April 30, 2007 by Barbara.

Reid enjoys “driving” her purple car whenever she gets a chance and she wa very impressed by Uncle John’s big, red pickup truck. As was George, for that matter, but that’s another story. Before Aunt Pam, Brianna and George left to get Donald and his stuff, they let Reid have a turn at the wheel. By “they”, I mean George since he was awfully possessive of the truck. I’d say it was a boy-thing but that’d lead to yet another 80’s music reference.

Uncle John’s truck really is huge. I’d need a boost into it but Reid sat tiny in the driver’s seat and steered with confidence. She looked around and checked everything out. I suspect that the key wasn’t in the ignition, though, since the wipers and signal lights weren’t turned on and Reid likes to verify that these pieces of equipment are functional. I’m not sure she’ll ever be able to ride in a Smart Car or an Insight after the experience. In fact, she might turn into a pickup truck groupie, judging from the smile on her face.

Of course, if she ever see Uncle John’s semi with a trailer, well, who knows what will happen?

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April 30, 2007 by Barbara.

Last week we talked about Aunt Pam, Brianna and “her boy”, George, (she said it, not me) coming for a visit often. It helps me “stretch” my enjoyment of the visit and helps Reid get familiar with who will come. Daddy benefits by knowing someone is coming, *if* he hears us talking.  On Friday night, I told Reid that when she woke up, Aunt Pam, Brianna and George would be in our basement and so, first thing Saturday morning, Reid got herself out of bed and went to try to open her bedroom door. Normally, Reid won’t get herself out of bed, opting for having me get her up and carry her to the bathroom. I consider it an opportunity to fit a little weight lifting into my otherwise busy day. ;+) On Saturday, though, Reid did it herself and then hurried to give Daddy his wake up kiss before going to the basement. We discovered Donald sleeping in our living room but since he was up and about, he got no kiss. Aunt Pam and Brianna both got kisses but Reid hesitated a bit before kissing George and so Brianna suggested she just tickle him instead. Reid is very brave and generous with wake-up and good night kisses and I think she was just figuring out how to get to George but she likes to tickle, too.

We went to Eddy’s for breakfast, but not Daddy who had housework to do and isn’t a fan of eating breakfast out or going to Kindermusik, and then headed to Kindermusik. Well, Donald and George wimped out of Kindermusik - I guess they thought if Daddy couldn’t handle it, they couldn’t either. Delight of delights, for the third week in a row, there was a sale at the church. I picked up 12 Golden Books and two Winnie-the-Pooh puzzles. It’s hard to go wrong with a Golden Book, or at least the classics, since they now have books based on Disney movies. I forgot my purse at home and so mooched $5 from Brianna to cover my purchases. I wonder if she felt set up ;+)

After class, we met Donald and George at Ikea. For the first time, Reid noticed the ball room. Fortunately for her, I’d asked previously about an age minimum. They said the kids have to be 3, at least 37″ tall and potty-trained. So, on Saturday, I knew to round up to the nearest whole number for the question regarding age. We waited less than 10 minutes for Reid’s turn to go in and then I hung around a few minutes to be sure she’d enjoy herself. She adapted well and I had a nice visit and shopping experience with Aunt Pam and the others. Reid lasted 45 minutes and then they paged me. When I got back, Reid was hanging around the gate but not crying. What a big girl she is getting to be. We had lunch at the restaurant - Swedish meatballs, of course - but Reid stayed awake the whole way home. As always on Saturday, I was as ready for the afternoon nap as Reid was.

I made supper from scratch, a new recipe from my Kraft What’s Cooking magazine, but Brianna, George and Donald *missed out* and will regret it forever, I am sure. Or maybe not but since we’ve been eating stuff out of the freezer forever (at least 2 weeks) because I want to defrost it, it was a nice change to have something new. Time passes as is will and soon it was time for bed.

On Sunday, Reid awoke and asked immediately who was in our basement. Hearing that Aunt Pam, Brianna and George were there again, she strode purposefully from her room to go find them. “Strode purposefully” looks funny when done by a 2 year-old. Reid’s bum wiggles and her arms pump but her legs don’t carry her as fast as her body movements suggest they should.

We had breakfast together, but not George who slept in. Reid was happy to go downstairs by herself to wake him up again. George discovered how to get kisses from Reid, you just have to pretend to fall back asleep. She’ll go through the waking up with a kiss ritual many times over. After breakfast, our basement-people had to leave. We’re glad they were able to come. Our basement is their basement.

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April 30, 2007 by Barbara.

Reid and I were reading Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom this morning. This book is a favourite and Reid can supply the final word to most sentences and even whole sentences and so I was a bit surprised to hear her get one twisted. On reflection, though, she is reconciling what she used to know with something more recently encountered. Near the end of the book, Jesse Bear tells us that he’ll wear “His blanket that’s blue and plays peek-a-boo,” or usually he does. This morning his blanket played “seek-a-boo”. Last week I noticed that Reid asked to play “hide-and-go-peek” and thought that a cute switch. I’ll have to listen to hear if she now says “hide-and-seek”. Since I’m telling you about speaking mix-ups, I’ll also mention that Reid has been wearing her “flowsnakes” pajamas lately. It’s tempting to mimic these slips but I try not to. Hide-and-go-peek is most tempting and actually quite accurate as Reid tends not to close her eyes when she counts.

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