An Afternoon in Downtown St Louis

One afternoon Christy, Alex, Laneah and I went downtown to see the Arch, and to our surprise, the city had built this amazing water fall and fountain in front of the capital and arch. (later I found out it had been built for the All Star baseball game that had just taken place in St Louis). This fountain became even cooler when we found out that you could walk and play in it. There were higher spots in the middle of the fountain that you could walk to and sit on with the water running all around you. Luckily I had a change of clothes for Laneah because she got soaked. She loved playing in the water and walking up the steps with the water splashing her.
After changing Laneah we walked the arch and found these cool mini arches that they also built for the game.

They have a huge park surrounding the arch and the water front. Laneah ran around like crazy because running is great when you are a toddler
She saw the arch for the first time, although she cared much more for the park:)
We went to the water front to see the big River boats. We thought about going on a tour, but they were too long.
After the water front we enjoyed some lifesaver popsicles, which were actually really good. Laneah wanted her own, but did share with me after a while which was nice.
After popsicles, she chased a squirrel, but got mad when it went up the tree. Then we played ring around the rosie in the park for a little while before we went home.

Highlights from St Louis

Laneah and I had a great time in St Louis spending time with Nana, Poppa, Aunt Christy and the Uncles. My sister and two of my brothers play the guitar and Laneah wants them to play for her all the time. She also likes to help them or play on her own.My parents bought Laneah a little turtle kiddie pool while we were there. The turtle squirts water out of its head and Laneah liked to think of it as her own personal drinking fountain.
We went to the Butterfly House of course, which was lots of fun. I think Laneah enjoyed it this time more than any other time, but it was hard to take pictures because she was running so fast yelling "bufly, bufly!"
She put on her new dress shoes and rain boots whenever she could if she wasn't wearing any of our shoes.
One day when my parents were working I took her to Bounce U, which is a place just full of inflatable bouncers, slides and obstacle courses. Laneah loved bouncing, but of course mostly wanted to be anywhere the balls were. I went down some of the slides with her (they were really fast) and she thought that was really fun too.

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Missouri with out some crazy thunderstorms. Laneah had so much fun playing in the rain and jumping in the puddles. Luckily for me, the uncles were there to play in the rain with her:)
We had lots of fun and we miss everyone!

Suson Park and Grants Farm

There are a lot of great places to take kids to in St Louis. Two of my favorite places are Suson Park and Grants Farm. Suson park has a huge playground, three big ponds full of ducks and geese and tons of farm animals for kids to look at. We went to Suson park twice and Laneah is a perfect age for it.

She had so much fun playing at the park with mommy, Nana, Aunt Christy and Uncle Alex

Seeing all the pigs, cows, horses, chickens and other farm animals


And feeding the ducks for the first time. She was so funny because she would take a piece of bread, eat it and then give the next piece of bread to the ducks. She wouldn't feed the ducks unless her mouth was full of bread.



We also went to Grant's Farm. It is owned by the Anheuser-Busch company and it is free to get in. The land was once owned by Ulysses S. Grant and the home he lived in is still there. The fence surrounding the property is made up of the barrels of guns from the civil war. You take a tram around the property to the farm and see elk, buffalo, deer and other animals on the way. The farm has lots of exotic birds and even bald eagles. We watched a show where animals did all kinds of tricks and Laneah really liked it. Then we saw the elephants and had some hot dogs and snow cones. Laneah's favorite part was feeding and playing with the goats. I let her feed them outside of the fence so they wouldn't jump on her and knock her down and then my brother Alex and I went in the pin with her.

She loved petting the goats and running after them. She even thought it was funny when they would chew on her shirt and pants.
She kept putting her hand up to their mouths so they would lick her hand and then she would laugh when they did.
If you are ever in St Louis, these are two fun places to take your kids.

20 Months

Time keeps flying by and Laneah is almost two! She is growing and changing so much every day. She is so smart, sweet, beautiful and fiesty. Every day I just look at her and think how lucky I am to have her.

Words and phrases:

She is at the age where she is repeating pretty much everything people say (the stage where parents say "yikes, I really gotta watch what I say! :) So there are a lot of new words but I will just list some of my favorites.

Jesus- "zeezus" She loves looking at pictures of Jesus. We have a picture of Jesus with a woman kneeling at his feet and she looks at it, points and says "Jesus, mommy, Jesus, mommy"

Shoes- "Suse". She still loves putting on people's shoes. This little girl has the biggest feet. She is already a 6 1/2 shoe size. I bought her some shoes for fall and got them in a size 7, but am debating about exchanging them for a 7 1/2 with the way that her feet keep growing. She loves her new shoes though and wants me to put them on her every time she sees them. One pair of her new shoes she can put on herself so she puts them on every time she sees them and walks around in them.

Boom- Laneah is crazy about the Boom Boom Pow song by the Black Eyed Peas. When she hears the song, or wants to hear the song she says "boom, boom, boom". Lately she has been bringing me my Ipod and saying "boom boom" because she wants me to play the song so she can dance.

Hat- Hats are all the rage at our house. Laneah loves to put them on and make funny faces. My parents had a hat made with her name on it while we were in Ocean City.

Cool- Everything new is "cool" now, and it is so cute when she says it.

I love you- "ove ewe" So sweet, especially when it comes with a kiss!

Where did they go?- "Where dey go?" is Laneah's new game. She either sits on something or puts it between her legs to 'hide' the item, then asks "where dey go" and laughs.

New Things:

High Fives

Blowing Kisses

Being shy- lately this social butterfly has been very shy of certain starngers. She looks at them and then covers her face, thinking herself invisible.

Jumping and marching- She can actually get both feet off the ground when she jumps now. She learned to march from Barney.

Dancing and Twirling- This girl loves to dance and she loves to twirl even more. She loves going round and round. She likes when we spin her too and as soon as we stop, even though she is super dizzy, she says "again". She also likes to play Ring Around the Rosie.

Animal sounds: She has been able to do certain animal sounds for a while but she is starting to branch out now. Her favorite sound to make is the sheep sound.

This little piggy is a new favorite game too and it is a great way to get her not to kick us when we change her diaper:)

When she wants to show you something, or take you somewhere, she will take your hand and lead the way.

Current Obsessions:

Arcades and Kiddie Rides- Laneah loves arcades and her favorite games there are skee ball and bowling. She played the basketball game last time we went to Chuck E Cheese and had a lot of fun. The kiddie rides at the mall and stores are great because she doesn't usually care if they are on or not, she just likes to sit and play in them. But her favorite rides are the really fun ones at carnivals and amusement parks.

Barney- yep, she is still in love with Barney. She brings me the remote or one of the Barney dvds and says "Barney" when she wants to watch him. She doesn't really care for any other cartoons or movies.

Umbrellas- I am not sure why, but she is facsinated with umbrellas. So much, in fact that my dad bought her her own princess umbrella that is just her size. She loves playing with it and twirling it around.

Balls- balls trump all other toys and is her favorite word to say besides "no"

Animals- especially cats and dogs.

Water- she always wants to play in the water and is really funny about it. For some reason, if she finds a glass of water, she tries to get in it. I don't know if she thinks she can fit, or what, but she does succeed in getting one of her feet into the glass.

Flags- We have to stop and look at flags all the time, and if there is a flag around, that is what she wants to play with and look at.

Needless to say she is a lot of fun and a lot of work. As mom says, "Laneah wakes up and hits the ground running" and she is non stop all day. My little ball of energy hates to sleep and makes bedtime a very long and drawn out process. But I treasure the moments when she finally settles down and snuggles in my arms. Happy 20 months sweetheart! Daddy and mommy love you.

Up

We took Laneah to see her first movie in the theaters, 'Up'. She loved it! I was surprised, I didn't think that she would do well at all, but my mom told me that she would get up with her during the movie if she got upset. But the movie was full of balloons and puppies so she was happy and she only got up a couple of times near the end.

Laneah also got popcorn for the first time. Nana bought some popcorn and Laneah couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough. When she got to the bottom, she stuck both hands in to search for more kernels. And then she tipped it upside down just to make sure she got all of it. Lol. My mom had to get more popcorn! It was a really cute movie too.

A Day Trip to Ocean City

My parents are in town visiting this week and we decided to go on a day trip to Ocean City. When we arrived, we went to the Boardwalk. Laneah was happy to be out of the car and so we let her run around. She ran into one of the many arcades and had a great time playing the different games. Her favorite games were skee ball and bowling. She would throw the ball as hard as she could and just giggle and squeal.


After playing games for a little while, we had lunch and then headed for the beach. It was a nice day and the water was actually pretty warm. I had bought a little pool to fill up and put on the beach next to our stuff and Laneah loved it. It was nice not having to run into the water every few seconds.

Poppa helped her build sand castles. Although it was more like he built them and she destroyed them...but she had fun. She kept getting wet and then tripping in the sand. She was covered head to toe in sand most the time and looked like a little churro!
She also thought the seagulls or "birdies" were hysterical and loved chasing them.
She was so tired from chasing the birds and having fun that she passed out on the beach. When she woke up she was not happy at all. We got her some ice cream as a peace offering and she calmed down and let us put her in the stroller so we could get back on the boardwalk and have some more fun.

On the boardwalk we ran into Sponge Bob....
And a balloon maker; who made a flower bracelet for Laneah
About a month ago Laneah started going through a shy phase where she covers her face and thinks that she is invisible to the world. Since she had just woken up, she was being shy with the balloon lady.
But warmed up to her when she realized that she was going to get a cool balloon bracelet.
We munched on funnel cake and board walk fries, maryland style, and then went to the amusement park Jolly Roger, which I love because they let you ride the rides with your kids. The first ride we went on was a puppy dog ride and she loved it.
Her favorite ride was the balloon ride. She saw the "balloons" from a distance and gasped and covered her mouth. She couldn't wait to get on and we rode it twice.
The teacup ride was really funny because she had her arms out over the sides like she was just chilling out in a teacup. It was really cute.
She also loved the motorcycle ride.

She was so funny because she just loved the rides; when the rides would slow down she would say "no, no" because she didn't want them to stop. She laughed and squealed so much and did not want to leave the park when it was time to go. We will definitely have to go again. It was a really fun packed day!