Mother's Day = Girls' Day

(Mother's Day morning, at home)

Me: Wynn, should we go to the zoo today and see the animals?

Wynn: Oh, yeah.

Me: Should we invite Baba?

Wynn: No. Just you and me. Girls' day.

Me: But, what will Baba do while we're at the zoo?

Wynn: Um ... play with Shadow!

(at the zoo, looking at the lowland gorillas, surrounded by noisy, chaotic crowd of stroller-wielding families)

Me: Look how big that gorilla is!

Wynn: Oh, yeah. He bigger than Baba. 

Me: You're right. 

Wynn: And Baba real BIIIGG. (accompanied with arm gestures for emphasis)

Me: There's another gorilla over there, see? Oh, she has a baby on her back.

Wynn: Mom and baby. That like me and you. (big hug)

Cute pictures, completely unrelated to the story ...

Mystery Date

Today Wynn had a mystery date with Grandma and Grandpa. She knew she was going to spend the day with them, but she didn't know where they'd be taking her.  

Lunch at the Asian all-you-can-eat buffet was a promising start. We hear she enjoyed eating the fried skin off the chicken instead of the meat, and that the ice cream dessert was very much to her liking. Her announcement, "That's from China!" on seeing the decor earned her instant adoration from the staff.

After lunch, the big surprise came. Grandma and Grandpa had made arrangements with some friends of theirs for Wynn to visit their horse today. (She had met a horse with Grandma last spring and still talks about it, so this was a BIG deal.) Grandpa said Wynn's jaw literally dropped when she saw the beautiful saddlebred go by pulling a cart. 

Wynn got to feed her some grass ...

And she even got to go for a ride in the cart ...

(Click on the pictures to get a closer look.)

Her day of adventure was rounded out with some kite flying with Uncle Paul, who brought dinner (complete with cupcakes!) over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

She came home really tired - but really happy too.

We're going on vacation - to Tokyo!

We're going to take this show on the road for a week at the beginning of July!  We will be hanging out in Tokyo: exploring a different neighborhood each day, eating gyoza and yakisoba, and looking at as much Hello Kitty as Wynn is up for.

We'd also considered a week in Seattle for this getaway, but Japan was surprisingly only a few hundred dollars more per person - including airfare. Hard to imagine it ever being so inexpensive! (London came in $500 more per person than Tokyo!)

We sent in Wynn's passport application this morning & booked our package this afternoon. These next two months are going to fly by...

If any of our readers have suggestions about fun family activities, "must see" locations, food, or getting around, please click on 'comments' below - we're happy to receive advice. And yes, we'll be blogging the trip!

--Scott

A Special Message from Wynn

Holiday Preparations

Wynn wanted to make sure the Easter Bunny 

felt welcomed and appreciated.

The carrots are "bait". 

She claims the part that she wrote (behind her) says 

"Easter Bunny hop".

A New Car!

We got past the playing with the cardboard box stage and finally unveiled the super-cool plasma car.

Wynn's reaction? 

"A new car!!" 

How very Price is Right of her. 

She understood to sit on it right away, but the lack of pedals threw her, so she scooted it along Flinstone- style on the carpet for a while. Then I had her take it over on the linoleum in what used to be our dining area. (It's now Wynn's Play Space, which is what she calls it too.) 

On the smooth floor, the car moves much more easily by just moving the wheel from side to side. Of course, Wynn yells, "Wiggle! Wiggle! Wiggle!" as she moves the handle back and forth, and she pretends the yellow button in the middle of the wheel is a horn and honks it constantly. 

She rode around on it in the Play Space while wearing her p.j.'s right up until it was time to go to bed. 

Fun! Fun! Fun!

And She Hasn't Even Seen the REAL Toy Yet

The plasma car is still hiding downstairs, but we've gotten a solid hour of play out of the canoe-sized Amazon box it arrived in ...