Museum of Transportation (Stay-Cation Part 1)

During the first week in June, we had a family stay-cation. We took the week off of work and just stayed home. We didn't pack up the bags or the car. Instead we just relaxed, spent time together, and played the part of tourists in our own town. Our first stop was the Museum of Trasportation, a place that I thought was going to be fairly boring. I was wrong. They had probably close to 40 full size train cars that you could walk around and climb into. They also had a nice air-conditioned (it was hot that day) museum with old cars and a Route 66 history. Andrew has just been into cars and just recently gotten into trains so he absolutely loved it.

Locomotive.

Caboose!

If it was blue, this one would totally be "The Little Engine That Could". It's the oldest engined they have - a wood burning locomotive from 1858.

This may have been Andrew's favorite part. I think he and Susie rode this train about five times.

With the engineer in between rides waiting for the next riders to be shuttled to the train.

Sprinkler Saturday

It was hotter than blue blazes this weekend - mid 90s and humid for most of the weekend. The heat didn't stop Andrew though. He was ready to get outside on Saturday moring. So at 9:30 we threw on swimming suits and got the sprinkler out to help us beat the heat. Yes, it was hot enought for the sprinkler that early.

Grandma Barb even took a few turns getting wet.

And she was wearing her clothes!

Dumpster Diving

Near the end of the walk a couple weeks ago, we spotted something in the alley sitting up next to the dumpster. It was a Little Tykes workbench that was in great condition except for a little dust, dirt, and cobwebs. It even had the plastic screws and nails. I think it must have come out of someone's garage or basement. Andrew immediately started reaching out of the stroller to get to it. After playing with it for a few minutes, we asked him if he wanted us to take it home. He giggled with excitement. So I picked it up and carried it on my shoulders for about 2 blocks to our house. A quick hose down once we got back in the yard, and it was ready to go.

BEFORE....

& AFTER

Puzzle Pride

The title of this post is mostly about my pride - and surprise at how much and how quickly Andrew is learning. Of Andrew's collection of puzzles, he has two where every piece in the puzzle is exactly the same shape. It's a cool idea because it gives a really young one the chance to have fun with a puzzle and practice the dexterity it takes to fit pieces when maybe they aren't quite ready to discern between different designs and colors. When he first got these, Andrew focused on putting all of the fish tails and car fronts together. He was too young to pay attention to the different colors and designs. He produced some pretty cool designs using this method actually. But tonight, I noticed for the first time how he has started to pay attention to the designs and colors as well as the shapes of the pieces. And it made me just so proud and happy to watch him work it all out! I took this short video of Andrew figuring out the shapes and the colors for each piece. Check it out as he "goes fishin".

Fingers Were Made For Pointing

These fingers were made for pointin'...

And that's just what they'll do...

One of these days, these fingers might just point right at you!

Ready, fingers...

Start pointin'!

Birthday Fun

The three of us went out last night to celebrate Andrew's birthday. We started at Monkey Joe's, which is a giant indoor playground. Kids get to bounce, climb, crawl, slide and run around on all of these giant inflatable bounce houses, obstacle courses, and slides. Andrew tends to be a little cautious in new situations, and that held true when we first got to Monkey Joe's. However, it wasn't long until he got comfortable and started running all round. Unfortunately, adults aren't allowed to "bounce" or "play". Otherwise, Susie and I would have been all over those things.

Andrew loved this train. In fact, he probably spent four dollars riding it. By the end of the night, he was very good at dropping the quarters in the slot.

Being on his own with the inflatables turned out to be a very positive experience for Andrew. It was so much fun to watch him build confidence and independence as the night went on.

Here we are getting ready to enjoy a birthday sundae at Happy Joe's Pizza Parlor. One of the employees came out to announce Andrew's birthday to the whole restaurant and lead everyone in singing "Happy Birthday".

Andrew looks just a tad concerned about getting closer to blow out that candle.

Andrew's favorite present was this Cars track. The tractor tipping scene is his favorite part of that movie. He laughs every time.

He liked this so much that he stopped halfway through opening his presents and played with this for the rest of the night. Watch out for Frank!

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew turned 2 today. Here's a couple of pictures from that day. That night actually as he was born at 10:50 PM.

UPDATE - One Little Miracle

Way back in April, I posted about a friend of mine who had given birth to her baby girl at just 24 weeks. Little Abby Lou is still in the hospital (probably will be for another couple of months), but she is growing and making great improvements. A recent concern has been around her kidney function. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Abby's most recent test shows that the levels that need to come down are in fact coming down, which is a good sign. I've had a couple of people ask me about the website and if you would like to read more about Abby's story and progress you can visit her page at:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/abbylou

Bathtime Drama

Andrew enjoys his baths as long as they have nothing to do with actual washing. He likes playing with toys, playing with the faucet, and just hanging out getting wrinkly. When it comes to the washing, he gets really upset. He stands up, starts crying, and tries to climb up and out of the tub. The real trouble is that he's tall enough now that he can pretty much almost do it by himself. If he doesn't make it out on his own, he cinches his arms around my neck, puts his feet up on my chest, and pulls himself up and out using me as a ladder. Washing his hair is especially bad. He just does not like water touching his head. I thought this was just a bath time thing, I confirmed his "wet head dread" during swimming class a couple of weeks ago when the side of his head accidentally touched the water. Maybe he doesn't like getting his hair messed up? No, he's too happy in this picture to be worried about his hair.

These pics were just minutes after Andrew got upset with me washing him up. I think I'm pretending to be a dog to get him to laugh and smile so big in these. That's right...I have no shame.

What can I say? He likes bath toys. It looks like he's recreating the trash compactor scene from "Star Wars". This isn't even all the bath toys we own. There is a second tub in the closet. Anyway, I figure that he's got to get used being washed eventually. Right? We aren't quite there yet so I'm just going to keep trying, and we will eventually work through the drama.

Honk If Your Nosy

Lately Andrew has really been into his body parts.  Whether it's singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes  or reading one of his favorite books (I Love You Through and Through - great book!), he enjoys pointing to and trying to name all of his parts.  And our parts too.  Andrew points to his teeth.  Then he points to daddy's teeth.  Then his eyebrow.  And then mommy's eyebrow.  You know how it goes.  One of the more amusing things is when he reaches out to touch my nose.  Whenever he does, I give him a good loud "Honk!".  And then he reaches out to touch Susie's nose, and she gives him a nice "Beep, beep!"  Finally, Andrew gives his nose a little squeeze, and we get this real quiet "Uh".  Or something close to that.  (I'm not sure how he spells it.)  It's barely audible most of the time because he tries to make the noise through his actual nose rather than using his mouth.  It's always fun though because it ends with a big smile on his face.  And then we do it all over again.