Playing Hookie

One year ago from last Thursday, at 10:54 pm, our little Charly Grace was born. To celebrate, Kelli and I decided to play hookie!

Well, not exactly. We each took personal days away from school so we could spend the day with Charly. She opened presents in the morning, ate a big breakfast, and then we took her to Coralville to shop and visit the Iowa Children's Museum.

We weren't exactly sure what Charly would get out of a "museum". We weren't really sure what Kelli and I would get out of the museum! After getting a brief tour, just to see if it would be worth our time, we decided to pay and see how she would react.

She loved it!

Her favorite exhibit was the grocery store. There are mini shopping carts and lifelike coolers of toy fruit, vegetables, and meat. Along with aisles of boxed goods, cans, and cash registers. Charly may not be able to add, but she sure knows how to shop and she sure knows what she wants! In a matter of minutes, she'd located the box of Ritz crackers (her favorite) off a shelf. She was proud as could be, waddling between the aisles, fruit and veggies in hand. We spent nearly 45 minutes just watching her navigate the store! And she still didn't want to leave!

We took her to an airplane exhibit next, which she enjoyed, and then to Imaginacres, a makeshift farm. She liked roaming and watching the other kids play but she occasionally picked up a rake or a hoe and tried to plant a few crops!

Before we left she sat in an ambulance and she had to visit the grocery store one last time. If we wouldn't have made her a bottle and dangled it in front of her face, she would still be filling her shopping cart today! She drank her bottle but just couldn't fall asleep with so much going on.

On our way out, Kelli took her on the carousel. Kelli thought it moved incredibly fast for a children's ride. And after the busy afternoon, Charly was sound asleep before we returned to the parking lot, nearly the instant her coat was buttoned back up inside.

We stopped at Scratch back in Cedar Falls and bought her a cupcake and enjoyed the rest of the night with her. It's amazing that a year ago, we were in a hospital room, staring at her helplessly swaddled and sleeping. And today, she's walking and talking and shopping for groceries.