Singing Her Heart Out

This was just too cute not to share! Her microphone is an old phone charger and if you listen carefully you will pick up bits and pieces of the alphabet song. Olivia loves to sing and I am hoping that one day she will cantor with her dad at church.

What Happens When a Toddler Wakes Up Too Early

Well I guess Olivia's rough nights have finally caught up with her. Lately she has been waking up a couple of times in the middle of the night and often as early as 5:30-6:00 in the morning. I pray that this is only a phase and will soon pass. Earlier this week she barely finished her lunch before she started falling asleep at the table. At one point, she couldn't even get her last bite of food in her mouth before she began nodding off again. It was so funny and I hate to say it, it happened twice in a row.

Grand Rapids Children's Museum

Today, Olivia and I went with our friends to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. What a wonderful way to spend the morning! We had never been there before and I had been dying to see what it was like, afterall I had heard so many great things about the museum. I definitely wasn't disappointed. There were so many things for the kids to do and you never felt rushed or that your child would be pushed out of the way. I couldn't decide on just a few pictures to share, so I picked a little bit of everything to show how much fun we had.

Luke and Olivia outside of the museum.

Exploring the grocery store.

Experimenting with the spinning disk table. The large grey disk infront of Olivia was spinning on its own. Kids had the opportunity to put smaller disks of varying sizes on the larger disk and watch them spin off. (I'm sure this is related to physics somehow, but Chris wasn't there to give us our lesson!!)

Olivia and Luke played in the Medivac Helicopter. There were buttons and switches galore! Best of all, no fighting over who would pursh what.

Olivia loved playing in the bubble water more than she liked trying to make the bubbles. I had fun making the bubbles!

Here Olivia is checking out one of the many funhouse type mirrors that the museum had.

This one is for you Uncle Larry!

With it being Fire Prevention Month, the kids visiting the museum had the chance to dress up in the type of clothes that firefighters use. There was also a "fire truck" for the kids to play in (turn on the siren, light up the lights, pretend to drive, steps to climb up and a slide to go down), a house that taught fire safety, and a firefighter puzzle.

This "tunnel" had mirrors on all three sides on the inside, so when you looked just right...

it created a kalidescope effect! Way cool!!

Luke and Olivia took some time to play with the train table.

I've never seen anything like this before. There were holes in the plexiglass where the kids could drop the balls into the frame. Then at the bottom, there is a handle for the kid to pull out that would drop all of the balls out. Olivia didn't figure that part out, but she loved all of the balls.

Here Olivia is "washing" her hands in the toddler size kitchen.

As I said before, we had so much fun here and I can't wait to take Olivia back...soon. I love the fact that there are permanent exhibits that you can always count on, but the museum also changes many of the exhibits so there is something new to do there the next time you come. That fact alone has enticed me to purchase there family membership.

Vacuuming with Mommy

Olivia's favorite thing to do lately is whatever I am doing. She wants to help. Well, tonight I was vacuuming and Olivia decided once again she needed to help. At least she went and got her on vacuum versus trying to use mine with me. I thought it was so cute, that I asked Chris to video what she was doing. Enjoy!!

Play Doh!

We decided it was time for Olivia to try Play Doh! I wasn't sure how she would like it, but she really seemed to enjoy it. And the Play Doh never entered her mouth!

I sat with Olivia and played with her to model how to play with the Play Doh. Here she is watching me to figure out what to do.

Next, Olivia practiced smooshing the Play Doh. Another new word for her!

I love the look of concentration. She really wanted to roll her Play Doh the way I did, but just didn't understand how to do it. She also kept asking me to make her a ball. Her new favorite type of toy. It looks like Play Doh is a success and will me a sanity saver this winter.