Birthday Party Fun!

Ramona was invited to a birthday party this weekend for a daycare friend, and she had a fabulous time playing on the toddler gym equipment. She also liked the cupcake, but refused to eat any pizza.



There was so much stuff to climb and slide down and explore.


Ramona really liked the slides, but she hated the ball pit. I tried to throw her in it once or twice but she acted like it was a pit of lava, so we avoided the ball pit.









Ramona was also afraid of the dolphin swing at first, but she decided it was really fun.

It was pretty adorable watching all the toddlers run around playing on all the equipment, and they also really loved bubble time!









What a great birthday party! Ramona says "thanks for inviting me!"

Florida Beach and Aquarium

We just got back from a wonderful trip to Tampa, Florida, where we visited our friend Anne and I attended an academic conference. Steve and Ramona tagged along for a chance to visit Florida in March and enjoy some warm weather!

In between working, we managed to hit the beach and aquarium. Ramona got to test out her new bathing suit, sun hat, and red sandals at the beach.















Ramona loved the beach, but it did take some coaxing to convince her that the beach wasn't terrifying. To be fair, the water was a bit chilly and the waves were unpredictable. Here she is trying to hide from the water behind my belly (which is probably big enough to protect her, so good job, Ramona!).

She eventually decided that water was okay in small doses, and spent quite a lot of time playing with a bucket of ocean water and some sand toys. She really liked scooping the water and pouring the water on her legs. We all had a great time at the beach and it made us really miss living close to the ocean!

Later that day we visited the Tampa aquarium, where Ramona showed off her hermit crab skills.

The aquarium had some really amazing coral reef exhibits. Ramona was completely entranced by the aquarium, and loved pointing at all the fish, sharks, turtles, and sting rays.

We can't wait to go back to Florida in the future!

Sesame Street Live

We took Ramona to Sesame Street Live, a live show with all her favorite Sesame Street friends dancing and singing. She loved it! She was enthralled most of the time, and did lots of clapping, pointing, and yelling "Elmo!!!!"

She also brought her Elmo doll, which she hugged the entire time.

It was dark so we couldn't take many photos but here are a few (with apologies for the blurry quality):

 

Happy Halloween!

Ramona had lots of fun on her first trick-or-treat outing! We visited a few houses in our neighborhood. At first she was shy and a little nervous, but she quickly got the hang of things and really loved putting candy in her bag! (all the free candy for us is a real perk of parenthood.)

Fall fashion!

It's fall, and that means new clothes for Ramona! We did a big round of fall clothes shopping, and here are some of our favorites.



Here she is sporting stripped leggings, a pink top, and her new sneakers. She really looks like a big kid, right? She's definitely not a baby any more, and she loves running everywhere and climbing everything.

Fall is a perfect time to break out the cardigans, says Ramona. This is one of her favorite books, and she is particularly fond of going "hoot" like an owl and pointing at the ball when we read it. As you can see, her hair is still really blonde!






















Ramona is sporting her new winter hat (even though it's not quite cold enough yet for a hat) and one of my favorite new shirts, which has a silver zebra on it. She really likes to point at the zebra. She's also channeling 90s fashion with these sporty plaid leggings. (shout out to Auntie Jo and her love of all things Scotland.)





















Ramona loves this shirt with birds on it, and spends a lot of time pointing at the birds whenever she wears it. In this picture, the shirt is also covered in strawberry juice (strawberries are one of her current favorite foods), and she is chowing down on animal crackers with her best buddy, monkey. If you ask Ramona, she'll tell you that monkeys say "ah ah ah!"

And I love putting her in pigtails!

Here Ramona is playing with her favorite blocks (thanks Grandpa Andy and Grandma Kay for the first birthday present!). She's also wearing a cool shirt with a gold cheetah on it.






















Ramona is a huge fan of animal crackers. She knows which cabinet they are in, and will stand in front of it banging the doors when we get home from daycare. Here she is wearing a blue and white shirt with her plaid leggings, and contemplating the cruelties of a world where she can see so many animal crackers (thanks, Costco) but can't figure out how to eat them.


Thanks for visiting the Ramona Fall Fashion Show!

Ba boo!

Ramona is a huge fan of peekaboo! She plays all the time, and yells out "ba boo! ba boo!" so we will play with her.

Here's an after-dinner game of peekaboo:

Seattle

I forgot to post these photos from our August visit to Seattle! Enjoy!

Playing with salad tools

Meeting up with some new friends!

Relaxing in the toddler rocking chair

Chewing on a duck

Story time with Auntie Jo and Uncle Scott!

Air Travel

Ramona has always been a good flyer--she flew at 2 months, 5 months, and 7 months--but I was a little nervous about flying with a toddler. She's much squirmier than she was as an infant, and less content to stay in one place for long periods of time. But on our recent trip she was great, in spite of a few unexpected challenges.                                                                                                                     Of course, there were lots of things to explore at the airport, including the terminal. She crawled around, climbed the seats, played with other kids, and generally had lots of fun in the terminal. We also practiced pointing at planes through the window!

Once we got on the plane, Ramona tried to claim her own seat, but I explained that we had to share. I bribed her with animal crackers, and it was a deal.

The two biggest challenges were because of mechanical issues and weather. Our very first flight had some mechanical issues, so we were rerouted to the east coast. That meant we had a loooong cross-country flights (5 hrs, 45 mins), which was nearly three times longer than our planned longest leg (2 hours). I had no idea how Ramona would handle such a long flight on my lap, but she was a champion. She stood up to wave at the little girls in the row ahead of us, sat on the floor to play with toys, looked out the window, took a nap in my arms, and read lots of books (or, more accurately, a few books MANY times). We were both very glad when we finally landed, though. The second problem was at the Denver airport on our way home. There was a tornado warning (with funnel clouds seen a few miles away) so we were evacuated into the basement of the airport, down where the baggage carts and security cars live. After 40 minutes wondering if we would ever get home, the warning was over and we were able to board the last flight home, only a little delayed because of the weather.

   
This is why it's good to have a seat on the plane--she was very comfortable sleeping in her car seat, definitely more comfortable than when she had to sleep in my lap! Plus it was so much easier for me. (We managed to snag an empty seat on two of our four legs.)







Our flying days were long and tiring (and only made more so by our "adventures" which delayed us both directions), but Ramona was such a great traveler. And it was so fun to visit all six grandparents on our trip!

Edmonds

We had such a good time visiting Lee and Sue in Edmonds! Ramona loved playing on the playground, and brought along a little duck as a companion. She dipped her feet into the ocean for the first time (I don't think she was a big fan--it was pretty cold, plus there was a lot of seaweed) and climbed to the top of the playground several times.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures WITH Lee and Sue (although their shadows are in one of these pictures--can you spot the shadows?) but we had a wonderful time, and I'm sure we'll be back soon!

Coloring

Ramona really enjoys coloring with crayons. She isn't quite so good at coloring on a piece of paper, and she usually tears up the paper and crumples it up (I guess she's not satisfied with her creations?), so I tried this trick that I read online. I put her in a cardboard box, and she can color on the sides to her heart's content. She had lots of fun recently coloring in this diaper box. As you can see, she also enjoyed showing the crayons to Indy. We will definitely keep making "box art"!

Hiking

We went for a wonderful hike today at the Jefferson Memorial Forest. The forest is only about a 20-25 minute drive from our house, and most of it is inside the city limits. Pretty cool! We decided to check out a new part of the forest, where we hiked to the beautiful Mitchell Hill Lake. 

We strapped Ramona into one of our many baby carriers--we really like being able to carry her around! This is the Bjorn One, which can be used to carry kids in multiple different ways (including facing out or in on the front or doing a back carry). Steve started out carrying Ramona on  his back, but the hike lulled her to sleep! From that point, we decided to wear her on the front, where she could get a good view of the forest. 






Once we reached the lake, we found a really nice little picnic area, perfect for a mid-hike snack. Ramona was very helpful--she pointed at everything, and then did some hiking of her own (holding our hands, or the picnic table). Indy mostly hid under the picnic table and barked at all the other hikers.

Ramona also had her first taste of trail mix--her version was goldfish crackers and craisins. She really liked the combo! She also gobbled up a bunch of animal crackers on the hike. I guess hiking is pretty tiring work!

We looked for fish in the lake and saw a few minnows!

Also, can I just point out that there are a lot of bugs in a forest? We were almost attacked by a lizard and I screamed when a moth startled me.

Ramona also loves wearing sunglasses lately. She has a hot pink pair of sunglasses, which she wears to and from daycare every day. Recently when her daycare class was going for a walk, she grabbed the sunglasses out of her cubby and insisted on wearing them. I always thought toddlers hated sunglasses, but not this one! (as you can see, she is working on some really cool poses)

We had such a wonderful family hike, and can't wait to do more hikes with Ramona!