We're baaaaack!

Sorry it's been so long. We went to NY for the long weekend to visit my parents and grandparents, and I've just been too busy to catch up on here! I'm sure you don't want the entire weekend play-by-play, so I'll write today's "ketchup" in bullet style:

• We left Thursday around 3. I didn't put Rissa down for a nap, hoping she'd just take a long one in the car. Well, she didn't fall asleep until almost 5, and then only slept for 20 minutes! She woke up VERY grumpy (wonder why!) so we broke out our latest "secret weapon" - Dan's video iPod, The Backyardigans, and this! It was an instant hit (no surprise) and immediately changed her mood to ecstatic! She watched for a little while, and then we it put away and she was happy and talkative until she fell asleep around 9. We were pleasantly surprised with how well she did in the car, since we haven't travelled anywhere since the big Christmas disaster. She did so well entertaining herself with her cup (pretending it was a baby, kissing it, etc. - lol) and a few toys, and when she was tired of them, she was entertaining to us! We just had a good time talking about the funniest things: supposedly she was wearing Timmy's socks, and Timmy (friend of Dan's, well, I guess my friend too, lol) was wearing her socks - where does she get this stuff??? About 2 miles down the road when we left at 3, she started saying "All doh (all done) Frissa's car, nuh-uh!!! Muuuum, where are yooooouuuuuuu?" I was very worried that we were in for a miserable trip, but obviously she reconsidered spending a little more time in "Frissa's car"!
• Friday was a relaxing day, and we spent some time outside with my mom, aka Gramma = "Mum."
• Saturday we got up and went to a drop-in shower for a family adopting their first baby. She was adorable, and Marissa ended up wandering around with a bunch of little (and big) girls, all holding hands. It was so adorable! One of the girls was also named Marissa - she was in the Kindergarten class that I spent a week with waaaaaay back in my freshman year at college. She was by far the cutest girl in that class, and I just fell in love with her. You know, the favorite you're never supposed to have? Haha, anyways, she goes to my old church now too, and is still beautiful. She was the inspiration for naming our daughter Marissa, and she thought that was very cool. She hung around Marissa a lot, and I can tell if we lived there, she'd be an awesome babysitter in a few years!
• My dad mowed the lawn Saturday afternoon, and took Marissa out on the tractor for a little while. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was so cute to watch her laugh and giggle as they sped around the yard. Expect pictures!
• Sunday we went to church with my family, and then headed to a local park for an afternoon picnic. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and we had a blast. I finally got some sun, so I'm not totally pale anymore. And Marissa totally wore herself out! We knew it was risky, but we decided to skip her nap, since it would be right in the middle of things and there wasn't a good place for her to nap at the park. She never even noticed! She ran around like a maniac the entire afternoon and didn't bother to eat much at all. Lol. Wherever we were, she had to run in the opposite direction as fast as she could! She finally crashed on the 8 minute drive home, and slept for an hour in her Gramma's lap!
• Over the weekend, she learned zillions of new words and phrases. But there are two that just crack me up. Dan randomly asked her to say "Mississippi" and she repeated it perfectly, only a bit twisted: Missippissi (Miss-i-pee-see). We also got to look at many caterpillars at my parents' house. After telling her they were caterpillars, she very carefully repeated "catter-boo-foo" and continued to say it exactly that same way every time!
• Monday we left around 11:30am. Again, this was risky for us, but based on the drive there, we thought Marissa would be fine. And we were right! She took a nice normal almost-2-hour nap in the middle of it, but the rest of the time she just played and talked with us. She watched a little of The Backyardigans, but overall, the drive was very successful. Surprise, surprise, our little girl is growing up!
• Tuesday I worked my second real day at the massage clinic. Blah...More on this later.
• Today a bunch of guys came from the company we built our house through, and did touch-up on all the drywall issues we had at the 10-month check-up. Which means...

IT'S TIME TO PAINT!!!!!

We went to Lowes tonight and bought some paint samples, and the plan is to go back and get the full amount once I decide, and PAINT SATURDAY! I'm soooooooooooooo excited to get rid of these BORING off-white walls! I'm starting in the living room/dining room/kitchen. It's one ginormous room, with no place to change paint colors. So I hope it won't be too overwhelming. But since BEFORE we moved in, I've been picturing it a beautiful light/bright green color. Dan is tolerating it, but I can tell he doesn't care one bit! Lol. After painting, a nice new couch is all we will need to complete our downstairs (at least for now)! There's obviously a bunch of other stuff I want to do/buy, but I won't mind waiting once the painting is done and a couch is in! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! Definitely look for pictures of this on Sunday!

• HAHA, I almost forgot the best story from our weekend away:
  Sunday morning, everyone was waking up and getting ready at different times. Soon after I woke up, I found Marissa playing upstairs with someone, and decided to take her downstairs to get her dressed. Well, my parents live in kind of a split level. You walk in to the main floor, but there is about 3/4 of a stairway that goes up to the bedrooms, and 3/4 of a stairway that goes down to the family room (there's also a basement 3/4 of a stairway below that). Also, all the floors are hardwood floors, including the stairs. So anyways, we were all the way upstairs by the bedrooms. I took Marissa by the hand, and slowly started to lead her down the stairs. Instead of keeping her safe...instead of her slipping on her socks like we all were terrified of all weekend...I SLIPPED ON THE TOP STEP and bounced my way all the way to the bottom! Thankfully, Marissa somehow let go of my hand, and simply sat on the very top step and watched her mommy bounce all the way down the stairs! By the time I reached the bottom, everyone had come running (well, except for Dan who somehow slept through the entire thing!). Also, by the time I reached the bottom, I was laughing hysterically! Poor Marissa didn't know what to think! My mom picked her up right away, and then she wanted to come to me. But she didn't actually cry, which was surprising. So yeah, I'm pretty sore and have some awesome bruises. But the funniest part about the whole thing, is that for the next few days - in fact even today still - she said over and over "Mama fell over? Fall down stairs? Mama hurt? More fall stairs?" LOL. Poor girl, traumatized for life!
  

• And lastly, a quick story from (nanny) work:
  They have a circle to run around (you know, kitchen, dining room, living room), and Marissa and H. will run around forEVER! And after every loop, Marissa says "more running?" and they just run and run and run, and giggle the whole time! Marissa somehow convinced her Grandpa to run the loop at my parents' house, but that didn't last nearly as long! I'm so glad this nanny job is such a good fit for us. I don't always have the most patience, and I don't always enjoy it. But Marissa loves every second of it, and I'm even starting to have fun!