perfect outing

Yesterday was a fantastic day. Since my parents were in town, we decided to take Jonathan on an outing and take the paddle-boat pedestrian ferry across the river to the children's museum and then ride it back for a picnic lunch by the harbor. And it was perfect.

We arrived at the ferry before they had started running for the day, but Jonathan discovered to his delight that he could scare the seagulls by running towards them. He spent the 20 minutes we waited for the boat running back and forth across the docks after the birds, watching them flutter away and laughing with delight. The memory of his bouncing toddler run (where he looks like he might take-off after every step) accompanied by his perfect joy-filled laugh is one of the images I hope to never lose from my mind.

The boat itself was also a huge hit. The paddlewheel was mesmerizing and watching for the other boats and waving to the captain were all terrific.

And our little children's museum was a perfect destination. About an hour's worth of activity before heading back for lunch and nap-time.

It is amazing to me how having family in town motivates me to finally take adventures I've been pondering for moths and helps me enjoy even the simplest things more and take set backs with a little more ease. If only every day was so full of family, fun, and magic!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always hated the sappy commercialized romanciness of this holiday. But I have always loved the cheesy artsy-craftsy construction paper hearts and glitter version. So instead of going out for some sort of fancy candlelight dinner and leaving Jonathan home with a sitter, we are staying in and eating cookies!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!!

indoor fun

Over the past few weeks, a number of bugs have been going around our house and have left all of us just feeling exhausted. Jonathan has been taking 3 hour naps at home and asking to go to bed early. And we've been right behind him!! That plus the cold weather and a snow day has meant that we've had to improvise and be creative to stay entertained in the house all day. Here are some pics from our exploits...

I cut up an old sweet potato to make stamps- the triangle and square were easy, the circle took more work. Jonathan loved banging them from the paint pan onto the paper and was very excited to point out the shapes and then count them ( as in "one, two, free, six triangles!").

Then, during snack time, I realized that his chex-mix contained bits of circles, squares, and triangles. So I pulled out the his paintings and he matched the corresponding snack shapes with his paintings.

Yesterday I got this idea from another blog and mixed together a bunch of almost empty pantry wares- a few tablespoons each of a bunch of kinds of rice and lentils and barley. Then I collected some various plastic containers and scoops and put it all in a 9x13 pan. This was the jackpot. It kept Jonathan raptly entertained for over an hour. (though it did require some major sweeping later)

Making play-dough is on our list next!