Another part of our trip home was to visit Millie Janalee's pediatrician.  I know we will need a pediatrician here in Missouri, but I just couldn't take her to a new one for her two year shots.  Not yet.  I hate shots more than she does, so I was comforted to see a familiar face.  Plus we just love him!

Before our appointments - I also had to make a last minute dental appointment before her checkup because a filling came out the week before - we met Jamie for lunch.  My mom came with us for the day, and we enjoyed catching up with Jamie!

As soon as they called us back to our room, the nurse came in to prick her finger.  Talk about a big welcome!  From there it was pretty much all downhill.  The thought of even sitting back on that white papered table was enough to throw my girl into a whirlwind of emotion.  So we sat together and snuggled.  And I gave her a paci.  Because pacis make everything better.

We got a great report!  Happy and healthy two year old.  25 pounds (10-25%) and 35 1/4 inches tall (50-75%).  She had those mean old shots and didn't pass out.  Screamed?  Yes!  But no passing out this time. Remember she has passed out before during shots.

Her lead levels were a bit elevated, so we were sent downstairs to the lab to get a better reading.  Which meant...not a finger prick.  A NEEDLE IN THE ARM like an adult!  It. Was. Horrible!  Seriously terrible.  And it seemed to last forever.  Bless her little heart!  It was a terribly long day and the needles just kept coming.  The nurse gave her a sucker when it was all over, and that seemed to make things all better.  I stopped at Walgreens to give Millie Janalee some Tylenol to help her feel better for the ride home.  Then Mama and I stopped by Sonic for a stiff drink before making the 2 hour drive back home.  We were tired.

Me thinking her obsession with Doc McStuffins would make this doctor visit fun was completely wrong.  But I am very thankful for a happy and healthy baby girl.  God is good!

Uncie Lee's "Potty"

The day we got our first set of glasses. Millie Janalee and I traveled the 5 1/2 hours to visit family for the first time since the move.  I have never had such a busy visit in my life.  Nonstop!  But we had such a great time.

Literally, our first stop was to visit my sister and her little family to celebrate her husband's birthday.  We arrived right before the birthday boy.  Kristin and Lee's mom (Aunt Nana) made and/or delivered a yummy dinner from Olive Garden complete with a mocha birthday cake!

As soon as Millie Janalee walked up to their door and say the birthday cake door hanger, she started yelling "Potty!"  Yes, we are having a PARTY.  "Potty" time!  She had a blast and loved wearing her birthday hat.  Off to the side, of course, so there was still room for the bow.

So happy we are able to make it in for special occasions and celebrate with our family!  Hughes has nearly doubled in size since we saw him last.  These two are gonna be so much fun to watch as they grow.

Happy birthday Uncie Lee!  We hope it was the best one yet.

The Better to See You With

It happened.  Millie Janalee got her extra set of eyes on August 25!  Y'all.  She is the most precious thing I have ever seen. EVER!  I promise.  I could just eat her up with a spoon.  I put those little glasses on her face at the optician's office, and she was all smiles!  Never even tried to take them off.  Well, maybe she did at first.  But once she got to playing and walking around the office, she probably forgot they were on.

We really think she can tell such a difference.  First of all, because she rarely tries to take them off.  Secondly, she studied things so closely when she first got them.  I didn't specify before, but she is wearing bifocals.  So she walked around looking over the top of the bifocals trying to figure it all out.  Now, she runs all over the place like normal.  I swear she smiles bigger, laughs harder, and plays louder with her glasses on.  I didn't even know that was possible.

We have encountered several different reactions.  The most popular reaction from adults has been thinking they were pretend glasses.  Which makes me laugh.  I never thought of that!  Ha!  We have had to explain them many times, but never a negative word.  She stops traffic wherever we go.  People just think she's the cutest thing.  And I must agree.

I mean seriously...

I'll go ahead and admit it here before you notice and start rolling your eyes and making judgements.  We (with big help from vision insurance and grandparents) did purchase more than one pair.  I won't tell you exactly how many.  You can make it a fun game to count as I blog.  A girl must accessorize after all!  In fact, when our neutral pair came in late I told the optician that we couldn't clash with maroon.  He laughed and let me borrow a pair of gray ones for the ballgame.  That's how much they love us there. Probably because they have never seen such accessorizing.  Not to mention the hairbow.  Remember, people here don't wear bows or smocked clothes.  Ha!

God has big plans for sweet Millie Janalee.  Her story is huge and long already.  But God is still writing.  He sees her heart and her potential and her future.  He loves her more than I do.  Hard to believe, but it's true.  And I trust Him completely with her little life.  The ups and the downs.

Thankful for His working in our lives through struggles big and small.  The better to see Him with!  Literally.

Festival of Nations

Russ and I decided, when we moved to the St. Louis area, that we would take advantage of all the city has to offer.  Or at least as much as we can.  The end of August we made a family Saturday out of it and headed for Forest Park for the Festival of Nations.  It is a huge multicultural event featuring over 40 ethnic food booths from various countries/regions, dancing and music, arts and crafts, and a bazaar with unique gifts from around the world.

It was also probably the hottest day of the year.  Ha!  We were all soaked by the time we left, but we had such a great time!

Listening to Nigerian music/singing

Trying native food from Iran

One of the residents under Russ is from Iran.  He and his girlfriend (or wife...I can't remember) helped with the Iran food booth.  They offered Russ some food free of charge, and Russ is always game for any kind of food!  Ha!  We had a nice visit with Sam and his girlfriend before continuing our stroll taking in the sights.  There were SO MANY different kinds of people there!  So interesting. And very fun!

We watched some of the Mexican dancers perform for a while.  Then Millie Janalee met some of the ladies waiting for their turn to perform.  She loved their costumes!  The ladies kept telling her to, "Look at Poppy" when Russ was taking her picture.  She was probably very confused.  Ha!

We strolled upon the international bazaar area of the festival.  I loved looking at all the unique gifts from around the world.  There was jewelry, clothing, handmade fans, Russian dolls, and so so much more!  Russ and I decided to let Millie Janalee pick something out.  She chose this sweet little doll.  Since that day, Russ has had to doctor her eyes with gorilla glue.  Millie Janalee was devastated that her "bebbies" had lost her eye.  We learned that coloring her eye in with a Sharpie just would NOT do.  Ha!  Needless to say, the doll was a hit!

She found the one!

"Yep.  That's it Daddy!"

Sweet baby love

We finished our afternoon with a nice big cup of fresh squeezed lemonade while watching the belly dancers perform.  Obviously, this man is having a little too much fun...

We are so blessed to have these opportunities to enjoy as a family!  Thankful for our "year long vacation" as I call it.

BFIAR - I Am an Artist

While many of my friends were sending their bitty babes off to 2 or 3 year old preschool and MDO, Millie Janalee and I began our school year at home again.  I began researching something simple back in May.  Eventually my search kept coming right back to the same thing. Easy. Not complicated. And can be used year after year.  It's even great to use after school or during the summer if your children go to preschool.

Before Five in a Row.  This particular "curriculum" (I'm using that term lightly.) is for ages 2-4.  And basically you could just rotate the same books every year adding different activities. It is literature based.  We read the chosen book five days in a row completing different activities related to the book.  It is to be fun.  Just enjoing quality productive time with my sweet girl.  We don't have a strict schedule.  We may skip a week or two depending on travel and other obligations.  But we are enjoying moving through at our own pace.

Our first book was I Am an Artist.  I have never read many of the books on the reading list...including this one.  So I'm enjoying discovering these stories as much as Millie Janalee is.  The books don't go in any particular order.  We are working on letters (even though I think she recognizes them all already), so I chose this one to go with the letter "A."  Millie Janalee was an artist for the week.

In the book it talks about all the ways to be an artist.  One of those ways is to find shapes and objects in the clouds.  We talked about clouds, went outside to find clouds, learned that God makes the clouds, and then we painted our own clouds using cotton balls and clothes pins.  First I just handed her the cotton balls because they look like clouds and we talked about how soft they were.  She could've walked away happy at playing with cotton balls. Ha!

Then I clipped the cotton balls to clothes pins and let her paint her own clouds.  I didn't get a picture of the final product.  Oops.  She enjoyed it and now points clouds out everywhere we go.  She was quite upset yesterday afternoon when there was literally not a cloud in the sky.  Ha!  #toddlerproblems 

The following day, after rereading the book, we talked about rainbows.  Don't make fun of my "teacher-y station"!  I dug through my old teaching boxes to find these jewels.  Plus I filed these sentence strips away in my story file to use in the future when we go through our reading list again.

We talked about the colors of the rainbow, and we made our own rainbows.  [Side note: By the way, I do most of these art activities with her on my own paper so she can see what to do.  I wanted her artwork to be completely her own, so I had to do my own.  Ha! It's the OCD in me I guess.]  She loves combs, so I found this little project that was perfect for rainbows!

Total concentration

Having fun!

Taking a break to wipe paint off her hands.  LOL!  The drama.

Finished product

We don't do a major activity every day.  I'm seriously keeping it low key.  Some days we just read the book and talk about the pictures.  Some days we count things in the pictures or find shapes.  You get the idea.  Some days we walk outside and find things that we read about in the book.

"You are an artist when you find a star inside an apple."  We took a trip to the grocery store, and Millie Janalee helped me find red apples for our activity on this day.  We came home, and I cut one of the apples to eat.  It was yummy!  Then, I cut another one in half while she watched.  She loves to find stars, so finding the star inside the apple was easy.  Then, I showed her how to paint with our apples.

Painting with her apple

Great job!

To this day, she walks up to the table and says "apple paint!?"  And this was probably 3 weeks ago.  We actually went to the apple orchard yesterday to pick apples, so maybe we can apple paint this week.

Finished product

This day she recognized the letter "A" and we added it to our "alphabet tree."  Yes, I have a huge palm tree on our kitchen wall.  It's one of Millie Janalee's favorite things in our home.  She placed the lizards herself and became fast friends with the monkey.  Letting her add the letters to the tree herself has been a great highlight of her day.  Ha!

We have continued to our next book at our own pace.  We skipped a week or two when we were traveling.  But Millie Janalee is loving the fun hands-on activities, and she has LOVED the books so far!  I look forward to the weeks ahead and the mommy and me memories made.

St. Louis Fun with the Mansels Part 2

About a week or so after the first group of Mansels came to visit us, the rest of their crew came for a few days.  Will and Elle are getting married this summer, and they wanted Russ to take some engagement photos.  Jeff joined them as a "chaperone" perhaps.  But I'm pretty sure he came for the fun.  Ha!

The afternoon they arrived, we got on it.  No time wasted.  Will and Elle primped for a few pictures at Forest Park.  Millie Janalee enjoyed watching the little waterfalls and running across the bridge.  She and Uncle Jeff spent some quality time together so Russ and I could concentrate on the pictures.

When we decided we were hungry enough...and tired enough (remember they traveled over 5 hours that morning and very little or no sleep the night before since they both worked the night shift)...we drove over to Central West End.  We parked at the hospital Russ works at and strolled over to a yummy Mexican restaurant.  After dinner, we strolled some more to grab some frozen yogurt.  You would think we had a full day!  But that wasn't the end.  We decided to drive over to the Arch at night.  I had never been at night, and we were excited to see the city lights from above.  Sadly the tickets were sold out.  So we explored the museum and headed back home for the night.

The next day, we slept in while Russ worked til noon...and ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe at Union Station downtown.  It was a wonderful location with lots to see.  Millie Janalee and Will enjoyed seeing the big trains.  Will has always like trains.  We headed out for our next location for engagement pictures - Missouri Botanical Garden!  A few wardrobe changes and amazing backgrounds made for beautiful pictures!  Millie Janalee even snuck in a couple.

Once again, Jeff and Millie Janalee had some bonding time.  I am thankful Millie Janalee and Uncle Jeff love each other so much!  It was very helpful during our photography sessions.  Millie Janalee still asks for Jeff every other day!

We left at closing, and came home for a movie and relaxing.  I think that's the night we had dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  This was also the night that the riots in Ferguson, MO began.  We heard a guy outside on the phone talking about it.

Russ had to go to work on Monday, so it was just Millie Janalee and me joining the group at the City Museum.  I was very excited, because I have heard so much about it and how fun it was!

I have decided it was the most dangerous place for children that I've ever seen, but SO MUCH FUN! And so much to explore for children and adults!  Next time, we may leave Millie Janalee with a sitter and go with adults.  Ha!  There isn't a whole lot I could do carting the stroller around.  And I had a close eye on my wandering toddler near all the high slides, obstacles, and more!

This school bus is hanging off the 11th floor of the building.  Ummm...heights!

My little bit and me on the top floor

The ferris wheel on the roof

We paid the extra $5 to take advantage of the roof.  Lots of fun!  We ended up grabbing lunch at the cafe on the roof too.  There was a huge slide in the middle of the roof.  You could walk up the stairs and slide down, or you could climb the side of the slide using a rope to pull yourself up.  It was steep.  Much steeper than it looks.

We watched Will, Elle, and Jeff slide down the slide quite easily.

Then they talked me into giving it a try.  Sure!  It looked easy enough.  It's just a slide after all.  I began my climb up the slide holding tight to the rope.  All of a sudden you realize just how steep the slide is.  My feet began to slip.  There was no grip on my shoes.  I made it to the top finally! But I was stuck.  My feet wouldn't grip on anything.  I couldn't let go to grab the rail.  There was a line of kids behind me waiting patiently for the 30 year old mother to get out of the way.  Thankfully, Will climbed with me and was quite the encourager.  He also offered many times to pull me up.  I couldn't let go.  I knew I could only pull him down.  I probably weigh twice his weight!  Ha!  After a while, a nice old lady made her way over to assess the situation and assured me that "help is on the way."  She was referring to Jeff climbing the slide, weaving in and out of the long line of children I was threatening to bowl down.  Jeff to the rescue!  He gripped his shoe enough for me to push off of it.

Then it took FOUR adults (you can see the other two bystanders who stepped in to help) to pull this big mama up.  At which point I simply laid flat to recover.  Mortified and exhausted, I had made it to the top!  Only to have to slide back down.  Ha!  Since that day I have declared that "I left my pride at the top of the slide at City Museum."  No need to worry about sweating at ballgames or going shopping with no makeup on.  I have no pride left I'm quite sure.

Another fun attraction on the roof was this cage like wall and ceiling you could climb.  It's hard to explain exactly how high this is.  You climb the cage along the walls up to the ceiling.  Then you can climb up through the top of the roof making your way to a slide back down.  Everyone did this.  But me.  Ummm...I stepped up about 10 feet before I realized "What was I thinking?!"  Ha!

We only had enough time to explore three floors.  I'm not sure how many floors are open to guests, but there are 11 total.  We will definitely have to go back to check it all out.  There were tunnels, aquariums, ramps, and slides throughout the entire building.

Millie Janalee, Elle, and I spent some time in the toddler area while Will and Jeff walked around observing all the old recycled parts of the building.

Just outside the toddler area, Millie Janalee spotted a choo choo train.  And of course, she had to ride.  Adults couldn't ride.  I decided to give it a try.  I asked the "conductor" if she could sit near the front in case she tried to climb out.  They went through a tunnel and another side of the floor where I couldn't keep my eyes on her the whole time.  She kindly agreed.  Millie Janalee had a ball!  And as always, didn't want to get off.  She rode 2-3 times.  Such a big girl!

On our way back out near closing time, we found a few other distractions to enjoy.

Will and Elle on the hamster wheel

Uncle Jeff and Millie Janalee found a huge chicken.

The final attraction calling our names was the 3-story slide.  I took the stroller down to the bottom to meet them as they slid down.  Can you see them...?

It was a fun-filled day for sure!  There were whole families coming in with knee pads.  Next time we know.  I will wear shoes that grip.  And maybe some knee pads.  Ha!

Jeff, Will, and Elle

Me and my baby

When Russ got off work, we grabbed supper after a quick trip to one of the outlet malls.  We retired for the night and prepared for their departure the next day.  Tuesday afternoon, I took Will, Elle, and Jeff to another outlet mall where we ate lunch and shopped til we dropped.  Well, I dropped.  They had a long drive ahead.

One thing I know for sure.  Millie Janalee sure did miss all the attention she got from her cousins and her uncle!  We are looking forward to another visit for sure.