Our Jr. Jay

On Saturday we headed off to the baseball game. We told Belle we were going early so she could get her face painted. Since our trip to Ontario Place she's been in love with face painting. We got to Rogers Center and passed a bunch of other fun stuff to do, but Belle threw a fit every time we tried to do something other than face painting. That was all she wanted to do. She sat so still that the lady gave her the "big kid" one and not the simple J they do for toddlers. After she had her face painted she was ready to enjoy the other activities. Like sliding on the inflatable toddler land. It was just for kids under three feet tall.
In the picture below she's laughing not crying. She did so good keeping up with these boys. There were a few times she got shy and the Jays Staff had to help her keep moving, but she did great considering how intimidating they must have been.
We got into the game and got Nick and Brooklyn settled. Then Belle and I took off to redeem her Jr. Jays passport from the morning. (They get stamps at different gates and then they get a prize). She received a mini bobble head! We also signed her up for the Jr. Jays club and she got a t-shirt, sweat bands, dog tags, visor, and a few more things I think. I'll have to get her to pose in her gear tomorrow. She also got some coupons for concession stands so we headed off to get a combo at the kids concession. As we arrived they ran out of hot dogs, (who runs out of hot dogs at a ballpark??). Me and three other very peeved parents then waited 15 minutes for them to cook our hot dogs. Sadly I'm not exaggerating. We missed a lot of the game due to the wait and the 25 minutes it took to walk to the stand at toddler pace.
Brooklyn seemed to enjoy the day as well. It was super hot so we were diligent in keeping the girls hydrated. One of our many juice box breaks.
This is Nick and his girls getting ready to run the bases. Belle bailed just after rounding second. She got right back up but the bridge of her nose looks like she was in a brutal fight.Stompin on home plate.

Afterwards we went to the Pro Shop because Nick needed a new hat and had a gift card from his birthday. Isabella found this dude and climbed up on his sneaker all by herself for this pose. She didn't say anything because there were people watching her and saying "She's so cute....". Belle clues into that and puts on this grin. It says "I'm humoring you." She kept on giving me the eyebrow wiggle until I took her picture though. She definitely knows what she wants.
Belle and Nick being cool dudes together. Notice the sweat band. Flash anyone back to the eighties?

After a long, hot, very fun day she crashed on the way home. I don't even think we were out of the parking lot. She slept almost the whole 45 minutes home and was ready for some more action when we got home.

During Bible College I made some great friends and then when Bible College was over me and my fabulous friends were scattered all over the face of the earth. I've lost touch with a lot of people, managed to maintain a few friendships over the internet and have been able to see a few of these amazing people since school ended.

It's always great for me when two of my fabulous friends from school get married. That way there's only one place to visit to see two people! For the last few years I've been able to see some or all of the Quick family once a year. It's been such a blessing to be able to see their family grow, and Matt and Charity are the kind of friends that you can skip over the "catching up" small talk stuff after a long absence.

This time we got to see the whole Quick family and it was such a treat to have their kids play with ours. Cadence and Isabella hung out in the nursery together and after the service were holding hands to drag one another into mischief. They were fast friends and even though their visit was about a month ago Isabella still asks for Cady every now and then.

Brooklyn and Levi didn't get to say anything we could understand, but they really enjoyed each other's company. Those eyes of Brooklyn's sort of look like crying eyes, but she's really smiling. I think we may have a few future husbands to choose from for that little tyke. Levi is absolutely adorable and it was super great to get to meet him!

I can hardly wait for next year's visit and I'm sure my kids are excited too!

Brooklyn's Crazy Back Crawl.

I really do not know how to describe this action of my daughter's except to say it's scary. She gets up on her heels and the back of her head like the middle picture shows. Then she reaches for what she wants like the bottom picture shows and then she sort of flattens out as she creeps toward the wanted object like in the first picture.


She has a belly crawl and gets around even faster that way. Yet when she gets fixated on something that she wants and she' s on her back she doesn't take the time to flip over to crawl properly to it she gets there on her back.

It's a little frightening the way her head folds under her shoulders having me completely scared that her neck is going to snap in half. It never happens, she just straightens herself out and scooches around to where she wants to go. It's crazy.


I haven't been able to catch it on video, and we flip her to her front when she does it to try and discourage her. Not because we don't want her to feel free to be herself, but she's lightening quick in the movement and trying to change the diaper on a kid doing this move is not easy.

At least we know her neck is strong. Seriously, what part of this girl isn't strong? UFC here she comes.