Hip hip hooray! Phoebe completed her swim lessons with flying colors! She can now: ride on a noodle, kick her feet, splash, scoop her arms, "make it rain," play motorboat, crawl like an alligator, and all sorts of other cool water tricks! Here are some photos from our last day!
Here's Phoebe in the Playscape, getting very serious about controlling the construction equipment. She was also trying really hard to work the little push cart- this poor boy came over to try to help her, but she just kept swatting him away...still working on sharing/helping/being friendly to the other kids...ho hum...but in better news, she finally mastered the slide! Yay! She probably went down this little slide 10-15 times, and each time she got to the bottom, she'd clap her hands and say, "YAY!" :)
We went to the Children's Museum this afternoon to go to the "friendly hours" at the Tomb of Doom- the Haunted House special exhibit that they put on every year. It was...well, I don't know, I had mixed emotions about it. It was a HUGE pain to go through with the double stroller (even though the guide said it would be no problem), and seeings how the first thing I saw when we walked in was a Chuckie doll and some sort of mutated gremlin that looked like it came straight out of The Hills Have Eyes, I was pretty sure that it was not as friendly as they would have you think. But once Phoebe got the idea that the treat bag they gave her was going to be filled with treats, it was all good: each costumed museum worker we came to would tell her how cute she looked in her witch outfit and tutu, and Phoebe would hold open her bag and say, "bag" and point in the bag, and then say, "thank you" before the person even had a chance to give her the treat! Demanding little thing! The best one was when the Egyptian lady handed her a tiny bag of candy corn, and Phoebe said "CORN!" and then, "MORE! MORE! CORN! MORE! BAG!" (Note to self: stop giving Phoebe candy corn- it's clearly rotting her brain and turning her into an addict! She might has well have been scratching her arms and asking to see Freebo- geez!) Anyhoo, after all that, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the nearly-deserted Playscape. It was a good thing there weren't many other kids around, because she was getting pretty possessive of the scummy baby doll in the play kitchen...you can see the look on her face there as she guards the baby in the bassinet, daring other kids to just try to get closer...yikes!
Here they are- best pumpkins ever!! Great job, Derringers! As you can see, Joey even tried to get in on the act! Phoebe was disenchanted by the ickiness of pumpkin carving, and retired to the living room to watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin...wouldn't want to dirty the poor princess's hands...ha! :)
Phoebe's got the right idea on Pumpkin Day, doing the sign language symbol for "more!" :) The kids had their matching pumpkin sweatsuits on, we had the pumpkin hats ready, chili was cookin' in the pot...and we got to the pumpkin patch in the pouring rain...blast! Foiled again! So...we went on a wild goose chase looking for pumpkins to take back to the house...Wal-mart was one of our stops, as you can see...but we finally gave up, went home empty-handed, and sent the men out to buy pumpkins from Kroger! The kids didn't mind- especially Phoebe- she was too busy having her first caramel apple to care about anything anyways! Let the carving begin!
We had sweets galore on Pumpkin Day: HOMEMADE caramel and chocolate dipped apples, cookies, edible hanuted houses, candies, cider...but our favorite "sweet" of all was our niece, MaryJane! :)
Here we are at Octoboo at the library earlier this evening! This was the kids' first chance to sport their Halloween costumes- the kangaroo suits!! The librarians had a story center, a craft room, snacks, Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin playing in another room, and age-appropriate goodie bags! Phoebe was amazed at all the costumes and kids! She did a really good job with her craft- she picked the construction paper pumpkin- and even though she got really possessive with the glue sticks, and she tried to sneakily eat the glue while disguising it with her cookie, she did manage to put her pumpkin together! :) She also enjoyed wandering around, just looking at all the kids, walking through the rows of books like a maze, rolling around on the floor (hmph!), trying to push other people's strollers, sampling the veritable feast of snacks and treats, and trying to say new words, like "bat," "spider," "pumpkin," and "party." The one word she got right every time was "cookie." Go figure. Mommy is all worn out now after lugging the two-ton kangaroo baby around- let alone chasing the more mobile kangaroo...time for bed for this safari lady!
Phoebe's kangaroo suit did not slow her down in the least- she was ready and rarin' to go!!
Just kidding! Please don't call CPS- Phoebe got in here of her own free will, I swear, and the door is open...
Here we areat Grammy's Pumpkin Party in La Porte. Phoebe was OBVIOUSLY in her pumpkin finest: Haloween pajamas, spooky owl socks, and tutu...and you can see the effect that the La Porte festivities have on her... :)
Phoebe, my little baker!! She did an awesome job "helping" me bake fall leaf cookies- she was especially good at rolling out the dough. She rolled so hard that the dough was flatter than a pancake and she couldn't see it any more! She looked up at me and said, "Where'd it go?" and I had to roll it up in a ball for her to do the whole thing all over again!
Phoebe's favorite part of the Playscape today was taking care of the baby in the little house. She loved it, rocked it, put it to bed, said night-night, changed it's shirt, and tried to feed it a potato and a banana- awwww! (She also had to go up and hug each one of the cut out wooden bears.)
