Chattanooga

We were suppose to go to the Jeff Fisher and Friends Charity softball game on May 22nd. Everyone had new jerseys and Anna Claire had a pink miniature Titans helmet for autographs. After the Nashville flood they postponed the game to Sunday, June 13th. {Kerry's scheduled work night} We were very disappointed because we really look forward to this every year. I knew I had to come up with something for us to do that weekend, other than the Zoo because I decided last year that we will only go to the Zoo on a cool day. The past 2 years it has been in the 90's and it makes for a miserable day at the Zoo. Anyway, I decided we should go to the Tennessee Aquarium since Anna Claire has never been before. I checked on it and decided we should just make it a weekend getaway, so we did. We left Saturday morning and went to the Aquarium, spent the night in Chattanooga, and then Sunday we went to the Creative Discovery Museum , but not without incident. We went through Winchester to get to the interstate bc we weren't positive about the whole sink hole status. We got to the interstate and Anna Claire told me her mouth hurt and she wanted me to hold her. I gave her some sprite and she said it was better. We were almost in Chattanooga and she told me her mouth hurt again. A drink of sprite made it better. We get in to downtown and we can see the Aquarium and Anna Claire tells me that her mouth hurts again and then says "oh Momma" as she starts to throw up. I sling the seat belt off, turn around in my seat, grab her blanket, and try to catch what I can. Kerry was just trying to get us to a parking lot, until she projectiled all over me and I yelled for him to just PULL OVER!!! He pulled in to a fire lane and I immediately unbuckled her from her car seat and he stripped her down on the sidewalk. He starts to clean her up, as I try to clean up the car seat. Luckily, I had a little packet of Clorox bleach wipes in her diaper bag for emergencies like this. I was able to catch most of it, so the only place I really had to work on cleaning was one of the straps to the car seat. I had just enough Clorox wipes to get it cleaned up good. I know people thought we were crazy because they were walking by while we had Anna Claire in a diaper on the sidewalk. All of her clothes, blanket, Pups, another stuffed dog, socks, shoes, etc.... were just tossed all over the sidewalk. We managed to get her cleaned up, I got my shirt changed, and we proceeded on to the Aquarium. I am guessing she drank some sour milk because she was fine from there on out. I didn't check our milk because it was NOT out of date, but I have noticed that the milk has been going sour before the date on the jug here lately. The hotel had a laundry room, so I was able to get everything washed when we got to the room. We had a really good time and look forward to our next getaway, minus the sour milk. :0 You don't see this very often and this is the only proof that I have of being there myself, other than the picture that the Aquarium staff took.

The Penguins were her favorite!!

I enjoyed the jelly fish. I thought this one was really neat bc it looks like it has a cross on it.

This caused me to use outfit #3 on day 1, thus causing us to have to go to the mall to get her another outfit because I only packed 2 extra outfits for her. {lesson learned} I meant to put her swimsuit in the backpack and totally forgot.

Creative Discovery Museum

No words.......................

This was the music area, aka "Headache Central"

We had some Ben & Jerry's before we headed home on Sunday.

We found the Funkabuckets playing under the bridge at the Aquarium after our trip to Ben & Jerry's. They were awesome!! Look them up on Facebook and/or You Tube.

Super Stars Fun Meet 2010

Anna Claire started taking gymnastics at Barnyard back in September 2009. This lasted through December and there were not enough children taking the classes, so the classes stopped. We were offered a free 1yr membership, still paying the regular monthly fee, if we took her to the ETC gym in Murfreesboro. Anna Claire is so young and there is not a lot offered for her age, so we decided to let her continue to take gymnastics. I would love for her to play soccer this Fall, but she will not be 4 until next year. My plan is to let her play whatever she wants until she finds what she loves. My love was softball. Her Daddy's love was basketball and football. {Soccer was not popular when I was young - Man I'm old!!} She may love dance, with her you just never know, but I'm guessing it will be soccer. She enjoys gymnastics and is good at it for her age, but she's already {I think} good at soccer for her age too. OK, I got off topic........

ETC has a Super Stars Fun Meet every year. It allows each age group to show what they can do. It's not a competition, even though deep down it was for me - sorry, it's just something fun kind of like the dance recitals. Anna Claire got a free Super Stars Fun Meet t-shirt and at the end every child got a trophy. This was only my 2nd time seeing her do her gymnastics because her class is during the day while I'm at work. Thankfully, I knew what to expect this time because the first class I went to I almost had more than one heart attack. There were 4 different areas and you could tell which area was her favorite. Her favorite area was also the area that she got to go first in.

I never said she didn't get bored waiting for her turn. : )

She enjoys the floor exercises the most, but watching her flip down the wedge is nerve racking!!

I thought she was just tired because she had done all her routines and not had a nap all day, little did I know.... It was the start of strep throat and about 10 hours after I took this picture she had a temperature of 102.3.

The Rest of the Birthday Post

I got behind after the party, her actual birthday, and then her gymnastics fun day. I will try to catch up this week before we go to the aquarium this weekend because you know I will have pictures of that too.

I LOVE balloons!! Anna Claire's Daddy about passed out when I pulled out 2 of these huge fire truck balloons.

She was so excited about her new trampoline from Uncle Josh and Uncle Kirby.

Trying to make sure Uncle Lee doesn't take her trampoline.

I happened to hear the breaks on the Fire Truck when Uncle Josh stopped at MeMe's to pick up Sparky. I hurried to the driveway to make sure I caught everything. Uncle Josh pulled in with the lights flashing and sirens blaring. {We did warn the older party goers that this was going to happen. We didn't need anymore heart attacks. Big Daddy's was enough.}

She was running as fast as her little legs would carry her.

She LOVED Sparky!!

Sparky gave her a fire truck puzzle for her birthday.

This is scary!! LOL!!

The cake and cupcakes must have been good because Anna Claire ate the icing off of 5 of them and then asked for cake. I didn't get to try the cupcakes, but the cake was wonderful. Thank you Wild About Cakes.

She put the important items in the Barbie carrying case. {money and her new tutu}

Cupcakes for school thanks to Kecia Johnson.

Anna Claire requested a Care Bear cake for her actual birthday. This cake came from Creative Touch Florist.

Anna Claire had a wonderful birthday. We are so blessed to have so many people that love her dearly. We are very thankful that everyone could join us and we thank God for allowing Big Daddy to be there with us. The day of the party it had been exactly 2 weeks since he had his heart attack.

Don't Talk About Me

I know somethings I am about to tell are going to be hard to believe after seeing this picture, but trust me they are true!!

Anna Claire got mad at her Daddy the other day and flexed her muscles and growled at him. As serious as she was, it was quiet humorous.

My sweet, bow wearing, pink and polka dot loving, flip flop wearing, Disney Princess caring little girl is an ANIMAL!! She may be the strongest 3 year old I have ever met. She also thinks she is the smartest "big girl" ever. I'll give her this much, she has the smartest "big girl" mouth of any 3 year old that I know. With all of this said, she is still my little girl. I love that little girl more than life itself and it's my job to protect her. I mean, my 3 year old still rides in the buggy at Wal-Mart with her buggy cover. Germs I tell you!! Germs!! LOL!!

Anyway, she rides in the buggies in stores that have them, out shopping she rides in her stroller, but there are some places that don't have buggies and/or do not allow strollers. Some places allow strollers, but it is really not feasible. We are going to a ball game Saturday and it is not feasible to use a stroller. I know she would want to walk anyway, but I cannot walk that long of a way with just holding her hand. I never feel completely safe just holding her hand. What if she got away? What if I squeezed her hand to hard because she was trying to get away? What if her arm got pulled out of socket because she was trying to get away from me? {She HATES to hold hands because after all she's a "big girl".}

She got away from me in the nail salon a few days before her birthday and ran out the door as I was running after her. Thankfully, she stopped at the edge of the fire zone. Yes I was using "the" voice telling her to stop, but she did not care. I'm not sure why she stopped, maybe God stopped her for me. I know I was a very grateful Mommy when I got to her, but that did not stop me from whipping her butt. Did it do any good? I doubt it because nothing seems to work with her.

However, if I would have had a kid "leash" that would not have happened. Well, not to worry because we have one now. I talked to Kerry about it and even mentioned it to my Mom. We all agreed that I needed to get one for Anna Claire. My Mom and I are the people that years ago would have made comments about the kid "leash" to each other, but now that I'm a Mom, I realize until you walk in that Mom's shoes you will never understand the kid "leash". Some children are very laid back and quiet, other children are like mine. Anna Claire is wild and free spirited. She never meets a stranger and as cute as that may be, it is very dangerous.

Anna Claire's new "leash" is a puppy dog backpack. If you see her with it on, don't feel sorry for her because she LOVES it. She wears it around the house and wants me to hold my end so she can pull me. I promise I will not be like the lady on the news that was dragging her child around. I got it for safety.

I am doing something that I feel will keep my child safe. I just have to pray that when we are out in public no one says anything to Kerry about it. I have been trained in the proper wording because a wise friend once said "at least I know she will be going home with me tonight!" She could not be more right.

I cannot promise that Kerry will respond the same way. :0