Adventures with My Daughter

Lil' J and I have had an amazing last couple of weeks. Getting out of the house and trying new things. I haven't had as much time to blog, but that's ok because we've been living instead.

Just to recap a little, we went on a bike ride with one of my friends from work, Heidi, and her little girl. We rented bikes for $8 and rode around on the Austin Hike and Bike Trail for an hour. If you haven't been there and done that before I highly suggest it. The wind in your hair and the shade of the trees makes the hear bearable.

Lil' J and her friend rode along in the seats on the back of the bikes. Heidi's daughter tried to pass Lil' J Cheerios from her bike to ours. Lil' J tried to reach, but of course couldn't. It was too adorable!

I decided to go with the seat instead of the trailer because my mom said she'd like it more. haha. I was afraid I'd fall and I was prepared to lunge my body in front of her for cushioning if we did. Luckily, that didn't happen.

I need to buy Lil' J her own helmet because I think we'll go biking again. The one we borrowed for free was a little big so we used diapers to add a little cushioning so it didn't slump over her face (it did that the first part of the ride and she was mad she couldn't see).

When we rode around she at first would hold a long "OOOOOOOOOOOOH" Sound while we went down the hill so she could hear her voice go "OoOoOoOoOoH" down the hills over the bumpy rocks. She seemed to get a little tense when we when faster but a little ways through the ride she was having a blast, and she'd only whine when I stopped.

Dress: Tea Collection

Over the weekend I took her to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. I went alone Saturday, and met up with friends before seeing Stevie Wonder. The next day I went back with Lil' J and took her to Austin Kiddie Limits. I wanted to get her sound canceling headphones before but ran out of time. She didn't seem to mind. In fact, she was dancing and clapping with everyone else.

The kiddie part sadly ended early at 4:30 but we met up with friends, sat down, and listened to some more music from the back of the 60 thousand person crowd.

She's getting to be a little more independent, and she'll walk a little bit further from me depending where we are. Here she just walked in a small circle around me, in our neighborhood, she'll walk and walk and walk so long as she can still see me. She has no fear of strangers right now, which scares me. She'll just walk up to people and waive, or try to give them hugs. As long as she doesn't think I'm leaving her with them, she doesn't care. It's nuts.

Finally, we went to see The Lion King at the movies. I opted to see 2D since the last 3D movie I saw gave me a headache, and I wasn't sure she'd keep her glasses on, or what it would do to her vision if she didn't. We've been to see three movies before (Inception when she was teeny, Eat Pray Love before she could crawl, and Tangled when she was just starting to get mobile) but none since she's been walking. I worried it would be a disaster so we arrived about a half hour early, hoping to get good seats. There were like 5 other people there so good seats weren't an issue.

We shared chocolate covered raisins and a giant lemonade as we waited for the movie to start. She was so giddy and excited about the pre-show I thought she's love the movie. Once the lights dimmed and the previews started she snuggled with me and asked to nurse, then, as she has every other time we've gone to a movie, she fell asleep. And missed the whole thing! I tried to wake her up during Hakuna Matata so she could at least hear one fun song but she watched and smiled for a moment, then went back to sleep. Probably smiling about milk and not the movie anyway.

Oh well, it was her nap time and I purposely brought her then so she could sleep if that's what she wanted.

Having all of this one-on-one time with my girl has made me realize how fun she is getting. It's amazing seeing her light up about every little thing. From my neighbors cat, to the pretty peacock at the park. I called my mom and told her about the good time we were having and she reminded me to enjoy it, because it gets a whole lot harder with two. I can only imagine. I'm sure someday it won't be a nightmare to leave the house and accomplish things with two little ones as it sometimes is with just one... But that probably won't be for several years. So I'm going to savor these moments and do as much as we can together before she becomes a big sister.

I've decided to make a list of all of the things I'd like to do with her before then. Manageable, and fun things in a new baby bucket list. I'll share tomorrow!