Rubbing Elbows and Hobnobbing (2 years, 1 month)

Hello!

Well I'm happy to report (well maybe my parents are happy to report) that I resumed taking naps this week. Mommy now sets her alarm to wake me up in the morning. No more sleeping in for anyone! Mommy said that having nap time is worth getting up earlier. And we all know Mommy isn't much of a morning person so naps must be a pretty big deal. I didn't go on the potty at all this week. Mommy decided that we could only focus on one thing this week and that was napping!


For this week's celebrity meet and greet we went to a Christian bookstore in Woodbury and met former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. We almost didn't make it there as I fell off the couch and hit my head on the coffee table right before we were going to leave. It hurt so I needed a lot of consoling. We decided to go anyway and see if we'd still have a chance to meet the Gov. When we got there we got a ticket with the number 52 on it meaning we'd be 52nd in line. Mommy thought this was a great idea as they said they were going to call people by number. Since it didn't seem like we were going to have to spend much time waiting in line, Mommy thought this would be very doable. They called 1-25 first. Then 5 minutes later they called 26-50. Mommy thought that TPaw must be signing his autograph really fast! Then 5 minutes later they called 51-75 so we went over to go in line. When we got in line we realized there were about 40 people ahead of us. Apparently they pretty much scrapped the "call people in small groups" plan and just had everyone wait in line. I wanted to run around the store so Mommy had to hold me. Midway through the line I spotted an owl (a pink spotted owl!) that I really wanted. Mommy said that if I was really good in line that we could buy it and take it home. I got to play with it in line and it helped make the time go faster. I entertained everyone in line. When we got nearly to the front the lady behind us tickled my leg and I cracked up laughing. This made everyone else laugh. Someone said that I was "stealing the show from the Governor". Then it was our turn and I was very charming to the Governor. He talked to me and when we left I gave my signature "Byeeeeeeeeeee! Seeeeeeeeeeee ya!" line and he thought it was great. Mommy thought I might end up on TV as there were a lot of cameras there. When we first walked into the store and I was holding my copy of Tim Pawlenty's book, immediately 4 cameras were in my face taking footage. We watched all the news channels but I didn't make it on TV. It was a bummer! Maybe I'll end up on a political ad someday as a lot of people think he's going to run for President. I could be the official spokestoddler for the campaign. Or maybe he'll make "Bye See ya!" his tag line. So many possibilities.

I didn't have school this week because it's the break between first and second semester. They take a week to disinfect all the toys and do a deep cleaning. I did have dance though. It was the first week of the next session of dance. I walked into my dance class and I didn't even recognize it. There were all these new kids! I did not like it one bit. I wanted to leave right then. Mommy said we needed to stay for class. I kept trying to take Mommy's purse and leave. Mommy kept telling me that I needed to show the new kids all the dances since I knew them but I wanted no part of it. I don't like any sort of change. Luckily my friend Maddie showed up. She was a bit late. I did a little better once she was there. At one point Mommy told me that if I didn't join my class that we'd just have to go home so then I decided to dance. It was the Elmo dance so I really couldn't resist--it's my favorite. Mommy is hoping that I adapt better next week and realize this is the "new normal." One bright spot was when we were leaving I said "Bye friends!" So there is some hope.

On Friday Mommy and I went to see Sesame Street Live "Elmo's Healthy Heroes." It was my first time at the Target Center and I thought it was really cool. My favorite part was running through the skyways. Mommy is considering taking me for a downtown trip once in awhile just to get some exercise! This is a picture of me in my very own seat. It was exciting.

This is the view from our seats. Not too bad for 10 dollar tickets! Some people paid 75 dollars a ticket to have the "floor seats." The show was good, but not really 150 dollars good. The show kept my attention pretty well. I liked it the most when there was singing and dancing. The dialogue part got a little boring. During intermission they brought out these really awesome Elmo balloons. I really REALLY wanted one but they were selling them to the people on the "floor". Mommy and I went to the lobby and got some mini donuts as a distraction (plus we were hungry). Then we went back in and I saw the balloons again. Mommy decided that I could get a souvenir and it would probably be cheaper than the 15 dollar light up things that everyone seemed to have. So we trekked down to the floor. Mommy hailed the balloon guy and he said the balloons were 10 dollars. Mommy nearly croaked at paying 10 dollars for a balloon but she had already made the guy walk all the way over to us and on top of some rafters. She handed him a 20 dollar bill and he said "oh you want two?" Mommy said NO very quickly. And then hung onto my balloon for dear life as she didn't want to watch my expensive balloon float to the top of the Target Center. When we got to our seats she tied it tightly to my backpack for safe keeping.

This is me in my kitchen with my Elmo balloon. Isn't he cool?!! Oh and my pink spotted owl made the picture too. It's on the floor.

This weekend I went to Grandma's since Mommy and Daddy had game club. Well they were supposed to have game club. It ended up getting cancelled due to sickness so Mommy and Daddy went out for a nice early birthday dinner for Daddy. Anyway I had a great time as always.

Uncle Steve let me play with his drum set. Pretty awesome huh?

I think this was a particularly shocking part of the Dora movie I was watching.

Other interesting things about me!

• I've played this game called "I sleep" for awhile on my parents' bed. Basically everyone gets a pillow (assigned by me) and pretends to sleep on my command (and to sleep you have to lay on the pillow on your side, not on your back or on your stomach. I have very specific expectations for sleeping). And then I wake everyone up. And repeat. I've started a more advanced game now. It is very complicated and I get extremely frustrated with you if you don't do it exactly right. Basically we put the quilt over our heads, and it must be such that no light is coming in from the sides of the quilt. We must be completely under with no light. Then we look for stars. You see, the quilt pattern has stars and when you are under it and the bedroom lights are on, it "illuminates" the stars and it's pretty awesome. Then we re-enact various Dora episodes. Lately I mostly like to talk about Dora's Pirate Adventure. Pirate piggies, a singing bridge, baby jaguar going overboard, lost treasure and more!

• I'm really into my bedtime prayers. One day this week I prayed for "Mommy, Daddy, Me, Teacher, Church, Map, Backpack, Diego, Boots"

• When we pray at dinnertime we always ask if anyone has any requests or something they are thankful for. I'm usually thankful for milk and bread. A lot of times I'm also thankful for piggies so that's always a challenge for my parents to work into a prayer. Tonight Daddy was in charge of praying and he didn't specifically pray for piggies, milk, and cheese like I asked so after he said "Amen" I got mad and grabbed my parents hands and closed my eyes. They got the hint and prayed for piggies, milk and cheese and I was much better and said "AMEN!"
  
• Tonight my parents worked in church nursery. I was pretty nervous that they were going to leave me there so I was extremely clingy at the beginning which was hard for Mom as she was trying to check in the kids. I really didn't like it when Mommy was holding other kids. I got a bit jealous. I did like it though when she fed a baby a bottle. It was just like when I feed my doll Annie!
  
  
  
  See you next week!