"Tell me a story"

It all started with comparing my baby pics to A's.  Believe it or not, I had quite the chubby cheeks and multiple chins.  Well, E saw a picture of me at about 1.5 years-old covered in spaghetti.  She wanted to know what had happened.  So, I made up a tale about how I made a mess of my dinner and G'ma and G'pa had to clean me all up.  She loved the story...and thus began this phase of storytelling.    I repeated the spaghetti story numerous times.  Then, I decided that I needed to remember some other stories to entertain her.  I have been racking my brain to come up with stories that I remember and that she can relate to.  I'm finding that I don't have a great memory, but the more I think, the more I remember.  It is actually pretty fun reminiscing down memory lane with her.  She loves stories about me having the chicken poxes, my dogs, my bunnies and Aunt Stacey. 

My favorite part of the reminiscing is when she crawls up into my lap, or into bed with me, and says, "Let's cuddle.  Will you tell me a story about you when you were little?"  Its so adorable!  Just makes my heart melt!

She also likes stories about when she was a baby or when G'pa was a baby...but I don't really know many about G'pa.   I keep telling her to ask him, but she doesn't remember at G'ma and G'pa's house. 

Then and Now...

E loves going through the baby things and finding things that she use to wear.  This week she found her first snowsuit and hat.  The first pics of her at about 6.5 months.  Now, she's 2.5 years old.  I was surprised that it fit her as well as it did.  Crazy girl!  She keeps me entertained.

Sledding

We took E sledding last week.  We left A with Mom for a couple hours in the afternoon and headed to 'the hill' in Ithaca.  E was very excited.  She loved going down...however, I think that the walk back up the hill was a bit too much for her.  After a couple trips back up, she proclaimed, "Momma, let's do something else!"  That something else included making lots of snow angels and throwing snowballs at her dad.  She also ate her first piece of 'snow pizza' (a.k.a. triangle of clean snow) after a lecture on only eating clean pieces of snow pizzas...no footprints or funny colors.

She went down the hill by herself in her little sled several times and once with Jut on the big sled.  I also went down with her once on the big sled and 'raced' her once...she went down on her little sled and I followed in the big sled.  It ended up being a good thing that I was following because she took an unlikely curve left and headed straight for the wooden wall on the hill and I had to do a quick squeeze between her and the wall on my sled...it was a nice save, if I do say so myself.  Then we finished going down the hill together until I wiped out...That was enough sledding for her.

We had a fun time.  Unfortunately, we only have pics of the first couple of runs.  But enjoy.

Rambo Princess

E stopped all productivity at the bank today when she walked in the room. She was quite the sensation. All work at the counter ended...People walking through the bank paused...Cubical worked ceased. The princess had entered the building. Her Valentine crown was on backwards...and she had on a beautiful bracelet that matched the crown...and she was dressed in pink. She was quite the sight. Everyone to homage to the princess. She loved every second.

3 months old

A turned 3 months old last week.  He's becoming such a fun baby.  He is quite the talker/noise-maker/screecher.  He loves to suck on his hand and watch E.  E really intrigues him.  He also can roll over from his front to his back...so long periods of tummy time is a thing of the past.

Time for swimming...

E has been wanting to go to a hotel and go swimming since Christmas.  I'm not sure what got her on this kick, but she desperately wanted to go swimming.  I made the mistake of telling her that we'd be going to a hotel in March to Statewide with the youth group and she could go swimming then.  For about a week afterward, she kept asking if we were going to sleep in the hotel each night and swim in the hotel.  Jut and I tried to explain to her that she had to wait until March.  She however, didn't understand that March was the month after February...she kept thinking of "march" as a verb.  She'd ask, "Are we marching to the hotel today?"  It was pretty funny and very difficult to explain the concept of months to her.

E had a great week last week.  She was so good and helpful that I wanted to do something special for her.  I checked the local college's website to see if their pool was reopened.  It was.  So, I decided to surprise her and take her swimming on Saturday afternoon. 

She was so excited to go.  She couldn't wait to go swimming.  She thought that we were going to a hotel but was happy we only had to drive 5 minutes to get to the pool.  We got in, got changed and headed in to the pool.  It was a bit busy with some 8-10 year old girls that were playing but overall it wasn't too bad. 

E was pretty cautious.  She thought that the water was pretty cold.  But, she did enjoy getting in, getting out, running around the outside of the pool and then repeating the sequence.  She found some diving rings to play with and thought that that was great too.  She'd line them up on the kick board outside of the pool.  Jut decided that she was done being inside of the pool and got out  to go change.  All the little girls got out about the same time.  All of a sudden, E decided that she LOVED going up and down the steps to the pool.  (The girls had been playing in that area and splashing quite a bit.)  So, I'd hold on to her hand.  She'd go to the bottom step and them come back up.  She had so much fun playing on the steps.  She got so she'd sit on the steps and kick her feet a bit.  She was the last one left in the pool at the end of the swim time.  She closed down the pool...the little girl that wouldn't stay in the pool when we first got there.  The lifeguards were impressed with her bravery.  They told her that they had 6-year-olds that wouldn't go down to the bottom step.

So, it was a successful outing.  I think we will have to repeat it soon, when I can go swimming and Jut and watch A on the sidelines.

A Day at the Museum

Today we had the fun of visiting Impression 5 for the first time.  We met a good friend of mine there and let E explore.  The First Impressions room was a huge hit.  It is designed for children 0-4.  There was a huge water table to play in, a kitchen, a slide/climbing/tunnel apparatus, a tower to climb and a book corner.  There was an area sectioned off for infants, too.  It was great.  (and I'm sure that I'm forgetting things, too.)

E loved the water table.  When we arrived, there was only one other little girl in the room and she wasn't at the water table.  So, E was left to decide how she was going to play in it.  She pulled out all the plastic fish and sea life toys and lined them all up on the floor.  It didn't surprise me because that is what she always does with all of her toys at home.  However, the girl working in the room made the remark that she'd never seen the water table played with like that before.  My crazy little girl and her OCD tendencies.

But, she also enjoyed using the nets to catch the fish.  She hasn't lost her love for dumping water out of watering cans.  It was fun to watch her play.

E then moved on to play with the other things in the room but I don't think that she thought that any were as fun as the water table.  However, A got a bit over-stimulated in the room as more children arrived and so we left to explore the rest of the museum.

E loved the music section.  She had a great time playing the xylophone and tapping on the piano, but her favorite other exhibit was the bubbles.  Another little girl and E played together with one of the exhibits.  The bubble made a wall-type sheet and the girls would blow into it at each other.  It was funny to watch.  She enjoyed the bubble encircling her also.  It was a good time.

A couple of the exhibits scared E.  She didn't like the sound of the heart beat in the body section.  Nor did she enjoy the giant eye.  When I asked her if she wanted to go back, she replied, "Maybe we just stay home."  So, I guess we'll have to let some time pass before we go back.

But, it was a fun day.  Plus, we went to Clare's and got to eat lunch in a train car.  What a fun day!