Dinosaur Museum

Last weekend we took Nathan to the "Dinosaurs Unearthed" exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science downtown. Nathan is really into dinosaurs right now...his friend, Jake, who lives across the alley from us loves them too, so every time the two of them get together, they always play with their dinosaurs, show off a new one they just bought, or just talk about them. It is really cute how much Jake has taught Nathan about them and how much Nathan has learned on his own. In fact, just last night, Nathan was eating his dinner (grilled chicken) and I told him how proud I was of him eating such a good dinner. And then Nathan said, "Mommy, I'm a carnivore so I love chicken!"

The exhibit that we went to at the museum was really neat because there were so many things to see: Nathan could interact with the lifelike animatronic dinosaurs (there were remote controls you could use to make the dinosaurs move), there were bones and fossils on display, small dinosaurs that he could hold and play with, plus sand areas where you could "dig" for fossils. We also went to the IMAX movie beforehand that was about prehistoric sea animals. Nathan LOVED that. He kept telling us he was actually IN the ocean! It really was a great day.
















After seeing all of the dinosaur exhibits, we visited the rest of the museum's permanent exhibits.






On our way out, Nathan saw this elephant and wanted to go see it. What is so funny is that my friend, Jennifer, and I brought Nathan and her little boy, Jack, to the museum when they were babies. I remembered that I had a picture of Nathan sitting by the elephant's foot. So I wanted the same picture of Nathan 3 years later...only it rained that day so he had to stand instead of sit:






Here's my little baby boy at 8 months old. He is Charlotte's exact age!

8 Months Old

Charlotte turned 8 months old on the 10th...as you can see in the first picture, she is a VERY healthy girl! She weighs 19 lbs now! Charlotte is a big talker these days. She babbles all the time. Wayne and I both think we hear her saying Ma-Ma and Da-Da...Nathan thinks he hears Nay-Nay :) She isn't crawling yet, but she can certainly get around by scooting on her bottom. This is so funny to me because that is exactly what Nathan did before he crawled! When I was looking back at the blog from when Nathan was 8 months old, I found that he was pulling up already. Charlotte can stand if she holds onto our hands, but isn't pulling up on her own yet. She is just a very relaxed little girl and is perfectly happy watching everything going on!

I took a lot of pictures of her on this day because Nathan was playing at Grandmother's house so we had lots of "uninterrupted" time :)



These next pictures are of Charlotte in a new outfit that my mom made for her! She even made her bow! I think she looks so adorable!





Poor Baby Charlotte was trying to pull off her hat and the elastic snapped on her.






And here are two videos showing how she gets around. In the first one, you can see how she tries to go forward but ends up pushing herself backwards...and that is very frustrating when you're trying to get something!

And here is Nathan cheering his sister on while she scoots!

Playing In the Snow, Day 2

We had a very spontaneous play date at my house Monday morning. We had nothing planned for the day, and it was too cold to really go out and do anything (plus I didn't feel like getting all ready that day), so we asked Meredith and Andrew, Alison, Lauren and Trevor to come over and play in the snow. My house was already a disaster from the weekend before so I thought it was perfect timing to have a bunch of kids over to play! When I was talking to Alison and Meredith, they both said to please excuse their appearance because they hadn't taken a shower yet...join the club! Let's just be lazy and messy today!


Lauren and Nathan


Trevor, Lauren's brother



Andrew


Look at Nathan's hand...he's getting ready to throw!


And Meredith is the target!



Nathan and Lauren showing off their snowballs.


Andrew and Trevor


It's so much fun to play outside, but getting dressed and undressed is a big hassle!

The First Snow of the Year!

It finally snowed! Wayne and I had Grandmother come over Sunday morning so that we could run a few errands and go to a movie. The forecast was for snow that day, but I honestly didn't think it would REALLY snow that much. We went to the movie at 11:30. When we went in, it was raining and sleeting, but when we got out, it was completely white! There was a message on Wayne's phone from Nathan saying, "Daddy! It snowed! I can't believe it!" When we got home, Nathan was ready to go play. We got bundled up and had so much fun playing in the snow. Nathan's main goal was to make and throw as many snowballs as he could :)