Pause

I just got back from dinner out with a friend and haven't had a chance to look through my pictures from the day yet, and I'm tired.

So today's picture will come tomorrow - maybe even in the morning. Hopefully it's worth the wait!

Day 218 - August 6

Today's picture just straight up made me laugh when I looked down at it on the screen after I took it.

My plan was to get another shot of Michaela with her Uncle Ryan, having fun playing with the hose during a big picnic at my parents' house today.

I got that, but even better is the expression on my nephew's face off to the right. I wish I'd known he was going to have that reaction (or that I needed to look for it) because I would've composed the shot differently to get more of him in there. Either way, it's enough to make you laugh!

Day 217 - August 5

Fun with an uncle!

I would like to thank my brother not only for giving Michaela a Rody Horse like this one for her birthday, but for also teaching her the fun of having someone else bounce her while she's on a Rody Horse, thereby setting the precedent that her father and I will now be stuck with forever.

Thanks, Ry.

Day 216 - August 4

First of all, I have to say Happy Birthday, Coast Guard! The Coast Guard (or, more accurately, what became the CG) is 221 years old today!

And now for a post that has nothing to do with the Coast Guard....

My mom (Grandma) and I took Michaela to the Lutz Children's Museum this morning. There's not much to it, but it's the perfect kind of place for someone Michaela's age to burn off some energy, do some hands-on learning/playing, and see some small animals (mostly rodents and birds).

While she enjoyed pretty much everything about the museum, she especially liked ringing the bell on the "trolley." I think there may have once been a rope attached to the ringer in the bell, but it was no longer there, so it took some work to get any noise out of it. Michaela figured out how to do that pretty quickly (with help from Grandma holding her up to reach it), and was cracking us up with her giggles every time she got it to ring as loud as possible.

Even funnier was her flinching every time. I was excited to look down at the screen on my camera and see I captured that reaction with little blur or camera shake! This just makes me laugh because all she wanted to do was the ring the bell, but then she'd scare herself every time!

Day 215 - August 3

What did people ever do before the creation of things like laptop computers with DVD drives when they were flying with their kids?

Our first flight today was less than 45 minutes so I read the same "Toy Story" Golden Book about 15 times and then went through about 500 of the 1300 picture I have on my phone to keep the kid happy.

The second flight was just over two hours, though, so the computer came out and Buzz ("Toy Story 2") came on. That kept her occupied and happy for at least an hour. I got to read a whole chapter of a book!

Here she is wrapped up in the story of Woody being stolen by Al from Al's Toy Barn. DVDs at 30,000 feet.... genius.

Day 214 - August 2

My sole purpose in life this morning was to tire out the toddler so she'd take a nice, long nap this afternoon and I could get the rest of my t0-do list done. I was successful. She slept for just about 3 hours this afternoon - the longest nap she's taken in a couple weeks - and I got everything done.

I can think of worse ways to spend a morning tiring out a toddler....

Day 213 - August 1

Pardon me, but your Type-A-ness is showing.

I'm in the midst of packing for a week-long trip. It's just me and Michaela going and I'm stressed about traveling alone with her. Mostly I'm stressed about getting the two of us and all of the crap I'm bringing with us into the airport (and then back out again when we get back here next week). With two decent-sized bags, a carseat (which the kid will be riding in, thanks to our Go-Go-Babyz wheels), my backpack, her backpack, a camera bag and a diaper bag, it's a lot to wrangle and I seriously get a headache just thinking about it!

In addition to that for this trip, I always stress about packing for every trip. That's just a given. So I pulled up my trusty excel spreadsheet, updated it for this trip, and got to work. I've got all the big stuff done already and I still have a day and a half til we leave. Whew!

Now to figure out how to get us into the airport.