It's way too soon for this again, however.....

Here's a picture of Helaina taken 2 days after her surgery this past May. Unfortunately, she has another date with her surgeon tomorrow. Helaina needs a little repair work done in her mouth and none of us are very excited about it. We knew after the first consultation with her surgeon that she would need more than one surgery - we were just hoping it wouldn't be this soon. The good thing is that it will be a shorter surgery this time (2 to 3 hours instead of 5-1/2 like the last one), she should have less pain afterward, and only one night in the hospital. "As long as she's drinking she can go home the next day" - that's what the surgeon said and we're holding him to it! We DON'T want to celebrate Thanksgiving in the hospital, and I'm prepared to do just about anything to get our stubborn daughter to drink by the next day! Say a little prayer for our gal on Tuesday.


Daddy's home from work this week so we took Helaina out this morning to play in the snow for the first time. We bundled her up in her new snowsuit and boots and set her free! "Hey Helaina, want to go down the snowy slide in your slippery snowsuit?" That's all she had to hear and those little legs went running toward the swingset! She whipped down that slide so fast that she went flying off the end of it and landed on her butt - which she thought was great. Again, again, again & again.

Shoveling off the playhouse area of the swingset.

Her rosey cheeks matched her snowsuit.

Filling her little dumptruck with snow.

Even the cold weather won't keep a gal who just got her license off the street!

Helaina needs some guidance in the street because it's hard to steer with mittens on!

When we were done outside Helaina collapsed onto the floor and pretended to be asleep. Playing in the snow is hard work.

I know this will be an embarassing photo when she gets older, but it is so darn cute. She absolutely loves her new pink boots and had to wear them while going potty this morning. Helaina and her panda were busy watching Curious George.

Yup, I'm another year older - and it's a big number this year! It's ok, though, because I've got my daughter by my side. We celebrated yesterday and it gave the family a chance to see Helaina before her surgery. My thoughtful hubby ordered my birthday cake with "happy birthday" written in Chinese. It also had raspberry filling - my favorite. How sweet.

The Strong Museum of Play - Wow!

On Monday we headed down the Thruway to Rochester for our first visit the Strong Museum of Play. Wow, amazing, fantastic. It's a huge unbelievable place with exhibits, hands-on activities, activity rooms, books, arts & crafts galore, computers, interactive displays, slides, a train, a carousel, theaters & costumes to playt in, multi-level climbing boats and planes - you name it, they have it. Helaina had 4-1/2 hours of exhausting fun (Daddy and Momma were exhausted too). The only time her little legs stopped moving was when we took a lunch break. She was in overdrive the entire time. I took lots of pictures (or tried to), but Helaina didn't stand still in any one place for very long. I ended up deleting lots of pictures because she was just a blurr in them! The kid-sized Wegmans grocery store and the Sesame Street exhibit were my favorites.

There was an entire Wegmans grocery store for kids. You picked up the child-size grocery cart and could select 5 (play) items from the child-size store. There were departments just like in the real store - produce, bakery, meats, and shelves lined with (empty) packages of Wegman's products. Jim and I were amazed at how realistic everything was. There were even aprons the kids could put on while "working" in the departments. The aprons had "produce manger" or "meat department manager" printed on them. So funny.

Helaina didn't want any meat or fish, but she did toss a donut into her cart from the bakery. The girl has her priorities.

Weighing her loaf of bread.

Helaina shopped like a pro. That's because she's in Wegmans almost daily with me!

At the checkout. Is this too funny or what? She knew just what to do and started pounding on those keys.

Getting ready to scan her 5 items.

After scanning each item she put them back in her grocery cart then she pushed it through the store again to "restock" the shelves. We wanted to go through the store again on our way out because it was so much fun, but we were too exhausted.

Since Helaina was under age 4 someone had to ride the train with her. You can see that Jim contorted his body to fit into the train. After the ride was over the woman operator asked Helaina if she enjoyed the ride. Helaina said "tank you", showed the woman 2 thumbs up and then gave her a high five! It was so cute, and I was SO annoyed because I had already turned off and put away the video recorder.


There were several huge fish tanks that were beautiful.


This was my favorite exhibit in Sesame Street and we couldn't get Helaina to cooperate, as you can see! You could select the character you wanted to appear with on the screen, so we chose Elmo, and you appeared on the screen next to the character who would talk and inter-act with you. You can see Jim and Helaina are in the screen with Elmo. Thought she'd love this but Helaina was focused on getting to something else that caught her attention - obviously!

Helaina loves Snuffy because he's an elephant.

Sleeping in Elmo's bed and watching Mr. Noodle.

Playing Elmo's piano, and the history of some Elmo toys.

This was cool. As you sat on the steps on Sesame Street, there was a TV hanging from the ceiling in front of you so you could see yourself. Note me taking the picture of us on the TV screen!

Couldn't get Helaina to stand still long enough for a picture with Big Bird, Zoe and Elmo, but Daddy would.

The count says "bwaa haa haa haa", as Helaina would say.


Ahh, time to sit down for a lunch break. Helaina's choice was Taco Bell. She likes the taco chips and cheese because dunking is one of her favorite activities. She loves the cheese sauce - note the spoon in the cheese sauce cup!


The Berenstein Bears activity room was great. Trying to get her to stand between the family of bears for a photo - no luck, and "cooking" eggs in the play kitchen.

Helaina loved playing with the money at the fruit stand. She also enjoyed using the tools in the workshop.

The staircase in this picture was painted on the wall, part of the mural. It looked so real, though, that Helaina actually tried to climb it!

Brushing the gigantic teeth together. Helaina ran into this display, picked up the toothbrush and started to put it to her mouth. Jim and I both screamed "no!" loudly and simultaneously. This place was a germ-fest with the hundreds of kids in there. There were actually bottles of hand sanitizer placed throughout the museum for the visitors to use!

Helaina likes Curious George and we watch it on TV. It amuses her that the monkey always gets into mischief - I think she can relate to that! Her favorite words while watching that show are "uh oh".

Giving George a hug!


As soon as Helaina woke up Monday morning she headed for her tiny play stove. Thought she looked adorable sitting there in her footed jammies "cooking". This stove was Joshua's when he was little - I'm glad that I'm a packrat and saved so many of the toys from his childhood!

Helaina's got her license!

We decided to give Helaina an early Christmas present. Jim has been wanting to get her a Barbie jeep for a long time so when we found it on sale, it was time for a trip to Toys R Us. Instead of waiting until Christmas when it will be cold out and there could be snow on the ground, Jim wanted to give it to her now. We took her with us to buy it, stuffed it in the back of the car and brought the gigantic box into the living room for assembly. As soon as Jim opened the box and Helaina saw the pink body and wheels, she realized what was going on - gigantic smile on her face! She was not thrilled that it had to be assembled, though. She "helped" Jim unpack it and checked out all the parts. We gave her lunch and put her down for a nap. Amazingly enough, Jim had the jeep put together by the time she woke up. He carried her downstairs and into the living room where it was sitting. The look on her face was priceless when she saw it. I wished that I had video taped her first look at it fully assembled, or at least snapped a picture. The battery had to charge for 18 hours, but she didn't seem to mind. She sat in the thing for the rest of the night, literally. Jim had to carry it into the family room where she watched TV in it, put her make-up in it, held her pillow and cellphone, and packed the back of it with some toys. When I say that she spent about 5 hours just sitting in it, minus the time we made her get out for dinner, I'm not exagerating!

Fully assembled and waiting for the battery to charge!

Unpacking the box and checking out the steering wheel.

Jim having a blast assembling the wrangler. Oh well, putting things together is a Daddy job (he sort of looks like he's got a growl on his face, doesn't he). I got to do the fun part and put all the stickers on it when it was assembled!

Pink and "urple", Helaina's 2 favorite colors!

Jeep moved into the family room for the evening. Sitting with her pillow and cell phone while watching her favorite TV show, the Backyardigans.

When Helaina got up this morning she ran straight to the family room and jumped right in her jeep! After breakfast Jim put the battery in it and we took it outside. I had the video camera ready when she first put her foot on the pedal. Oh my gosh, she laughed like crazy, huge smile on her face, and almost ran over the dog! She got the hang of driving it pretty fast, but wasn't that great at steering. She went all over the yard, the driveway and then up and down the street. Jim and I laughed so hard the whole time she was driving it. Needless to say, my car is now parked in the driveway and the Barbie jeep is parked in MY spot in the garage! Helaina keeps opening the door to the garage and looking out there to make sure it's still there - and she won't let Jim turn off the garage light! Glad we didn't wait until Christmas to give it to her. It gave us as much pleasure as it did Helaina.

Her foot was on the pedal in this picture and she was moving - driving with no hands on the wheel and talking on her cell phone. You know what Daddy's comment was: "typical woman driver". Boo!!!

Leaves stuck on the wheels - it needs a wash & wax already!

Again driving with no hands on the wheel - too funny!