Staycation

Last year we trekked to Grand Lake for Memorial Day weekend.  This year we're having a staycation.

Our stay-at-home vacation started on Saturday morning with a walk to the market in our town center and a trip to Central Park playground.  The fountains were running and a dozen or so kids happily played in the water.  Of course, our little one wanted to play in the water, too, but the swings plus promises of a post-nap pool outing satisfied her.

After a good nap and snack, we sunscreen-ed up and headed to the Aviator pool.  We went to the Puddle Jumper pool a few times last summer but Madelyn was much more in to the water and swimming this year.  I might be biased but she was cutest and best behaved little swimmer at the pool.  We only stayed for thirty to forty-five minutes but long enough to get our fill.  Madelyn went under (not entirely on purpose) two times!

The day was capped off by a visit from Grammy and Grandad while Griff and I went out for a staycation date -- sushi followed by beers and baseball.  Quite a combination!

Day two of our staycation included a trip to the zoo.  We saw the foxes, giraffes, sea lions, polar bears, elephants, and, of course, monkeys.  Madelyn's favorite were the giraffes.  She liked the baby giraffe running around the giraffe yard.  We also enjoyed a picnic lunch at the zoo.  We were unsuccessful in finding the lions today but I promised her we'd make sure to find them next time.

The scheduled activity for day three of our staycation is a trip to Tiny Town, Colorado, and some backyard fun at Grammy and Grandad's.  Stay tuned for pictures and an update of the rest of our "trip"!

Summer, summer, summertime...

...time to sit back and unwind.

I am Mommy

This afternoon, Team Anderson loaded into the family car and headed over to the SuperTarget.  We needed a few items for dinner this evening as well as our homemade Mother's Day brunch tomorrow morning.  I had run out of face lotion in the morning and convinced Griff to make a pit stop at the Aveda store close to the SuperTarget.  He and Madelyn decided to wait in the car for me.

When I finished my transaction and got back in the car, Griff told me a story of what happened while I was gone.  On a side note, Madelyn has, from time to time, freaked out when I've gotten out of the car to run in some place thinking she's been left behind even when Griff is still in the car with her.

At any rate, the following is a paraphrase of today's story as Griff told it to me -

I got out of the car.  Madelyn didn't freak out and actually waved bye-bye as I walked away.  She saw me walk into the store and maintained her focus and attention on it knowing I was inside.  At some point, she could even see me inside.  The whole time, while maintaining her focus, she repeated, "Mommy," "Mommy", "Mommy?".  When I walked back out, she was happy and greeted me with a friendly "Hi!"

The best part of the whole thing is that as Griff is telling me this, it didn't really register that she was saying "Mommy" and had made the connection that I am Mommy!  I wish I could have been there to see it but, at the same time, had I been there, it wouldn't have occurred.  Yay!  What a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!

I am Mommy!

Mother's Day 2010

Blue

I'm not sure what this year's Mother's Day arts and crafts project from school will be.  Last year, Madelyn made me a sweet coffee filter flower which is still displayed on the book shelf in her room.  What I do know is that this year's project will be blue.

Upon pick-up yesterday afternoon, Griff finished cleaning the blue off Madelyn's arms and hands.  They must have done arts and crafts in their skivvies as Madelyn came home in the same outfit from the morning...and it was not blue.

However, before bathtime last night, we discovered that even her ear canals were blue!  She must have had her fingers in her ears at some point before getting cleaned up.  The blue cotton swab during bath time was proof!

Stay tuned for more details on the mystery blue project...