Finger painting without the fingers

Aunt Nessa came over today to help with preparations for the weekend festivities.  Miss M was generally being a little fussy (she was tired but refused to sleep).  Aunt Nessa let Miss M play with the center of the celery stalks. Miss M loved carrying them around and occasionally munching on them.  She didn't munch on them much because they were quite bitter.  

Aunt Nessa thought it was a good idea to get out the finger paint and let Miss M finger paint using the celery as a paint brush. Genius.  The girl is just a genius. I guess those are the tricks you pick up after teaching pre-school for a few years!  

Miss M wasn't impressed at first. 

 But in typical Miss M fashion she came around a little bit and then became super serious about her celery painting.

We will have to keep this activity in mind for those rainy/snowy days when we don't know what to do with our time!  Thanks Aunt Nessa for being a genius!

LP Zoo play date

Today Miss M and I met our friends at the LP Zoo for Mr. Singers Sing-a-long.  Miss M didn't care much for the music show but sat politely and ate snacks.  As I have said before - the girl loves snacks.

Auntie Nessa met us for Mr. Singer and we walked/ran around the farm area and looked at the animals that were out this morning.

Play date

Miss M is still not sleeping well.  It's time to try to get her back on a schedule that is reasonable.

This morning we had a play date to be at by 9:00 am so it was the perfect opportunity to get Miss M back on track.  We woke her up at 8:00 and she was exhausted and down for a nap at noon.  Ahhhh. She slept for three hours...maybe she doesn't hate me.

When I was laying with her from 11:30 pm until 2:00 am all I kept thinking was "why does this girl hate me so much".

We had a relatively good day today.  The unfortunate part is that Miss M is getting yet another summer cold.  She can't seem to kick it.  She was snotty a few weeks ago and has been coughing since.  I have been coughing too so I am pretty sure it's just a summer cold.  Today her nose started running yet again.    Ugh.

I try to be sympathetic but after being "uh-uh'ed" for the 10th hour in a day I start to lose my sanity.

I have more pictures from our play date on my camera but I am too lazy to walk the 23 steps to the back of the apartment and get it.  We know it's 23 steps from front to back because Miss M was so fussy for the first few (lots) months of her life that we walked a lot of laps.

She seems into hats.  She wore a baseball hat last night and this morning it was the fire hat.

Tomorrow we're off to the Zoo for a free sing-along!

A trip to the park

It has become apparent that we need to get out as much as possible and burn energy. We have to burn energy so when it's time for nap or bed she's tired and ready to sleep.

Today after her nap we took some toys and a blanket and went to the park.  Miss M ran around and chased her ball around for awhile then realized she was missing out on the actual playground equipment.  It was a successful energy burn trip.

But she's all smiles

Miss M was not friendly today.  Not friendly at all.

I will spare you the miserable details of the day and post pictures of her being smiley and pretending that the whole day was happiness.

Since Miss M does not like the camera I have to get just shoot some pictures without looking through the view finder.  Today I did a poor job of taking pictures without chopping off her head but as you can see she was all smiles here when she didn't know the camera was taking her picture.

Nature Museum

Today Miss M and I packed up and went to the Nature Museum.  We met our friends there and saw the butterflies and played in the play area.  It was a great space for burning energy.  We might have to consider getting a membership come winter.

We could have had a lot of neat pictures in the butterfly exhibit but I didn't take my camera out of the stroller.

After a couple hours of playing and listening to children scream, whine and yell I decided it was time to go outside and hang out in the grass and eat some snacks.  Miss M loves the word snack.  I think you could give her broccoli and call it a snack and she would be happy but usually she gets something much more tasty than broccoli. If I gave her broccoli it would mean I would have had to cook it, and well, I like the "just open the bag" stuff!

Here's Miss M burning more energy!!! And eating her snack!

Jack & Miss M

Here is the best picture I could capture of Jack and Miss M.  It was taken when we were at the Lake a few weeks ago but I am just not getting around to getting the pictures off my camera from Florida.

Don't worry Miss M did not attack Jack with the ball even though her face looks like she would like to and his face looks like he's terrified.  He should probably be terrified.

Miss M's newest shenanigans

Miss M has some new shenanigans.

I am not impressed (with one of them).

I do not know where they came from nor do I know how to make them stop.

Sunday was like any typical day in our household.  We woke, ate, played, ate, napped, played, ate, read books, placed Miss M in her crib and shut out the lights.  Five minutes after the lights went out is when things took a turn for the worse.  Miss M started crying like she was hurt.  She doesn't ever cry when we put her to bed. I assumed that maybe she just wasn't tired enough and she was pointing to the door like she wanted out of her room so I took her to the living room to sit with us. Strictly no playing.

Mistake.  Big Mistake.

Repeat performance Monday night and Tuesday night.

Someone is going to have to get tough.

Who is the lucky winner?

Probably me.

I don't feel lucky.

Miss M watched some Sunday Night Football with Daddy and was sweet as pie.  She was cuddly when we all know the girl isn't much for cuddles and being loved on.

Her other shenanigans haven't caused heartburn like her non-sleeping escapades.

She discovered there is more to a shopping car than just the seat where tots are supposed to sit.  I don't see this as a big deal yet. I just hope this doesn't result in her falling out and injuring herself in any way.

  

Summary of our days

Miss M and I have been busy traveling ladies.  Miss M enjoyed the airports and watching the planes land and take off.  Here she's just catching up on the latest People magazine.  

 We came home from our travels with a few presents.  She got a puppy backpack which she likes to drag around but then again she likes to drag any bag around.

 Miss M also got a new pair of shoes.  They won't fit for a few months but who doesn't need a pair of cowgirl boots!

Aunt Jessie and Uncle Craig and Jack went out east and found a present for Miss M.  It's a lobster hat but we call it a crabby hat because screaming crabby hat is much more fun than screaming lobster hat.  She thinks it's funny to wear until you want to take a picture.

 We got home from our travels and had sushi for dinner with Aunt Nessa and Chris.  Luckily, there is a McD up the street so Miss M got a happy meal while we ate sushi.  She did try some edamame and seemed to like it.

This past weekend was also the Air and Water Show.  We loaded up Miss M and her gear and headed downtown to a friend's apartment and watched the show from his deck.  The girl loves herself some airplanes.

It was necessary to summarize this post since I never would have gotten it done if I wrote more.  There really isn't much to say about our adventures.  Miss M was a great traveler and was really nice to most everyone since sometimes she isn't very nice when exposed to lots of people and strangers.  

Miss M's interests

Miss M has taken a serious interest in the iPad. It's not an interest in playing games (although she does still play a few games).  She has taken an interest in the free Disney Jr app.  This particular app streams free shows of various Disney programs.

The odd thing about this development is that she won't watch the television. She watches but doesn't pay attention for more than a minute or two.  Today she watched a significant number of Handy Manny episodes.  We don't feel good around here or I probably wouldn't let her sit and watch TV shows.

Disney Jr is great. There are multiple programs to watch but Miss M only wants to watch Handy Manny.  Seriously. I have seen all the episodes. I can also speak fluent spanish thanks to Handy Manny.  Her heart belongs to Manny.

She also likes to curl up on her chair and have her iPad propped against the couch.

We bought an extra car seat for traveling therefore we have the box sitting around our (already cramped) apartment.  Miss M likes to play in the box. Yesterday she took her yogurt mash (food pouch), her ipad and her pillow and went to watch Handy Manny by herself.  

A trip to the Zoo

Since it's finally cooled off a little we headed to the zoo. Miss M just likes having free reign over the entire zoo to run.  We stopped outside of the flower gardens today and hung out and then eventually had a bite to eat and went home. It was a fun morning and Aunt Nessa came out to join us.

Miss M liked to run up to the fence, look at the animal, wave good-bye, and find the next one.

The polar bear was actually out and active today.

Miss M found the hyena which was quite a feat because he blended into his environment and he wasn't moving.

We took a rest in the flower garden to let Miss M run and just enjoy the weather not being over 90 degrees. Don't let the hat in the picture above fool you - she won't really wear a hat unless it's her idea and we are inside.

Ella used to do her "strong finish" when she was younger so we thought we would try to get Miss M to work on her "strong finish".  Essentially we say (yell) strong finish and she puts her arms up in the "so big" and "touchdown" position.  She gets applause and cheers and we get relatively free entertainment. This is why she has her hands up in the picture below. 

Grandma Nan taught Miss M how to get into somersault position about six months ago and so she drops her head to the ground and waits for us to flip her over then she eventually gets up on her feet and finishes strong.  She needs to work on her timing from completion to somersault to standing on her feet. I don't know how to explain to her that we don't have time for her to "figure it out". The Olympic girl gymnasts peak at 15!