Code Yellow!

For those of you who haven't heard: at Target (at least the one in Ames) "Code Yellow" apparantly means "lost child." That's right the lost child belonged to me. Little Miss Ella wandered herself far enough away that the walkie talkies were lighting up and a woman clad in a red shirt and khaki pants walked my child by the hand to her mommy. What they didn't know was she was successfully avoiding the crocodiles whom, it would seem, were chasing her. The less than harrowing ordeal was well short of two minutes, and neither mom nor three year old were overly panicked. As the seconds ticked by I obvioulsy got more and more frightened, but mostly I knew she'd just bolted and was making her way through the aisles. The stink.

Mia's biggest news is that she seems to be officially off the boob. I had started to wean her last week, and discovered by mid week that I was pretty much making her nurse in the morning, which was our only time of the day. So I decided to let her lead and she was done by Friday. So we're three days out now and she had her first cup of cow's milk today. Seems to have taken to it much better than Ella. Thank God.

I realize it's been a while, but in my defense we were busy one week and I was sick the other. Granny and Grandpa did make it into town for the birthday celebration. And as promised I ws contently sleeping. As was, it turns out, Chris. They were welcomed by our 130 pound fierce guard dog. The one that woke neither of his owners, and made little or no sound in the welcoming. We had a good few days with them, enjoyed the pool, hit Applebees for dinner and even made some time to catch the "little zoo" in Fort Dodge. It's one of our favorite spots, and I'm glad we went cause I haven't made the effort to take the girls there this year. They hung around long enough on Monday for a quick lunch then headed back to Ray-town.

Ella has completed her first week of swim lessong (passed level one!) and is starting her second tomorrow. She took well to the lessons, nothing earth moving given that she's quite comfortable in the water, but it's fun to watch her try and float and tred water.

We spent last weekend in Racine for Jill Brown's wedding. It was fun to get to see lots of old friends, and spend some time with Scott and Heather too. Mia has taken to Scott like you wouldn't believe. It was a quick trip, and both Chris and I were feeling pretty crappy when we left Sunday morning, but it's well worth it and we enjoyed the trip and company.

Last week was a bit quieter. We hosted play group on Wednesday...outside games with slip-n-slide, pool with the whale slide and this cool rocket thing that shoots off the end of the hose that Hagedorn's brought down. Way cool. Everyone packed picnic lunches and the kids ate outside. It was a complete success. Measured mostly by the soaking wet kids and sand strewn about my yard!

We hit the fair on Friday. Didn't stay long, just a few rides and some animal visiting. The girls got closest to the pigs (ack!). Mia seems to love animals, and would have loved to spent more time oggling them!

Our weekend was mostly uneventful. Chris spent most of the day with L and Mia on Saturday while I ran some sidewalk chalk art contest and did some major landscape remodeling. We've finished loading our brand new, completely finished closet with all of our clothes. A feat that is helping me leep so much better at night!

Hope you're all doing well. We're gearing up for Mia's birthday in a few weeks, after which mom and dad are off to KC for a few days without the kids! I've never been so excited in my whole life!