Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Just photos today. No time for thoughts.

Jen and I at Shadowbox Cabaret at Easton.

The whole Nye Crew at Shadowbox. What a great time! Thanks Jen!!!!

On Christmas day W. is in his new play kitchen. I made a stove out of a cardboard box. He had a grand time opening the oven and putting the pots and pans in and taking them out.

Grampy and Cuzzy D

Todd and W. opening his first Thomas the Train set from Uncle Ian and Cuzzy D.



Grandpa and W. at the Ramming Christmas celebration. Grandpa put together the LEGO ferris wheel for W. awhile ago. W. likes turning it on and changing the direction of the ride.

In East Liverpool, visiting John and Sherry.


Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas to all!!

W., Grampy and I went to McDonald's yesterday (it was W's first time!!) and he looked so cute eating his ice cream cone I just had to snap a photo.
Merry Christmas to all!!


Monday, December 22, 2008

Out and about in Groveport Ohio

I took W. to the Groveport Town Hall for a LEGO exhibit. This exhibit is FREE and runs until Dec. 30. They built an amazing LEGO town with gardens, crops of corn, a lake, a skyscraper, houses and much much more. There was a table with a million tiny LEGOs for the children to play with. I guess I didn't realize how tiny some of the regular LEGOs are. W. only has the larger size LEGOs. They also had an area where kids could play with Lincoln Logs. They displayed many items from the past; an apple cider press, corn husker and many old photographs. The most interesting item W. found to look at was the chamber pot. He kept wanting to take the lid on and off.


Saturday, December 13, 2008

Today at Graeter's Indoor Play Area




We went to Whole Foods on Lane Ave. to get a few groceries. We left our house at 10:30 and W. fell asleep on the way there. I let him sleep in the carseat for about 45 minutes before I woke him up

Friday, December 12, 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!


This may be the only card you get this year. Last Tuesday we had our first family portrait taken by my amazing friend. Eden Ink Photography

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

a playdate today


W. had a playdate with M. and her little sister R. W. enjoyed holding a real baby. Here is a picture.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Santa Claus

We accidentally saw Santa on Saturday. (We were at Wal-mart picking up a small Christmas tree for my Dad.) W. was not at all interested in sitting on his lap. W. did take the 2 candy canes Santa offered him though. Later that night we went to the Gallery Hop in the Short North and Santa was there too. Santa even knew his name!! I was not able to see W.'s reaction becasue he was in a backpack carrier. I did pose with Santa with W. on my back. I need to look online for the pic that was taken.

I am VERY glad I have not tried to get him a photo with Santa. I would have been disappointed.

Thursday, November 20, 2008


I am trying out my new camera's video option. I already like the camera better than my old one. My old camera had an internal zoom lens which sucked!

We are heading to Easton tonight to see the tree lighting and Santa Claus. Todd is going to Pittsburgh for the Steelers game tonight. I hope we can ALL stay warm!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

more...





now pictures

These are from Leed's Farm in Osterander Ohio. We had a great time!!





Monday, November 10, 2008

PICTURES!!!!

I finally went to Target and got all the photos from my MIL's camera on a disk. Here are some recent pictures... post tonight. ran outta time

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

An attempt at an update

My camera is still broken. My wonderful mother-in-law is letting me borrow her old camera, which is awesome, but I don’t have a way to hook it up to the computer yet so I still cannot post any pictures. I have been taking some pics and when I get the pictures off the camera I will likely post a ton!!

W. went for his 2 year well-baby visit on Friday. The Dr. talked to us a lot about his nutrition. He eats fairly well but was concerned that he doesn’t consume enough green vegetables. The only green veggies I can get him to eat on a regular basis are cucumbers (and I had been peeling the skin off for him-read taking away all the vitamins and nutrients.) Since the appointment I have only been peeling part of the skin off the cucumbers. We also discussed increasing his yogurt/cheese consumption because he has taken antibiotics twice since he was about a year old. Dr. also wrote on his chart that he was articulate. Yes, our 2-year-old son is ARTICULATE and we are proud. He had some blood drawn to check his hemoglobin, blood sugar and lead levels. His lead level was 6 at his 1 year check-up. Normal lead levels range from 1-10. Dr. is not all that concerned but wants to keep an eye on it. The Dr. called me yesterday to report that his lead level is now at 7 and his other levels look great. She wants me to contact the health department to have them evaluate our home for lead. I will be doing this soon.

W. had his 2nd birthday on Saturday. We had a great time!! Thanks to all that joined us!! He got a ton of great books, big boy underwear, jammies, toys and a 3-wheeled scooter. He loves the scooter and is really good at it already. That super MIL also made the coolest birthday cake EVER. It was shaped like The Very Hungry Caterpillar from the Eric Carle book. W. couldn’t wait to have some cake so before the party even started GM was kind enough to cut some for him. He may not have eaten all that much cake but did devour the icing (just like his Dad and Mom.)

W. is VERY into watching videos of himself on TV from our video camera. It is the only TV I can get him to watch. He’ll occasionally watch a Bob The Builder DVD but never becomes engrossed in it like he does when he watches himself. I can actually get dinner made or dishes washed when he watches it.

BIG BOY BED!! We converted his crib into the toddler bed on Tuesday. He was excited. He went to bed without any hesitation and slept well until about 2:00AM when I found him on the floor. He cried out like he normally does and when I tried to put him back in his bed after comforting he said “Daddy” so I took him to our bed until he fell asleep about an hour later. I put him back in the toddler bed and tucked him in. He stayed there until about 5:15AM when I found him on the floor again. This time he came to our bed until Todd’s alarm went off. I would have to say that was a successful transition. We’ll see how the next few nights go…

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Phish will be touring again!!

The hiatus is over!! They are playing a 3-night run in Hampton, Virginia in March 2009. I anticipate them releasing more dates soon...Wooooooooooohoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The kids went to zoo on Wednesday. They liked the gorillas. Wonder why?

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

my camera is broken :-(

so I haven't taken any pictures (except w/my cell phone.) I feel like I am missing lots of chances to take still pictures. I have been videoing him in day-to-day life more though. He has been enjoying watching the videos. I just hook the camera right up to the TV. It's the only TV he REALLY watches.

W. has started counting or rather singing the Electric Company's jingle. It's very cute because he "counts" so fast he often gets red in the face. He also replaces "7" and "11" with Evan.

Tonight on the way to our mechanic in Hilliard we passed at least 2 Giant Eagle grocery stores and he pointed them out to me. These were not "our" stores. I was amazed and called Todd right away.

Friday, September 19, 2008

What an interesting week we've had!

The Wind Storm of 2008 (aka remnants of Hurricane Ike) hit Columbus hard on Sunday. A significant portion of central Ohio lost power. We got our power back on Wednesday around 12 noon. Columbus Schools cancelled classes for 4 days. It was weird having "snow days" and having nice weather.

On Monday I babysat.

On Tuesday W. and I went to the zoo. Here is a video of the male lion growling or something.

W. and I sat and watched the gorillas for about 20 minutes. W. was eating an apple and one of the gorilla's came up to where we were sitting and looked intently at me and him. Then he scurried off. The same gorilla came back to us several times. Each time the gorilla came back to us he picked up a twig and pressed it against the glass. I pretended to take the twig and eat it. It was an amazing experience for me. I don't usually sit and watch the animals at the zoo. I usually just see the animal then move on. I plan to take time to sit and watch the animals next time we go there. Here is a blurry shot of the gorilla "handing" me the twig.OK W. just woke up from his nap so will continue the post later...

Saturday, September 13, 2008

This has become a challenge.

I have found blogging more difficult since I started back to work.

W. is using sentences now!! His vocabulary is amazing!!

He has not gone on the potty for some time now. I offer every chance I get and he never seems to want to sit on it. He sat on it before he had his bath tonight but didn't use it.

This week at church and with Melani and Sarah W. did not cry when I left. It is so nice to walk out of the room knowing he is happy!!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Hot Times Festival

The 32nd Annual Hot Times Festival is going on this weekend in my own community, Olde Town East. W. and I went down to Parsons and Broad last night to take advantage of the free tokens given away to any person wearing their ComFest volunteer t-shirt. They also gave out temporary tattoos. I put W.'s on him today. He thinks the tattoo is super cool. He is displaying it in the picture as well as another one of his favorite books, Bumpety Bump by Pat Hutchins.

The entire family went back down to Hot Times tonight. W. didn't take a nap earlier today so he ended up falling asleep on the 5 minute ride home.



Monday, September 1, 2008

Grandma's Birthday

On Sunday we went to John and Meghan's to celebrate Grandma's Birthday. This was one of the first times I remember W. actually eating some of the birthday cake. He's definitely going to enjoy his cake on his 2nd birthday!!







Here is a shot of him earlier today with his ornery smile.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Not working today!!

I am off today! I got my 4 days of work in M-Th. We spent the morning walking the dog, eating and stopping at Cafe Brioso and the Pearl Alley Farmer's Market. They had wonderful soft serve ice cream and cheese at the market today. The cows live in Fredericktown, Ohio are completely grass fed. The ice cream sample I had was yummy. Much better than the ice cream we had the other day in Ashley. W. was extremely tired when we were downtown earlier. He crashed on the way home.

Yesterday I took some pictures on our walk to Franklin Park. Xiola loves to swim in the ponds and W. enjoys watching her. W. especially likes watching Xiola jump in the water. I tried to get a picture of him watching her jump in the water.



Here is a short video of W. climbing up the slide. He's pretty much mastered that :-)


Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I am officially back to work

I started work yesterday. I have one school that is the same as last year, but a brand new building and 3 completely new schools. I am working with 4 different nurses at each of my buildings. Having new nurses to work with always makes the beginning of the year interesting. I have to figure out how they work. I also need to make friends with the principals, secretaries, custodians and teachers at all of my schools. And the kids wonder why I can never remember their names.

W. has had a good time the past 2 days with Melani and A. Today he woke from his nap before A. did and he wanted to wake her up. Of course Melani would not let him:-) They went to storytime at the library this morning. The read books about money.

Here's a shot of W. eating the yummy, juicy watermelon I picked up the farmers market last Friday. He has loved the watermelon and cantaloupe but was not real interested in the corn. The corn was super sweet and delicious, even Todd liked it!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Friday, our last weekday before I go back to work...

I woke up and got out of bed before W. did today. That is unusual for us. Once he did wake up we opened his curtain to let the sunshine in and we saw a huge digger getting ready to tear down a building. Needless to say we watched the digger doing its work for quite a long time. Here's a picture of the digger in action.



We took Xiola to the park after watching the digger work. When we got back we headed downtown to the Pearl Alley Farmer's Market. We got a cantaloupe, watermelon and some fresh corn, all picked at 6 am this morning. Yummmmmm. Can't wait to eat it!

We had bagels with cream cheese (a new thing that I have discovered that W. loves) at Cafe Brioso before going up to Cardington to see Grampy and Mimi.

At Grampy and Mimi's we played in the sandbox, fed the fish; Flip and Flop, watched the frog jump in the pond, put some pictures in to frames, and read 3 different Eric Carle books.



On the way back to Columbus we stopped to get an ice cream cone at Whipple's in Ashley. W. did a fantastic job eating his junior size twist. I had to lick it to keep it from dripping on him but he didn't get a drop of ice cream on his shirt. Once we left there W. fell asleep and he has not gotten up yet. I wonder if he'll sleep through the night or wake up soon?!?!?!

Here is a street level picture of what the demolition looks like now. They made good progress in a day!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Favorite Books

I love to catch W. reading books. A few of his favorites right now are
Hush Little Digger by Ellen Olson-Brown
Tip Tip Dig Dig and Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia
Slowly Slowly Slowly Said the Sloth by Eric Carle (any of his books, really!)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Our first day without a nap

and it didn't go all that badly. Todd had the day off work (but will have to work on Saturday) and we watched K. and F. W. LOVES his girls!! I had a suspicion that W. would skip his nap b/c of the girls. He just wouldn't go to sleep, Todd and I both tried. W. did pretty good the rest of the day, considering...

We ventured to Tuttle Park Pool in the afternoon. W. enjoyed playing with his graduated cups, pouring and dumping. He also liked playing in the gentle sprinklers.

Yesterday W. and I met Angelene and Z. at the Reed Road Water Park in Upper Arlington. For the first time, I noticed W. walking on his hands with his belly in the water.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

a wedding and more pottying!!

We got a chance to celebrate the wedding of Jamie and Chris last night. They had a small private ceremony at Franklin Park and a large reception there afterwards. Sarah O took this family picture of us.















W. always wants to sit on his "own potty" when Mom or Dad uses the big one. He sat on it again yesterday with results!!!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

potty day and a haircut

We went to Target today to get a few things and one of those things was a potty chair. W. has been showing signs of "readiness" so I figured having a potty he could actually use would be beneficial to potty learning. We got it out and he sat on it, played with it, and read books about using it. He even talked about it while he was getting his haircut. He calls it his "own potty." Before he got into the bath I told him to sit on the potty while I put his clothes in his hamper in his room. When I got back to the bathroom he had pee'd in the potty!!!!!! He was so proud of himself, and so was I!! I don't plan to rush him, just encourage him.