New Glasses.

One of the frustrating things about taking Lulu to the ophthalmologist is that every appointment results in a new eyeglasses prescription.  When I took her to the eye doctor back in December before Christmas, we got yet another new prescription.  Given the holidays, our impending trip to Cancún and Walter's spiffy eye insurance plan that kicked in at the start of the new year, I waited to fill her prescription at the moment....I mistakenly thought that perhaps Walter might take her to do it during the two weeks he had her once they got back?

Nope.

So, I finally did it.  I took her back to Lenscrafters, where we bought her eyeglasses back in September, and had them put new lenses into the existing frames.  Ultimately, spiffy insurance policy or not, it was just easier.  Plus, she has another appointment coming up later this spring, so I figure I can wait and use the insurance policy then.

the pair of glasses that she said she wanted.

The new glasses are bifocals and she hated them when she first tried them on.  But, after a day or two of adjusting to them, she happily wears them without complaint now.  To help ease the adjustment, I took her to the Lego store and bought her first set of "big girl" Legos now that we put the Duplos away in storage.

excited by her big girl Legos.

San Diego Zoo.

 

One of the appeals of getting a paper accepted into the Western Regional Science Association's meetings this spring was that Lulu also had the week off from school.  Unfortunately, my plans to leave on Friday afternoon and spend the weekend before in San Diego were thwarted by my colleagues' inability to settle down on a reasonable job candidate.  Sigh.

So, we drove down on Saturday instead and only had Sunday to really spend time doing fun things with Lulu, but I think we figured something fun that lasted all day long--the world famous San Diego Zoo.

We started off with a breakfast at Starbucks before arriving at the zoo around 9:30am.

Lulu was really excited to see lots of different animals, but she soon pronounced "No more birds!" after seeing a lot of them.  These little guys definitely got our attention though--they came right over and tried to tell us, "Hi!"  Aren't they adorable?

One of the other highlights of our visit was watching an elephant pedicure.  (I didn't know this part) Apparently, as elephants age, they are subject to joint problems so their caregivers want to make sure that their feet are healthy (otherwise an injured foot causes them to put more pressure on the remaining three).  Cracks in the bottom of their feet are also a major source of infection, so pedicures are a frequent occurrence in the elephant house (every 5-7 days).  The oldest elephant in the zoo, Mary, was the one getting her feet "done" in the photos.  She's 55 years old.  Isn't that amazing?

Another neat feature of the San Diego Zoo is the aerial tramway and we rode it in both directions (up and down the hill).  Lulu thought it was the coolest thing ever!

 

 

And we saw lizards, snakes, gorillas, chimpanzees, lions, bears, and seals....among lots and lots of other animals.

There is a crocodile in there if you look closely...

silver-backed gorillas

tired polar bear

nice stripes!

It was a really nice outing with a little girl who has been pushing all our buttons lately and it was a relief to watch her be enthralled with God's creatures rather than giving us attitude and acting older than her years.

Valentine's Day.

Given all the other stuff going on in this household during the month of February (see this post), Valentine's Day was extremely low-key for us.  I did have the foresight to buy some Sophia the First valentine's day cards at Target at the beginning of the month, but unfortunately, the package only had 16 cards and there are 26 kids in Lulu's class.  I meant to buy another package before valentine's day so that Lulu could practice writing her name and I spaced it.

So, Valentine's Day saw me dropping her off at school, running to a nearby CVS and buying a random "boy" themed valentine's day package of cards, running back to school, and then quickly assembling them and writing her name on them in the hallway outside her classroom before the classroom card exchange.  Yeah.  Definitely Parent of the Year on that one!

But, I did manage to get her a Valentines themed cookie at Whole Foods and presented it to her for breakfast that morning.  She was quite excited!



And, it also helped that a package arrived in the mail from Mau-Mau and Oompapa with a random Thanksgiving turkey (she was cleaning out her holiday decorations) and a little unicorn sort of thing.

Girl Scouts.

The Girl Scouts have organized a Daisy troop at Lulu's elementary school (apparently Daisy is what you are before becoming a Brownie?).  Several girls from her class are in the troop and they all enjoy each other's company a lot.  The meetings are on Thursday nights which is nice actually because Walter teaches on Thursday nights, so it gives Lulu and me something to do every other week.  I usually pick her up from school, feed her dinner someplace like Chipotle or Panera, and then take her to her Daisy meeting.  Afterwards, we go home, she eats a little dessert then takes her bath and goes to bed.

Three weeks ago, they planted marigold seeds with the idea that the girls would bring them back and see how their plants are growing.  We, of course, forgot ours.  But she has three little marigold plants coming up!

And the girls also sold cookies this spring.  It was a bit crazy and hectic because the troop formed right at the very end of the cooking "pre-sale" so everything was a bit rushed as a result.  But, we learned some lessons that we can put into place next year.  And the girls earned their "talk it up" and "count it up" badges during their booth sale at a local Safeway.

pretty photogenic aren't they??
L-R: Maggie, Zamoree, Aurora, Scotland, Makayla, Lulu, Shadora, Kailiana

And I got my act in gear and made it to the local Girl Scout shop (located conveniently close to campus!) and got her requisite uniform and preliminary patches.  With the help of some "badge magic," I even have them attached to the uniform!