Parent Play Time

I love to play with Peter. He's such a sweetheart. But while playing with cars never seems to get old for him, it does tend to get old for me.

So, as a parent, I have to get creative. My playtime is to play pictionary with myself and see how well I can draw an object in the room, or to put Peter's toys into a pattern before he can mess the pattern up. That is definitely a game of speed because Peter can pull items out of a pattern faster than you can say "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt."

Here are examples of my playtime:





Above: Now, I'm no artist, but I'm quite proud of these. Keep in mind that I have to draw these fast because Peter wants to scribble on them too!











Above: Oh, the humanity!

Here are some examples of Jeremiah's play time artwork and the resulting carnage:









Above: Doesn't that picture just make you happy?



Above: It made the cars happy!

Here are some more fancy designs by Jeremiah:



Above: Car Stone Henge.



Above: That one wasn't up long!





Above: Here comes the hand!





Also, just so you know, I do dress up my child in more than just a diaper. However, these particular documented playtimes were diaper chic.



Above: Also in my defense, this is usually the kind of thing that happens when Peter is dressed up...which is why he ends up in his diaper so often!

Water? I'm Not Afraid Of You!

As I mentioned in April, Peter did not think too highly of our first trip to the community indoor pool. It actually lead to him being anti-bath-time for awhile too.

However, after some gentle urging, Peter learned to love bath-time again and we decided it was time to try taking him to the pool again.

As soon as we got to the pool, Peter wanted to jump right in. It was all we could do to take his shirt off before he dove in.

I decided to stay out of the water so I could take a quick picture. Well, Peter did exactly what he did before and dunked his head into the water to see what was going on under there. He immediately started to get upset. I shouted "Hug him! Hum him!" to Jeremiah and I quickly put the camera away and went in to comfort Peter. He sat on my lap for at least 10 minutes while I calmed him down and Jeremiah swam around us.



Above: Right before Peter ducked his head in the water.

For awhile there, I thought we might have to go home again downtrodden. Jeremiah decided to go on the slide and once he made it all the way down, Peter saw his dad pop up out of the water and he was in good spirits again. This particular pool has a little lazy river. We took him around the lazy river a few times and Peter was sold.

In fact, we had to force him out of the pool. We tried leaving once and he trotted right back into the water. So, we stayed about 30 minutes longer. Finally, we had to pull him away because it was his nap time (and once he was away from the pool, his exhaustion hit him and he was a cranky fellow, let me tell you!).



Our little trip to the pool was actually a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, since that time, it has warmed up a little and we were able to fill up the little plastic pool we bought for him and he has loved that too.







Above: Just chillin' in the pool.



Above: No, I mean it. He was literally chillin' in the pool. We thought he would like watching us fill up the pool, but as soon as we filled it up, he wanted in--even though the water was freezing.



Above: After his dip in the cool pool, we gave him a dip in the nice warm tub. What a handsome guy! I sure love him!

See? All it took was a little persistence. Pete has conquered the water! Now I just have to keep him away from it when it's not time to swim!

Recipe Blog

I just wanted to say that the little recipe blog that my mom, sisters, and I started is doing quite well.

I also just wanted to toot my own horn for a second and say that my food photography is improving (that's my picture below)!

We've posted some fun recipes there (such as homemade ice cream) in the past little while. If you want to check it out, go to...

http://familyfoodiefun.blogspot.com/ (for some reason, my blog isn't letting me create a link, so you'll have to cut and paste the address into your browser)

That's where you'll find the recipe for this yummy icebox cheesecake:

Outings...and My Birthday!

You've got to keep it fresh when you have a super active guy who is only a little over a year old. My little guy likes to get out of the house and I'll be honest with you, sometimes (in his eyes) the back yard gets old really fast. And then, sometimes (in my eyes) the park gets old really fast! Peter can't really play on any of the playground equipment by himself yet and I can only handle the slide so many times in a week, myself!

So, you've got to mix it up and try new things and go to new places.

We went to the Living Planet Aquarium at the end of April. Peter loved it. It's a small aquarium, but perfect for a child Peter's age. Not too long and overwhelming, but also a lot of fun.



Above: Peter and Dad paddling in a "canoe" in the South American section of the Living Planet Aquarium.



Above: I've got kind of an absent look on my face because Jeremiah wanted to take a picture of me, but Peter was making a b-line to the opposite end of the exhibit and around the corner out of my sight. So, it took all of my will-power to look at the camera and try to look pleasant for the amount of time it took to take the picture. As soon as the flash went off, I was off dashing after Peter!

For my birthday (yup, I turned 31! Crazy, eh?), Jeremiah took the day off of work and we went to Hogle Zoo in the morning. It was a cold, drizzly day...so I was REALLY surprised at how packed the zoo was. There were a ton of people there for a cold, wet, Wednesday. I think a couple of field trips were partially to blame for the crowds, but still!

By the way, I have to vent...this spring has been a gyp. It has been way too cold and I have had to keep Peter inside way too much because it has been raining. No fun...for either of us!

Oh, and there was one blemish on my wonderful birthday. While we were taking pictures by the elephants, Peter came running toward me with a huge smile on his face and some stupid 7 or 8 year old girl cut Peter off and tripped him with her foot (she nearly ran him over). She didn't run him over, but she did succeed in sending him straight down...where he hit his chin, then his mouth, then his nose, and finally his forehead. She hooked his leg so well with her foot that he didn't even have a fighting chance. It made me so mad at that girl. She stood for a second, looked right at Peter, and then ran off without saying a word. Stupid girl. It was horrible because I saw the whole thing and it seemed like it was all happening in slow motion (though it only lasted a few seconds). I immediately went to Peter and scooped him up. Poor Peter got a bloody nose from it and a goose egg on his forehead. It took him about 10 minutes to calm down and another 30 minutes to shake it off and get back to his normal, cheerful self. It made me so sad! Stupid girl!

But Peter did shake it off and for the most part, he had a wonderful time at the zoo.



Above: Mom and Pete just pointing at the monkeys.



Above: Lounging with Dad on top of some lions. The lions were cool with it.



Above: Howling at a wolf.

After the zoo, we went home so Peter could take a nap. While Peter was asleep, I decided to make myself a cake. I had one of my biggest cake mishaps ever! I put the layers on top of each other with both layers right side up. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. This time, it didn't work. I should have put the first layer top side down and the second layer top side down on top of that (because of the way the middle of the cake puffed up). So, because I did both layers right side up, I was having a really hard time keeping the cake from being lopsided. I had the "bright idea" of turning the top layer over--even though I was already in the midst of frosting the cake. The result? The top layer began to crumble as I tried to turn it. Once the crumbling began, there was no turning back and no salvaging the cake...at least in that form.

My hands were covered in cake and frosting. I quickly washed them off (after first sampling some of the cake and frosting off of my fingers) and then crumbled the cake into a bowl to create a make-shift trifle instead.

So, it turned out to be one of the ugliest cakes I have ever made, but it was soooo tasty. Mmmmm mmmmm chocolatey goodness.

When Peter woke up, we went to the park and then went over to my Mom's house. She offered to make dinner on my birthday so I wouldn't have to cook. I love to cook, but I'll never turn down an offer like that!

So, all in all, it turned out to be a lovely birthday.

We got an annual pass to the zoo, so we took Peter again on Saturday afternoon. It was still chilly (darn this spring!), but I was surprised that it wasn't nearly as crowded on a drizzly, rainy Saturday as it was on a drizzly, rainy Wednesday. Go figure. The only explanation I can come up with is that the field trips and all of the mom's with their weekday "play dates" must have been a factor.



Above: Going head to head with a lion drinking fountain.









Above: As you leave the zoo, there is a cool fountain with a large stone sphere that rolls in the water. Peter was fascinated by that fountain. All he wanted to do was put his hands on it and stick the top of his head on it (for some reason). Peter has light hair, but when it gets wet, it looks a lot darker. One little girl exclaimed "Daddy, that fountain turned that little boy's hair brown!" It did indeed!

All in all, we had some fun outings and I had a great birthday!

Moments

I don't have anything really earth-shattering to share today. The past few weeks have just had some lovely moments that I would like to share.



Above: Peter enjoying one of his greatest loves...bouncy balls!



Above: Peter loves to point and Peter loves being outside.



Above: Peter loves his Grandma!



Above: Peter loves his swim vest and he is always getting it out for me to put on. He has also realized that when I have my purse, it means that we are going out to run errands. He sometimes picks up my purse so that we can run errands. This time, he picked up a diaper bag, but the intent was the same.





Above: Peter even loves being outside in the rain.





Above: Grandma got this nifty basketball hoop for Peter to play with over at her house. He LOVES it. He mostly loves when we shout "Yay!" and "Hooray!" after he makes a basket. Do you like Newman from Seinfeld in the background?





Above: Silly time with Dad!



Above: Enjoying the new pool.







Above: Going to the park as a family. This little guy of ours loves slides!



Above: My big guy loves slides too. I rode this particular slide and it was a doozy (we're talking about lawsuit because of children's injuries). They should put a sign on this slide that says "teenagers and older only."





What can I say? I've just been enjoying some great moments!