What A Day

It is a beautiful, warm, perfect spring day today here in Strasburg and my family is soaking it all up. Ordinarily this would have been a typical Shipley Saturday with the 3 of us maybe making a trip out as a family and then resting and playing together--but today was anything but usual. Here's the rundown:

First, we had Emma until noon as her Mom worked a Saturday shift at the bank, and her Dad was moving their things in their new home.

We left the house around 12:30 and headed to Winchester on a story with Daddy. Garren was covering a ground breaking ceremony for a new addition for the children's hands on museum. I hadn't expected it to be quite so warm, but I was loving the spring weather that finally decided to come our way. When we got to the ceremony, Gracie quickly discovered that it wasn't quite as fun for kids and the press release had suggested. There were a lot of suits and politicians and far too much speech giving for the likes of a 3 year old, and the free stuff wasn't much comfort. So, Gracie and I hiked further down in the park to the coolest playground I have ever seen! This place was awesome. There were basically 2 play areas: one for bigger kids, and one for littler ones. As I have become accustomed to, my child sat down once we were at the playground and refused to play. She must think that other children are wild animals or something! After some prodding I got her to play as long as I held her hand the entire time. She went down a slide, crossed a neat path of swinging circle steps, and climbed a little inside the massive jungle gym. But that was about it, and anytime another child came within 2 feet of her she threw up her hands and froze. I really have to work on that!!! Gracie gave up on playing after about 20 minutes and that left me to climb the huge hill we had just come down back to where Daddy was. It worked out well though, Garren got to show off Gracie and when all the people finally finished talking there was free ice cream for the kids, so Gracie was happy.

After ice cream we headed to Taco Bell to pick up a quick lunch and I got to run in the Goodwill where I found a few cute books and a Fisher Price Little People SoftPlay set. Gracie fell asleep in the car which meant she didn't take a nap when we got home, so at this point she is beyond tired.


Daddy decides to change the oil, so Gracie and I go out to keep him company. I take her and my small gardening spade to show her where the garden is going, and she amuses her self for quite a while digging holes in the dirt. She had the best time with that little shovel--she is too cute.


Daddy needed a big helper, so Gracie decided to help him with changing the oil and filter. She seemed very proud of herself as she brought daddy tools. She wasn't quite so thrilled though when Daddy got oil all over himself. She bent over and looked under the hood and said "look what you did!" It was cute though.

At this point it is bath time, and I run to Food Lion to get hot dog buns and leave Garren to bath duty. When I get back Gracie is sitting on the potty. Her new "get out of bath card" is telling us she has to potty when she doesn't. She hates having her hair washed and finds that this trick will get her a few extra moments, when in reality she refuses to even sit on the potty or talk about becoming a big girl and wearing big girl pants. Anyway, Garren leaves her on the potty and we walk away to take a deep breath (she can be quite a handful), when a few moments later she is screaming "I did it, I did it!"

Sure enough, Gracie poopied in the potty. Garren and I make a huge deal over it and she beams. We got through the rest of the bath okay with minimal tears as I go on and on about her being a big girl. That's when daddy mentions that now that she is a big girl she should get to use mommy's smelly good lotion. Her eyes about pop out of her head. She is so proud! She gets a little of the lotion (I am afraid she will break out), and since bedtime is approaching quickly she gets to wear big girl underwear. I serve a celebratory dinner of hot dogs, chips and ice cream for desert. Our big girl is beaming by the time she heads for bed, you can really see what a difference we have made and how special she feels.

Today was an awesome day!

PS: She got a diaper for bedtime and stayed dry until that time.

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