Traveling to C-town

We traveled to C-town this weekend to celebrate our almost 2 year old. Lila & I got there on Friday morning and headed out to the river to see the farmers. She especially liked that Wayne gave her some pretzels as soon as she arrived. 

She loved riding on the tractors. Nate never really did like riding on them because of the noise, which I thought would scare her too, but it didn't. She hopped right on up there.

 Wayne also fed her some soybeans. She ate them. Of course. 

What she really liked was was getting to sit up in the tractor all by herself. She had all the lights and blinkers going in seconds. 

We also got to do something very special on Friday afternoon. Sarah was out of town so I offered to pick up Thane for Hamil. He didn't make a peep, even though he had a pretty loud welcoming party. Sadly, Scott had never met Thane, so we were glad to rectify that. He's so precious. 

More to come of the birthday festivities!

Park: Take 2

We had a busy weekend, and I managed to not take many pictures, but here are a couple for the grandparents.

 

We went to the park on Friday afternoon to soak up some of the last 70 degree days I think we'll see for a bit. It was another gorgeous fall day - windy but not cold and colored leaves falling everywhere. I prefer the library park to our park down the street. Of course our park is more convenient but the library park has so much to do and it is all enclosed, so I don't have to worry about a kid (ahem, 1 kid) running off into the street while watching the other kid climb tall objects.



Lila will be 2 very soon.  She has finally gotten the hang of answering "2" when you ask her how old she will be on her birthday. The previous answer was "Strawberry" because that's what we taught her to say when we asked "What will you be for Halloween?" Same difference to her.

We put up our Christmas decorations this weekend. Since we'll be busy for the next few weekends and Thanksgiving is not at my house, I figured why not. It feels good to have it done, not that I do that much, but getting it all out and the mess it makes is not something that I look forward to...Now that's done and we can enjoy it for a little longer this year. The kids love the tree and all the ornaments and I think I've taught Lila not to break my snowman figurines. I think.

 

If I can only make it until New Year's without losing my mind over the falling pine needles. No, we don't  have a real tree. But our fake one sheds nonetheless. I hope my kids don't think I'm Scrooge for trying to keep them off the tree! 

Brave Astronaut

This post is for my sweet sister-in-law, Sarah...

 

Lila has a book called "Ladybug Girl Dresses Up!" I believe Sarah's parents gave it to her last year for Christmas. It is such a fitting book for us because Lila's first birthday party theme was ladybugs and the girl's name is Lulu, which is a nickname we have for Lila. The book is about a girl that likes to dress up...as a ladybug, a tiger, a princess...you get the point. 

Funny thing is...every time we get to this page, Lila says, "Dat yook yike Sarah!"

So Sarah, I'm not sure if you were going for the Brave Astronaut look today, but Lila thinks you totally pulled it off:)

Insert Lila

Lila's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, in addition to her ability to actively participate in a conversation. She has a sharp memory, that has been clear for a while. I've compared and worried that she didn't speak as much as Nate did at the same age. But my memory is fuzzy and I needed not to worry. Or compare. Lesson learned. A couple recent stories that caused us to laugh and know that she's right on track.

Lila has a bandaid fetish. Nate also had a bandaid fetish, but he liked to put them on and leave them on. This ended badly after he had an allergic reaction to one of those ointment already on there kinds. Anyway, different story. Lila on the other hand likes to open the bandaid and then stick in 100 or so places until you find it rolled up on the floor. Then she asks for another one. Bandaids are cheap so I usually oblige. One day she asked for a bandaid and when I checked, I realized we were out. So I told her that the next time I went to the store, I would get some more.

Fast forward at least 2 days later. I announced I was going to the store. It was the weekend so I was planning to go myself luxuriously. Both kids wanted to go with me. I'll never understand why they want to go - I'm not my most patient self with them in the store. But happy that this doesn't phase them. Well, sort of. Anyway, after my announcement and convincing them they really didn't want to go with me because it would be BOR-ING (wink wink), Lila says, "You get the bandaids, Mom?" Sure, Sure, lovely. I had forgotten about that:)

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When you ask Lila what she wants to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, anything...she smiles and says "Cookies!" We usually tell her not right now and usually it's not ever because we rarely have cookies in the house. Not because we boycott sugar or anything, we just don't usually have any.

One night at dinner, we were finishing up and the kids were getting ready to have some of this Halloween candy I'm anxious to get out of the house. Lila says, "Can I have a cookie??" And before anyone could say anything, she answers herself, "Not right now YiYa!"

Oh my. She does listen. When she wants to.

Saturday Science Center

On Saturday morning, off we went to the Science Center...

Two cuties were excited...

This cutie had not been there since she could get around on her own. Even though the exhibits are a little old for her, she was in awe going from station to station. The big dinosaur scared her though and she said "YiYa not yike di-sores" no less than 382 times.

This scared her a bit too - and it freaks me totally out. I won't let the kids walk over it. So silly. But it's on the bridge over I-64 and is clear glass looking down at the cars. Yuck.

Nate is at the exact right age for the Science Center. Many of the concepts make sense to him and he is familiar with how to navigate the stations in proper order. So important:)

Ai-yi-yi. We are in for it when she's a teenager. Heck, they probably won't even have phones then. You'll just call someone using the air in front of you. Or something like that.

Nate wanted to read how to work the stations and Lila was into touching everything she could get her hands on.

This picture cracks me up. Nate would not get up fast enough, so she just climbed right on the back of the seat with him. And then proceeded to holler in his ear so he would get up. Good plan?

She badly wanted to touch the tornado. That's my girl! Fearless.

Nate was such a huge help to me while Scott was gone. I love him so much and am proud to be his mom. With a recent growth spurt, he is reaching a height that I am umcomfortable with...my baby boy just can't be this big. And yesterday we talked about going to elementary school. He's super excited. And I'm super dreading it. Funny how that works.

Great weekend with my kiddos - minus a few moments where I lost my mind because they lost their minds. All in a Day's Work!

Friday Follies

Scott left early early Thursday morning to fly to San Diego to attend a conference. A science conference. Woo-wee! With his arrival back home set for Sunday evening, this meant the kids and I had 4 days of bliss. That's my story and I'm stickin to it:)

 

It just so happened that Nate's before school Lego club started on Friday morning. Of course. This meant that Lila & I were also up and at 'em and at Target by 8:00 AM. It is so quiet then that I think I'm going to go at this time more often.

 

I got Lila some hot chocolate at Starbucks so that I could make it thru a few aisles before letting her walk. It was a first and she was so cute. This picture was taken about 2.5 seconds before it was all over her pants. Fun times.



Later in the morning, we went over to Ladue because I had to return something to Old Navy. When I planned to go there, I remembered there is a Barnes & Noble next door and I used to take Nate to story time there when he was Lila's age. I looked it up to see if they still were having it and it was still on the schedule. Same time. Same place. Same story teller. Same voice. Same announcements. Different moms. And different kids that were not born way back then. It was so much fun and I was feeling very nostalgic for those days that I spent with Nate when he was almost 2. Time flies.

She loved the singing and the coloring. The books? Not so much. She sat on the stage with the story teller most of the time. Looking at me. Knowing that I wouldn't make a scene by making her get off the stage.

After picking up Nate from school, we went to the library and then the library park. It was a beautiful fall day and our library has done such wonderful things with their space. Nate took advantage of sitting on these bronzed children's heads.

Lila climbed anything that would sit still and jumped from high up places. Much to my heart's dismay.

There is a trail that has "natural" instruments, which they had fun playing.

And then there is a stage where they tell stories and act out skits. Both of my children love a stage.

My.word. The child has no fear. She dropped from this bar and landed on all fours many times. She is so limber and gymnastics class is calling her name.

Good times at the RH Library - hopefully we will get a few more pretty fall days before winter sets in!

Weekend Teaser

The kids and I had many fun adventures while Scott was out of town this weekend.

 

More to come!