Good Help

Since preschoolers often act like teenagers and well, you know how teenagers can often act like preschoolers...why don't teenagers give the great help they did when they were preschoolers?!

Marissa has Disney princess tumblers that she loves to drink from, but they are hand-wash only, so I tend to pile a few up before washing them. Marissa now loves this chore. Not only does she wash well, she is THE BEST hand dryer I've seen!

I'll take the help while I can get it!

Brayden

Brayden is Marissa's nephew, although she always says she is his sister. Usually Brayden has his eyes glued to Marissa, so it's a sure bet she can make him smile. But when we saw him last week, he was tired and nothing either one of us did could get him to grin. We sure think he's a cutie.

Our Little Traveler

Marissa is such a traveler! She doesn't complain and is ready to see what next adventure she'll encounter. She loves watching people, playing "Go Fish" while we wait for flights, and talking to everyone she meets!

There's God

I have to interrupt our travel blogs with a cute story that happened this week.

While at a Christmas party for Marissa's great grandma, Dennis excitedly told Marissa "Look, there's a dog!" He pointed to the hallway, where there was some type of work/aid dog. Marissa ran into the hallway to see. "Where," she asked. "Right there," Dennis told her. "Where?" "Right in front of you," Dennis told her again. Now he was starting to get concerned about her eyesight because the animal was right in front of her. "Don't you see it?" he asked as he pointed. When she finally spotted the dog, Marissa's excitement evaporated. "Oh," she said. "I thought you said God."

Can hearing be dyslexic?! :)

Learning and Relaxing

We decided we could do a little learning and relaxing one day...first we visited the Science and Technology Museum, which had a lot of hands-on activities for our little miss. Marissa especially loved the "Mars mission" rover. It felt like we were really traveling in a rover and went up and down like we were on very bumpy terrain. Since we had to wear seat belts and they closed us up in a little room the size of a vehicle, Marissa really "felt" the part. After a little hands-on learning, we went to the beach!!! Marissa has now seen the Atlantic ocean. We let her walk in a little, but it was cool water. We definitely didn't want to swim! She was so precious. She kept lifting her dress, afraid the waves would get her all wet (this from the one begging for the dolphins to splash her at the Seaquarium!). And...of course...when you see a playset at the beach, you have to swing.

Miami Seaquarium

On our second day in Florida, we drove to the Miami Seaquarium. Talk about excited to see dolphins and whales...that was Marissa!! One of the posted pictures shows her anticipation turn to excitement as they came out to perform. Another photo shows our funny girl sticking her head in the mouth of a crocodile statue...of course Daddy is egging her on. The last photo is Marissa "face-to-face" or up close and personal with a Manatee.

Christmas Break

We just returned from several days in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Marissa is quite the TRAVELER! Daddy worked all day and most of the evening the first night we were there, but Marissa and Mama had a great time together enjoying the sun and warm 83 degree days!!!!!!!! That first day we slept in until 9:44 AM! Mama NEVER sleeps in. We were tired. Then we leisurely got dressed and went for a walk around the hotel grounds. It was set up like a resort and we had fun finding lizards, frogs, a snake (right behind us about two feet and coiled - ready to pounce), ducks, and birds. After our long walk we went for lunch and then went for another walk! We played Play-Doh, played paper dolls, and Flatsy dolls. Flatsy is a doll that was popular when Mama was little - I think it came out in the 60's or 70's. The paper dolls we bought especially for the trip are SO cute! They are Days of The Week dolls, and all the little girls look very different. There's even a Chinese one. I LOVE paper dolls and we had so much fun! The time just flew that day!