Great Wolf Lodge, Traverse City

We drive along the scenic drive from Mackinaw City to Traverse City. It's a very children friendly Lodge, it even have kitchenette and the indoor waterpark. Nadia kept saying : "I want to go home!!!!" Just because she misses her bed. Until Mommy asked for a crib, then she was happy like a monkey.
Before nap she ate mcdonald's and tried to feed her yellow beetle. It's so funny how Nadia get so attached with cars!!!!! It's easy for mommy now that wherever we go, we just bring her cars, and the color wonder books and marker.
We let worn out Nadia to take nap (it was in the big bed before we got the crib), then we tried this waterpark. Nadia is really a brave little girl. At first she was scared, but then she had a blast riding down the tubing slides, even it was a little bit scary for her mommy. She also loves the big kids pool, the lily pad pool, which you have to jump on the lily pads all the way to the end of the pool. Of course, we both helped Nadia to stabilize each of the lily pad, but she kept doing it over and over, she didn't mind making a line, of course after we told her that she couldn't just say "MORE" and run back to the front of the line... but she understand that she had to wait patiently. She did it over and over like 10 times.
She also loves the current pool, basket ball pool, and of course the jacuzzi. We just let her swim around with the floating device, she really can balance herself and swam around the pool without any help. The same thing happened when we stayed at the hotel in Mackinaw City. We bought her floating swimming suit, she was so comfortable and swam around like a big kid.

The horsey needs diaper!!! It's the best day ever!!!

This is how serious Nadia when she watched TV in the hotel room that morning before we headed to Mackinac Island by ferry. We rode the bike from the hotel to the ferry dock. Before that we stopped to have breakfast, Nadia had a special order, 2 soft boiled eggs, she ate so much that we had never seen her ate that much, after munching all her eggs, she still had half of the pancake....
Nadia enjoyed every minute of the boat ride. It was really windy but she didn't mind.
We arrived at the Island, and we rode the bike, everyone there asked about the toddler bike seat we had for Nadia, no one had that kind of seat. Of course the interest goes to the bike because no one can ride any motorized vehicle there in that island, so people run around with feet, horse carriages and the bike!! I have never seen so many bikes in my life. Even the porter which delivers the luggages to the hotels rides the bike. The only down side of the island is you can find Horses' poops everywhere on the road. So Nadia said : "Daddy, it's horsey's poopoo, the horsey need diaper !!"
We also stopped in the middle of our bike ride around the island, and Nadia loves throwing rocks on the beach. At one point, she exclaimed :"It's the best day EVER!!!!"

A pull ups disaster

In the island, Nadia drank so much, her pull ups didn't hold all her peepee, so we ran out of pull ups, what a disaster, when we were waiting to get in the ferry again, Nadia told me "Mommy, I am peepee!!!" and I saw water running down her legs.... oh Gosh... that was the last pull ups we have. So I had to run with her to the restroom, took her pull ups out, and put Nadia without diaper on. Thanks God, since she stood up when she did it, her only one dry clothes were still good, her socks were wet, so she was without socks. In the boat, I asked one of the mother if she had extra diaper... that was my first time asking people for diaper, we usually the one who gives up some diapers for the needy moms, because I usually so over prepared in diapers and wipes, and changes. Thanks to Ammar that morning that he returned one pull ups back to me, he said :"it's too many... We had another accident before that, so in one of this picture, you can see we are trying to dry up Nadia's socks.
We had wonderful times, though, other than the pull ups disaster, we really had great times. We spent 2 hours riding on the bike, then we went on the horse carriage for the special request from Nadia, then we had really yummy mango and raspberry gelato and relaxing in front of Grand Hotel. Nadia had interest with the lock on the bike, she told me :"mommy, the bicycle got tangled!!!", and she would just run around following her daddy, and also play with some dogs....

So my suggestions with you all : Don't buy the pampers easy ups, it really doesn't hold the peepee. Buy the huggies pull ups, it holds peepee better. It's too bad because we really like pampers diapers over the huggies....

A toddler is 'dead' ?

Another hint for new traveler to Mackinac Island. Don't waste your money to spend on the hotels at Mackinac Island. You can pay $500 a night, and you will get a very small room and not too impressive. So after we traveled there the 2nd time, we decided to sleep in the hotel nearby the ferry which will take us to the hotel, we got the much better price for a much better hotel.

Nadia is very ticklish. We had a hard time just to put click her helmet on... she would giggle and squirmy around... and of course, we don't want to push it, because her skin my got pinched.... so it usually takes us about 10 minutes just trying to put her helmet on... and it was fun to hear her cute giggling, too.

We went back home with the ferry and on the way on the boat, Nadia was so quiet, and she wanted me to hold her instead of daddy. So mommy hugged her, she hugged me back. I thought, that is very sweet, when we arrived at the dock 3 minutes later, I found out that she was asleep!!! Wow, that is very unusual for a little trooper like Nadia. We tried to wake her up, she is dead like small rice sack bag... so we had no choice since we went with bike, we put her on the bike, the ferry staffs couldn't believe what they saw.. Nadia curled on her little table on the seat, didn't move and kept sleeping. Then she was surrounded by people who looked at her. People comment how cute she was... sleeping like that. We put her helmet on, rode on the bumpy pedestrian, and she was still asleep, along the way, a lot of people staring at a 'dead looking child on the bike' and finally laughed realizing that the parents worn the child out. She was still asleep when we arrived at the hotel, and she woke up the next morning. How was that ?!!!!!

Out trip has just begun

Ammar took vacation, and we canceled our Boston trip to visit our friends to just discover Michigan. One thing we do like, is the Mackinac Island. So after just a lazy Saturday, we left Sunday morning to go to Mackinaw City. It took us about 4.5 hours to get there. No problem with our little trooper. She was just having fun in the car, watching her 'Dora the explorer' and enjoyed the view from her window.
We stayed in a small hotel (there is no wonderful hotels in Mackinac Island no matter how much you paid.. ), and we did little biking just go around the hotel and had dinner. She was busy drawing as usual, didn't eat her dinner very well... hm.. maybe she is tired.
It was really nice to go around without cars... Nadia enjoyed it very much, too.
The only thing, she didn't like the hotel.. she kept asking us to go home..."I want to go home, mommy... daddy, let's go home" and she really had hard time to fall asleep that night.

baby...amazing picture

Oh stormy weather

We are having storm alert tonight in our area. The storms were so loud. Since morning she kept telling Mommy that 'her school bus" is scared of thunder... (it's her different way of telling her feeling now, if she is hungry, she would talk to school bus...."School bus, are you hungry ? Do you want to eat pineapple/chips/chocolate?" or "School bus, are you sleepy ? do you want your pillow ?" (these are her exact quote, with an excellent grammar and pronounciation)
Mom checked on Nadia, she was sound asleep. Mom feell so good that she won't be scared... Gosh.. the house is shaking!!!!
Hope it's over soon. They said it will be until midnight.
I am not used to have thunder as in Boston, there weren't many thunderstorm around.... tell me about Michigan, in the last year we have been living here, we had so far 5 thunderstorms.

Fun Tuesday

Starting for fun morning, putting all chucke cheese's coins in the miniature mail box, then we went to the county waterpark, had the blast there, got home at 3.30 pm (way over her bedtime), she nap for 4 hours (she must be tired!!!), daddy went home taught her to stand with one leg, and of course :"mommy, I can wink my eye.. look!!!", she loves putting her blue car on the top of her "water tower"

...and Blue Jay

After drinking her milk in the morning, we cuddled and watched Caillou on PBS Television. The story was about Caillou and his grandma went to the park and went bird watching. There was an episode that they pictured 2 kind of birds, 2 red birds, and 1 blue bird. Mom didn't really know what kind of bird the blue one was, but the only she know was Cardinal. So she said to Nadia : " Look, it's Cardinal...." immediately Nadia added : "... and Blue Jay!!!"
Mom was so surprised knowing that her 2 year old knew different kind of birds.... Now she believes that when her teacher told mom that she was ready for preschool class (yes, Nadia is in the full time preschool now) and really listens and absorbed everything they taught her......

playdate

Finally after a long pause of playdate, we made it again at our home. Milla and Guga are going to go to Brazil for 1 month, so we decided to make the last minute playdate. Luca also came with his little baby sister. It is a wonderful gymboree group (we met at the Gymboree music and play a year ago). Clayton didn't come because his mom just gave birth to a baby boy, Jack. Mom had to pick Nadia up from school earlier, so she could play with them at home... they went home 10 pm, very late, and it was really hard to bring the kids out of their fun. Moms changed their clothes to pajamas, and they even had more blast like having a pajama party. Nadia ended up sleeping at 11 pm that night!!!

She was 3 days old

Brought her home, the 3rd day of her life, sleeping the first time in her crib, in her homecoming outfit

Our baby is such a big girl now

Making project for Father's day (I know, it's kinda late, ha ha ha) I found this picture of our little Nadia, 1 day old.... 12 hours after she was born.....

Went to the Rolling Hills Water Park, afraid of thunder, made "W" from pretzel

Biking