Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Play Doh!


Recently, during a rainy day inside, Dad busted out the PlayDoh...

That's right, folks...I am now a card-carrying member of PlayDoh nation!!!

We only used a couple colors at a time, until I can get the hang of keeping them separate, but for now that was plenty...

I mostly tried to stay pedestrian, rolling balls, and snake-type shapes, but every now and then I got a little crazy and rolled a ball INTO a snake-type shape.

Dad also helped a lot, and it turns out he is also pretty good at playing with PlayDoh. It turns out that once you become a member of PlayDoh Nation, you're in it for life...which is not a bad thing at all...

We played in the front hallway so I could avoid getting anything on the carpet (and successfully managed to avoid doing so, which was nice for all involved.) and Dad and I had a BLAST.

After awhile, we continued our PJ day (Yes, Dad wanted me to make it clear that we BOTH stayed in PJs all day) with some Legos, and a bit of Sesame Street...

Not a bad day at all, if I do say so myself...

Monday, June 13, 2011

The Lego Exhibit!

So, two posts ago, I said that my next post was going to be about the Lego exhibit that Mom, Dad, and Gramma Mindy took me to down at the National Building Museum...Well, I kind of forgot and did the one about playgrounds instead. Sorry about that...I get kind of scatter-brained sometimes...I guess I truly AM my Dad's son. :-)

Anyway, we all went down to a really cool exhibit that was a combination of Lego recreations of famous buildings throughout the world, and some sections where we got to play with some Legos ourselves. I was really excited about getting to go! We'd talked about it for several weeks, and I was excited that the schedule to finally get to go!

Dad took a picture of me in front of a Lego recreation of the National Building Museum's interior great hall....above is the Lego version, and below is me running through the real one...pretty good likeness, right? And I don't just mean me...I also mean the great hall. ;-)


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I led the way upstairs to where the main exhibit was, and we all went up to the second floor brimming with excitement...

Not only did they have the main Lego sculpture exhibit with the buildings, but they had also set up several huge tables with TONS....and I mean T O N S of Legos poured all over the place...don't panic about the small pieces...I was being supervised by at least two people while the third checked out the exhibit (I blew through the exhibit...and even though I enjoyed the Lego buildings, there was just simply no way to keep me away from the tables of Legos...


Gramma Mindy helped me build a very avante garde house....it had several doors where there should have been windows. It was quite artsy, and I enjoy building it very much! Mom, Dad, and Gramma Mindy also took turns sitting down at the table and building stuff, too!


These are just a couple of the buildings that were recreated using Legos at the Museum...it was amazing seeing all of those little pieces put together to create something that looks so similar to the buildings they were based on. Very cool stuff....but back to the playing!

I was on a roll with those doors, man...It felt like we were there forever, just playing endlessly with all of the seemingly limitless Lego blocks that were available to us!

Now, I'm used to Duplo-sized Legos, so the little ones took a bit of getting used to...but one thing I didn't expect...was these super-sized Legos!!

They just left out a huge pile of jumbo Lego bricks in the middle of the great hall, and we sat down to play with them as soon as I saw them!!


Mom and Gramma Mindy were kind enough to help me build this little bridge to crawl through...every time I would crawl through, I would make sure to destroy it afterward, and have them rebuild them...I know they enjoyed building them as much as I enjoyed destroying them...I don't know what I enjoyed more...crawling under the bridge, or destroying it...which is why I kept doing both over and over again. :-)

It was so much fun...there were even some other little kids for me to run around with...

Mom, Dad, and Gramma Mindy all helped me put together and pull apart the blocks whenever I was having trouble with them, but in general I was doing pretty well on my own...I have to figure out how to get myself some of these huge Legos!!!!

We finished the day off with a little lunch at the cafe that they had at the museum, and finished up the day in stellar fashion!!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Playgrounds!!!

One of my favorite things to do is visit the playground with Mom or Dad (or on a rare occasion, both of them at once!) We are very fortunate to have several playgrounds within walking (or biking) distance, so it never gets stale week to week!

Dad always makes sure to get me to a playground at least one day out of his weekend on Thursday or Friday, and Mom does the same on her weekend on Saturday or Sunday. Weather permitting, I am usually at one or more playgrounds several times a week!


There is one that is really close to our place that we go to a lot for convenience, but it's also a lot of fun! There are little cars to pretend to drive, slides, swings, and lots of dogs walk by with their owners, so I even get to see dogs sometimes!


There is one a little further out near a supermarket that we go to a lot, and at the end of last year, they gutted the whole thing and rebuilt it into a super awesome new playground!



There are different sections geared towards different age groups...and so I get to play on a whole range of things that pique my interest. Sometimes I even push it a little, and go on stuff that's a little "big" for me, but Mom or Dad is always there making sure I don't fall.


Also, during one of the days that Dad and I had to bring our car in to get fixed, we stopped at a playground that was on the way home. It was so much fun, but a bit far away for our tastes, so we didn't go to it very often.


However, during one of our many bike rides, Dad and I rediscovered it because it's located on one of the bike trails that Dad and I like to ride on.


We stop the bike, and take a break for me to play on the slides, go on the seesaw, have lunch, etc...sometimes, I can even convince Dad to go down the slide with me (But strangely, he has no pictures of that....weird, right?)

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There is so much to do, and I love stopping there (I call it "The Blue Slide" playground, for obvious reasons)....the last time we went a few days ago, there was a birthday party going on (Dad had to explain to me why we couldn't partake in their cupcakes with them) so there was a lot of kids running around for me to play with, too.

Hopefully it'll be kind of a mild summer, so we can continue getting outside a few times a week, in addition to all the outside time I get to have at daycare! (Buggy rides!!!)

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Gramma Mindy & JustRichy's Spring 2011 Visit!

Some time ago (Right around Easter) Gramma Mindy and JustRichy visited us and we go to do a lot of fun things! We spent a lot of time playing outside on the roof of our building...


JustRichy was kind enough to set up a row of chairs so that I could take part in my very own slalom event...
He got me all ready for the slalom, giving me a bit of a pep talk...he's good at that. he got me allllll full of pep!


Once let loose, I navigated the slalom like a champ! I have gotten much better on my tricycle, but this was definitely an event that helped me get a little better with my balance, and speed. I rode like I'd been riding for years. Back and forth, it was like second nature....


Gramma Mindy and Mom enjoyed watching me ride around, and in general it was a lovely day outside, so we all had a lot of fun!

Sometimes it's a bit of a chore to get me to go outside...but really, once I'm out there, it's nearly impossible to get me back in! :-)

Later, we went out to the mall and ended up having dinner at a pretty nice little Italian restaurant (After a prolonged session of hanging out in front of the Easter Bunny being alternately fascinated and terrified of him) However, it was when Mom, Gramma Mindy and I found


We had a lot of fun riding around the mall on the train, and Dad chased us around to get some pictures...he's hilarious.


At the mall, we also picked up a new chair for me, which I am IN LOVE with...it's soft, yet firm, and not only provides an excellent place to sit and hang out, but is great to climb on...I'm sure that pictures of it will pop up on the blog soon enough!

This last picture makes a nice preview to my next entry...a trip to The Building Museum to visit The Lego Exhibit!!! This is a shot of us standing in front of some lion statues near the Metro...I was a little bugged out by the statues (What? You're not?) but once I started doing my lion impression, I felt a lot more comfortable...we met up with Dad after work, and headed off to the museum....