The Calm Before The Storm

Ahhhh . . . . it was a beautiful, sunny, 70-something day today, but tomorrow - think again! It's supposed to get up to (and including) 90 degrees tomorrow! Blech! That does not make for a fun walk. Ever since I got my BOB, i have been walking every single day; the first week, Aviva & I walked 14 miles, the second week we walked 15 miles, and this week, it will be well over 16. It's easy to keep it up when you have a super-expensive jogging stroller waiting in the car to motivate you!

Aviva's favorite thing to do these days is ride in the super-fun carts at the grocery store. You know the ones - the ones that are shaped like cars, the ones that have 2 seats, and the ones that are teeny-tiny carts. She loves to beep the horn on the car carts and she'll wave at everyone as we walk past. Every time people wave to her, she usually would wave AFTER we had walked past, but today, finally, she waved bye-bye when the CVS clerk said good-bye to her!

Tomorrow is storytime - hopefully we don't get too hot on our walk!

Are You Kidding Me?

Oh geez - 87 degrees today?!? Are you kidding me? We went on our walk this morning (which turned out to be a little over 4 miles instead of 3 - whoops!) at 9:15 and it was already hot & sweaty outside. Well, that may have just been me, but it was really warm! The poor dog was ready for a gallon of water and a cool place to sleep the second we got home. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 70, then Tuesday it's supposed to be high 80s again, then after that in the low 60s for the rest of the week. Thank goodness we don't get tornadoes up here!!!

Happy Zoo Day!

Since it is absolutely beautiful out today (read: 70 and not a cloud in the sky), we ventured out to the zoo. It's only about 10 minutes away from our house and was the first time we have gone. What a fun trip! For a small state zoo, there were actually quite a few animals - elephants, giraffes, zebras, bears, camels, and lots of other four & two-legged creatures. There was even a quasi-petting zoo there, but the animals were behind wooden fences and you couldn't feed them.

Here, Aviva is petting a very friendly sheep. It's wool was not nearly as soft as I thought it would be and instead was just one big mat. I would like to be there when they shear that thing! Can you imagine the sweaters you could knit out of its coat?!? There was also an "exotic" type of cow, a donkey, two baby goats, a wild pig, rabbits, and a few hens or chickens, I think. We made sure to wash our hands really well at the hand-washing station after we were done petting all of the animals!



I think Aviva's favorite animal was the elephant. There were three elephants and it was feeding time, so it was neat to watch the elephants pulling their hay/grass out of the mesh bag atop a pole. Aviva was fascinated by the elephants, especially when they would stick their trunk up into the bag for food and then put their trunk in their mouth. We stood there for nearly ten minutes just watching the elephants eat!

When Aviva wakes up from her nap, I think we're going to take a walk and go fly our kite! Yay!

She Will Be Missed

Zoe(y), Neal's childhood dog, has passed away. She collapsed last night while taking a walk and she crashed immediately upon arrival to the emergency
vet's office. She had a good 15 years though with a great family. She was a great dog who loved the simple things - tennis balls, having her ear rubbed, and going on walks. Zoe(y) will be missed!

Mission Accomplished!

Today, at breakfast, Aviva discovered the joy that is nose-picking. We were sitting here, singing 'The Wheels on the Bus,' and when we got to the part about the mamas on the bus saying "shh, shh, shh," she put her finger to her lips, like she usually does, and then it quickly went north. I think it surprised her - but she thought it was funny and I couldn't help but laugh!

This is What I Paid For?

Our first swimming lesson was today, and let's just say that it didn't seem worth it. It's a different instructor this time than the last time we attempted swim lessons, and this girl just kind of hopped around in the pool while the three moms (yep, there's only three of us in the class) all just kind of did our own things. Aviva seemed to have a fun time though, so it was worth it. I might switch us to Sunday mornings though, just so that I would at least have Neal to talk to.

Here's Aviva in her bathing suit - we bought it yesterday because the other swimming suits haven't come in the mail yet, but it was the only one in size 18 months at Target. We got home last night and tried on the suit and low and behold - it was a 3T!!! Dangit - someone put the wrong swimsuit on the wrong-sized hanger and I didn't even think about looking at the tag. Oh well, it seemed to fit her fine for today.

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful again up here, so I'm sure we're going to go out and about. I think we may try to get to the zoo and the park, and maybe if it's a little windy again, we'll fly our kite at the dog park.

Rain & Books

It was rainy today, but luckily it wasn't raining hard enough to deter us from our walk. During our walk, we stopped off at the library near our house for toddler story time. We sang a few songs, read a few books, and then sang a few more songs. Aviva didn't really like waiting around for story time to begin (we got there about 15 minutes early), but once we started singing, she loved the part where we all clapped at the end.

I forgot to mention in the last post about more of Aviva's words. She's also now saying "mo," (for more) and another favorite, "no, no, no," while shaking her head and her finger!

Quite the Talker

Well, Aviva has become quite the talker these days. Of course, she's not speaking in ten-word sentences or anything nearly that advanced, but still, we've got to celebrate the little things, don't we? Her new vocabulary repertoire includes: "nite-nite," "mama," "dada," "nana (for banana)," and her all-time favorite, "uh-oh." She also pants every time we see a dog (because that's what dogs do) and tries to meow at the cat. She's also working on her imitations, which include meowing and making blender noises. I tried to encourage her to imitate the vacuum cleaner today, but she was more interested in playing with blocks.

Aviva keeps herself busy by trying to take everything out of its place, which is great for her, but not for me! She also likes to play with her alphabet blocks that Grandma Marilyn gave her and she'll stack three or four and then knock them down. Who knew being so destructive could be so much fun?!?

It's been insanely beautiful up here for the past four days - this weekend we spent a lot of time outdoors going for walks, playing at the baby park, and flying Aviva's first kite. We went to the stadium that Brown University uses for football to fly her kite, and it just so happens that the area is also quite the "unofficial" dog park of the East Side. So, of course, Aviva was more interested in all of the dogs rather than her kite, but I sure did have fun flying it for her!

Tomorrow is story time at the library and on Wednesday we start swimming lessons! Yay! I'll let you know how it goes after the fact. Good night!

We've Moved!

Well, just to a different blogging space. LiveJournal was getting a little too cumbersome to keep updating and there are plenty of things that are going on these days, so I thought I would move to a more fitting online space. Welcome!