Quality time

My Gramma came up for Gramma Ma's funeral this past weekend.  I was able to relax and spend some quality time with her before she went home today.  We did lots of things!  I covered get mouth with stickers, we put on make up, played games, watched movies, had a fire put and even played outside!  I got to show her how good I am at pumping when I swing, how well I can ride my bike now and also my class room at school.  I had a great time, even though I've managed to get a cold, and it helped me to keep my mind of off how much I miss my great grandma.

Gramma is a good sport!  She left those stickers on long enough to annoy Momma...which I loved, of course!!

Gramma brought a bat and ball this time, and I had a lot of fun playing baseball with her in the back yard!  I loved it when she ran around and chased me through the yard!!

After all that hard playing we had to chillax for a bit.

Fun at a New Park!

Momma and I went to try out a new park with our friends on Tuesday. It was so much fun! They had these little houses that we got to run around and play in! ARayRay liked playing on the swings and slides more than the little houses, but Ice and I really had a great time running around the mini town and playing hide and go seek, much to Momma's dismay!

I was pouting in the above picture. Momma couldn't quite figure out why, so Ice took a shot at trying to find out why I was sad! Frankly if they knew the truth they would've figured out that perhaps I was just trying to get attention from Ice. ;)Ice had a ton of fun too! He laughed the entire time! Momma had to take a few pictures of him because he is so cute and photogenic!

Here I am playing in a few of those tiny houses! Aren't these just grand? I want a little house like this in my back yard! Momma's gonna have to bat her eyes at Daddy (or perhaps Grandpa?) and convince one of them to build me a little play house outside!

And of course it must have windows and a door! I'll put a little table and chairs in my little house and take my tea sitting on the porch, because, of course, it must also have a front porch! Ok, so maybe Momma is the one who really wants the little house!

Fun with my Neighbor E

I have a really hard time sharing. I'm trying so hard to learn how though. The other day my neighbor friend came over to play with me. Momma got down the bubbles (that's the weird little BBQ looking thing there) and we had a good time blowing lots of bubbles. I did real good and shared my toys with my friend E. She's very patient with me, and that helps. She's about a year older than me, so she understands how hard it is for me to share, and she shows me how she does it so well. I really like E. After we got bored with the bubbles E thought it would be fun to color for a little while. So, Momma brought out the big coloring book and a few crayons for us to use. E didn't seem to mind too much when I wanted to color what she was coloring, and she graciously moved to a different place. We colored in peace and Momma smiled thinking that maybe there was still hope for me afterall! ;)

We even got to enjoy a popscicle outside because it was such a gorgeous day! It really was my first real "outside" play kinda day of the year and I was coming out of my skin I was so happy! How lucky am I to have a friend so close to my age living right next door?? I had so much fun playing with her and can't wait for the next nice day so that we can do it all over again!

A Visit from Uncle D and Aunt C

My Uncle D and Aunt C came to stay the weekend with us. I'm really fond of the two of them and had such a great time. After all, they clearly came to visit me, Momma and Daddy just happened to be there too. They arrived on Friday. That night we went to a fish fry and then bowling! I even got to wear these great little bowling shoes!! See! Here's a close up of my cute tiny bowling shoes. I was cuddling with Daddy here after being worn out from a long day and lots of bowling fun! And of course I cuddle and kiss on my Uncle D too! He loves it. I love bowling, as you can see! I did such a great job picking up my special toddler ball and throwing it down the alley all by my big self! Daddy wanted to help me so bad, but I said no, I can do it all by myself! I knocked down lots of pins too! I just adore my Aunt C. She's a kindergarten teacher, so she is really good at playing with me. I have a hard time letting her go anywhere with out me. We're stuck like glue. Even in the car, like here, below, where I just insisted on holding onto her long pretty hair! I held onto her hair like this and didn't say a peep all the way home from Lunch on Saturday. It was a twenty minute drive. I was tired, and maybe I was afraid if I fell asleep she'd get away. So I made sure to hold on real tight. Good thing Aunt C is a good sport!

My birthday week!

Around here, birthdays can last for a week! That's the way we like it though! My second birthday was January 27, 2010. It was a Wednesday. I started the day out like I have been doing on a pretty routine basis these past couple of weeks...

On the potty.

The good news is that I have success first thing in the morning, which helps me to start the day off good! Momma and Daddy put together and wrapped my presents and put them on the dinning room table the night before, while I was in bed. They thought it would be more fun for me if they took all of the toys out of the boxes before they wrapped them, that way when I opened my gifts I would see a toy, and not a box. They were right!! When I got done on the potty I came running down the hall and hollering when I saw my new stroller sitting up on the table! Daddy thought it would be fun to not wrap it and let me see it up there with all of my other gifts! Problem was I wanted to get it down and play with it, not wait for Daddy to come home from work first!!! I screamed and threw fits all morning. After a thousand and one attempts I was able to pull the stroller down off of the table with out Momma telling me "No, no. We have to wait for daddy!". I wore her down and she gave up. I mean look at me! I'm hard to resist!

I loved that stroller and zoomed my baby Darla all over the house that morning! After breakfast Momma and I went to my playgroup. We took cupcakes with purple frosting and green sugar sprinkles with these cute little zoo animals on top! They were so yummy! I love going to playgroup, and it helped to keep my mind off of that table full of gifts I had to wait to open.

After playgroup Momma took me to eat at the Deli. Momma tried to play it off like she was doing it special for my birthday, but I'm only two and every one knows she was full of it! Then we went home and I took a nap and waited for daddy to come home from work.

After daddy got home we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for a little party. Momma invited one of the families from my playgroup who has 2 kids about my age. We had a great time! I squealed in delight, freaked out at seeing that creepy Chuck E. Cheese walking around, ate lots of food...fed my friend (forcefully), played games, rode rides, opened my present from my friends and ate more cupcakes!!

When we got home that night I FINALLY got to open my present from Momma and Daddy. One of the gifts I got was this dollhouse, which I love and play with all of the time. It even has a potty that makes flushing noises. I like that a lot and put the little people on the potty all the time and then run and tell Momma "Pee, pee!" and Momma laughs and then I laugh and run back and play some more.

I also got a baby doll play set that had a high chair and a bed, along with the stroller. Here I am putting my baby to "Nigh, nigh" just before I was ushered off to bed from my very long, exciting and tiring day!

The next day I spent the day at my Grandpa and Grandma's house. Later that evening my Auntie Maddy and my Great Grandma came over there to visit. Then my Uncle Ted and Uncle Vince where there too. When Momma and Daddy came later everyone celebrated me and my Uncle Ted's birthday. His birthday was the 31st. He's OLD. He turned 29 this year! ;) We ate pizza and had more cake!! Uncle Ted helped me blow out the candle. The candle in this picture is a tradition. Everyone gets to use the same candle over and over for years.

After dinner (and cake) Uncle Ted and I got to open our presents. My Great Grandma and my Uncle Ted bought me baby dolls. I love baby dolls. And now I have enough baby dolls to put one in each thing at home. I named the one with blond hair Daisy because she had flowers on her shirt. I got lots of lovely gifts and can't wait to wear some of my news clothes!

After gifts we sat around the table and played Bunco. (Great) Grandma let me sit on her lap for a while. In this picture she just threw the dice and didn't like what she ended up with. They let me throw the die a few times too. But then I got a little crazy and they made me get down. Sheesh, parent's just don't understand.

On Saturday Gramma and Uncle Ben and Uncle Casey came up to visit me and celebrate my birthday. Uncle Davy and Aunt Courtney tried to come but Uncle Davy had to work. Aunt Jenna was out of town on business too, so she was sad to miss my party also. We all had a great time visiting. We had lunch at the Deli (which is so obviously Momma's favorite quick place) and dinner at the pizza buffet, which I love. They even had balloons up which made the place feel festive! There was a lot of pool shooting and even Scattergories played, after I went to bed of course. It just wasn't as exciting with out Uncle Davy. ;) Daddy kicked Uncle Ben's butt playing pool, and he kicked every one's butt playing Scattergories. Gramma kept playing the letter "L" because she was very tired. Her score was not good. :D

This is Uncle Ben.

We waited until Sunday to open my gifts. And by then we were a little sick of cake, so we decided to put candles in a giant cookie that Momma made the night before. This was Daddy and Gramma's great idea and it worked wonderfully. Daddy had a hard time getting one of the candles to light. I was very interested in how he was doing that. My candles were very cool and had colored fire!!

Everyone sang and then I opened my gifts. One of the gifts I received was a piggy bank that was plastic so that I could carry it around and play with it. I love dollars and have recently take to change as well. I shook it before I opened it and told everyone there was money in it. Yup, I'm that smart. I had a great time putting all of my change and dollars in the bank. Uncle Ben gave me money for my birthday to put in my bank also! I quickly figured out how to take the stopper out, at which point I dumped out the money and started again.

I also was given wooden blocks. I like to stack and build, so this was a nice gift too.

Apparently Momma liked them also.

On Monday my gift from Uncle Jer arrived. He was not happy that it took so long to get here since he paid extra for it to be on time. I didn't mind. It just made my birthday continue on and on! Uncle Jer got me a shopping cart! I was so excited to get the box open!!

Who needs a stroller now??

I can put all three of my babies in here!!

That evening Daddy brought me home two dozen helium balloons! Momma wanted to cover my ceiling in balloons but never got the chance to, so Daddy brought some home for her.

I thought that was so cool! Kaida freaked out and spent most of the evening and part of the next day hiding in the basement (where she is usually scared to be!). I had a ball pulling the balloons down and letting them fly up and hit the ceiling! Kaida would bark and bark her head off. She probably thought the balloons were trying to get me! I had the time of my life and played with them for a long time. The next day they had fallen to the floor and I still had a grand time running through them and kicking them up!

Whew! My birthday was quite an adventure. I had such a great time and love all of my new toys. Momma's not sure where she's going to put them all, but I don't mind having them strewn about the house! It was so nice being able to spend time with my new friends, hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house and visiting with my family. I loved having Gramma and my uncles come up and stay at our home. It has been a fun and exciting week. Thank you to everyone who helped to make it such a special time.

I love you all.

Our Visit to the Zoo

Today we went to the Toledo Zoo with our cousins. This year Muffin seemed to really get into the event and enjoy herself looking at all of the animals, and some rocks and leaves too. She took a special interest in the aquarium, the primates, the polar bear and the elephants. We even road the carousel and the safari train. Both of which she really liked.

This is some lizard. The muffin wasn't allowed to touch any of the lizards or crocs because she was too young and her immune system wasn't sufficient enough. Guess I shouldn't let her pick up the frogs either then!!

There were a ton of statues along the way. In this photo Muffin is IN the arms of a bear!

I don't think she was ready to get off!

This is the dominant Silver Back Gorilla. At one point he chased another gorilla away, and then came charging at the window pounding his chest! It was AWESOME!!

Some of the apes just laid around and relaxed. This one had his feet crossed up on the glass!

On the Safari Train where we saw Zebra and Giraffes!

The polar bears were pretty cool! Here she is about 3 feet in front of a model one. She ran up to it, and then came to a screeching halt and turned to look at us. Guess she realized how big it really was once she got up close!!

She took a real interest in all of the exhibits and got up real close to the window.

The Muffin with her cousins T & J on a statue along the way. Get a shot with all three of them looking and smiling was impossible!

There was a small goat petting area. The muffin is fearless and runs right up to everything she can! Maybe she thought they were dogs. And they're half the size of Kaida... Why would she be scared! LOL!

She got a real kick out of this huge aquarium. I know she loves looking at the fish at Grandma's house, so I got her up real close. She thought they were great till this odd looking thing darted right up to her. Then she freaked a little!

The aquarium was pretty cool. She really liked the sea horses a lot too. I couldn't get a good shot of those. All in all I think she had a great time at the zoo with her cousins. I look forward to being able to take her back soon.