back in the swing of things

we had a great time in iowa, and got to visit Great Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke, Great Grandpa Halvorson, and we had lots of quality time with Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke, as well as Aunt Baylee & Mr. Drew. luci played bashful so frequently that my wrist is still sore from picking her up so often. the only time she wants to snuggle with me is when someone else wants to snuggle with her! our friends the christi (beckman) & brad bormann came home to see luci so we went over to the beckman's house and played with christi's nephews Cal & Cole. luci had a great time but did come home with this shiner thanks to a few blocks & a coffee table. she cried for about 40 seconds and hasn't noticed it since...she's TOUGH!

Luci with Great Grandma & Grandpa Rosonke
A good look a the shiner...if you make it big...please excuse the runny nose! gross!

Luci with her Grandma Rosonke...carefully studying some grass...
Luci...rightfully skeptical of Grandpa Rosonke's feeding methodology....
Luci & her Aunt Baaaaaayleeeeee (that is how we say it & Luci just lights up!)
Luci & Great Grandpa Halvorson

well we've been home now since late Monday night, but it seems like just today we are back into the swing of things. i think it has something to do with our cleaning folks having been here this morning...a clean house gets me motivated to keep a clean & orderly house. i finally tackled our piles of laundry and managed to get the dishwasher loaded for the day already.

this morning luci & i went to the mall to play at the 'enchanted forest'...basically a big foam play area with tunnels, bridges, frogs, flowers, etc...the strangest thing happen...this like five year old boy was TOTALLY smitten with her...to the point it creeped me out! how or why, exactly, i was creeped out by a 5 year old i'm not sure. but he would NOT leave Luci alone! he followed her around for the entire 30 minutes we were there...and kept saying, 'come here, baby'. he tried to get her into tunnels...and as i was scurrying to the other side of the tunnel as fast as i could (he followed her in), i looked in to see him hugging her. after the second time this happened we had to leave. i nicely told him about 50 times that she needed her space, that she was just learning to walk, and that he was too close to her (he was like inches away from her at all times). Luci, of course, was OBLIVIOUS! she just saw things to climb & that was all she could think about...she was running from one giant foam thing to another! i have no idea who this 5 year old belonged to...i didn't see any adult anywhere near him or even so much look at him (i was desperately trying to find his mom...hoping she'd distract him). so that made for an interesting first experience at the 'enchanted forest'.