Children's Museum & Discovery World

Today was a rainy day to start off so we took Paeton downtown to the Children's Museum for some inside entertainment. Our first stop was the grocery store. She loved filling her cart with all her favorite items and checking out.

We then went over to the bank. Paeton sat in her car and exchanged money back and forth with this little friend.

Kohl's has a pretty cool 'Healthy Kids' room at the museum that we hit next. Paeton really enjoyed mini-golfing with dad.

She then tested her balance on these boards.

She also really liked playing this game with daddy.

After all that museum play, we went downstairs to the indoor picnic tables for snack time.

By this time, the rain had stopped and we decided to take a walk outside. We went down by Discovery World and checked out all the big rocks.

Paeton loved pointing out all the ducks and boats in the water.

We stopped a random person to take some family pix. The building behind us is where we got married a few years ago.

I'm VERY pregnant :)

We then went inside Discovery World to check things out; we'd never been before. Paeton loved seeing all the fish.

And she found this big turtle to watch.

Here she is pointing out all the fish in the tank to us.

Here's me and Paeton snuggling before lunch.

Paeton was super thirsty and hungry after her big morning downtown Milwaukee.

We had a really fun time this morning. All 3 of us crashed for naps as soon as we got home!

Paeton's Toe

Last week, Paeton had her most accidents in one week's timeframe to date in her 2 years of being with us. It started with the shower incident and was followed by her toe tragedy. We were dropping her off at daycare and she got stepped on by a mom trying to show off her son's first steps in the lobby. Paeton came running over to Jodi and I screaming. We were standing off to the side talking to a teacher about her shower incident and hadn't seen what happened. We couldn't understand what was wrong. I picked her up and nothing was consoling to her. We walked down to her classroom and as soon as we entered her teacher said "Marlaina, I think you need to go to the hospital!"

I quickly looked at myself in the mirror above the sink in the classroom and saw that I was covered in blood under my belly, all over my pants. (Paeton's teacher thought I was in labor) We sat Paeton down and realized that her toenail was missing, her skin was torn and it had bled a lot. We quickly cleaned her up and got bandaids on the toe. All her friends were worried about her and kept coming over to see if she was okay. Even though Paeton was upset, I think she liked the attention from everyone.

I took Paeton to the doctor that night just to have it checked out. He said her toe wasn't broken but agreed it would look pretty gross for awhile. That mom's high heel got her pretty good!

I went and got Paeton a variety of cool kid bandaids which she loves picking out and putting on her cuts and scrapes every day. She's done a good job at all these doctor visits recently.

Paeton vs. The Shower Door

Let me start to explain this picture. We came home from the 'Toy Family Pig Roast' very hot and sweaty. Paeton has recently (within the past week) started to enjoy taking showers. For a VERY long time, she has been scared of the shower but all of a sudden she likes it. Her and I hopped in the shower to get cleaned up from the party. Jodi left to take the dogs for a walk. I got out of the shower to dry off and she told me '2 minutes' - meaning she wanted to stay in for 2 more minutes. I leaned over to put my hair up in a towel and 'CRASH', the left hand shower door came falling to the ground and Paeton started screaming. I immediately freaked out.

Paeton was holding onto the bar that is shown in this picture here. I didn't know what happened but I knew I needed to get her out of the shower asap. I stepped through the glass and scooped her up throwing a towel on the ground to walk on. She was already bleeding from several spots pretty good so I knew I needed to get her out of there, find Jodi and get to a doctor. I quickly rinsed her off in her bathroom and took note of all the places that were bleeding. Her wrist was by far the worst - a piece of glass must of come from the top of the door and gotten her pretty good. I threw on the first pair of pants, shirt and shoes I could find, wrapped her naked in a towel and put her in the car.

To complicate matters, I had to drive Jodi's car (stick shift, 37 weeks pregnant, hysterical) to go find him in the neighborhood. The carseat was in Jodi's car because our other vehicle was getting new brakes. I found him within 30 seconds of driving and somehow managed to relay to him through my hysteria that we needed to go to the ER with Paeton. He hopped in with the dogs and we drove home to drop the dogs off.

We went to our trusty urgent care right up the road from our house and our neighbor, Dr.Bob was on duty. He took her back right away without any questions or asking for paperwork. He inspected her along with 3 nurses and bandaged up her cuts. She had a few on her feet but the worst was her left wrist and hand. Paeton was an absolute angel the entire time and was rewarded with many stickers from the nurses. She didn't need a stitch in her wrist but they did put some sort of 'glue' on it to hold the cut together. She's very proud of her bandages.

I only had a few cuts on my feet; nothing too bad. Jodi definitely helped to keep me calm even though I was a wreck. The nurses and Dr.Bob said "Wow, Paeton is so calm and doing such a great job. She hasn't cried once. We think it's because her parents are so relaxed and keeping such a cool head about this." Jodi and I just looked at each other...they should have seen me on the way to the hospital....DISASTER.

We feel very blessed that nothing worse happened and that our little Paeton is okay. We came home, put her to bed and started cleaning up the mess. Jodi is at Lowes right now looking at new shower doors...we're considering just a curtain at this point.

In hindsight, we do think Paeton hit the shower door with the sprayer and that may have cause the crumble. We're still investigating the cause.

Toy Family Pig Roast

Yesterday, we went to the Toy Family Pig Roast. The Toy Family just moved in next to us. We're so happy to have great neighbors after having a vacant house for so long. And...both parents work at Kohl's which is really neat too. They invited us over to their party - this is the pig just finishing up when we got there. It's kind of gross to look at but it smelled REALLY good.

Paeton enjoyed playing on their jungle gym,

playing games,

and swimming. It was 95 degrees out.

Most of the kids at the party were much older than Paeton. After she got over being shy, she fit right in and wanted to play. Here she is with some of the girls. She's the one leaning over the edge of pool on the far left of the middle 3.

Here's the group shot of the kids - I love Paeton's big cheesy smile here.

At this point, Chris (Mr.Toy) told all the kids to make a funny face. Paeton didn't know what that meant.

As soon as the picture was over, Paeton realized what she was supposed to do and made her funny face too. I think this is so cute! My 2 year old fits in perfect with all the 7 year olds!

New Stuff for Summer

We've bought a few new things to enjoy this summer. This pool is one of them. It's 12 feet by 2 1/2 feet and perfect for our little 2-year-old. She LOVES it!

Daddy loves it too :) Being 37 weeks pregnant, I'm the lifeguard that stays on the outside under the red umbrella.

Maybe one day I'll be able to convince Jodi to get a pool. Right now, he's just testing it out. This pool has a filter and he gets to put chlorine in it and shock to keep the water fresh. He's been testing the water with ph strips and even is going to get a skimmer. Good practice for when we get the real thing!

We got Paeton a tee so she can practice for tee-ball next year. So far, she seems to like it and she's pretty good at connecting with the ball.

Kona and Brewer run after the balls and bring them back - they are the fielders.

We also bought a new patio set. Yay! We had had ours for about 5 years so we were due for a new set. And terrible overnight storm put the finishing touches on our last set just in time for a July 4th weekend clearance sale. Plus, they didn't have anymore in stock so we got 15% off the floor model which was already 50% off. Sold!

We've all really been enjoying this summer and having a 2 year old who is so much fun!

Baby Brother's Room

After many days and hours of work, we think we've got baby brother's room just about ready for his arrival. Here's the tour!

His closet: this room has 2 closets in it. One still is the 'toy closet' with all of Paeton's toys in it. This one, Jodi built a closet organizer in since it just had a bar in it. Nice job hun.

We moved the rocker into this room and put it next to this new shelving unit that houses lots of things including some sports memorabilia for him to look at. I love the mixture of Dr.Seuss and Sports Illustrated on this shelf :)

This is the little nook right as you walk into the room. We got this shelving unit to organize all the toys and books that are 'infant' friendly.

Jodi painted this room 100% on his own and I'm so proud of him. He really took his time to make the stripes perfect along with all the edging because he knew I couldn't help and he knew that's how I would want it.

Jodi installed ceiling fans into both kid's rooms and the carpeting was just replaced about 6 months ago. He also put a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling and the window seat. Paeton and I picked out all the bedding, the blinds and the pillows for the reading nook.

Here's Paeton enjoying baby brother's room. She can't wait for him to get here!

Either can I....typing this at 37 weeks preggo :)

3rd of July Party

On July 3rd, Jodi, Paeton and I headed to a friend's house for a '3rd of July' Party. This is an annual party that our friends have and it's always loaded with tons of yummy food. Paeton and Jodi really enjoyed the pool; it was a hot day.

Paeton didn't want to get out!

We lured her out of the pool with a chocolate covered pretzel.

She liked it :)

This is Paeton asking for another one.

When the sun went down, we layed out on chaise lounges under towels (it was cold) and watched an amazing fireworks show from their background. It was spectacular! Paeton spent most of the time hiding underneath the towels looking at her glow necklace and bracelets. After all that hiding, she came out from underneath and said 'More Fireworks?'

Another Zoo Trip

Jodi and I took Paeton to the zoo again a few weekends ago. We tried to do some different things this time than last time. First, we rode the carousel which Paeton just loved.

Then we headed into the 'Family Farm' so Paeton could run around and we could get some lunch. We all got measured.

Jodi measured up to be a 'Draft' and Paeton was just over a 'Miniature'.

They didn't have a width measurement for people like me but I did turn to the side to show off my growing belly.

Here's Paeton petting her first horse.

Jodi's staying close by to watch Paeton while the horse eats.

And of course she got to pet the goats. This is her favorite thing to do at the zoo!

Paeton really liked playing at the playground at the zoo; she even made a new friend in the house.

Paeton on the slide...

and climbing the ropes all by herself.

What a great zoo day!