Zoo FAIL

So originally I was going to meet a friend at the Toledo Zoo last weekend. But, she wasn't feeling well on Saturday and we were going to the air show in Dayton on Sunday. So.... the weather was supposed to be nice today so this morning I sent a quick text over to Mary and she said sure... see you there at 10. Well, Greg thought he'd better come since I'd have a tough time navigating animals and two kids. Nice thought, it's ALWAYS easier with one more adult! I pulled up the zoo website and purchased tickets and a parking pass online. I had the option to pick up the tickets at Will Call or print them at home. Normally, I would have just printed - but it said it could take up to 2 hours for the email to arrive. Ummmm, no thanks. So I chose will call. By the time we were all loaded up and out the door, I knew we'd miss Mary and Callahan -- but we'd give it a shot to see if we could find each other. We arrived at the zoo, made it to the parking lot, gathered our supplies and headed in.

The ticket line was fairly long, but I saw some booths that said Advanced Tickets or something along those lines. We headed that way and got in line. There was a woman standing by the gate to get in and she said, if you already have your tickets, I can let you in here. I went to show her the printout receipt and she tells me,"Oh -- you need to go to Guest Services to pick up your tickets." UGH - are you kidding me? I told Greg to stay there with Atticus and Wren and I headed over to Guest Services. I was number three in line. Doesn't sound too daunting except the person at the window apparently had a million and one issues! She was having a party there at 3, but the people were arriving at different times, and where would they leave the gifts and where did they catch the train and could some people do x while others did y, and what about if they had membership passes and what about BLAH BLAH BLAH. Seriously, it was ridiculous. Made even more so by the fact that will call tickets were being held at Guest Services! Oy. So - finally got the tickets, went back to the boys and got into the park. (Learned later that the woman at the gate was supposed to have given each of the kids a FREE Fisher Price toy -- but we never got those!!!) I was trying to read the map while slathering on sunscreen and texting with Mary to see where she was at this point. So - I turned the wrong way towards Africa instead of African Safari (or vice versa). G'ah.... turned back around and headed towards the new baby elephant, Lucas. The place was crowded, we didn't even get to see the baby and we never found Mary! We continued on, but it was so hot that 99% of the animals were hiding. Seriously. I think we saw 4 animals. We attempted to seek refuge in the Aquarium - but it was wicked crowded in there too - and my kids were getting restless. We tried to see what was offered at the Fisher Price special setup thingy - but there was a long line there too, so we kept walking. We ended up playing at the playground for a while before saying - two peas in a bucket! We packed up and headed to the car. It just wasn't meant to be.

And I'm still peeved we didn't get our free Fisher Price toy!

Poopies!

Houston, we have confirmed two instances of poop. I repeat two instances of poop have in fact reached the bowl. Can I get a hallelujah!

The magic lure? Bubbles.

I love little kids. :-)

Party Plans

Here's the plan thus far...

Food -

• Popcorn to be served in paper cones (orange cones that I've painted with a white stripe to look like construction cones)
• Go-Gurt Simple (because I felt I needed something a bit more substantial than just snacks incase the tots don't get home in time for lunch before naps)
• Mini pretzels
• Fruit salad (thought about fruit skewers, then thought sharp sticks and 3 year olds might be a bad idea!)
• Dirt on a stick because it just sounds like fun and I have a lot of Oreos already at the house
• Build your own cupcake station with strawberry and vanilla cupcakes (Atticus' choice) along with three types of frosting, sprinkles, oreo "dirt" and mini chocolate chips as toppings
• Juice boxes and bottles of water

We've got a couple of automatic bubble blowing hand-held thingies for the kids to play with and we're bringing our bubble machine. We've also got hard hats and stickers to decorate them with...

I'm sticking with the orange and green theme from the invitations (diggers, dump trucks, cones etc) and I found on-sale orange table cloths, paper plates, cups and plasticware for 75 cents a package! Woo hoo. I've got some wooden dump trucks that I hope to use for the cupcake toppings. If that doesn't work -- they'll just be decorations and/or take homes for the kids. Crayons were on sale for back to school sales -- so I was able to pick up 24 packs of Crayola crayons for 39 cents each. Then, with a 25% off coupon - I was able to get coloring books for 75 cents -- which means the thank you for coming to my party take home gifts are coloring books and crayons. :-) I really wanted to find Tonka truck or Bob the Builder coloring books, but I wasn't able to...

As for things to do -- I was going to plan activities, but then thought -- eh...they're all right around 3 years old, do they really need organized activities just yet? So, we'll have the bubbles and I'm bringing a bunch of trucks for them to race around the pavilion with -- and then we'll just let them loose on the playground. I really wanted to create a demolition station using the cardboard bricks and some sort of wrecking ball, but I don't own any of the bricks and it seemed a bit silly to buy them just for the party...

If anyone out there has any other last minute brilliant ideas or if you think of some way to greatly improve upon my plans thus far... let me know. I have Friday afternoon to finish crafting, baking, etc and the party is this weekend!!

RSVP Rant

Come on people. Phone, email, tell me in person -- why is it so hard to RSVP? Grrrr.

To those that have replied - my deepest thanks. I truly appreciate knowing whether or not I should bake 6 cupcakes or 2 dozen cupcakes. :-)

Growing Up

Atticus is getting ready for bed right now and he just crawled into our bed and told me: Go away Mommy. I busy right now. Stop bothering me. I sleeping.

Here comes the independence!

I can still hear him barking orders to Greg... No Daddy. You sit here. Turn off light. Lay down.

Hee hee... at least he knows what he wants tonight!

Airplanes and Helicopters

When Greg was growing up, he recalls going to the Dayton Air Show with his Dad. The tradition continued this weekend. We packed up the car and made the 2 hour trek south to Dayton to attend the air show. It's quite the production. $10 to park and $20 for each adult ticket for admission! But despite the heat - I know Atticus had a grand ole time!

Here are a few pictures from our day trip. Click on the collage to make it bigger.

Down.

This is Wren's new favorite word. No up... although she has been very lovey lately -- nope, the word of the weekend was down. She's into exploring and wants to be down. Granted, then she's getting into all sorts of things she shouldn't or attempting to stand while holding onto wobbly objects (dresser drawers that can open and then close on one's fingers - OUCH!).

She's feeling slightly better from the ear infections, from what I can tell -- but she's gone back to not sleeping well. We're having a tough time getting her down (which is a real departure for her) and she's waking up anywhere from 3am - 5am. Ugh. We've got a trip to the ENT tomorrow and if they agree, we've got surgery scheduled for tubes on 8/5/11.

I Just Singing

Row row row my boat down the street. Merrily merrily merrily life butter dreams.

Happy Birthday Atticus!

My little man turned 3 years old today. Sigh. He's going to be leaving for college before I know it! But maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Today was a pretty good day for Atti. We started off by going to "school" for a pancake and egg with Mr. Joe. (I'm really going to miss the hot breakfasts at The Gathering Place). Then, it was off to Atti's room where his friends were very excited to see him and they sang Happy Birthday to him ALL day long (per Ms. Amber). Just after I left, Latonia brought two big balloons to his room too - very exciting! When I arrived to pick him up, I also learned that he went potty 4 times today and had only one wet diaper! Woo hoo. After I gathering up all his things, I surprised the little guy with a duck bill whistle for no real apparent reason. I just thought he'd like it. It looks kinda like this one, but with less creepy eyes. :) Next up, we headed over to a relatively new Perrysburg, OH hotspot called O-Deer Diner that opened up next to where we go for music classes. Not exactly a traditional diner per se, but we got hot dogs, chips and ice cream -- a classy dinner for a 3 year old, no?

When we arrived home, Atticus came in the house to find a giant dump truck and front loader waiting for him. Seriously, they're so big I didn't even wrap them. :) He didn't seem to mind. We'll give him some more gifts probably tomorrow. I also told him that the paci fairy had been to his room and had left him two big pieces of candy for being such a big boy and giving his paci to a new baby. That was an epic FAIL. Even though we'd been talking about it for ages, he totally flipped out when the paci wasn't there. I had to go summon the paci fairy and let her know that Atti just wasn't ready. He was going to give her back the candy until he was ready. We'll have to work on that one...

Overall, a good day for the little man. I'll post a more sappy traditional letter to him later this week...

Falling Behind

There are way more things to get done that there are hours in the day. Holy moly batman. Between doctor's visits, move preparations, work, kids, and general mayhem....

I'm still trying to will the laundry to do itself. Sigh. My Jedi powers are rusty.

And for the record - I'm really going to miss the take home dinners from The Gathering Place when we move to New Orleans. In addition to all the normal brew-ha-ha, Greg and I are going to have to figure out how to feed our family with actual COOKING in the very near future. :)

And on that note -- back to the grind.

Laundry.

I tried willing it to wash, dry and fold itself tonight - but so far, no luck. Maybe the folks in NYC have the right idea when using a laundry service! :-)

Peanut Update

For those not in the know... Peanut's health has been steadily declining, especially since our move to Ohio. We have an appointment tomorrow morning to have her put to sleep. My eyes well up just typing that, but it's time. She has been an amazing little kitty and she's lived a good life. She's lived in more states than most people and she's even gotten to fly with Greg piloting an airplane. Even I haven't had that opportunity! She's been a part of Greg's life through thick and thin -- she's seen graduations, triumphs, weddings, babies and more. So, if it moves you -- just keep her and Greg especially in your thoughts tomorrow...

Here's a flashback photo of Greg and Peanut from 2007 ish?

Potty Update

We are making some serious headway in the potty like a big boy movement. Granted, this now means that we spend an absurd amount of time in the bathroom -- but I think he's catching on. Atti will successfully pee every time he sits now. He's still going some in the diaper too, but I am happy with the progress of late. The big news came this week when he actually started peeing at school! Miss Amber gave him a small package of candy hearts (I'm sure that were left over from Valentines!!) and it got him all fired up. :-)

I'm trying to stay positive with every attempt and jump and cheer and perform the "potty dance" with each successful tinkle -- but I gotta tell you. When it's taking 1.5 hours for the bath/bedtime ritual because you have to go potty 4x, it gets a little old. Thankfully, I see a diaper free future on the horizon. Maybe Wren will train early and we'll be done done done in less than a year? Fingers crossed!! I'd like to move to NYC as a family of four that all wears big kid underpants!

Baked Chicken Strips

So I had defrosted a couple of chicken breasts that needed to be cooked... I hadn't a clue what I was going to do, but found myself thinking at 10:15pm tonight, I'd best cook them somehow/someway otherwise it was just money down the drain.

So, I winged it based on a recipe I'd used once that I couldn't find. :)

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

about 1/4 C mayo (I know - I hate mayo!)

1 pkg Lipton Onion Seasoning Mix

Italian Bread Crumbs

Shredded Parmesan Cheese

Mix together the soup mix, a healthy dose of parmesan cheese and I'm guessing about a cup of the bread crumbs. I meant to toss in some additional seasonings, but honestly I forgot... Lightly cover the chicken with mayo and then dredge in the crumb mixture. Bake either in a greased 9x13 or on a cookie sheet with non-stick foil at 425 for about 20 minutes or until the juices run clear. So freaking good and moist!

Sand-Tastic

On a slight whim, I picked up the kiddos about 30 minutes early this afternoon and we headed over to Sand-Tastic at Levis Commons. Atticus was a hoot. I had Wren strapped into the Ergo, so I wasn't able to really "dig" in to the sand -- but after about 15 minutes of skirting around the edge of the ginormous sandbox, Atti finally got up the nerve to go in. When you've got some sensory issues -- the feeling of sand on your bare feet has to be a new and potentially jarring feeling. But - he did really well. He grabbed a shovel and a pail and was moving sand from one bucket to another and generally having fun. Of course, it was getting near to dinner time, and I was on my own, but I bucked up and decided to be brave and walk across the parking lot and take the kids to Johnny Rockets. It went better than expected behavior wise. It was actually Wren who had the first melt down -- but I blame it on fatigue. She was just plain ole tired. Then, Atticus wanted to go into the "kitchen" of the restaurant and I was afraid I was going to dislocate his arm trying to keep him from doing so! Three year olds can be a *wee bit stubborn when they make up their minds! Granted, Atticus didn't eat anything (even though we ordered what he'd asked for...) and then decided at 8:30 when he was crawling into bed that he was hungry. Oy. I'm probably a bad Mom, but at that point I had to say sorry bud... we'll have a big breakfast tomorrow. Wren on the other hand had a Fiddlestick before we left daycare, then while Atticus was digging in the sand, she had a Mum Mum and a pouch of baby food. Then, she also proceeded to eat 3/4 of a grilled cheese sandwich at the restaurant. The little lady can pack it in -- she apparently does not have any issues eating most anything at anytime!

It was fun. I'm debating on going back again tomorrow afternoon... we'll have to see how the naps go and how hot it is when the kids wake up!!

Cool Idea

This is so simple, it's amazing! Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes from a slice of watermelon. Insert a popsicle stick and then put the "pops" in the freezer. A couple hours later - wham-O presto... watermelon pops!!

I love it. (And I think both kiddos will too!)

Tips to the new Toddler Blog on Babble!

Fireworks

Not only did we get to see a great fireworks show from our master bedroom this year... I also learned that our family witnessed the largest display of fireworks in the US history to date! According to Wikipedia (because everything you read on the internet is true) the 2009 display in Manhattan was the largest fireworks show!

If you didn't know us then - or weren't following... Greg, Jen and Atticus (no Wren yet) spent the summer of 2009 in Manhattan while Greg was working for Cravath. I actually posted a back then about catching the show. Apparently I didn't write enough though! It was really cool -- and the fact that we were able to watch from Cravath made it even cooler. Indoors, up on the I don't even remember what floor... it was a great show.

But... I have to give some serious kudos to the local neighborhood here too. The Belmont County Club put on quite a display -- about 30 minutes long -- right here in the middle of the neighborhood! Hallelujah, the kids slept miraculously through the entire thing too!

I think next year Atticus will be ready for sparklers... we'll see. :)

Bookshelf

If only money was no object... check out this rocking bookshelf that I would LOVE to put in Wren's room.

Nurseryworks Tree Bookcase

Opposite of Mortified?

Perhaps all the "stink" over the potty is sinking in? Not only was Atticus completely dry this morning when he woke up - but he also peed on the potty! He told me he was dry when I went in to get him which totally surprised me. I actually didn't believe him, but it was true, so immediately, I said AWESOME little dude - let's go sit on the potty right now! We stripped down and went in to the bathroom. First he wanted to stand, then sit, then wiggle around. I finally convinced him to sit for just a moment and we heard the first little tinkling sound. I must have looked like a crazy lady jumping up and down and clapping and hollaring. When I quieted down, we heard more tinkle, tinkle. I jumped around some more and kept on clapping. This scenario repeated 4 times until he told me he was done. He was so excited!

(Oh, and this whole time I was holding Wren who was also clapping for Atticus. Ha!!)

Let's hope we're onto something!!