Children's Museum

This morning Amy had a doctor's appointment and so she dropped off Austin and Adam.  It was so wonderful, I want them to come to my house once a week from now on.  They played with Grace and even took care of Glen for a bit while I cleaned and worked.  I never got so much done in an hour and a half before.  In fact I got more done in that hour and a half than I usually do in a week.  I am so grateful that they do so well playing with both of my child.

As they were leaving, we decided that we would do something after lunch.  We were unsure if it was going to be going to a park or to the children's museum.  Well, Grace ended up not having a nap so I knew that she needed lots of activity and distractions or we were going to have multiple meltdowns.  So I suggested going to the children's museum.

The following pictures are the many activities that Grace did (at least once).  And there are many more that I did not get pictures of.  Another thing to keep in mind is that she did not even visit but about half of the museum.  It is such a neat place.

It did not take Grace long to find Thomas the Tank Engine.

But Adam decided to lure her away so that he could paint her face.

Amy thought that her heart on her cheek needed a bit of touching up.

Glen was there too, but this will be the only picture of him.

After the face painting it was time to take to the stage.  Amy and Grace danced in the lightening storm.

Grace decided that she needed a costume so she went to the dressing room and found this.  Later she changed it out for a princess dress that I could not get her to stand still enough for a picture of.

An undoing of the costume and a quick sprint down the hall we found the kids at the SMART board where they could write, draw, do designs, and just have a grand ole time playing.

Grace then found the kid sized house that has a kitchen, porch, and laundry room (as you see above).  Here she is about to feed her stuffed dog.

The dog followed her to the real ambulance that is parked in the museum.  It was donated from a local ambulance service and even still has working lights!  Grace made sure to drive.

The local news station donated an anchor desk.  Grace thought it was the neatest thing that she could sit at the desk and see herself on the monitors on the opposite wall.  Next to this was a green wall where you could do weather.  She loved dancing for the camera.  Austin and Adam loved taking the green cloth that is provided and standing in front of the green wall and making parts of their bodies disappear.

This is a bad picture because of the lighting, but this is a picture of the monitor that Grace was watching herself on.

Back to Thomas, she loved the train table.

Then finally she donned a white lab coat and began to play with batteries, circuits,

I had to take a picture of the sign outside of the lab because this is Merck's Science Lab and Merck is where Grace's dad works.

She was one very busy girl.  I did not even take a picture of the art room, the large operation table, the garden area, the cattle and chicken farm, and I could go on and on...yet we did not even see it all today.  It is a good thing that we are getting a membership, I think that Grace will explore, learn, and enjoy this place a lot!

Long Absense

I am sorry for my long silence, a lot has happened in the last month.

Here is a quick explanation of the last month.  Matt got a new job in Harrisonburg at the end of April.  Two days after we got the letter that he had gotten the job we had a POD in our driveway and a sign in our front yard saying House For Sale.  The next day Grace, Glen and I moved out of the house to my parents' spare bedrooms.  I did not want to have a call asking if they could show the house in 30 minutes and have a toddler refusing to put on clothes and an infant spitting up while trying to clean the house and get out.  So we left.

We were without Matt (except for weekends) for three weeks.  Then he started his job.  A week after he started his job we closed on our new house (May 11th).  But it was not till recently that we had internet access.  So I am sorry for the lack of blogs, but with all of the chaos of moving and no internet it was a forced vacation.

As a re-entry to the blogger world I will give a few stats and many pictures.

Grace and Glen went to the doctor this week and they are both healthy.  Grace is shorter than average but a normal determined 2 year old.  Glen is longer than average (he is the length of an average 9 month old and he is only 5 months!).

Glen helping out at the yard sale last weekend

Glen has been on food for a little over a month and he has been loving it.  He has eaten oatmeal, rice, pumpkin, banana, peas, cantaloupe, apple, pear, blueberries, and even a bit of chocolate :)

Glen is also a mover and a shaker, he is very proficient and rolling both ways and he army crawls to what he wants.  He also gets onto (almost) all fours and rocks as if he is going to crawl.  I have a feeling that boy is going to get into things quickly.

Grace is singing, dancing, talking, reciting parts of poems, identifying many letters and most numbers.  She is just shocking me daily with what she knows or can figure out.  But more than anything she loves to play with her brother and he loves to watch her around the house.

Just Pictures

 I have been taking a lot of pictures recently, and I thought that it was about time that I post them so that others can see them too.

Glen being cute (as usual)

 An attempt at a picture of the two together 

(as I look now, I should have snapped up his sleeper the entire way)

 No diaper day for Grace 

(please take note of the socks on her hands, 

I do not know why but that is one of her favorite things to do with socks)

Happy baby after a bath

Just Grace

As you can tell, we have been busy and enjoying our time at my parents.  But we are anxiously awaiting the time when we can move into our own place and start our own schedules.  But we are grateful for all of the help that we have gotten during this transition time in our lives.

Glen's Dedication Day

On April 15, 2012 we dedicated Glen at Lindale Mennonite Church.  Child Dedication is a time of public and personal commitment where parents promise to raise their children with godly principles, so that one day when they are ready and understand, they will choose to accept Christ.

It was a very nice ceremony, and it was a great way to start off our time here at Lindale (since this will be the church that we attend once we get settled into our lives in Harrisonburg.

A friend of the family agreed to take pictures of the event for us.  I love all of the pictures, but the following one is very special to me. 

 

It is a very special photo because I have a very similar one of Grace and I on her dedication day.

Glen slept through the whole thing.

The family that was able to attend were my mom, Amy and Mike and their two boys, Carol and Shannon (who had to leave before this picture was taken) and of course Matt, Grace, Glen, and I.  Many of other family members were in our thoughts including all of the Daniels side.  We are sad that the distance between us does not allow for attendance of celebrations such as this, but we are glad that technology such as blogs will allow you to see pictures and still be a part of these joyous occasions.

Deja Vu

 Today Grace, Glen and I went to story time in my hometown.  And as we walked in, my jaw dropped...the lady leading the story time was the same one leading it when I was in story time as a child!

Grace had a great time.  She was a bit of a ham during it, but followed each instruction pretty well (much better than the last couple of times that we went to story time).  But it just made me smile to see Grace sitting there singing and listening to stories from the same lady that did that for me about thirty years prior.  It just felt like a bit of deja vu.

I am guessing that I wore both children out at the story time.  Grace was asleep as soon as we got back home.  And as you can see in the above picture, Glen was happily asleep too.

It was a good morning!
  

This Easter we have been very busy.

Glen has been spending most of his time begging for food, sleep and his new activity...Standing in his exersaucer or Johnny Jump-Up.  He has amazed me with his ability to hold his head up and control his movements.

 Grace went to the Harrisonburg Easter Egg Hunt.  She got two eggs and was very happy.  It helped that inside the eggs were stickers!

 She met the Easter Bunny, but was not impressed :)

 Afterwards we went to feed the ducks at a local stream.  She is still talking about he ducks and how they quack.

 Easter morning, she is all dressed up, hair braided, and riding Amy's elephant while watching cartoons.  This is a very special picture for her aunt because the dress was Amy's from when she was 2, and the elephant was Amy's from when she was 1.

 The best Easter pictures I could get with both of them before church.

 Glen, ready for church.

 Easter Sunday egg hunt at mamaw and papaw's house.

 Then to top the day off, playing in the trampoline with her cousin.  Though he is 12 years older than her, Eamon does so well taking care of his little cousin.

It was a good Easter.

Finding The Humor

With a two year old, life is very unexpected.  One day Grace decided to strike out with her own fashion.  She decided to strip down to her diaper (and only kept that on because I made her) and add her own flair.  She pulled out her "hat" a fireman hat from Firehouse Subs, "glasses" which are the sunglasses I bought her last year.  Then she grabbed a bucket of toys.  I tried to get the bucket away from her for the picture, but she was insistent that was her "purse."

 All I could say was "Oh, my!"

 Today I put Grace down for a nap.  When I went to check on her I noticed that the room smelled a bit different, but not bad so I did not worry.  When she woke up I did a bit more inspecting and I found the above situation.  I can only assume that she was worried that baby was about to have a really bad case of diaper rash and needed quite the lathering of Desitin.

 Then with a job well done, she crawled over and cuddled up with her dog for a good nap.

I never know what I am going to find...