Pittsburgh Children’s Museum

Alternative title: How to exhaust your toddlers in 2 hours.

We first went to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum in December. I was actually unsure if there would be enough for 19 month old kids to do. After checking the website, I saw they had a “nursery” area that had age appropriate activities and as kids under 2 were free, we thought “what the heck?”.

So did they like it? Spoiler alert…we bought a membership. We’ve gone one other time since then because of the holidays and ya know…pneumonia. But here are some fun pictures of our visits.

Handsome boy on the light up table.

This table of blue beads. Rocked Fynnlee’s world.

Bug in the grass

Blue beads for life. Seriously, she was obsessed.

Magnetic car parts on a giant skate ramp

Wheel of Fortune

Trains!!

and more Trains.

Fun in the sand.

Oh Hi, giant Pierogie.

Greyson loved the Pirate Parrot (good thing because there are lots of father/son Pirate games in his future.)

And this one…she’ll come around

There are so many other things I didn’t take pictures of. Honestly, our kids had such a blast at the Children’s museum. And we haven’t even hit the water floor yet (because ya know…pneumonia). We’re already looking forward to our return trip!

Life lately – Fynnlee

Oh…hi there.

So what’s new and exciting with everyone’s favorite Squish?

Let’s start off discussing sleep. We spent most of the last 6 weeks waking up with little Miss at 4:00 am. And then right after the new year, she magically started sleeping until 5:15/5:30. It. Was. Bliss. Note how I said…WAS. We had 4 or 5 days of solid sleep and then she got sick. Sick as in 105.8 degree temperature, taken to Children’s hospital kinda sick. (more on all of this in a minute). It took 4 days for her to feel better but we were back to crappy sleep. The last few days have been 4 am wake ups. Fiddlesticks.

She takes a solid 2+ hour nap at school but the weekends are kind of all over the place. She fights sleep HARD and no matter how tired, FOMO is so much stronger than exhaustion. I took to driving her around for 2 hours one day just so she would get some much needed rest. I guess you don’t get two kids that are good sleepers.

Or good eaters. Fynnlee remains pretty picky. She eats her yogurt and fruit every morning like a champ. And she’s 50/50 on the school’s lunches. But dinner is generally a crapshoot. I never know what she’s gonna eat and what she’s going to feed to Jacob. It’s still frustrating and it still hurts my feelings but she’s clearly not starving so I should just roll with it, right? Easy for YOU to say.

Her vocabulary is moving right along. She has full blown conversations with herself and I’m getting better at catching some of what she’s saying. It’s like listening to someone speaking French. I pick up certain words here and there but for the most part, I’m lost. Her new favorite word is Yep and she’s also pretty fond of Oh My. But the cutest thing by far is when she (or Greyson) says Please. It sounds like Peas and I’ll pretty much give them anything they want if they just ask nicely.

Tantrums continue to be legendary. It’s best just to let them ride. I give her a few minutes then get down to her level and ask her to play. 9 times out of 10 she’s giggling within 30 seconds. And her giggle…oh my. It makes my heart explode! She thinks I’m pretty funny too so I get to hear that sweet sound a lot.

So back to her illness…

Our whole house pretty much had the stomach flu over the holidays. It started with Greyson and worked it’s way through all of the adults (except me). Fynnlee was spared but on Wednesday of last week, she came down with a fever of 102 and had to stay home from school. Jarrad & I tag teamed Thursday and she seemed OK. Still feverish but she was playing and in a decent mood. She woke up crying Thursday night and when I picked her up, she was on fire. I took her temperature and almost passed out when I saw the thermometer hit 105.8. Jarrad and I both recall being told that a temp of above 105 will basically fry a little brain and cause brain damage and after a call to our pediatricians after hours number, he took her to Children’s Hospital ER.

Long story short, it was just a virus that had to run it’s course. We got some Tylenol to put where the sun don’t shine because Fynn is the worst medicine taker in the history of ever. And I stayed home all day Friday to snuggle my baby, who was 100% better by Sunday morning.

Note: A temp over 105 will not fry your baby’s brain. The body will eventually regulate it’s temp but a fever that high is usually the sign that something serious is going on. And an ice cold bath will not only NOT bring a fever down, it will make your sick baby miserable. Sorry about that one, Fynnlee

We’re working on getting her to brush her teeth (she kind of hates it) but this little Squish has been peeing on the potty everyday for the last two weeks! Now THAT is exciting stuff.

She also has a full set of teeth. She’s in size 24 months/2T, Size 6 shoe and size 5 diaper.

Life with this little girl is certainly never boring!

Life lately – Greyson

Lovebug is 20.5 months old. Sit with that little fact for a second.

I feel like so much has happened since my last update. Like his language has exploded! All of a sudden he can say like 20 words. He was drinking his sippy of milk last night and handed the bottle to me and said “All done”. Then he looked at his pacifier on the table and said “Bink Bink”. It’s bizarrely cool that my toddler is full-on communicating with us now.

He also follows directions really well. I’ll ask him to pick something up off the floor and bring it to me. And he does it! And then we act like he just performed brain surgery…”THANK YOU GREYSON! What a good little helper you are!” and he delights in all the high fives.

He’s a lover of life, this kid. He’s still uber happy 90% of the time.

But hooboy, that 10% is becoming…interesting. Tantrums have started (nothing that quite rivals his sister yet, thank goodness!) and he’s started throwing things when he’s angry. He has definite opinions on what he wants to do and you absolutely cannot make him without brute force.

He’s mastered the head shake and a very firm NO.

He is also going through a bit of a whiny, needy phase too. He wants me to hold him a lot of the time when we’re home and follows me around and cries when I put him down. Hey I wanted a mama’s boy! #icreatedthismonster

He’s got a great appetite and loves to eat. Breakfast is typically dry cereal, yogurt and fruit. He eats most of whatever the school provides for lunch and has most nights has pasta, chicken and a pouch for dinner.

He’s a stellar sleeper. In bed by 7, up for the day by 5:30/6:00. He generally naps for 2 1/2 hours at school and longer on the weekends. I learned the other day that an overtired Greyson is no one’s friend. He only napped for an hour and a half and lost his mind from around 9:15 to 11. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen often.

He loves to run and tries to hop (cutest thing ever) and is a big fan of dancing. Either with a partner or without. (I’m already arranging his wedding with the delightful Vivan from daycare)

He is super silly, loves peek a boo (Where’s Greyson), his tool bench, knocking things over, and “reading” books.

He’s got a mouth full of teeth and delights in brushing them with his electric toothbrush. He’s in 18-24 month clothes, size 5 shoe and size 5 diaper.

Happiest Bug on the Block.

 

Holidays 2016

Well hello there! I know. I’m way behind in this post but better late than never, right?

Is it me, or did the holidays fly by at warp speed this year?? Wow. And while they were filled with a bit of ickiness (most of our family had the stomach flu, a cold or both), they certainly were wonderful.

Rather than give you a play by play, daily recap…I’m just gonna put together a mish mash of highlights.

Pre-Christmas – I was off on the 22nd and 23rd

Jarrad and I hit up the Strip District for our holiday food essentials. Penn Mac was insane, Parma was delightfully empty, and Wholeys was a seafood lovers piece of heaven.

This should say Wholey’s (stupid autocorrect)

We had lots of snuggles and shennigans

Peek a boo is still a big deal

  

Naps

More snuggles

Lots of Elf

While decorating the tree (new family tradition)

Christmas Eve…all the food

       

Grandma and Papa stayed with us for almost 3 fantabulous weeks! And even better, they’re moving to Pittsburgh in February.

Christmas Day – Santa was here!

So was Aunt Stephanie!

They didn’t quite get the concept of Santa but presents…oh they understood presents.

Our Christmas was definitely Merry & Bright

New Years Eve.

The kids fancied up and we went to the Lawrence’s to close out 2016. Guess who was kinda over pictures at this point?

Fynnlee was ok posing in her party dress.

But Greyson, oh Greyson. Over it!

He was fine when we reached our destination because…ya know. Trains.

It was a quick visit but I love my ladies.

Jerry and I put the kiddos to bed and hit the town. Dinner at Hyde Park was lovely and we managed to stay up until 12:30 and kiss at midnight. That hasn’t happened in at least 3 years!

This post doesn’t do our holiday season justice. Despite the sickness, we cherished every moment.

We are so excited for you, 2017!