choose.  Most of the time she just talks (or breathes loudly) into it.  I saw this at Walmart while in NC browsing through the toy section and immediately knew she would love it so when her Nana & Grandpa asked what to get her for her birthday...it was super easy!



My niece in NC had this drum set and Y just loved playing with it so we decided to get her one for her birthday.  You can see from the first picture that she already had some drumming experience.  And with the vast number of musical toys she has, hopefully she will have some sort of musical abilities...if not then I want my money back!

This arrived after the little party but before her birthday.  She has recently really gotten into Dora the Explorer (when we're not watching Nemo, we're probably watching Dora).  We thought that maybe if we got her a sheet set for her toddler bed then it would be easier to get her to sleep in her bed without such a huge hassle...not sure if it was the sheet set or not but she has gotten much better at sleeping in her bed.  She typically only wakes up once per night and I just return her to her room.  We really wanted to find an Elmo sheet set but I was really disappointed with the options.  First there apparently is no sheet set with strictly Elmo and the only Sesame Street one I was able to find was some sort of construction/sports theme which was very boyish, so we settled for Dora instead!

On her Birthday we had a very relaxed day.  We took her out to eat at Red Robin where they sang a birthday song to her and gave her a free ice cream dessert.  She LOVED being sang to.  When they came over clapping their hands and started singing to her she got the biggest smile on her face and started clapping along with them, she probably would have sang too but didn't know the words to the song they were singing.  After dinner we took her to the park to play for a bit but it was pretty cold that day (I think it was like 65°F and very windy) so even she tired of the cold pretty quickly.  We asked her if she wanted to go home and she was adamant that she didn't want to go there yet...she would rather freeze in the park.  So I suggested that we go somewhere inside, like a mall.  That worked perfectly because she loves to ride on elevators and escalators as of late.  In fact anytime we say we're going bye-bye she requests elevators and escalators, though she doesn't differentiate between the two.  We really wanted to take her swimming, her first love, but as I mentioned it was too cold for that.  We ended up buying her some new shoes to wear to church when it gets a little colder out since we'll be putting away her sandals!



 

Father's Day

So every year on Father's Day I always go into this whole topic of how grateful I am for my wonderful husband and how he's an awesome dad, and don't worry it's all still true, but I'm gonna skip it this year.  I've reminded him of how awesome I know he is and how well he fulfills his roles in our lives and I'm content with that.  I will say that I am still completely, head-over-heels in love with him and maybe even more so now (if that's even possible).  I don't know that I've ever met anyone as selfless as he is, especially when it involves Y or myself.

Today we didn't really do a whole bunch but we did take a short drive to the park and were able to snap a few photos.  He played with Y, taking her from one place to the other doing whatever it is that she wanted to do.  It was a nice family outing, here are some pictures:

Park

Today we took Y to the park for a goodbye party for two families we know from church that are going to be moving. One has been a medical resident here and having served his time is going to be moving to Tennessee to start his practice. The other family is just a temporary goodbye, he works for GM and has been assigned to China for the next several years but they will return here after their assignment is done.



Y really enjoyed herself, running around, playing in the grass, eating cookies, etc. Here are some pictures of Y playing on the playscape.

Video: (excuse the fact that it's sideways, I forgot I had the camera turned):

Better Late Than Never

Father's Day was two days ago and I'm just now getting to this, but the fact that I am so late doesn't speak to my lack of gratitude for what a wonderful father B is! I'm just late but for good reason! We spent the day Sunday spending time with B and yesterday I was just plain lazy. So since I've gotten Y down for a nap I figured I'd go ahead and write this post telling you all what you already know...and that is how awesome a dad B is! He was literally born to be a dad and I am so very fortunate to have his love an influence on the life of our child(ren). Y is truly the luckiest girl in the world and if you can judge by the look on her face each day when her daddy comes in from work, then you can tell that she knows how lucky she is. No matter what she is doing, when she hears the lock on the door turn at that time of day she always stops and looks towards the door. It reminds me of that primary song called Daddy's Homecoming. For those of you who don't know it, the lyrics are:

I'm so glad when daddy comes home,
Glad as I can be;

Clap my hands and shout for joy,

Then climb up on his knee,

Put my arms around his neck,

Hug him tight like this,
Pat his cheeks, then give him a what?

A great big kiss!

I also want to take a quick line or so to express my love for my own dad who, though he can be a bit hard to swallow and even difficult to love at times, I truly have grown to appreciate and love him for who he is and I really truly love to see him interact with Y and all of my nieces and nephews. I also have a wonderful father-in-law (who helped raise an awesome son) who is funny, kind-hearted, generous, and always there when you need him. I am sure beyond sure that were it not for these two men, Brandon and myself would likely be very different people.

So even though it's late, I am expressing my sincere gratitude for all the father's in my life...I'm a pretty lucky girl!

Here are some pictures from Sunday's walk in the park: