We got home yesterday from a fantastic family vacation in Denver, CO. We took in tons of sights and activities in town. My parents rented a gigantic home for everyone to stay in, it was beautiful and spacious, complete with pool table, theater room, jacuzzi tub, and private bathrooms for each family. Quite impressive.
Fun activities included:
HANGING OUT WITH ALICE!
My brother's daughter is 13 months old now. It was super fun for Miranda to play with her cousin. We liked hanging out at the house for meals, naps, World Cup games, movies, Ring-around-the-Rosie, catch, and books. Alice is such a sweet, sweet baby giving lots of hugs and always waving 'hi' to each member of the family!
DENVER ZOO
Miranda liked the elephants and monkeys the best. Both girls did really well getting in and out of strollers and seeing all the funny animals. Alice was slightly more interested in the other people than the animals. Neither of the girls liked the scary carousal that grandma and grandpa just HAD to take them on!
CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
Miranda went to the museum with Brandon, grandparents and me. There was a couple different rooms to free play with kid-sized houses, animal habitats, painting, building and dancing. Miranda loved the dress-up shoes and dancing in front on the big mirror. There's plenty of footage of that below!
IMAX 3D Toy Story 3
Brandon, my Dad and I went to a big movie theater for the great new Pixar flick! It was as good as the hype!
Rockies v. RED SOCKS GAME
Miranda and Brandon both experienced their first Major League game. The entire family of 9 all went together, which was a pretty impressive feat! The girls didn't watch much of the game, of course. But they did enjoy meeting the Rockies' mascot "Dinger" who is conveniently a big purple dinosaur that Miranda called "BARNEY!" all night. Socks lost that first game, but won later in the week in an awesome game that Scott, Lisa and Eric went to!
SWIMMING and MONKEY BUSINESS
As an unexpected bonus, the house we rented had a membership at the neighborhood 'pool club'. So we got in for free, and took the girls to the nice baby pool. There was also a sweet water slide designed for kids that went wicked fast and twisty for full-grown adults in the big pool. The 'Monkey Business' was an indoor play-land we took the daughters to one day. It was perfect to play at, since it was too hot outside for regular parks. This place had big inflatable bouncers and slides, and lots of things to climb up. The girls loved it (so did the adults!)
Unfortunately, our video footage is mostly of Miranda and not a lot of Alice or other family members. We mostly took pictures on Scott and Lisa's camera, so I'll connect a link to those soon - but we occasionally grabbed the video camera around the house, and took it to the Children's Museum.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
10 Terrific Things about Toddlers
Miranda has grown and changed so much in the past few months. She's certainly moved from baby stage into a toddler. And while that comes with a whole new set of challenges, it's a whole lot of fun too. Here are ten things I enjoy about this new personality of my baby, I mean 'kid'. (She's 20 months old)
1) MEMORY
Whenever we go to the park Miranda plays with the blue swing and points at the black one calling it 'Caelie!' This is because Caelie played with us at the park 3 months ago, and used that swing! Today I grabbed a pair of brown shoes for her and she said 'Al-la' which means her cousin Alice who has the same pair of shoes!
2) WORD POWER
This kid learns new words EVERY day. It's astonishing. This evening (in the 3 hours between supper and bed) she learned 'bunny', 'wait', 'hiding', and 'Barney' and used them each repeatedly and correctly. We think she's up to over 100 words, and increasing by the hour.
3) AFFECTION
Miranda has been very un-affectionate her whole life. Since she could hold up her head, she hasn't rested it willingly on any shoulder. But recently she started giving more hugs and blowing lots of kisses. I love to see her hugging her dolly and even Jack the dog! Of course Mommy and Daddy hugs are the best :-)
4) INDEPENDENCE
She loves to try to put on her own socks and shoes; has even succeeded with one shoe one time! She's into climbing things now too, since she just got tall enough to get onto the chairs and couch. If something is too tricky to climb up, she'll walk to the bathroom and carry the little stool out for assistance.
5) FAVORITISM
Miranda has firmly established her favorite toy, tv show, snack, book, youtube video, etc. Some things change weekly, but some have lasted a long time - like the Brown Bear book, her purple blankie, and on-line videos of cats. Her memory of these things is impeccable. (She sings {la-la} along to the song in the cat video - which is in Japanese).
6) HELPFUL
Doing laundry, dishes and dusting is much more fun now that I have little hands to help. Miranda is pretty good at putting clothes in the dryer (even straight out of her own drawers) and getting the Tupperware to the cabinet (after banging them on the floor for awhile. I do appreciate her fetching my towel when I get out of the shower!
7) BRAVERY
Within the last month she's started climbing kid-size stairs on feet, going down the slide by herself and even dangling from the bars on the playground. Of course, the trade-off here is now she won't LET Mom help even though she's not always stable.
8) VOCAL
I picked her up from daycare one day and asked, 'How was she today?' The answer was, "Loud. Not naughty, just very noisy." That's most days, she babbles and talks and sings and shouts pretty much all the time. Annoying when you're on the phone, pretty adorable most other times.
9) INTERACTIVE
I am loving all the games and songs and toys Miranda and I can play together now. She's really into cooperative play with parents or little friends. This evening we figured out a simplistic hide-and-seek (hence learning the words 'wait' and 'hiding') and played until Mommy was exhausted from running around the house and being found every 20 seconds!
10) AWE
Despite all the things she's learned, we still find something brand new almost everyday. Then I get to watch Miranda take it in with her eyes (and mouth, and mind) wide open. This weekend it was lots of new and funny animals at the zoo. This morning it was a great thunderstorm with lots of noisy rain. I love the look on her face when she's discovering something new!
All in all, we are still really enjoying our little girl. But that's not to say that parenting is all roses, and a toddler will highlight that quickly! So my second list is 1 Terrible Toddler Trait.
1) STUBBORN
Her intense independence and devotion to only her favorite things magically combines with her Vocal powers to produce full-on meltdown tantrums pretty much everyday. Whether it's not wanting to leave the park, eat that vegetable, or let Mommy finish an e-mail she will make her anger painfully known to everyone within a 1-block radius. (It's a good thing she's learning to hug, so Mommy doesn't lose it, huh?)
Thanks for reading my list. If you have/had kids, what do/did you love about their toddler days?
1) MEMORY
Whenever we go to the park Miranda plays with the blue swing and points at the black one calling it 'Caelie!' This is because Caelie played with us at the park 3 months ago, and used that swing! Today I grabbed a pair of brown shoes for her and she said 'Al-la' which means her cousin Alice who has the same pair of shoes!
2) WORD POWER
This kid learns new words EVERY day. It's astonishing. This evening (in the 3 hours between supper and bed) she learned 'bunny', 'wait', 'hiding', and 'Barney' and used them each repeatedly and correctly. We think she's up to over 100 words, and increasing by the hour.
3) AFFECTION
Miranda has been very un-affectionate her whole life. Since she could hold up her head, she hasn't rested it willingly on any shoulder. But recently she started giving more hugs and blowing lots of kisses. I love to see her hugging her dolly and even Jack the dog! Of course Mommy and Daddy hugs are the best :-)
4) INDEPENDENCE
She loves to try to put on her own socks and shoes; has even succeeded with one shoe one time! She's into climbing things now too, since she just got tall enough to get onto the chairs and couch. If something is too tricky to climb up, she'll walk to the bathroom and carry the little stool out for assistance.
5) FAVORITISM
Miranda has firmly established her favorite toy, tv show, snack, book, youtube video, etc. Some things change weekly, but some have lasted a long time - like the Brown Bear book, her purple blankie, and on-line videos of cats. Her memory of these things is impeccable. (She sings {la-la} along to the song in the cat video - which is in Japanese).
6) HELPFUL
Doing laundry, dishes and dusting is much more fun now that I have little hands to help. Miranda is pretty good at putting clothes in the dryer (even straight out of her own drawers) and getting the Tupperware to the cabinet (after banging them on the floor for awhile. I do appreciate her fetching my towel when I get out of the shower!
7) BRAVERY
Within the last month she's started climbing kid-size stairs on feet, going down the slide by herself and even dangling from the bars on the playground. Of course, the trade-off here is now she won't LET Mom help even though she's not always stable.
8) VOCAL
I picked her up from daycare one day and asked, 'How was she today?' The answer was, "Loud. Not naughty, just very noisy." That's most days, she babbles and talks and sings and shouts pretty much all the time. Annoying when you're on the phone, pretty adorable most other times.
9) INTERACTIVE
I am loving all the games and songs and toys Miranda and I can play together now. She's really into cooperative play with parents or little friends. This evening we figured out a simplistic hide-and-seek (hence learning the words 'wait' and 'hiding') and played until Mommy was exhausted from running around the house and being found every 20 seconds!
10) AWE
Despite all the things she's learned, we still find something brand new almost everyday. Then I get to watch Miranda take it in with her eyes (and mouth, and mind) wide open. This weekend it was lots of new and funny animals at the zoo. This morning it was a great thunderstorm with lots of noisy rain. I love the look on her face when she's discovering something new!
All in all, we are still really enjoying our little girl. But that's not to say that parenting is all roses, and a toddler will highlight that quickly! So my second list is 1 Terrible Toddler Trait.
1) STUBBORN
Her intense independence and devotion to only her favorite things magically combines with her Vocal powers to produce full-on meltdown tantrums pretty much everyday. Whether it's not wanting to leave the park, eat that vegetable, or let Mommy finish an e-mail she will make her anger painfully known to everyone within a 1-block radius. (It's a good thing she's learning to hug, so Mommy doesn't lose it, huh?)
Thanks for reading my list. If you have/had kids, what do/did you love about their toddler days?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)