A Winter Day in the Park

Today was a really pretty day and my husband took the day off from studying so we packed up the kids and coats and headed out to the "Big park" as L calls it.  They have a nice little duck pond and L loves to feed the ducks there.  L had a great time on the playground.

He wanted his dad to swing with him and he even dozed off for a few minutes...playing hard will do that to a person haha.

A lot of the pond had frozen over so L threw rocks on the ice and enjoyed the sound they made when they hit the ice.  He has loved throwing rocks in water since he was a baby so throwing them on frozen water added a new twist.  I think he thought it was pretty cool that the rocks just slid on top of the ice.

Baby J's Photo Shoot

I've caught some cute pictures of baby J again!  He's just a cutie, I can't resist posting pictures of him.
He's really into his feet lately, he pretty much loves them.

And of course he has the cutest smile ever.  I think my favorite thing about J is how happy he is.  I really have never seen a baby more happy than he is.  He laughs freely and is always quick to return a smile.  My husband and I will crack up because we will be talking to each other and look down and J is smiling huge at us.  L can make him laugh like nobody else though!

J really is enjoying all of his Christmas presents.  We switched his mobile the other day to another toy we got for him, it's a ring on a long ribbon.  He tries so hard to grab it and I've never seen a baby with more determination.

Water Beads and Light

So the other day we played with water beads on the light panel and this was one of my favorite indoor activities that we've done.  It's really crazy how different the water beads looked on the light panel vs. off of it.

Water beads feel so cool, I could play with them for hours and they always keep L busy.  This was a lesson in science, color recognition, and geometry all wrapped up in one.  It also tested L's patience while he waited for them to get bigger so that he could really play in them.  He even learned a few new words.  :)  Of course after he played with them for a really long time he had to get in them, I wasn't sure  the light panel could hold his weight so we took it off for that.  He had a great time squishing around in the water beads haha.

We have had some really nice days lately so we've been getting plenty of outdoor time.  I have a love/hate relationship with it though, as long as we bundle up we don't get very cold so we can stay out for several hours, but I had some cool snow activities planned for this winter so I'm really hoping for some snow!  One of L's favorite things in the world is to push his little lawnmower all over our neighborhood.  All of the elderly neighbors love it too, and he always stops to chat with them :).  I've found it to be almost therapeutic to follow him around the neighborhood.