Fun with Skylee

On Friday night Kristin and Dan headed off on a cruise. Alison and I had the opportunity to watch Skylee. It was a fun and challenging weekend. Watching Skylee is so much fun, but it also takes so much energy.

Dan and Kristin took the red-eye. We came over right before they left. Shortly after they left we got Skylee ready for bed. We read with her, sang songs, and made sure she had everything she needed. She went to bed so easily and slept for the entire night. 

We actually got up and ready for the day before we gently woke Skylee up. We would have let her sleep even longer, but the Montessori school she attends was having an activity. We got her all ready and headed out to West Valley for the activity. It was a mini-marathon, which amounted to a 1k for the kids to run. Skylee was so excited - she loves races, especially since her Dad is really into racing. She ran for about half of the race before she told Alison, "I am so tired. I want to hold you." This is Skylee's way of saying she wants us to hold her. Alison carried her for about a quarter of the race. As we got closer to the finish line we talked her into running for the last portion. It was good she did. There were lots of people at the finish line cheering and having fun. Skylee said, "everyone cheered for me!!!" She was so excited. After the race, Skylee played on some bounce houses for a while. There were some dark, ominous-looking clouds and we felt a few raindrops. We decided it was time to go before it started to rain. 

We went over to Blake and Debbie's for breakfast. After breakfast we were looking for something fun to do so we decided to take Skylee to see The Jungle Book with Bret, Blake, and Debbie. Skylee loves to see movies and she was very excited. She was particularly excited because we brought 2 mega tubs. She thought this meant she should get one all to herself. We didn't let her eat one by herself, but we did let her hold it. 

The Jungle Book is a really fun movie. The technology they use to make it is incredible, the scenery is unreal, and Bill Murray is very funny as Baloo the bear. Skylee was enthralled for the first 1/2-2/3s of the movie, but then the novelty kind of wore off. She also told us that "The Monkey scared me." We told her that she was brave and safe. In the end, she liked to say, "I loved the Jungle Book" but I think she will enjoy it more when she is a little bit older. 

After the movie, Alison was pretty tired and Skylee was too. Skylee fell asleep on our way back to her house. She stayed asleep while I carried her in, but as soon as I turned her white noise machine on she immediately woke up and told me she did not want to take a nap. 

That was fine so I took her out on the couch and she had a little meltdown because she really wanted her mom and dad. Alison and I consoled her for a bit. It took a while (and turning on Frozen) to get her calmed down. Alison took a nap and Skylee and I hung out. While Alison was napping Kristin and Dan called from the cruise ship. They talked to Skylee for a few minutes. She wasn't very talkative, but it made her really happy. We watched movies, read books, and played games until Alison woke up. 

We ate dinner and then met up with Bret, Blake, and Debbie for some dessert at Rita's. We love their Italian ice. It is also a great place to take Skylee because she is sensitive to dairy. We hung out there for a while before heading over to Blake and Debbie's. While we were over there Skylee got really into playing hide and seek. She isn't really very good at hiding and seeking because she always likes to hide in the same place (or tell the person who is hiding where they should hide) and she also calls out and tells the person who is finding her where she is at. She has a really fun time with it though. 

We took her home and watched Monster's University with her before bed. She almost outlasted Alison. Once again we read some books, sang some songs, and made sure she had everything she needed before she went to bed. 

On Sunday morning we woke up to Skylee yelling, "Alison! Alison! Alison!" at about ten to seven. We got Skylee out of bed and brought her in with us. She was so excited to get up. Alison was still in bed so Skylee would tell her to get up and eventually stole Alison's blankets to entice her to get out of bed. Skylee chose an outfit, but Alison reminded her it was Sunday and then they chose a dress together. 

We came over to our apartment so Alison and I could get ready. Skylee watched "Shake it off" on repeat (she remembers we let her watch it over here before and refused to watch anything else.) After we were ready we drove to Bountiful for Kyle and Sarah's baby blessing. Their son, Ryan, was born with a serious heart defect that required open-heart surgery a week after he was born. We were pretty worried about the little guy, but he is doing so well now. He is now about two months old. They held the blessing at their home and it was a very special experience. The blessing was particularly powerful. There were a lot of other kids there, after she warmed up, Skylee had a great time playing. When we went to leave she said she had, "so much fun and didn't want to leave."

We did in fact leave and come home so that we could go to church. Alison played the organ this Sunday so it was just Skylee and me in our pew. When Alison walked up to play the organ Skylee stared at her for seriously 5 minutes. She was pretty impressed. Skylee also had fun waving at Alison during the sacrament. Skylee was very well behaved and reverent. After the sacrament, I took her to the nursery. I wasn't sure if she would go, but she said she wanted to. It took her a few minutes to warm up, but she didn't react at all when I left. When Alison and I picked her up after the third hour she looked like she had a fun time. She told us she played games, had snacks, sang songs, and played with bubbles. The primary chorister also told Alison that Skylee knew all the words to "I Love to See the Temple." We were pretty proud. 

We came back to our apartment and ate some dinner. While we were getting it ready Skylee watched a movie and ran around our apartment looking for CC. CC did quite well today with Skylee, which made us really happy. 

After dinner, we dropped Skylee off with Blake and Debbie. We were sad to leave her over there after having so much fun this weekend, but Alison had some homework and I had some work that needed to get done. Skylee is really a well-behaved and fun kid. Even still it's as exhausting to take care of her. We certainly don't feel ready to have a kid of our own yet. 

Even though at times it could be exhausting - it was worth it for the fun memories. I think my favorite things were the spontaneous dance parties where Skylee would yell for Alison to come dance with her or when Skylee wanted to play the piano and needed Alison to put a book there so that she could "play" it for real.