Grandma let Lea ride the quarter pony outside.
Whose smile is bigger?
Lea and Grandma JoAnn got along fantastically. Grandma JoAnn had a really great week together. Grandma brought Lea great presents including Bartholomew the Bear and his book. Bartholomew says "Nah" a lot but is a pretty good Bear. Grandma, Lea and Bartholomew had all day Friday together while Mommy worked (and worked late too).
While Mommy slaved away at work (tee hee)... during the day Lea and Grandma took a walk each day. They walked to the playground and found treasures along the way. On the first day Grandma tried to take a wrong turn on the way back and Lea set her straight. Grandma JoAnn was very impressed that Lea knew her way home and was able to ask Grandma where the heck she was going. Here is a collection of thier last nature walk treasures.
On Saturday we lounged around in the morning while Daddy went off to work. Then after nap our busy day began. Since the rain from Ike had come in too we decided to run all over the Metroplex. We started the afternoon at the Dallas World Aquarium. One of Dan and my favorite places. This was our first time to bring Lea and she really liked it.
You start at the top with a view of the rainforest where you can look into the trees to see sloths, monkeys, birds and other animals. Then spiral down through other exhibits until you're under the water line where there is a big picture window to the water under the rainforest where you see manatees and grouper. It gives a great picture of all the life above and under water. A nice family portrait of 3 generations.
As I said there are many exhibits along the way. Crocodiles, spiders, a Myan exhibit, flamingos, South American Penguins. But I think what impressed both Lea AND Grandma the most was the octopus.
Did I mention Lea went potty for the first time outside the house in the bathroom at the aquarium. Lea told Grandma she had to go and we raced over. There were no accidents on our outing. This is a picture of Lea after she's gone, but to me this face is her "Oh my gosh, Mommy I have to go potty NOW!" face.
Because Lea went potty Grandma rewarded her with M&Ms and letting her take pictures with Grandma's camera. Lea took some good shots and now has a habit of asking to take pictures. She's been careful with the camera so far so we've let her take quite a few. I'll have to make a post of just Lea's shots.
Notice the rain boots. Did I mention it was POURING outside!!
While Lea enjoyed the animals and sea life, what Lea liked best about the Aquarium was the computer screens at each exhibit where you could choose the animals and view facts about them. Lea just liked touching the screen buttons.
I was worried our time at the Aquarium would be too short since we went late in the afternoon, but turned out to be a very long walk. And an hour and a half or so was just the right amount of time. I was exhausted... but there was MUCH more to our day. We were meeting Teresa in Plano for dinner. I hoped we could do something fun for everyone, but my idea of Pizza Planet turned out to really only be fun for Lea and Teresa & Robert. Oh who am I kidding... and Mommy! Pizza Planet had an indoor playground, rides and game. It is a children's paradise! Not quite a Grandma and Daddy paradise. I thought the pizza was pretty good. Teresa had a ball. And so did Lea...
pun intended! It was hard to get Lea out of the ball pit.
But we paid for the rides too, so Lea's first rides were at Pizza Planet. They had 5 rides. Bumper Cars (which Mommy did not fit well in. Lea enjoyed them, but could not drive them. We just ran into walls and frustrated the girl working the ride). They had a coater that just went in a circle really fast. Back in the day at the Brazoria County Fair or Astroword I remember it being called the Alpine Ride. A blast of cold air would hit you as you went around and then went backwards. This was a much smaller version and Lea didn't want to go on it. There was also a bit ship that rocked back and forth. I didn't take a picture, but it made me laugh because they had to take out the ceiling panels so that the ship went up. The rides Lea liked best were the lady bug ride that spun as it went around and the space ship ride that went up pretty high. I was worried she'd get scared, but she took it in stride and seemed to enjoy it.
the space ship ride.
pizza planet videos
Teresa and Lea at the games. Teresa won lots of tickets and got a goodie bag for Lea with good treats.
the game prizes. Teresa meticulously picked out the prizes for Lea. 2 bracelets, a blue elephant, a purple rhino and some other things. Lea set them up this way when we got home and it made kind of a cool pictures.
At one point I went over to Dan who was having some good chat time with his mom, but otherwise I think a bit miserable. So I leaned over him and said "At least you don't work here!" The poor teenagers who manned the rides were amazingly patient with all the crazy little monkeys running around.
Boy that sounds like a busy day, but were we done... oh no. We were really wearing Grandma out. Grandma wanted to take Teresa shopping. So after a full day of aquarium and kiddo frenzy at Planet Pizza, Daddy took Lea home and Grandma JoAnn, Teresa, Robert and Mommy went to Walmart... Did I mention it was POURING outside? We were so wet and sloshy, but stayed safe. We shopped for all kinds of things at Walmart. I mostly remember the triumph of finding purple sheets for Teresa. They looked great and she was very excited about them. Finally, exhausted we checked out, took Teresa & Robert home and headed back to Dallas to collapse at about 11pm.
Sunday was another day at work for Daddy. He had lots of appointments while Grandma was here. But us girls did ok on our own. Sunday was MORE SHOPPING! But Sunday was not a day to pay retail, oh no... Sunday was a baby sale.
We started out at the best playground near our house, its made of wood and looks like a castle.
Grandma & Lea at the playground.
After we wore Lea out... well Lea wore Grandma out at the playground, I wore Grandma out at the baby sale. There was a consignment sale half price day in Mesquite so I drug the girls along. Grandma ended up buying the lionshare of goodies as an early Christmas present for Lea (Mommy got her present early too... a hand made afgan in a beautiful rose and pink that I picked out while we were in CA in April, fast work, and beautiful). As always at the consignment sale I went crazy. Grandma loved the selection of books and we added quite a few to Lea's library. I focused partially on jammies since Lea was growing out of what we have (at least that's my excuse), but lets not kid ourselves, we got shirts, dresses, pants, pants, socks, everything... well MORE of everything.
Here is Lea showing off new Elmo jammies.
A closet full of new jammies
A SMALL sampling of Lea's new clothes. A great $15 winter coat, the most fantastic Mod dress and a jeweled collar Juicy top... all like $1.50. That way we could buy like 60 things. Some of them were socks and books, I swear! I adore the little mod dress that comes with panties.
Grandma JoAnn was here until Tuesday and it was a good time for a visit, because it was Mommy's production week. I was not able to be home for dinner Monday and Tuesday. Lea loved Grandma JoAnn taking care of her. At bath time Lea got a big treat of having her hair dried.
When Grandma JoAnn left Lea asked me to dry her hair. I explained I didn't have a hair dryer because I don't dry my hair and I got a look of what I can only explained as disdain when she discovered Mommy didn't even OWN a hair dryer. But in the temporal world of three-year-olds she got over it and we went back to going to bed with wet hair.
On JoAnn's last day her plane left right around nap time, so Grandma Lynn (Grandma Bubbie to Lea) came in to watch Lea so Dan could take Jo Ann to the airport. But first we all had lunch. It was a very nice time. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant. The night before I tried to prepare Lea for Grandm JoAnn leaving and explained that she'd get to see Grandma Bubbie (whom we started referring to as the transitional Grandma, or in her own words "the old shoe Grandma"... I prefer transitional Grandma). So when I said we'd have lunch with two Grandma's Lea replied in the most astonished three year old voice, "Wow, that's a lot of Grandma!"
Grandma & Lea at the playground.
After we wore Lea out... well Lea wore Grandma out at the playground, I wore Grandma out at the baby sale. There was a consignment sale half price day in Mesquite so I drug the girls along. Grandma ended up buying the lionshare of goodies as an early Christmas present for Lea (Mommy got her present early too... a hand made afgan in a beautiful rose and pink that I picked out while we were in CA in April, fast work, and beautiful). As always at the consignment sale I went crazy. Grandma loved the selection of books and we added quite a few to Lea's library. I focused partially on jammies since Lea was growing out of what we have (at least that's my excuse), but lets not kid ourselves, we got shirts, dresses, pants, pants, socks, everything... well MORE of everything.
Here is Lea showing off new Elmo jammies.
A closet full of new jammies
A SMALL sampling of Lea's new clothes. A great $15 winter coat, the most fantastic Mod dress and a jeweled collar Juicy top... all like $1.50. That way we could buy like 60 things. Some of them were socks and books, I swear! I adore the little mod dress that comes with panties.
Grandma JoAnn was here until Tuesday and it was a good time for a visit, because it was Mommy's production week. I was not able to be home for dinner Monday and Tuesday. Lea loved Grandma JoAnn taking care of her. At bath time Lea got a big treat of having her hair dried.
When Grandma JoAnn left Lea asked me to dry her hair. I explained I didn't have a hair dryer because I don't dry my hair and I got a look of what I can only explained as disdain when she discovered Mommy didn't even OWN a hair dryer. But in the temporal world of three-year-olds she got over it and we went back to going to bed with wet hair.
On JoAnn's last day her plane left right around nap time, so Grandma Lynn (Grandma Bubbie to Lea) came in to watch Lea so Dan could take Jo Ann to the airport. But first we all had lunch. It was a very nice time. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant. The night before I tried to prepare Lea for Grandm JoAnn leaving and explained that she'd get to see Grandma Bubbie (whom we started referring to as the transitional Grandma, or in her own words "the old shoe Grandma"... I prefer transitional Grandma). So when I said we'd have lunch with two Grandma's Lea replied in the most astonished three year old voice, "Wow, that's a lot of Grandma!"So with many hugs and kisses off went Grandma JoAnn. Lea missed her the second she was out the door. Hope we can see her again soon. It was a great visit.
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