I messed up Helaina's elephant tattoo, but....

... it worked out just fine.

Yah, this morning I made Helaina cry. Last time we were at the zoo we bought an elephant tattoo at the gift shop and she wanted it put on her hand after breakfast. I've tattooed Helaina many times but this morning I forgot to pull off the protective sheet before applying the wet compress. The result - tattoo stuck to plastic instead of her hand. As I peeled back the paper from her hand and realized my mistake I explained to Helaina what I did by accident. I saw the tears well in her eyes and then down her cheeks they rolled - a life tragedy when you're 4 years old and love elephants. We didn't have anything planned for today except speech, so I told her that after speech we'd head out to the zoo gift shop to buy more tats. We did just that and ended up with 8 tattoos, a tiny rubber elephant, an elephant pen and a larger squirty elephant I managed to buy without Helaina seeing (an Easter basket toy). The zoo is close to the mall so we called Daddy and had him meet us at the mall for a picture with the Easter bunny, a ride on the carousel and lunch. So, my elephant tattoo mistake ended up giving Helaina a very fun morning.

Helaina chose Taco Bell for lunch and had a strawberry smoothie,

a side of rice which she devoured and then took half of mine (this kid loves any kind of rice) and a soft taco. "I starving", she said at one point. Guess so.

Sporting her floppy ears she got at from the Easter bunny.

And finally the reason for our outing, a 23 cent elephant tattoo. "I keep this on forever," she said.

When we got to the mall I had to exchange one of Helaina's birthday outfits before we met Jim. We had to go to the 2nd level so Helaina grabs my hand, runs and excitedly says "We go up the eskimolator?" I couldn's stop laughing - eskimolator! The cashier who did my exchange was an elderly woman with grey hair and Helaina said to her "You a grandma?" Ha, we both laughed. Turns out she was - 12 grandchildren. Never quite sure what will come out of Helaina's mouth lately but whatever it is, it's usually good for a laugh.

Some day my prince will come

We saw the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a few weeks ago on the Disney Channel and it appears to be Helaina's new favorite. She's been into the Disney princesses for a while now so it didn't surprise us that she loved the movie. She thinks the dwarfs are a hoot - Helaina likes any type of slapstick humor - so she laughs out loud with the dwarfs' antics. She also likes the songs "Whistle while you work", "Hi ho hi ho, it's off to work we go" and especially when Snow White sings "Some day my prince will come". In this clip she's got Jim's guitar book of Disney songs and she's singing the only line of the song she knows, filled in with "la la la la la". Daddy and daughter will have to do a duet when Helaina learns more of the song. Sweet Princess Helaina: I know that some day you'll find your prince, but he'll have to pass King Daddy and Queen Mommy's inspection first!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way...

We all bundled up this morning and took Helaina to our town's annual Easter Egg Hunt. Helaina was more than ready to search the park for plastic eggs which she got to turn in for a bag of candy. No hesitation this year in getting near the Easter Bunny - "She just a girl in a costume", Helaina declared.

Kids 5 years old and younger got a 5-minute head start on the search.

Stampede!

"Look I got!"

The sun was out but man, it was windy and cold.

She was reaching for an egg that was hidden in between these tree trunks. Cute pic.

The nice ladies who traded your plastic eggs for candy. Helaina was thrilled as she studied what was in her bag and then delighted to see a lollipop in there.

Bonus - playing at the park.

I took Helaina to Snip-its last week for a trim of her scraggly ends. We waited for her favorite stylist to be available. Helaina was so excited and I couldn't tell if it was because of the haircut or the lollipop that gets clipped to the apron she wears.

Helaina got a little french braid across her forehead to keep the hair out of her eyes. She loved it and it looked adorable.

Two days + no naps = one exhausted child

For the second day in a row, Helaina had no nap - we put her down at the usual time after an active morning, but she wouldn't fall asleep. After a while I heard her on the monitor making animal noises so Jim got her up. He took her outside because it was so nice and about 10 minutes later this was the result... she fell asleep in her swing while Jim was pushing her!


She was holding onto Siri and a little yellow ball she plays "fetch" with. After I took a bunch of pictures we woke her up and told her she should go in the house and lay down to rest. "NO!" she screamed as she jumped out of the swing and headed toward the slide. Energizer Bunny.

I sure hope she's not outgrowing her naps. We thought she'd zonk out because we took her to the park this morning and she rode her bike ...

... and went crazy on the playground, as usual.

Yesterday morning it was absolutely gorgeous outside so we went to the zoo where Helaina ran around so much there was no doubt in our minds that she would nap when we got home. Wrong, she just wouldn't fall asleep even though she had to be exhausted.

Helaina thought it was funny that this sheep had a sweater on, and I thought it was funny that these 2 bears were basking in the sun in the exact same position.

Snack time. Helaina brought her elephant Siri with her to the zoo. She said she wanted to show Siri (the real zoo elephant) Siri! Unfortunately, only Indy was out when we were there.

Siri posing on the stone tiger.

So, 2 busy weekend days, no naps. I'll see what Monday brings - I hope it's an afternoon nap. I'll be the first to admit that I love my 90 minutes of free time every afternoon when Helaina naps!

March 19, 2008 - 7pm - Touchdown!!!

That was the date and time our plane safely (finally!) landed in our hometown with 27 pounds of dynamo we named Helaina Marie. After 13 days on the other side of the world, it took 3 flights totaling 17 hours of flying time within a 22 hour period, but we were home.

First flight, Guangzhou to Hong Kong - short flight, but we were up about 5:15am that morning and exhausted before we even departed. On Momma's lap, Helaina did not like the seatbelts at all.

Second flight, bye bye Hong Kong - 13 hours & 52 minutes of torture: turbulent flight, not the best flight attendants or seats, confined kid who didn't sleep much and didn't want to be buckled in, sick Momma & Daddy who barely slept.

The few times Helaina did fall asleep I was afraid to move and wake her up. I probably held that pillow in place for 3 hours - and happily did so!

I don't know who felt worse (or looked worse), Jim or me. Beam me to Chicago, quickly!

It's funny how the time thing works out. We left Hong Kong at noon on Wednesday March 19th and landed in Chicago (one hour later - ha) at 1:00pm on Wednesday March 19th because of the giant backwards leap in time, but we made it. Chicago O'Hare. Brightly lit, clean, water fountains, toilet paper, ice, McDonalds - woo hoo. After I stopped crying (imagine that), so thankful to hear the immigration agent say "Your paperwork's good. Welcome home.", we found our gate and got some grub - nuggets for Helaina, a burger for Jim and I, and of course my long-anticipated drink with ICE. As Helaina still does today, she always wants what she has plus what you have - she'll eye what you're eating and say "I have one bite?". She eyed our burgers, while clutching her fries, and wanted a taste. We should have known then that we had an eater on our hands.

Third and final flight out of Chicago, you couldn't have slapped that smile off my face. Jim's got 2 drinks up to his lips in his picture!

I think it was the equivalent of about 5:00am to our bodies and Helaina finally slept the entire flight home.

Greeted by lots of friends and family at the airport was the best, an emotional moment I'll never forget. My sister was the first person I saw and that was all it took to start my waterworks again. Just like Dorothy says in the Wizard of Oz - there's no place like home.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Oh that face, I just can't get enough of it (complete with scratch on her nose) - sporting her St. Patrick's Day shamrock t-shirt, green bow in her hair and shamrock earrings. Everything at pre-k this morning was green - teacher's outfits, green fingerpaint set up for the kids, Green Eggs & Ham all ready to be read, green water in the sensory table with green rubber duckies floating in it, and cheerios & green milk for their snack. Helaina took off her jacket, hung it in her locker and bolted into her classroom asking anyone who would listen to her "You like my shirt? You like my shirt?" She sure did. A $4 shirt from Walmart was all it took to please her today.

This picture is cute but we'll try it again another day - Helaina was not cooperative at all, squirming all over the place.

Another sunny, near-60 degree day, so the bike was out ...

... the scooter was out (Helaina's no longer just happy to scoot along, nope, our daredevil now jumps up in the air with it as she scoots along - guess she's watched too much AFV) ...

... Suri and Macy and Ginger were enjoying the sunshine ...

... Tiger was out enjoying his 9th life - still unbelievably hanging in there. I often wonder if he misses Heidi (or even is aware she's not around any more) - they were together a long time, but I don't know how a cat's brain works.

A shamrock cut-out made for Daddy and some shamrock matching done in school.

On Monday Helaina wore her "Kiss me I'm Irish" shirt to school, but she wasn't in he mood for a picture to be taken. "I too busy eating my goldfish qwackers."

We had corned beef and cabbage tonight for dinner. I'm not one bit Irish, but who says an Italian can't make corned beef? Jim and I liked it but Helaina and Josh weren't thrilled, so into the toaster oven went the dinosaur chicken nuggets - sigh.