Monday, August 20, 2012

Big Days

We've had a series of big days at our house in the last week.

August 20 was E's first day back at day care after spending the summer with dada. She joined right in like she hadn't been gone at all. She walked into the classroom and said "where's my chair, where's my juice" and she was ready. We had been planning on sending her for a half day only, since last year's transition went so badly, but she didn't need it, she was ready!


August 19- We went to the Milwaukee Public Museum to celebrate the last weekend of summer. E loves the kachina dolls, and the Native American exhibit. She is scared of the "breathing" dinosaurs (the T-Rex). Her favorite part of the museum is the Streets of Old Milwaukee, since their is a candy store there, and she gets dinosaur gummies! 

On a less great note, E learned how to climb out of her crib tonight, as she put it "I just slid out"

She did very well with the butterfly landed on dada's shoulders, she is usually scared of this sort of thing, but she tried to touch it and then just looked at it.

August 18- E got her first pet! While momma was sleeping, dada and E bought a fish. She named him Sebastian, and has taken very good care of him thus far. Her favorite part of fish ownership is the feeding, Sebastian would get three meals a day if we let her control the feeding. As it is, the meals are pretty generous! Sebastian sleeps in E's room and his tank serves as a night light for her.

August 17- Was E and dada's last day of summer vacation. So they started the day with pancookies shaped like princesses. Then they headed to the Children's Museum where she painted and played in the kitchen. Then they went to the State Capitol and looked around, and then the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. After all that, they walked down and met momma and grandpa Ada for a picnic lunch. We at at "coffee break" and afterwords E came back to my office for a little visit. They spent a little time on State Street, and even found a little time for a trip to the comic book store!


August 16- E's bedtime has been such a problem lately, that we decided to make a big change and see what happened. We'd been putting E down to bed about 8:30 and she spent from that time until 10:30-11:00 calling for us, crying, and playing. Since that meant that momma and dada couldn't get any housework done, or any relaxing done, we decided to try the "big girl bed" we really talked it up, and then put E's mattress on the floor. The first night it went great, E only called for us once, and then went to bed and slept through the night. We thought maybe we'd solved the bedtime problems. But the next night, she was everywhere. Dada ended up reconstructing the crib at 10:30 at night. Oh well.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Chicago

We took our family vacation in Chicago this year, partly based on Chicago Comic Con. We headed down to the city and went straight to the Field Museum. E loves the Milwaukee Public Museum, but she told us the Field Museum was "to loud." We were surprised at her reaction, but many of the exhibit rooms were on the dark side and had high ceilings, so I'm guessing the place made her feel a little small.

The first part of the Museum E warmed up to was this reconstructed house in the Indonesian area of the museum.

Then, she loved the kid area. There were several big kids playing kitchen with the corn and E was so excited to get to play with them, she kept taking the corn out of the pot, running with it, and bringing it back to them.


The kid area also had a bunch of of dinosaur themed things, but aside from the station where you could dig a dino bone out of sand, she wasn't very interested.

The next day we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, it was quite a trip to get there, E got to ride on the L, or as we called it, the "Dinosaur Train." She didn't mind the train too much, although she found it loud at times.


She had a lot of fun in the children's zoo, they had some water to play in and a huge climber set (which she refused to go on).
Clowning around with momma during a popcorn break
 
Playing with her "Kercheck" bubbles. We got to see a training session with one of the gorillas, so she got some bubbles to commemorate the event. She named the blue ones Kercheck, and the purple one Kala after the gorillas in the Jungle Book and Tarzan

First time riding the bus

Too tired on the bus, it was a big day.

We wanted a picture of the Bean at the "bean" but she was still pretty tired!

Saturday morning, E went to Comic Con with dada, she got to see her favorites: the Hulk, Captain America's dada, and Natasha Romanov.

Then, E and I headed downtown to go to tea at American Girl Place. I have been looking forward to taking a daughter there since December of 2008. When I first saw that place, I called Andy and told him we needed a little girl!

So, off we went. The two of us rode the L, walked up Michigan Avenue, stopped to get dada some chocolates (E claimed the white chocolate piece), went to the Disney Store (a new Minnie Mouse and Cinderella came home with us) and got to tea.


Our first stop was back to the bean, E enjoyed it this time, although she didn't want to play in the water at the other part of the park.
E and her baby at tea

E loved having a high chair for her baby, she couldn't decide where the best place was for it! Then, we had to get chairs for the new Minnie and Cinderella.


 They provided tiny doll sized cups and plates, E insisted on having some water in the cup for the baby, and put a sandwich on the little plate.

Here are all our tea guests in their chair, unfortunately, just after this picture, E tried to move the baby's chair and fell out of her chair. She insisted on sitting on my lap, and fell asleep in minutes.


The final day of our vacation, dada went back to Comic Con for a little bit and E and I hung around the hotel room. E got to watch "live" TV a few times, instead of the Netflix she's used to. Since she saw Olivia she expected that to be on all the time. She also enjoyed the hotel breakfast, although the said that the cinnamon wasn't as good as the ones at Mickie's. She also loved the evening reception, she got a chance to drink bubbly, and eat what she called a "spicy" snack.

After Comic Con, we went to Momma's con, Stitches Midwest. E was a very good sport, and at first was excited to see the "knitting ladies." They weren't quite what she was hoping for, but she made it through most of the convention anyway.


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

August 4 and 5

Saturday August 4 was a mommy and E morning. We went to Lane's Bakery, which was a bakery I went to frequently with my parents when I was little. Our first house was only a few blocks from it. The bakery is closing in month, so I wanted to have a chance to get E there.  So, we went to the bakery, E chose a frosted clown cookie for breakfast, and we "shared" coffee. After breakfast, we took a walk around the block, and E spilled the coffee. She insisted on getting more, so we headed to Lakeside fibers for coffee. We each got our own cup (hers with a bit of coffee) after another spill, she decided that she didn't like coffee and had water.

We walked over to Bernie's Beach, and played in the sand and on the playground equipment. After a few garage sales, and the new "bubbie" dolls, we met up with dada and had a family day.

On August 5 we headed back to Circus World Museum. The entire way there, E talked about how excited she was for the circus and the clowns. When we got there and walked into the big top, Punchy the clown got a little too close to her and she decided he was scary. It took a lot of work to get her into the tent. She loved the circus, seeing the elephants, and the clown performances (her favorite was the one where the clowns got into the box).



 After Circus World, we went to A and W for lunch. E got her own glass of soda (a huge event) in a mini mug. I felt several times this weekend that E was reliving parts of my childhood, and the tiny A and W root beer was definitely part of it! She and I also shared an ice cream cone.


Favorite things

Two of E's favorite things this summer have been the summer Olympics and cherry tomatoes. She's been watching the Olympics as a party most evenings. She spends the time running, jumping, and sort of imitating what they are doing on screen.

When we watched the opening ceremonies, she got out her flags and handed them out mommy, dada, and herself and proceeded to twirl the flag and spin.

E's other favorite thing about the summer is cherry tomatoes. We got a carton of them from our CSA, and she pulled it out of the box, carried it to the living room, and starting munching away. Since we were grilling that night, we made a kabob of them, and she waved it around like a wand.



Monday, August 6, 2012

Bubbie Dolls

On August 4, 2012, E got her first "bubbie dolls" or Barbie dolls. She found two princesses (Belle and Aerial) at a garage sale, and wasn't leaving without them. I was with her and not smart enough to turn her around when I spotted them. So, now "bubbies" have entered the house. She knows that the word is really pronounced "Barbie" but can't say it yet, so the cutest part is when she asks where her "bubbies" are and I respond "I don't know where your bubbies are" and she says with an annoyed voice "no mommy, BUBBIES!"

So far, Belle has spent a lot of time dancing to the Me Party song from the muppet movie (as preformed by E).

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Do you know the muffin skip?

E, singing do you know the muffin skip, the muffin skip, the muffin skip. Do you know you know the muffin skip, the muffin skip, the muffin skip.

This is sung to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man" while running and skipping around the house.