Summer Fun Recap!

Beanie and I enjoyed our week of summer fun together!

After the busy weekend of July 4th, the following Monday we just rested at home. Beanie was a bit of a handful that morning, but we weathered it well and by afternoon was her adorable self again.

The next day (Tue) we went to IKE.A.  My Dad decided to come along as well which was great. He stayed in the eating area while my Mom, Beanie and I went to the kids section. Beanie immediately spotted a child's play kitchen and before I knew it she was busy moving the dishes in and out of the cupboard, pretend washing them, etc. I know I have said this a 100 times before, but it still amazing to me how much she is absorbing from her environment. She was so engrossed that I had to physically move her away since other kids wanted to play in it, too. She was thrilled to see her "tent" on display and crawled in very confidently. She loves the small chairs and the rocking moose!  I am definitely going to buy her the kitchen set. I was planning on Christmas since it will be more memorable, but December seems to far away, so she may get lucky sooner!

The next day was my Mom's birthday, so Beanie and I took her out to lunch and then we went browsing a few stores nearby.  I enjoyed spending time with my Mom and was able to avoid doing something with my sister in the evening.  Last year I went to a family dinner to keep my Mom happy, but given my sister's attitude I just like to keep us as far away as possible.

SIDE NOTE -- On the previous day the topic of my sister came up and my Mom again remarked and asked why I was feeling the way I did and I for the n'th time explained that I thought it very strange that she lives 5 minutes away and has never bothered to come and spend time with Beanie and that I feel hurt that she does not want a relationship with my child. My Mom replied, "it is okay" and I really lost it! 
I said 'NO, Mom it is NOT okay.  It is not okay under any circumstance. It is in fact highly abnormal and I am sick of hearing you and Dad say its okay because it is NOT OKAY."  I think my Mom was a bit taken aback and said she did not mean that it was the right thing to do, etc....but I was not having any of it. She mentioned that both she and my Dad have spoken to my sis about it....I was really not interested in hearing what my sis had to say. Its a lost cause and nothing my sister does going forward is going to change anything.

Back to our fun time...

On Thursday I took Beanie to the fire station to set up her convertible car seat. We then went to  Mommy and me group at the library. It was nice and I was pleased to see Beanie quite confident, walking around the room. She did not grab any toys but pointed to any she wanted f they were with another child. At one point she offered some toys to another little girl who was standing nearby. So sweet!  Later we went outside the common room and played with puzzles and she ran around looking at books.

On Friday, my niece joined my Mom, Beanie and I and we went for breakfast to IH.OP and then shopping. It was nice hanging out with my niece.

The weekend came around and I could see that all the outings had tired Beanie so we basically stayed in on Saturday and just went to the local Tar.get to buy some household stuff.  When we came out to the parking lot and were walking towards the car, Beanie started vocalizing and pointing across the parking lot. I realized she was pointing to Pet.co. I asked her "Do you want to go see puppies and kitties?" and she started waving her hands and kicking her feet in the stroller :-)  So we went across the lot to Petco. They were having dog adoptions so Beanie had a great time running from kitties to puppies to hamster to other critters. I take her there a lot, its a free zoo!

On Sunday, I got a "Mommy Day". I made plans with a friend to have lunch and see a matinee of a Broadway musical  in our local theatre. It was really enjoyable although I missed Beanie a lot! When I came home she just clung to me and would not let me out her down.

Today we are both back at work/school. I was interested to see how she would do with the drop off given the 2 week vacation but she was fine, no tears.

Overall, it was a really fun time. Beanie is such a joy to hang out with and I really enjoyed having this time with her.

Hope you all had a good week!