The First May Weekend

Last weekend the weather was gorgeous! My parents, aunt and uncle and cousin (who's expecting in August!) came to visit and we had a backyard BBQ.

just chilling with Grumpy

Sunday we spent most of the day downtown.  It was the first weekend the carousel was open and MiniM.E. was ecstatic (as she'd been waiting patiently for the horses to be "done sleeping" for the winter since mid-November).  We arrived just a bit early for riding the carousel, so we had to entertain ourselves in the park.

sizing up the ducks

calling the ducks

petting the dog statue

hugging the dog statue

kissing the dog statue

riding the dog statue

just chilling with Gram

When it was finally time to get on, MiniM.E. (though she didn't look it) was thrilled and we had to pull her off after each ride.  She went three times before we bribed her to leave with ice cream.

with Daddy

with Gram

alone!! (just kidding, Daddy's just hiding)

with a Daddy and H. and her daddy

Our playgroup families thought it was a great Sunday for riding the carousel and eating ice cream too!

Daddies and daughters

A Cold, Rainy Day

I used to like cold, rainy days.  I love to grab a good book, a cup of hot chocolate and some cookies and just curl up on the couch for hours.

I am not so much a fan of rainy days anymore.

MiniM.E. likes to read... but only for a few minutes.  She can't drink hot chocolate... yet, and as much as she likes cookies, I don't think I could bribe her to sit with me on the couch for hours with all the cookies in the world.

So, so much for my hours on the couch for a few many years.

MiniM.E. loves to be outside (as you may have noticed in previous posts).  She now knows that she needs shoes on to go outside so she will sit and try to put on her shoes by the door.  She'll stand up and bang at the door and cry if she gets really frustrated.  I suppose spending time outside is good for both of us, so usually I help her put on her shoes and out we go.

But not in the rain...

A plus to a rainy day is that if it's darker, MiniM.E. takes longer naps.  But once she wakes up and realizes we can't go out,

there's only so much I can do to distract her from walking over to the door and holding out her shoes...

Fortunately, we found the play area at the Wilton Mall.  Rainy day life-saver!

MiniM.E. loves it.  She goes off on her own and I can just sit on their benches.  She even plays with the other kids!

Extra bonus?  There is a teeny tiny carousel that MiniM.E. was so excited about the first time she saw it, she almost jumped right out of the stroller.  For a meer $.75 she can ride for a fun-filled 60 seconds.  (The first time she rode it I was afraid she would let go and fall off so I walked around in circles beside her and held her on.  Note: BAD IDEA.  Nothing like feeling like you've just been on 20 carnival rides when you have to entertain a baby.  Note #2: boy, I'm getting old...)

Did I say $.75? I should have said $3... because that's how much money it took until she finally would let go.

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor Day!  I'm not really sure I've ever really gotten into Labor Day, though I don't know many people who find Labor Day to be their favorite holiday.  For most people I think it's all about the day off from work... which I guess they deserve for having worked all year... since it is a holiday celebrating workers....

We had a pretty relaxing weekend, with a few cook-outs and some family visiting.

After seeing a flyer for a local dairy farm and checking it out online, we decided to stop by, sample some food, grab some milk and eggs and pet some cows.  Unfortunately, it turns out you aren't allowed to pet the cows for health and safety reasons, and they didn't have any samples, so it wasn't such a fun trip.  At least we got to look at the cows...

We made it downtown for an hour or so to check out the Final Stretch Music Festival.  MiniM.E. wasn't super excited about it, it was late, and a lot of the bands were on a break, but it was nice to get out and go downtown in the evening.

Though I have to say, moms don't really get the day off... so I wasn't as excited about it as Bob, who couldn't wait to sleep in (a whole extra hour!) and relax.

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and the day off and spend some time outdoors.  We packed MiniM.E. up and went back to the Zim Trail for another bike ride.  This time we chose to go early in the morning.  Which normally would have been a great idea since MiniM.E. is her best and most cutest early in the day (things just go downhill from there... I mean, she's always cute and adorable, but the Mommy-itis, clinginess, fussiness, etc. definitely get exponentially worse as the day goes on), but since she is recovering from some bug (she's had a fever the past few days), we didn't even get as far on our bike ride as we did last time. We were going to try, but after a few minutes of screaming and an attempt to climb out of the trailer, resulting in her lying sideways (how she got that way, we can't figure out...) we decided to take a break and turn around.

Fortunately we were by a playground when the meltdown occurred.  And playgrounds are MiniM.E.'s new favorite thing.  She knows what they are and points to them, which is pretty cute.

Until today, we've only really been to one other playground where we found out she loves the baby swings almost as much as her swing at home.

until she tried to climb out the front

 At this playground they had other things she liked too!  Like the bouncy seesaw:

And the dome jungle gym:

sitting with Daddy

practicing standing

standing all by herself!

By far, the best part of the playground was playing with the mulch:

She climbed into the dome all by herself!

 Later in the day we went downtown for a relaxing stroll:

And a couple rides on the carousel:

After such an exciting weekend, MiniM.E. was pretty worn out... and is taking a nap. 

Our First Weekend Visitors

Last weekend was a very exciting one for us as we had our first weekend visitors.  Not Gram... she doesn't count... or Uncle Bill, again... doesn't count.  This was not only my visitor, a friend from high school, C, but also her adorable baby boy, Stretchy's first visitor, H.

I admit, I was a bit worried about having TWO babies in my house for 5 days, as sometimes ONE is enough to make me want to pull my hair out.  Half the time we don't get out of the house until 11am, and our schedule is totally unpredictable.  I could only imagine what would happen with TWO unpredictable babies.  Would we ever get to leave the house?  What if one of them cried and woke the other up?  Would Stretchy behave like she does at playgroup and fuss the whole 5 days because someone else was playing with her toys and getting her mom's attention?

BUT, fortunately, I worried for nothing.  It was a FANTASTIC visit.  I think we all had a great time.

C & H arrived late Thursday night.  According to the law of GPS, they had a rough time getting here.  Between countless "recalculating"s and turns onto roads that didn't exist, it was a miracle they arrived at all.  It was right around the time Stretchy would usually eat dinner.  We hadn't even started dinner.  I could see the evening headed downhill, but to start things off on the right foot, since Stretchy had taken a longer than usual nap that afternoon she seemed fine waiting on dinner.  We had the babies in the bath by 8:30 and Stretchy was in bed by 9.  H didn't really want to sleep after napping all day in the car (can you blame him?), but that gave me and C time to hang out with him and gave him lots of time to explore some new toys.

Can I say that two babies in a double sink is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in my entire life?

Friday morning we got up (H even slept until 8!) and went to swimming lessons.  It was a little more of a hassle getting FOUR people out of the house.  Not to mention that we might have had a slight episode to take care of before we left (have I ever mentioned I have an escape artist cat that likes to get into the garage?)  H had never been in the pool so it was a lot of fun to see him in the water.  As usual, Stretchy loved every minute of it.  

After a nap, we headed downtown for lunch and a walk in the park.  We decided to feed the ducks.  A few weeks ago I'd been to the pond and fed the ducks and the cute little ducklings would waddle close enough to grab some bread and then run back to the mommy duck in the pond.  Well, this time the half-grown ducklings were so brave that the waddled onto our blanket and even managed to nip some poor little baby fingers and toes.  It would have been a video to send into America's Funniest Home Videos had we not been so involved in protecting our babies from being nipped to death, pooped all over, or carried away by some very hungry ducklings.  

We wore those babies out!

Saturday the weather took a turn for the worse, and again, I got worried.  When Stretchy and I have to stay inside all day we both get pretty cranky from a case of cabin fever.  BUT, again, the babies were angels and played nicely together all day and took long naps, which gave us a chance to rest up a bit too!  After another swimming session at the Y, C and I stayed up late chatting.  (Boy, you really feel old when you look at the clock and it's 11:30 and you both look at each other and can't believe you've stayed up SOOO late!)  

Sunday was a lazy day of getting up and hanging around the house.  We decided to go back downtown to re-do the duck feeding and capture the funniest video ever.  The ducklings didn't cooperate though, and this is what we got... 

At least we got to ride the carousel.

The weather turned in the afternoon and Monday morning wasn't much better so there was a lot of playing indoors, but both Stretchy and H seemed to enjoy each other's company and were very well-behaved.  

Not sure what we did for this captive audience

Yum! More please!

Tired of sharing the couch

Guess the feeling was mutual!

It was great having C & H and I think Stretchy misses having a live-in playmate.  Come again soon, guys!