Fall Recap

I am so far behind in blogging. I had planned to keep this little blog as a journal of sorts to help me capture memories of my sweet Little O who is growing so fast. But... life keeps getting in the way. Perhaps a New Year's resolution is in order?

Let's do a little fall recap so I can move on to winter and start fresh in the new year (without the guilt that I haven't even finished her baby book yet, and she'll be two in less than two months!).

September:

In September, Little O started back at Morning Out for Moms once a week for three hours. She's in the same classroom as last year. Miss Barb is still one of her teachers, and she has a new teacher, Miss Ashley. They've been doing so many wonderful projects with her so far this school year. And they've really helped Little O overcome some major separation anxiety. (Now if only that would transfer to the gym daycare too!)

First day of school

We also geared up for a great football season (GO GATORS!! Who's with me??)

This fall (not just September) we spent a LOT of time at a local farm. It has tons of kids activities, including a bouncy pillow thing, a toddler village, farm animals, a corn bin, and two corn mazes. Olivia loved it. We're still talking about the goats.

Ok. I have to tell this story because I want to remember it forever. There we were, checking out the goats (we learned the sign for goat because we went to the farm so often). There was this little Mama Goat and two little baby goats (this is how I believe Olivia would tell the story). Anyway, the baby goats wanted milk from their mama, but Mama Goat was not in the mood. She kept telling the baby goats, "Not right now." But the baby goats were really focused on getting milk. They kept trying and trying, and finally they got so frantic about it, they knocked Mama Goat down. Well, Little O started sobbing. I think she thought the goats were fighting and hurt Mama Goat. So I explained her to that the baby goats just wanted milk from Mama Goat, and they knocked her down by accident. She signed "goat," then "milk," and then she said, "Mama." I said, "That's right. They wanted milk from Mama Goat." And then we proceeded to talk about it all day. And the next day. And then every time she wanted milk from her mama. In fact, we still talk about "Goat, Milk, Mama" almost every day. And she also told her first joke regarding this incident. She signs "goat" then "milk" then she says "Dada" and laughs like it's the funniest thing she's ever heard.

September was a busy month! So many festivals and activities. We attended the ISU Autumnal Festival at the Horticulture Center this year. We've been meaning to go in the past, and I'm glad we finally made it. Olivia enjoyed wandering around the different gardens. I think we spent over an hour in the Children's Garden playing with gourds. I guess she takes after her Nana with her love of gourds!

October:

In October, we spent even more time at the farm (it's only open two month each year and closes after Halloween).

We got crafty in October. I think it was because it started to get too cold to play outside everyday. We made several different sensory bins. The first one was a beach bin. I think I was feeling nostalgic for home and summertime.

I bought sand and shells at the craft store. I brought her shovels inside (since it was too cold for baby pool), and I also included a plastic sea turtle from her bathtub toy collection.

She spent most of the time transferring sand from one bin to another at her little table (garage sale find!!). She did a great job keeping it at her table and very little wound up on the floor.

When we tired of the beach bin, I decided to try the water beads I bought a while back. They were a HUGE hit. I put a vinyl tablecloth on the floor to keep the carpet from getting soaked. FYI, these little suckers bounce!!

We did a little traveling in October as well. Pete had a conference in Boston for a week that ended on the weekend of my birthday. So Little O and I flew out to meet Daddy on Thursday morning. We ate tons of yummy food (i.e. lobster rolls and cannolis). Friday after the morning sessions, we joined another couple and their toddlers at the Sam Adam's Brewery.

We visited Faneuil Hall that afternoon and did a little window shopping. Mmmm. And ate Shrimp Po Boys. We had to move to a different hotel that night. Since the conference was over, the conference rate no longer applied. I was OK with that since we moved within walking distance of the North End (the Italian district where the cannolis are).

On Saturday we went to the aquarium. It was wonderful! And I learned how to use my Beco Gemini in a side carry (very comfy). Olivia loved looking at the fish. And I loved hearing her say "fish" over and over. No really, I did. This was before speech therapy, and she had very few words.

For some reason the only pictures we took at the aquarium were of this seal. (Unless there are more on my husband's phone. Always a possibility since I was wearing Little O).

On Sunday we went to the Museum of Science. It was my birthday and my choice. We walked from our hotel. It wasn't too far, but it was wet (more about that later).

Olivia enjoyed the hurricane-force wind tube with Daddy (foreshadowing). And took a great nap in the stroller. She also enjoyed the kids center (but I can't find my photos of that either!).

We went back to the Italian district for my birthday dinner, and that was supposed to be the end of our trip. We had to be at the airport the following day. That was the plan. Hurricane Sandy made other arrangements. We wound up stranded in Boston until the following Thursday.

Monday (Hurricane Day) we walked to a laundromat in the North End and washed our clothes. Hey, I'm from Florida. I know what to do before a hurricane hits. Nothing else was open. In fact, everything closed down by the time we were done with our laundry. Luckily, Pete had gone to a drug store that morning and picked up some essentials (bottle water, peanut butter, crackers, etc). Our hotel room didn't have a fridge or a microwave, so we needed to be able to eat nonperishable foods. Plus, we could have lost power. The restaurant downstairs at the hotel was open for dinner that night, so we took advantage of the fact that we didn't have to leave the building (good thing since nothing else was open) and hot food. Of course, the obligatory hurricane price gouging started. We paid $13 for a kid's hamburger. That's right. No kids meal prices that night.

On Tuesday, everything was back to normal. You couldn't even tell there had been a hurricane. Boston was pretty lucky. Just some rain and a little wind. Nothing like what they got farther south.

That morning we walked to the Boston Children's Museum. That place is awesome! And since we are members of our local CDM, we got in for free! Score! (We had to take what we could get since we had to foot the hotel and food bill for four extra days).

Olivia had a blast. The toddler area was amazing. We could have spent the whole day there. If you're going to Boston and you have kids. This is a must!

Wednesday was Halloween. Little O's costume was back home. But, I did have some pink glow-in-the-dark skeleton PJ's that she wore. We decided to get a little history before we headed home. We went to the Old State House where the Declaration of Independence was read on July 18, 1776. We listened to two guided tours (the history of the state house and the Boston Massacre). Both were really interesting. Pete wore Little O in a side hold, so she was comfy. She was pretty good most of the time.

After lunch, Little O fell asleep and we decided to take a free walking tour through the National Parks Service. We walked a lot of the Freedom Trail and saw Paul Revere's house. Little O slept through the whole thing. One good thing about cobblestone streets and a stroller is that it creates the perfect napping vibrations. That's about the only good thing about a stroller and cobblestone streets.

We flew home on Nov. 1 really early in the morning. We had to be at the airport at 4:30am. This meant we had to take a cab as public transportation doesn't start until 5am. But, we made it home safe and sound. And got to celebrate Halloween once we got there.

November:

We flew home from Boston and celebrated Halloween on Nov. 1. Some of our neighbors were kind enough to let Olivia trick or treat for the first time a day late. She dressed up as Wubanub (she has him in her mouth most of the time to complete the look).

After trick or treating, we carved a pumpkin. Better late than never, right?

We had some unseasonably warm days in November so we took advantage of the weather and hit up the neighborhood park as often as we could. Olivia discovered the "big kids" playground, so we spent most of our time there. And on the swings, of course.

We spent Thanksgiving at home with the grandmas. We cooked a turkey breast, stuffin' muffins, crescent rolls, green bean casserole, two types of cranberry sauces, sweet potato casserole with candied pecans, and apple pie (Ok, the apple pie was from Sam's).

Thanksgiving weekend, we visited the local tree farm. It's one we've been going to every year since we moved here. We picked out a lovely little tree. It's much smaller than last year's tree, but it is perfectly shaped. 

Olivia was obsessed with the tree-measuring stick. 

Collecting leaves.

Our tree.

Strong Daddy!

I like the view. :)

Little O wanted to collect sticks.

She got to sample her first (and second) candy canes. The first one fell in the dirt.

All decorated. So pretty!

Seeing the tree in the house for the first time.

We had a blast this fall. Other than summer (which is still my favorite), fall is probably the best time of year to be where we live. There is so much to do and the weather is just lovely. Winter is here now. Time to get some indoor activities going!

Flying to Boston

I've spent the day getting myself and Olivia packed up for our trip to Boston. Pete is there for work, and we're joining him for my birthday weekend.

I'm pretty nervous about flying solo with Olivia. I've packed her a busy bag just for this trip. In addition to her loveys, I packed her some really neat arts and crafts supplies that should be fairly mess free and able to do on the airplane tray.

I got her coloring books and new crayons. Some Color Wonder travel pads (farm animals and fairies) with Color Wonder markers. I packed two new board books. And I found a really neat dry erase board. It's black on one side and white on the other. I bought her some dry erase crayons to go with it. I had never even heard of these before. I love the kid craft section of Michaels!

In addition to art supplies and books, I bought Olivia her very first baby doll. She is obsessed with playing with dolls when we go to playdates, so I think she'll love having her own.

She hasn't seen any of the things in her busy bag yet, so hopefully they will keep her entertained with their newness.

I have also downloaded a few apps for my phone, but most of them seem to be just above her ability right now. We shall see.

Off to print our boarding pass, take out the trash, and head to bed. I'll post pictures of our trip when we get back!

Summer Recap

Well, we pretty much took the whole summer off from blogging. We were too busy enjoying the weather outside to blog!

This June we took our sweet Baby O camping about an hour north of our house. We went for two nights. She's such a trooper because it was HOT! (We also took the dog because I forgot to schedule him for boarding. Oops!)

I think Olivia's favorite part about camping was her toddler-sized camping chair. It matched ours: blue with a Gator logo, of course! She also really enjoyed making a camping sensory box. She collected rocks, sticks, and leaves to put inside.





When it got too hot, we let her cool off in our camping bucket.



Fourth of July was a lot of fun this year. We took a picnic and both Grandma and Yaya with us. Olivia had so much fun watching the other kids running around. And she absolutely loved the fireworks. She kept signing more and pointing to the sky. I was worried she would be afraid, but she wasn't at all.

Later in July we took our annual family vacation to North Carolina to visit with family in the mountains. YaYa went with us this year too. Usually Grandma goes as well, but she couldn't this year.

While we were there Olivia spent a ton of time with her cousins. She enjoyed swimming in the lake and the square dance. We also put her on Pete's back for some beautiful hiking.

When we were home, we spent a lot of time at the pool, local spray parks, and playgrounds. We discovered that Olivia really loves watermelon.

In August, we had family from California come visit us. Olivia got to meet her Great Aunt Jenny and her cousin Nadine. We showed them a true Midwestern summer tradition: the festival. We went to a balloon festival nearby. It was so windy that the balloons couldn't take off, but they were able to do a balloon glow. I'm glad we stuck around to see it. We were up close and personal with the balloons, and it was just amazing to see.

While they were here, we also visited our local children's museum to play. And we went hiking in the same state park where we went camping earlier in the summer. Finally we went to our little zoo and went swimming and had a cookout.

It was a really nice visit.

We had so much fun this summer, I was sad to see it go. But we are really enjoying fall as well. I'll get to that next time. Sounds like today's nap is over!

Chicago with Friends

Yesterday we went up to Chicago for the day to visit with my college roommate, her husband, and their adorable baby girl, V. We left as soon as Baby O got up and had breakfast. She did pretty well in the car. This is the first long drive she's done in a while. It was certainly different than it used to be. She stayed awake almost the WHOLE way. Good thing I packed her plenty of books! (I also packed some smaller toys, but she had no interest in them--she was all about the books!).

We went to Lincoln Park Zoo first. She really enjoyed the gorillas and chimps. The white-cheeked gibbons were a hit too. The baby gibbon (born in January) kept running up to his mama to nurse. Olivia watched for a while, then turned to me and signed milk. Could be that she was asking me for some, but I got the feeling she knew what was going on in there!

After a little bit at the zoo, we had lunch and headed over to Shedd Aquarium. She really enjoyed looking at the fish in the Amazon exhibit. She kept signing fish to me (she learned that sign about a week or two ago--perfect timing!). She didn't really like the giant fish. She looked at them, but kept a really tight grip on me. I could tell they made her a little nervous.

The penguin exhibit was by far her favorite. It might have been Baby V's favorite as well. Olivia really enjoyed watching them racing around in the water. She had a hard time telling me what they were. She would point to the ones on the rocks and sign bird, but when they were swimming, she would sign fish. I told her they were swimming birds and kept signing birds to her. She looked at me like I was stupid. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures of her in this area!!

Side note: We might have to get some books on penguins. She also stole borrowed our friend Baby G's penguin pool toy last week and has been playing with it constantly when we are outside.

Another favorite exhibit was the play area with touch tanks. We didn't touch any real animals (I thought she would be too rough), but we played with the plastic animals in the smaller touch tanks. She enjoyed splashing in the water, and kept trying to climb up the side. Good thing she hasn't figured this climbing thing out yet!

After the aquarium, we headed back to my roommate's hotel and had some deep dish pizza. YUM!  I had one and a half pieces. So did Olivia! That girl has a serious taste for pizza, and a Buddha belly to show for it.

The drive home was pretty terrible. There were intense storms (including blindingly bright lighting) all the way home. Olivia slept through the whole thing. She was so wiped out, she is still sleeping as I write this at 8:30 in the morning!

It was great to visit with some old friends and see Baby V again. She has gotten so big since the last time we saw her when we went to Florida in December. Both girls were real troopers. They dealt with the heat, the lines, and the elevators (SO MANY FREAKING ELEVATORS) with no problems. Can't wait to do it again!

Playful Learners at the CDM

Last week, Pete and I took baby O to the Children's Discovery Museum for a call called Playful Learners. It's a discovery class for babies from 12-24 months old.

When we got there Olivia was a little shy. It took her quite a bit of time to warm up to the whole idea. One little boy ran up to her to give her a hug, and she wound up sobbing for quite a while.

Eventually she relaxed and was able to enjoy herself. It helped that she knew two of the other kids in the class. Baby B from a mom's group and Baby G from Kindermusik.

When we got there, the teacher had set out a bin of toys to play with. Olivia selected a noisy shaker. When it was time to clean up, Olivia had no problem putting her toys away in the bin all by herself.

After playtime, we read a story and sang a song. Then it was time for crafts (Mommy's favorite part)!! There were four station set up for craft time. We went to the play dough table first. It was green and smelled like lime jello. Olivia enjoyed smashing the play dough and running it over with textured rolling pins.

After a few minutes at the play dough table, we moved on to the stamping table. Olivia enjoyed pressing the stamps onto the paper. She got pretty excited to see what appeared on the paper each time. She even tried pressing the stamp into the ink herself, but that didn't appear to be as interesting.

We went to the puppet-making table next. We used paper bags and pieces of cut-out construction paper with double-sided tape to make a frog puppet. Olivia chose where to put the eyes.

Finally, we made a bug catcher. Olivia used Bingo dotters to stamp polka dots on hers. She selected a foam bumble bee to decorate it. Unfortunately, when we got home Baxter ate it.

After crafts, the teacher had set up an area with different play stations. There were tunnels, a playhouse with play food, and a water bin. Olivia enjoyed the tunnels best. (I think it's time to get out the tunnel I bought her from IKEA).

After playtime, we played with bubbles, read one last story, sang one last song, and then class was over.

The CDM offers these baby classes once each month. I hope we are able to go again in July. It might conflict with our vacation plans. We'll definitely go to the one in August.

Garage Sale Finds

I found this farm/train water table on the side of the road. Free for me! The previous owners had closed up their garage sale and dragged it to the curb. It was filthy! But nothing a good spray with the hose couldn't fix. I need to work on the train wheels to get them turning more easily, but otherwise, it's great!

Olivia doesn't seem to mind that the wheels are less than perfect.

I also found this awesome slide with a basketball hoop attached at a garage sale. They had it marked $40 (WHAT???) and I talked them down to $12.50.

Olivia is learning how to climb up the ladder side instead of trying to climb the slide. She's getting there.

Some other great deals this weekend included:

• foam floor puzzle pieces (2 sets)
• Little People house (with all the pieces)
• Little People castle (with all the pieces)
• 3 Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles with small knobs
• glow in the dark pink skeleton PJs (size 18-24 months) perfect for Halloween!
• Size 5 tennis shoes (never been worn) and size 5 dress up shoes (hardly worn)
• More PJs for fall
• Huge tub of Megablocks (Build & Play Kitchenette)

And other than the yard toys, everything else is getting saved for Christmas. Christmas shopping at garage sales saves SO MUCH MONEY!!!