Judy's visit and more!

Judy came for a visit last week and here are the pictures to prove it! My mom and dad stayed on a few days longer and we were able to enjoy some fun times all together.
Last Saturday, we all drove north to Tallulah Gorge State Park. It's a really pretty waterfall worth the trip. Here is everyone enjoying the view below.
Here's a view if you take the 600+ steps down into the gorge.
More lovely views from below.
Ditto.
A few of the 600+ steps.
Mom and Judy on the steps.
We also celebrated dad's birthday with various treats! Happy birthday, dad!
Note to future me reading this: don't give Helen loads of sugar before bedtime.
A new park opened up this summer not too far from us and we are absolutely crazy about it - it feels like we're going on vacation whenever we go. Here, H, mom and J are having fun in the lake. There are weeks when we go every single day - it's so wonderful.
H and J walking on the fake, but very pleasant, grass.
Loads of swings - yeah!
Cool tunnels to climb! Yeah!
Weird, cool spider web thing (Helen now calls this the "rope park", to make sure I don't mistake her request to go to the park for any other).
Pretty lake the park overlooks.

We had so much fun with you mom, dad and Judy! We crafted (bejewelled several kleenex boxes, painted on the porch, made things out of pipe cleaners [bracelets, spiders]), droided and app'd (dad), envied dad's new droid and apps (Mary), ate at Mimi's a lot, and other things!. Wish everyone else could have been here too! XO!

P.S. H has cut 2 of her last set of molars the past couple of weeks. Oi, has that been fun! Seems like we're getting a reprieve while the other two wait to make their debut. I hate to post pics of my 2+ year old with a binkie in her mouth, but I love them and I don't care - they work when the words of reasoning parent do not. And when words do work, then there will be no bink! :-)

Grandma and Grandpa Palooza, Fall 2010

"Happy me" in the bath. "Dan ma" and "Danp pa" are here!
Clowning around with grandma in the bedroom.
Playing a super fun game of pretend night-night (ripping off covers is fun!)
Our budding Renoir.

We went to the botanical gardens and had a great time!
G&G by the pretty fountain.
Here, Helen is distraught that she threw the ball in the fountain, never to return. :-(
Grandma and Helen enjoying the new waterfall and a snack.
"Danp pa" waking up with puppy to Helen's delight (she can't let ANYONE in the house sleep in!).

Xanadu

We had a great weekend - our first without sweating our butts off in many moons! We've had a whole week of gorgeous weather with more to come for the forecastable future - yeah! Today we went to an organic food festival which was really fun and tasty.
Helen picked out this super-80's hairband that she likes to wear across her forehead. And she really likes to wear mardi gras beads too. Love it.
We fed some geese.
Rode around on the tricycle.
And ate some yummy ice cream (she picked out the "boo one" herself). Mmm.

Heat rant

Sorry to be negative, but if we have one more stinking day of 90+ degree heat, I think I am going to go certifiably inSANE. It's forecast through Saturday. Boo hoo.

I want to ride my tricycle, I want to ride my trike...

H got a tricycle over the weekend and is very pleased with this new development. We're just generally pushing her around for now, but she's enjoys it tremendously. Here are some pics of her riding around and some from the past week or so.





Dad pretends to be asleep, which makes Helen want to jump all over him. Wake up daddy! Wake up!!

We took her to stone mountain this morning, which was almost a deal breaker. The long, 25-minute ride there was almost too much for H to bear to be parted from her beloved tricycle. She enjoyed saying "HI!" to lots of walkers, joggers and bikers passing by.

Too big for diapers - warning, possible UMI (don't read if squeamish about bodily functions)

I bought 2 new books for Helen at amazon a couple weeks ago. I was mainly looking for a book on how to transition from the crib to a big girl bed and I found one I liked called "big enough for a bed", so I bought it's companion "too big for diapers" since it also got great reviews. Both books feature sesame street characters making it through these big milestones with minimal blah blah blah.

The "too big for diapers" book was an instant hit (although my intention was to hit her over the head with the bed transitioning book - want that crib GONE so we can move in her mounds of stuffed animals, legos, push toys and more out of our living room). Never before has H let me read a book through, cover to cover, pausing on each page to digest the info, over and over and over. Clearly, baby Ernie's transition from diapers to potty hit a big chord.

Fast forward one week later. We're transitioning H to her "2's" classroom from the "Todds" classroom, and she gets to routinely sit on the potty while she spends time there. On Friday - she went pee twice!

So today (Saturday), we went to the super target near us to do our grocery shopping and included a new potty on the list. We thought it might be a good idea to let her pick which potty she wanted, so presented her with a really cute, green potty shaped like frog and a boring bright red potty by Baby Bjorn that cost twice as much. Of course, she picked the bright red one (I double checked with her) and I went home wondering if this thing was a waste of money since it will be probably months before we ever use it. Plus, what kind of kid wouldn't want a potty shaped like a frog? Seriously. Who IS this kid?

Fast forward 15 minutes after we get home. H has went #1 on the potty. Fast forward 2 hours later and H has went #1 (again) AND #2 on the potty and is positively giddy with her accomplishments. Several rounds of high 5s from dad and mom ensued.

I just have to say, that I think this would have never transpired in such a way had it not been for the vast Vast VAST quantities of diapers I bought at costco a week ago and the thousands of diapers I have left to use in her room. Not that she's going to be potty-trained in a week by any means (I'm in no rush, mainly due to thoughts of navigating gas station or park restrooms at 15 minute intervals anytime we leave the nest), but pull ups, as I've learned in the past 8 hours, are really seriously REALLY the way to go during potty training (if she goes potty, you just pull them right back up over her butt - brilliant!).

Ok, so, sorry, for those who are squemish about bodily functions and UMIs (unnecessary mental images). I just think rearing a kid is so funny and unpredictable sometimes, especially those times that make you so proud! ;-)

(I figured a picture of H and her new potty might be a bit over the limit here, although believe me, I was tempted!)

Junk Food Junkie

We stopped at a gas station mini-mart over the long weekend to fuel up the car and ourselves a bit, and Helen very much got into the spirit (I think here, she's saying "gum-mi's" as the camera clicks- she loves gummy bears, unfortunately...)
Junk food re-group. We only ended up purchasing a snack mix that left her face and fingers bright orange (no pics, sorry).
Can you hear the music in the background? ("...but at night I'm a junk food junkie, good lord have pity on me..." [Larry Groce])? :-) Very apropos given the youtube link I just sent dad and Cath not too long ago! ;-)

August Catch-Up

More from the Michigan trip, bubble-palooza, part II.
John makes awesome bubbles.
So does Sophia.
And Chelsey.
Here are some pics from when Helen opened up presents from Aunt Naomi and family and Aunt Sarah and family - it was a clothes and sticker extravaganza!! (note stickers on Helen's new shirt).
One thrown in from last night actually - silly goose throwing herself on the couch.
Modeling Aunt Naomi's new outfit - she loves the elephant!
This one was taken on her birthday proper, before we left for the day. In this picture, she is officially 2 years old!

Sandbox

It's shaping up to be an interesting week thanks to a sandbox, a tongue and a red, plastic shovel. Helen had a nice, big lick of her sandbox shovel caked with wet sand and various other detritus at the local park Monday evening which I think is the culprit of a lovely night of vomiting Tuesday and diarrhea filled Wednesday. Mom always said - listen to that gut level, but Helen wanted to play in the sand SO BAD and it had been SO LONG since we had played in the sand... ! I'm a sucker and a softy, but no more (when it comes to sand). Here's hoping this experience will prepare her stomach and intestines for a tour of a far off distant land someday.

Anyway... she's loads better now. Keeping down liquids and food so far and developing a per-chant for long rides in the country before bedtime (we've done this 2 nights in a row) and I rather like it (she has a strong aversion to home at bedtime, made more keen by her upset tummy - "no home, mommy" is often repeated and now with heartfelt tears). It's really pretty around here with hills and curves and lots and lots of big trees. If you were here, I would show you one of them I stumbled on last night - it's gorgeous, enormous and absolutely perfect.

Birthday Girl

We celebrated Helen's birthday over the weekend. Can't believe she's already 2 years old as of tomorrow... time flies when you're having fun! Almost exactly 2 years ago to the hour, I woke up with contractions and that was the beginning of the beginning! Who knew she would end up with ringlets, a deep and zany laugh and a deep and abiding love of "crackies" (cookies/crackers) and Elmo.
H and the F cousins.

Peeing our pants and attack of the large-footed baby!

We are peeing our pants, we're so excited to see everyone! See you soon!

Helen was kindly given a Bitty Baby from someone at work who I call her "toy benefactress" (her daughter is a year and a half older than Helen). Helen wanted Bitty Baby to have some shoes on, so on went the tennies. She looks like she's ready to go clobber some really itty bitty townspeople, doesn't she?

Long time no see!

Yup - we're still here. Another month behind us and half the summer to go! It's been really hot, go figure, and I think we're finally getting used to it. Here are the things we've been doing lately:

1. Dancing to Crocodile Rock from season 2 muppets (see 1st 2 pics below). In the first one, Helen realized these glasses are similar to the ones Elton John wears. Groovy. She also likes to dance with stuffed animals and makes sure we both have one to dance with too.
   
2. Swimming on the weekends - found a great pool nearby. She enjoys watching the big kids dive and jump.
3. Watching sesame street skits over and over and over again online (we're back to that again).
4. Running around in just a diaper after bathtime (huge win for H - delay in bedtime, but gets her in and out of the bathtub without tears).
5. Crafting, crafting and more crafting (gluing things to paper and drawing with markers).
6. Crafting while wearing only a diaper.

Boogy-ing.
Some pics from tonight.

She likes to pull the things off that she glues or sticks - double the fun!