Sally is not even two yet, and I’m rather devastated that she won’t nap anymore. It all started when she chewed the tip off of her binky (the pink one—not the original green one). The green bink got lost at Grandma Peterson’s house, and I decided that that would be the end of the bink for Sally. After 30 minutes or so of screaming that night, I gave in and offered her a pink one as an alternative (one that she refused numerous times in the past). She took to it and used it for nap/bed time until the day she bit right through it. Thus ended both the era of the binky and the precious afternoon nap.
It isn’t like I don’t still try to give her a nap. I certainly do—every day! She just won’t go to sleep. I end up just letting her play in her room with her toys for about an hour or so so I can have some time to work. Not ideal, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.
Anyhow, here’s what I wrote on September 20. It doesn’t seem too important or exciting now, but at least it is something to post.
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Neal likes to tell people that we are boring, but I don’t necessarily agree. Despite the fact that Neal has started residency and has been quite busy lately, we’ve still managed to do quite a few fun things together as a family. Here’s some of what we have been up to (starting with the most recent):
Stake Preparedness Fair: a new stake center was just completed in our stake, and on Saturday they had a “grand opening” type of event—a preparedness fair. The events started with a 5K in the morning, which the whole family participated in—Neal pushed Sally in the stroller, and I ran by myself.
Neal had a great run and finished in 27 minutes (and it should have been less, but he started late because he was waiting for me—getting a drink in the building—and had to stop a few times to attend to Sally). I surprised myself by running the entire time and finishing at 35 minutes. Being 4 months pregnant, I planned to run the first half and then walk, but I felt pretty good and really wanted to finish strong. I was proud of our performance. The rest of the morning was filled by a pancake breakfast and various workshops and displays. We had fun. 
KU vs. Duke: we left the fair and went straight to Lawrence for the KU football game. It was Sally’s first football game, and she did quite well (until she saw the Jayhawk mascot and got really scared).
We only stayed until half time because we were all tired and ready to get out of the sun. KU won and we got to see some good plays, and it was fun for Sally to experience the excitement of a college football game.
Corporate Woods Pancake Breakfast: the company that I work for is located in a business park called Corporate Woods, which sponsored a breakfast for all of its tenants. Although I never actually go into the office, I thought it would be fun to go to the breakfast and take Neal and Sally. Neal had just finished his last night shift and wanted to try to stay awake, so we took off as soon as he got home for breakfast and shopping. After breakfast we headed to some outlet stores to take advantage of the last of the Labor Day sales on children’s clothes. We got a ton of cute baby boy clothes for great prices. It was great to shop with Neal, who attended to Sally so I could focus on shopping.
Price Chopper Neighborhood Block Party: a major grocery store in the area hosted a block party that was free to the public. I heard about it on the radio and thought it would be fun to check it out. Sally got to see the Trix bunny and Chester Cheetah (unfortunately she was deathly afraid of both of them, but got free stuff from them), and got lots of free stuff--a balloon, a stuffed cow, granola bites, and other food samples. We all got a free lunch and ice cream. The main reason I wanted to go was for the free pony rides, but unfortunately the line was too long—but at least Sally got to see the ponys!
Aristocrat Motors Carnival: Neal saw an advertisement in the paper about a free family fun carnival at the local Aristocrat Motors, so we decided to head over and see what it was all about. Sally loved looking at the animals in the petting zoo,
bouncing in the inflatable jumping tent,
and eating the free ice cream. We loved seeing her having so much fun and not having the make lunch. The free food was actually good—Hy-Vee catering provided it. All-in-all I was impressed.
Misc.: Numerous trips to parks and outdoor shopping malls (Zona Rosa, The Country Club Plaza, etc.).
Sally absolutely loves going to the park, and I love being within a 5 minute walk of two great parks, and within a 5-10 minute drive of several others. Just one thing I love about living in Johnson County, Kansas.
So, we do a lot of free things, it is true, and maybe we are boring by some peoples’ standards. But I can’t say that I’m bored. Not with Sally around!
