Spa Day

We had plans to meet some friends at an indoor playland today, but Rylee woke up with a fever. Needless to say, she was extremely disappointed. In trying to cheer her up, I suggested we have a spa day. Rylee thought this sounded fabulous.

We filled the bath for a foot soak and pulled out all the pumice stones and foot scrubs. When we were finished, I painted her toe nails a pale pink to match mine. (Chemically this is probably not the best, but I don't plan to make a habit of it so hopefully it's okay!) While her toenails were drying, I cut her fingernails and pretended to give them a buff and shine. Gaga even curled her hair a bit with the curling iron.

Here she is showing off the results of her spa makeover:

 

I'd say she looks pretty fabulous!

Pajama Party

We had a wonderful holiday weekend, but I don't have time to elaborate right now. Chores (and a Christmas movie on TV) are distracting me. Instead, I'll just post this cute pic my Mom snapped of Rylee and her "babies" today.

 

Rio & Mrs. T

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did!

Not much else to say so here's a silly Friday Foto instead of Rio & "Mrs. T":

 

Father / Daughter Weekend

With me MIA this weekend, Jon and Rylee had some adventures of their own. They went to the park, went on walks, played outside... basically had a great time. Jon even managed to get the laundry done and give the dog a bath. Though he did have the benefit of Rylee taking an unheard of 3 1/2 hour nap. Lucky bastard! :)

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Here's one funny story from when they played hide and seek:

They started out taking turns hiding. I use the term "hiding" loosely. When you hide from Rylee, you have to shout out to her so she can follow your voice to where you are. When she hides, she comes running to reveal herself as soon as you say "ready or not, here I come!"

What Rylee really likes is to have someone hide with her. So during the course of the game, she said: "Hide with me, Daddy."

You can't argue with your adorable daughter so Jon hid with her. After they were in their hiding spot for a minute, he asked: "Rylee, who's going to come find us? We're the only ones home."

Rylee: "That's a bummer, Daddy." :)

(If you caught the blog last week, you'll notice Rylee's new favorite word is "bummer.")
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Rylee had so much fun with Daddy that she kept calling me "Daddy" the day I came home. I think Jon put her up to it so I'd never want a weekend away again! Just kidding!

Rylee is definitely "deer to Daddy's heart" now. :)

 

Mother / Daughter Weekend

And I don't mean me and Rylee!

Jon and I recently discovered that he has had approximately 18 weeks away from Rylee (two duck hunting trips, two deer hunting trips, two summers when I took Rylee with me to MN) whereas I have had 3 days away (one overnight to Disney with some girlfriends and two overnights with Jon - one for a friend's wedding and one for our 10th anniversary). Hmmm... 126 days vs 3. Jon happily agreed that I deserved a weekend away. :)

My mom and I thought about all kinds of options for our girls weekend, but in the end, we decided to make it a stay-cation. So I packed a little bag and went to stay at my Mom's for Friday and Saturday night.

Friday night, we did a little Christmas shopping and then had dinner at a neat Mexican restaurant on US 1. Saturday, we did a little more shopping, had lunch at Panera, watched a movie, did a little more shopping and had dinner out again. This morning, we lounged around and watched some of our favorite Christmas movies. I came back around lunch, just in time to watch the Vikings get destroyed by Green Bay. (For whatever reason, I've been able to watch almost all the Vikings games from home this season. Too bad they stink!)

It was a great weekend and I really enjoyed getting to be "the daughter" again. Thanks Mom!

Another Silly

I forgot something Rylee said to me the other day when we were out for a walk. She had been pushing Baby Elsie in her little stroller all around the neighborhood. All of sudden, she stopped and said, "Get Baby Elsie out please. I hold her."

I unstrapped her and Rylee gently held her and patted her back.

I looked up ahead and saw a man working in his driveway. "Why does Baby Elsie want to be held?"

"She's scared of guys."

Silly Rylee

A couple of silly things Rylee has said recently:

To Gaga when she was babysitting yesterday: "Bummer, I went poo poo in my diaper. I was gonna go on my potty." (She was sooo not going to go on the potty. Nice fake out though!)

To me today while I was trying to draw a picture of the duck she requested: "That's not working Mommy. That's a potato (pointing to the brown oval I drew for the body)." Suddenly she's an art critic!

This one isn't exactly silly, but it still cracks me up. One of her new catch phrases is: "no nothing on it." As in, I'll have a hamburger plain with nothing on it. Rylee's no stranger to ordering fast food. Bad Mommy!

I Don't Want To

The kids are at specials so I'm blogging from my phone. :)

Rylee learned a new phrase over the weekend and used it with gusto: "I don't want to" was her mantra all day on Sunday! So frustrating!

It's lucky she was good on Saturday. She met Santa for the first time and I told him she had been "nice." I would have had to change it to "naughty" if the days had been the other way around.

Speaking of Santa, Rylee was very excited to see him but did not want to get too close. I held her on my lap and then I sat with Santa. It would have been a cute pic, but my eyes were closed and they cut part of Jon's head off too. They did a retake and that look much better. Rylee only looks a little terrified! :)

We also attempted to get a family photo for the Christmas card on Saturday. My mom did a good job as the photographer, but between us squinting at the sun, battling the hair flying in our faces from the wind, and Rylee's general lack of interest in looking at the camera, most of the pics were not that great. Luckily, I think we got one or two worth saving. :)

Gotta run!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fun Friday

Rylee and I have been busy girls this week. We managed to get all our chores done and have plenty of fun too (we saw Oopsy the Clown, played at the park, spent an afternoon at Gaga's).

Today we met Jess and Norah at the mall to romp in the play area for a bit. Then the four of us ventured out to the park to meet Karen and James (and some of my friends from my Mommies group). Rylee had a great time seeing all her friends... and eating all their snacks. It's so much more fun to eat what the other kids bring!

After the rain chased us out of the park, Rylee and I went out to lunch with Karen and James. What a treat! The kids were good and so were the yummy sandwiches - the perfect end to our fun Friday adventure.

Weekend Update

It was a busy weekend here and I don't have much time for blogging so here are the highlights. :)

Friday
Rylee had a checkup with Dr. S. She was very excited to see Dr. S since "she's so pretty!" The two shots and flashback to her strep test put a small damper on their reunion though. Dr. S ripped open the tongue depressor to check Rylee's teeth, but Rylee thought it was those gag-inducing q-tips. Poor girl practically jumped off the table!

Height: 36 inches (I think she said 80th percentile)
Weight: 26 lbs (she either said 40th or 50th percentile)

Her weight stayed the same, but she's grown almost three inches since we were there in August. Not that it was a surprise to me. I knew she had gone through a major growth spurt since all her pants were now capris.

Friday was also Rio's vet appointment for her ear infection. :(

Saturday
Rylee went to her friend, James, 1st birthday party. Even though it was unseasonably cool and almost unbearably windy, everyone had a great time.

Sunday
We took it easy today and played here at the house. My only complaint is that the one Vikings game I couldn't watch this season was an amazing overtime win. That's the Vikings for ya. Breaking my heart even when they win!

I'll leave you with a couple of silly Rylee pics. She's been into tents ever since we went camping back in September. I bought her one of those small kids tents to play in and she loves it. The other day I remembered we had a mini tent for Rio (that she hated but for some reason I had hung onto for the last eight years). I thought Rylee could use it for her dolls - which she did for the first 5 minutes until she decided it would be more fun to play in herself.

It was s bit of squeeze... :)

 

 

Halloween Night

After Rylee's nap, the real fun began. We had our first trick-or-treater stop at our house: Norah. Then we headed over to my Mom's place. Rylee got some candy and a present from Gaga (ice cream parlor play dishes). I told her not to expect presents from all the houses!

We went to my Mom's neighbor and I let Rylee knock and try out her technique. I thought she would be shy and knock all quiet, but she banged her fist on the door just fine. When she said trick-or-treat and got her candy, she was very proud of herself. We stopped at a few other neighbors, but there weren't that many people around, so we drove over to our friend's complex. Pete and Amy's place was all decked out for Halloween. Rylee got candy AND play doh. Then they took us around to some of their neighbors and she scored some more candy treats.

At this point, we headed home for dinner and waited for the sun to go down so we could trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. Rylee was a little more timid after dark, but she still had fun walking around and seeing all the other kids in their costumes. Everyone loved our Pink Lady look - we were quite the hit. (Jon got yelled at by some lady for not dressing up too, but I told her he had participated yesterday.)

 

We tried to hit the houses of people we knew, but apparently there are a lot of Halloween "Scrooges" or whatever you call anti-Halloween people. We ended up just following the crowds. We were surprised on our route by Miller who came to trick-or-treat at our house. Luckily we were close by so we didn't miss him.

I didn't want to be away from the house for too long since I always like seeing the kids from my school all dressed up in their costumes. Plus Rylee and I were beginning to sweat in our Pink Lady jackets so we headed back home.

 

Rylee started helping me with the trick-or-treaters as soon as we got back and I think that was the part she loved best. Every time there was a knock or the doorbell rang, she would get so excited and go screaming (literally screaming) to the door.

Everyone thought she was adorable. There was one teenage girl that was definitely the most enthusiastic. She squealed and jumped up and down when she saw Rylee... and then again when Rylee said "hi"... and then even more when Rylee said "Happy Halloween." As we shut the door she was still raving to all the people on the sidewalk. It was cute!

When the trips to the door became less frequent, Rylee amused herself by playing with my "Sandy" shoes. Should I be scared that she walks in 4 inch heels like a pro?

 

So all in all, it was a great Halloween for Rylee. She's been enjoying her sugary candy all week while I've had to sacrifice and eat all the chocolate contraband. :) We even had to make Halloween pancakes a couple of more times too.

We're slowing phasing out of the holiday. Just the other day, I threw away her little pumpkin from Philadelphia. I didn't think anything of it, but when she saw that it was gone she was a little upset. I told her that the pumpkin went bye bye since Halloween is over. "Why Halloween is over?" she wanted to know. "It just is." I said. "Bummer" was her response.

I agree. Bummer! I love Halloween too!

Halloween Morning

I decided to make pancakes for breakfast on Halloween morning. I pulled out the cookie cutters and let Rylee make special Halloween shaped pancakes. Rylee and I were quite excited to eat our pumpkins, bats, ghosts and moons. Jon agreed to eat the scraps. :)

 

Then we all plopped down in front of the TV for Rylee's first "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" viewing. (She wasn't all that impressed. She did like "Garfield's Halloween" which we watched a few days earlier. "Candy, candy, candy, candy, candy..." is a Halloween catch phrase we borrowed from old Garfield so she especially liked that part.)

 

Rio even got in on the special breakfast. We discovered she had a double ear infection the night before so she needed some cheering up. (Barking at the trick or treaters for two hours straight perked her up too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)

 

We had a couple of errands to run afterwards so Rylee picked out this to wear. Not sure about the hat, but she insisted. Maybe she was having a bad hair day? I've been there.

 

To be continued...