The ride home

The ride home from work and school lately has been extremely enjoyable so I thought I would take the time to give a play-by-play of our experience starting when I pick her up. This is from Monday's trip home.

4:24 p.m....I sign Diana out in her classroom, pick up her art project from the day and her daily activity sheet. This paper tells us what she ate, whether or not she tried to go potty and if she took a nap or not. Sidebar: We have started rewarding Diana with M&Ms if she tries to go potty. She gets one if she tries and if she actually "makes pee-pee," as Matt calls it, she gets five. This is gonna be TMI, but if she goes No. 2, she gets 10. Two days in and she's all about the M&Ms...she tries, but doesn't "make" anything yet.

4:28...I go into the "backyard" at KinderCare where Diana is playing with the rest of her classmates. I look around for her and notice she's playing in the dirt and grass with some other little girls. I watch her for a couple minutes before she notices me. she runs over full steam ahead and embraces me with a hug. it's the best part of the day!

4:30...we head down the hallway, grab some crackers from the basket and talk about the day on the way to the car.

4:35...once we get out on the street in the car, Diana asks for her music, "Di-Ana music, Mommy." I push play on the Splash CD that she gets from her ABC Music and Me class and we are all set for the 20 minute ride home.

4:36-5:00...So many things happen on the ride home today...none that are really out of the ordinary from any other day, but this day was a little more animated than others. We usually sing and dance to certain songs on the CD, but today was a little more emphasized. Diana would request a song and if I didn't guess it right, "no, Mommy, no." So, I would skip through the CD trying to guess which one she wanted. when I finally got it right, she gasped and screamed "YES!" then we danced.
By the way, I am totally a safe driver. when i say I am dancing, it is the lowest form of dancing you can imagine. It's more Diana dancing than mommy.
On this particular day, Diana noticed something on the freeway and pursued to tell me, in her most excited voice. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me after several guesses. Then, I looked ahead on the freeway and saw it...A Target truck.
"Mommy, Target Truck!" Target is Diana's favorite store. She freakin' loves that place. She noticed during the Indy 500 the driver's who had Target as their sponsors.
Seeing the Target truck was the equivilant of a teenager getting first row tickets to that Hannah Montana concert.
the second I exit the freeway, diana notices another favorite. "Mommy, KFC!" I look in the rear-view mirror and she's raising up out of her car seat looking out the window trying to get a better view of the restaurant. She continues to yell "KFC" until we pass and then she says "Bye-bye KFC!"
It's seven more minutes until home and we are pretty much on cruise control after here. KFC is pretty much the peak.

The drive home is extremely fun. it's a great way to catch up (we do that too..I didn't mention that) on our days. when I ask Diana how her day was she usually says "It's fine." that's exactly the way I feel!