Out & About

Me & the fam are pulling the ole' "stay-cation" this summer. Lots of reasons for it (finances, Craig's job up in the air, Craig doesn't want to fly with little ones, etc. etc.) but it's not so bad. We're just trying to get out & about whenever we can to do some fun stuff as a family. And we're getting a lot done around the house too. But I'm crossing my fingers for a warm weather vacation this winter - with or without kids.

On Sunday, we took the kids out to Maumee Bay for a family hike. It was a beautiful day and the boardwalk there is perfectly shaded with trees.
Sophie's marching to the beat of her own drum. Haha!

Right away, we spotted some turtles hanging out near the Nature Center.

Will wanted to run ahead of us nearly the whole time on the boardwalk. He's gearing up for another kids fun run this weekend!

At the end of the boardwalk path, it opens up into the playground area beside the resort.

And, so far, it seems that my kids are kinda' like their mama with not being the biggest fans of the beach. Neither of them wanted to walk on the sand at all - with or without shoes. I at least like walking the beach... but I am not a lay-out-on-the-beach kind of girl.

So instead, we headed over to the big, look-out hill to climb it again. This time, Will whined and pouted the whole way up.

Will much prefers running down the hill and managed a smile and some laughs for this.

Back at home...

Monday and Tuesday, I took the days off work to stay home with the kids while our babysitter is on vacation for the week. It's always nice to get to experience stay-at-home-mommyhood on occasion. But now, more than ever, I'm grateful for my job!

On Monday we headed over to Pearson Park to hit up another playground and have a picnic lunch. First, here's a flashback to September 2008 when Will was just about exactly Sophie's current age. He'd been walking for about a month (just like her) and was enjoying his new found freedom. We, too, were picnicking and playing on the playground this day:

And now Sophie - same age, same park - trotting along, happy as a clam. :)

Here's another comparative flashback - this time to July 2008 so Will's only 13 months here - sitting on the slide at this park.

And now Sophie on Monday:

She LOVED going down the slide! She went on her own and laughed and laughed... and then tried to climb right back up.

Following lunch, we drove over to the library to get some new books and return the old.

This morning (Tuesday), Amanda joined us for another trip to the zoo.

Rarr!!

Mock polar bear den.

The meerkats were out and really close to the glass! They're so cute.

I asked Will why he thought the meerkat was digging and he told me "because he's cleaning his house". Then I asked if he thought the meerkat would want to clean our house and he looked at me like I was crazy. :)

Water break with Aunt Amanda.

Nature's Neighborhood (the children's zoo area)

Weee! Another slide!

And a little stream to walk around in... or just stand still and look confused in. :)

There is a bee exhibit with a large honeycomb wall inside. Very cool photo op.

Gosh, that boy is just getting soooo big! So BIG, I tell you! How did he get so grown up looking? Well, the haircut had something to do with it. He always looks older after a haircut.

Fun outings are just so much easier than a big vacation at this age, but we are going on two years without one, and... I'm feeling the need - SOON! Till then... daytrippin' it is.

Date Night

Woot! Woot! Date night!

My brother's girlfriend (Amanda) generously volunteered a free night of babysitting so we could get a night out. Plus we had a gift card from Christmas to El Camino Real so off we went for some yummy Mexican food and a little shopping. Oh, and Amanda even took our picture because she's a photo fanatic just like me. :)
We've really been enjoying catching up on some movie watching with our On-Demand movie channels lately (I'll have to give you my critique of about six or so movies later) so we decided to just do a little kid-free shopping before dinner instead. Craig had to stop at Lowe's for some things he needs to re-do our electrical box in the basement. Here's my handsome Mr. Fix-it:

Are you laughing to yourself about the fact that I took a picture of this? Why? It's not that weird. ;) We were having fun and this was our night out! Afterward, I insisted on a Target run where I found some more cute clothes for Sophie next summer and a jacket for the fall. Target is so impossible to leave without finding a million things you must-have. But I didn't do too bad.

And then we got to the restaurant, got seated right away and I got a mango margharita. Holy WOW! Those babies are STRONG! I was feeling it after about two sips. The fajitas were delish and we really enjoyed our evening out.

Thanks a lot, Amanda!!!

Teeny Tiny Tot School

A couple new activities, a couple repeats in this post. Still the majority of what Sophie's "learning" right now is just how her world works, how to excel in physical milestones, and "what happens if I do this?" :) That last one is always interesting.

Playing with buttons. Obviously highly supervised (choking hazard), but she really enjoyed just sifting through them and touching them...
...as well as transferring them into a small, glass jar.

I've mentioned before that I want to do a lot more sensory stuff with Sophie right now. I saw this idea on another blog as an alternative to finger painting. Obviously, it's not the same texture, but it's cool nonetheless and if she eats it (yuck!), no harm done.

We did this outside to minimize the mess. :) She was a little confused, but definitely enjoyed exploring.

And then... just because we were outside... I decided to go crazy and throw a pine cone into the mix. Soft vs scratchy.

Pushing golf tees into a hunk of styrofoam. The original idea was to use a hammer to "pound" them in, but that seemed a little too advanced just yet. I may try to "start" a few for her and let her finish hammering them in the near future. But for now, she just liked poking them in and pulling them out. Daddy gathered several colors for her to make it interesting. Also in the near future, I may have Sophie poke them all in and then have Will balance a marble on the tops of each. Hmm... very good fine motor work!

She'd collect them in her glass jar as she pulled each one out individually. :) She still loves any game that involves dropping something into the glass jar.

And she is definitely still in love with her green-coins-in-the-plastic-container game. I pull this one out any time I need a distraction while cooking or cleaning up the kitchen and, no matter her mood, she will instantly calm down and focus on this. I love it!

And remember this "game"?

It's hardly a game since it's so open-ended, but Sophie loves the sensory-filled fuzzy pom poms in the old wipes container.

Other things we've been doing that I didn't photograph: reading (her favorites, hands-down, are Sandra Boynton books right now), chunky puzzle, blocks, practicing body parts and animal sounds, practicing following simple commands, practicing patience and restraint - ha! ya right!(whew! the impulsiveness in this one!), lots of running/chasing/climbing/hide-and-seek games, picture/word flash cards, etc.

The nice thing about Tot School work at this age is that it can be completely spur of the moment and quick-to-organize. There's really no effort in it. Everything we do is basic and made out of random things. Will's activities usually takes considerably more time, though he and I have been doing a lot more puzzles and reading lately to make up for a lack of planned activities. But it's also fun to see how enthusiastic and interested and focused she is over the simplest work. It's an interest that Will used to take at that age, but now is too simple to hold his attention long. He needs more complex or else it's clearly boring. So I treasure this time with Sophie now. :)

What We're Reading...

A bit of a lighter week... just 5 books in all and no real advance planning put into the library visit last week. Usually I have a tentative list going before we leave and request several that aren't available at our branch. But instead, we returned all of our tree books and just browsed till we found a few we liked.

1) Dora the Explorer: First Day of School. I decided we should find a book about starting school in preparation of OUR upcoming start in preschool this fall. I just searched the topic in the online catalog while at the library and decided Dora would probably hold his attention better than anybody. :) He did love this one and we read it daily.
2) I Love It When You Smile by Sam McBratney. A super cute book about a pouty little joey named Roo and a mama that is trying to cheer him up. The illustrations are adorable and I think the kangaroos facial expressions look almost human, so that Roo is oh-so-cute cute and realistic. I could really get into appropriate voices with this one. Hehe! ;)

3) See You Later, Mom! by Jennifer Northway. Umm... Could there be a more perfect book for us at this time? I saw this one on the display shelf and only opened it long enough to see that the main character (the little boy that's waving on the front cover) is named William. I though "oh, he'll think that's cool" so I put it in our bag to check out. Come to find out, this book is also about a little boy starting preschool and how he starts out apprehensive and scared and his mom stays with him for the first few days. But then, he warms up to another nervous little boy and realizes that preschool is a lot of fun! At the end of the book, he says "You can go home now, mom. See you later!" (Tear.) The mom seems very cool and handled the transition perfectly in my mind. It was hands down the favorite this week, read multiple times a day, though I really have no concern of our William being apprehensive on his first day of school. :)

4) Wow! Said the Owl by Tim Hopgood. As you can see on the cover, it's "a book about colors" so it's a little too simple for Will and he didn't request it nearly as much, but the illustrations are pretty and you know how I feel about owls... soooo... I was adding an extra book onto our bedtime reading just to squeeze this one in a little more.

5) Oh, Look! by Patricia Polacco. Just "okay". Sort of reminds me of a Dora episode with a journey and descriptions like "over", "under" and "through". But it did have goats in it, so of course my boy enjoyed it. And you really can't go wrong with Patricia Polacco.

Okay, I'm pretty behind with this post and we've actually already gone to the library and gotten new books for this week... so stay tuned for another book post soon. I know. You can't wait, right?

My Buddy & Me

(Or maybe Kid Sister?)

Daddy stayed home with the kids this day (last Friday) and they were heading off to the zoo. :)

Look Who's Peeing On The Potty!!!

Yes! That's right, ladies and gentleman! Our 15 month old Sophia has shown us that she is quite comfortable and nonchalantly natural at using the potty! It started Saturday night when she was standing in the bathroom (naked), waiting for her bath water to run. She's seen Will use the potty lots of times and so she looked like she wanted to sit down. I helped her get seated and she peed immediately!! I couldn't believe it and she was clearly so very pleased with herself and with my excited cheering. Then on Sunday, she went on to pee six more times throughout the day and even poop once on the potty. And twice so far today. It's always pretty much instantaneous once she sits down and you can tell in her face that she recognizes when she's gone because she is SO PROUD and smiley.

I fully realize there is a huge difference between being able to go on the potty and recognizing the urge before it happens to get to the potty. Plus, there's the whole issue of getting pants up and down and she of course couldn't get her diaper on and off. But getting familiar is the first step, right? And I've heard girls are easier anyway? So maybe we'll be down to just a box of pull ups here and there by next spring?? Woo hoo!

Or is that wishful thinking?...