Our little Capitalist

Earlier in the week, Anna came walking down the hall with a book, and surprised us by asking for it by name. Here she is sharing it with you:




We have ordered her priorities well, don't you think?

Children's Museum

For a change of pace today, we headed out to Oak Ridge to see the Children's Museum. It's a converted elementary school, and while it's not polished, it has enough interactive exhibits to easily hold a young attention span for a few hours, plus warrant some return trips in the future. Anna was in full excitement mode.



We realized too late that we really should have brought the video camera. This snapshot doesn't do justice to the way she hunches her shoulders and waves her arms when she's really thrilled about something. She was doing it in each room we went to. And there is quite a variety of displays. There are some areas devoted to pioneer living, Native American culture, wildlife, the Oak Ridge atomic research facility during WWII, plus a World of Trains exhibit, the "Waterworks room" AND a child-sized doll house (!) I will spare you photos of each area and just hit the highlights.



This bobcat was pretty cool.



The castle-slide provided perfect climbing practice.


And that slide was fast.



Also a highlight for Anna: the globe in one of the classroom exhibits. The old-fashioned desks and chalkboard didn't mean much to her at this point, but the globe was amazing.



She just kept spinning it and saying "globe" over and over again. Yes, once again, she is making her grandfather proud!



Taking a break to admire the artwork from one of the museum's day camps. (I especially like the robot sitting on the chair).


And here is Anna in the doll-house living room. The house was quite impressive. I rarely wish to be two feet shorter.



It had two floors complete with furniture and props, such as dishes in the kitchen and food in the fridge. Anna was already tired by the time we got there, or I think she would've been more excited. She didn't venture upstairs, which is probably good since Ben and I couldn't go up, and she has not mastered going down stairs yet.

All in all, it was a great day trip, and it will be fun to go back as she gets older and can interact more with the exhibits. We decided to save the Waterworks room for another trip, so there is definitely still more to explore.

Crayola Crazy

We got Anna some baby-friendly crayons this week. She is a natural!




Though it only took her about two days to bite the end off of one of them. Blech!

Taking it easy with Baa-Baa

One of Anna's favorite toys these days is her large Baa-Baa (sheep), which you've seen throughout her first year on the right hand column of this blog. She's big enough to carry Baa-Baa around now, though not big enough to see where she's going.



Good thing Lambie is so cushy. We've seen some spectacular rebounds off of kitchen chairs.



On Sunday, we caught Anna settling down with Baa-Baa to watch Daddy's favorite cooking show on TV.



We can't tell if that dreamy look is the result of Lambie luxury, or a TV overdose, but it's a look of contentment I wouldn't mind experiencing for myself.

Fun in the sun!

Today was playgroup day! One of the mom's invited us all to her place to splash in the pools, enjoy the sunshine (or shade), push the bubble mowers, and just have an all around good time.

It gave Anna an excuse to show off this season's bathing suit:



And to try out the water toys.



This water table gets two thumbs up!








Jessie blows some bubbles for Anna.



And here are the bathing beauties.


It was a really wonderful morning, followed by a monster nap for Anna. Awesome! Thanks to Lela for hosting, and Emily, we will miss you so much! God bless.

Adventures outdoors

Summer has come on full force around here--low to mid 90s and high humidity. About all we can stand to do is hide away in the house or else drive out to the mall to use the play land there. Fortunately Anna and I ventured outside a few times before the real heat kicked in, and here are some images from our exploits.

First, some shots taken at a local playground, maybe half a mile from our house.










Looking up the slide (I think cousin Ellie is going to have to visit to show Anna how much fun these can be).



This is a very picturesque spot just down the hill from the playground. It's lovely, but the steep hills make it hard to get around with little ones. I think we may wait until Anna is a little older to visit this park again, at least without Daddy.

Anna has also just started to explore the backyard a tiny bit:





You can't catch me...



Is that Daddy I hear at the door?

She always wants to go outside. She brings me my flip flops and points to her jar of bubbles. A few times out in the heat, though, have convinced her it's sometimes better to wait.

Gettin' Girlie

Anna's hair is finally getting long enough for bows! If she would only leave them in....








Many thanks to our friend Emily for making this cute bow for Anna!