Balti-smore

Posted on by zsmd

On Mother’s Day weekend we went to Baltimore for a stay-cation.  It was really fun.  We went with another family (Betsy, Bob, and Faye) and did the tourist thing.  We got adjoining rooms so that we could have parent time in one room and pack-n-plays full of snoring toddlers in the other.  To be honest, though, all of us were dead asleep by 9:30.  We rode a carousel, ate ice cream, went to the children’s museum, and just had a really good time.

Insert opening credits here.

The Queen

The Joker

Adventures in the toddler room

Dangerous adventure in a Egyptian Tomb

Builders or runners.  Either one.

Us as a threesome.

Kids cups, crayons, and ducks.  Roll credits.

Big girl bed.

Posted on by jesslee

In our attempt to help Moxie become self sufficient (and boot her from the crib before the next kid comes) we’ve taken off the rail and she’s in a big girl bed.

She helped her dad take the railing off. But then, after bath, when she came in and saw her bed she got really nervous. She danced a little, laughed in a weird way, and wouldn’t look at the bed. I really wasn’t expecting her to be this nervous. 
We did our usual bed time routine but 2 hours later. After she got into bed she gripped her dad’s hand with a mighty monkey strength until she fell asleep. 
We will let you all know how it goes. 

For now: she’s asleep. 

Unicorn in the mail!

Posted on by jesslee

Today Moxie got mail. Unicorn mail. Our super friends took time out if their busy lives to send Mox a magical package. She immediately saw it in the mail basket and recognized that it was hers. (Well to be honest she thinks most things are hers.)

Anyway, they addressed the body and each family member wrote her a special note. So. Cool. Unicorn mail. 
Anyway, we have kick ass friends. Tom, Jenny, Ben and Peter: thanks so much!
Unicorn mail. 

Napping

Posted on by jesslee

On weekends, especially since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve been napping with Moxie. It is wonderful. She smells nice, she snores just a little, and for the first part she’s cuddley and cute. After that though all bets are off. She flips and kicks and does all kinds of things that make it impossible to sleep. 

Well, that is if you are anyone but Strider. He can actually sleep through anything Moxie does. Example: this morning I brought her into bed with us at 6:00 and she fell back asleep. However, she quickly turned perpendicular to us and had on foot on Strider’s face and the other in his armpit. He just slept right through. 
For me, she even thinks about moving and I wake up. Blast. 

Activity wins

Posted on by jesslee

We have had a couple of activity wins this weekend. Moxie is a great laundry unfolder, toy remover and all around uncleaner. She’s cute but hard to keep busy when you are trying to clean. This weekend we tried two activities. 

The first: green foam block and golf tees was an idea of Aunt Bear’s. It worked great. Kept her busy for about 30 minutes with no help from us but showing her how to play. Drawback: she figured out she could crumble the foam and marched around the house leaving a trail of green behind her. 
The second are brainbows we bought at a science store that grow to 200x their size and (theoretically) shrink back to the tiny balls after drying out. So wet they are the size of marbles and dry they are the size of pin heads. Anyway they are soft and pretty and really fun to play with. Drawback: they bounce all over. We will probably be cleaning up rainbow pin heads for a week. 
No activity is awesome and mess free. We realize that. Mostly. 

Trip to Illinois Part One

Posted on by jesslee

Just a quick note to say we are back from Illinois. We had such a great time seeing family! Mox got to meet her McGregor and Weaver families. She was sick for the first part but was a complete trooper. We experienced such generousity from family. It started with Ginger and Claire who were going to house us but definitely fed us, then Pat who hosted us while being out of state. Then Kelly and her family let us crash and hang out. Shew! 

Mox is a great road trip buddy. As long as you have a fake wallet, a pacifier, stickers and an iPad. 
We stayed at Aunt Pat’s who had both a Saint Francis statue and a cat that moxie loved. 
Oh yes and a park. 

We stayed in a total of 5 places over the week and Mox was a super helper. 

We had some good times with Bibi and Babu too. 
Don’t worry. We took some pictures of all the in between stuff too. We will have that up and ready for you soon. So stay tuned.