Lake Placid

We both had some vacation time to use up so we took a long weekend and drove to Lake Placid. Thursday was a little over 5 hours in the car, by far the longest ride Little Bird has been on so far. She did really well entertaining herself and then napping. But after about 4.5 hours, she was ready to be out of her car seat and I don't blame her.

Once we got to the hotel room, she had a great time just running back and forth from the door to the air unit and around the bed.

That night and another night we took LB swimming for the first time. She really seems to like the water but was kind of shocked by the cold at first. She likes to "swim" on her tummy, but doesn't want to be on her back to float.

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Friday, we went to the Wild Center, a natural history museum about the animals and environment of the Adirondacks. One of the exhibits was in a dark room with a huge glowing globe that could show many different images of the earth--electricity use, migration of tagged Pacific turtles, weather, etc.

And there were a lot of tanks full of native wildlife (fish, turtles, ducks). Little Bird loved to look in at tall the fish swimming around. While we were there she learned the sign for fish.

LB was a little nervous to stand close to the glass with the otters because they kept swimming over and pushing off the glass. She must have thought that they could get her or something.

It wasn't very crowded so she had a great time running around the place. From one tank to the next and everything in between. By the end she was tired out.

She liked the fish so much, we ended up getting her a fish to take home.

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Saturday we hit the Olympic sites. First we stopped at the Olympic Center where they have a small museum about the two Olympics that were in Lake Placid. It  had some interesting information and things on display.

Next we headed to the ski jumps where we took a chair lift up the hill and an elevator almost to the top of the highest one. It was a good thing LB was strapped on and couldn't wiggle because it was nerve wracking having her so high up. At the top was a great view.

Next we drove up the Veteran's Memorial Highway which took us almost to the top of Whiteface mountain. At the top you could either hike up the rocks to the summit or go through a tunnel and up an elevator. We opted for the latter with LB. The mountain is 4,867 feet high and and has a weather research station at the top.

Our last stop of the day was at the bobsled/luge/skeleton track. It wasn't busy so we got a personal tour by the woman who helps take care of the track and announces the events. She drove us to the top and told us all about the old and current track and how it is maintained. Then she let us walk the mile down the track itself to the bottom. It was pretty neat.

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Sunday we headed home. On the way we stopped in Saranac Lake and went for a few rides on the Adirondack Carousel. All the animals on it were carved by different artist and they are all animals native to the Adirondacks. Little Bird wasn't quite sure what to think of the movement at first but by the end all she wanted to do was touch the nose of the otter she was riding.

We had a fun weekend exploring a new place.

Warmer Weather

We have been enjoying the sunny warmer weather the past couple weeks. Once Little Bird got used to the funny feeling grass, she has been having a fun time exploring the yard. She is always finding sticks to carry around and picking the flower weeds.

We went to Highland Park and enjoyed the magnolia trees before the flowers all fell off. Hopefully we will make it back to see the lilacs too.

 In the nice weather we have also made a couple trips to the zoo. Little Bird seemed to notice the animals a little more this time, but I think she still spent most of the time people watching. One of the sea lions caught LB's attention because it kept doing laps right in front of us. On one of our visits we saw a day old baby orangutan with it mother. Like us the animals all seem to be enjoying the warmer weather.

One Year

What a year it has been. Looking at our active, feisty Little Bird today, it is kind of hard to believe that she was so tiny a year ago. She now weighs 20 lbs 13 oz and is 31 inches long. She won't sit sill for long, so it was hard to get a good picture on her back this time. She kept trying to get up and run away.

Her hair is growing, slowly but surely. And we love her little curls that get a little wild sometimes. The top is still a lot longer than the sides so it sometimes looks a little like a toupee (but she can pull it off). And every once in a while we can sneak a clip in it, though as soon as she realizes it is there, she pulls it out. She is walking all over the place and rarely crawls anymore.  She has gotten quite good at it.

Sadie and Sylvester are Little Bird's best friends. Several times a day she will go up to them while they are laying there and wrap her arms around them. It is so cute. They are doing great with her and know to leave her toys alone (most of the time).

 Little Bird has a pretty good assortment of foods she will eat but her favorites are raspberries and blackberries. She pops those in, makes a little tart face, gobbles it down, and then wants another. She also is eating oatmeal, cheese, yogurt, bread, bananas, crackers, broccoli, peas, peaches, blueberries, cottage cheese, black beans, corn, pancakes, scrambled eggs, carrots, ham, german pancakes, turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, sweet potatoes, etc. Some days she eat great, whatever we give her and other days she throws everything on the floor, even her favorites. She has gotten pretty good at getting a spoon full of food into her own mouth once we load it up.

Lately she has been much more interested in looking at books, rather than just eating them. She will sit on the floor turning the pages back and forth looking at the pictures. She will also bring books over to have us read them to her (although her attention span for that is still pretty short).

LB has figured out the bottom couple stairs. Usually she will just go up the first step and kneel there. If she tries to stand on that step, she doesn't know how to get back down and gets scared, so she cries for us to come rescue her.

A couple of times she has gone up the first two steps to the little closet landing, but hasn't tried any higher yet.

Bath time is still a favorite. She loves to splash and bang on the faucet. She frequently tries to eat the soap lather and drink the water. Yuck.

Little Bird is almost always on the move. Nothing is to big for her to try to carry or at least drag around. When we facetime/skype with family members she is often picking up the ipad to carry it around or flip it over. She is always amazing us with the strange places she will get herself into.

She hasn't quite mastered the skill of tucking her head down when she is reaching under furniture to get things, so it is not uncommon to hear a few thuds in the process.

She is still taking two naps a day and sleeps about 12 hours at night. It must be because all this activity wears her out. Sometimes she will just lay down in the middle of the floor for a quick break. Only to get up about a minute later to keep going full force. Some of her favorite toys right now are her dolly, Little People, and a couple of old key chains she found.

She likes sitting on Caleb's shoulders and sometimes in her excitement uses his head as a drum.

Now that we have had a few nicer days, it has been good to get outside and go for some walks. She tries to eat everything she can pick up--leaves, grass, dirt, rocks. We have to keep a close eye on her.

 Little Bird keeps learning a few more signs. She now knows baby, eat, milk, more, finished/all done, bath, and dog. She is constantly talking to herself, if only we could understand what she is saying. It is so funny to hear all her different sounds. She will say mom and dadada when she is in the mood. And sometimes she seems to say da in reference to the dogs while patting her leg ( the sign).

 This smiley little girl is such a joy and makes us smile all the time. We are so grateful to have her in our family.