Kidcity Children's Museum

Saturday was surely something special.  Seriously.

After our Music Together class we decided to check out Kidcity Children's Museum in Middletown.  It was pretty cool.  A bunch of different themed rooms for kids to run around and explore. 

Oliver did really well and I can easily see us visiting again on a weekday when it would hopefully be less crowded (not that it was bad even today) and letting him stay and play longer in each area.  I'm pretty excited to get back there again actually.  I think this may be my key to surviving the winter months.

Giant kaleidoscope.  Sea caves.  Piggy banks.  Space travel.

 Captain Oliver.  Walking the plank.  Train table.

 Postmaster.  Music maker. Sliding. Trainspotting. Car driving.

And of course...

Owen was there too... he just didn't know it.



No Lions, 2 Tigers and a Bear... OMY

The boys got a visit from their Grandpa, Nana and Aunt Andrea on Sunday.  Unfortunately Baby Daddy Natey Poo was working and missed out on our lovely day.  We had some gorgeous fall weather, so we took a trip to Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport.



Oliver did really well.  He loves being a big boy and walking around.  He also loves his grandpa.  Put the two together and he had a great day!

He is at a great age for the zoo now.  He listens better when we let him walk, he follows our gaze and fingers so we can point things out to him, and he can identify animals now so he is impressed by seeing the real deal.

And, once again, Owen was there, too... he just didn't know it.

And Nana was there too...

 ...but she was behind the camera this time.  Which means Mommy is in pictures, proof to the boys in the future that I really did do things with them!

Freshly Picked

Oliver decided not to nap.  The sun came out.  Daddy was home.  We decided to be brave and take the trip to Lyman.  Brave because lately the kid has been a little friggin' monster!  He has learned the art of tantrums just in time to be a big brother.  Yay.

Who knew apple picking would be such a success?  When I took him blueberry picking with friends he ended up doing pretty well but I figured tree picking wouldn't go over as well.  Wrong mommy.  He loved it.  The trees were low enough for him to reach the bottom apples and daddy's shoulders were high enough for the mid-tree ones.  The second he was out of his car seat he was running over to some trees.  We convinced him to come with us to get a bag and over to some different apples.  Nate showed him one to pick and as soon as he did he plopped it right into the bag, like he knew what to do, demanding "mas" ("more").  Each apple he picked he wanted "mas".  Super cute.

I was excited for pumpkins.  Last year he was impressed with the pumpkins, so I was eager to see his reaction now.  Not as good as the apples.  The field wasn't as full with pumpkins as last time and he was tiring out.  But he did pretty well.  And looked super cute.

Once we got down to the market store the display of pumpkins, gourds and squashes was more visually impressive for him I think.  He picked a mini pumpkin for himself, and one for his baby, Owen.

My father-in-law recently purchased a new DSLR camera for himself and let me have his old one.  It has lots and lots of miles on it, but I am very happy to have it.  I wanted to try it out with this trip to the orchards, and I got some good shots, but I am glad I brought my smaller camera (which is amazing) and glad to have some basic editing software.  Got some good pictures of Oliver, but the button stuck and stopped working (the reason it was replaced), and being unfamiliar with the camera, I didn't get pictures as clear as I would like.  Still satisfied with our trip and fulfilling my photo-snapping mother needs. 

Tuesday Tummy Time! and West Haven Beach

First things first- Belly Baby at 28 weeks:

Courtesy of Babycenter.com

"By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world"



It's a little too late now to wonder....WHAT THE F WHERE WE THINKING?!?!?!  We PLANNED babies this close!  20 months?!?!?! Good thing I don't think that too often....but there are definitely moments.  Like when I realize the nursery is the perfect size....for Oliver.  That I get almost enough sleep...to last me through a day of Oliver.  That I love the budding independance... at Oliver's age.  A newborn is a whole 'nother barrel of monkeys!  Can I do this? And with BDNP's crazy work schedule...can I do this solo for a good portion of the day?  Will I be myself at the end of the day? 

I am so looking forward to doing more and more with Oliver...will a new baby get in the way of that?  And at the same time... I am so looking forward to loving on a newborn.  Will Oliver get in the way of that?  Oliver spent hours asleep on my chest in the recliner.  Owen will likely spend a good chunk of that time asleep in a swing or cradle.  That's kind of sad for him.

It's getting pretty close to baby time.  October will be here before we know it.  And October will bring our 2nd baby and our 2nd wedding anniversary...in that order!!! crazy! Two babes before we're married two years! That's true love!

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So here is how we wrapped up our weekend.  A Sunday afternoon trip to West Haven to get a milkshake and corn dog at Chicks, then walk it off on the boardwalk.

Yeah I'm kind of a whale these days.

And THIS ONE...seemed to forget how old she was and wanted to swim deeper and play with other dogs.  She certainly felt her age trying to walk back to the car and was very stiff the next day.

Music Together

When I started this blog in May I gave you all an introduction to Music Together in a previous post of mine. I had no readers at the time so I don't know how many have actually seen it...but backtrack and check it out!

We are totally MT groupies! Oliver had his first class of the summer session on Saturday (his fourth consecutive session). AND he is registered for the fall session! We are very excited to be able to continue him in these classes.

I would love to hear from other parents of the Music Together program, or any other music program for that matter. Share your child's musical journey with me! I am so amazed to see what Oliver has taken from these classes that I'd love to compare experiences.

When we started our first session last fall Oliver had just learned to crawl. In fact, he graduated from army crawl to hands-and-knees crawl the evening after his very first class. Now, he is a runner! That in itself is such a change. I love seeing how his independent mobility is incorporated into his musical appreciation. I, myself, have learned so much since we started last September that I know he doesn't need to be sitting still to be getting a ton out of the class. He sits still the least, but in my opinion, participates the most.

Unfortunately, our regular teacher had something come up and missed class this week. Fortunately, our substitute Val brought her baritone ukulele and allowed the kids to explore the new instrument. We are definitely looking forward to seeing Nik next week for class. I know Oliver will be so excited to be reunited after the break between sessions.

Oliver's Musical Breakthroughs:

Oliver leads the class- he is anxious to get started and lets Nik know that it's time to start the show at the beginning of class. He then anticipates what Nik is going to do and will do it just a second too early. It's adorable. It melts my heart a bit. "You're going to steal my job," Nik said to him one day.

Oliver dances- Baby's got moves! It started as some quick stepping and has turned into spinning and clapping. He will even do the Imagination Movers dance moves ("Reach High, Think Big, Work Hard, Have Fun".... but he really only "works hard"; and from the closing song "Jump Up, Get Down, Stand Up, Turn Around" ...he does every one of those moves).

Oliver remembers music- with every class we get a set of two CDs. We pretty much focus on whatever the current CD is and replay the others during breaks between sessions. We recently rediscovered the first CD we got almost a year ago (Oliver was around 9 months old)... and he remembers the songs! He remembers them so well that started clapping along with a song seconds before the clapping started. I was driving the first time he did this and was so surprised that I didn't have to coax him to clap. So cool. We've also gotten him to "shake those 'simmons down" along with the song and it's too cute. Too cute!

Oliver loves instruments- we learned this very early on but I hadn't realized just HOW much he loves instruments. I had gotten a ToysRUs rewards coupon for $5 and thought, "Hey it's a rainy day, let's take a ride and see if we can find a cheap little toy." Well...he was miserable the entire time we were in the store. No toy held his interest at all. Then I took him over to where the instruments are and showed him a ukulele. Loved it. Found a Handy Manny guitar. Double loved it. Keyboards? Oh we wish that $5 rewards was more like $100!

Oliver sings- it took me a second to notice that was what he was doing, but he started singing along to the Sesame Street theme song and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. It's just a high pitch squeal but it's definitely him singing along. In the car, I've also realized he is singing along to songs on the radio. He has joined in on two different Mariah Carey songs, The Who ("Whoooooo are you? Who who? Who who?" of course), and the intro to Alice in Chains' Rooster. I think as long as there is some very high notes he is going to join in.

Here is a picture of Oliver during his first session of Music Together

And here he is now!

Our Music Together experience is offered by Musical Folk.  Again, I expressed my love for Musical Folk back in May, so be sure to read that post!  Here it is.

And check out the Musical Folk website!

West Rock State Park

Since moving to Hamden I've been meaning to learn more about the area and the places to entertain Oliver.  I've driven by signs for the state park only about a kajillion times, so after dinner on Friday we took a ride over to check it out.  The scenery on the ride over was not pretty.  There was some housing that looked aweful and trash dumped on the sides of the road (I'm sure people just dump whatever the Transfer Station on the same road won't take). 

The park itself needs some more investigation.  There must be hiking/walking trails, but I didn't see any clearly marked or maintained ones and I don't exactly want to "wing it" with Oliver.  But we did park and get out of the van to stretch our legs (we had been in there all of 10 minutes and were getting cranky) when we reached the look-out at the top.  Very nice view of New Haven and the surrounding area.  Oliver had a blast running around, so did Genie.  That old dog was suddenly puppy-like running around there.  Awesome photo ops there, so I was happy.