Sea World Butterfly

Ari Update Promised

I know... I know... Lately, life has just been more than enough to keep me busy. I'm sorry to any loyal followers for being disappointing the last month+. This is still going to have to be a quickie. Mostly because I have been getting death threats from family members who are wanting Ari updates! :) So.. In this set, you'll see the sunset from our backyard, Ari with friends, Ari with her family, playing video games, going on a nature walk and throwing rocks, going on a firetruck, playing at legoland and at the mall, and eating chocolate. I think that about gives the overall summation. :)



Thanks for being our friends and giving us such great memories and for following my erratic blog!

I Love You This Much Award

Thank you to Rhonda for loving my blog enough to give me this award! She is a great blogger with a beautiful family. If you haven't checked out her blog before, then definitely go and read. :)

I think most everyone I know has already received this award, but I don't think my good friend, Anissa, has so I'm passing it on to her. She is an amazing woman, artist, and friend. Check out her blog to see daily interesting photos she has taken. Also scroll down to her cool 40th B-Day celebration post and link to the photos. She had a "death" theme and the costumes were awesome! Thanks for being great and having such a great blog!

Life Vs. Blogging Life

Have you ever found yourself in the situation where there are so many cool things going on in life that you want to blog about, but your so busy living it, you can't actually get around to blogging it. That's the last few weeks. This is going to have to be semi-superficial so that I can give a 10 ft. down view of what we have been doing. I still haven't gotten my stuff together enough to work with my pictures, so those will still have to wait.

We have had a plethora of Jewish holidays lately. If you don't know them, here is the quick list.

Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year
Yom Kipur - Holiest Day, Get Written into the Book of Life
Sukkot - Celebration of the Tabernacle and Harvest
And coming up next week:
Simchat Torah - Translated Joy of the Torah, Too hard to explain fast

On top of these holidays, my husband and I took another one night away vacation to San Francisco one of these past weekends. It was great and we were able to see his brother and sister-in-law.

We have some new memberships to local attractions that I would highly recommend. Ari is in love with Legoland and Sea Life. If you live anywhere nearish to Carlsbad, CA, I highly recommend getting a membership. If you have not seen Sea Life yet, I also highly recommend checking it out. This new aquarium put the Birch Aquarium in San Diego to total and complete shame. It may as well be a puddle compared to Sea Life. We are there at least once a week now.

Another great membership is to the Natural History Museum. Ari is a girl in love with Thomas the Train, rockets, helicopters, Go Diego Go, and lately, lots and lots of dinasours. We took her there recently and had so much fun for the whole family. They also have a mommy and me event there that we might try to make some time.

The last membership is to the new Children's Museum in downtown. She had a blast with painting the volkswagon, blowing bubbles, and creating streets with tape all over the lower floor.

Besides all of this, Ari has been having a really hard time sleeping lately. Who knows why and does it really matter? In the end, whether it is teething or growth spurt or nightmare or something else, no matter what, I'm going to comfort her and try to help her through it and be tired as a dog the next day. So... I've realized I can stop guessing and just focus on getting through whatever it is. The hardest part isn't the waking up over night, though that is no fun either, but it is trying to get her to sleep. She has been having a really hard time unwinding into sleep and we have been starting at 8 with 2 bed time shows in the hopes that 2 will unwind her more, then at 9 she goes up to brush her teeth and read books and then we struggle to get to sleep until after 11. Again, like I said, I'm sure we'll get through it, but I'm not getting a lot of extra time to do much of anything except catch up on sleep.

Oh... almost forgot... in the time I've been away, Ari started preschool and I've pulled her out of preschool. Hehe... That is a story for another time. I'll post again soon with the details. :)

I'm sure there is more, but I'll have to write that later as well. :)

War Wounds

It is taking me a decent amount of time getting things together, especially all my picture things so I can make another update, so we interrupt your regularly scheduled update with an OpEd piece.

War wounds... That is what one of my friends who recently had a baby used to describe the damage she is going to have to live with from her babies birth. It really got me thinking because that is a perfect description of ALL of what we deal with after having a baby. It doesn't matter if it is damage to a certain area, the scar running along the underside of your belly from having a c-section, the loose skin, stretch marks, floppy breasts, extra pounds, wider hips, or emotional damage. These are all our war wounds that we acquired taking on the most important job that exists in the world... producing life. What nobler cause could we possibly have undertaken than to put our bodies through hell so that a little being can get to live. Are we brave? You bet. Not only are there the things that you know about going into it, but there is always a list a mile long of things you don't know about that you might have to face so we are brave in the face of the known AND the unknown. Especially, those of us who do it more than once, having gone down the path, seeing how our bodies have changed, we still want to face all of it again to bring another little bundle to life.

So... if these are our war wounds, why is it that society makes us feel that ALL of our war wounds are ugly and disfiguring while a man's scar from taking a life, protecting a life, or just being manly and getting into a brawl, is sexy. You know... the whole, "Oh, nice scar. There must be a great story behind that, Mr. Dangerous." Or, bullet wound scars for being so brave as to protect a life. My body protected life and then fought for it. The C-section scar after 40+ hours of labor, is proof that I did what I had to do to protect my babies life. She and I were both going to die if this hadn't been an option. It is risking death to have a baby. Not as much now, but things do go wrong sometimes.

Also, what about our emotional damage. Even if you don't suffer from post-partum depression (ppd), you still take away some emotional baggage and almost EVERYONE I know has had the baby blue's at the very least, since our hormones and flying high. These are war wounds too. Even if you get over it, the feelings/memories linger and are a part of you forever. The days of crying after Ari was born are there forever etched into my mind. Without a basic support system (meaning stay close to home and good friends which we weren't) you just don't know how to cope with it all. Then you feel guilty for having negative feelings and it all spills over into baby blue's/PPD.

I am going to start thinking of the various issues within my soul and on the outside of my body as the war wounds my friend described and remember to look at them as such. They aren't ugly, they are the signs that I fought a good fight to have my daughter and all the joy she brings into the world with her.

I raise my blog glass to all the mothers and their war wounds. I salute you!

Dang Hard Drives!

I know I have been absent for a long time. I'm sorry about that. I have been dealing with drama with my fridge and more recently, drama with my laptop. Turns out my hard drive is having some REALLY bad mechanical failure and we aren't sure if we will be able to salvage anything off of it or not. Until then, we did get me a new hard drive and recently installed it and hopefully I will be up and running smoothly soon. I just wanted to come in and let you know what has been going on that has been interrupting my updates and thoughts. I'll be back as soon as I get my bearings! I have so many posts to make!

Safta Leah Turns 80

We had a party for my Grandma's 80th while we were in Israel. Her birthday is truly the only reason to go to Israel in August! Otherwise, choose a cooler month. :) It was held in a party room of a restaurant and had a DJ along with a trumpet player. We were worried that Ari would freak out having so many new people wanting to hold/play with her all in one room along with loud music. What really happened? She befriended EVERYONE and danced all night! Following is a sampling of the pictures from the party. Of course, most include my little angel or my grandma. :) Love you Safta Leah! Happy 80th! Oh... And everyone got up to say some nice things about my Grandma. I thought I would include the shot of me nervously public speaking. I hate talking in front of people!! I get so nervous, my stomach does flips, my hands start getting a little shaky and I drone on and on. Luckily, this time, while I got very nervous, especially having to speak in front of everyone in Hebrew, I made sure to keep it short.. Whew!

Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations

The day after Haifa, we went to Beit Guvrin Caves and Tel Maresha Excavations in the Latrun area of Israel. You park at in one of a few parking lots and then you hike around between the various caverns most of which weren't that extensive, but a few were really amazing. This was an ancient society and much of what we saw were either living quarters, cisterns, burial grounds, or the areas where they worked at olive pressing. You will also see Roadie the Raccoon in one of the pictures in this set. :) These are not the most flattering pictures of me, but I am an out of shape mom running around in 100+ degree weather through the desert climbing up and down a bunch of stairs. Please give me a little itty bitty break. :)

Grrrr....

So... This is a quick post to share my frustration. I have been trying to post another installment of my Israel trip and pictures, but I am experiencing some technical difficulty with Flickr and have now contacted them to tell me what is wrong. I tried a few different times and ways to deal with my problem, but nothing has worked so... I can't do another installment until I get that figured out. I want to use the sideshow so that you can see all the photos without it taking up a lot of space.

So... be back soon with that post.

Baha'i Gardens

This post begins a series reviewing my trip in Israel and our return trip.

Our first stop was in Tel Aviv where we saw some family and tried to stay awake until night time and sleep as best we could through the night. Unfortunately, Ari didn't like the idea of sleeping through the night, so instead we slept part of the night and then spent a few hours in bed all together watching DVDs on our laptops and singing quietly in the dark until hours later, we all finally fell asleep again. This might well be the first time we have had a family bed. Maybe the second, but either way, it's rare and very sweet.

The next day we spent in Jerusalem and I didn't remember to take any pictures, but my sister-in-law did, so I'll have to update a post later on with pictures and information about this day.

The third day was a relaxing day and my Grandma's 80th BDay and again, I will update with this because while I have some pictures from the professional photographer there,I know my SIL got some good shots and I want to wait to add them to the group.

This brings us to my first post. It is about our next day which was a trip up to Haifa located in Northern Israel along the coast about an hour to an hour and a half away from Tel Aviv. We went to Elijah's Cave which I, again, don't have pictures of, but to be honest, other than being neat because it is Elijah's cave, it was nothing to interesting. It was literally a tiny hole in the wall type of cave near the coast of the city. So we'll just skip any pictures of it. The next stop, though, after lunch, was the Baha'i Gardens. Here is the link to their website for information about the religion if you are interested in learning more. And below are all my pictures of the gardens themselves. They are truly impressive and beautiful!




My parents and my husband decided to head back with Ari after this, but my brother, SIL, and myself continued exploring Haifa. We walked around this beautiful sculpture garden and then took some cable cars up to a monastery. I don't really have any pictures of the monastery because it was really dark and somewhat unimpressive. The views were great and the ride up was fun. :) Keep your eyes open for a raccoon in the pictures. My SIL and some friends, taking a note from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, created a group the Sisterhood of the Traveling Roadie (raccon's name). When each of them takes a vacation they get to take Roadie with them and need to take pictures of him on his vacation. It was rather fun thinking up cool/funny places to put Roadie. I'm going to probably be stealing this idea for our kids when they get old enough to enjoy it. Make sure you take note of Roadie being used as a tennis ball between two sculptures. :)




Speaking of my SIL and brother, here is a beautiful pictures of them when we stopped to get something to drink. It was D*MN hot there! Hehe...


I'll post more about the trip soon. :) Organizing all these photos.

On the way back....

We will be heading home tonight. Really it is tomorrow morning, but that is only because it is at 12:50AM!!!!!! I know that they think this will help with adjusting to the jet lag since I will get to sleep on the plane, but how do you tell that to your cranky and sleepy 2 1/2 year old! Any, I have a lot of pictures and a lot of stories to share. I will start with one picture for now, which is the first picture of this trip and happened on our flight out....

Ari was such a sweet child the whole way. She REALLY tried to be good and helpful and I was so impressed with her. Her dad and I had our arsenal of books, DVDs, games, and songs and between all these, somehow with a child screaming 2 rows away the whole trip, she was able to get some sleep. I didn't get any sleep except 45 minutes while her dad distracted her, but overall the flight could have gone WAY worse. Doesn't she look like a little angel? Oh... and as you can see in this picture, I brought her pillow along for the ride so she had a piece of home. She also had her pacifier and her froggy and that made everything great as far as she was concerned. One thing I learned from the trip was that I needed to say, lets go make new friends instead of change a diaper. Why argue over changing the diaper, when it can be a part of the making new friends routine. Every time we would get up, people would joke with her and play with her. I have mentioned in my mommy group before that El Al is a SUPER child friendly airline and they once again lived up to their reputation. The changing tables have these posters near them so that the kids have something to look at and be distracted during the change, they have great food as well as providing child friendly meals if ordered ahead of time, they handed me a puzzle game out to all the children, and the crew LOVES kids! They kept asking her her name, one grabbed her in a friendly way to tickle her and play with her, another was giving her high fives and asking how old she was, and another was laughing with her. There are always so many children on the flight so while it can be a negative at times like the child who screamed the whole way, it is also a great positive because you never have to feel self conscience if your child gets mad at some point.

Anyway... since I still have to pack for tonights crazy late flight... I'm off, but when we get back to San Diego, I will make sure to do a big update about the whole trip. :)

Cheers!

We're Off!

So.. It's 5:45AM and I am up finishing our packing. Blech! I'm really excited for our trip to Israel but this is the stage where I start feeling like I am definitely going to forget something. There are so many little things that we can't live without because we have our 2 1/2 year old with us. Packing just for the two of us used to be so easy... Throw some clothes in a suitcase and if we forget something either "who cares" or we'll just get a replacement whatever it is when we get somewhere. Somehow children don't really do well with replacements and oh boy do they care if something they need to help them sleep is missing. Oh well... back to it then before the dictator, erm my angel wakes up. :) I'll do my best to get on here in the next 10 days, but it really all depends on the hotel internet connection. Otherwise, see you in ten days! :)

Why would you get out of bed today?

So.. Ari has either been sick or teething and I have been teeter-tottering back and forth on thinking it is one or the other. I am back to thinking that it is teething because she has been grinding her teeth all day long!

That said.. it really doesn't matter in the middle of the night why she is waking up, just that she is. Last night she and I were up for two hours between 2:50 - 5 AM. It was awesome, and by awesome what I means is... it totally sucked. Hehe... I don't usually like to hold pow wows in the middle of the night, but for the last couple of weeks, I am becoming rather good at them. So.. my day actually started last night.

To continue my day, while getting out of my car to go into Babies R Us I stepped full on into gum. YUCK! So I limp my way into BRU asking for some paper towels or tissue to clean it up as Ari is running around like crazy with my mom trying to reign her in. As I finish with my shoe, I turn and find Ari being adorable. (A saving grace for my day.) When you walk into BRU they have these colored tiles on the floor with these symbolic pictures of a heart, moon, sun, and something else. On the side of where I was standing is a post and on it, they have the same symbols in a column. I see Ari run from the column to one of the squares and yell, "I did it!" Then she ran back and says, "Hmm... What's next on my list? Heart!" She runs to the heart on the ground and yells again, "I did it!" It was so cute. She had created a game for herself like a scavenger hunt for the right tile in the right order from her "list." Guess I'll have to forgive her my lack of sleep. *sigh*

We are both tired and I think I have gotten her down for her nap at 12:15, but not so. Instead she was just quiet for a bit and then pooped and didn't get back to taking her nap until 1:15. So much for our early afternoon plans. Hehe... After we woke up, we left for the mall again with my mom. (I promise I am not always shopping, but we have a lot to get before leaving the country.)

Now... I thought after discussing my miscarriage so freely, I wouldn't be embarrassed to discuss almost anything with you all, but to understand my day, I'll just deal. I have gotten, a day ago, my first period since the miscarriage. (This is actually a good thing, because to try again we had to wait until after the first period and here it is. :) ) The bad thing, is that I had no idea, to add to all the other things I didn't know about miscarriage, just how strong your first period might be. So... we are at the mall and I didn't think to bring anything with me because I should be fine for a couple of hours. Well... Thank god that my mom and dad were there, dad showed up after us, because I left Ari with them and went to find a restroom. When I get there I realize I am in trouble. I left my money with my mom and am a complete disaster and need some feminine product from the machine. Luckily, I had my phone and called from the bathroom. My dad is watching Ari while my mom is coming to the rescue. That was a fun moment.

All the time we were walking around the mall, after the parents left, Ari keeps wanting up, so I've got my backpack diaper bag on my back, my 28 lb. girl on my hip, and a bunch of other bags dangling from various fingers as I am trying to get back to the car. I was a might bit physically tired by the end of the excursion.

So... we get home and I realize. DANGIT! I forgot about my personal training session I had scheduled today. Another session I have paid for down the drain. I need all of my responsibilities to start understanding text message reminders so that I can be less flaky. :(

Here is my bad mommy moment... We get home and I'm like... "Hey honey.. Why don't you play on your computer so mommy can veg out on the couch and pray for tomorrow to come." Now understand, Ari loves her computer and I feel like I am constantly having to drag her away from it while we are at home so for me to purposefully propose it, is definitely saying something. Regardless, I ended up playing with her a bit and I got this awesome picture of her:
This is Ari playing her first online multiplayer game by herself, Toon Town. She needs help with some of the mini games, but you can see her little fingers walking her mouse around using the arrows. :) Oh.. and one of the things we had to have at the mall was the really cute butterfly wings you see in this picture. She refused to take them off until we got ready for bed!

Back to the main topic... Daddy got home and continued playing with her so I could make us dinner. I go to pull out my cookie sheet and it swings back and just whacks me in the knee. I KNOW that is going to bruise! I put the aluminum foil down, pull open the oven to put the sheet in and realize that it is easier to make dinner if you put the food you are making on the cookie sheet AND turn on the oven. So I get the hot dogs and lay them out and give the oven a chance to heat up... That would have been a good idea if I had AGAIN remembered to turn on the oven. *sigh* Oven is on, food is on the cookie sheet, and dinner gets made (though overcooked because I lost track of time).

I was ready for bed hours ago and yet here I am writing to you all about my constantly mis-stepped day. I'm off to bed though so I can have a tea party with my daughter tonight at 3 AM. I guess if we are both going to be up every night I might as well make it fun. Hehe...

Here is another random picture of us for those enjoying the Ari updates. We went to Sea World yesterday (a much better day that was so totally unblogable :) ) and rode the Elmo's flying fish ride. We did other things, but I don't have pictures of anything else. So, here we are in the fish she had to have, the pig-fish. I practically got into a fist fight with another mom over said fish, so I'm glad she enjoyed it so much!
Tomorrow's another day. :) Hopefully, that one will have me injuring less, needing rescuing less, and remembering just a little bit better. Ari has a dermatologist appointment to deal with her sunscreen issues (i.e. she has broken out from every sunscreen I have ever tried on her). Wish us luck!

Going to the Holy Land

Just preparing everyone for a potential absence again.

We will be leaving on Sunday to go to Israel. We are going to see my family and friends there, but also to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday with her. I can't wait for everyone to see Ari because the last time she was there was when she was 15 months old (last year) and she has totally changed since then. Everyone is going to love how independent and sassy she is not to mention how adorable!

We plan on touring some of the time that we are there and hopefully, if I remember to pull out my camera, I will have some great touring as well as family shots. I'm not sure about the access I will have to my computer, so posting after Saturday will be hit and miss at best. I do get back a week later and will post then.

For now, my days are filled with last minute things I need to get done. I've even made a list a mile long of everything we need to pack so I don't forget anything. When I say a mile long, I'm not joking! Traveling with a little one for 14 hours to a foreign country for a week is just asking to have back pain through an airport. Oh well... that's what vacations are for... Right? Recuperation! We'll see if it turns out to work that way.

My brother and his wife flew over yesterday. They had a layover in Brussels and lo and behold, the people of Brussels who work in the airline industry decided to have a strike. The airline that they were on had to put them on a bus to Amsterdam and they caught a flight out of there. The bus ride was hours long and delayed them quite a bit. They finally did fly into Israel, but as it turns out, the airport there is a complete zoo. Apparently, there are planes coming in from Georgia (the country not the state) as people try to escape the war breaking out. It's just nice to know that they finally made it to the hotel and all was well with them.

Now I can only pray we don't have any adventures like them. We have a direct flight, so hopefully no surprises. I don't DO surprises. Hehe...

I'm off to bed to dream about lists and all the things I have forgotten.

Where's my money?

Just a funny little story I had to share.

So.. I'm getting ready to take my daughter and my mom somewhere but afterwards I know I am going to be running to exercise so I throw on exercise clothes. I look in my jeans pockets to see if there is anything there that I should be taking with me and I spot a dollar bill and think, what the hell. Of course, my exercise outfit doesn't have any pockets so I put the dollar between the waist band of the exercise pants and my belly thinking, I just need to remember to move it to my wallet when I get downstairs.

Fast forward to the bathroom of the LA Fitness and guess what falls on the floor as I pull down my pants. Hmm.. oh ya. Where am I gonna put this now... Okay... so it went in the bra just for the duration of the bathroom visit and once I'm finished I put it back at the waist thinking, well, it made it through exercise, it can make it to the car. As murphy's law would have it, as I am walking out the door of the LA Fitness, I feel something on my hip, INSIDE my pants. *gulp* Okay.. stay cool. Keep walking... Ack! Now it is at the juncture of my leg and hip. "I JUST HAVE TO MAKE IT TO THE CAR!" Keep walking... Um... Now it is stuck to my thigh. "PLEASE DON'T FALL OUT IN THE PARKING LOT!" and...... WHEW! I made it! I made it!

Moral of the story: Don't "waist" your money! Hehe...

Ari & Jasmine

Ari has made a new friend and her name is Jasmine. With Jasmine's mother's permission, here are some photos of these girls. They are quite a pair!

We went to the zoo one day and the girls found this caterpillar to climb all over and of course at first they wanted to take it all for themselves, but they learned the fun of sharing.

Unfortunately, I missed the main event, but we said, give kisses, and the girls actually gave each other a smooch. It was so adorable! This was right after.

Then we caught some music and hula hooping and the girls just had to jump right in. :)

On another day, we visited Jasmine, her mommy Jade, and her sister Pearl at their house. Once again, the girls showed they could share. They also showed they made good cats! How adorable is this?

The girls also take dance lessons together and are always looking forward to seeing each other in class. Recently, we went to the mall and while walking around they held hands with each other and walked around giggling! We love it!

Be Back Soon

Every day I think... I will be able to find the time to post something fabulous tonight or at the very least post an update about Ari and every night I find my self so busy/tired/distracted that I just can't pull it all together. I appreciate all of my loyal readers checking in with me and I do promise I will be back to my writing and updates per usual very soon.

For now, I will leave you with a quickie.

My miscarriage: I know I posted that most web sites say to contact your doctor if you are bleeding for more than 2 weeks, but after about 2 1/2 weeks (I gave myself leeway) it dropped down to very light almost spotty bleeding and I thought... today will be the last day.. I'll wait until tomorrow to call the doc. This has gone on for an extra 2 weeks of me putting off having a medical intervention since it was so light. I think that I have finally turned that corner and can start planning for our future again.

Ari: Still reading up a storm. She's gotten sick again with a cold and so we have had to keep it low key for a few days which with Ari means high energy but stuck at home. So yesterday, after being totally stir crazy, we took her for her first nature hike and we all had a blast except that it got way to hot way to fast so we were only out walking about 45 mintutes. Still... she had a great time and we all got some fresh air and exercise. Ari has also discovered dressing up and here is one example of that:How cute is she? Neigh!!! She has also started getting super affectionate by giving out hugs. :) It's really cute.

One of her favorite books right now is a sing along as you turn the page book by Raffi named Baby Beluga. It was introduced to her in her music class and she has fallen in love with it ever since. Now, she actually tried to sing along which brings tears to my eyes its so cute.

My Mom and Dad watched Ari this weekend so we could go see X-Files. I thought it was okay. Definitely not my favorite, but if you like the show, it passes for a long episode. Last weekend, for the second time, I saw Mama Mia (I saw it the weekend before as well). I LOVE this movie and totally recommend it to anyone who likes Abba music. Even if you don't like Abba music but love theater and movies that just make you feel good, this is the one you want to see. The weekend before, it came in direct contrast for me, it was a movie full weekend, with Dark Knight, which I also thought was great, but definitely extremely dark.

Anyway, Ari has a new friend and some amazing pictures with this new friend, but I still need to confirm with the mom that I can post them. Hopefully, that will be the next post. That and another opinion piece soon. :)

Again, thanks for sticking this through with me. This wouldn't be nearly as much fun without knowing you'all were out there (even my lurkers)! Hehe...

Quick Addendum to Such Language!

Today Daddy walks Ari up to Safta's house and points to the sky and says, "Look. There are clouds over there, but no clouds over there." Ari looks up at the sky and says straight faced, "That's weird." Hehe..

Some of her more memorable quotes lately...

"Don't trick me!"
"Don't chase me!"
When telling her to do something she doesn't want to do... "What did you say?" LOL

And best of all... Safta taught her to say... "Happy Birthday Mommy!" Awww.... So sweet!

Such language!

Ari was literally a chatterbox today. She talked all day long. I'm surprised she was able to say anything at all by evening. Here are some of the cute and funny highlights.

We were at JC Penny and my mom found her a fold out chair. We opened it to see if she would like it in front of the really nice cashier woman who had been helping me. Ari sat in it and I said, do you like it? She said, "Yes! It's nice and warm." LOL

We are in the car and all of a sudden she just says, "I still never got my rocketship." Huh? and LOL I tried to figure out what rocketship she was talking about, but never heard another thing about it. Hehe... There is some unclaimed rocket ship out there that my daughter is thinking of. :)

We are in the bathroom before bed washing our hands. We sing Twinkle, Twinkle while washing our hands because that is the length of time you are supposed to wash your hands for. Anyway... Ari starts singing and part way through the song, mommy thinks she is so cute singing that she kisses her on the head. Ari stumbles on the words, forgets her place in the song, and says, "OH MAN! (that's a quote from Swiper on Dora), Start over." Then she starts her song over again looking at me like, "you aren't gonna mess this one up too, are you?" Hehe...

Still in the bathroom, it is time to brush our teeth. Ari takes her toothbrush and turns on the water, she wets it and then realizes that it is ALL WRONG! She wants the water quieter. She turns down the water to just a trickle, shakes her toothbrush all around so the offending loud water that was on it would fly off, and then re-wets the toothbrush with the now correctly volumed water. I was lucky not to pee my pants for this one.

Finally, we are in her bedroom, just changed for bed, I usually say goodnight at this point and leave Daddy to read books, so I said, can I have a hug? She ran over and gave me a hug. :) Then I say, "Okay. Now a kiss goodnight." And we exchange a sweet little kiss. Awww... She starts to walk away, turns around, and says, "Kisses all over! Kisses all over!" Runs back into my arms for kisses all over her face. I am about to cry just typing this.

She can truly have me rolling and crying all day long. Children are so amazing!

Bay of Play, Flags, and Planters

If you haven't been there, I love the new Bay of Play at Sea World. Ari had such a good time on a recent visit. I didn't get a lot of pictures, because a lot of our time there we were just the two of us, but once my mom joined us, we caught a couple of cute pictures of Ari getting to meet Grover. She was so excited!


For the fourth of July, every year, there is a really nice real estate agent that comes to our neighborhood and deposits these little flags in everyones yard. It always makes for a nice fourth of July surprise. :)
Remember me alluding to a planter in an earlier post, well here is what my husband and his father built during this most recent visit. We wanted a raised garden so it was easy to maintain without bending over and they did an amazing job! This is just the first. We plan on doing two more. :) Isn't it beautiful?

This next picture shows you starting from left, that we have two roma tomato plants and an artichoke plant.
Next to that, we have four strawberry plants and finally 4 Japanese cucumber plants.

We are not sure how all of these will do, but we can't wait to see and eat! In the next two planters we plan on putting some herbs and other vegetables. We may even get a second artichoke plant and move the strawberry ones over to one of the other planters since they tend to grow out a lot and who couldn't use more artichokes. :) If you have any suggestions for things to grow, we are all ears. The things we are considering but were told some are more winter season while others we could plant now are: peas, baby carrots, onions, string beans, and maybe even corn. For herbs, I'm sure it will be like basil, thyme, mint, oregano, and pretty much all your basic herbs.

As far as how I am doing personally... for anyone still interested in knowing more about miscarriage, read on, others feel free to skip. So today was the worst. Apparently, all that minor cramping pain was leading up to a big tahdah and that was today. Intense pain (took 2 motrin) and loads of ickyness. By tonight though, I'm back to moderate bleeding, so I hope that means I have made it through the worst and am cresting over that hill.

As a good friend pointed out in the comments of an earlier post, it is a process. I am a big believer that medicine is best used when it is absolutely needed. Our bodies go through so many day to day process and then there are big events. Just because they are big events, for me, doesn't make them less a process. I am a big proponent of natural birth. I think the birthing process (notice the word there) is something that the body just goes through and when you go through it, certain things like hormones and such are all released at the appropriate times, the body reacts to things at the appropriate time, etc. When these process are altered, who knows what we are doing to our bodies experience and reactions. Maybe I'm just coming off as some big tree hugger. Truth is, one day, for those that haven't heard it before, I'll post Ari's birth story, but needless to say, neither I nor she would have made it without modern medicine, so I don't dispute the wonders that medicine does provide us with. I just believe, like with Ari, it should be used when there is no choice. I decided that principle held true with this as well, and I think, letting it follow its own path has let me come down from the hormonal high of pregnancy at a steady pace. I definitely couldn't imagine dealing with todays pain on top of all the pain from previous days all mushed into one. That seems like it would be so hard. There was definitely a part of me that wished to just get it over with, but.. ouch! The gradual definitely worked for me.

Anyway... this means there probably won't be too many more posts touching on this subject. :)

Where in the world is Michelle?

Okay... so I've dropped off the face of the earth again and I appreciate everyone who has been checking in thinking, where'd she go? Here is a quick rundown and I'll try to post more over the weekend.

Since the last post, I had my in-laws come for a visit that went great except for the fact that Ari got sick and my miscarriage has finally arrived. Ari had what the doctor called the Adenovirus. Needless to say her fever spiked up to 104 one night and she ran around in a horrible mood grabbing at her throat and mouth. Poor baby was miserable!

Mommy had a slow lead up to the miscarriage on the other hand. (If this is TMI - too much information, please feel free to skip this paragraph, but since I mentioned we should talk about this more, this is another part of the process I wasn't quite clear on.) It started with spotting for a couple of days that were followed with very light period like bleeding and has progressed about 5 days later into painful, crampy, clotty bleeding. ICK! I know. Anyway... I'm hoping since I am in the painful stage, I will be done with this soon. Apparently, if you go more than two weeks, you need to see your doctor so I've got just under another week to go to be finished.

On top of all this, on Tuesday my in-laws left (COME BACK!) and John gets home from work with a cold that I also start to feel that night. We think Ari has gotten over her illness which we went to Urgent care for on Sunday and went to her doctor's as follow up on Monday and by Wednesday morning we were sure she was going to feel better except... she woke up with the same cold. *sigh* It's never fun when the whole family is sick. Thank God for all the help we had from my in-laws and from my parents. They are amazing!

Coming into this weekend, though, we are all starting to feel better from the cold and hopefully the miscarriage will start to sort itself out. I am happy that I waited for it, because experiencing all of this all at once would be really hard. I am not saying it is the only right choice, but the right one for me. Maybe over the next few months I'll be able to come back here with joyful baby new. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

One project I'll be posting about soon is our raised garden that my husband and his father worked on while he was here. It looks so great! There are two more to build and then plant, plant, plant. :) Can't wait!

Write more soon!

I'm A Brand New Reader!

Ari is reading. We are shocked. A couple of months ago she had started reading some of her baby books like the Sandra Boynton ones. You know... the kind of books that have opposites on them like "dinosaurs happy, dinosaurs sad, dinosaurs good, and dinosaurs bad." We figured she was just memorizing the books she had read a lot of times, but memorization is the first step to reading, so we should get her more of a challenge. I found these books at the book store called Brand New Readers. There are multiple sets and they include 10 very short story books appropriate for someone learning to read. They also include 10 stickers (1 for each book) and a page that you can place the stickers on as you successfully read each book. Our first set was the red one, which I got about a month ago. We completed that one and got the Orange set about a week and a half ago. We have since completed that one and are on to set three. Set three we got with her there and before we could even leave the book store, Ari yells, "I want to read a book! Earn a sticker!" John decides, sure, why not... there is no way she is going to get this on the first try anyway. No harm. I give him a look like, yeah right! Can you guess what happens next? There we are in the middle of a book store taking apart something we haven't paid for yet. She, of course, earned her first sticker. Great! This one didn't even make it home. We've decided that we can't afford our daughters speedy reading abilities and so are going to have to start a charity, "Ari's reading fund. Donations welcome!" :) Here is a picture of her first two sticker collections proudly displayed on the back of her door so she can see them when she is in her room.
For those that don't know us... have I mentioned she is 2 1/2 years old? We estimate that she can now read at least 40 books on her own. Some of the other books I get her are individual beginning reader books from a stand that has them with numbers at the top of the book indicating the difficulty rating. We went through 3 number one books in the last weeks and a half as well. While at the book store attempting to get stickers, we got her a number two book to see how she would do with it. Definitely a challenge, but she can still read through most of it. Am I getting Shakespeare next?

I actually have a funny story to tell about this. So... I took Ari up to her nap one day and we went through our normal nap-time routine. We read a book, laid down, I sang her a song, and kisses, love you, and sleep well. This was a day that she was not going to go down easy. Anyway... After a couple of initial visits up there, I decided that if all she is doing is playing or talking, she can do that on her own. I here her up there just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. After a long while, my curiosity and my desire for her to get some sleep get the best of me. I go up, silently open her door, and see her sitting in her rocking chair with a book open across her legs as she is reading herself another story (because evil mommy wouldn't read us another story). I sneak back out knowing that walking in their laughing with a big grin across my face would not be conducive to getting her to sleep. When she finally does call me up again, I calmly get her back into sleep mode, all the while thinking, "GOOD JOB, BABY! YOU READ YOURSELF A BED TIME STORY!" I can't possibly say that right then, but boy was I the proud mama bear.

Now I'm the proud mama bear with a direct line from my wallet to the book store. Hehe...

There are worse things to spend money on. We couldn't be happier! Our little girl is a brand new reader!

Another Ari update to follow soon!

Why Don't We Talk About This More?

I was originally concerned to bring this up thinking, I've already talked about our sad day and maybe this will be a big downer for people to read so I should just wait until I am ready to write about something else. I am talking about my miscarriage. I'm guessing that the reason we don't talk about it more is because we don't want it to be true or real in our own lives so no body really brings it up too much until you have one yourself. It turns out, that many people in and around my life have experienced one and I have found out that the type I have had is a very common one, yet, I didn't know they were so very common before. I didn't know so many people have them, before. I didn't know to prepare myself for the possibility, because they happen all the time. That's because we don't talk about them.

So... while I hesitated discussing my own more, I decided that the point of this BLOG was to help other parents (and share the joy of my daughter with family and friends). If I can't discuss everything to do with parenting, which includes the disappointments, what good is this?

I have opted to pursue a natural miscarriage. This is one of three options and my doctor, though others may not agree, said the best option unless complications arise or it doesn't happen by the 12th week of the pregnancy. The other two options are a D&C, "Dilation (dilatation) and curettage literally refers to the dilation(opening) of the cervix and surgical removal of the contents of the uterus. It is a therapeutic gynecological procedure as well as a rarely used method of first trimester abortion." from Wikipedia, and a pill called misoprostol, "Physicians have begun prescribing misoprostol to women who have experienced a miscarriage early in pregnancy." from WebMD.

Every day is a day that I question letting it happen naturally, but I don't think I will change my mind unless complications arise. It is just a really weird thing to have your mind look forward to the future wanting to move on, but have your body still feel and act like you are pregnant. You tell your body every day that you are ready to stop being pregnant and wait for those signals to arrive in the right places to make things move along and when nothing happens you think, come on body... I need you to work with me, I'm ready to move on.

Regardless, I am keeping my mind as firmly set into the future as I can, because there is nothing I can do to rewrite the past. I just wish I had known how common this was so I would have had some amount of expectation for its possibility. "Studies reveal that anywhere from 10-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage." from American Pregnancy Association. I think that if we are given so much early information with home testing kits being so accurate, that we should also have this information to counter-balance just how excited we get. It's good to know what the chance of success is.

Again, I am not wanting to be a downer, I just want to be someone who talked about it in case it helps someone else with their own situation. I'll post an Ari update soon, I promise.

A Sad Day

I had my first doctor visit today and it turns out that we have miscarried. Not in the official sense yet, but they can see there is no baby. I have so many feelings running through me right now. Sadness is the main one though. There is just no point in anger for me and I have no one or nothing to resent, so I'll just feel the sadness, let it be there with me until the actual miscarriage event takes place and then look forward to our next try at expanding our family. Thank you for sharing in my joy of this and my sadness within such a short time. It helps just writing about it because it solidifies the reality of it within me and that makes it easier to move forward.

I'll be back to blogging about other things soon.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if anyone else is interested, but this is the type of miscarriage we are experiencing and is apparently extremely common. My doctor was kind enough to share with us that he and his wife had 2 of these on there way to creating their family.
"
An empty sac is a condition where the gestational sac develops normally, while the embryonic part of the pregnancy is either absent or stops growing very early. Other terms for this condition are blighted ovum and anembryonic pregnancy." From Wikipedia

Something Special to Me

I was forwarded this by my Mom and thought it was worth sharing. I think that often Israel gets a bad rap and that it is nice to sometimes remember the things that are good about it that the world at large may not know. Here are some examples though there are many others. :)

http://www.ads4israel.com/

Thanks for checking it out!

Sorry for my absence...

We had a really busy weekend planned, which I knew would make it a challenge to post, but in truth the thing that got in the way was that I have not been feeling too good the last few days. Before you start to worry, for those that don't know, I am about 8 weeks pregnant. YAY! Except I am horribly tired and can't bring myself to do anything half the time. The other half, I was trying to keep up with our busy weekend. So... I'll get back to posting hopefully tomorrow or the following day, but bare with my erratic posts for a little while longer.

We have our first doc appointment tomorrow and can't wait. Hopefully, this malaise won't last too long. As difficult as it is to deal with, I'm counting my lucky stars because it could be morning sickness instead of fatigue and I'll take tired over throwing up any day. :)

I hope everyone is doing well! More soon.

Also... I should say... next to some of my friends and the things they are going through in their lives, I really need to stop whining. So... keeping my thoughts with Jenny and Tonya.

Random

It's already late, so this will be a short, random Ari update. The first picture is Ari on the train at the UTC mall. They say you have to be 3 to ride alone, but they don't really uphold that and Ari loves riding in the engine which she has to ride alone, so here she is braving the tracks like a big girl in the lead car!The next picture is from Ari's soccer class. Last week we had the last day of class and on the last day, they gave them a medal for doing so well in class. You see it flying around her neck. She was so happy and proud of herself. It was really cute!

Other than that...

Has anyone else been watching DISCH L? It is now called Planet Green. I am learning so much about what we do that is not good and what we can do that can help. It is really affecting me. I always felt that I at least knew most of the things we are doing wrong (not recycling enough, too many plastic bottles, etc.) but there is so much more! I am hooked and changing a lot of things slowly but surely that I am doing to make our lives a little less environmentally unfriendly.

Now... don't think that I am becoming some crazy tree hugger nor do I even really consider myself an environmentalist. I'm not doing this because I am worried about the planet. I am doing this because I am worried about my daughter and my grandchildren's future. So.. I'm a people-ist. The planet will be here no matter what happens to it and it doesn't care in what state it exists. We on the other hand can't live on just any version of this planet. We need it to stay as close to the same as possible. That means that while I believe that the earth will eventually become unlivable just like it once was, we should do our best not to speed things along because we haven't figured out how to live somewhere else yet.

I also do believe that a lot of our decisions in the past to make life easier, have turned out to be poisoning us and I want support business that are creating products that are not full of harmful chemicals for us and for our landfills. What we have done to our food supply and to our soaps and moisturizers, etc. is amazing when you start reading about it.

Again, I am working towards a healthier life one step at a time, even if they are very little steps, they are something. One example of a baby step that someone pointed out to me, which is a good example, is that we have a real problem with how many plastic bottles we use in our society. Even though they can be recycled, there just aren't enough things made from recycled plastics that we are willing to buy to make sure we use up all the bottles being thrown away. One place to save on this is of course to get a water service instead of buying bottled water. It is really price equivalent, for the most part, is delivered right to your door, and you just need to get some bottles that you can use to refill. Another place though, which is the great baby step suggestion I mentioned above, is to buy only bar soap instead of pump soap. It just never occurred to me, but bar soaps are surrounded in paper which does have a high rate of recycle ability versus the pump. There really is no reason to have the pump. Another one that I would love to see is bulk shampoo. Why should I buy a new bottle of the same shampoo I get every time when I could just as easily bring my bottle to the store and refill it instead. If only this were available. *Sigh* Come on companies! Lets start figuring this whole thing out. Change is in the air. :)

Okay... Like I said in the beginning. It is late and time to go to sleep. Goodnight all!

6 Word Memoir

I was tagged by my friend Dana at Tutu Monkey

This originated over an idea that was prompted by the book written by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. It's a compilation based on the story that Hemingway once bet ten dollars that he could sum up his life in six words. His words were- For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Here are the rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.
4 .Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Are we ready? Ok. Let's GO!

Not very sentimental, I know but we are trying to describe our lives in 6 words and that about sums mine up. I have always been one to stay active. I don't stay still for long. I'll give you a few examples.

1. When I first graduated from high school, I just didn't want to go to college yet (to the sadness of my parents for sure). I decided instead that I was going to go to Israel and live on a kibbutz for a year. That didn't last as long as I hoped because I got very sick with my Crohn's while I was there and medical attention was near to nothing on the kibbutz where they didn't know exactly what Crohn's was or what to do about it. Anyway, a couple months later, I was back in the states and working a full time job in an office. At the end of the intended year off, I planned to go to college, but not the normal way. I went to a study abroad program through the Missouri State University in Kirksville (now known as Truman State). I studied in Seville, Spain even though I had never had even 1 Spanish class before and had an amazing time for my first semester in college. When I got back, I went for my next semester to the university in Kirksville, but decided that I wanted to study anthropology. They didn't have an anthropology department there, so for the following semester I went to University of Missouri, Warrensburg. Unfortunately, by the time I was in Warrensburg, I had decided that I had a change of heart and really wanted to pursue another love of mine, fashion design. They didn't have a fashion design department, but they did have fashion merchandising so I did course work in that. While I was there, my Crohn's flared up really badly and I ended up having to come back to St. Louis and get hospitalized for a while. When I got back, at first, I planned on staying in Warrensburg, but after having already moved my stuff into my new dorm room and everything, we decided that it would be best that I come and live at home while I am getting better so that my mom could watch over me. An agreement was struck between my parents and myself that I would pursue my love of fashion design (which may not be practical) and also pursue a degree in computers (the earn a living degree that I wasn't passionate about but was good at). So... I went to Forest Park Community College where I attended figure drawing and other art classes AND Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis where I was attending programming classes. For those keeping track, I went to 5 different educational settings located in 4 different locales in 2 years.

2. When I was working on a degree in Business Information Systems (read programmer) in Denver, CO, (if you are curious about how I got from number 1 to number 2, I guess you'll just have to stay tuned in :) ) I got a job working in my field so I could earn a living. I went to school full time (15 credit hours) and worked full time (45 hours/week). I also would go out with my girlfriends clubbing all the time. Sleep is for sissies after all!

3. Ari and I attended music, dance, gymnastics, and soccer classes together. We also go to the park by ourselves a lot, run errands, attend playgroup meetings, and spend time with Safta.

Did I mention that I'm not one for standing still too long? I love to travel and I love to experience new things and places. The world is an adventure so lets explore it to the fullest! You can't explore if you aren't on the move... so... Are we ready? OK. Let's GO!

Amusingly, my parents had a different 6 word biography that they would say suited me since I was a little girl... "Don't tell me what to do!" LOL There is an old song that goes "You don't own me. I'm not just one of your little toys. You don't own me. (don't remember this line) So... Don't tell me what to do! Don't tell me what to say! And please when I go out with you, don't put me on display!" I use to think of it as my anthem. Hehe...

As far as tagging anyone else... I haven't been blogging long enough to tag other people, so I'll take a note from my friend Sonya who also got tagged by Dana and just not tag anyone. Sorry for being lame. :)

Using the Potty!

My mom has been telling me that Ari is using the potty occasionally with her. Usually it is because she is in a bath and suddenly needs to pee and she has learned not to pee in the bath so it is easiest to put her on the potty and she will go real quick and back into the tub.

Well, today Ari was again hanging with Safta and my mom asked her, "Do you want to pee in the potty?" Ari yelled yes and ran up to her potty, apparently. She went potty, poured it in the toilet, and flushed just like a big girl. Of course, I just get to hear about it. *sigh*

So... tonight she had a bath, but when we first walked into the bathroom, she yelled out, "Need to potty before bath." So I pulled off her pants and diaper and she sat down and as mommy and daddy looked on, our little girl became a big girl. She peed in the potty. We were both there to witness it and it wasn't a fluke. Not only that, but she did it twice in one day.

I'm sure we have days/weeks until we are fully there for waking hours, but we are definitely on our potty way. :) I'm so proud!

What things have I done? Nothing really. We bought her potty a long time ago, maybe right around turning 1, and she used to like to sit on it like just a regular chair. Nothing more happened with it for a long time, though I often talked while changing her diaper about how if she didn't want to have her diaper changed anymore, she would need to learn to use the potty. A few months ago I bought her a DVD called Potty Power and she just loved it. She watched it multiple times at first, but still didn't really show interest. Lately she asked for it again and occasionally when I would ask if she wants to go potty, she would go sit down, but never pee. The rest of the story is above. Just kept asking, making it fun, and making it about her choosing to use the potty, and here we are on the way to potty trained. :)

Dungeons & Dragons Meme

This is for all the geeky kids out there like me! :)

What kind of a Dungeons and Dragons Character are you?

You Are A:

Lawful Neutral Human Cleric (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 12
Dexterity- 13
Constitution- 11
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 17
Charisma- 15
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral- A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Clerics- Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Father's Day Weekend

We started out on Friday night celebrating our father's day weekend with me going to a mom's book club meeting. John and our good friend Bruce (the guy who takes most of the pictures on this web site, Thank Bruce!) took Ari to a park we like a lot in La Jolla. From what I hear, fun was had by all. Unfortunately, dusk was playing tricks with our friends camera and most of the pictures were too dark to see much. Here is one that shows our pretty girl from that night out with the boys. :)
The next photo is from Saturday morning. We went to a kids indoor playground called Super Play. It was a lot of fun! Here Ari is showing off her inner domestic goddess...
and practicing her driving preparing to ask Daddy for the keys to the car already.
One of the favorite things there for our thrill seeker is a go cart ride. You can check out how tall they are here:
And how much she loves speed here:
Saturday afternoon we decided to check out the San Diego Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The first thing we ran into that Ari just HAD TO DO, was the pony ride. She was disappointed that she forgot her cowgirl hat in the car, but she was still adorable and super happy on her horse, Franky.
Then we found the Kiddieland area and boy was that a mistake, I mean fun. After riding a nice kiddie boat ride......Ari was back to needing SPEED! There was a children's roller coaster and she just had to go on it. Of course, she also decided to sit in back and as I was flinging about because it was meant for someone 37" tall, I'm thinking... I hope she isn't scared against roller coasters after this. So what did she say afterwards? MORE!
We decided that instead of more, we would go fishing which she would like as well. So here you see her and I maneuvering a fish rod as we caught a fish. We won a small prize which has become a HUGE hit! What could this prize be?
A pink hedgehog. LOL You can see it in her hands here as Daddy holds her after the victory.
If you thought we were finished with our thrill seeking... You were wrong. She saw a boat that went not only rocking back and forth, but also spun around as it rocked back and forth. I made sure that this time we at least sat in the middle! Oh.. and afterwards... We yelled, "MORE!", again.
Once again, we distracted her. I took her through a mirror maze and showed her how to feel our way through. I'm not sure if she totally got what it was all about, but we smiled at each other in the mirrors and I didn't have to get flung about. Hehe...
After this we saw a really cute train that we just had to ride on so here we are sitting in the caboose all buckled up. :)
The next three pictures are a combination. You may be wondering why I'm giving a sarcastic thumbs up in this first shot...
...while Ari is having such a good time (holding her hedgehog) in this shot.
Well... All these rides charged you 3 tickets for the child and 3 tickets for the adult as well even though I'm only there because she needed me to be there. In the picture below you will notice that Ari is driving a truck with me in the back. Not only in the back, but there isn't even a window behind her head so she can check that I'm there. In fact... I had no idea if she was doing okay or not. I couldn't see her AT ALL. John had a better idea of whether she was doing well. So... I was essentially there for my own happiness at riding the back of the truck. Hence... the need for sarcasm. Hehe...
This was a cool shot our friend Bruce took of John and Ari with the lights of the fair behind them. I think it turned out amazing.
Here is the evidence of what a bad mommy I am. Would you like some chocolate and ice cream before bed time? More? OKAY! It's a fair. You can't leave without having a treat!
So... we spent father's day weekend being a family for the most part. On father's day, John did get to choose where to eat breakfast, spend time in his garage doing woodworking, and eating a steak dinner. As far as his gift? Well... that happened weeks ago. Ari and I gave Daddy a hammock and stand. He loves it. :) I chose the best Daddy for Ari possible! We love you John!