County Fair, Belle's Pedi, Peeing on a Tree, Crazy Idiot

COUNTY FAIR: As a reward for Isabelle getting all of her stickers for her morning and evening "to-do" charts (brushing teeth, brushing hair, getting dressed/in jammies, etc), we took her (and the little one, too) to the Ramsey County Fair on Friday. It was fun - we went to the petting zoo area, walked through the church/school/Avon/Mary Kay/political swayers/healthy cooking area and scored as many free treats as we could for the kids, signed up for a free consultation to have our basement re-done, ate some junk, went on some kids rides - which were pretty boring as Isabelle isn't exactly a dare-devil - played a $5 fishing game so Isabelle could win a toy that cost $0.02, ate some ice cream, listened to some awesome live 80's music (side note: how is it that EVERY carnival/fair has 80's music blaring from radios in the ride area and if there happens to be a live band, they are playing all of our "favorite" 80's tunes? I'd be willing to bet that they even played 80's music at carnivals in the 50's & 60's. Seriously.) and watched two monkeys riding dogs race each other around a little race track. Isabelle posed for a picture with the winning monkey after the races - it was so cute!



After the monkey races, we walked by the bungee trampoline thing. Isabelle really surprised me - she saw some kids (around her age and younger) doing the bungee thing and she wanted to try it. I'll try to describe it...Its a blown up trampoline - with a circumference the size of - I don't know - a Camry? You climb up on the trampoline thing and they strap you in a harness....around your waist and both legs. You've got bungees hanging down from the towers above down to your waist - and you grab them with both hands and jump. Somehow you end up jumping really, REALLY high - if you want to. I'm not sure how it all works - science never was a strong subject for me - but I do know that you can get pretty stinkin' high. Back to Belle - she wanted to do it, so we waited in line for at least 45 minutes - no exaggeration - and watched a bunch of kids jumping and laughing. She was so patient. Then, it was her turn. She waved to me with a big smile on her face, climbed up on the trampoline thing, got all rigged up, ready to go. She then started slightly bouncing on the trampoline...IF she got her feet off the trampoline, it was by an inch or two. She kind of smiled politely and asked to get down. I encouraged her to jump more, but she wasn't having it. The guy running the thing unhooked her and told me and Bert that we could use her remaining time if we wanted --- I was game! It was a blast! Now, I know I'm not in the best shape I've ever been, but I wore myself out jumping on that thing! It was so much fun...I couldn't believe how high I was getting, then the guy running the thing grabbed onto one side of the bungees and started jumping with me. On the third jump, he pulled me down as far as he could "into" the trampoline and launched me into the air - I flew! He did that a couple times and I laughed and laughed. It was a great use of $6. I was proud of Belle for giving it a try - and I was happy to take over for her when she'd had enough. :)

We ended the night watching the fireworks and then drove two very tired girls home and carried them to bed. It was a good day.

ISABELLE'S FIRST PEDICURE:

I never thought it would happen, but here I am, blogging about how my 4-yr old daughter has received her first pedicure. This isn't such a bad thing....just never thought that this moment would happen. 1. I'm blogging and 2. My 4-yr old has had a pedicure. Really? A 4-yr old. Yes. Really. This may be part of why the majority of the world hates us here in the US....ya think? OK, now that I've got my common-sense opinion sarcastically voiced, I can have fun with this. It was so cute! She was happy as could be, sitting in the chair while the lady painted her toenails. She felt like one of the ladies! It was adorable. We met our daycare lady, Diane, and her grown daughters, Ashley and Alyssa (and Alyssa's baby, Amiya) at the nail shop, just to chat while they were getting their pedis. I consider them my friends - not just "the daycare lady and her family." I'm telling ya, this is the BEST daycare ever. Diane and her family and all the other families that go there. We are truly blessed. Anyway, then, someone, who shall remain nameless, offered to have Belle get her nails painted, too. So Amiya and Belle both got their toes done. It was cute and I was happy to share some "girlie" time with Isabelle. P.S. Thank you to the nameless source of the pedi! Isabelle is still so proud of it!

PEEING ON A TREE: Just another reminder that mommy should really have her daughter go potty BEFORE we leave the house. Last night, Isabelle, Audrey and I were walking Isabelle's friend, Leah, home after a day of playing at our house. Leah lives about 3 blocks away. At, oh, approximately 1.5 blocks into the walk, Isabelle informs me of her urgent need to go potty. We're just as close to Leah's house as we are to our own at this point, so I tell Belle she's just gonna have to hold it - we'll be there soon. I pick up the pace in hopes that we can avert a true potty emergency. No luck. Isabelle says she REALLY has to go. What am I supposed to do here? We're on a residential street, not a porta-potty in site and she needs to go. She can't make it to Leah's, we can't make it back home, so I tell her she'll need to cop a squat by a tree. Yup. I said it. And yup. I tried to hide behind said tree. These are my neighbors for cryin' out loud! Isabelle proceeds to find a big tree on the boulevard, pull down her pants, squat down and pee....all over her legs, shoes, shorts and panties. Ughhh. Wonderful. Now, not only did I embarrass our family by having my daughter pee in plain site of any/everyone around, but she did a piss-poor job of it (Ha!) and we have to head back home anyway! We may have had better luck having her try to "hold it."

Back home we go - into the bath, jammies on - and we head out again to bring Leah home. As we walked by the pee-tree, Leah said, as she pushed Audrey in her stroller, "See that tree, Audrey? That's where your sister peed. Yup, right there." My heart swelled with pride. Has mommy learned her lesson? I hope so.

CRAZY IDIOT: AN IZZY-ISM: Isabelle and I sat down tonight to play a game of Crazy Eights. As I was shuffling the cards - doing that "bridge shuffle" thing - Isabelle said, "Crazy Idiot." I explained to her that the game is called Crazy Eights, not Crazy Idiot. She said, "No Momma. When you do that to the cards, they say, 'Crazy Idiot.'" I did it again....when you shuffle the cards, it sounds a bit like "crazy" (OK, its a stretch, but a little), then when you "bridge" them up it sounds like "idiot." Try it. So now, to shuffle, is to "crazy idiot" the cards.

So much for the quick post before bed! I'm shot!

Over and out - good night to all!
Mary