Ladybugs and Friends

We watched Dani's best friend, Ella, today while her Mom was in the hospital to have her baby sister. In the morning Dani had her 2 yr old Doctor appointment. She is still extremely tall (36 inches) and average weight for her age (26.8lb). At first, Dani was excited about going to the doctor because usually we go to the Obstetrician and she is not the focus of the visit. However, when the nurse started to look at her, she started to scream. She did not like being measured, she did not want to be weighed, she did not want the doctor to look at her feet or listen to her heart. She would scream every time the doctor tried to look at her or touch her. Ella on the other hand was a great example, very calm and just looked at Dani as if she were questioning what was the matter. The doctor showed Dani that Ella was fine with the stethoscope, but Dani still didn't trust her.

At the end, we got a book from the Reach Out And Read program, "A Frog in the Bog" by Karma Wilson and it has become one of Dani's favorite books. She even likes to tell me where she got it, even if at the time the visit was an unpleasant experience.

After the doctor appointment, we had a snack at home and then went to a ladybug party at a friends. Our friend had purchased a small bag of live ladybugs that she released in her backyard for the kids to see, catch, and feel. She provided magnifying classes and crayon rubbings of bugs, and we had a potluck brunch. They even let us catch a few ladybugs in baby food jars to bring home.

Dani was all prepared with her net, which she demanded we bring to catch the ladybugs, but she ended up being more interested in the large sandbox and toys. Ella stayed close to me with all the people around. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I could get any pictures of this party, but I did have our video camera.

After the party we came back home to have a little nap. When they woke up we went to the park down the street and played in their sandbox with the large cement turtle. It was a little windy so we didn't stay very long, but they sure loved playing outdoors. When we got back home, Dani wanted to dress up in her skirt aka "dirt" and put on fishing hats to play a fishing game we have.

After our fishing game, we played on the balcony and let the ladybugs we caught at the party loose. Dani cheered them on as they crawled out of the jar and flew away.

While on the balcony Dani and Ella played peekaboo behind the chairs together. They played this for a couple minutes with me, so I decided to grab the camera. I caught the end of their game, but you can see somewhat how it went.

On the way to pick up Trent that evening, Dani told Ella made up stories. This was the first time I had heard her use her different voices to tell a story and Ella found it hysterical, which to my delight encouraged Dani more. Dani's story had about 3 different voices and even though the topics seemed to change randomly (the baby turned into a dinosaur and the dinosaur wanted a valentine box), it was so cute to hear her talk in her dinosaur voice, and her Mommy voice, and baby voice.

By the time we got home it was time for dinner and bed. Overall, it was a fairly busy and fun day.