Some Warmer Weather - FINALLY!

Last Thursday we ventured to the Tiny Tots Tearoom because we just needed to get out.  Being cooped up in the house for three and a half days was driving us both up the walls.  Me, figuratively, MiniM.E., literally.  While being in a room filled with toys that may or may not have been cleaned in the last year with children whose noses were leaking so much that you could track one down by the drips of boogers she left behind as she toddled around wasn't so appealing, MiniM.E. seemed oblivious to the germ infestation, and I had to tell myself that with a child who has "night night piles" on the floors of establishments such as Target that germs are just a part of our everyday lives.

We had a good time playing with all the balls and making phone calls from the princess castle.

MiniM.E. drove a school bus then decided she was done, but rather than walk out the open back, she tried to climb out the window.  Way to think outside the box.

Mostly, MiniM.E. liked to drink chocolate milk in the cafe area, but whatever, we were out of the house and she was happy.

Friday we went out to meet our playgroup friends at a frozen yogurt place, Plum Dandy, downtown.  It was a reward for MiniM.E. for going myself for taking MiniM.E. to the doctor.  I was worried about the 15 month appointment all week, and MiniM.E. did not disappoint.  The second we walked into the office she started screaming and aside from a 5 minute fussing hiatus, she didn't stop until she was fully clothed and we were walking out the door.  Needless to say, the doctor was far from impressed with MiniM.E.'s extensive vocabulary (the only words she uttered were "no" and "home now!") and was rather unimpressed by her fit and strongly suggested that she was spoiled.  But other than the embarrassment of a screaming toddler, she is healthy.  So I suppose that counts for something.

Frozen Yogurt went well.  MiniM.E. played with her friends and I got to vent about the doctor's visit with my friends.

Other than that, we've still had to keep ourselves cooped up inside because of the weather.  Which has brought out some interesting developments in MiniM.E.  Like the newfound desire to be pants-less:

And the need for all her stuffed animals to wear diapers:

I also realized why it is AWESOME that MiniM.E. has her own shower.  A whole extra room to play in!

Finally, today, the weather is letting up and even though it's damp and cloudy, its in the 50s and we got to go outside!  MiniM.E. was SO excited to get back in her swing and go for a walk.  AND, today Gram came to visit for a couple days (which is awesome for me because MiniM.E. isn't napping and I'm still writing a blog post in the middle of the afternoon) and MiniM.E. loves the extra attention.  And the Elmo balloon!

BBBRRRRRRRR!

Seriously?  It's really cold out.  Like so cold that I go out to start my car - in my garage - and I come back in thinking I might lose my fingers.  (Ok, slight exaggeration.  BUT it is cold.)

Needless to say, we have NOT been out to play.  In fact, I've bundled up the baby to take her out a few times this week (only after pre-heating the car for a ridiculous amount of time- like so ridiculous that I will probably have to buy gas twice this week) and I've felt like a crazy mom: sprinting into stores with my toddler half in and half out of my jacket while trying to pull down her ever-riding-up pant legs and keeping most of my fingers in my fingerless gloves so they won't turn blue and break off on the ride home.  It's SO cold that MiniM.E. has even asked for the heat to be turned on.  In all seriousness: "Heat ON!"

We tried to get out as much as we could this weekend in preparation for the cold week.  We stopped by our new favorite downtown Saratoga hang out, Druthers.  MiniM.E. really loves it there since they have an outdoor patio with fire and we love it because we can drink beer outside with our toddler.

not sure about that face... too cold?  did she just drink beer? ... ? 

We also went to our friends' house for dinner.  It was really nice to get out of the house for dinner.  And it went surprisingly well seeing as we haven't taken MiniM.E. anywhere where she had to go to sleep before it was time to go home in a long time... She almost fell asleep at 7:15... but graced us with her presence for another hour

"What? No, I wasn't trying to sneak a snack..."

"...because this sticky rice is SOO good"

"...but seriously, stop eating and pay attention to me..."

before dozing off.

Sunday the deep freeze was starting to set in so we ventured to the Children's Museum at Saratoga.  Note to self: A weekend day, particularly a freezing cold weekend day, in the middle of flu season, is probably NOT the best day to visit a Children's Museum.  I was more than a little disgusted... though such is childhood... putting dirty stuffed animals that thousands of kids have touched, sneezed on, snotted on, stepped on and sat on into your mouth.  Awesome.  That said, MiniM.E. had a great time.  We will definitely be going back.  On a warm, sunny, non-infectious disease prone day.

chilling in the boat on the pond at "Congress Park"

Playing with disease infested extremely dirty seasoned snail (or whatever that is)

Trying to hide in a cage in the "Vet's Office"

Making a giant bubble (fail).  At least there was soap somewhere in that place...

Ball maze disassembler extraordinaire

Much needed apres-museum coffee break

After which we had to brave the frigid temperatures so MiniM.E. could see the ducks.  Again.  Even though she saw them the day before.  They must have remembered us and our pretzels kind and gentle faces because they waddled right over.

Which brings us to our week thus far.

MiniM.E. is learning to feed herself, so I've been keeping busy with a lot of laundry.

She's also taken up coloring, so again, I've been busy magic erasering her play table.

"ooooo... pretty colors"

"I'm NOT going to color on the table when you stop looking. Promise."

can you picture the sound effect here?

She's been snacking a lot (rarely at the table, though I caught this photo), so I've been spending a lot of time cleaning up egg, bunnies, puffs, and tomato seed that become ground into the carpet.

See, snacking evidence: egg on the cheek.

And we've been playing inside.

Reading:

Sliding:

Bouncing and spinning:

And we even braved the cold to go out for coffee.  Where MiniM.E. rearranged the bagels

And was a little too hug-happy.

... I'm looking forward to spring.  Or at least above-freezing temperatures.  Hope you're all keeping warm!

So This is Winter...

...with a one-year old.  Not sure I'm loving the winter season as much as I usually do.  Not to say that I really know how much I love winter-- I haven't had a really had a wintery winter in a loooong time.  There was last winter here, in Saratoga, where we hardly had any snow (our sled and snowshoes sat lonely in the garage).  Then there was the winter in Dresden, which had freezing temps and snow for Christmas (about a month of it), but then everything melted and the rest of the winter was mild (it was just enough snow for a ski trip and some sledding).  Then before that we lived in Austin for two years (snow situation there-- pretty obvious).  SO.... long story short, I haven't had a real COLD or SNOWY winter in forever...  Maybe I don't even like winter anymore...

I was actually very excited about this winter.  Lots of snow, lots of snowshoeing, lots of sledding... maybe even some skiing or snowboarding...

BUT, I didn't realize a few key things about having a one-year-old in the winter time.

1.  You can't really bring your one-year-old out to play if it's below freezing.  Maybe you can get in a quick sprint from car to store, but that's about it.

2.  One-year-olds hate snowsuits.

3.  One-year-olds hate boots even more than snowsuits.

4.  It takes at least 15 minutes (usually more) to chase your one-year-old around the house to put on snowsuit, boots, hat, mittens, etc.

5.  One-year-olds will not walk in or on snow.

6.  One-year-olds will only last outdoors HALF the amount of time it took you to get them ready to go there.

7.  Even if you do manage to stay out longer than seven and a half minutes, chances are whatever activity you've chosen is not nearly as exciting as walking on pavement, touching the dirtiest snow in a 4 foot radius, or crying to go "home now".

8.  As soon as you've unbundled your one-year-old (which takes at least 5 minutes of chasing the one-year-old around the house while she waddles around with her snowsuit around her knees dripping dirty snow off the one boot she's swinging like a lasso) she will turn around, bang at the door and ask for "out, snow! PLEASE!"

That said, we have had some successful sledding trips, one great snowshoe adventure, and some fun playing in the yard...

BUT, next week is going to be below freezing... all week... not even an hour of above freezing temps.  I'm going to go crazy...

Looks like there will be a lot of playing inside.  We're getting to be playing inside pros.

And if we get too stir crazy, we can always visit the new baby...

Playing Inside

With the warmer temperatures the past few days, it's really mucky out.  The snow is too wet to play or sled in and the streets are slick.  It's damp and cold so it's not really nice for playing outside.  We signed up for lots of morning activities during the week to keep us busy on days like these, so we only have to find things to do at home in the afternoons.  MiniM.E. doesn't seem to mind playing inside- after all, she has all sorts of fun new toys from Christmas like a shopping cart and a bounce and spin zebra.

But, like any baby, she's more happy running around naked

watching TV (she's recently developed a long enough attention span to watch a cartoon.  She loves Curious George)

taking all her toys out of her closet

reorganizing the pantry

or drumming.

Whatever keeps her happy!

The coolest present she got for Christmas was a custom made, room matching, jungle animal themed activity board.

It has 10 doors to open, ten different latches, jungle animals under the doors plus a mirror, lights that work, a door latch, lacing strings, a pulley, castor wheels, and a flower track.

Thanks to my parents for making it (a bazillion man hours).  It turned out great and she loves it- even though she can't do most of the latches yet.