Friday, February 1, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
2013 NAIAS
It's been a very long time since we have taken Y to the auto show with us, that last time we took her she was probably right around Q's age now (18 months). But this year we thought she'd have a lot of fun there and our usual babysitters weren't available. Well she did have fun and she wanted to sit inside any and every car that had the doors unlocked! Don't worry about Q, she was there and got in on the action as well!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Swim Lessons
On January 7th Y started swim lessons at the neighboring township's rec center (the same place I took swim lessons a few years back). She wasn't enrolled in a private lesson but due to my decision to sign her up from Monday, Wednesday sessions at 9am in the middle of winter, she is the only person in her "class."
On the first day she said to me, "Mommy you have to tell my teacher that I can't go underwater." I said, "okay" all the while hoping that she would eventually change her mind. For the first several lessons, even though she LOVES being in the water, she would say that she didn't want to go to swim lessons. I told her that we had paid for the lessons and so she had to finish them all.
Well at the end of her 3rd lesson she ran over to me so excited and she couldn't wait to tell what she had done. She had just completed her first fully submerged bob!! She hadn't been expecting it, but she wasn't as frightened as I thought she would be when it happened for the first time. One of the exercises that they do together is to have Y jump in the water and the instructor will catch her. Well on the final jump on that day the instructor (intentionally) didn't catch her. Ms. Amber (her teacher) said that typically when she does that the kid will come up and be so afraid they begin to cry. She said that while Y did have a very surprised look on her face, she did not shed a single tear!
After we got her dry, dressed and buckled into the car she said to me with all the excitement she could muster, "Mommy, I'll never say I don't want to go to swim lessons again!!!"
Here are a few pictures that we were able to take at her 5th lesson:
On the first day she said to me, "Mommy you have to tell my teacher that I can't go underwater." I said, "okay" all the while hoping that she would eventually change her mind. For the first several lessons, even though she LOVES being in the water, she would say that she didn't want to go to swim lessons. I told her that we had paid for the lessons and so she had to finish them all.
Well at the end of her 3rd lesson she ran over to me so excited and she couldn't wait to tell what she had done. She had just completed her first fully submerged bob!! She hadn't been expecting it, but she wasn't as frightened as I thought she would be when it happened for the first time. One of the exercises that they do together is to have Y jump in the water and the instructor will catch her. Well on the final jump on that day the instructor (intentionally) didn't catch her. Ms. Amber (her teacher) said that typically when she does that the kid will come up and be so afraid they begin to cry. She said that while Y did have a very surprised look on her face, she did not shed a single tear!
After we got her dry, dressed and buckled into the car she said to me with all the excitement she could muster, "Mommy, I'll never say I don't want to go to swim lessons again!!!"
Here are a few pictures that we were able to take at her 5th lesson:
And then there's Q, who likes to walk around wearing her big sister's goggles!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Saturday, December 29, 2012
The Stroller
Santa brought both our girls strollers this year and had I known how motivating Q would find it I probably would have asked him to bring it months ago. You see, before Christmas morning she was taking steps here and there but she wasn't really "walking." But the stroller changed all that, take a peek:
Checking it out...
Five minutes later...
Twenty-four hours later...
And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. The stroller from Santa is officially how Q learned to walk. If you're wondering how long it to her to completely ditch the stroller and start walking around on her own, about 4 days.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Christmas!
Q, while she couldn't really help us decorate all the cookies, she did more than her fair share of eating them. She managed to find the perfect spot around the table we were using to decorate and each time I looked at her she had a different cookie in her hands (and mouth).
In the late afternoon/early evening various family members started to arrive. We ate, laughed, played a had an all around great time just hanging out together. Aunt S recently bought a new camera and she was able to take lots and lots of great pictures!
We put the girls to bed, and shortly thereafter Santa arrived...
The girls (mostly Y) woke all of us up bright and early to head down stairs and open all the gifts. They did a pretty good job of waiting until everyone was gathered together before they started. Here's a photo taken amid the chaos.
It snowed a little on Christmas Day but the next day (Boxing Day in Canada) we were walloped! We had read one report on Christmas Day that told us we'd get several inches at home (Michigan) but only a couple centimeters in Canada so we thought we'd try to head out early. However, the following morning when we checked the weather reports we read that the snow wouldn't begin until later in the evening with a 1 inch accumulation and the rest coming later in the night, so we decided we'd be safe leaving after dinner. And then the snow started falling, and falling, and falling and we realized there was no way we were going anywhere!
Y begged and begged to go out and play in it but we hadn't brought along any snow gear. So we finally settled on placing plastic bags over her feet and socks (to at least keep her feet dry) and then letting her wear her NON-snow boots out. Luckily Nana B. is really short so she was able to fold the legs of her snow pants up a few inches and make a few quick adjustments at the waist and Y was able to wear those out. She attempted to run in the snow, she fell in the snow, made snow angels in the snow and build a snowman with Nana B. (which actually looks more like a snow duck). All of these while Q and I watched them outside of the window.
Uncle L, knowing that Aunt D wasn't feeling well decided that he would go out and brave the freezing cold temperatures to build a snowman for her. Coming from Peru this was the largest accumulation of snow she had ever seen, and she was too sick to even play in it :(. But luckily for her, there will surely be plenty more opportunities!
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Crochet
I decided it was time to expand my needle craft repertoire and give crocheting a try. I've been wanting to make some bows that look like roses and none of the knitting patters I tried were working to my satisfaction. So I searched and found a crochet pattern and decided to give it a go with some help from Youtube. I have made a few to give to friends and one for each of my girls to wear at Christmas. The photo below is not my first attempt but it is my best one to date, it has taken me a while to get used to the whole crocheting process.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Christmas Card Photo Attempts
After a failed last minute attempt to have family portraits taken to add to our 2012 Christmas Card I had the bright idea to just take some family photos around our Christmas Tree. That too, did not work out so hot. Mostly for the same reasons it didn't work out in studio...Q was just not into having her picture taken. But I thought I'd share a few of the attempts that turned out decent, though not Christmas Card material.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Great Wolf Lodge
As a Chrysler employee B is apparently eligible for all sorts of discounts and all sorts of places. One of those places just happens to be Great Wold Lodge! So naturally when it came time to use that extra vacation time they gave him, we decided it would be the perfect place to go spend a few days.
We chose to go up on a Thursday and return home on Saturday, we figured it would work out best, and we figured right. Check in isn't until 4pm but you can arrive as early as 1pm to use the water park. We arrived at 2:30 and since it was a Thursday our room was ready and we immediately checked in. Of course Y wanted to head to the pool area right away so after getting changed we were off!
Both girls had a blast playing in the water, something that hadn't been able to do since our neighborhood pool closed in September. There weren't a ton of people there, in fact aside from us there may have only been 5-10 other families utilizing the water park. Y was quite apprehensive of the water even though we made sure she was wearing a life vest. I think the few months out of the pool affected her level of confidence. We stayed until about 6:30pm when we decided we would head up and order a pizza for dinner. Every night at 8pm and 9pm they have story time for the kids and we wanted to be sure to make it to the 8pm time slot so that we could get the girls in bed.
Friday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, showered and headed off to the water park again! Y met a little boy who was able to boost her confidence in the water and after that there was no holding her back! I told B I would watch the girls if he wanted to do any of the big water slides, an offer he took me up on! After he was done, he encouraged me to try it and assured me that it was just a smooth, calm ride down to the bottom - he LIED! I was terrified, but I will admit I had a blast doing it. We stayed for a couple hours before heading up to our room for lunch. Immediately after lunch, B and Y were off again to the water park while I stayed behind to make sure Q had a good nap. She ended up sleeping for 3½ hours but once she woke up she pointed to the door and said, "go pool!" Actually she began to say that any time we came back up to the room. Regardless of what time it was she would always point to the door and say, "go pool!" We returned back from dinner just in time to get upstairs, change into our PJs and enjoy our final night of story time. Friday was a bit more crowded than Thursday had been but it was still pretty deserted.
On Saturday we had to check out of our room at 11pm but we were allowed to use the water park until it closed at 9pm. We didn't end up staying that late, we ended up leaving around 6pm because we still had to stop for dinner and then make the 2½ hour drive home. Saturday was notably crowded, in fact I told B that it's not a place I'd care to visit during the summer months for that exact reason - there were just too many people. But part of that could be attributed to the fact that they had recently run a special on Groupon which many people had apparently taken advantage of.
It was an awesome weekend and something that we will definitely be doing again, In fact Y is constantly asking us when we are going back to Ohio or Great Wolf Lodge. Even I must admit that I can't wait to go back, they have so many kid and family friendly activities that we didn't get to take advantage of!
We chose to go up on a Thursday and return home on Saturday, we figured it would work out best, and we figured right. Check in isn't until 4pm but you can arrive as early as 1pm to use the water park. We arrived at 2:30 and since it was a Thursday our room was ready and we immediately checked in. Of course Y wanted to head to the pool area right away so after getting changed we were off!
Both girls had a blast playing in the water, something that hadn't been able to do since our neighborhood pool closed in September. There weren't a ton of people there, in fact aside from us there may have only been 5-10 other families utilizing the water park. Y was quite apprehensive of the water even though we made sure she was wearing a life vest. I think the few months out of the pool affected her level of confidence. We stayed until about 6:30pm when we decided we would head up and order a pizza for dinner. Every night at 8pm and 9pm they have story time for the kids and we wanted to be sure to make it to the 8pm time slot so that we could get the girls in bed.
Friday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, showered and headed off to the water park again! Y met a little boy who was able to boost her confidence in the water and after that there was no holding her back! I told B I would watch the girls if he wanted to do any of the big water slides, an offer he took me up on! After he was done, he encouraged me to try it and assured me that it was just a smooth, calm ride down to the bottom - he LIED! I was terrified, but I will admit I had a blast doing it. We stayed for a couple hours before heading up to our room for lunch. Immediately after lunch, B and Y were off again to the water park while I stayed behind to make sure Q had a good nap. She ended up sleeping for 3½ hours but once she woke up she pointed to the door and said, "go pool!" Actually she began to say that any time we came back up to the room. Regardless of what time it was she would always point to the door and say, "go pool!" We returned back from dinner just in time to get upstairs, change into our PJs and enjoy our final night of story time. Friday was a bit more crowded than Thursday had been but it was still pretty deserted.
On Saturday we had to check out of our room at 11pm but we were allowed to use the water park until it closed at 9pm. We didn't end up staying that late, we ended up leaving around 6pm because we still had to stop for dinner and then make the 2½ hour drive home. Saturday was notably crowded, in fact I told B that it's not a place I'd care to visit during the summer months for that exact reason - there were just too many people. But part of that could be attributed to the fact that they had recently run a special on Groupon which many people had apparently taken advantage of.
It was an awesome weekend and something that we will definitely be doing again, In fact Y is constantly asking us when we are going back to Ohio or Great Wolf Lodge. Even I must admit that I can't wait to go back, they have so many kid and family friendly activities that we didn't get to take advantage of!
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| At story time this scene "comes alive" to tell the story of a little boy lost and afraid in the forest. |
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| They were getting ready for Christmas while we were there. |
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| All the kids loved banging on this drum/table |
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| I meant to take a photo of the finished product before we left but forgot the camera was already packed away. This gingerbread house is built using a wood frame but everything you can see is edible. He had been working on it since September! I was able to taste the icing he was using and it was actually delicious. He told me that the candy canes that you see on the side are actually mint flavored. He told me I could taste if I wanted but didn't advise it since He had done that part a month prior - I took his word for it. haha |
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| After storytime with Wiley the Wolf |
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| This was Thursday, as you can see it was pretty deserted! |
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