Toddler Times

Introducing Bob

We’ve been thinking about getting a new car for awhile - the lease is up on our SUV in October - so Friday evening we persuaded Leia to go with us to just one dealership before we settled in for the night with dinner and a movie.

The BMW lot was closest, so that’s where we headed. I wanted to test drive the BMW X3, Porsche Machan and maybe one other mid-size SUV before making a decision.

 Waiting patiently while we did the “buying a new car” dance

But plans are made to be broken adjusted, right?? All three of us loved the X3, the salesman was easy-going (he and hubby had former colleagues in common), they had exactly the car I wanted in stock, so . . . .

Meet Bob, a 2019 Phytonic Blue BMW X3 M Class with an Oyster interior and enough gadgets and electronics to keep me entertained for the next 3 years. (The dashboard is a bit intimidating . . .)

Leia was disappointed we weren’t going to additional dealerships - turns out she really likes test drives and that new car smell. However, she settled for naming rights, deciding first that the car was a boy and, second, that he should be called “Bob”. (I vetoed “Percival”. )

I’m going to miss Ladybug, my pretty little Mini Cooper Paceman, but we gotta have more room for bulky car seats and cute grandbabies. 

Anniversary Present

Friday the 21st was our wedding anniversary,

 

 and as we’ve done for the past 6 or 7 years,

the grandgirls got the present

and were allowed to play hookey from school for a day.

 

We asked them where they wanted to go and - shocker! - they both chose Universal Studios over Disneyland**. (!!) 

Our first stop of the day was the Hogwarts ride -

silly us thought the line would be shorter first thing in the morning.

Wrong! This was our second longest line of the day, at slightly more than an hour. We came back just before the park closed at 6 and waited less than 15 minutes*. Yay!!

 
Next up was lunch, the Minions ride,

crazy critters ride - 

I can never remember the name of this one

 
but both girls love it -

 

and then one of both girls’ top 3 favorite attractions - 

 

the water park.

 
(I loved it too -

 
45 happy minutes of sitting in the shade, watching excited girls play).

Leia loves the tram ride - Leanne likes everything on it but the 3D dinosaur fight - so we headed there . . .

The “I’m so bored in this line” selfies.

annnnnnnd straight into the longest line of our day. Their “30 minute” wait - according to their app and ride signage - turned into almost 90 hot, miserable minutes of shuffle-forward-turn-another-corner. We had less than 10 minutes left in line when they finally turned on the mist cooling system. Um, thanks guys?

Notice Leanne’s white-knuckle grip on Pop’s arm 

At least it gave the girls time to dry off

and we really, really enjoyed sitting down once we reached the tram.

 
We finished up with “can I have a present, pleeeeeeeeeeeeese, Grandma” shopping. 

Leia got a giant cupcake (shhhh, don’t tell her parents); both girls got a chocolate wand;

and Leanne found Purplebud, her newest stuffie, which included a sweet adoption ceremony at check-out.

All in all, a very good day. Happy Anniversary to us and see you again soon, Universal!

* The Hogwarts ride broke down while we were on it the first time, leaving us suspended sideways in our seats, and scaring Leanne to tears. So proud of her facing down her fear and deciding she’d go on the ride again before we left. And she enjoyed it! Hooray!!

** Dear Disneyland, please bring back the Elsa and Anna Boutique in Downtown Disney. My girls **love** it and its loss was the deciding factor in their picking Universal Studios over Disneyland. 

Birthday Bed

Spoiler alert - she likes it!!

Pop wanted to build Leia a double-decker bed for her birthday. 

Leia will (eventually) be sharing a room with baby Donovan and Pop wanted her to have space to sleep and study and play and escape.

Construction started the first week of August- 

which Pop thought would give him plenty of time to build

and paint before Leia’s August 13 birthday.

Which came and went in a fusillade of Murphy’s Law and “well, that took longer than expected.”

But it was definitely worth the wait.

This bed is amazing,

 The blue doors on the stairs slide open for additional hiding places storage. 

with plenty of room for now and as she grows (teenagehood is only a few years away. Heaven help us. 😜). 

I think she likes loves it. 

Bottle Baby

Donovan spit the bottle out twice on Thursday before accepting defeat the inevitable 

and draining it dry. So happy that battle is behind us (for the most part; he put up a token fuss with his afternoon bottle).

Now we can concentrate on the important things - playing with cousins

and naps.

First Day

On Wednesday, Donovan’s mama went back to work and Donovan spent his first full day with us. (He’ll be here 2 days a week.)

The good news is he and Jackie adore each other, 

with no jealousy on her part 

(I was worried about her willingness to share grandma and papa)

and Donovan likes to take naps, 

especially if someone is holding him.

The bad news? He flat refuses to take a bottle (or pacifier), which makes feeding him a bit difficult when mama’s not around. 

Fortunately, he’s a good-natured and generally happy little guy. And sooner or later he’s going to figure out that bottles are a good thing. I hope.