Baby Bug-gy

Saturday was a fantastic day. We started off with Daddy getting up super early to wait in line at Toys R Us to get some collectible Lego figures. Because waiting for 4 hours to get an iPhone on Thursday was SO much fun! He was there at 6:30. He was the ONLY one there until 8:30. Store opened at 9am. 5 or 6 other people showed up, but 2 of them were there for the new Hot Wheels. Ah well. At least he woke me up early for no reason.
Little Z and I got up 'early' (8:30) to go to the 10am showing of Toy Story 3 for the once monthly 'Sensory Friendly' showing at AMC. The Autism Society of America and AMC teamed up to have a special monthly showing at select theaters of a current-run children's film, which they call 'Sensory Friendly Films.' Last month it was Shrek 4. Even though Z doesn't have a sensory processing disorder, I like taking her to these showings because its a great environment for toddlers to get the theater experience, without ruining the show for everyone else.

• They keep the lights at trailer level, so it isn't so dark and scary. (Last summer, Z was scared of the pitch-black theater for Regal's $1 summer movies, and spent most of her time running around in the lighted emergency exit hallway.) 
• They lower the sound, so your chairs aren't vibrating, and your ears aren't hurting whenever a character shouts, or whatever.
• The 'Silence is Golden' rule isn't enforced, so when Z announces to the whole theater that "Daddy eated alla his poptorn," I'm not completely mortified. The down side, of course, is that OTHER people's kids are talking (or moaning uncontrollably,) but Z doesn't seemed bothered by it, and we go in expecting it.
• And last but not least: You can bring your own (gluten- and casein-free) snacks. They don't check what you bring, so really you could bring regular snacks, but to support them, I bring healthy snacks for her, and buy popcorn and Icees for me :)

It was great. Although I did not appreciate the punching/fighting in the opening cartoon short, Z seemed to find it amusing, and did not immediately jump up and start punching us, like the kids did when I first saw Disney's Beauty and the Beast's Gaston in the bar scene at the theater. I loved to hear my baby laugh during the movie. I love her sense of humor. And I love any screen-time where she reacts at all to the show. Often she just stares zombie-like at the screen. About 3/4ths of the way through, she crawled onto me, and spent the rest of the movie shifting around in my lap, but making me hold her so that she could still see. I preferred Shrek, where she danced around on the floor around the same time in the movie, then climbed onto DADDY.

After the show, we were staring aimlessly around, deciding whether to go home or eat at Kent Station, when we noticed the Farmer's Market that happens every Saturday during the summer. So we took our free-refilled large Icees and popcorn back to the car, loaded Z in the stroller, and headed toward the market. Then, while waiting at the light to cross the street, Z squawked for her sunglasses, which were in the car. Ughhhhh. So Daddy went back while Z and I stopped at a flower merchant on the corner. Z loves flowers, so I told her she could look with her eyes, but not with her hands. I found some discarded blossoms and petals on the ground and gathered them up for her to touch. She was so reverent, and clearly enjoyed the flowers so much, that the flower lady made her a bouquet for free (which was good, as I had no cash on me.)

We meandered down the streets, and Daddy found a grass-fed/free-range butcher booth, and got some $10/lb Rib-Eyes (which were apparently mighty tasty, for only a few dollars more than the cruddy ones we've been getting. I'm not a meat connoisseur, so I'm a lousy judge of good versus bad meat. It all has nasty chunks of gristle and fat that I hate.) We got some cherries ($4/lb,) and a bundle of asparagus ($2, which we had with the steaks on Sunday night. It was the first time I didn't hate asparagus. Normally it has a bitter dirt taste to me.) I got a $2 fancy cupcake (meh. It was okay,) and they kindly sliced it for me so I could share with the princess. 

For lunch, they got a kosher hot dog from a salsa dog stand (specialty: cream cheese bun w/dog and salsa) and I was heading back to get pizza from a booth we had passed. On our way, we noticed that the music we had been faintly hearing in the background was actually part of an International Festival happening at the little park that the farmer's market street ran past. So we snagged a table, and I went for Thai food instead. After eating, Z ran around and danced to the music on a grassy knoll, then refused to fall asleep on the drive home.

After an attempt at nap, we went outside while Daddy did yardwork. I had just recently found a little bug box thing at the Dollar Tree, so when I found a creepy bug on a leaf, we put it inside so maybe it would get less squished than her earlier attempts at befriending nature. Then we found a pillbug, and while dancing on the porch and defying gravity and sanity, she did her balance beam walk on the porch railing, she found 3 more of the little creepy bugs. They all went into the box.

Then she got distracted helping Daddy rake the lawn, and we set them free. In return, she demanded a green plum from our plum tree, which I had denied her earlier, as I hadn't wanted her trying to eat it. Daddy is such a sucker. In fact, I found the first creepy bug on the plum tree. I'm not a bug person, but I don't want to train her to hate or fear the things that scare me, so I encourage her to interact respectfully, but I'm not touching bugs for her. I don't know if I love her enough. Maybe if there was a black widow on her, I would brush it off. Probably. But I was unable to grab the front door handle to pull it open the other day because there was a big brown bug above it. I thought it was a huge-mongous spider at first, but when I called Unka See-see and made him come out and let us in, he brushed it off the handle and it was some creepy angular beetle. *Shudder*