Penny's for Alaina

Well, it cost us 6 cents, but I think Stephanie managed to buy enough wishes to get Alaina to San Antonio.  The story begins "Alaina had a layover in Atlanta, but they closed Atlanta because of hail...", and really, we can probably just let everyone imagine the rest (especially all of those of you who are frequent fliers!), but why have a blog if I can't relay it in painful detail?  First, she was sent to Augusta, where she got to sit on the runway enjoying peanuts and cookies for two hours.  Then she got to Atlanta sometime very late evening, only to discover that there are no flights out that night.  Fine, she will take a morning flight out, hardly any time lost on the trip.  Wrong.  The best they can do is an 8 pm arrival to Austin (one hour north of San Antonio), but at least we have a car to get her.  However, thanks to Stephanie throwing all of the pennies we had into the wishing well on the river walk, Alaina managed to be the last person on standby for a San Antonio flight arriving at 5 pm.  If I had known that we were cutting it that close, I would have splurged and had Steph throw in a nickle or two!  Here are some shots from Alaina's first night- Mexican food and margaritas on the river walk.  Good, reasonably priced food, TERRIBLE service, but as we were to soon discover, that is the only kind of service you get when you eat out on the river walk.

San Antonio

The weather was beautiful for a trip to San Antonio for Spring Break this year.  Delta air tried to ruin Alaina's trip, but she persisted and got a flight to San Antonio, albeit a day late.  We had a hotel right on the river walk, and we just took the elevator to the basement to enter the walk.  Stephanie walked miles and miles everyday.  We didn't even bother to bring a stroller, and she only rode in the backpack a couple of times.  Mostly, we have tons of pictures to share!

I begin with a small selection of photos on the first day of the river walk prior to Alaina's arrival.

Lovely Stephanie

I have a ton of vacation photos to post, but I need to sort through them all.  This one is just too adorable to wait!  Thanks to Alaina for such a nice photo!

Welcome to Texas

 We road tripped to San Antonio for Spring Break, stopping over to see Kristy and her growing fam in Dallas.  The first photos I took of Stephanie just before we left the house, in which she was ordered to say "Texas!"  We then stopped at one of Texas's ridiculously nice rest stops for some "Welcome to Texas" shots.  This was, for us, the only redeeming quality of Texas highways (or, as we called them in the cities, "skyways" as there were an seemingly endless number of raised highways, and highways raised over the raised highways, all apparently under construction all the time). Mostly, we spent the highway time looking at a whole lot of nothing or stopped in city traffic (no matter what time it was...).  But San Antonio was awesome, and there will be many pictures to follow!

Texas, here I come!

Santa was off for Spring Break too, so he came along for the ride

This sort of thing is probably discouraged by the
 Texas Dept of Transportation

The Dentist

We had a dentist appointment this morning, so I wanted to prepare Stephanie for the trip.  She broke a tooth when she was almost 2, and she has been several times, so I thought she was maybe familiar with the process.  So I told her we were going to the dentist.  She said "No running at the dentist", which is what she says when we go to the store.  I agreed that she probably shouldn't run at the dentist's office.  Then she says, "Buy Stephie bigger shoes."  Hmm...what exactly does she think happens at the dentist?  Or is she just learning to negotiate some sort of reward system?  Either way, she was really agreeable about getting in the car, so I didn't bother to correct her.  I told her in the car that the dentist was going to look at her teeth, and she didn't seem all that surprised.  In the end, the dentist went great, and then we went to the shoe store, so all worked out as she planned!

Chef Steph- Thanks Grandma!

Mom made Stephanie the CUTEST aprons in the world.  There was apparently a pattern involved, but she created the monkey on her own.  I always try to get creative and adjust patterns when I sew, but the results are NEVER like this!  Here are Stephanie's two new aprons.  The monkey apron is reversible (of course it is).  Stephanie likes to help in the kitchen in her learning tower (built by Kevin- of course, though I did do some critical holding during assembly), and now she looks like a chef. 

All Ready!

Kevin takes Stephanie to the pool at least once a week, and she is really into going to the pool.  I frequently have to get swim diapers out for her stuffed friends (Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse are avid swimmers, apparently) and help them get ready for the pool.  She also is pretty good at gathering all of the pool things and telling me "All ready!".  This includes her suit, Kevin's suit, towels for each of them, and a swim diaper for her.  The other day, she wanted me to help her get dressed for the pool.  She put on two swim diapers (over the regular diaper she already had on), Kevin's swim trunks, and her own bathing suit.  Meanwhile, she was still wearing her pj top, and I really don't know why she grabbed the mittens, but here is the final product:

Seriously, she will eventually learn that "cheese" is not growling for the camera, but until then, let's all enjoy her "smile".

Snow slide

It is nearly all melted now, and certainly no longer a slide, but here is the snow slide that Kevin made for Stephanie during our snow days!

Stephanie's Career as a Spokesmodel

Stephanie really likes yogurt.  At the grocery store she had a "list" and when I asked what was on her list, she said "yogurt and cheese".  I like giving her greek yogurt because it is nice and thick and stays on the spoon.  Chobani makes "Champions" which are "kids" yogurts- read smaller containers.  I took pictures of her eating it this summer, and I couldn't resist sending it to them.  They were so sweet to send her a package in the mail with Chobani swag!  I took a photo of her wearing the new shirt (which has been retired in the "clothes for the future" box in her closet) and wanted to show everyone Stephanie's first work as a spokesmodel. 

Snow Day(s)

So we had 3 snow days over the last couple of weeks.  Stephanie loved going out in it.  We got about 12 inches the first time and 7 the second.  Kevin built Stephanie a snow slide.  It wasn't all that popular, but then he built her snow stairs to reach the snow slide, and she really liked those (though she still didn't love the slide).  She did like Kevin hopping her around in the snow and throwing her into it.  They built 5 snowmen.  Stephanie made sure they all had eyes and she showed me her "snowmens".  These are pictures from snowstorm one.  I may post some from snow storm two later! 

The Spider Test

It's hard to pump a 2 year old for information, so Kevin and I use the spider test.  When she has answered yes to a series of questions (Did you eat a good lunch at school? Did you like your snack?) We will say, "Do you like to eat spiders?"  If she says yes, then we know all other given information is not reliable.  She predictably would say yes a few months ago, to all kinds of spider questions.  Do you like to eat spiders?  Are the crunchy ones the tastiest?  Is your diaper full of spiders?  She always said "Yeah".  As she is getting older, she no longer falls for the spider test, thus making her seem like a more reliable source of information.  Apparently there were NOT spiders in her fruit salad at school yesterday, and upon Kevin's question about them, she did tell us that there were strawberries, so I guess the spider test still works, only in a different and less funny way.

Matches

This is the face I got every time I asked her to smile

Stephanie is really into matching things lately.  Yesterday she wore a white and orange polka dot shirt, navy leggings with multi color polka dots and a pink polka dot skirt.  She said "dots match".  They sure do Stephanie.  Oh, and for good measure, she also wore an orange skirt under the pink skirt, but it did not have dots.  And yes, I did let her go to school like that.  I did insist she wear shoes to school and not monkey slippers.  Speaking of feet and matching, not long ago in the car, she told me "feet match".  I couldn't resist explaining chirality (chemistry concept) to her, in which something can match but not be identical, so I said "Actually, Stephanie your feet are non-superimposable mirror images.  Can you say "non-superimposable mirror images"?"  She says "No match".  She is at least as smart as any student I've taught!