I'm finally able to come back to post a few things since we got our power back after being "in the dark" for 4 1/2 days. Thankfully we didn't have any damage to our house (just a lot of limbs down in our yard) but there were a lot of huge trees down in our neighborhood and the surrounding areas leaving over 400,000 people out of power in our city. Willow was a trooper through it all and we would often chant "Come back lights. Come back lights." Needless to say, we were all VERY excited to find our power back on today!
A view out the front door during part of the storm:
A tree split in half and fell in the street on our block:
One street away:
We had two days of school cancelled, so Willow and I enjoyed our extra days of summer play! Here are some pics from the Children's Museum:
Our favorite after-dinner activities these days include: running laps around the house, playing Hide-and-Go-Seek, or messing around in the yard.
Sometimes at dinner Willow will eat as much as Chris and I do. On this particular night Willow discovered that she could eat her vegetables, chicken, and rice on the same fork-full (sorry Aunt Sara). She kept saying "chicken, broccoli, same time."
Willow and I spent a week visiting Nana and Grandpa in Colorado. Of course she was spoiled with attention, new toys, and lots of good food.
The dry heat in Colorado is much more bearable than the humidity in Virginia, but popsicles taste just as good!
We visited a fun water park in town!
Willow could hardly walk by the piano without touching a few keys to make sure it was still working.
Here's her playing last summer:
At the beginning of our trip this year (I love the shoulder action around 37 seconds in):
Developing into features for specific people: "The Kim Song" and "The Chad Song"
King Charlie laying on his throne (one of many around the house). Since being home, Willow has called our Alli cat "Charlie" many times.
We made a breakthrough in the area of swimming pools. It might help that the pool was as warm as bath water and was only 1 foot to 2 feet deep. We went 3 times and just took pictures the first time, but she warmed up to the pool quicker and quicker each time we visited. By the third day, she was jumping up and down in the 2 ft area, letting me "swim" with her while she kicked her feet, jumped into my arms off the side of the pool, laid down on large/flat floaties, went down the whale slide, blew bubbles out of her mouth, and walked around with confidence as she pushed a huge beach ball! She even tripped and fell a few times, falling under the water, but didn't fuss a bit or even seem scared (made mommy's heart stop though!).
We spent a lot of time at the Sweet Corn Festival eating lots of corn-on-the-cob and various other festival junk foods. Willow loved the kid area that had 3 inflatables (slide, obstacle course, and bounce house).
Exhibit A of festival junk foods: corn dog
Exhibit B: 6" pickle
Going, going...
Gone!
They have quite a system down for getting your all-you-can-eat corn-on-the-cob. The picture below is the "shucking station." You walk up and are handed a right-off-the-grill, freshly shucked corn-on-the-cob. You can then walk 25 yards to the butter station where volunteers squeeze butter onto it for you, followed by do-it-yourself salt and pepper. Yummy!!!
Willow creating her own dance floor =)
Enjoying the parks in the area!
We always Skyped with Daddy before going to bed. When I'd ask Willow to tell daddy what she'd done that day, she'd say "Play, run...everything!" Here's Willow giving Auntie Kim some Skype kisses:
Willow did an excellent job sleeping on her napper at both grandparents' houses during our trips! Thankfully she didn't realize that she could actually get off of her napper and when she'd wake up we'd hear her singing and go in to find her laying on her napper still. Are we ready for a big girl bed???
We miss you Nana and Grandpa! Thanks for a wonderful week!
- Willow is getting better and better at communicating, getting the majority of her points across on the first try. She's seeming more and more like a little girl all grown up.
- Willow continues to learn more letters of the alphabet and sings the ABC song pretty clearly these days. She's showing evidence of having quite an abstract little mind so far. We were eating curly fries and she held one up and said "See" (one of her favorite phrases these days), but later held another one out and said "Another C." Some of those curly fries sure did look like Cs! She's also held out a broken olive from her burrito and said "C." When eating Cheerios one morning, she looked at their shape on her spoon and said "flower."
- Willow is soooo close to being potty trained. She'll stay dry in her diaper all day if we remember to take her about every 2 hours, though she's not yet telling us when she needs to go potty (besides poops). I think that going potty on the airplane is a good sign that she's over her fear of public bathrooms!! She still has a fear of the air driers in public bathrooms though.
We had a great week seeing our family in PA. Willow definitely soaked up all of the attention and put big smiles on everyone's face!
Willow helped Gramma paint the bottom of her to-be-made-bed-frame. She painted delicately at first...
...then jumped in feet first!
What a messy messy girl!!
Willow's response to "Show me your belly."
The finished product:
Willow loved playing at the park briefly with Shaila and Meara. She doesn't get a chance to play with kids their age much, but they loved following her around and kicking the ball.
She just can't keep her eyes off those fun girls!!
We had a good time during Kim's visit to see us this weekend. Of course it was too short, but we look forward to the next time we get to see her. We enjoyed playing at our favorite Inflatable Palace and eating lots of food!
It's fun to see how much confidence Willow has gained during our numerous trips to Inflatable Palace. Here's my best "snapshot" of her diving in the ball pit.
After Alli had her kittens I was pretty sure we'd never have the chance to play all summer long with such cute tiny kittens. I was wrong. A little girl in our neighborhood found 2 kittens (approximately 5 weeks old) down the street whose mother was hit by a car. The girl's mom wouldn't let her keep them so I told her we'd keep them overnight and find homes for them. We put them in a box and closed the door to our spare bedroom so Alli wouldn't freak out (she's very territorial). Two days later our neighbor came over with another kitten of the same size, so now we have three! Unfortunately we haven't had any luck in finding homes for them and the vet clinics and foster agencies I've spoken to are all full since it's "kitten season." While we continue to seek out homes for these adorable little guys (leave a comment if you're interested!!!) we've thoroughly enjoyed playing with them.
At first Willow was content to watch them from afar and would tense up if they walked between her legs:
But clearly now she's fell in love! She's very gentle with them and will hold them on her lap or against her chest to pet them. She was even giving them kisses while they laid on her belly. The first thing out of her mouth when we get her from her nap is to play with the kitties. I have to continually remind her that they're not ours and we're trying to find homes for them.
Mommy and Daddy enjoy them just as much as Willow!
