LEGOs

Yesterday I introduced Baby H to LEGOs.

She loves them, and since they were my favorite toy growing up, now I can play with her and it counts as father-daughter time.  I love it!  She's got a set from the City collection for ages 5-12.  It includes a 4x4 truck, a waverunner, and a trailer.  In addition, the LEGO guy has a scuba set, complete with a helmet and goggles, a scuba tank, and flippers.  So cool!  We had a great time putting it together and playing with it.

"I'm a baby jaguar! Rwaawr! Rwaar!"

Last Saturday, Baby H went to a friend's birthday party where they had a clown who did magic tricks for the kids, including live animals.  Baby H enthusiastically encouraged all attempts at slapstick humor by the clown.

There was also plenty of sugar and face painting.  When Baby H finally got to the front of the line, the clown asked how she wanted her face painted.  She enthusiastically opted for Spiderman, but Mommy managed to talk her down to being a baby jaguar instead.  

At the end of the party, the kids were given gift bags.  On the subway home, Baby H found and ate all of the candy in the bag, turning into a caffeinated superball for the rest of the afternoon, which she spent stalking her parental prey, making "baby jaguar sounds", and pouncing on us repeatedly.

Bedtime couldn't come soon enough that evening.

Hanging out

Last week, Baby H and I traveled to the Midwest.  I was going for work, she was going to spend time with family.  We had a big surprise when we arrived.  Baby H's uncle and aunt met us at the airport and went out for supper with us.  Baby H loved the presents they brought for her and has been playing with them and wearing them since she got home.  Since she's starting to pick out her own clothes and dress herself, we're starting to see her sense of style for the first time.  Earlier this week, she went to school with her shirt inside out, and the printed manufacturer's label on the front because she wanted to see the letters.  The new clothes are, in her words, "Sooo beeeUUUUUtiful!"  Thanks, you two!

One of the presents was another piece to her train set.  This time it was a bell that rings when the train goes in front of it.  Several times since returning, we've had a huge train route laid out on the floor, using almost all of the pieces.  We can almost model the Boston subway, and she loves playing with them.

Whirlwind July

I'm a little backlogged with posting, so I'll probably knock out a few posts tonight.  July has been busy with family, Lyme disease, travel for work, and general mayhem.  

A couple of weeks ago, Baby H and I went to the science museum, which she will talk about to anyone who will listen, and saw some of her favorite exhibits.  They includes the "space rocketship", the dinosaurs, the robots, and a computer lab that's hidden away with a bunch of kid-friendly games.  

I especially like playing with the Aibo dogs and programming an iRobot that you can send off running around a pit with blocks in it.  However, my favorite experience there involves my dad crashing a college robotics science experiment.  More on that in another post.  

Every time we go to the science museum, we find something new to play with. This time we discovered a new area of the museum that caters to younger kids and includes a bunch of hands-on activities. One was an air jet that suspends a ball overhead. That was cool for a while, but Baby H thought it was a lot more fun to use it as a giant hairdryer.

Another highlight included learning to brush your teeth with the big toothbrush.  Baby H has a flip-top head anyway, so getting to play with a mouth that opened wider than hers was unique.  Besides, it saves me from getting my jaws pried apart anytime curiosity strikes.

We love the museum!

Want to go with us sometime?

We're doing WHAT for the 4th?

For the 4th of July this year, we had both sets of inlaws / outlaws / scofflaws / whatever (actually, everyone gets along with everyone really well) in town, along with our nieces.  So, since it was our first 4th of July in Boston, we decided to do it up right and watch the fireworks along with half a million other people on the Charles River.

To do it "really right", we got seats on the Esplanade, out next to the river, to watch.  This meant hauling an unbelievable amount of food, blankets, and tarps (in case of rain) along with us.  We essentially moved out of our apartment for 7 hours, then moved back in afterward.

The whole experience was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd do again.  However, we had a great time being together and hanging out.  This also included a very patriotic diaper change.

In the process, I learned a few important lessons.

1. The "old lady" shopping carts that you see people pushing around supermarkets are designed with the express purpose of being impossible to manage when they are full.  They go in a straight line only.
2. Having 500,000 people between you and the toilets, which are only 300 yards away causes a unique type of claustrophobia.  If something were to happen, you really won't be able to go anywhere. Period.
3. The promise of the Boston Pops and Rascal Flatts is really just a way to get people to come listen to the announcers.
   
4. It takes a lot of activities to keep a group of 9 entertained for 6 hours, but a shopping cart full of stuff is just enough to make it work.
5. 500,000 people is just a lot of people, even if half of them are Boston cops.  Who knew?
6. If you don't know for sure where they are launching the fireworks, and there is no wind, trees and smoke can be problems.

A party with friends

Pigtails

So, the last time Mom H was out visiting, she put Baby H's hair in pigtails.  We hadn't tried it for quite a while, but did it again recently and liked how it looked.  Since I am usually the one getting Baby H ready for school, she asked for "Lumpy ears" one morning (that's the Heffalump from Winnie the Pooh for those of you that aren't keeping current on these things).  After wondering whether I should call in Mrs. H for help or do this one myself, I decided to give it a shot.  Mrs. H was busy vomiting and didn't seem like she wanted to be interrupted at the moment anyway.

When I picked her up after school, I was surprised to see that the pigtails were still in.  I asked Ms. Linda if they were the originals, or if they had to be fixed up during the day and was told that they were redone once.  In an offhand comment, I said that I must not have done too badly that morning, saw the rather surprised look, and decided it was time for us to bolt.

Daddy and dinos

I'm not in the habit of jumping out of bed to embrace the day on most days, but the days that I don't feel well see me moving especially slowly.  After we got back from our Midwest trip, we all took a turn getting really sick.  One morning, while I was sleeping off some of the crud and Mrs. H was out for a morning run, Baby H stopped in to see how I was doing.  Apparently, I needed a little comforting, so she tucked a dinosaur in with me to keep me company.

I vaguely remember being patted on the head as well and hearing something like, "Awww.  It's ok Daddy..."

Woodsmoke, pink turkeys, and the world's largest hot tub

It's been a while since anything new went up.  Partly, that's due to having been traveling to see family and partly because they turned around and came and visited us a few weeks later.  Between the preparing to go, the packing, the visiting, the unpacking, and the preparing to host, blogging hasn't gotten much time.

Mrs. H also reminds me that we had food poisoning, selling a house, lots of vomiting, and now Lyme disease as other things that got in the way.  I got Lyme disease as a result of a tick bite I must have gotten from the trip to Quincy Quarries I mentioned earlier.  Those in the Midwest will probably laugh at the fact that I got it here, on the one day I ventured out of the concrete jungle and not while I was living in the Midwest itself.

Anyway, the trip to the Midwest was a great opportunity to hang out with family, mostly while we floated in a 100 degree pool that my father-in-law has hooked into an outdoor wood burning boiler which heats the house during the majority of the year when the weather is nasty.  From the pool, we could also see the turkeys in the backyard as they cruised through looking for food.  Baby H has started seeing turkeys everywhere. Pink flamingos on a beach towel were "pink turkeys".

There are some pictures of a tall stick-man in the pool that I can post later as well, but they're not going up until I get a picture of a certain individual in a certain hat to go out there with them . . .