Visiting Denver: Denver Children's Museum

On our trip to Colorado, we spent a half-day at the Denver Children's Museum. This museum seems to be focused on make-believe play, which Adelaida doesn't seem very excited by, but she found ways to have fun at each station!

We started at the fire truck area. They have a real fire truck inside the building, and kids can climb on the truck, dress up as firemen, and pretend to put out fires. Elizabeth and Sarah enjoyed climbing on the truck and pretending to be firemen; Adelaida found some lockers next to the fire truck and enjoyed opening and closing the lockers!


Mamaw posed with her three granddaughters:


Next we found the art room. Luckily it was quite empty when we got there, so the girls sat at easels and painted some pictures. Laura pointed out the smocks just as Adelaida was finishing her painting -- amazingly she didn't get any paint on her clothes!


The museum has an area in which kids can pretend to be veterinarians -- complete with animals, x-rays, surgical equipment, and exam tables. Adelaida gave one of the dogs a quick hug, then she was ready to move on.


Benjamin was very content to hang out in his stroller while the older kids played. What a good baby he is!


The kids spent the most time in the woodland animals room. This was a room in which kids could pretend to be different animals (complete with rabbit, skunk, squirrel, and other costumes) and climb up a small hill and crawl through "underground" tunnels like an animal. It was a great hit! We got a pretty good picture of Adelaida, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Benjamin sitting in a beaver den in this room.


Finally, lunch time was drawing near and we headed out. As we walked out the building, Adelaida saw a large statue of a cow. She wanted to check it out, so we wandered over to the cow and let her walk around it and touch it for a few minutes. We then wanted to get going, so told Adelaida to say good bye to the cow. She turned to the cow, waved, and said "Bye-bye ....... cow" and started walking toward the car. Adelaida has just started putting multiple words together -- in the past she would have said "bye-bye" but omitted the "cow" part -- and apparently wanted to practice, so continued saying "bye-bye ...... cow" all the way to the car, at lunch, later that day, the next day, and is still saying it a week later! It has become a catch-phrase at our house, and whenever she sees a cow in a book, she repeats "bye-bye ... cow." She is so much fun!

Visiting Denver: family time

Last weekend, Dale, Adelaida, and I drove to Denver for a visit with family. We had a lot of time to talk as well as time to play. It had been ten months since Adelaida had seen Elizabeth and Sarah, and we all met Benjamin for the first time. The girls had a lot of fun playing together, as well as some disagreements about the ownership of certain toys, but I guess that's what happens when toddlers get together! Adelaida also spent a lot of time with her Mamaw, who was always ready to read book with Adelaida. Thanks Mamaw!

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Elizabeth, Adelaida, and Sarah eat carrots on the floor.


Hello, Benjamin!


Adelaida walking with Mamaw at the hotel.


Adelaida with Mamaw.


Mamaw gets a hug from Adelaida, as Sarah watches and Elizabeth smiles for the camera.


Adelaida gives Benjamin a fish-face kiss!


Adelaida enjoyed being swung by Uncle Richard and Aunt Laura.


Sarah and Adelaida share a seat by the fire.


Dale shares a seat at the fireplace with Sarah, Adelaida, and Elizabeth.


Before leaving Colorado, we had to see Aunt Janet and Aunt Karen. They were so good to drive down from Fort Collins and Greeley to north Denver, and we met for lunch together.

Aunt Janet with Adelaida.


Adelaida and Aunt Karen.


We enjoyed spending time with family on this trip and I'm glad Adelaida was able to spend more time with her cousins. Kids grow so fast at this age that I'm sure it will be completely different when they see each other at Christmas!

Halloween flower, revisited

About two weeks ago, I realized that Halloween was only a few weeks away ... and I had no idea what I was going to dress Adelaida up as! I considered my options:
1. I could make something (but then I'd have to be creative -- not my strongest suit -- and I'd have to find some time to make a costume, which was not promising),
2. I could go out and buy a new costume for her (but costumes are so expensive for something worn only a few times, and I'd have to find time to go shopping, and I'd have to go shopping!), or
3. I could try to buy a used costume for her (but used costumes are hit-or-miss -- I might find a great costume for a four-year-old, or a great costume in her size that has stains/rips, or the used kids clothing stores might be completely out of 12-month-size costumes, and I'd have to go shopping!).

I was faced with three options, none of which I was excited about, so I did what I generally do in such situations -- nothing. Then, one day I was looking for something in Adelaida's closet and saw the costume she wore last year. It was size 9-12 month, but it was extremely large for her last year, and she is still wearing 12-month clothes, so I thought there might be a chance it would fit her. I pulled it out, held it up to her, and it looked like it would fit just fine! Problem solved -- I'd dress Adelaida in the same costume this year that she wore last year.

The costume is a flower, with four pieces: two yellow booties, a green velvet-y "stem" jumpsuit, and a flower petal headdress. I had held the jumpsuit part up to Adelaida to see if it fit, and Adelaida realized it was very soft and fuzzy (she has only recently started to like soft fuzzy things) and carried it around the rest of the day. I didn't get it back until she went to sleep that night, so promptly hid the costume again so it wouldn't be carried around like an old blanket before Halloween.

I didn't get the costume out again until Saturday, the day of her first Halloween party. I was a little apprehensive about the headdress, because it completely framed Adelaida's face and, while she has the body of a 12-month-old, she has the head of a 22-month-old. I was worried the headdress would be too tight for her. So, two hours before the party on Saturday, I tried the entire costume on Adelaida, intending to put it on, make sure she would be comfortable in it, and then take it off until the party.

She wore it the rest of the day, insisting that she did not want the headdress off and crying when I removed her booties so she could walk outside in the wet grass.

Here are several pictures of Adelaida playing outside in her Halloween costume before the party.

Our little flower, swinging on the big-kid swing!


Going down the slide


Sometimes Adelaida prefers the baby swing, because she can go so much higher


Here is a picture of Adelaida last year at Halloween -- not much different at 22 months than she was at ten months!


It looks like we put Adelaida in a baby swing last Halloween, too!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Fall is full of wonderful events in New Mexico: the state fair, balloon fiesta, and of course Halloween Season! It turns out that Halloween with a toddler is more than just one day -- it is a season that lasts the entire month of October!

To kick off Halloween Season this year, Adelaida and I met five other toddlers and moms at a local pumpkin patch for fall activities and pumpkin fun.

The first thing we saw was an adorable setting for a group photo -- hay bales and pumpkins in front of a small shack -- so we stopped for a photo op. Do you know how long it takes to pose six toddlers for a photo, then try to get them all to look at the camera and smile simultaneously? I'm not sure how long such an amazing feat would take -- we gave up after about twenty minutes! This is the best photo I was able to get -- Gracie and Mireille on the top level, Adia standing by the pumpkin, Ann sitting on the ground, and Adelaida and Shreya sitting on the lower bale of hay.


Next we took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. Each of the kids got to pick a pumpkin, although most of them were more interested in pointing out pumpkins than in picking one up and walking around with it. The pumpkins were small, but still too large for Adelaida to carry ... until she found the perfect pumpkin! It was very small, had a long twisted stem, was rabbit-eaten on one side and slightly green on the other side, and Adelaida loved it! She picked it up as soon as she found it (even though she hadn't tried to pick any of the pumpkins up prior to that) and insisted on carrying it herself -- a difficult feat over the uneven ground of a pumpkin patch. (I tried so hard to get a picture of Adelaida with her pumpkin, but my camera stopped working here, so no cute pictures. Sorry!)

After the hay ride that returned us to the farm, we headed toward the corn bin. This is very much like a sandbox, except it is filled with corn kernels instead of sand -- much less messy and still just as much fun! Adelaida started by sitting on the side of the corn bin, picking up handfuls of corn from the bin, and emptying her hand outside the corn bin. I explained to her that the corn goes in the bin, and soon she was picking up corn around the bin, kernel by kernel, and putting it back in the bin. That done, she next made it her personal goal to completely fill the large red bucket with corn. Using a shovel would have been too easy, so she filled the bucket handful by handful, never tempted to play with the other kids until the bucket was completely full!

After the corn bin, we stopped for a diaper change, where I found about a dozen kernels of corn in Adelaida's pants, socks, diaper, shirt, and hat. The most amazing thing is that I removed so much corn from her at that time, but still found four corn kernels several hours later while we were playing at home!

The pumpkin patch has several other attractions -- a rabbit village, a pumpkin toss, a hay bale pyramid to climb, and of course goats, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, pigs, and more -- but we spent the rest of our time at the giant slides. The pumpkin patch has two slides, and they are arguably the most exciting slides I've ever been down! The slides are built into the side of a giant dirt pile, so to begin, you first climb up a very large dirt hill. At the top of the hill, kids line up and patiently wait their turn to slide down the two slides. The slides are large plastic culvert tubes, lined on the bottom with some kind of slippery material that makes you slide down really fast! The tubes are large enough that I could slide down them comfortably, and I did that twice with Adelaida on my lap. The third time, I walked up the dirt hill with both Adelaida and Mireille while Prisca (Mireille's mom) waited at the bottom of the slides to "catch" the girls. I sent both girls down by themselves and they loved it! I followed them down, and when I got to the bottom, Adelaida was signing "more!" The girls went down the slides several more times and loved it. Unfortunately I was too busy pushing kids down the slide to take any pictures, but we all had a great time at the slides.

I'm definitely planning to take Adelaida back to the pumpkin patch next year -- it is so much fun!

Balloon Fiesta 2010: Adelaida's first tattoo

A small but significant event happened while we were at balloon fiesta. It happened like this:

A coworker of mine was working on the balloon crew for one of the balloons, so several of us from the lab met at this balloon and stayed near it for most of the balloon fiesta. At one point, I was talking with some friends near this balloon while Dale and Diane (my friend and officemate in the lab) had walked a little ways off with Adelaida. I could see them, but couldn't really see what they were doing. Abruptly, they walked back toward me, picked up Diane's bag, and said to me "we aren't doing anything!" Obviously, they had quite guilty consciences!

The three of them walked about five paces away and Diane and Dale knelt down, with Adelaida squirming between them. This is what I saw:


I walked over to them, asked what they were doing, and they both replied "Nothing!" so I walked away and let the events unfold.

A few minutes later, they let go of Adelaida and I saw this:


Dale and Diane had given Adelaida her first temporary tattoo!

Adelaida loved it, and immediately tried to put another tattoo on her left arm -- she didn't have another tattoo paper, so put the balloon trading card on her left arm to see if the image would transfer like the first one did.


The balloon image didn't transfer, but for a few happy minutes she had a balloon tattoo on one arm and a balloon trading card resting on the other arm!


We even took a picture with three versions of the same balloon: the real balloon, the tattoo balloon on Adelaida's arm, and the balloon trading card.


Adelaida spent the rest of the day, as well as Sunday and Monday and Tuesday, pointing to her arm anytime anyone said "balloon." She was pretty happy with the balloon and immediately showed her teacher at school on Monday. (The tattoo washes off with water, so Dale was careful not to disturb it at bathtime on Sunday night!)

Balloon Fiesta 2010: More Pictures

Here are more pictures from the Balloon Fiesta this weekend. It was so amazing to be in the field as the balloons were taking off!

Adelaida loves to be "swung" between Dale and me, so whenever she is holding both of our hands, she pulls her feet up and says "wheeee!" -- thanks to Diane for taking this picture just at the end of swinging Adelaida.


Looking south from Balloon Fiesta Park, balloons fill the sky!


The special shapes balloons are always fun to see, like this jack-in-the-box.


Look, Mom -- it's Smokey Bear!


A recurring big hit at Balloon Fiesta are the bees: matching bee balloons, one with red antenna and one with blue antenna. This year, there was a surprise third bee, with purple antenna: the bees had a baby!


Dale and Adelaida pause for a father-daughter tickle break.


Looking straight up at the balloons flying overhead.


We were walking around Balloon Fiesta Park when it suddenly got very dark -- we looked up and realized we were in the shadow of a solar eclipse!


The owl and cactus were two of the last balloons to go up.


More to come!

Balloon Fiesta 2010

Following closely on the heels of the New Mexico State Fair is the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta -- a state fair with balloons instead of animals. We've been several times since we've been in New Mexico and generally enjoy it -- when we forget about the hours stuck in traffic, the frigid temperatures, waking up at 4am, and all the times we go to the fiesta only to find that the weather isn't favorable for the balloons to take off. Nevertheless, we decided this year to take Adelaida and hope for the best.

Hot air balloons are surprisingly sensitive to the weather and can only take off if there is no precipitation and very little wind. My general plan for attending balloon fiesta is to plan to go every day, and continue planning to go until the weather is favorable and the balloons actually take off. This year that turned out to be a great plan -- we went the first day and the weather was wonderful! It was the best weather we've ever seen for balloon fiesta -- clear skies, no precipitation, no wind, and it was actually warm by the time we left the park.

Being in the midst of a huge field of balloons as they are unrolled, inflate, stand up, and take off is amazing! An essential item to take to the fiesta is a camera, and we took over 200 pictures. Here are some of my favorites.

The first line of balloons inflates against a New Mexico sunrise.


Adelaida spots a balloon in the sky.


A balloon flies overhead, next to the crescent moon.


The first wave takes off!


Balloons fill the sky as more inflate on the ground.


Dale and Adelaida squat in front of an inflating balloon.




Once they take off, the balloons look pretty small, but on the ground they are quite large!




We had a great time and took so many more pictures. I'll post more pictures later!

New Mexico State Fair 2010

New Mexico's state fair is advertised as "like all the holidays rolled into one." Hearing that, I was eager to take Adelaida ... and ended up taking her twice: after work one evening last week by myself and again last Saturday with Dale. While the fair wasn't quite as great as "Hallow-Labor-Fourth-Giving," we still had a great time.

Note the leash-backpack and the ankle band!

We started at the "tag your tots" booth -- a state police initiative to tag kids so that it is relatively easy to reunite lost children with lost parents. Adelaida was cautiously interested in the ankle band the policewoman held out to her, until she realized it was going on her leg. Much screaming ensued and I ended up taking the ankle band from the policewoman and putting it on Adelaida's leg myself. She spent much of the remaining time at the fair pulling at it and saying "off please." I just hate to ignore a request from Adelaida when she uses good manners to ask for something, but the ankle band stayed on. In fact, I was so afraid of losing her in the crowd that I pulled out the dog-leash-backpack so that Adelaida could walk by herself without getting away from us.

Next we visited the "petting zoo" -- I put that in quotes because there were signs as we walked in that read "please do not put your hands in the cages." Well, it was at least a good opportunity to look at some animals. Most of the cages had both baby and adult animals, so she saw a cow and a calf, a sheep and a lamb, chickens and some chicks, and a pig and several piglets. Surprisingly, she seemed to enjoy the chickens more than any of the other animals.

McDonald's Farm was next -- this is a mock farm where kids are "hired as farm hands" as they walk in the area and visit several stations where they learn something about working on a farm and complete certain tasks (like "gather two eggs from the henhouse" or "drive the tractor around the corn field" or "milk the cow"). It was a lot of fun -- so much fun that I took Adelaida to this area both times we visited the fair. Adelaida had two favorites here: riding the tractor (with some power from her Daddy, since her legs are much too short to reach the pedals) and carrying around the basket that she was given to collect her farm produce. She called it a bucket and was reluctant to give it back when we were done!

McDonald's Farm also had live cow-milking demonstrations, at which the kids sat around the cow trailer while "Grace" the cow was milked (first by hand, then with an electric milker). Adelaida was pretty sure the animal in front of her was a cow, and insisted on telling everyone that it was a cow and that cows say "Buuuuuuuu" (she learned the cow sound when most words started with the "b" sound, and has stubbornly stuck with it ever since). At one point in the demonstration, the demonstration guy was talking and the cow suddenly belted out a very loud "MOOOOOOOOOOOOO." The demonstration guy stopped talking when he heard that, all the other kids were quiet because they had been listening to the demonstration guy, and Adelaida decided to talk back to the cow -- she stood up and said "BUUUUUUUUUUU" right back to the cow! Everyone laughed, Adelaida sat down, and the demonstration continued.

After turning in her eggs, fruits, and vegetables at McDonald's Farm, we visited the main fairway for lunch, then stopped by the alpaca barn before leaving. Adelaida LOVED alpacas last year, and thought they were pretty neat animals this year as well. Did you know that alpacas say "woof woof"? Adelaida taught me that at the fair this year, although we never did hear an alpaca speak to verify that. Admittedly, they do look a bit like dogs with really long necks, so maybe they speak like dogs too!

We had a great time at the fair this year. Adelaida enjoyed the animals, the farm, and all the people. (She still likes to point out all the hats, dogs, bikes, and babies she sees; there weren't many dogs or bikes at the fair, but there were enough hats and babies that she was pretty busy finding them all!)

Here is another picture, of Adelaida sitting on an alpaca at the fair last year. I am amazed at how much she has changed in the past year!