Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day!

The week leading up to St. Patrick's Day we spent as much time as possible outside.  MiniM.E. is so excited to be able to go out that she tries to put on her shoes first thing in the morning.

MiniM.E. loves walking.  Everywhere.  

Peek-a-boo!

This swing is a little big.

MiniM.E. did this slide all by herself!

She doesn't really understand that it's not quite spring yet, and not every day is a nice day for playing outside... I don't particularly care to be pushing her in a swing when it's 20 and windy.

So on days when I don't want to play outside, I have to find MiniM.E. things to do that are equally as or more fun that outside.

We went to the Tiny Tots Tea Room again, which MiniM.E. loved.  There were a ton of kids there this time, and most were her age.

Driving around...

And we bought some Dollar Store painting utensils.

We spent St. Patrick's Day weekend putting in an attic pull down ladder (actually Bob and my dad put it in and my mom and I were on MiniM.E.-duty), which I'm SO excited about because we have SO MUCH baby stuff to store already and MiniM.E. is only one-and-a-half.  Needless to say there wasn't much St. Patty's partying.  It was cold anyway, so we probably wouldn't have gone to a parade, and with a one-year-old we probably wouldn't have gone out drinking...  AND now we have a useful attic!  Yay!

Hole in MiniM.E.'s ceiling

 It was a cold weekend, so we had to keep MiniM.E. busy inside.

Playing with Mardi Gras St. Patrick's Day beads

Cleaning up a mess

Trying on some new accessories.  What do you think?

 Overall, a good week and a fairly un-festive but super-productive weekend.

The Boston Children's Museum

Thursday we went with H., C., C's mom, and Gram to the Boston Children's Museum.  It was a tri-generational adventure!  We had a blast and the kids loved it even though they were a little young for most of the exhibits.

We left for nap time, the kids slept on the way and we spent the afternoon there and loved it so much we stayed until it closed!

We started at, revisited and ended at MiniM.E.'s favorite room, the bubble room.

Trying to make a bubble around us.  Fail.

At first MiniM.E. was just fascinated.

Until...

She realized she could POP the bubbles.

Mouth popping!

Head popping

"Taking shower!"

 MiniM.E. is still talking about the bubbles.  "Making bubbles museum!" "Pop bubbles head!" "Pop bubbles mouth!" "Pop bubbles ear!" "Taking shower!" (because the bubbles popped and got her all wet) "Bubbles one more time!"

MiniM.E.'s second favorite thing at the museum was the turtle exhibit that you could lie down under!  Both the kids loved seeing the turtles swim over them.  MiniM.E. kept asking to see the turtles "one more time" the whole time we were at the museum.

There was a ball room where you could roll golf balls down all sorts of ramps.

The best place for our 1 1/2 year olds was the 0-3 room.  There were books, puzzles, games, and mini furniture.

A small play area (MiniM.E. loved the steering wheel).

A teeter totter,

fun with two

and fun with one, too.

 A tiny car that H. wanted to drive all day

H. driving with his girl

Trying to sneak a kiss!

Then we played in the big kid exhibits.  When we weren't trying to pull our kids away from trampling big kids, they had lots of fun.

Dancing on the dance floor

 MiniM.E. wanted to spend the rest of the day at Peep's Water World, but she was a little too short to actually play in the water...

We pulled ourselves up in a pulley chair...

And had fun in the Blue Man Group exhibit.

The visit to the museum went much better than we all expected.  The kids were really well behaved and had a blast (every time we get in the car MiniM.E. asks if we're going to the museum).  We thought we wore them out, but both kids must have been too excited to sleep because they were both up late!

Can't wait to bring Daddy and some of our other friends back to the museum soon!

16 Months Old!

... and two stomach bugs!  MiniM.E. really hasn't been a sick baby with the exception of a few colds and an ear infection.  Then last week she got a stomach bug and just as she got over it, she woke up this morning with another one.  Poor MiniM.E. has been throwing up all morning.  Fortunately, she was able to fall asleep for a nap.  I'm hoping she feels better when she wakes up because there's only so much throw up I feel like cleaning up in one day.  I'm already up to one couch, one blanket, one carpet, three loads of laundry, and the entire kitchen floor.

Despite being sick, she's been in pretty good spirits.

Her favorite indoor activity is playing on the stairs.  With the amber necklace she no longer allows us to put on her.  And yes, I do realize that that is potentially dangerous.  But she LOVES it and it's the only activity that keeps her entertained for more than five minutes.

And on the plus side, she's getting really good at going down on her own (she mastered up a long time ago).

We've also been taking a lot of walks and getting outside as much as possible.  Even with a stomach bug!

taking a break

and another...

who wants to ride when you can push?

happy as long as I have my bunnies!

mittens on!

 The best part of our walks (if they're downtown) is always feeding the ducks.

When it's too cold to go out but we want to get out of the house, we usually go play at the mall.  Unfortunately, last weekend the playground was closed.  At least there were balloons...

And RVs.

MiniM.E. has also been pretty good at playing at home.  Probably because we keep so busy that we aren't there much and she doesn't have a lot of time to be bored.

who can be bored when you're not wearing pants?

figuring it out

peek-a-boo!

LOVE this expression

 The best part of the day is always bath time.  MiniM.E. would spend days in the bath if I let her.

It's always nice to have a little extra time when your sick baby takes a long nap.  Hope she feels better when she wakes up!