I'll take a play date with a side of socializing

Want to know a little well kept secret about me?  I am a wall flower.  Unfortunately, the older I get the worse it gets.  I don't want my issues to rub off on LB so I figured the time has come for me to crawl out of my shell and work on making new friendships for the both of us.  In steps Amanda, Trinity and Faith. 

These are not new friends but friends we now have more in common with.....BABIES!  Their first, Trinity, was born the same day LB was conceived, May 15th, and their second, Faith was born last Fall.  That puts LB somewhere in the middle of two adorable girls.  Not a bad place to find yourself, huh! 

I am horribly late in posting these photos given this all took place in MARCH!   But better late then never. 

Our 2nd official play date took place at the Reid Park Zoo on St. Patty's day.  The weather was gorgeous.  Amanda and I quickly learned though that apparently Wednesday's are play dates at the zoo because the place was mobbed with moms like us. 

Here is Trin checking out the peacocks. 

LB is checking something else out.... 

The look on their faces is saying....

"Seriously! How many pictures are you going to take of us looking at the peacocks?"

Now LB is checking out the wild toes on Trin's foot...

Miss Faith along for the ride....

And of course....the LONG, LONG nap that becomes the best part of the day!

For the third play date, Amanda invited us to an event that was put on by SANDS (Southern Az Network for Down Syndrome) at Old Pueblo Gymnastics.  Old Pueblo Gymnastics opened up their facility for the SANDS family one evening to let the kids run around and have fun.  I thought it would be a great time for LB to tumble around and just play, play, play! 

However, much to my dismay these were the three things he played with most....

With some help from Trin, LB slowly warmed up. 

I love this picture of Trin.  She just looks so proud of herself!

This posting is not much but at least you get to see some more photos of LB along with his friends. 

Lots of Love-SL

Painting 101

Well, I think it's official.....I can no longer count on two hands (and two feet) how many times I hear a day Daddy saying "You're going to do what with LB?" OR "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Let me explain why.....

Being that I am a first time parent I am often scratching my head trying to come up with enrichment ideas for LB. How does one play, and I mean really play, with a 14 month old child for longer then 10 minutes? So last week this brilliant idea came to my mind. Aunt Kissy was kind enough to hand down a Little Tikes picnic table and I have oodles of non-toxic, kid friendly, washable paint and more 12x12 white scrapbooking paper then I know what to do with. Do you see where I am going with this and now do you see where Daddy's questioning comes into play?

My first attempt at letting LB paint didn't go so bad. I had a little foresight and stripped him down naked because I expected him to paint every surface that he could touch.

Here he is slowly warming up....

Well....and as you can see he was able to figure things outI quickly learned though that I had made one big mistake. What do you do with a child that is naked and covered in paint? Good question!

After I quickly realized that I have Monet 2.0 on my hands we were back out painting the following day. However, day 2 didn't go as well....

Now...to answer the question above. You have the bath tub filled and waiting before you ever hand him the paint.

I suppose like Daddy you are thinking she MUST be CRAZY for letting her 14 month old child paint, however, I feel like I am an awesome mom who lets her child explore, have fun and get dirty because after all...it will ALL wash off.

Now for tomorrow's enrichment...homemade play dough!

Lots of Love~SL

Mommy's Little Easter Bunny

My little bunny celebrated his 2nd Easter! We didn't have anything special planned so we ended up taking a spur-of-the-moment trip down to the property with my folks. Mainly, we were going to check out the flooding of the stock tank.

Before I get into that here are some pictures I took last year of LB and then the pictures I took this year.

And here is my Easter bunny today....

As you can tell this year my little guy wanted no part of being my little bunny again.

Here is what the Easter bunny brought LB this year.

This year the Easter bunny was all about practicality. He recycled last year's Easter basket. He gave LB two pairs of shoes because he had already out grown his size 4 shoes in two months. He was given two books and some sidewalk chalk.

Okay....onto the stock tank. My folks have this beautiful place "down south" as we call it. Through the years we have watched the tank go through its "highs" and "lows". However this year is the grand-daddy of all years for its "high".

You see there was a great big ol' fire down there a while back that cleared a lot of the land and with spring here the snow is melting and running down the mountain. Without all the shrub and grass the water has a free course to run and.... RUN IT DID!

Lots of love--SL