Ok so I realize it has been waaaaayyyy too long since I last updated. I've been procrastinating i think. (duh!) So, here's how the next few posts are going to go. Luckily the website where I keep Bug's pics is working again, so i plan on getting some pics put up within the next week or so. Since there is about 2 months worth of stuff to cover over the next few days I'll be breaking it down so that

1) I get a bit of a break.....you wouldn't believe how long it can take to do this sometimes....you look at the clock and 4 paragraphs later you realize that 45 mins has gone by.....
2) And you all don't get Bug overload.......yes you can get Bug overload, call my mother she had to come and rescue me one day last week.......

So without further ado, we shall start WAY back in November:


The weekend before Thanksgiving Bug and i took a road trip. That's right i spent nearly 3 and a half hours straight in the car with my daughter and somehow we didn't kill each other!!! No I'm kidding, she was actually super good until we were about half and hour away from our hotel. At that point she had decided she'd had enough of sitting in her car seat. Luckily she didn't do the screaming bit it was more of a whiny kinda thing where she just wanted OUT of the damned thing. (I don't blame her, my butt was starting to hurt too....)

Where were you going? you ask? We went to Indianapolis and stayed just north of the city at a lovely hotel. My Best Friend Lara and her two girls Anja* (who just turned 4 this month) and Valeska* (who is now 18months) met us there and we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum and just had a fun girl's weekend. Well the girls played and Lara and I gossipped like the old biddies that we are. It was fun and the hotel was really nice. We only wish we had found out that the couch in the little sitting room had folded out the night before but, now we know.

*Lara and Derek have a thing for Nordic/Slavic type names.....they considered naming Anja "Leif" if she had been a boy......

The children's museum is WONDERFUL. I really would like to take Bug back because she and Anja had a blast playing there. The one area we went to had a pond habitat set up and it had these plastic bubbles you could go in that took you up under the "pond" and you could see the fishies really close. Bug LOVES the fishies. (We think this started because of the "goodnight Hush the Fish" section of the sprout channel's goodnight show that we watch with her at night. And since they say goodnight to Hush the fish on the show she has to say goodnight to the fish images on her nightlight in her room every night. And now she loves the fishies. We have to go visit the fishies when we're at meijers every time now.) We also found a BIG bullfrog int he pond section and I think Bug would have liked to stay and stare at the bullfrog for the remainder of our time there but there are 4 floors to go and do stuff on and we were limited on our time. For those of you whoa re fans Chihuly has a GORGEOUS glass sculpture in the building that stretches all four stories. Absolutely stunning! Even Bug and Anja thought it was pretty. (I'm not leaving Miss V. out, she for some reason was the quietest of the bunch oddly enough.....) We had dinner out and then went back to the hotel to just hang out and gossip. The next day we had to go home and Bug slept almost the entire way. That in and of itself was totally awesome.

David got to take a few days off before and after thanksgiving so we had some nice family time. We spent Thanksgiving with the Clark's this year and Bug did very well and didn't tear up Donna and Ron's house too much. She actually got to play with some original wooden fisher-price little people toys that were David's (and most likely Denise's) when he was little. She really liked the barn and how when you opened the doors to the barn it Moo-ed. (I was feeling a little nostalgic myself. i wonder what happened to our old little people stuff....) She also had a grand time pulling a good deal of the magnets off of grandma Clark's refrigerator and I think we only had one possibly two temper tantrums while we were there which is really good! :)

I mentioned about it above; we have this lovely channel we get via satellite called the "sprout" channel. basically it's PBS kids 24/7. literally. Every night they have a program called "The Good Night Show" where they play different pre-school aged kids shows like Thomas and Angelina Ballerina and Kipper. I mention this because Bug LOVES Kipper the Dog. (I also have to admit both David and i like Kipper the Dog...his theme music is mellow jazz and there's minimal animation so it's really a very relaxing cartoon to watch.) Bug sings the kipper theme song, yells "KIPPER DA DOG!!!!!!" when he comes on and has even insisted that David and i dance with her to the theme song. Kipper also happens to be an English cartoon so Bug picks up all kinds of fun English words. Seriously, the girl calls her toy flashlight a "torch." Anyway, i don't think I'll ever forget the first time she really watched show. At one point kipper and his friends are in the woods and they show this squirrel in a tree and he drops acorns on the heads of kipper and his friends. Every time the squirrel did that Bug would giggle and giggle and giggle. She has the best giggle. :)

About this time she also discovered "Little Bear" on Noggin. I'm sure Holly and Tyler are very familiar with "Little Bear." esp. since I know for a fact Tyler was a "Little Bear" junkie. I think she gets a thrill out of recognizing the certain characters. Not that they are hard to remember. Little Bear's friends consist of Duck, Hen, Owl, and Cat (and Emily and Mitzi but they aren't favorites....) and i believe there is one called Moose as well. Off topic a bit here: Last night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (David and I wanted steak) anyway, they have a real giant moose head mounted at the front of the restaurant. Bug couldn't stop talking about moose. and of course that lead into talking about Moose and duck and cat. David and i are just grateful she didn't realize that the moose was missing about 75% of his body, but we'll discuss that a few years down the road when she has an emotional breakdown because she's figured out that the moose is missing his body and is actually dead.....oh the lovely conversations i look forward to......

Anyway, those are some of the things Bug is really into right now. Kipper and Little Bear. i get a big kick out of the things she plays now. She does so much imaginary play that sometimes you wonder where she comes up with some of the things. In fact I caught her calling our kitty Shadow "cat" today. I'm not so sure Shadow is as thrilled about the imaginary play considering that "cat" can do things normal cats can't and I think Bug tries to get Shadow to do stuff with her like "cat" on little bear. I hear her say things like "C'mon Shadow I show you!!!" and then she tries to get Shadow to follow her. Tink just flees for her life when Bug tries to do the same with her.

Well like I said time flies when you do one of these. It's been over and hour now and technically I'm up to Christmas time so I'll save that for the next post which I will try to do in the next day or so. here's some things to look forward to:

the kitchen, the great Kipper search, Sean from Canada, Dance Dance Revolution, the Christmas tree and many more fun things.....