A bed with 3 sides

Today is a big day! We finally removed the front of Elise's crib. We have been talking about doing it for at least of 2 months now, but just never got around to it. Well today after her nap we asked her if she wanted a big girl bed like at Grammie's and she said yes. What better time than the present, right? So Bob just took off the front.  She thought it was pretty cool that she could climb into her bed. She is getting to be such a big girl in many ways this is probably over due. But she has been sleeping so well, I didn't want to rock the boat. So I really hope tonight she is not a jack-in-the-box. She does really well at Grammie's house where she has been sleeping in a true toddler bed, so I hope the trend continues. I'll take a picture when I get the chance, but seeing as how I have been so good recently about posting anyway (*read-sarcasm), I didn't want to forget when she took one more step into being a big girl. She will be 2 years and 7 months in 5 days.

 Even though her eyes are closed she opened them for a second to ask me "why are you taking my picture?"

She really didn't want to get up from her nap. So far so good with the 'new' bed. 

Next to come in the big girl world...potty training. Let's hope it is quick and painless for mom and Elise.

Birthday weekend

This picture was just too cute to pass up. Aunt Sis's birthday was on Friday and Daddy's birthday was on Sunday so we spent the weekend with Grandma and Papa celebrating birthdays. Elise was really into helping in the kitchen to get ready for lunch. Here she is helping Aunt Sis get some jelly out for the yummy rolls we ate, along with all the other food.

New coat

These pictures were taken a few weeks ago when we had a cold snap. The winter/snow coat that she wore last year actually fits, but it is a little tight. We bought this Columbia interchange jacket last year for $20. It is perfect! We are all big fans of Columbia. We took this picture before we went for a walk one night. We are trying to go every night for at least a short one, until it just gets too cold (for mom). She is all about the 'cheese.' And believe it or not, she chose to put the boots on too.

Cincinnati part2

So, this entry and the pictures will be what you make of them. *read-contemporary

One of the other days we were in Cincy and wandering around we decided to go to a Contemporary Art Museum. Now, I am not much of an art person so I had a little more fun just trying to take pictures than actually looking at the art. Now, the artists are very creative and talented, but honestly sometimes I have no idea what they are doing or where they are going with some of the pieces.

The fun part was actually on the top floor on the museum. They called in an Un-museum. It was a place for kids to look and enjoy 'art'. They were encouraged to touch and explore the exhibits. 

This picture is exactly what it looks like...a trailer. I didn't read the little sign that said what it was really supposed to be, but I am sure we can all use our imaginations and come up with something. The best part was that you could go inside and it rocked/bounced. Elise really liked going in there because she could sit on a bench inside (padded, for everyone's protection) and 'bounce' around. Like I said...art?

This wall was interesting because the little gray box had buttons on it labeled with musical chords. Then when you pushed the button it made (was supposed to) the sound of that cord and it lit up one of the colored squares. It was fun to play around with, but Matt and I weren't really convinced that they were the right sounds.

This is what you saw when you got upstairs. It was just made out of all different kinds of materials.

This is the information about the next exhibit. It is kind of self explanatory when you read it, but definitely one of the more interesting things to see.

(my flash is over the word 'different'. just insert the word when you read about this exhibit and it will make sense)

Elise really liked this exhibit because she could open some of the drawers and see what was inside or it made a really cool sound. I bet we spent a good 10-20 minutes just playing with all the drawers. There was one drawer in particular that she wanted to open over and over. I'll load a video if it because pictures/video can say so much more than I could write.

This was a kind of story wall. It classic tales printed on the wall. As you can see it was pretty large because that is Aunt Sis looking at one of the books.

The rest of the pictures are just some other things in the museum. After one or two floors someone finally told me that I wasn't actually supposed to take pictures. The pictures with Elise in them, I know she liked making the shadows on the wall more that she cared about what was actually being projected onto the wall. (digital art)

Here is a link to the video. Dancing

Sara M-J, I know you will get a kick out of the video. Looks like we might have a fan on our hands. (you will understand when you watch the video.)

New Door

We have been talking about replacing our front door for some time now. For two reasons...1) You could see light underneath it when it was closed. So you KNOW there was hot/cold air coming and going. And 2) because our door was kind of ugly and boring. It didn't have a window in it so it made the foyer very dark.

Well, I forgot to take a before picture, but I did manage to take a during picture.

The best part about this 'during' picture was that it shouldn't have even happened. These pictures were taken when an electrician was rewiring our lights to the front porch. That's right...rewiring, as in a completely new wire because the old one had been cut in half. The guy that was installing our door accidentally cut through the wire when he was removing the old door frame. He wasn't able to remove it without using a saw, which in all reality should have been completely okay, except that it is OUR house and there is nothing standard, normal or run-of-the-mill about it. For some stupid reason, when they build the house they ran the wire right along the top of the door, instead of up and out of the way. That is why the installer accidentally cut it.

I actually felt kind of bad for him. He had no way of knowing that wire was there, and then he had to wait around while I found someone who could come out right away, then wait another 1.5 hours for them to rewire it. All told it took about 6 hours for the installer to finish the door. The other real sacrifice we had to make was that it got pretty chilly in the house, what with having no front door. I'm definitely glad we didn't wait any longer.

 TA-DA! The finished door.

I really do like that it lets in light, and we have the privacy of a solid door. We didn't want one that Leinie could look out either because he is bad enough with other windows in the house. If he was actually able to see people at the door, I don't think our door would stay as pretty. So project #15 of 2,000 is done. (note-not exact numbers, but that is what it feels like.)

Happy Halloween

 We had a little snack before heading out.

 Happy Halloween!

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture.

 I was going to take off one of those pictures since they are pretty much the same, but I just couldn't choose. Also, you must know...she put those pumpkins exactly where she wanted them.

 We got to go out with a few of our friends from MOPS. We had a great time! Considering there were five children (technically 6, but 1 didn't want to get in the picture) We actually got a few pictures where they were looking in our direction.

 Off we go!

 Trick or Treat

 Night one of "can I have a piece of candy?" Tonight the candy of choice was a Reese's cup.

Turtle Dance

Every opportunity Elise has to dance...she takes it! 

This turtle was dancing outside the aquarium when we were about to head back to the car.

Both girls were so cute, dancing with him. I'm pretty sure she even gave him a hug when they were done dancing in the street. Ha!

If you want to see a short video, just click on the link. Turtle dance

Newport Aquarium- lots of pictures

Somehow we were lucky enough to get a mini-vacation in this year. We spent the weekend with Grandma, Papa, Aunt Sis, and Uncle Matt in Cincinnati. I know, real adventurous, but hey at least it is a short drive. We arrived Thursday night just in time for dinner, so no real adventures. But today was one of our big days.

We went to the Newport Aquarium. I know what you are thinking, 'it's not even in Ohio, let alone Cincinnati.' Yes, but it is close! 

And Elise has not been to a true aquarium.

As the aquarium opens they have a "parade of penguins." Sorry the picture is kind of dark, the foyer was not well lit. Anyway, there was an MC and this 'penguin' that danced around and talked for a few minutes before they brought out some penguins. I actually thought they might have trained the penguins to just walk through the lobby, but they were just put on a float type cart and pulled through the crowd. And yes, Elise walked right up to the 'penguin.' I told her we were very proud of her for doing that because anyone who knows some of my family know that they probably wouldn't care to get within 10 feet of someone in a costume. She didn't seem to mind too much, and made the comment that there was someone in the suit.

Now, off to the fish!

For awhile we just walked around and she took it all in, wandering to all the different tanks.

Then we got to touch a starfish.

She really wanted to touch the horseshoe crab, so Daddy was able to help her.

 A beautiful sea turtle!

 "Nemo and Marlin"-Elise

 These crabs were seriously creepy. Note-I did not alter the color. It really was that dark with the pink light in the aquarium. These are VERY large Japanese crabs. The plaque said that they can get as big as 13 feet!! We should have taken a picture with someone standing next to them because I bet these were at least 4-5 feet.

"hello turtle"

Into the Frog Bog & Rainforest

 Getting her to look at the camera was completely impossible. But in the frog bog there were these large frogs that you could climb on. They also had buttons on their backs that, when pushed, made the sound that the frog makes.

 First time through a turn-style door. This led us into the rainforest. The funny part was Elise thought we were at the Indy Zoo because it looked like the entrance to the desert.

 These birds were free to fly around in the space where we walked. I even had one fly right over my head. It was a little weird, but neat to see them so close.

 MORE FISH...go figure, we're at an aquarium. :)

Some of these pictures are hard to tell what they are, but we were in a tunnel part of the aquarium and these are some overhead shots. We happened to catch feeding time with a diver. The fish just swarmed him, so it made for a jumble of a picture.


Jellyfish!

These 'orange' jellyfish were in a skinny rectangular case that could be viewed from both sides. Elise thought Daddy was actually in the tank! Ha! I think the best part was that this section was playing continuous elevator music. Apparently the fluid motion of jellyfish makes people think of classical music.

This was some kind of motion sensor screen savor projected on the wall. When you got close to a jellyfish it turned around and swam away. Elise thought it was pretty fun!

Sharks and Pengins
(But not together)

There was a very large shark take in, what seemed, the middle of the aquarium. Or at least the last section of it. Here was saw sharks from many different angles and could see them very closely because some of the pathways were tubes through the tank.

 

This was another part where they were actually below us. Elise is looking down at one of the smaller sharks that swam underneath.

TEETH!

 If this gives you any idea how big some of the tanks are, those are 2 divers just hanging out. (Strike that- I have no idea what they were doing. I don't think they were feeding, but they could have been testing or something)

I actually forgot to take a picture of the live penguins!!!
We watched/listened to a short presentation about all the different penguins at the aquarium, and they had a large viewing tank. Elise just wanted to give them a hug.

Well, that was our day. Sorry to bombard you with pictures, but believe me I didn't load half of them. 

We had a great time!