Wyoming is Done!

Patrick's assignment in Wyoming is done! Yay! So Amelia and Daddy have been getting as much snuggle time as they can now that he's home.

She loves the game of insisting that you lie on the couch with her and pretend to sleep. Blankets and snoring required.

 

While we know that it will be quite a few weeks until we get back into a 'normal' routine with all kinds of traveling and moving happening, we're grateful that we're doing it all together.

 

She still loves vacuuming. 

We did a quick house-hunting/home inspection trip to NJ and were able to be up there for less than 24 hours because a friend offered to keep Amelia on her first parentless-sleepover. I was relieved to hear that she behaved and slept easily for our friends. Here are a few photos that she texted me while we were gone.

Having a little chat with their pacifiers after their nap.

Brushing their teeth with the bathtub drip

Amelia has completely taken over this corner of my closet. If I place anything at all on top of the pink drawers, I will find it on the floor somewhere else. The stool is her chair and the drawers are her table for toys, water cups, etc. It's actually given me a lot more time to get ready in the morning because she's happy playing in her little fort.

Baby and Bunny also frequently pretend eat now up to the laundry basket table.

We had our playgroup over to color easter eggs. None of the kids were really into it this year, but the mommies had fun.

Easter Sunday was wet and windy! But we managed a family photo.

Last Minute Visitor - Carolyn!

My friend Carolyn called us and asked if she could come and take a long weekend with us and of course we said yes! It was so nice to have her company as we passed the last days of Daddy in Wyoming and to catch up and for Amelia to get to boss someone else around.

I had made plans for lovely outdoor fun since we were experiencing spring-like weather when she called. But we ended up with freezing rain and snow during her visit and Amelia came down with a cold so we had to change plans and stay inside with more projects and playing.

We baked some shortbread. It was yummy!
(Note that Amelia insists that everyone who cooks wear an apron, even if hers is too small for you).

There was dancing throughout the days!

Amelia demanded a lot of reading

I had seen this idea on pinterest and thought it looked cute (and we had leftover colored ice cubes from a previous snow day). As we were hanging the bags of colored ice on the window, I felt it was pretty anticlimatic and not that exciting. But I was wrong. Amelia loved it - she probably went up to them and touched them and talked about them with us every hour of the day, watching them melt and discussing the colors, letters, ice and water, etc. She still goes up to  this window and reminds me that we put ice on it.

Another fad in our area has been glow sticks in the bath tub. I saw them at the dollar store and thought we wouldn't lose much for trying it out. At first Amelia panicked and didn't want to come near them. So we pulled out the shaving cream and let her play with it while we played with the glow sticks. Once she saw that you could swirl, tap, shake, etc, she caught on and liked it. The bath did end with a tantrum since she didn't want to stop playing, but I guess that's to be expected. I did let her take one to bed and she fell asleep with it, so I'd call it a success.

Carolyn showing her how to tuck them behind her ears.

We tried to make a cushion/pillow mountain and fort, but in the end, she just wanted to hop on the couch cushions. Easy entertainment.

Our planned picnic didn't happen, so we ended up picnicking in the living room. It was still fun!

Night time snuggles.

During the morning before Carolyn left, we tried this indoor playground that was recommended to me. It was pricey, but Amelia loved every second of it and I would definitely go back for an occasional day when we just need to get out of the house in bad weather.

This is what Amelia did for probably 80% of her time there - drove one of the two cars.  If we ever have a yard, there would be looking on craigslist for one of these. She was obsessed with them, content to climb in and out, over and over, drive/be pushed around and had to be torn away to give other kids a turn. If she was in the process of climbing out and another kid approached it, she would dive back into the car with urgency. It was quite hysterical.

We did get her to play in the kitchen area for a little bit. The wooden mixer was a hit.

The suspended play area was built for adults to enter also, which was good because Amelia would have never gone up without me. We tried to give some kids more time with the cars and convinced her to climb up.

She loved it once she got up there.

Waving hello!

 

She asked to go on the slide a couple of times.

Amelia through a roof!

More car time

Thank you Carolyn for coming to spend the weekend with us and for being patient with our yucky weather and snot! We're so grateful that we already have plans to see you again!

Projects

Amelia has learned the word "project" and immediately jumps up and says "yes" whenever I ask her if she wants to do one. Sometimes a project is a crafty activity, sometimes playing in a new way, sometimes 'helping' mommy do what she's doing, etc.

We 'painted' the bathtub with shaving cream one night before bathtime. Don't be impressed - I'm just copying what various friends have been doing; apparently it's a popular rainy day activity around here. Most of the time the shaving cream is colored with food dye, but everyone has had to bleach their grout to get it out. So in light of our current house-selling status, we opted to stick with plain white shaving cream. I don't think Amelia would have had more fun. She played for about 45 minutes before I told her that it was bathtime - she enjoyed cleaning up the shaving cream just as much as playing in it.

She ended up smearing it all over her legs and thought that was the best part. I'm not sure if she remembers the couple of times she's seen me shave my legs or just liked the feeling of it.

Cleaning up was fun too!

We pulled all the toys out of storage for our church playgroup's meeting here. Amelia was thrilled to see toys that had been tucked away for a few weeks, like her shopping cart.

It always amuses me that Amelia pulls the tube out of her vacuum to vacuum the floor. Sometimes she treats it like she's carrying a cord around, sometimes as though she's vacuuming.

We were working on eating tomato soup from a straw. She loves it! (I actually hold onto the straw to minimize the mess, but was able to get her to put her hands in her lap for the photo.)

One day while I was getting ready, she dragged the laundry basket in the bathroom and set up baby to read to her.

Somewhat warmer day to draw outside with chalk. She continues to boss me around, telling me what to draw and then she colors it in.

Pappy's March Visit

My dad had a work trip to this area and ask to stay with us; it turned into a week long visit and a treat! While he had to work during the days, we didn't have to eat dinner alone since Patrick is in his last Wyoming shift (yay!) and he even watched her so I could go to my bible study group without carting her along.

Manipulating Pappy to get some of his breakfast

Trying on her bunny mask

We ended up with some spring-like weather over the weekend so Pappy took Amelia outside to play at the park and on the deck with bubbles and the bean table. 

Mommy doesn't play like that Pappy! That's funny!

A few photos before church

Pappy read plenty of books to Amelia

I think my dad's favorite part of the day was getting Amelia out of her crib in the morning. He took this photo with his phone.

Amelia and Pappy played this game for a long, long time. I'm surprised she didn't fall over from dizzyness when they were done. You can hear her new favorite word - an emphatic "moooore". We get it a lot now.