Eastward bound

Our big trip for the summer of 2009 was back East to see Nana and Papa Wong. F, understandably, was a little nostalgic for New Jersey and the sights from his growing-up years. We got in some shopping, of course, as a trip with F is never without a trip to the local mall. Our best outings, however were to the New Jersey Children's museum and the Imagine That! children's museum in nearby (30-45 minute drives) townships. The NJ Children's museum is truly a hidden treasure. We spent the entire day in the facility, with a break to eat lunch. The museum is in a warehouse sized building and while open-concept with very smooth flow from section to section, is distinctly divided into a multitude of thematic learning areas. I was awed by the sheer number of things C got to experience and play at during our visit. She dressed up as a princess in the castle sector, a cowboy in the old west, went fishing in the oceanic, dug for dinosaur bones, flew a heliocoptor, interacted with virtual reality, took care of a house and babies, did a little ballet, went grocery shopping, made music, delivered mail, and served at her own little restaraunt! There was more, but I'm at a loss to remember just now. Imagine That! had just about as many exploration options, all divided by half-walls, so parents could look out over the whole room and observe whatever their children were involved in. That, I really liked.

Returning home to Nana's house after our outings, we had just as good a time just hanging out at home. F was impressed by all the changes Nana and Papa have made to his childhood home, improvements in flow as well as appearance. F's term, "updating" is appropriate, as the house seems much more contemporary to me. We brought along several of C's animal friends and ponies, so she entertained her Nana with them, making use of the ample space for running and dancing.

Catching up: Daddy's home!

Due to the security-need for discretion, I refrained from mentioning in my posts from June 08 to June 09 that F was deployed to Iraq during that time. C missed Daddy very much, but we prepared well by having F record himself reading some of her favorite books on DVD, which she didn't watch as much as we expected, but did enjoy when she asked for them. We kept in touch via cards, packages (containing photos and her crafts) letters, phone calls and emails as well as Skype, using the video-call feature. C loved watching Daddy on the computer--so much so that she would sometimes ask to talk to Daddy on the computer at random times, times when he certainly wasn't available to call. We prayed for Daddy every night and she slept with her Daddy-doll from Operation Giveahug. She also made me kiss it goodnight. In May, we prepared a countdown chain in order to help me explain that Daddy was coming home and prepare her for the changes in our household. She jumped up and down with excitement when I would tell her that it was time to cut the link each morning. The day Daddy returned, the welcome-home was at 0200 (yes, in the morning) and I had prepared to get C into jammies and asleep at the hotel well before time to get him, so that I could take her sleeping. That did not work. She stayed awake the whole evening and up to the ceremony, even insisting on wearing a dress for Daddy, not the aforementioned jammies. She hugged her daddy, and once she was in the car with him, only then did she fall asleep. Such determination. We spent a few days in a hotel while F turned in all his gear and had a few final meetings, finally bringing him home 4 days later. Here they are, enjoying playing at home as our summer vacation really started.

Busy doing blogworthy things...

Here it is, the end of February, and I've just realized the last things I posted all took place during Christmas! The past two months have kept us hopping...and then crashing. C and I are finally healthy again after 2 weeks of sharing a particularly annoying cold bug with stuffy head, headaches, fever, sore throat and cough. I am supremely thankful that for once the cold did not turn into an ear infection for little C. Before the bug knocked us down though, we were up and going full speed.

We've started going to the library for story time once a week. C sits still through the stories, but doesn't participate much (even though some of the stories are interactive; the librarian does an amazing job picking stories) until we get to the craft time. She runs to the table and claims her space, grabbing up the markers and materials, raring to go. She's also usually the last one to leave, taking as much time to "make things" as she can. "Making things" is the new theme at home as well. The last package we sent to "Daggy" 

was pretty much just her artwork. I wonder what I'm going to do with it all when he's back here and I don't have anywhere to send it. Actually, I saw a great display idea at a friend's house the other day, and I might have to borrow her brilliance. C does, however, participate very well when watching PBS

 or Disney and they have the characters or "teacher" ask the kids to do things. It's something I plan to mention to her preschool teachers next year. That's right folks, C is starting preschool in the fall. I've heard simply fantastic things from friends whose opinions I respect about the school we've chosen. 

She's learning plenty at home as well. Lately, she's mommy's little helper--wants to help mommy clean, do laundry and even cook. She knows all her capital letters and their sounds, she can count to 12 in the correct order, and even recognizes some of the numbers visually. She's also making progress in holding a writing instrument, drawing recognizable shapes lines, and coloring purposefully. Her coloring pages are less scribble-all-over and more scribble-a-specific-spot. It's really fun to watch her skills emerge.

Speaking of lessons, C's also been taking swimming lessons this spring "semester". She's already passed the Red Cross level 1 and the teachers have passed her through level 2, but her mommy hasn't. I'm not as confident in her skills in the water as her instructor seems to be, so I'm keeping her in level 2 one more month, just to give her a bit more practice with some of the skills before we go to level 3, where there are going to be some "big kids". Apparently, level 3 takes some time, and physical development to get through, and some kids don't pass it until they're 8 or 9. Call me overprotective if you want, but I'm a bit hesitant about putting my little 3 year old in with school-kids. She'll be going that route in April, but for March, I'll let her practice a bit more. 

Dance lessons seem to be following a water theme as well. C's now in an actual class for dance and will be participating in the recital in May. The recital's concept is "Under the Sea," and the costumes all follow suit. C's class will be mermaids, and while I'm quite frankly unimpressed with the costume, the girls are enjoying the idea of being Princess Ariel. I'm hopeful that the costume will look better on the girls than in the picture. 

We've also been on several outings lately. Playhouse Disney Live! came to Topeka and we had the good fortune to get some great seats. C, however, didn't sit down for much of it, she was so excited. I actually got out of the house for a ladies' outing or two. I even went to the Chris Tomlin concert with a friend. We also got fantastic seats for that one. For Valentine's day, I treated C to lunch in a restaurant (one of her favorite treats, as well as mommy's), then went to see Bob the Builder, Live! where again she didn't sit for most of the show because of the excitement, and then we built another "friend" at Build-a-Bear. Very exciting. In a great show of responsibility, when we got home she gave me three of her stuffed animals for our give-away box, saying "I don't have time to play with these anymore, Mommy." Such an aware little girl. With the unseasonably warm weather, we've also gotten to go to the park a bit and I'm impressed by how much she can do on the equipment compared to last year about this time.

Then, we got sick. I just have to say, she's been a trooper, but I'm really glad we're both healthy again and we can get back to the library, swimming, dance class, outings and "making things". . 

Have yourself...!

a Merry little Christmas!

For the Christmas day celebration, C and I joined my sister and parents at the Lippert house in Columbus. C enjoyed with her "Auntie Miss Rachel" (guess I've trained her well about calling adults Miss___ and Mr.____) and Grammy and Papa L enjoyed watching them. I, on the other hand, enjoyed a few days of relaxation while having six extra hands to give C all the attention she craved. Of course, the presents were a plus, and C is still having a grand time with all her goodies--especially her Word World friends. I think Sheep is the reigning favorite. She even loves her new clothes and does it surprise anyone that she had just as much fun with the packaging as she did with the gifts themselves?

"Pop goes the C..."

Opening each package, ever so attentively.
C at church wearing her new "satin dress" (her words!) from Nana. Lovely girl.

Build-a-Friend

Okay, our last Orlando post. One of our "breaks" from the parks was a trip to a local mall that has a Build-a-Bear Workshop. F misses so many of our family outings with being a soldier and all, that I wanted him to come along for this special moment for our girl. So, even though we have a B-a-B Wksp locally, we went to the one in Orlando. C picked out a kitty instead of a bear (after I talked her out of the turkey...just couldn't see the appeal of that lasting). At first she couldn't figure out why the kitty was so flat, then she got to the point in the line where she could see another child's bear being filled with stuffing and she felt much better about it. Her little face was so concerned as she stepped on the pump that pushed the stuffing into the animal, and so awed to see the kitty plumping up.  

It took her a minute or two to figure out what the clerk was telling her to do with the heart, but eventually she smiled and enjoyed it, but was solemn again when she put it into her kitty.

Then, of course, C had to kiss her kitty when the clerk finally handed her back. 

The next stop was the fluff-bath. This was possibly C's favorite part of assembling her kitty. She kept wanting to go back and brush her again and again. We've gotten her a brush (shhh) like this for Christmas. 

Dressing kitty was quite an event as well. First she picked out the sparkly red shoes and then found a dress to go with them...big surprise, a Snow White costume. C put it on mostly by herself, with minimal help from Mommy. Now that we're home, the Snow White outfit has taken up with C's basket of costumes, labeled a "costume" by C. Apparently kitties don't wear clothes, just costumes. However, she's been named "Snow Kitty." 

"Seaing" the World (SeaWorld)

Talk about a company that shows its support to the military--Anheuser-Busch, who owns SeaWorld. Because we're a military family, we got one day of free admission to the park. One day of admission may not seem like a lot, but when we looked at the price guide at the admission gate, we were impressed at the show of financial support that one day's admission really is. Neither F nor I drink beer, but for those who do have an occasional pint, you might want to think about supporting Busch and their support of the troops.

We did spend one day in Orlando at SeaWorld, and again C proved that she just likes to take pictures with characters--this time with a dolphin, whale and (while not a character persay) one of the clydesdales. We didn't intend to skip the shows, but the one we wanted to see first was full by the time we got there, so we went instead to "Shamu's Happy Harbor" to play for a little while. It was far more robust in the rides area than I expected, and we spent the majority of our day there. As we surveyed the rides, it seemed C was going to be too short to ride anything, then we found one that she was tall enough for, and we rode on it. The line was non-existent, so I had a chance to visit with the very personable young lady who was operating the ride. She said that most people didn't see that the heights are for unaccompanied riders, and that C could ride on all but one ride there, as long as she had a parent with her. Much encouraged, we were off! C wanted to make all the spinning rides spin (she had a great time making Mommy sick to her stomach) and at this park she was finally re-interested in the carousel. Her favorite was probably the miniature "space shot" ride that goes straight up and bounces up and down until finally it reaches "down". F tried to take her up on a very high (3 stories!) climbing net structure, but C (to put it mildly) freaked out and pulled on his watch, breaking it. I only mention this because after they climbed down from the thing, F managed to find all the pieces and put it back together! We probably had the most ride-time at SeaWorld, even though that wasn't necessarily the original intent in visiting the park. We did see a few marine animals though, the baby dolphins and the penguins. These days C is finding it delightful to show mommy how a penguin walks.

Up...and down...Up...and down...
Spin Mommy, spin!
If a character whale is this much bigger than C, I hate to imagine her next to the real thing!
You decide, who's more enamored with whom--the "dolphin" with C or C with the "dolphin?"

Universal Appeal

On of our other stops in Orlando was Universal Studios: both the original and Islands of Adventure. We spent two days at Islands of Adventure, mostly at Suess Landing. This led to the discovery that it didn't so much matter which characters C was posing with, as the fact that she was posing with characters. Prior to our visit, I'd read a few Dr. Suess stories to C, with something of limited interest from her. However, she wanted to get pictures with the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2 as well as Sam-I-am and the lead from Green Eggs and Ham. I pointed them out and she eagerly climbed out of her stroller to stand in line for pictures. I expected her to be very excited about the Caro-Suessel (A Dr. Suess style carousel), but that was not the big hit. She enjoyed the Cat in the Hat storybook ride, and the train that went around the whole "island" (that she was just barely tall enough to ride). The popular attraction though, the one she clamored to ride again and again, was the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue fish ride...probably because it had fish that sprayed water at the riders and she got to get wet. During her naps I got to ride on a few grown-up rides: the Hulk, Spiderman, and the Dueling Dragons. Fortunately for us, the days we went were light on the crowd factor, so I didn't spend the whole naptime in a line, but riding! Whee! We also wandered through the other "islands" looking at the shops and finding something for C here and there. In Toon Lagoon she spent a good hour on "Me Ship, the Olive," a playground of sorts, and in the Marvel area, she met and posed with Spiderman, who was astonished that she knew who he was.

On our last day in Orlando, we didn't have to be at the airport until 3:00 pm, so we were able to spend the morning at the regular Universal Studios. It was a good amount of time, as there was little to appeal to C there. When we arrived, we were fortunate enough to see her favorite character as we were walking in, heading for the Nickelodeon kidzone. That's right, Curious George was right there on the "main street." Again, she proved that the appeal was in posing with a character, any character and not just ones she knew, as she also posed eagerly with Woody and Winny Woodpecker, Bullwinkle and Scooby Doo. We spent an hour in Feivel's playground, filled with oversize objects that help you imagine you're the size of a mouse. She had her first experience with a ball-pit there. Then, we rode her first real roller coaster, which once again she was barely tall enough to ride: Woody Woodpecker's Funhouse Coaster. Unlike the "coaster" at Worlds of Fun, this one actually had a steep drop or two, and several rushing, sharp turns. She loved it. From there we visited another playground-style area, this one themed on Curious George. Most of this was water-play, so we weren't able to enjoy it as much as I'm sure she would have liked, but since we were flying back to Kansas that night, I told her we couldn't play in anything that would get us wet, and she obeyed my request. She did really enjoy pushing the buttons in the circus tent that made the sounds of the other animals we see on Curious George.

Ooh, ooh, what does this button do?
Did you know I'm small enough to ride a spoon?
Up fish, up fish, up, up, up! Down fish, down fish, down, down, down!
C and Daddy on the Caro-Suessel.
Now she recognizes the Cat in the Hat on books, on souvenirs, and we read Dr. Suess a whole lot more!

Disney Delight

In November, we got to take a little vacation. We met up with F's parents (Hi Nana and Papa!) in Orlando and visited DisneyWorld. If you ask C where we went, she'll tell you we went to Disneytown. She'll also tell you all about the characters we saw and the rides and seeing Playhouse Disney Live! (twice).  We didn't tell her where we were going until we were actually headed to the park in the morning. She was so excited when she saw the Minnie and Mickey on the sides of the entrance gate. If she could have bounced in her carseat, I'm pretty sure she would have. She enjoyed the rides, but she was truly delighted to meet the characters. Her favorite rides were It's a Small World  and the Magic Carpets from Aladdin. I was really impressed that C stood in line so well to see the characters (50 minutes for Tigger and Pooh). Mostly she just wanted to hug them, feeling like they were her friends; she knew them so well from the shows she watches. Of course, we didn't spend all our time meeting characters. I think she played for an hour in the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playground and another hour in the "Hundred Acre Wood" playground. We spent three days visiting Disney parks, and at the end, when when we were leaving to go to the airport, of course she said she didn't want to go home. She "wanted to ride more rides!" (specifically Dumbo.)

Posing (so grown up) with Tigger and Pooh.

I know she's tiny, but this is ridiculous...(at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground).
Meeting the Little Einsteins, so excited to see her "favorites!" (Everything is her favorite.)
Such amazement, seeing her Playhouse Disney characters Live! on stage. 
Who's got the goofier grin? She was so happy to see Goofy.

Homeless

As my Gr'pa used to say/sing, "We're on the road again..." That's right, our household goods are all on a moving truck, we've cleaned and cleared housing ($560...not bad, all considered) and are currently in transit. C keeps asking to go "home" and we explain it over and over again, but I don't think she's going to really comprehend it until all our things are in the new house. I've had her say "good bye" to as many of our friends (that we could fit in) and familiar spots at Fort Irwin, but she just waved and said "see ya later," to them. Perhaps she's following my lead, since I'm not saying "goodbye," just "see you later" out loud. The packup went reallywell, and I was pleased with the way I saw things going, but won't know for sure how well they did until we're unpacking them. The loadup didn't impress me as much. The guys were too anxious to "get 'er done" and moved too fast with our furniture and boxes for my comfort level. I hovered a bit much and I'm pretty sure they were glad when I had to absent myself to go handle a childcare issue. During this whole leaving process, I just have to publicly praise God for providing such care from our friends. Several gals helped watch C during the busy-ness, and one family even invited us for a home-cooked dinner on our last night on post. It was incredibly restful to be able to eat a dinner that wasn't at a restaraunt, since we'll be getting our fill of those during this move. C was able to play while we ate (after she was done), and it tasted wonderful! Some others offered to bring us meals to the house, but we couldn't accept, because it was the place to eat the meals that had us most challenged at the end! Still, the thought meant so much to us.

Tonight's stop was Auntie Irene's house for dinner with their family and Auntie Jennie's too. One blessing about living out here in California was having some of F's aunts and uncles close by. We didn't see them as often as we'd like, but we're at least trying to see them one more time before leaving. Auntie Irene fixed an incredible dinner (can't wait to try out the chicken recipe on my own in the new home!) and we just got to relax. What a treat to have a dinner I didn't have to cook, rush away from in order to get things done to get ready to move, or do dishes. I felt so pampered! Thank you so much Auntie!

In other news, I can tell that I'm getting into a really bad habit with the television shows and C. After exploring Auntie Irene's house a bit, she found the television there. She sat right down and here's the coversation:

C: "Watch George please?"
Mommy: "No, Auntie Irene doesn't have any George."
C: "How about Bob?" (as in Bob the Builder)

I laughed so hard, I couldn't figure out what to say to that one. After I could breathe again, I told her that we'd watched enough shows for today in the car, and we were going to play. She accepted that, and we moved on. But how's that for some early creative thinking!