Desperation

During these long cold months, there's not much to occupy a toddler outside the house. There really are so many hours you can spend building snowmen and freezing your mittens off. What is a family to resort to?

1. Put running shoes on and go to the mall

2. Get a soft pretzel and a lemonade

3. Sit on the riding toys, but do not put any quarters in

4. Run around and around and around

Snowed In

We ordered a humongous cardboard box from Crate and Barrel (there was a king sized headboard inside, but that's of no importance to this blog) and Oly had a fantastic time creating a mixed-media masterpiece.

Ta Da!

It lasted at least a week.

But now it's in the garage to be turned into weed cover for the garden this spring.

Here she is this morning demonstrating the extremely rare "toddler sitting still and playing quietly with a toy" pose. (See Adam and Colleen? The puzzle is a hit!)

This might be my favorite picture in the history of the universe:

And lastly, I took about 20 close-up pictures of her this morning, but she has a cold and her face looked grody in every one. Here are her beautiful cropped eyes:

Bawentimes

'Making Valentines' is actually code for, "Mama you cut out paper hearts for me as fast as you can and then I will use my scissors to turn them into confetti which I will make sure only gets onto the floor."

P.S. I should have made a script for this video, I know not everyone understands Toddlerspeak. I had also cut out tiny stars so at the beginning she's saying, "Ooh, there's another star. I want to cut. I'm cutting those stars." And then when she finds the big hearts on the floor she says, "Where'd that valentine come from? There's another valentine! Oops, I better get my valentine." This is our life: constant narration about absolutely everything that is happening within her view at all times. Man she is seriously cute.

Like Tiny Fishies

Oly gobbling up clams for dinner. This kid ain't cheap:

The Great Cell Phone Photo Dump

I went through the 300 pictures on my cell phone and picked some of the cutest that never made it on the blog when they were taken.

From last summer:

The kid LOVES drinking from the hose:

At the XPN music festival in Camden eating ice cream:

Last Spring:

Last week playing soccer in the kitchen:

Last Friday with Coach Ashley playing basketball at her Intro to Sports class at the YMCA:

Stretching at Sports Class:

Update

Hello Everyone- I know it's been over a week since we've posted anything, but honestly she just hasn't done anything cute since then. Really!

Here are a few subpar pictures to tide you over until she's cute again:

Playing in the snow with Abby, our neighbor across the street. Oly loves Abby more than she loves me, and she's the perfect playmate because she has younger brothers and can understand Oly's lispy toddler speech. When it got too cold and she had to come in she cried for 30 minutes about leaving her.

We went over to Michael's house for a 'Snow Party' (although we never made it outside!) and while the Moms chatted in the kitchen we all realized that it was very quiet. Looking into the living room we saw this sight:

5 happy toddlers playing, not so much with each other, but amongst each other anyway. Oh how times are changing!

Soccer Practice

We signed up for a Tot Soccer Class for the month of January. Yep, I'm a soccer Mom. So now each Monday this month we spend an hour at Rose Tree Elementary School for pandemonium!

There's absolutely no pressure, the point is to just get the kids started on following directions and improving their balance.

Here she is on the balance beam with her friend Izzy. It was a part of a larger obstacle course, but she just turned around and did it over and over.

We learned Red Light/Green Light which is a new favorite. She prefers green. She understood the concept of listening to her coaches and wanting to please them as best she could. Here she is doing a drill where you step on the ball and put your arms out when you hear Coach Joe yell, "Freeze!"

He came over to cheer her on and when he moved on to help other kids she yelled, "Coach Joe! Look at me! Coach Joe! Watch!" Here he is congratulating her on her superb dribbling skills:

Truthfully most of the time she picks up the ball, runs with it and yells "dribble! dribble!" He congratulated her on that technique too.

And it's not a toddler class without the parachute:

After the chaos of flapping the parachute, everyone had to pick a color to sit on and wait patiently for Coach Keri to come around and stamp your hand. It's so hard to be patient! This is a seemingly small drill that teaches an important skill and I bet by the end of the month they'll all improve immensely.

It's official! She's an athlete now that she has a league t-shirt.

Here is the gang of friends that have known eachother from the beginning at Birthmark:

Ben, Benjy, Michael and Oly:

Michael and Oly are a lot older than the Bens, so they lasted a little longer for the photo shoot.

There will be videos on our youtube channel for the die-hards and many more pictures after next weeks class.