Life Adventures for Miles

Today, we went to the zoo, here in town with the grandparents! We saw all sorts of animals! Some of them we just heard (like the big male lion's roar!) Luna enjoyed the birds and the meerkats the best, I think (as they were the most active). After the zoo, it was lunchtime! Picnic on the park was a perfect way to let Luna let off some steam and us enjoy the sunshine and sandwiches! Then came some wandering through a music store (luna had a blast finding both drums and piano. Then it was dinner at Outback Steakhouse via her uncle and his Xmas present (Thanks!). Yum Yum!  

Today we were going to go up a mountain but decided against as we all slept in and had a late night getting in the night before; so instead we just hit more shops! We got to see another Mall, another truck (another credit review) and some other boutiques type shops.  As we mostly just had the afternoon to mosey (and a lot of that was truck reviewing), we ended up just having leftovers for dinner back at the hotel. These slow days are nice because we can just chill and luna gets some normal rest as she does not have to deal with the new...just all her toys, heh. 

Today we went to Phoenix, AZ. Lots of interstate driving (up, down, and around) lots of busy people, and its if things to do! We wandered it a bit before visiting a cousin before heading back. The first stop was IKEA! We did end up buying lots of little things (like a stuffie snake for luna) and getting "lost" in and about the place. Luna found "her" room and had several fits trying to get back to it (I will admit it had perfect sized Luna furniture), as well as a kids play toy section with a play kitchen and a train set. Then we spent most of the rest of the day finding and reviewing travel trailers, trucks and our credit. We were all cranky and stressed from that adventure so before dinner we stopped if to see and chat with my husband's brother, sister-in-law and a Luna cousin. We ended up spending more time there then we thought as the cousins disappeared pretty quick and had no problems but lots of fun, a good break before the trial and error of finding the

Today we visited a family friend and their 10-month-old boy. We haven't seen the family in a couple of years won't be nice to visit. As her kid is a lot younger, luna had some Sussex (though she had no problem with his toys, haha). We even got a magnetic fishing bath toy (I am hoping it lessens the bath time fuss) for another Xmas present, while the little mister got a fluffy blanket and some books. Speaking of books... the book of the week! Book of the week: 1984; so this was a high school book that we had to read for some lesson or report of something. I only remembered that it was a government big brother story. The main character (Winston) is a worker bee for the party (the big brother government) who basically rebels and causes all sorts of problems. From my understanding, in the ending, he accepts the government after being tortured and betrayed (to and from) his lover. Totalitarianism was the name of the game along with all the factors that usually go with it. And we got

Today was indeed a restful day. We woke up and just cuddled and played all morning. There was paw patrol, paly foods, and mostly octopus music and dancing. The afternoon rolled around and out we went to stroll around the city and found some lunch, candy, and luna found herself a purple princess mermaid! After more wandering around some shops, we decided to eat dinner with some family and Luna got to finish opening her presents (more paw patrol, a shopping cart, and hot wheels!). Going back home we stopped off for some foodstuff and found some pretty outdoor decorations! For my active little four-year-old there were some interesting points of luna lessons but ultimately they had oodles and oodles of fun with Oma.  The craft of the week:  make pops! One of her cousins came and they played blues clue memory, made cake pops, and did some "calming" yoga via YouTube. So the instructions were lost to the bakers but YouTube came to the rescue. The cake pops came in an activity kit so

Today was another family event! No cousins this time but a hyper, excited, real-life pup to play with, outside field toys, piano playing, one uncle, one aunt, 2 grandparents, and some stuff he's were enough to tire out the four-year-old, this Christmas Day! Elmo came with cookies and hot chocolate, and a little reindeer (moose?) friend came with a gift card for dinner out! Then there were the fun cards and what I dubbed "luna cash" for something luna-size fin from the great-grands! All in all, a great southern/southwestern dinner (what I call lunch) of good food and good company!  As we learned our luna-lesson from yesterday, our day ended in a nice NC time zone timeline, so there were minimal fuss and luna drama but still a good amount of time for the family! The C Christmases were the only solid plan for this trip, so I am hoping tomorrow we can just take a day to relax and recharge after all this excitement. Wish me luck! Christmas facts ! While CHRISTmas is all about

So we had a fun but exhausting day full of dogs, I'm a shark, mama sharks, Papa sharks, and active baby sharks of all ages! Luna hit it off with her cousins fairly well even with all the drama fuss of a four-year-old! First, we had the bagels for breakfast (that luna found uninteresting) than bright early of 9am hit and we were mingling with some family! Barbie playing, stone soup/stew (that was also luna paint for the house) was made to feed the plants, gift wrapping, last-minute supplies, picture drawing, drone flying, food making, light sighting walks, tree decorating, family catch up, and with the grand finish of unwrapping Santa presents, all in the name of the Christkind! 

Today we made it home for the holidays! While it wasn't too bad of a drive, I think by this day, we were all done with the road trip and the vehicle driving long hours...which means while the further west we went, the happier we became (at least some of us), we also pushed harder to finish, so stops were short and to the point...and no lingering at the toy section. We made it to AZ in good time to be here for dinner (pizza at the BJ's restaurant) and even got to see some family with it. Also, we did a Walmart supply run which was fun (ish), I even ran into an old classmate there. Yay for pants!

Today was blue skies (well no rain at least) and another quickish zip through the states. No one slept as well as they could have (beds were comfy enough to hang out in but sleep was...harder to do) so we were very much done with the day before it even really began. Slow service at food places, "stupid" drivers and traffic, as well as, an active 4 year old, already over driving road trips, stuck in a vehicle was also just the topper to our crud cake of the day. Due to all this, after dinner instead of hoteling it and getting some downtime with our shuteye, we push on until the driver (my husband) could get the normal full nights rest without waiting the day (a good solid 8 hours) and the luna snoozed and the me dozed while he did so. The chicken liver I had for dinner smokestack restaurant ) was pretty good and everyone else was happy with their food too. 

Today we zippa-dee-do-da-ed our way through the blue skies. While we saw some stuff we wanted to stop at (a huge flea market mall with something like 400 stalls), most of it was work zone interstate construction and pretty colorful scenery (greens, reds, browns, and blues). Again, our stops were more practical and fewer, which in hindsight might not have been a good thing as luna...doesn't think about bladder control... We ended the night having dinner in the Monroe Olive Garden. Yum! Yum!

Today we started our road trip for Christmas. Road trips are my favorite way to travel. Plans are faster but too anxious-ridden, for me to fully appreciate and train rides are fun experiences, they can be slow and you can't easily stop and look about without having to start all over again. The vehicle allows you to stop and go and enjoy the ride and see places (as long as you don't have a short timeline to travel). As we routinely do on trips, our mornings aren't as early as some but not as late as others, we had our morning/brunch chow before setting off (gas on the way). As it was raining sort of hard from the get-go so we only truly stopped for those gas/toilet breaks that also allowed us to stretch our legs. Surprisingly, we didn't grab a luna stuff is/toy yet but maybe our subconscious knows Christmas is coming, heh. My husband found a way to get my child wifi for her tablet so that kept her busy and quiet most of the ride too (along with her pups and books). We fo

Today we did some housing until it was time to see a friend. Luna had a blast with her buddy, playing with all sorts of toys. I successfully got them to clean up (and not trip over) those plastic balls put type balls by making a game of seeing how much they could get into their buckets. Of course, the clean floor didn't last but at least none of us were tripping over balls, just stepping on fish, heh. My husband had a grand old time previewing the PlayStation 5 his friend had gotten. They played from the late afternoon and well into the night, only stopping for dinner. While all this was going on the wife showcased the Netflix show she was currently watching: Mindhunters. It's a fictional version of real-life FBI serial killer crime interviews and the physiological behaviors of why and how to figure out who, where, and what. As the first season in the 1970s and the second into the 1980s, I guess it also showcases they created Such a unit (as they didn't have anything like i

 Today, we started with pup soccer and mommy mountains. We also had puzzle and motion games on her screen before luna turned to her shows. When I was busy readying my clothes for Christmas, luna had a big adventure with her toys in her room. My other half came home extra early today too. So our afternoon was a lot more like our evenings in which we do a lot of set tingling in. As I put together and packed I'm as presents, luna "discovered" her wooden blocks and made towers and castles, then her legos became towers and animals. Last but not least was our Friday pizza (delivery, this time around)!

Today's adventure was a lot of noise! Luna found the kitchenware and she wanted to see how they sound. A drum session with some stacking mixing bowls occurred (with a failed lesson in sounds mixed in). After reading them and sorting them into different ways for the maximum sound, she decided stacking and counting was the way to end it all (mixing bowl snowman!). Before, and after she played with her screens, her pups, and a mommy jungle gym. Woot woot!

The craft of the week: tailoring and repairs. I found more husband pants I want to wear as it is getting colder and since I turned my (too small) pair of pants-or many pairs of pants-into fabric and a jean jacket, I thought I would try it again. The sewing in the waist khaki pants technique I did for the first husband pants (like a few months ago) was a bit more frustrating with these pair of jeans so I YouTubed more ideas and decided the quick and easier (or so I thought) way was to elasticate the waistband of the jeans. I did 2 pairs of jeans and trying them on I feel more like my 4-year-old daughter and her pants but it works pretty well. This way it has a stretchy band for a good belly or weight gain! Woot! I have to do a lot of repair work fixing my first sewing technique try. Also, hemming the legs so they don't drag on the floor and trip me (plus they were all messed up and ratty). Tomorrow I hope to do more repair work on the jackets I keep un-lining, heh. 

Today my child had an eye appointment to see a specialist. The result is surgery. While she has perfect individual vision (or near perfect)-as in they can see independently- they have problem working together, and while they said it isn't much of a problem now, it will turn into a major problem later on, so surgery in 2 months. We spent the majority of the day there so (as we also had to drive elsewhere for the appointment). Then it came my turn to stress out, we picked up my paperwork and now we have to turn around and have more people sign it before it goes to the final people...which means I get to have an appointment just for paperwork...in a month, and this was the paperwork I couldn't figure out to begin with when I got it....so that will be fun. The rest of the day was basically recovering from the trip and information dump: screens, pups, blankets and books.   

Today was a an all day adventure! We played together most of the day. After walking up, Luna specifically told me to go away while she and her pups sung and climbed and did some pup rescues, I got to  do house things; then it was pillow fights, picnics, and screen time. We had pj masks rescues and popcorn popping. We played TV, restaurant, and store front neighbors. In this we practiced our counting and our foods and our singing (the "TV" had a lot of pw patrol music video). The end of the day came quickly and the husband made some good noodle stir-fry (using some of the japanese noodles  he bought last week)! yum! yum!

Back to JRR Tolkien! I have had the Silmarillion in my kindle library for a while (we also have the paperback version somewhere as he is still one of my other half's favorite authors). I was told that it was super long and super...dry. I found an audio version on youtube so I went with it. As it is basically a creation story in history book form, I can see why the people who loved the adventure action of his Hobbit/Lord of the rings. The first part seems a lot like a father quelling his rebellious children and distraction by giving them something else to ponder: first hearing and music, then vision (the preview of the world and its elves and man), and then the accepted creation-and the actual creation of the world; with all the spats and loving of a family that built it. One spirit found himself ousted by his rebellion and then created the evil and darkness in his envy and fear throughout the world. The fight between them lasted thousands of thousands of years, in all the ages, of

Emmaline  sighed as noticed another missive in the magical box her father made so long ago, the faint glow of blue residing in the grain shining as bright as it did, the day he made it. Opening up the note she read it with barely a mind on it’s letters. Her mind, recalling the story of its origin; the musical mysterious man with the blue shimmer, her siblings came upon when they were young and the magical beans that propelled them into this business and it’s wealth. The name of her cousin from the mountains caught her eye and she found herself reading a second time and then a third, a quest? Lou was coming for a visit in the name of supplies and possible information some jewels the mountain king deemed important? Maybe this was her chance! Maybe she could find her way, her passion and destiny, her assurance this was for her. The rest of her family have long since left the business management to others, falling more and more into their passions. Her parents built this business from thei

Tonight I going to a social gift exchange event so today I spent getting it all set and ready! It is supposed to be something g you'd enjoy...so I made a craft mirror frame (I used a jean fabric backing for the slightly too small mirror and screwed it in between 2 canvas frames that lost their canvas), a Santa sock (that I sewed the Santa face securely) and a tin with chocolate and hot cocoa! While I would be a little sad that no one wanted it, I wouldn't mind getting it. I guess that's the trouble with buying something you'd want, you just might keep it!  The event was lots of fun. I ended up with a blanket and face mask that I gave away (it would just sit in the house). The blanket is super soft and I am always cold so yay! 

    This week's craft is more puzzle crafting! The Dollar Tree had some puzzles Luna and my husband found for us to enjoy (PJ MASK AND PAW PATROL)! With my new handy dandy puzzle mat I found on Amazon, we used the rest of my smelly mod podge to glue/seal the puzzles together! We enjoyed puzzling how they fit and then "painting" on the mod podge! The only hard part was waiting for it all to dry!  

Today was a normal screen filled, toy filled day. Luna found lots of other "toys" as well such as daddy's cooking ware, umbrellas and my crafting tools: all in the name of paw patrol playing. Her blankets and stuffed animals made a slight appearance too. The real adventure of the day was the evenings events. my husband had a tailoring errand and thought an outing for dinner would be nice. Luna and I got to putz around the dollar tree while he did it (which of course back fiered on the one who has money cause we enevidably we ended up shopping vs browsing). I never realized how much 15 bucks to getch'ya! Dinner was in the same plaza as a  japanese market (Tomodachi Japanese Market)  and so my husband went on a merry hunt for some food while we waited for a table at the japanese restaurant, Yakitori House . He found lots and lots (but only bought some candy and some noodles and ramon)! I only vaguely remember eating there before, but it was delicious. I almost bought to

Me and the Luna finally watched the Croods (well I watched it and Luna payed attention in between her playing). While I wasn't actually looking for it (I was looking for Onward on account of wanting to see it after finding a picture of it on one of my coloring apps),  I decided it would be a good to see since there is nowa second one. I found it to be a fun movie. It was a very heartwarming daddy-daughter, family-esk movie. As the movie is set in a fictional prehistoric timeline, one can ivenistion what our history tells us...with a bit of creative fantasy thrown in )(by the design of the creatures and environment). The croods-a caveman family that survives by always staying "in fear" and in the dark- is forced out and into the light by the act of "the end of the world" (a natural disaster). The head of the family (Grug-Nicolas Cage) is also challenged by his daughter's teenage rebellion (Eep-Emma  S tone) and and by a young newcomer (the "modern human&

I must admit to back-logging my posts. I have been doing a lot of Pooh-like/Christopher Robin-like nothings, this month (and possibly November). The routines are basically the same so I am as busy as busy can be, though it is small normal routined everyday things (cleaning house, picking up, luna play, screens, reading, etc), so I have forgotten to post and have no real specific "new" life adventures to share. I have noticed a few things; such as, while luna is stubbornly refusing the toilet, she is has no problem (when she doesn't over think it) with clothes, seat buckles and while her destructiv-ness is  still strong, I have noticed her "reading" more and more, and again, she has one heck of a memory as she recites the video storyline she watches/hears in her play. She is still most comfortable doing anythings when she thinks no one is paying attention to her, and she is growing like a sunflower (which I found out the other day was a weed, but it is so pretty!

   This week's craft...well I wasn't sure what to do. My husband is currently taking his time sorting his tools, so my crafting stuff is all harder to reach now. I was going to "craft" a writing piece this week, but the n we went out for a husband haircut and came back with some goodies! My husband found this while browsing the kid's toy section at Marshalls and thought I would find it enjoyable (this brand makes all sorts of kits that target kids). Now the kit comes with a frame (with the hated slots, though this time the slots have grooves behind/around this so the warp won't fall off as easily) and some silky-looking, flossy looking cord/yarn on shuttles: very kid friendly! The frame itself has turn knobs to tighten/trap its thread from going anywhere (at least that's what O think the red knob does?) as well as "shuttle' the warp threads back and forth so the weaving is easier (and faster for most). I used up all the cord it came with to make t

This day of Saturday, my husband decided due to his work week, it was a day of staying home. Considering, me and the child were out a few times this week, I was perfectly fine with it (and the child had a blast zoning into her screen and pup toys). It also seemed to be the day of packages as the holidays seem to be the excuse of my husband's gymnasium buying whims (we now have a standing punching bag and weight set and weight bench). He also decided the hammock stand he made was creaking and bowing to much for his liking (it lasted a good year!) so he took it down...which means I get an extra body in my full-sized bed, which will be an interesting adjustment as we both tend to space out and I still have trouble going to bed at the same time he does (it is a lot harder to do that when the body sleeping next to you is a light sleeper). 

  Today's adventure was park playing! As it is Friday (pizza day), the husband wanted pizza out and he surprised a luna with a park beforehand! Now the rest of the day was normal is all things. Luna played with her toys (pups, blocks and stuffed animals) in all the places in the house, with some hide-and-seek, cuddling blankets and ball catching in between. In my normal cleaning and picking up, I noticed that the dripping is back (so the under the sink water filter may not be the cause after all). The park was a some good fun, the husband found lots of bottles of his herman beer, the Luna eventually found people to play with and I got to sit and relax a bit in the outer doors! After pizza, we had a walmart run, which always means luna found toys to look at and entertain herself with. Come to think of it, distracting a Luna has become the go-to when we are doing something like this...I for-see it causing problems (it already seem to be showing them actually sometimes). However,  as

Today, was all a lazy day. Mostly screens and snacks. I made a fruit salad and smoothie from apples, bell peppers, and I found some strawberries too. We also had muffins and leftovers, and chocolate and chips. Luna at some point decided to play on her play mat, racing her trains and pup cars around and around, which is always fun to watch as she seems the most animated and talkative when she making up (or reenacts) stories with her toys. She is also still pretty hyped when she sorts and matches things together (such as her paint markers to her pups as she is in the picture below).

Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business  by Esphyr Slobodkina is a very cute children's  story. The artwork is fun and colorful and the text is simple and shares the action of "monkey see, monkey do" when the cap peddlar gets angry at them for taking his caps. The storyline is him taking a nap and waking up to his caps on monkeys in trees. The more they time they keep the hats, the more angry he gets and they copy his angry gestures until  finally he throws down his own cap...resulting in them doing the same. This ultimately  solves the  problem and he calmly takes them back and goes about his business.    Another book I would like to share (in the same path as Caps) is  Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. This fun story is about a boy (Harold) who goes for a walk with his purple crayon amd in doing so takes himself on an adventure drawing his way through it: first through the the moonlit night, then a small forest, then t

Today...is a normal Tuesday: screens, messes, paw patrol, blocks, chores and all the like. As my normal is home-based and my brain thinks confort before beauty (sweats/lounge/pj's vs. the "outside" clothes), I haven't gotten myself to be "dressed" unless I am going out of my house, well out of my home and it's square footage. This also reflects in my child (and possibly in my husband as I have been noticing he automatically changes when he is home and not going anywhere) who basically lives in her pull-ups (yes I still have yet to convince her the toilet is the way to go). Tonight will be an outing with my women's active fb group so I will be actually getting dressed. woot woot.  In other news I found  cinema therapy .  Its basically mini therapy sessions/explanations using film...and we all know my fascination with this topic. The videos I have processed so far are them talking about how being sad and vulnerable is good for the spirit (the movie Ins