Our Staycation

Earlier this month, Allie's school was closed for a week to prepare for the new school year. Allie and I did one of those new and popular "staycations". We had a blast! It was very nice to just take each day as it came. I didn't work at all that week and just enjoyed my little girl.

The first day of our staycation, we went to the McWane center, which is our science museum for kids. All hands on and all lots of fun. Yes, we will be













getting a membership to this place for sure! Allie was a bit young to really get a lot of it right yet, but as soon as she is a little more mobile, it will be our hang-out place. In fact, when we got there, we immediately went down to the aquarium and ran right into her classmate Elliott. Elliott is much more mobile than Allie and was actively looking at the fish through the huge glass tanks. It was really cute when the two saw each other. It was neat to see the recognition and acknowledgement. I could almost hear Allie say "Hey, Mom! It's that cute boy from my class -Elliott!". The center has a lot of fun things for Allie's age group to do - including a small version of Birmingham complete with a mini Publix with a fun looking cash register.

On our second day of our staycation, we ventured to the Zoo. We really had a nice time. This zoo trip we were determined to just take our time and enjoyed the animals. Okay, I say we took our time, but as we got there it was time to feed the giraffes. So, we boogied right on over and we literally fed the giraffe (okay, I did while she held onto me). One thing that I thought was so neat was after we fed the giraffe, we went to just watch the giraffes. One of Allie's reading word flashcards, is 'giraffe'. So, as we looked at the giraffes, I pulled out her card and showed it to her. There was no denying the recognition as she would look at the word on the card and I showed her the corresponding picture and then she'd turn and look at the giraffe. She did this multiple times. In fact, when we got back to the car and I handed her the toy giraffe she has in the car, she looked at it in a totally different way and then looked at me as if to say.. ."hey... this looks like the giraffes we saw today!"

On our third day of staycation, we had an audiology appointment, where Allie showed them she is really good at throwing toys on the floor. But, she also proved to them that she is getting the hang of this game. Hear the sound, look to the box and see the pink pig move around. It is still fun for her and interesting to watch us keep her entertained, but not entertained too much that she ignore the sounds. Then, we headed over to see Paulette and Christin at the Scrapbook Princess where we did a little shopping. Then, we headed home where we just tried to accomplish a few things and then we packed. Our

staycation consisted of going to a scrapbooking retreat on Smith Lake (about 2 hours North of home). Now, that is a whole different story and requires a whole blog entry. It was a lot of fun and you all might be surprised to know that I actually got some scrapbooking pages done! Allie had several babysitters while we were there which made that all possible.

In addition to all these things, we also did the routine stuff and just hung out together. Allie got really good at signing "cracker" around this time. Oh, sure, it is a little different than the textbook example of it, but as anyone that has fed her can confirm, you know when she wants a cracker. We also played around the house and I grabbed some cute video of her. Her stuffed toys have taken on a whole new interest for her and we had lots of time to practice with her signs. Of course, we did watch her videos at least once everyday. She is as insistent with her sign for "video" as she is for "cracker".

Well, that is our Staycation story. As you might imagine, it was very hard to return to normal routine the next week. Allie started in the next class - Sunshine Class. (This is her on the first day with her other classmate who is also named Elliott.) Luckily, the classroom is right next door to her last classroom, so we can still see her teachers and all of it was still familiar to her. She is loving her new class and they are learning a lot of sign language, which means I'm falling behind quickly. Allie's favorite part of the day must be Music and Circle Time. Although, enjoyment with rolling and maneuvering around in the amazing activity room might make it a tie.

I'm sure you will be hearing more about Allie's classroom. She loves it and so do I!