Last weekend

This past weekend Jason and I went up to Boone for my 27th birthday. (Ok, breath… this was the first time I’ve ever typed that number in relation to myself.) The weather was great, and as soon as I got there Megan and Mom left to run a few errands BUT Megan left Isabella with Dad, Jason and I so that we could all go on a walk. Isabella is sooo cute! We kicked leafs together and Dad showed her a “hop, hop” (I might have that name wrong) and Isabella crouched down and inspected it carefully until it jumped away. Dad also located a centipede for her to look at.
ICK.
They just seem like a biting bug to me, but he assured me it wasn’t poisonous. It was crawling around near my feet as Isabella watched it so as it got close to where I was standing I picked up one foot at a time to let it keep crawling. Isabella mimicked me by stepping WAY up with each foot.
Isabella is also participating in Run for Your Life Children’s Marathon, where the child runs a total of 25.2 miles over two months and then runs that last mile in the closing events- an they get a free T-shirt! During out walk she did a little running and let me tell you – she’s fast! Her run speed is about what my jogging speed is- you can’t “fake” run with her and keep up. She tucks her head down and pumps her arms and really books it!
We had a little of a motivational problem in the last portion of the walk- she wanted to tromp through the gutters and we/Dad wanted to get home so Jason tried to get her to race him by telling her “I’m going to beat you home! I’m going to beat you!” She stopped in her tracks and gave him this look that clearly said, “ you’re going to HIT me!?” Dad had to explain to her that he was going to “get home first, he’s not going to hit you”, from her expression she clearly was not as sure about that as Dad was. After watching her piddle around a bit more Dad told her he was going home and he would see her there…”Wait, Dad, wait!” At first I wasn’t sure I heard her correctly what with calling her grandfather “Dad” but Megan said she does it every now and then. We finally got back to the house in time to eat a yummy lasagna which made me happy because I love lasagna (last year I told Mom I didn’t care what we ate and she ordered pizza- which I don’t like- this year I didn’t request anything and I am choosing to think she remembered I LOVE lasagna) She also got the VERY good chocolate cake we all enjoyed at Dad’s birthday party. We opened presents and Matt called to wish me a happy birthday and play the “disconnect- call back repeatedly” game. Then Megan, Mom, Isabella and I went window shopping in Blowing Rock- I had asked to go shopping but didn’t realize that Blowing Rock shopping and Boone shopping are two completely different down towns- But we had a great time and Isabella was mostly good the whole time. She did convince Aunt Terra that she should be able to put her fingers in a fountain located in a shop as long as she was supervised- from Megan’s muted reaction- I think she was wrong. On the way to the park for Isabella to play we saw a shop that had a beautiful display of Peacocks which was exciting because Stella has a love affair going on with peacocks and we have all been looking for a pretty toy peacock to send her.
These were not toys but still tempting. The park was loads of fun- Isabella loves the slides and went down several of them. Including one that we were assured by a “assertive” little boy was only for “big kids” he said this several time so I replied that I was pretty big and Megan to pipe up that she was “freaking big”. After that he went to a different slide to play on for a while.
I got to teach Isabella how to wall climb- this park has a small climbing wall that she walked up with the help of Aunt Terra, Isabella also went swinging with Mom’s Mom and had a lovely time until Megan told her it was time to go- then her world crumbled- for about a minute.