Living, Laughing, Learning…Daily
Actual phrases MAM has uttered to me this week:
“Stay right there. Don’t move.”
“I like to JUMP JUMP JUMP on my bed!”
“Dog hit cat. That’s not nice. He sit in the chair” (her Little People animals were misbehaving again)
“You have gas, Mama?”
“Leave me alone!”
“Mama, you my best friend”
She cracks me up daily. I love that girl.
So far, these are two separate topics, only joined because I’m choosing to blog about them both today. So far, the title isn’t “Nightmarish Travel Plans”, because, well, in the travel plan department, things are dreamy.
But first onto the Nightmare. Or Night Scare. Or whatever-the-heck-that-was that tore me away from the first new Grey’s in ages. Last night, MAM went down per usual, I made myself some chai and sat down for the first time all day at 9pm, ready to watch me some new and juicy Grey’s. And watch I did, til about 9:20pm. That’s when BgK muted the TV and we heard crying–scary, intense crying. BgK leapt from the sofa and up the stairs, to find a distraught MAM on her bed.
I followed close behind, and in 2 seconds flat, she was a crying mess in my arms. After a while, she started to say, “It’s scary!!”
Me: “What’s scary?”
MAM: “Da dinosaur”
Me: “What dinosaur?”
MAM: “Dat dinosaur!!” as she points one little finger to an issue of National Geographic, face down on her bed. She’s taken to reading “her” magazines in bed…..and apparently the dinosaur issue made it’s way into her bed. Either she had visions of the T-rex dancing in her head before sleep, or she was slightly awake at some point and caught an eyeful…
Either way, we banished Mr. Dinosaur from her room, and by 10pm she was sound asleep.
TRAVEL PLANS
Now onto the dreamy part of the post. We’ve been looking at joining my parents on vacation this spring for awhile, but hadn’t been finding any flights that “spoke” to us (i.e, were practically free). Given what we were finding, I wasn’t even sure I had enough time banked to go to Florida for a few days during the school year. As a teacher, it’s always a little weird to go on “vacation” when school is in session, but it’s always so nice to get away when the rest of the world isn’t on Spring Break. After consulting my boss today, it turns out I have plenty of time to use. So…we just booked a flight to ORLANDO and we will be staying at a lovely resort for FIVE nights.
Dreamy, no?
Let’s review:
We arrived to my parents’ candle lit home. There was a traffic accident that caused a power outage for three hours. While it got progressively chillier, it was rather magical. When else do you light every Christmas candle in the house at once??
Saturday night BgK and I drove about 90 minutes to see a college friend of mine, whom we hadn’t seen in over a year. She and her hubby moved into a beautiful house this year and host 
what is known as a legendary Christmas open house. It was so good to see them, and their friends (most of whom I’ve know since college as well). The icing on the cake? Someone brought her new baby–her perfectly healthy, 3 week old baby–who weighed 4lbs 12 oz. I have never held a baby that small. It was enchanting.
The next three days were filled with family visits, family dinners and family gift exchanges. Fancy dresses, yummy food, fun presents. And playing with assorted animated Christmas critters. For kicks, we gathered them, my grandma and MAM for a photo op.
Yesterday, we went into Chicago to see the sights.
Today we came home. Tomorrow, we shall rest.