Outside?

Eating with Forks!

I took these pictures before we all caught a nasty stomach bug this weekend. I think this was the last time we all enjoyed real food! We're on the mend now and looking forward to the buckets of soup that Grand-Bob and Grand-C brought us. They risked catching the super-bug themselves to look after Claire on Sunday while Dan and I spent the day in the bathroom. Bleh...what a weekend!

It's time to get Claire some real utensils. She did so well playing with Mommy's fork!

Come Play With Me!

Craigslist is my new favorite place on the Internet. We were able to snag this awesome playset from a family with older children. They even threw in a table and chair set perfect for a toddler. Merry Christmas, Claire!


Our playroom is complete! We turned a bookshelf sideways and filled it with some of her favorite toys (baskets, metal mixing bowls, books) to keep things organized. Her stuffed animals live in the monkey tent and the old stroller toys found a new home in her "treehouse." Aside from climbing and sliding, Claire really enjoys sitting at her big girl table and taking the dishes out of the its drawers.

There are a few more photos in the slideshow below!

Roller Rink Photos!

I'm rather late posting these photos from our trip to toddler time at the roller rink, but I'm sure I'll be forgiven once you all see how cute the photos are.

Obviously, Claire is too young for skating, but the rink is open for kids under 4 to bring their ride-on or push toys and use them in a nice wide open area. They have a great indoor play area with all kinds of things to climb on too. I was too busy spotting our little monkey (and playing myself) to take photos in there though!

For the first hour of rink time it was just three of us. The kids, whose ages I hopefully have correct (Ryan - 13 months, Isabella - 15 months and Claire - 13 months) enjoyed swapping toys. Ryan, who is learning to walk really loved Claire's car walker and pushed it around the entire time. Claire and Isabella teamed up and pushed each other around in Ryan's car. The grass is always greener on the other side and other kid's toys are always cooler than your own, right?

Claire LOVED pushing everyone around in the wagons and cars...it was too cute. She'd ride around for a minute and then try and squirm out so she could push again. My goal for this week is to find a setting on my camera that takes nicer looking photos in the strange dim/fluorescent light in this place! There are a few more photos in the slideshow below.

Here's a link to the album online for downloading photos to your computer. I should also point out that if you click on the slideshow while it's playing it will take you to a full screen view in Picasa (thanks McManda!). I usually post it small so it will fit in my entries section :-)

Pigtails!

We're back from Boston and thinking about Uncle Matt's comment on whether or not Claire had her first haircut got us to thinking we should try out a new 'do. Well...that and a lot of other folks (ahem Grandbob :o) ) pointing out that she seems to have enough hair for a ponytail.


Here's Goldilocks herself showing off her newest style! Unfortunately, Claire seems quite eager to eat the hair clips and a story involving a butterfly shaped object in a coworkers kid's tummy has sort of put me off styling her hair. Anyone know of some toddler safe hair clips?

More reviews on Boston later - we had a great time and need to snag the pictures from Aunt Nikki and Uncle Matt's camera! Claire gorged on tons of delicious turkey, chased Hiro the puppy around (and vice versa) and whined by the basement door dying to see Shackleton the elusive kitty.

Claire even met some of her anonymous blog readers - that's right I told you I'd call you out, Alice!

Our trip was great fun and Claire tolerated the long ride to Boston beautifully! Our return trip was really long due to holiday traffic, but she slept most of the way and we made a detour to Long Island for a play break...and to see sister's new apartment! Congrats Laurie and Matt!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're up in Boston celebrating the holiday with Aunt Nikki and Uncle Matt! Here are a few pictures to enjoy. How Claire has changed in a year - check out this post.

Happy Birthday Aunt Bea & Aunt Dot!

Here are some photos from this past weekend where we attended a birthday party in honor of (tell me if I have this right)...Dan's great aunts...so Claire's great-great Aunts Bea and Dot.

Our First Day of Storytime!

Eric Carle...you write the best stories. We love your colorful collage work. We especially love how our local librarian reads to all the children and uses puppets and songs!

What a great morning for the first day of story time at the library. Today we read:



We came home with a bunch of new books too! I'll have to add them to our Library widget over on the right so everyone can keep up with our reading adventures!

Someone LOVES to slide! Can you hear her little squeal of happiness?

The Return of Friday's Film

I keep getting emails and comments begging for the return of Friday Films...well here you go!



It was rainy and Claire needed some physical activity, she was playing in this box and loved getting pulled around in it.