365 days, swear I'm doing it!

I have been slacking here, but I'm doing it fine on facebook. It's a lot less time to log into facebook and load up pictures there. Here it takes too much messing around with stuff. That and they always put your pics in your blog in reverse order and I have to spend time copying and pasting in the correct order. How dumb is that?

Anyway, a lot of the pics I've taken is on the computer that is currently overheating, so instead you've got these.

Jan something or other. The Walgreen's freezers were down, but they kept everything in. I bet that was gross after a few hours.

Jan 6th.

Rod got a haircut at the his new barber. The woman he always went to before had retired. This guy isn't as precise. His barbershop has nothing newer than 1986, and all the old guys sat around talking about politics, but it gets the job done.

Jan 2

I am picking two pictures today, though they are not in order of when I took them. Today we went forth with Christmas money to Davenport to spend it. Aria spent hers at Gamestop and bought a Dora cooking game for her Nintendo DS. We also bought some extra styluses and a case for her DS and games. Afterwards we went to Toys R Us where much fun was had and she bought a giraffe to add to her extensive collection of giraffes. We now officially have a herd.

This pic is from when we went bowling:

Aria's style was she would throw the ball. It would make a horrible clunk down the lane and then roll painfully slowly onward until it would knock down anywhere from 1 to 4 balls. Oddly enough this strategy only put her 4 points behind Mama. This is the point where she threw the ball and it got stuck between the bumper rail and the gutter.

This picture was taken in Starbucks at Barnes and Noble. Rod went in to get himself a new controller for the Xbox360. We stayed in B&N to have a caramel frappachino, a coconut velvet cupcake, and a water. Aria wanted them to write her name on her water like they did my name on mine. She also said that the bag held grass for her giraffe to eat.

365 Day Project

I am going to try to partake on the 365 day project. It will make me take at least one pic a day, no matter how uneventful and boring it is, and therefore capture memories that I would have otherwise forgotten. Big fat wheee!

But first some firsts:

first song heard of the new year: Hot Shelle Rae's "Tonight Tonight"

first show watched: How I Met Your Mother

current favorite song: Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga

last movie watched of 2011: MacGruber

And now the pic: Jan 1st.

This is Rod and Alex playing Call of Duty at about 9pm. Today they went to a Heroclix tournament. Rod won. He was undefeated. He won about $90 worth of stuff. That justifies the $25 fee to play.

Mary watched Aria today. Aria had a good time. She said they played dominoes and singing. I worked today. It sucked, but it wasn't busy so I cleaned the meat cases and avoided unloading frozen/dairy truck. Score!

Halloween!

It was 55 degrees so we dressed warmly. I was smart as Aria's Hello Kitty hat doubled as a mask and a warm hat for her ears. She wore gloves and a coat. She also wore two shirts and leggings under her Hello Kitty skirt. I wore my hat and gloves as well. We were prepared for the journey.

I didn't have a route in mind. I thought that we could just start walking and see where our feet took us. The first house was on the corner. Aria was very good, said Trick or Treat obediently, and dutifully replied thank you. After about the third house was when she started getting really excited about this trick or treating business.

The usual was out there. There were witches and ghosts. There was Mario, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Spiderman. Babies were lions, teddy bars, and crayons. Pre-teens went out with no costumes begging for candy. Come on, kids, at least try. My personal favorite was the group of girls dressed as Robin, Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and Supergirl. I like that they had a theme.

My Hello Kitty started getting really brave at the 4th street we were on. She told me, "No, Mama, I'm brave. You stay here. I can do it myself!" So my big, brave girl would insist I stay at the sidewalk as she went up to the doors and knocked herself. I was quite proud that she would thank them without prompting many times. A few times I had to remind her, but every time I didn't I was pretty proud. When people did not recognize her as Hello Kitty she was sure to correct them.

At one house she came down and announced to me, "That man has big hands." That was funny.

Officer cousin John was on patrol. He pulled over and gave Aria a glow necklace. She was pretty excited about that. It was getting pretty dark too, so it made her feel better because she's kind of afraid of the dark.

She was quite offended by the smokers around. At one house she told me the smoke hurt her eyes. At another house she came back coughing and complaining of the smoke. As we passed a house on the way home, a man smoking tried to give her money but she just cried, "Mama, he's smoking! Mama, that man is smoking!" She's really offended by smoking. She complained about the smoking all the way home then.

Aria's basket was so full that the strap was breaking and I had to carry it. It also broke. All of the contents won't fit in the candy jar, even after taking out the stuff that she can't have. She wants to eat it all at once and gets pretty irate when you tell her no.

Funny random addition: When I was at Walmart, a coworker asked me what I was supposed to be-a hippy? I said, "What? This is how I always dress."

Day 3 Festival of Aria Bowling Party

Aria had a great time at her bowling party. All day she kept asking me "Is it party time yet?" When it finally was you couldn't get that girl out the door fast enough. We showed up at the bowling alley. Mom was already there so I put her to work carrying things for me.

Aria picked out a Hello Kitty cake, and I got another sheet cake. Rod didn't think I needed to buy so much, but a whole cake and a half was gone by the end of the party, so I think that I did. We also had two pizzas, and by request I ordered my grandpa some chicken fingers.

Lauren and Annabelle came, which made Aria very happy. Lauren was shy at first, but then she warmed up to everyone. She, Ari, and Anna were playing tag. They also all got to bowl a game. It was cute seeing these kids try to roll a ball that is half of their whole body.

Aria loved her presents. Now I need to figure out what to do with them. I have started going through Aria's toys to get rid of the ones she doesn't like, but there aren't many that I can really get rid of. I guess I'll have to buy bigger totes.

After the bowling party, Aria wasn't ready to go home. There was still trick or treating being done at Walmart so I took her there. We dressed her up in her Hello Kitty costume and headed up to the store. Because it was almost time for them to quit, a lot of people just gave Aria what was left of their baskets. The kid came home with a ton of candy.

Aria has discovered pixie sticks.

Aria's 4th Birthday- Festival of Aria Day 2

Look who is 4!

Mama, am I 4 yet?

Ah, the thrill of birthdays when you are young. There is nothing better than a birthday. This little girl was all smiles from the moment she woke up until she went to bed, and even then she was asking me, "Is it still my bowth-day?"

We started the day by eating breakfast and then me dressing her up and forcing her to pose for pictures for me. Then we went to Walmart to get items to make her birthday cake (as well as a few extra things cuz she is the birthday girl). Normally I would be working and anyone who saw me and commented on that fact, I'd tell them I took it off because it was Aria's birthday. Then she'd get lots of birthday wishes, money, hugs, and she got a whole sheet of stickers from the people greeter. That's when Aria decided that birthdays were pretty awesome.

Then we stopped at Papa Murphy's where she got more birthday wishes, and some money as well. We took her newfound treasures to the dollar tree where she spent it on a knight's armor dress up and a balloon. Therefore everyone can know that their money was well spent on making a birthday girl happy with useless stuff.

When we arrived at home, Rod was up so we opened presents. She got lots of good stuff from Mama and daddy, Aunt Vickie and Gan, Grandma Mary, and Grandma Marva. Her favorite, though, was her guitar.

No, daddy, this is how you hold it. Let me show you!

Aria has wanted another guitar since her ukelele broke. The play ones aren't good enough for her and she recently told me that her Wiggles guitars are too "little and funny" for her to play with anymore. She picked out that guitar herself. From the moment it was out of the box, Aria had that guitar. When her daddy tried to move it so that it wouldn't get broken, she ran over as fast as she could, grabbed it, and said, "No, daddy! My TAR!"

Maybe she'll actually want to learn to play it.

A birthday is not a birthday without a balloon.

I had a gluten free cake mix in the cupboard and so I made that. I figured that way Rod could have some cake and other people could have nice, gluteny cake tomorrow at her party. We had frosting that had mini M&M's in it. Aria ate all the candy letters that we didn't use to decorate.

Here she is licking the bowl.

I'd also like to mention that nobody likes to be sung to like Aria does. When you sing Happy Birthday to her, it makes her really really happy. She always asks you to sing it again. She grins the whole time you are singing to her. Most people are mortified, she really loves it.

As well as blowing out the candles.

Festival of Aria Day One

I like to call August National Jacque Month. That's because my birthday is in it, and I am totally full of myself. I think that everyone should celebrate because what better reason to celebrate than that I was born? I know, I can't think of a better reason either.

I am passing on my narcissistic values to my daughter by declaring this the first day of the Festival of Aria. That was because Rod took today off so we could celebrate Aria's birthday all weekend. That means that Aria gets three days of birthday fun. That sounds like a festival to me.

So on to the celebrations!

But first, Aria on a pumpkin.

We ventured forth to Coralville and to the Family Museum. Rod had never been there and Aria's last visit was when she was two. Both of the children with me loved it. Rod and Aria both liked the ambulance, the doctor's office, and the shopping center. The real fun came with the flight exhibit though.

This was one big, awesome slide. I went down it. It was FAST!

Rod went down it too.

Don't worry, Daddy. I can land us.

Rod and Aria went in the flight simulator. You sit in a little plane and pretend to fly it. You can actually buy the game and play it with a joystick, but sitting in a little plane with real controls is way more fun. Aria ran them into a house, several trees, but copilot Rod got them back in the air. I did it once too. I did about as well as Aria.

This is how you make a rocket.

There was a section where you made a rocket out of paper and then shot it to the ceiling with air pressure. That rocked. Aria just wanted to cut the paper, but Rod and I made two pretty awesome rockets. Aria got to shoot them upwards. Rod's made it to the ceiling. Mine did too, then the second time it went up it got stuck on the window ledge.

The whole world in her hands. Okay, lame, I couldn't think of a caption.

You really should have seen how much time they spent dispacing air to make the two balls fall or roll or fly up, or do whatever. It was very serious business.

and then with a roar they were both on their way. Each knowing they'd meet on some other day.

Afterwards was a trip to Coldstone. Aria's signature ice cream treat is a scoop of cotton candy, a scoop of another flavor (this time vanilla) and covered in sprinkles.

Afterwards we stopped at the mall again so that Aria could play in the play area, and then so we could get some books at Barnes and Noble. Oh, and so I could go to the bathroom ten million times because I had coffee and then 2 tall glasses of tea. My bladder is voicing its displeasure.

A pretty darn good day. Little girl was happy. She spent all day hugging and kissing us. She gets very cuddly when she is happy. She also took a power nap on the way home, which we are paying for because she is still up. This is the last day my little girl is three. Four years old, here we come.

Kalona Fall Festival

I love the Kalona Fall Festival. I love going to all of the tents of crafts. I love looking at antiques, pumpkins, and the museum. I love eating baked goods and food that is bad for me. I also love the whole farming community and the Amish and Mennonites. There is just nothing bad about Kalona.

Aria and I struck out right after her gymnastics class. You know you hit Kalona when the horse and buggies show up alongside the roads. We also have to drive through Riverside to get there-the future home of Captain Kirk.

The first stop was the corn bin, which is exactly what it says-a huge bin of corn with beach toys so that kids could play. We went there twice. The first time Aria was by herself. The second time was with a bunch of older kids. They were taking turns burying each other in the corn. I got to kick back on a bench and play Scrabble Blast on my phone. I got a 70 point word and Aria got corn in her hair. It was win-win.

Grrr. Dinosaur eat corn!

They had the Wahl House yard open this time. Last time they didn't. Aria sat on the benches in the garden.

Inside the house is a small museum. The front room is a book store and you have to pay to see the rest of the mansion. This is why I have never seen it. They also don't really want children in there. Another reason I've never seen it.
They did have the shed set up with all kinds of old timey washing stuff. They left a broom lying about so Aria helped by sweeping for them.

I'm helping sweep!

nom nom cotton candy.

We went into the old Kalona Train Depot, which is cool because it looks like the depots you see on Thomas the Train. It has a huge stove right in the middle and benches all the way around. There are no railroad tracks anywhere.

But the trains are always on time!

The Mennonite historical museum had a little marble toy that was cool. Aria sat and played with it while I looked at all of the Amish books.

We sat at the bench and ate our corn dog and grape tomatoes while listening to a church group sing Christian songs. It was horrifying for me, but Aria clapped because she doesn't recognize truly bad music yet.

Or maybe she was clapping because this bag of tomatoes was only $1.

You know you are in Kalona because this is just sitting in the parking lot. The grass parking lot.

Aria wanted to pet the horsey. I don't blame her, I wanted to as well. We didn't, though.

It's a Blah Kinda Day

Sometimes you just have those days when it is cold outside, it's rainy, and nothing seems like fun to you. Today was one of those days. I didn't want to watch anything, go anywhere, or do anything. That is especially difficult when you have an almost 4 year old in the house with you.

Aria, I believe, was the same way. She didn't want to watch her normal shows. She kept going from one thing to another to another as if not satisfied with any one thing today. I suppose that it also didn't help that Mama wasn't playing her games correctly, such as saying the correct things when she announces which Backyardigan I get to be today. (Today I'm Uniqua.)

I am getting better at this party planning stuff. It used to completely and totally stress me out. It doesn't so much anymore. I no longer take full responsibility of the entertainment of all of my guests and I no longer stress over things being perfect. I do what I do and if you don't like it, well, I can't entertain everyone. All that matters is that birthday girl is satisfied.

She's pretty excited. We got the Scooby Doo decorations in the mail. The bowling alley has us on the calendars. All that's left is to send out invitations, and that's a modge podge. The list keeps getting bigger because Aria wants to invite certain people to her party, but I only have two lanes reserved.

Oh well, some people will bowl and some won't.

I'm so blah that I can't even make an unblah blog post.

Blah.

Little Random Updates

1. Rod got his hair cut. It is short, which he hasn't had since we first got married back in 1999. He's gone over a decade with long hair, so there's understandably an adjustment period. Since Aria has a pixie cut because she decided to take the scissors to her own hair, that means for the first time in a long time, *I* have the longest hair in the house. That's just crazy.

2. My farmer's tan is extra impressive this year. My arms are so dark, my face less so, and my legs are still Reflect-the-Sun white.

3. The current favorite bedtime book is Disney's Nursery Rhymes and Fairytales. We went through all the nursery rhymes and now we read a fairytale a day before bed. Last night was Peter and the Wolf.

4. Introduced Aria to Looney Tunes. Success. If you don't like Bugs Bunny there's something seriously wrong with you.

5. I love Scooby Doo Mystery Inc soooo much! It is currently my obsession. It's so awesome! It has also turned me into a Velma/Shaggy shipper, which I couldn't even fathom, say, a couple months ago.

6. Work is work is work.

7. I love fair season. I love all the fairs that happen every week. I love the rides. I love the animals. I love the incredibly expensive and bad for you fair food. There is nothing about fairs that isn't awesome.

8. I think I have discovered why I keep gaining weight. For instance, yesterday I ate a bowl of cereal with blueberries and bananas added for breakfast. then later I had a smoothie. Then by dinnertime I was starving to death and so I ate FOUR BLT's. Now, the bacon was turkey bacon, and the bread was wheat, but still....I had FOUR of them. I'm a binge eater. I don't eat for hours and then I get hungry and devour the world.

9. Frank Welker is the man. If it is a cartoon I like, or even have seen, Frank Welker is in it somewhere. He's in Scooby Doo, My Little Pony, Looney Tunes, Transformers, just absolutely everything. The man was the Anaconda in Anaconda. You don't get much more awesome than the voice of the killer snake that eats Jon Voight. If I were to meet a celebrity, I'd love to meet him (After Weird Al, of course). Then I'd tell him how he helped shaped my childhood. He may be a bit scared, but probably flattered at the same time.

10. You know, I'd really like to stop owing money. It would be nice. Things we still need to pay off:

*The windows

*The 401K loan

*an old trinity bill

*Car insurance

*The house

Which, compared to some people's debt isn't a lot, but it's still a few thousand dollars (besides the house) that I'd rather have for fun stuff instead of handing it to other people...with interest. The hope is that with next year's tax refund we'll be able to pay off one of those. Probably the windows. Then I'd like to Dave Ramsey it right into oblivion.

11. I love school supply season.

Muscatine County Fair 2011

Aria and I went to the Muscatine County Fair today. She was all kinds of excited, mostly about seeing animals, rides, and cotton candy-in that order. Even though the temperature read God-awful Hot degrees, there was enough of a breeze and enough shade that it really wasn't all that bad.

Our first stop was to the little kids farm they have set up in the barn. It is more or less a petting zoo. Aria took a pic of me petting the donkey.
She was too afraid to pet the donkey herself. She said it was too big and she was not big and brave today.

She did enjoy seeing the chick, though, and they brought a bunny out of its cage for her to pet. She also was big and brave enough to pet the miniature pony and to feed the goat by throwing peanut shells right at him.

We went to the barns next, and I was totally envious of those animals. Although it appeared like they were lazy and hot, the barns were actually cooler than my house. All of the animals had gigantic fans on them. They all had lots of water. At that moment, I wanted to be a cow.

Or a sheep would do too. Baa.

After we saw all the animals, and I was treated to which animals were stinky and which ones were not, Aria really wanted to ride on rides. The first one she went on was her all time favorite-the gator roller coaster. If this is how she is at three, then I can imagine the rides she'll want to go on as a teenager.

Whhhheeeeeeeeee!

The next ride she went on was the elephants that rose in the air. I thought she'd be scared because she wasn't expecting that, but she wasn't. She liked that ride. Afterwards she went on the cars and there was a little girl who was afraid to go on the rides herself. I asked Aria if she would go in the car with the little girl and her grandma thanked us. I told her that last year it was me asking bigger kids if they could sit with Aria, so it was all good.

No reason to fear, Aria is at the wheel.

Aria went on the planes, which was another ride where she got to go high. She absolutely loves that now, though she still wasn't big and brave enough to go with me on the ferris wheel.

Aria the fighter pilot.

It was during this ride that she left her hat and I had to go back and get it from the seat of the plane. I told her that we didn't want to lose her hat and she held it to herself tightly and said,

"I love it.

I want it in my life."

Which was the most hilarious thing she said today.

After that ride, Aria was pretty much done. It was 90 degrees and it was after lunch time so we left the fair. Of course, before we left I got her a huge bag of cotton candy to eat at home.

It's gone now, naturally.

Another Ariaism:

Rod asked Aria today if she was being a smartypants. Aria said, "No, Daddy, I'm not wearing pants. I have a naked butt."

Great Day!

Today Mom, Aria, and I went to Iowa City. There was no real reason to go except for I just felt like doing it. It was a pretty darn good day.

The first place we went to was Stuff, Inc. I love that store so much. I got myself a MLP, and I got Aria another Potato Head. I also bought Let's Go Fishing because that is one game that I think Aria will really enjoy playing. I remember that we had one at Grandpa's when we were little, and I am pretty sure we lost most of the fish.

I also got Aria shirts for summer, which she really needed. After going through her shirts I saw that I had almost no shirts for her. Of course I was smart and instead of looking in the toddler section I was buying the XS in little girls because that will probably fit her next year too. Mom was doing good letting Aria look at the toys longer while I was looking at clothes.

Then we went to the CoralRidge Mall so that Aria could play in the play area. She loves doing that and she always manages to find one kid that she plays with. While she was doing that, I went to Old Navy and managed to find her another shirt, and two for Gannon. They were only $5 each and so I couldn't pass it up.

Then we had lunch at the Old Country Buffet. Aria was pretty good all day, but you could tell she was starting to get tired because she didn't want to sit in her seat at all. She also didn't eat all of her food.

I found my account number for Stuff and so I need to take in some things for consignment. My boxes are starting to pile up high.

Lemonade and Watermelon.

Awwww, that there lemonade is good!

It is currently 93 degrees outside. That's hot enough I decided to forgo the much needed lawn mowing and little girl didn't even really want to swing outside. Instead we opted to have watermelon and mama's world famous lemonade at the patio table for awhile.

We listened to the music on my phone and Aria's favorite songs are Hey Soul Sister and Bad Romance. She calls them "Aria's songs". Because everything she likes, she owns.

Since she likes looking at pictures of herself she actually posed for me and so I got some cute shots of my little girl. I especially like the one above. That's a shot that says, "See that pretty little girl. Yeah, she's mine."

Lemonade and watermelon, mmmmmmmmmm.

I just signed up mom for direct deposit for her check. She's been wanting me to do so, but we always didn't have the right info. On a hunch I decided to see if I could find the routing number of our bank online. I could! Yay! So that is all set up now, which means that I won't have to deal with mom coming to my house on the 3rd of every month just to sit in a chair and complain about why the mail hasn't come yet.

On another note, I got a Great Iowa Treasure Hunt thing in the mail and I have almost $400 just waiting for me. Whoo hooo! We are going to spend it on the Mother's and Father's day presents that we haven't yet gotten. Namely, fans for my computer so it doesn't overheat and a kindle most likely.

For those of you interested:

Jac's Worldclass Lemonade.

2 cups of lemon juice

2 cups of sugar

1 lemon, cut in half, squeeze juice out of both sides into the gallon pitcher and then just throw the lemon pieces in there.

Fill with water and stir.

It tastes like state fair lemonade. It's awesome. Sometimes I like to throw in strawberries or some raspberry syrup.

It's a thursday!

Coffee does wondrous things, like give me ability to actually fix things that bug the crap out of me. For instance, I have a wall in my living room of family pictures. The layout was ugly, totally unpleasing to the eye. That's because I just put the pictures wherever. I changed it now so that it is a more pleasing arrangement. Now I can look at that wall and think, "Aw, that's better" and not "What and ugly piece of crap."

I also took Aria's books upstairs. Most of her books were in her bed anyway. There was no need to keep going up and down the stairs for books, we read to her in her room anyway. Now the books are in her room and there is more room in the playroom. Aria likes having her books up there because now she can look at multiple books and throw them on the floor!

I'm still battling the cat hair war. Milphey sheds a whole new cat about every week. I am wearing bandages on my fingers to keep the rashes from rubbing together. I have rashes on my legs and my hand. The good news is that it is starting to clear up now. The bad news is that Milphey isn't done shedding. I have to wash blankets, pillows, and vacuum every few days.

Inko's Blueberry white tea is okay, but it's no Gold Peak.

It's lemonade season! I gave out my lemonade recipe today. Can you believe it? I am a person that people ask recipes of! Yeah, I can't believe it myself. Freakin' crazy.

Today I accomplished quite a bit, such as things that are generally bugging me about the yard. The first thing I did was weed whack the holy crap out of my front yard. The grass was over a foot long and my push mower certainly can't get it. Luckily I only have to do half my yard since I still have a big pile of dirt and gravel in the remaining half. While i did this, Aria rode her bicycle on the sidewalk and was very happy doing so.

Then I got out my new umbrella stand and set up my umbrella on my patio table. The sun can't get me now! Aria played in her pool while I munched on sandwiches, carrots, and havarti cheese. I've had the patio set for two years and this is the first time I've gotten out that umbrella that came with it just because I never got an umbrella stand.

Then I decided to fix the gate. A guy that was helping the neighbors with their car came over and helped me out. I think he came over just because he wanted to see Aria, for he kept telling me how pretty she was and how beautiful her hair was and that she was a little sweetheart. Aria usually gets lots of attention from people, more so when she starts showing off. With the guy's help I got the gate so it will latch again.

We turned off the heat in our house and so naturally the temperature is in the 60's and so we are cold. We don't want to turn it on again, though, because we want to lower our bills. Therefore it is the end of May and I am wearing two shirts in my house. I am really thinking of putting on gloves.

I don't work tomorrow, which is awesome! I took the weekend off to go to the Ren Faire. I wanted to go with Katie from work but then my husband didn't know if he worked Saturday so he changed it to Sunday without me knowing and told our friends we were going Sunday. So they set up plans for Sunday while Katie and I were planning for Saturday. Then Rod didn't have to work and so he tried to switch it back to Saturday, but everyone already planned for Sunday. This is how Rod screwed over my plans to do something with my friends. Katie and I made the plans first and then it just all got messed up. I know it was unintentional, but it was very presumptuous of him. I'd go both days, but we don't have enough money for that.

Aria has been asking me to sing "The Berry Song" which is just me singing lines about berries and then after the third verse saying something silly in the lyrics. Three year olds love anything that isn't correct, especially if you add the words poop or pee in there. For instance, the Berry Song goes kinda like this:

Berries are red

Berries and yummy

Berries are good with bread

They go in your......shoe!

That's gold right there. I spend several minutes a day trying to think up new Berry Song lyrics to please my giggling girl.

Aria's New Bike

Aria has a new bike. The little girl is thrilled beyond belief, and no, I did not buy it.

It's interesting the story as it came about. Therefore I will share it with you. It all started with a message on facebook from PB mommy friend, Mel, saying, "Expect a package." Me, being me, I was highly paranoid and suspicious. At first I thought she was sending me the message by mistake. But, no, it was to me and I didn't know what it was. Nor did I ask. See, I like surprises.

And a surprise it was. A few days ago I was surprised by a knock on the door and the UPS lady holding a very large box for me. A huge bike box.

You see, I was going to get Aria a bike this year. We had been going to Walmart and letting her sit on the bikes. The 12" were perfect for her. We kept saying, "that's an Easter present." "Mom, you should get her that." "We should all pitch in and get her a bike." Well, first taxes were paid, plane tickets were paid, and then the truck broke down. All of this amounted to a lot of money. Therefore Aria didn't get her bike.

And I happened to mention it on an Easter thread in PB. I guess that two of the PB mommies saw the post and thought that I sounded sad that I couldn't get Aria a bike, and every little girl needs a bike. They decided that I had a lot of bad luck recently with the basement, and floods, and truck, and all that I deserved a break-or Aria more specifically.

Thus, Aria's Easter bunnies sent Aria a lovely Easter bike. I pulled it to her and said, "You got a new bike, Honey." She immediately smiled and gave me a big hug, which made me cry.

Daddy put it together the next day. She rode it around the living room. She rode it to the stairway and back. We went to Discovery Park and let her ride it. The whole time she was like, "My bike is awesome." I told her who her Easter bunnies were and when she got the helmet today she told her daddy, "That's from Katie. Katie bought me that."

I am surrounded by so many crappy, horrible people all the time that when someone does something good for me I immediately feel overwhelmed and I feel guilty. Like, I don't deserve it or that I have to pay back anything given to me. I am not going to, I have already said a million thanks and posted a tons of pics. I have to learn to accept gifts with the gratitude and joy that they are given. I'm just happy to know that there's still sweet people in this world. Aria is lucky too that she is so loved.

So thank you again, Tyler, Mel, and Katie.

Ari loves it.

Discovery Park

It is now warm enough to visit the parks and today I had the idea that since little girl wants to ride her trike, the trails on the park would be great for that!

First on the list was going inside to the exhibit of the animals in the area. I was quite happily impressed that she was able to name the beaver, the woodpecker, and the puma (mountain lion). She did, however, miss the elk, the bison (which she called a yak), and the wolf (which she called a coyote). Still, pretty darn good, little girl!

She also had to say goodbye to the puma several times.


Oooh, look, this is soft!

Then we went to our favorite trail. It isn't very long and it ends with water fountains. We took her trike so that she could pedal the whole way and so that I could walk with her. This was the greatest idea known to man.

"Look, Mama! No hands!"

"No, Mama! You no walk backwards! You turn around and walk!"

She was very offended if I was not walking correctly.

Aria and the Wonderpets Save the Puppy

The phone....the phone is ringing.

The phone...we're almost there.

The phone. The phone is ringing.

There's an animal in trouble.

There's an animal in trouble.

There's an animal in trouble somewhere.

Oh no! It's a puppy!

He looks thirsty. He looks hungry.

But he's stuck on a box. He's stuck on a box

And he doesn't like iiiiiiiiiiiit

A lot.

Oh no! His dish is empty!
This is SE-WEE-US!
We have to help him!
There are no eats!
There are no treats!
There are no sweets!
That sucks.

Linny!
Tuck!



And Ming-Ming too!
We're wonderpets and we'll help you.

Wonderpets wonderpets we're on our way
To help a hungry puppy and save the day!
We're not too big
and we're not too tough.
But when we work together we've got the right stuff.
Go, Wonderpets, go!

Oh no! That puppy is really stuck! Oh, you are going to get him off the box? that's great Ming-Ming.

Ming-Ming, you saved the doggy. But he still looks hungry. I know, we'll use this shovel to scoop food into his dish.
What's gonna work?
Teamwork!
What's gonna work?
Teamwork!

Now he's got food!
And he's soooo happy!



This calls for some celery!



and lettuce, cupcakes, chocolate, and pizza too!

Valentine's Day

I had a coupon for Build-A-Bear and so I thought that Valentine's Day would be the perfect opportunity to use that coupon. I was originally going to take my mom and Aria to Coralridge to use it, but Mom had an eye appointment. Rod, however, wanted to go.

Which is amazing to me because usually he opts for sleep during these kinds of things, especially if he has to get up early to do them. He did get up at 9:30am with us and we went to Build-A-Bear.

Aria points at everything and says that it is her favorite or she loves it. Therefore I showed her all of the animals she could pick from before I had her look again and decide on one animal. She picked a jack russell terrier because it had it's tongue sticking out. "It's kissing!"

Watching her doggy get filled was interesting to her to a point. Daddy naming her puppy took far too long, but she pushed buttons on the computer, which she continued to do while I bought her a little dog bowl for her new doggy.

Then we found a little jack russell and so we had to get that too.

Aria is carrying her two doggies around everywhere. At first they were named "Boy" and "Little Boy" then they graduated to Scooby Doo and little Scooby Doo. Then sometime today one of them became Shaggy.

We've been watching Scooby Doo lately.

Lucky Charms is dog food in this house. She overfills the bowl and makes the doggies eat. Little scooby went to the store with us today. Both of them have to join the huge zoo that she currently has in her crib. She pets them and makes them lick her face.

She's a happy little girl.

Playtime has gotten a little more complicated now. Now we play Diego. She gets to be Diego and I have to be Alicia. I usually start off with something like, "Oh no, Diego, this little bear is lost and misses its mama! You have to find the mama!" then Aria (as Diego) goes to save the little bear as I sing the Go Diego Go! song.

Sometimes I get to be Dora.

Rod is always Abuelito, hee hee hee.

My Funny Girl

Bathtime with Aria was hilarious today. I mixed some dishsoap with some water and she had a playdoh wand to use to blow bubbles. What was really funny was the stuff she was saying. She had me cracking up almost the whole time.

She blew three bubbles and then called out very proudly, "Three bubbles!" She then purposefully popped one and announced, "Oops! Never mind!"

She also picked up a big bubble in her hands and with wide eyes stated, "I can see myself!"

She giggled whenever the bubbles would land on the tub, the whale, or the floor.

At one point she had to pee, and so she made an effort to actually try to pee on the a bubble that hadn't popped in the tub. Yep, my little girl aims her pee to pop bubbles. Her daddy would be proud. Never mind the whole peeing in the tub. Just try to stop her. Luckily, she does get out to poop.

It was a struggle to get that little girl out of the tub when it was time, though. She was having so much fun that she wanted to just keep doing it. Bubbles was the best thing in a long time. She was crying as I made her get out-the mean mommy that I am. Though she calmed down some when she realized that it was story time.

One more Diego show has been replaced by storytime before bed, which is awesome. She watches less TV and she gets read to. She gets to pick out five or so little books and we read. She has Hungry Catepillar memorized now, and I introduced her to Green Eggs and Ham tonight. Story time is a total success now that she is old enough, and has a long enough attention span to actually sit and listen when I read to her.