Getting ready for Airplane Ride!

Here's a few recent photos as I take a quick break from packing...

On Monday after Stroller Strides we went to our friend and neighbor Genia's house to play. She has a four-year-old, two-year-old and newborn and has been a part of my MOPS table this year, and it was a real blessing to learn she lived just a few doors down from us. I look forward to a lot of play time for our kids together this summer, especially in our community pool, with its kids pool.

Cora put her foot in that pool for the first time Wednesday night, when we attended our annual HOA meeting in the pool area. What a difference for us to attend this meeting, compared to our condo HOA meetings! There were no big needs to worry about, and everyone seemed genuinely happy to meet us and happy about the state of our neighborhood.

The last two photos are from a recent Mommy and Me class. We attended class today, and Cora again had a great time, overall. When we were on the playground, she wanted to swing, but both baby swings were taken and she didn't want a "big girl swing."

I promised her we would go to our little playground when we got home so she could swing, and that made things a bit better, though she still shed some tears. "Go home right now, go little park and swing, right now," was her repeated suggestion. It took a lot of cajoling for her to stay in class for the final songs and sticker-hand-out time.
("Right now" is a favorite phrase this week. She also is trying to appropriately use the words "today," "yesterday," and "last night." It's pretty cute. Ex: "Cora, do you want to wee on the potty?" "No thanks. I wee on potty yest-uh-day.")

Sadly, when we later went to the little park, the swings were in the sun and were way too hot for her to use. She was very disappointed, and cried and cried. Oh well, I assume when we get to England, hot swings won't be a problem!

Cora and I are excited about our trip. Though it would be better to have Stace come with us, since he doesn't get a ton of vacation time, we decided that Cora and I would go first and he will come in a week later. We have talked to Cora a lot about the trip, and she will correctly name off all our beloved family members we're going to go see. She also understands that she is going to go night-night on the plane. Here's hoping that "understanding" leads to action.