Post Christmas fall out and Science Center Visit

Christmas passed with less tears and anxiety than anticipated. It was actually a great day. It was nice in that we were able to Skype with our families for something like 6 hours of the day. But, there were times of the day where we looked at each other and felt like we lived on the moon. It was almost like watching a happy family on the television. Then there were times where we were thrilled that we were able to see everyone and be a part of their day. As expected, it was emotional and as expected... we lived.

We had made plans to go to Omaha, Nebraska today; but it snowed in the west and we weren't interested in driving for three hours through snow for no good reason. We altered the plans to head to Des Moines to the Science Center instead.

As Des Moines is only an hour and a half away, cutting the drive time in half one way felt like we were winning something. Also, we've been wanting to visit the Science Center since we moved here- it was nice to cross that off of our "to do" list.

Play kitchen in the toddler area.

Plasma ball

Toddler area. Bridge with a blue window. 

Dad helping. 

We had no idea that there would be so much for Iyla to do there. We would have gone sooner. She played so well! We kept commenting the entire time about how well she was playing and how well she was taking it all in. We were thrilled that she was so inquisitive! She was far from shy with the other children, she would walk up to other children with her hands on her belly and squeal, "HI!" at them. She played with a nice older girl in the kitchen area and she found true love on the bridge area... which her father ruthlessly pulled her away from. We found that dinosaurs were a favorite, exclamations of "wow! wow! WOW!" and "woooe!" were not in short supply.

Ryan has a big bow shoot this Friday/Sat/Sunday. It's a big deal for him.

Lee will be here on Saturday! It will help the last week fly by, I hope. :)

Today felt right. It could be that we're only 2 weeks away from home; it could be that we felt "in control" of this parenting thing for once- whatever it was.. it was the lightest either of us have felt in quite some time.

love,
m r and i