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!

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I might be a Christmas-aholic.  Every year on the day I put away the Christmas decorations and turn off the Christmas music, I start counting down until Christmas again.  This year is especially exciting because the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is so long!

I was so excited this morning that I jumped out of bed, turned on the Christmas music, and put up all our decorations after I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30, made some coffee, and finally felt human again, I was actually pretty excited to go Black Friday shopping even though that nasty cold snuck back up on me and I'm not feeling tip-top.  Fortunately, the Christmas season is pushing any phlemy-sniffly-icky feelings out and replacing them with sniffly-warm-happy-winter feelings (sort of).

This year, my Christmas shopping is almost done (online... which I never imagined would be as fun as going to actual stores... until I had a one-year-old an the thought of Christmas shopping with her in tow made me shudder), so I will fill my Christmas season baking, card-sending, and wrapping.  Amongst other things like visiting NYC, picking out a tree, and attending holiday festivities.

My type-A personality loves making lists around the holiday season, and as a heads up to my loyal readers, blog posting will probably make the list, though might be considerably lower than, say, watching Elf or eating cookie dough.  SO.... hang in there, posts might be few and far between, but you're probably busy with your own lists anyway...

We've already been busy the past week or so...

We went to NH because after all the busy-ness before the holidays, I needed a little break.

Then, this week, Bob has been home hanging with us and having Mommy-fantasy-camp.  (Which is actually nothing like my normal days, especially since MiniM.E. has been napping like a champ- she might be a little under the weather too- and we've just been doing fun things and skipping the not so fun things like laundry and grocery shopping.)

There's the occasional melt-down that comes from changing up our schedule

Really, we've been having fun and keeping busy...

petting the kitties

watching the squirrels

looking out the window

playing with toys

going for wagon rides

climbing at the park

sliding at the park

just being cute (actually, refusing a jacket)

stroller walks at the Spa Park

carrying monkeys around

and playing precariously on benches

And yesterday we went to our friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice that even if we weren't celebrating with our actual family, we had our "second family" to spend the holiday with.

bringing our mess of toys to another house

examining the wine cork after smelling it

watching football

...after dinner, MiniM.E. was pretty much done...

and almost fell asleep on the floor

This weekend we're kicking off Christmas with our 2nd annual trip to NYC.  And I thought going to New York with a two-month old was challenging... this is a whole new ball game!

I'm just hoping she doesn't cry so much this year that Santa refuses to hold her...

So Busy!

I feel like the start of the holiday season for me is now MiniM.E. (and Bob's) birthday(s).  Which is awesome.  I LOVE the holidays.  BUT, I have to say, it's certainly a busy time of the year.

Which brings me to the topic of this post.  I think having a baby makes being busy even busier.  Because instead of having a giant list of things to do and having all day to do it, I have a giant list of things to do with only nap time to get everything done.  And with nap times having diminished to one nap of maybe an hour, that's not a whole lot of time.  I try to get things done in the evening too, but usually by the time MiniM.E. is asleep, I want to be sleeping...

So right now, MiniM.E. is napping, and instead of getting things done, I'm procrastinating by writing a blog post.  But I'll try to only procrastinate a little.  I'll just put lots of pictures and only a teeny bit of text...

Lately, its been cold in the mornings, which is usually the time we play outside so we've had to find other things to do.

watching the washing machine

taking long baths

playing inside

Fortunately, it isn't winter yet, and we can still play outside most days.

We also had a busy weekend.  We went to Poughkeepsie to visit our friends who just moved back from Germany.  We had a great time.  MiniM.E. seemed to enjoy herself too!

And yesterday, we took advantage of the nice weather and went to Sunnyside Gardens.

Someone's awake... until next time...