Saturday in the Park with Rowan

I'll just blatantly benefit from our friends' blog by directing you to this recent posting. It was a great day, and nice to see that fun times and soccer balls do make for fast friends. (For those who aren't sure it's worth it: if you click on the link, you'll see a video of Morgen and her Grandma Lovett playing with her friend in High Park.)

Sedentary Lifestyle

I sometimes wonder if we model too much sitting for Morgen, as she really is obsessed with it. Lately she's taken to putting a stuffed animal or block onto her little blue booster chair, and then trying to pile on top of it - perhaps in order to sit on the toy's lap? Or, to share her chair with the toy? I refuse to believe, as Gavin does, that she's trying to "crush" her beloved objects. But who knows, she is her father's daughter, and they do have some similarities when it comes to destruction and general mayhem. The yellow block in this picture has just been squished out from under the child as a result of her developing (but still very advanced) sitting skills.

Giraffe-in-the-Box

A few days ago, Morgen went to a birthday party for one of her friends - and what a party it was. Complete with fancy baby-safe animal-themed party hats, balloons, a ball "pool" and a wonderful array of child-friendly goodies to eat, it was a party I'll remember for quite some time. Morgen had the pleasure of coming from daycare (where she basically runs around in circles all day playing with things that she picks up along the way until she drops whatever it is for the next toy) to this party, where she was able to run nonstop for another two hours, with only brief pauses to eat little bits of broccoli, pastina, and chicken. And, she came away with a very cute giraffe hat, which she rediscovered this weekend, right before she discovered that she likes to sit in boxes.

This morning, her love of containers continued to manifest itself. Showing more dedication to one task than I've ever seen before, Morgen transferred all her rattles, little balls, and teething toys from one box into another. She was very pleased with herself when the operation was complete. I wonder if she'll put the toys back again?

(Sorry that the below pic is blurry - Morgen is clapping very quickly to congratulate herself for managing to fit her bum into the box. Since she spent about twenty minutes climbing in and out of it, also very quickly, this was the best shot I could capture.)

A Tale of Two Adventures

This weekend was Jessica and my fifth wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, we decided to drop Morgen off with Jessica's parents and have our first overnight getaway since she was born. We stayed at a very nice B & B (the same one we stayed at on our wedding night), which had a lovely little flower garden outside and a bar next door that featured live country music.

We had a great time. As you can see from the video, however, Morgen had at least as much fun as we did:

Morgen, meet the Muskokas

Morgen had a taste of the good life this past weekend, when we were invited to visit friends at their family cottage on a lake near Gravenhurst.

In between sleeps and snacks, Morgen had huge amounts of fun. There was squealing, there were giggly games of chase, there were beach balls, and large Muskoka chairs...there were boats, and songs to sing, and cherries to eat, and a little girl to play with and learn from and and and. It was all very exciting, especially Sunday morning when she woke up to find her friend STILL there! And to still be where the boats are! It was too cute for words. Oh, one last and: and Morgen put her feet in a lake for the first time in her life, thanks to her kind host who didn't mind getting into the very cold water. She loved it.

Our little girl was so tired on the drive home that she fell asleep in the car and snoozed for about two hours - about twice as long as usual these days. That was nice for mommy and daddy too.