Shelby Bowling January 28th

Tonight Shelby wanted to go to Applebee’s to have a desert and then go bowling. Shelby told Annie that she wanted her hair done exactly how it was on our last date. Hallie was nice and let Shelby borrow one of her dresses. She looked very nice.  Shelby was ready to go right at 6:30, she wanted to wear her strawberry shaped glasses as you can see in the first picture. She had gotten the idea to go to Applebee’s the other day when they drove by there on the way home from dance.

I put her car seat in my car and we were on our way. As soon as we got in the car Shelby said, “So how was work today dad?”  I answered by saying it was good and then she said, “Dad, you know what?” I said what, and she said, “I love you”. Shelby is a pretty loving little girl. All of the girls are, but Shelby never hesitates to tell us that she loves us. She then went on to say that she has a big “S” at the beginning of her name and that I have a little “s” in the middle of my name. She was having a hard time with her S’s, because she kept writing them backwards. Annie has been working quite a bit with both girls and Shelby is getting her S’s down and Hallie can read quite a few short sentences.

As we began to drive down the road Shelby would give me step by step driving directions, but they would go something like this, “Ok dad go down this street until you see a house with two windows then turn, but when you see a red light or a red sign you need to stop, ok”. She really did not have a clue where we were going until we were right next to Applebee’s and she saw the sign, and then she said, “ya, there it is”. Like she knew all along. When we got there I was writing down some of the things that she was saying and she said, “Dad! What are you doing? Are we just going to sit here forever?” I wrote that down and we headed into the restaurant. Seeing that we were in Rexburg on a Friday night with a bunch of Mormons and very few restaurants, Applebee’s was packed. No one wanted to wait outside, because it was so cold, so everyone was packed in the entry way. The wait was about an hour, so we decided to go bowling first and come back later. Shelby could not believe that they did not save us a table, like we were V.I.P’s or something. She then said, “They better have a spot for us when we get back, because I won’t stop my date with you ever!” I took that to mean that she was not going to settle for anything other than what she had planned on for the night.

On our way to the bowling alley, she asked me if I remembered the time when we dropped her off with a lady that had bangs and a baby and the lady gave her a bath and put her striped pajamas on her. I could not remember that for the life of me. I don’t remember dropping her off with anyone like that, because Annie and I have only left them with one or two families other than Brooke only a few times. Whenever Shelby talks about the past, she says, “remember “laxt” time when…” Instead of last time or something else, she says laxt time.

We arrived at the bowling alley and it had a lane open for us. (Thank goodness) Me being the clueless dad, I had no idea what size shoes she wore so I had to take off her boot and find out what it was. She wears an 8 for now, just for the record. Shelby used the ramp and I bowled without it. To use the ramp you place the ball at the top and gravity does the rest, you just line it up the best you can and the kids set the ball on top and it rolls down. The reason I mention this is because there is no speeding up to the line like you normally do. After Shelby had seen me go a couple of times she began picking the 6 pound ball up and running up to the ramp like I would run up to the line. It wasn’t a very high scoring game, but we both hit triple digits. I only beat Shelby by two points! She had more strikes than I did! The game went by quick, but Shelby wanted to get her treat so she was ready to go.

By this time Shelby had decided that she didn’t want to go to Applebee’s. She just wanted to go to the gas station to get a treat. There is a gas station down the street from our house that we always go to on the weekends to get a treat. The girls love it for some reason. I was surprised that she didn’t want to go to Applebee’s, but hey it was her night.

It wouldn’t be a Friday night if we didn’t hit Wal-Mart. We had to go to Wal-Mart to get some diapers again! They never end! It was right across the street from the Fat Cats bowling alley, so Shelby reluctantly agreed to go there first. I told her that she could just pick out her treat there, but she insisted on the gas station. Even when we were inside and all of the candy was right there she refused and wanted to make sure that we stopped by the gas station. We got the diapers and got out of there.

Now we were finally on our way to the gas station, as we drove Shelby would joke around with me and call me fluffy. For some reason she calls me that and thinks that it is hilarious. I tried to call her buns, or fluff and she gets mad if I call her anything but pumpkin. If I call the other girls pumpkin she has to remind me that she is the original pumpkin and to not wear it out or overuse it with the other girls. She then started playing around with her name, saying Shelby Ann, and then she got stuck on Shelby “Egg”. I don’t know how she came up with that but she thought that it was hilarious as well. I have to say hilarious when it comes to Shelby because she just can’t help but crack up, it is not just a laugh it is more like an uncontrollable extreme laugh.  Every time I think of it, I can’t help but smile. As we drove she mentioned how she loved her grandmas and grandpas and how she always has a good time with them. I thought that was cute. We took the back way to the gas station and Shelby was concerned that we were going the wrong way, she asked me about five or six times where we were going, because she didn’t want to miss out on her treat. We made it there and she took about ten minutes to decide. Her and Hallie always try to talk us into getting them the jumbo sized bags of candy that hang on the hooks and we always have to force them into getting the normal sized packages. They always get disappointed. We made it home and Shelby shared some of her sweet tarts with Hallie and Mya and they shared their treats that they had gotten with mom with her, until it ended with all of them crying and mad. So they all went to bed crying about the others not sharing with them. No matter what, they find something to fight or cry about before going to bed. It is always dramatic and I know that with these four girls of mine, it is only the beginning. Other than the end of the night we had a great time, and I can already see the difference in our relationship just from the short amount of time I get to spend with the girls’ one on one.