We had a great time at the village yesterday for opening day. We didn't make it to the museum at all this winter except to see Santa, but we have all been dying for spring to get here, and mother nature decided to give us beautiful weather yesterday for the first day of the outdoor season at the village.
I think it was about 73 and sunny. My idea of perfect weather. So Emily and I met my SIL at around 10am. First we walked by the field where they were harrowing the field with the two work horses. Em loves horses so we had to stop and see them. I think she is always in awe of how big real horses are, but then these two guys were even bigger. Then we headed to the barn to see if any baby lambs had been born yet. There were about 6 sheep in the "labor and delivery" pen, and one mama sheep in the mother/baby pen with her two brand new babies. They were only two days old. Em had a good time looking at them, and chasing the chickens around outside.
Then we walked over to the roundhouse to see her other favorite, trains. We talked to the guy that works there for a bit, and then got a closer look at the train cars that were in there. It's funny because as many times as I have been there in my life, I have never been in the roundhouse. Next month they are having their annual Thomas the Train event where they put a Thomas facade on the regular train. I decided not to take her though because she doesn't watch Thomas, and it's an extra charge over and above our membership. But the other day I told her we were going to see the choo choo train tomorrow and she excitedly said Thomas! Crap, she does know who he is. Oh well, maybe next year when she'll get a little more out of it.
So then we walked around for a bit...even if you don't do much, it's fun to just walk around, get some exercise and fresh air. Then we headed to the carousel. We had to walk past it to go get our all-day pass bracelets and Em was tugging on my hand to go ride. Poor thing couldn't even wait for us to get a ticket. So first we chose a stationary one. All of the stationary horses got grabbed up so we had to ride the sea monster, but I don't think she cared. She was all smiled before the ride started, but then during the ride she was so serious, taking it all in.
After that we decided to take a break for lunch so we went to the cafeteria. Em actually ate fairly decent, each day it's a crapshoot if she will eat more than a few bites. Once we rested and ate, we went to play on the playground. I was most excited for this because the last time we were there last summer she couldn't walk yet, but now, the playground was her oyster. She mostly held my hand though, not quite comfortable enough to take off and play, though that's not a bad thing. There was this giant tunnel the kids could walk through, but she wouldn't go by herself, so my SIL took her through twice. Then we tried to get her to go on her own. She was a little hesitant, but she started to. This little girl who looked about 3 or 4 was talking to me, telling me what all she had done, and then she was like here, I'll help you and she grabbed Em's hand and they walked through together ,<3 There is nothing that warms my heart more than seeing kids helping other kids.
So then we went on this new modern teter-todder type thing, and once Em got on a few other kids joined. Some of them were bigger kids so they could put a little more effort into bouncing it. She had a great time on that. Then she wanted to go through the tunnel again. She got about a quarter of the way through when she hesitated because there were other kids hanging out inside the tunnel. One of them a little blonde boy about her age. He held out his hand and said come come, and he walked her through. I ran to the other end to see them coming. The two of them, both blonde and the same height, walking through the tunnel hand in hand was almost more than my heart could take. It was so cute!
The playground is on the other side of the fence from the carousel, and since Em tried climbing out of the SIL's arms and over the fence, we decided another ride on the carousel was in order. So this time we took her on an animal that also moved up and down, but we couldn't get a horse this time either, so she rode a chicken. She seemed to like it. After the ride we went to get custard. They have THE best custard I've ever had. Anytime I got talking and didn't give Em a bite, she'd yell mommy, mommy! Then we walked over to one of the train stations. We had a 20 minute wait for the next train, so we sat on a bench. Then a woman and her son came over and asked if we would like to play bubbles while we waited. Well, bubbles just so happens to be Em's favorite thing in the whole world (aside from cats, horses, trains, etc), so her and the little boy ran around chasing the bubbles. In a world where you're always encountering rude people, it was so refreshing to be surrounded by so many happy, friendly people.
After the train ride we decided to call it a day. I had promised to drop Em off at my dad's for a while that afternoon and he was getting antsy. He asked, since it was so late in the day, could they have her overnight. I called my husband and he said that was fine, so I took her over there. I stayed long enough to chat for a while, and then take a short walk with them, My dad had one of those radio flier wagons from when we were kids, so he made her a little seat so she wouldn't fall out of it so we took her out for her maiden voyage in the wagon. She loved it, every time I looked at her she was smiling from ear to ear.
They were getting ready to give her a bath when I was leaving. I asked her for a hug and kiss and tried to make sure she knew she was staying the night and I wasn't coming back for her that day but she was so excited for her bath, she wanted nothing to do with me. So I took her to get her clothes off while her bath was running and got a hug from her then. She so loves spending time with her Baba and Grammy. When I got home my husband was sleeping, so I sat in the chair to watch TV and my cat climbed on my lap, so I closed my eyes for a bit, but my rumbling tummy overrode my desire to sleep, so I ordered a pizza. So it was a nice night, we had pizza, watched some TV, I had a vodka and cranberry so I could take advantage of being childless for the night. Today I slept in until 10:30 when my dad called to see when I wanted her brought home. I told him whenever, but to call before he came, so I went back to sleep until 1! It was nice, but I don't know how I used to sleep till 1 and 2 before I was married and had kids. The whole day is gone before you know it, and my back really hurt, lol.
My dad dropped her off around two. She took the dreaded car nap, so she wouldn't sleep at all once she was home. No nap yesterday and no nap today. Yikes. All afternoon while we were watching tv she would curl up on my lap and I thought she would go to sleep. At one point she was even stretching her arms out and running her fingers over my face. I love when she does that, her little hands are so soft. But no sleep. Around 6 I took her outside to play in the front yard while I took down our christmas lights...finally. Our neighbors are so nice. I had giant ball ornaments on our one tree, and over the last few months they must have fell off the tree and might have blown away, so my next door neighbor gathered them all and put them in a bag and left them against the side of the house. We don't really talk aside from saying hi when we see each other, that was so nice of her.
Then while we were still outside working, my neighbor across the street called me over and asked if we wanted some pizza. They got an extra one by mistake and said it would go to waste if we didn't take it, so I said sure. So I took Em over there to visit for a few. Sometimes I get a bug to move, but I really do love our house, and we have such great neighbors. I could really see us living here forever. Though many of our neighbors are older, so that's scary. Not only will we miss them when they pass, but in another 10-15 years our neighborhood could be totally different. But hopefully new great people would move in.
When we were done I took Em in to eat dinner, and her no-nap monster came out. I got her to eat a halo tangerine, a little milk, a few bites of rice and half a breakfast bar. Not great, but better than nothing. She was so cranky we didn't brush teeth or read stories, I just put her to bed. She was crying and screaming, but I had to just say goodnight and shut the door. Luckily it only lasted 5 minutes, and she was out like a light.
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