Cedar Mills, TX with Daddy

Today Daddy thought it would be fun to head on down to Cedar Mills, TX. It's right on Lake Texoma and they have a grass runway there, along with a marina, a restaurant, a small petting zoo, and other neat things to do and see. We met up with some of Daddy's friends and had a good time. I even ate most of my lunch (chicken strips) at the restaurant, which is amazing for me, especially since I was around new people! Daddy was pretty surprised, but very happy!

After lunch we walked out on the boat docks and looked at some of the boats. Some ducks even came over to say hi. Daddy didn't get any pictures, though, he thought it more important to keep me from falling in the water!

We then made our way to the petting zoo. They had goats, sheep, a cow, rabbits, and two roosters. I didn't really approach any of the animals (I was a little scared), but I did take to following these roosters around for a while!



When we left, Daddy showed me how much fun it is to kick and stomp on the fallen leaves!



I slept most of the way back, which Daddy thought was great.

When we got home, we had some important gardening to do. Grandma and Grandpa had given us this maple tree that just started growing in their yard. Daddy said he'd take it yesterday, so we brought it home and planted it. Grandma and Grandpa said it's really been growing fast, so in not too long it should be taller than me!



Daddy dug up the tree that we had transplanted last year and put this one in its place. It had never been a very healthy-looking tree, and we decided to put in something that will hopefully give us some shade in a few years. We'll see!

To Grandma and Grandpa Roslewski's house!

As Mommy is still out of town (for a whole week more) we thought it would be nice to go visit Grandma and Grandpa (and Shadow!) Roslewski. This also of course gave Daddy a little break, which I didn't mind at all.

So yesterday Daddy picked me up from school and we headed to the airport. On the way to Owasso, I was a really good girl and just read and ate the whole way up. Here I am reading my book "Moo, Baa, La la la". I even wore my pink headset!



I had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. They know I like puzzles, so they brought out this gigantic floor puzzle from when Daddy was my age. It's of Snuffle-upagus from Sesame Street. I liked the big pieces!

We got it all together!



Grandma even gave me another haircut. I'm always really good for her, so that's why Mommy and Daddy like having her do it!

We had all kinds of fun, and by the end of the day today, I was worn out! So on the way back, I pretty quickly fell asleep!

It didn't last all the way back, though. Since I had read all the books I had with me, Daddy handed me one of his pilot magazines. To his delight, I read that for about 15 minutes!

Thanks for a great time, Grandma and Grandpa!

Day 2 and we're still alive!

We've made it two whole days now and we're doing fine, except for really missing Mommy. Of course it's been "easy" so far, Daddy hasn't yet had to do laundry, go grocery shopping, or even cook anything. I've really been asking for Mommy a lot though!

I've been riding in to Day Care with a classmate of mine who lives just a few blocks up the street. Iliana is really nice and I've know her since we were little. So I get to ride in a "big car" (their minivan) in the morning and the evening, and Daddy picks me up from their house.

But I've been having so much fun riding with Iliana that when Daddy has come to pick me up, I don't want to go with him! I put up quite a fuss yesterday and even today, though today's ended when Daddy suggested we go to the park since it was a nice day. Sorry Daddy, I just don't want to leave my friend!

In other big news, from when Daddy picked me up today until I went to bed, I didn't wet at all in my pull-up! I went to the potty at least twice (twice at home and maybe in day care too), so Daddy was very proud of me! He said if I do this well tomorrow, we'd try big girl panties again! I'll try!

Bye-bye Mommy! :(

As I mentioned yesterday, Mommy has to go away for work for a couple of weeks. She'll be in Knoxville, TN for some training. So today we all went to the airport to see her off. As usual, the OKC airport was even less busy than we expected, so we had plenty of extra time before Mommy had to go through the security line. Airports are fun places!

They have neat railings to hang on to and watch people.



They had a water fountain that was just barely out of my reach. I stretched and was able to drink a few times, standing way up on my tip toes!



It doesn't look like Daddy and I are doing anything special in this picture, until you realize that I wanted to walk backwards, and did almost the whole length of the terminal! I also wouldn't let Daddy walk forwards, if he did I turned him right back around!



I also got to learn how to get on and off escalators. We'd go up one, down the next, then back up, and down, over and over again. I did say the airport wasn't very busy! But I did mostly get the hang of it after a while.

But too soon, the fun was over and Mommy had to go through the security line. We watched her as long as we could, and I even blew some kisses her way. Daddy and I will try to have some fun daddy-daughter time, but we'll really miss you Mommy!

Mommy does a lot of cooking

Mommy spent most of the day today in the kitchen. You see, she's going out of town tomorrow for two weeks for work, and wanted to make sure Daddy and I didn't starve while she was gone. Daddy had said not to worry, we could have pizza every night!

But Mommy did something that Daddy thought was absolutely wonderful. She made meals for us that should last most of the next two weeks! Daddy thought this was so great, he took a picture of the refrigerator and the freezer. Mommy even labeled what is in each container! We love you Mommy!

Who's got a big buddha belly?

You know I've pointed out Daddy's big buddha belly many times. And I've also pointed out my big buddha belly too. Well, today I finally made it all fair and square, and told Mommy she had a big buddha belly too!

I thought this was pretty funny. Daddy thought this was REALLY funny.

Needless to say, Mommy didn't find it anywhere near as funny as we did!

Of course, I also got Daddy too. He was getting dressed and hadn't put a shirt on yet. When I saw this obvious breach of etiquette, I immediately spoke up - "Daddy, put shirt on now!" I am also fond of pointing out that he has a hairy belly!

"Daddy, draw my foot?"

Daddy and I were outside playing with chalk, when he told me to watch what he was doing. He drew the outline of his foot on the patio! I thought this was really neat, and asked him to "draw my foot", so he came over and did mine! Then of course I wanted to move over and have him do it again. And again! So by then we had about 3 or 4 outlines of both our feet. When Mommy came out, we drew all three of our feet on top of each other!

I thought this was so much fun I wanted to do it myself. I wasn't very good at first, tryiung to draw Daddy's feet. But with more practice, I traced right around Mommy's foot, no problem!

Tuckered out!

Today Mommy went to her "Super Saturday" Relief Society event. As the bad weather caused Daddy to cancel the "rescue" flight he'd been scheduled to fly, I got to spend the whole day playing with Daddy!

We went to the library just in time for story time. The story teller shared a really scary story about being swallowed by a big snake. She had a big, fabric snake eating her up, right in front of all of us! When the "snake" got up to the story teller's waist I had to scream at the snake "NO! Don't eat her!" For some reason, Daddy thought this was very funny. Didn't he know her life was in peril?

After the library we went to Lowe's, where I "test drove" all the riding lawn mowers. But as Daddy actually had a specific purpose for going there, I wasn't allowed to play as long as I would have liked to. :-(

Even with the rainy weather, Daddy still played lots of games with me. In fact, I fell asleep during my afternoon snack time, right at the table! Daddy carried me over to the couch. I must have been really tired to have slept through all of this. Even Pitch and Little Girl decided they should take a nap with us. I think the only one who didn't get much rest during this nap was Daddy. Poor Daddy!

Helping Mommy Make Macadamia Nut Chicken

One of Daddy's favorite memories of our trip to Hawaii was a recipe Carla Schade made for us: Macademia Nut Chicken. Mommy was using Daddy's rubber mallet to crush the macademia nuts so they'd coat the chicken better. When I saw what she was doing, I went to get my own "hammer" to help her out. I'm such a big help in the kitchen!

Infant Car Seat

Mommy met a lady at church who does emergency foster care for infants. When Mommy learned this lady could use another infant car seat, Mommy volunteered to give her my old seat. Mommy's plan would have gone just fine if I hadn't caught Daddy loading MY seat into Mommy's car. I climbed back in the seat and kept saying "MINE". I don't understand why Daddy says the seat is too small for me. I think it's still "Piper-sized." What do you think?

Can you say "Omniplex"?

Mommy and Daddy have been talking about a place called "The Omniplex" for a couple of days now. I have no idea what the Omniplex is, but I sure like to say Omniplex. It's fun to say, even if I do have trouble with the "l" sometimes. "AAAHHM-KNEE-PEX!"

Before we left this morning, Mommy put my hair into two braids. She said I looked very cute. Then she was silly and put her own hair in two braids also! We were like twins! Just before we left I wanted to give Little Girl some love first. Here Mommy is showing me how to pet Little Girl softly. (Don't let Little Girl's expression fool you. She LOVES us petting her.)



Turns out The Omniplex is a science museum. It has lots of fascinating exhibits, with many of them having "hands on" applications. Here Daddy is explaining how the balls are tripping different obstacles, allowing them to take different paths each time. (Daddy liked this exhibit a lot - maybe even more than I did. Mommy had to pull him away. Silly Daddy!)



Next we got to simulate a black hole by rolling our pennies (okay, Mommy's pennies) into this exhibit. The penny spun faster and faster as it reached the center.



This exhibit showed how airflow over a "wing" (like that of an airplane) causes lift, enabling flight. (Again, Daddy found the display more interesting than I did. But pressing the button was pretty fun!)



This "Jacob's Ladder" display was pretty neat. Each time I pressed a button, an electric spark would flow to the top of the ladder.



I have to admit, I found it pretty neat to see that touching a button could have such an interesting effect!



Mommy says that for years that Daddy has wanted to put a pulley system in our home. We don't know what for, but Daddy apparently likes pulleys. This exhibit shows how much easier a pulley makes it to lift a heavy object.



These three objects all rolled down the ramp at different speeds, depending on their mass distribution. And they made a big crash at the bottom! So we tested this many, many times.



What's going on with my hair?



They had a great big model train display that I wanted to watch for a long time!



I can't remember the rule about coupled pendulums, I just know it was pretty neat to watch the pendulums swing back and forth.



As you may know, I like to fly. So I was fascinated by the hot air balloon going all the way to the high ceiling. I even got to push the button that filled it with hot air to make it go all the way to the ceiling!



There was a room filled with mirrors that made it difficult to tell which way to go to get through the maze. Luckily, Mommy and Daddy were there to help me make it all the way to the end!



Here I'm spinning a "chaotic pendulum". The yellow bars of the pendulum would make really jerky movements that were fun to watch.



Around 4 p.m. Mommy and Daddy noticed I wasn't moving at my usual "Piper speed." Daddy asked if I wanted to go home. I gave him a very tired "yes". This was very unusual because I almost never say I want to go home!

Within minutes of getting in the car, I fell asleep. I was so tired, but I had a great day at The Omniplex. I can't wait to go back again!

Big girl panties!

I've been doing really well at using the potty chair this last week or so. I've been using it at least once a day at home, and even several times a day on the weekend. In fact, I've been doing so good, Mommy bought me my first package of "big girl panties" today! I was very excited when I saw them, and just a little while later, told Daddy I had to go potty. After I was done, the first words out of my mouth were, "big girl panties?" Well of course Daddy and Mommy couldn't refuse a request like that, so I got to wear my first pair of them!

And about 15 minutes later, my second pair.

And about 15 minutes later, we decided that was enough and I got a diaper back on for the evening!

Oops! Mommy and Daddy told me it was okay, accidents happen! We'll try more later.