The Creation of a Cannonball

I should do what?

OK...1,2,3...

GO!

AHHHHHHHH!!

Whoa.

Happy Birthday To Me!!! (Vol.3)

To cap off my 2nd birthday extravaganza Momma and Daddy threw me a party at the Grand Rapids Children's Museum. Now I had always thought that these so called "museums" would be full of dusty things you were not allowed to touch like dinosaur bones, ancient vacuum cleaners (Gigi I am thinking of your collection), and moth-eaten clothes. Now those things can be cool too, but this museum was different. It had toys and big bubbles and a piano and a ton of other fun stuff that you could actually play with. Nothing old and dusty here!!

The spinning table was where all the action was at!

Grandpa and Great Uncle Ron have finally found their calling as Professional Spinners!!

Wow that castle is taller than me!

Look, momma, I can play with my eyes closed!

Now this is how bubbles were meant to be!

Yay Megan!!!

Decorating our tambourines...

...to parade through the Museum!

Again with the singing...you people are nuts! In any case I think I am going to like being 2!

Happy Birthday To Me!!! (Vol.2)

Here are some pictures from my next birthday party at Great Grandpa Tom and Great Grandma Betty's house. The timing was very appropriate as it was my actual 2nd birthday, and it was my 2nd party...I guess the cosmos were aligned just right.

Hey, Auntie, do I smell cake??

It's for me again?!? And more singing?!?

I wish...that they will let me eat this soon!

HAHA...I stole a taste before you could stop me!! And F.Y.I. this was the BEST CAKE EVER!

Yippee!! A new Thomas the Train backpack!! I love this guy and all his silly friends!!

Some new clothes...

I knew there was room for me :o)

Happy Birthday To Me!!! (Vol.1)

Now I know that you are all still waiting for pictures of my big girl bed (what is the hold up mom?) but I thought in the mean time I would share with you the events of the past week...more aptly titled "Birthday Week 2008"! That is right ladies and gentlemen I turned the big 0-2! Now for those of you who are wondering about the significance of this milestone let me tell you about all the cool stuff 2 year olds get to do:

• Sleep in a big girl bed (but you already know about this one)
• Drink from a cup without a lid
• Put paint on t-shirts and wear them proudly like they are the finest in fashion couture (Grandma Buck helped me design 2 shirts, and I get to do another at daycare next week)
• Learn how to do a summer salt (look out 2024 Olympics...your gold medalist has arrived)
• Wear big girl diapers (pull ons)
• And best of all get to use the big potty when I am so inclined (this is a work in progress...)

In order to properly celebrate I had 3 different parties! The first one was at daycare on the last day of Kindermusik for the summer (a music class that I just LOVE). Momma, Daddy, Auntie, and Uncle John all came too! We all got to play with shakers and pounding blocks (not the technical term, but descriptive nonetheless), sing lots of songs, parade around the room, and I even got to be the leader for one song since it was my birthday. Woohoo! Then we had pizza and juice, followed by handing out the cookies Momma and I made the night before and bottles of bubbles for all the kids. It was a ton of fun!! (All photos courtesy of Auntie and Uncle J...thanks!)

Me concentrating on a new song

Momma and me... still concentrating

Daddy and me with pounding blocks

Me pretending to be a jack-in-the-box ready to pop up

Pop up...Yay!

Daddy got me!

Time for lunch....mmmm!

The Good Life Of A Big Girl!

In the past few weeks I have been out "living it up" as they say.

I had my first trip to the zoo over Memorial Day weekend and it was GREAT! I got to ride a train for the first time where we went over a bridge and through a tunnel (I LOVED IT!), took a five minute tram all the way to somewhere called "Africa" where I got to feed a giraffe a cookie, and I think I wore out the gears on the carousel where I rode a flamingo, a baby giraffe, and a zebra (as seen below riding this time with Grandpa). I also got to watch a pig eat jello. All in all a good time was had by all (including the pig...he was silly).

Then later that week, Mommy and Daddy decided to finally acknowledge the fact that I am a big girl now. After attempting (never actually succeeding) to master the art of climbing out of my crib, they decided it was time for me to try a big girl bed! And let me tell you I was pumped! I have never seen something so cool...a bed with only 3 walls!!

The first night I decided it would be ok to wake Mom and Dad up at 3:30am just to remind them that I had in fact been sleeping in my big girl bed all this time. Then they convinced me to go back and try it again for another 2 hours. The next night I rolled off on to my pillow landing pad and spent most of the night sleeping in the middle of my floor...however since then I have figured out two things. 1. If I cuddle a rolled up blanket on the walled edge of my bed I won't fall out (at least not as much). And 2. If I fall out, I can actually crawl back in. Amazing!

Now I know you are all waiting on the edge of your seat for pictures of this 3-walled bed...but those will have to come in the next installment. Right now I have to go make lunch for Minnie and Lucy...

Go take a hike...

...or at least a walk to the park. It is nice outside! FINALLY!

To mark this improvement in the atmospheric cycle (can you tell mom has been working on my vocab?) I decided it was time for Lucy to get out and get some fresh air. And what better place to do that than at the park? (Really, if you have any suggestions let me know. I am always up for an adventure!) Once we made it to the swings (Daddy pushed Lucy and Momma pushed me) I saw all sorts of fun things: airplanes in the sky, doggies, other kids. But by far the most exciting thing was when Daddy showed me that not all birds that swim are ducks. Daddy says that the ones with the long necks are called geese (goose if there is only one of them). So now just to make sure Daddy, Momma, Lucy, and anyone else in the general vicinity remembers this new and exciting piece of information I like to remind them that "Goose ah long neck" about 50 times a day. Speaking of...I think I hear some honking outside my window...gotta run...

Dolly Bed? Not today...

While I was at Grandma and Grandpa's house the other day I found something new (well new to me anyways). Momma said it used to be a bed for Becky (her BFF dolly) and now it could be one for Lucy (my BFF dolly). But I decided it looked more Evie-sized instead...

Then when Kermit and I were done with our nap I decided it was time to bake cookies. I had Grandma test them and she said that MY cookies were better than hers!!! I guess success really is sweet!!

Catch Up Time...

I am 19 months old.

And in those 19 months, I have seen a lot of change around me.

We moved 2 months after I was born, I've spent a lot of time in the car driving around the state, Momma and Daddy have started new jobs, I've met new friends... with more coming every day (Welcome, Max), I've seen the Tigers in the World Series, and Daddy tells me I'll see them win it this year. I may be 19 months old, but I have developed the wisedom of a 3 year old. Luckily, I enjoy a fast-paced life.

Let me quickly go over the last few months with you:

Mommy, Daddy, and Papa Greenwald took me to the Christmas Parade in Grand Rapids...
...all the excitement finally caught up to me.

I went sledding for the first time...

...and I went swimming, too.

I spent Christams Eve in Grand Rapids...

and Christmas Day in Kalamazoo. When it's too cold to play outside, I read a lot...

...or just act silly.




I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day, and I'll chat with you all soon :)

Freaking Phenominal Fall Fun

Oh yeah, this fall stuff is some good fun. Mom and Dad had me out somewhere new just about every day it seems, and it usually entailed being outside. I like being outside. You can have a lot more fun outside. You can run a lot more outside. Overall I'd say outside is where it's at. What's "it"? I don't know...but outside is where you can find "it". Fall was also neat because of all of the changes I got to watch. The air was cooler, the trees turned pretty colors (most of which I know by name, thank you very much), you can see your breath in the morning, and all the pesky bugs went away. I changed, too. My teeth are all coming in now, I have grown a ton, I look less like a penguin when I run now, and I can help get myself dressed to go outside to play. I'm still a punk, but that will NEVER change. Yeah, I'm pretty much all grown up now I'd guess (although I can't be sure...I haven't done this before). Figure I'll keep living here though so I don't have to pay rent somewhere else...you have no idea how overpriced housing is over here!

My most fequent hang-out was the park down the street. It's only a 3 minute walk to get there, so we'd go there a lot when Mom and Dad got home from work. It has swings, slides, a merry-go-round, and plenty of room for me to run around. For some reason they liked to take me there right before a nap on the weekends, too. Haven't figured out why yet...I was usually too tired to think about it while we headed back home. Anyways, I'm pretty awesome in a swing (as you can see), so that's usually where we'd start and finish the outing. Dad would get me going pretty high sometimes, but it's just a good place to chill out and check things out. Since we're so close to the airport, it was a great place to spot "air-pains" and say "bye-bye" to them. Did you know that they go ssssshhhhhhhhh across the sky? Well I did, that's why I told you.

You meet some cool kids at the park, too. This is a shot of me playing with my friend Udi and his mom on the merry-go-round (I like pushing it). They just moved here from Israel. I also have a South African friend that I play with from time to time. His dad has a funny accent, and usually is pretty silly when he's pushing the swings. I like the neighborhood kids... I just hope we can still play when it gets cold outside.

Then there was Halloween. The bigger kids at daycare tell me I'll like it more when I can go "tricking and/or treating", but for now I like it just fine running around in silly clothes. This year, I was a monkey. Instead of telling you all about it...I'm just going to show you a ton of monkey pictures. Cool?

Monkey w/ Mommy...

Monkey w/ Daddy.

Monkey in movie-esque chaos.

Monkey on hay...

Monkey saying "hey".

Monkey throwing poo.

Monkey caught writing grafitti on a pumpkin.

Monkey and a goat.

(sweet.)

Monkey...out.