The Daintys

Yesterday was a beautiful spring afternoon, so after school I packed Leah, Lucy, and some snacks into the car and drove over the the East Bank Trail along the river. We went for a walk, played around on a little ampitheatre, and stopped at the park. Then, we went home, grilled hot dogs, and read Grumpy Bird . What a good day! ( I LOVE this picture of her!) Leah's swings just one arm like crazy when she runs! Ok, this is her "No-no!" finger wag. Lucy was trying to climb up on the playground, and Leah didn't think it was a good idea. (I didn't think I did this, but apparently I do...)

Leah has recently taken in interest in being read to!  Obviously, as we are both educators, we are very excited about this.  Now, we just have to work on broadening her horizons.  Because currently, she has her sights set on one particular book: Grumpy Bird, by Jeremy Tankard.  She cannot get enough of little Grumpy Bird.  My favorite is when she jumps in my lap when Bird jumps.  When we finish reading it, she opens it right back up and says, "Gen? gen?" (Again?)   I love Grumpy Bird as well, but I no longer need the book to read it because after reading it at LEAST  25 times this weekend I have the whole story memorized.  She brought it to me while I was making pancakes.  She brought it to me while we were playing with the bean box.  She brought it to me when we were getting ready to go play at a friend's house.  We read it after dinner.  After bath time.  Before bed.  You get the picture.  Every once in a while, we can get in another story between dramatic readings of ...

We have all been on Spring Break this past week which has been a VERY welcome event.  Unfortunately, after the first day of sunshine (into which we crammed a zoo trip, park visit, walk, and tricycle ride) we have had rain, rain, rain.  And Miss Leah tends to get ants in her pants when trapped in the house for too long.  Her what-should-I-not-play-with sensor goes into red alert and she becomes quite impossible.  So, while Ryan had baseball practice Leah and I visited the library, the chocolate cafe with the indoor cocoa tree themed playhouse, Target, the Farmer's Market, and other assorted indoor venues.  However, I decided we needed to come up with something to entertain our busy girl at home. And so, we took one last trip to the dollar store and the Bean Box was born.  Take one long, shallow T upperware box.  Fill it with dried kidney and pinto beans.  Add tumblers, shovels, sand molds, spoons, measuring cups, etc. and you have a toddler magnet .  Leah played with those beans fo...

Happy Easter Everyone!  We had a great Easter here at our house.  Grandma and Grandpa Dainty came for the weekend it was wonderful to see them as it had been far too long!  Of course, we put them to work as soon as they got here rearranging furniture, fixing the kitchen sink, and replacing window treatments so it may be a while before we see them again...  Some of my family joined us for Easter day, so we had a nice merry crowd and of course couldn't find enough seats together at Church.  After a beautiful Mass at our Church, we ate a big brunch, hunted for Easter Eggs, and opened goodies in our Easter baskets.

Leah has invented a new game we have dubbed "The Bye-Bye Game."  She brings us her shoes to put on.  She brings us her jacket to put on.  She collects ALL the keys she can find.  She straps at least one bag to her person in some way. (Any bag will do: a grocery bag, cosmetics bag, purse, diaper bag, carton of goldfish...)  Then, she marches around the house saying " Buh -Bye!   Buh -Bye!   Buh -Bye!" to everyone, and everything.  She gives bye-bye hugs and kisses.  She pets the dog.  She pretends to put the keys in the lock.  She might bang on the back door a few times.  Then, the game starts alllllll over.  This last Sunday she must have tottered around in her winter coat for a good half hour.  I love it! She also, as you will see, has been quite a ham for the camera lately.  She likes the close-up shots, and then she likes to see the little digital image on the back of the camera and point to herself and laugh.  How funny!   And finally, in case you were wonderin...

Today, the sun was actually shining - the snow on the sidewalks was melting and everything!  It was shining long enough for me to bundle up myself and Leah after school, find Lucy's leash, dig out the jogging stroller, clean off the cobwebs, and go for a little jog/walk with my little friends.  They were both incredibly excited about it.   Leah kept saying, "Nooooo!" when I put the weather guard down so she wouldn't have wind in her face, and giving me the dirtiest looks through the little window on top of the stroller.  She would pull the clear shield to the side and stick her bundled little head out into the breeze.  What a kook!  She loves the snow and wind - a true midwest kiddo.  Then, there was Lucy, who hadn't been in close proximity to a squirrel in a week or so and could barely contain her hunting instincts.  Lucy kept walking into the stroller, because she didn't want to walk in snow and puddles.  (?!)  I honestly thought the tire was going to wear ...

Happy Valentine's Day! A few pictures of our little rascal in her very vintage-looking Snoopy Valentine shirt...she looks like such a rock star. I haven't been able to get video to load lately, but we're working on it, because Leah is chatting up a STORM these days. She says mama, dada, woof-woof, ju (juice), dju-dju! (thank you!), NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!, hmmm?, bye-bye, and a few others here and there. And then there are the conversations we have with her in which we have no idea what she is saying - but she sure does. It's very fun. Anyway, on with the pictures...