Some Punkin funnies...

Today, Nana, Punkin and I did some grocery shopping at Publix.  We were stopped in the middle of an aisle and Punkin stood up in the cart, on the seat of the little plastic racecar or whatever the thing was.  Nana sneezed (sounded like a cannon going off) and it startled Punkin so bad she fell off the seat and into the cart.  I started laughing - a deep belly laugh - and Punkin looked at me and said, "Mommy!  You crack up!"

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This evening I was sitting in my chair and looked up to see Punkin lugging a huge, FULL pitcher of juice from the fridge over to me, along with her sippy cup.  I've told her a million times not to go in the fridge, but she does anyway.  I took the pitcher and got close to her face and told her, "Punkin, Mommy has told you NOT to go in the fridge!  You might spill the juice!  If you want something, you ask Mommy and I will get it for you, but you do NOT go in the fridge, do you understand me?"  Punkin smiled at me real big, held out her cup and said, "Oh, thank you, Mommy."  Then I SWEAR she batted her eyes at me.

Iowa: Day 3

We were going to try to go to the pool today, but it didn't work for us because when we woke up, it was raining (again).  I was disappointed, because I figured that meant that we'd have to be stuck in the house all day.  It was nice just hanging out in the house yesterday, but the kids really needed to get out and do something.  Especially because Silas was having a hard time sharing with Punkin and that just led to a lot of fighting with each other.  It's frustrating to both the kids and the moms, so we were hoping to get out and do something.  It made it a bit worse because Jasmine is watching a little girl this week named River, so not only did Punkin and Silas have to share with each other, they had to share with River, too.  And having three kiddos 4 and under in one small room for the day wasn't really going to work out.

We squeezed the 3 munchkins into the back of the car!

Eventually we decided that even though it was raining, we would go into downtown Independence so we could go to some of the little shops and so I could take pictures of the buildings and whatnot.  We piled all three kids in the car and went down to this little country/antique shop called The Little Red School House and looked around in there for a bit, then tried to find postcards in the dollar store, with not much luck.  I was determined to find postcards to send home from Iowa since I didn't get a chance to send any from Chicago, but I so far I hadn't been able to find any in any of the store we went to.  We stopped in Connie's Hallmark and the drugstore, then we went to S&K Collectibles on the main street through town and I was finally able to find my postcards.  As we were leaving the shops, we realized the kids needed to be changed and it was time for lunch and nap, so we decided to head back to Jasmine's house (like a mile or two away - how's that for convenient?!) and go back to downtown later in the afternoon.

Trying to get on a bike in downtown

We did lunch and nap as planned, and then River's family came to get her, so Jasmine and I were ready to take Silas and Punkin back into downtown.  We got back in the car and drove back downtown, then parked on one side of the street and got out to walk around a bit.  Punkin really liked being able to walk instead of having to be in her stroller and found plenty of stuff to play with.  We went into Laree's and I was able to find some more (and different) postcards to buy.  There were also tons of toys in the store, but Punkin was mostly fascinated with several huge stuffed dogs that she found and spent a good bit of time sitting on the floor, petting "her" puppies.

After heading home from downtown, the rest of the day was uneventful.  We had corn on the cob and salad for dinner (the kids had some leftover chicken breast too) and Jasmine forced me to watch The Bachelorette against my will (despite my best efforts, I found myself actually somewhat interested and felt really bad for Chris when she told him to get lost).  Tomorrow we're going to Backbone State Park for a picnic!