The Hunt Was On

Yesterday, Lovebug and her boyfriend Marcus got to have yet another Easter egg hunt.  This time it was at Hy-ya's house :).  Here are some super cute pics that I just got from her.  Can't say it enough... we LOVE Holly!!!

Wanna know why?  Because she did this for the crabby girl with the ear infection, and for the boy that just became a big brother!!!!!  Yes folks... Lovebug has herself a sister-in-law now :). 


{they're ready...}




{tricky hiding spot!}




{What.  You don't hide for Easter eggs without pants on?}







{look at all those egg!!!}

 

It Let Me Know

That explains the crabbyness of yesterday and the sleepless night of last night.

You know when people say "Oh you'll know.  Your motherly instinct will let you know." ??

It let me know.  Fluid in the right ear and an infection in the left.  Again.

You see, this is the exact same way that Lovebug acted last time {albeit, 3 weeks ago} when she had her last ear infection.  A bad day {or 2... or 3} at Hy-ya's, followed by several sleepless nights, and lots of nose wiping.  Rewind to then... I thought it was allergies.  Fast forward to now, I'm so glad we went to urgent care before the days and days of nose wiping and *hopefully* only one sleepless night.

My other clue?  The grandparent curse. 

Yes.  Those two words are together in a sentence.  You see, we've got a running joke around here that when Lovebug gets to see Mama Sy-ya and Papi Deel {Grandma Sally & Grandpa Dale}, she gets sick.  What, you don't believe me?

* ER visit last February with them after staying in a hotel

* the last 3 ear infections in the last 3 months have been within 3 days of their arrival.  'Nough said.

Pretty sure she plans it that way because she thinks she'll get more attention and be spoiled more.  

Lil' stinker.

Here's hoping that this magic bottle of potion works its wonders.  And let's hope that my call to the pediatrician's office tomorrow ends with an appointment to talk tubes.  I hate that my poor baby girl has to go through this...again!!!

Every Mommy's Nightmare!!!

This is the 2nd picture I got from Holly today...

:(

Every Daddy's Nightmare!!!

This is a picture that Holly sent Coach and I this morning...





EVERY DADDY'S NIGHTMARE!!!!!

Lovebug... in bed... kissing a boy!!!  Holly told me that she woke him up with a big ol' kiss.  Coach's words:

DONE!  THAT'S IT!!  I'M GETTING THE BAT OUT TONIGHT!!!

Run, Marcus, run!

Favorite Time of the Day

We all made a quick trip to Menards last night for a new furnance filter.  It was exciting.  Lovebug chose to act horribly different for me than she does for her beloved, favorite person of all time Daddy, but that's to be expected, I guess.  I think we're starting to get one of those classic, 1950's "wait 'til your father gets home" things going on, which personally, I hate.  As the person in charge at school, my students all know my look and they don't want to cross it.  At home, I give Lovebug the look and she cracks up.  Nice.  But I digress...

On our drive home, Coach whips out his iPod and turns on Lovebug's favorite song... Back in Black.  You should have seen these two!!  They both start nodding their head, clapping and tapping their hands to the beat.  Then Coach says, "I'm so glad I have a daughter.  I didn't think it would be this much fun."  :)  I could've said "I told you so", but I didn't.  Well, at least I don't think I did. 

You see, Coach and Lovebug have all of this special things together.  It's so cute to see them loving each other more and more every day.  I will not post all of these special things, because I want to keep them just what they are... special between a Daddy and his daughter.

I will, however, post a family special thing.  It happens every morning at the east mixmaster on southbound I-35.  Picture it... Lovebug & Coach in their truck in the left-hand lane, and me in my van in the rght-hand lane.  We're neck and neck... sometimes for 1/4 mile, sometimes for 1/2 mile, and sometimes, if traffic is just right, we do it for a mile or more!  I start waving fanatically lovingly over at Lovebug, who is always prompted by Daddy to "wave to Mama."  Some mornings she waves more than others.  I'm sure other people on the road have to see me and think that woman should not be driving, but I look at it as my favorite time of the day.  I gaze across at two of my favorite people in the world and think about how lucky I am.  Of course, this is always followed by a low point in my day... when I watch them continue to drive off, together, while I get off on my exit :(.  However, I always get a little grin thinking that maybe, just maybe, Coach turns Back in Black on again and they get to have the rest of their special Daddy-Daughter on our way to daycare time.

Easter Festivities Continue... Plus 21

This afternoon, the Easter festivities continued for us.  Lovebug and I went to church where, I felt, we were "that family".  Ya know... the one with the loud kid yelling "Mickey Mouse!!!" when she sees it on her backpack?  Yep.  That was us.  I was so worried about it so we snuck out to the entryway for the remainder of the service.  Unfortunately, Lovebug kept on being, well, Lovebug :).  I couldn't bring myself to leave church early though, ya know? 

{playing some ball with Daddy before church.  What, don't you do that?}

Next, we were off to Coach's aunt & uncle's house not too far away. 



{well I KNOW I'm cute, why do you keep telling me?}

Tidbit of Knowledge:   I would also like to point out that I did her hair all by myself today, thankyouverymuch :)

Lovebug played with her cousin Marshall, we all ate some great food, then the kids got to go on an Easter egg hunt in the front yard {note... Lovebug has got to be wondering what's going on.  3 egg hunts in 2 days = happiness for her, for sure!}.

 

{ready....set.....GO!!!  Plus, another could be GAP ad}

Notice how her hair pretties kinda look like bunny ears.  No, it was not planned, but yes, I will still take the credit.

{on the hunt}



{Daddy helping get the loot out}



 


All in all, it was a great day.

In other news...  Lovebug turned 21 months today!  As I've said to a few people, she's one going on 21.  Now she really is :o).  See... she's already learning the "whatever" face :)



{I love her more than words can say}



On the Hunt... Home Edition

Well, Lovebug and I have been up for an hour now and she's already done her Easter Egg hunt here at home!  You see, the Easter Bunny seemed to have forgotten that when a certain 4-legged dog gets up and smells things inside eggs, he would in turn want to grab them.  So, as luck would have it, Lovebug was wide awake at 5:30, so a huntin' we went!

That clever Easter Bunny hid eggs all over the main floor.  Lovebug was quite excited to find them, and unlike Christmas of this year, she stopped to open each.and.every.single.egg... which meant that Mama had a lot of candy clean-up duty!! 

{eggs}

{what's in here Mama?}





The Easter Bunny also left a plethora of BB&D toys {baseball, books, & ducks} for Lovebug.  Wow!  What a smart bunny, huh? :o)

Nothing could stand in Lovebug's way of getting into all her presents...

not even her jammie pants!! :)



{making sure I have everything out}



Now, Lovebug is cuddled up on the couch with blankie & bobo watching her favorite Mickey Mouse.  Soon, we will whip up something for breakfast.  After that, Lovebug and I are headed to church to celebrate the real reason for today.  Then we're off to Easter lunch with Coach's family.

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Lovebug... On the Hunt

Yesterday was Lovebug's very first Easter Egg Hunt!!  It was ridiculously windy and freezing a smidge bit cold, so the oh so cute pigtails that she was rockin' were covered up by her oh so cute winter hat.  Nevertheless, she was still adorbs :).

Apparently, we are both a little "green" at the hunting of Easter Eggs these days.  When we got the word to start, we were darn near trampled over!  And not just by the big kids that were there.  There were some parents who were out for BLOOD!!!

Lovebug did her own picking and was very proud of her 5 beautiful eggs that she grabbed. 




{Look Mama... I found 2 eggs!!!}





{See the other feet by her?  Yeah... he snatched those eggs away before she could get hers picked up!}



{ever so carefully carrying her beloved eggs}



{could this be a GAP ad?  I think so}



{the loot}





{the balloon guy made her a ladybug bracelet to match her ladybug pail}


Once we got home, I just had to get a pick of the piggies {tails, not toes}.  So, please do not mind the messy face and the demolition of her lunch... just check out the hair :).  **Side note:  I cannot take credit for all of the hair.  It was in piggies from Holly's on Friday... I simply re-did and added the beautiful bows... which, too, came from Holly :).

 In case you can't tell by this last picture, Lovebug had a super great day!  And so did I :)



Weekend Wrap-up

...just in time for this coming weekend, natch :)

Last weekend, Papi Deel & Mama Say-yah (that would be Grandpa Dale & Grandma Sally to those of us who do not have one year old speech) came for the weekend.  I like to think it was their get away from the tornado destruction that hit my poor hometown from the weekend before, but really, it was for them to spend two whole days with Lovebug.  Every grandparents dream come true :).

Friday night was low-key since ya know, they had to drive 2 hours after work to get to us.  Lovebug was quite happy to see them when they snuck in the door {and when I say snuck, I'm serious!  I was standing in the kitchen and had NO CLUE someone had walked into our home... neither did the other members of my family!}  They peeked around the corner at the always pantsless Lovebug who was attempting to go downstairs and wah-lah!  The magical smile that she has appeared for all to see.

Saturday the plan was to go to the Iowa Hawkeye spring game practice.  It was FREEZING... but we still did it :).  I, of course, went royal wedding paparazzi photo crazy.  I mean, how many times does your first born go to Historic Kinnick Stadium for the first time?!?!?  :). 

This was definitely one of those Daddy-Daughter days that the rest of us tagged along with.  I cannot even begin to describe the smile and excitement that Coach had!  It was so cute!!  Adn me, being the crazy, camera-wielding gotta have every moment captured in photo Mom, I kept yelling at him to stand still for 2 seconds so I could take a picture. 

Soooo... I present the barrage of the Spring Game 2011.



{on our way}




{Daddy & Lovebug... they were waiting for Back in Black!!}




{"See sweetie?  There's where they play, there's where we sit..."}




{the classic pose by the statues}




{we put one of our $15 sweatshirts over her.  It was sooo cold!}





{I wish I knew what she was thining here...}




{the proud Daddy... and proud grandparents :)}



{close-up to the players... teaching her all about them}



{he's so proud}





{you can see the start of the tears that Herky caused.  Yes, we are still scared of oversized characters}





{bye-bye Herky}



As said in a caption above, Lovebug was TERRIFIED of Herky.  She really does not oversized characters {ie: Santa Claus, Clifford, Herky... you get the idea}.  However, once we got to the van, Lovebug kept saying "where Herky go?"  Silly girl :)

Sunday was full of shopping, shopping, and more shopping.  It's always tons of fun when Papi Deel and Mama Say-yah come to town.  In fact, we'll be seeing them again next weekend for their umpteenth annual Drake Relays weekend.  Let's hope it's warmer though!!



Wordless Wednesday

Lovebug and her peeps from Holly's :)





This Girl...

This girl...

...has some funny toes.  Notice how the 2nd toe sits on top of the one next to it. 

She also likes to kick back after an afternoon at the park.

This girl...

...gives some of the funniest looks at me sometimes. 

She also looks cute in dresses :)

This girl...

...poses.  Even on the potty :)

She also knows how to cover herself just right!

This girl...

...loves this guy.  Especially when he lets you sit next to him at Outback when you celebrate his birthday.

She also wants him instead of Mama ;(

This girl...

...is now in L.O.V.E. with slides.  And is petrified of swings. 

She also wishes the weather would hold out so she could show Grandma Sally & Grandpa Dale

how it's done.