Sesame Street Soiree

Popcorn please

Fifth row baby! Peyton thought her first concert was a hoot. She has never watched Sesame Street but has read their books, so she's familiar with the gang.  Elmo is number one in her eyes but she also hearts Zoe, Ernie, and Big Bird.

• Preparation: she played with her Ernie and Bert puppets at home.
• First act: she bobbed her head up and down in between gulps of popcorn. Lots of clapping, pointing. "Elmo!!!!!" say exclaimed as she stood up on my lap. 
• Intermission: we walked up the stairs to the nosebleed section to get the wiggles out. 
• Second half: "mama coat, mama hat, mama hat!" Peyton was ready to go. Fourty minutes in, not bad. Unfortunately I was very bummed that we missed the finale.  

P.S. I still have my vintage Prairie Dawn felt pennant from Sesame Street Live 1980s and I'm proud of it.

Break it down Bert 

Elmo <3

Common interest

Our little Susie homemaker

"Sleeps"

Peyton is very serious about her beebee's sleeping routine. She chucks the baby in the crib, then balls up the blanket exchanging it between left and right hands, then draping it over the baby over and over until it's perfect. Once placed just right, she picks up the blankie and starts the process over again. A tad OCD, just like her mother. Finally she stands at the end of the crib and "rock, rock, rock"s the baby to "sleeps" while bobbing back and forth.  Such a good mama!!

"Food"

Birthdays and Books

I <3 the Elmo card I picked out just for you

Sorry Ati Katelyn, Peyton is the star of your birthday get together. We took Kate out to the surprisingly kid friendly Tilia, a fun little restaurant in our favorite Minneapolis neighborhood Linden Hills. Peyton was beside herself when the waitress brought over a vintage lunch box filled with all sorts of treasures. Great kids menu too, her shrimp risotto was gobbled down. 

The next day was Martin Luther King Day. Yeahhhhhhhhh, I get an extra day off work to hang out with the sweet pea!! We went back to the same neighborhood to attend storytime at Wild Rumpus, our favorite bookstore with chickens, cats, and chinchillas oh my! It... was... packed... with probably 100 other working moms and kiddos livin up the holiday. After we popped over to our usual next stop Creative Kidstuff toy store to try out the trampoline, train table, and of course bee-bees. Fun day : )  

Storytime 

Word salad

Big shoes to fill

I came home from work one day and Peyton has running around in her skivvies. What the heck Jon? "She likes to be free."

Peyton is learning new words by the dozen. We keep wondering, where did she learn that one? "Wow mama, woooow!" after she makes a pretty scribble with her marker. "Snack": goldfish, "bar" (Nutrigrain bar), fruit snacks. "Snack" then points to cupboard many a times a night. How about a banana or avacado : )

"Outside" adorably high pitched crescendo-ing "iidddee," pointing to door when Kinnie is barking or when she wants to go outside. Getting ready for "outside" is quite the event "Foot." "oo" is "ute" "Shoes" super-slurry "shhhh" and an "ouuuuu" as she purses her lips. "Shoes, mama shoes!" as she drags my shoes. "Boots, dada. Dada boots!" as she uses all he might to drag him his snow boots. "Hat." as she places her hat on sideways with the flap over her eyes.  "Coat" running over to our hooks, requesting each of our coats. "Backpack!"a staple she drags behind her when going to school. I'm exhausted just watching her get us ready. I love her. 

Zip-a-dee Doo-Dah

Daredevils 

It was a perfect sledding nite: we raced home fast enough after work to have a whole 30 minutes of daylight with peanut PLUS it was above zero degrees! She enjoyed crunching up the hill in her boots and got quite the thrill zipping back down. While we were walking home Jon said casually, "I had a kid in the ER yesterday with a crushed mandible from a sledding accident, she was about Peyton's age."

Well after hearing that, this was my first and last time ever sledding with a toddler.

Messy play

Roar!

It's so much fun to use dada's shaving cream to make marshmallow mountains. And it's even MORE fun watching her smoosh and smoother them all over the table. Tonite she found the shaving cream in the bathroom and requested a nice big peak.

Makes for a squeaky clean table, scruffy dada (maybe used a little too much), and super satisfied tot. : )

Dog-gone fun

Tee-Tee x 10

Yeah indoor dog show!! We relish all indoor activities while surviving this frigid Siberian season. With our amazing luck we got to watch the Berners in action! Our majestic Kinnick could have easily taken home the blue ribbon. I told Jon that he should've worn his Bernese Mountain Dog embroidered jean jacket to this occasion. He wouldn't have been to only one. : )

Meanwhile Peyton exclaimed, "Daag [pointing] Daag! Daag [clap] Daag. Daag, mama, daag. Daag [point]. Daag, dada, daag. Daag. Snack!"