a busy weekend!

what weather we had this weekend, eh? hopefully it was nice where you live too, dear readers. with both saturday and sunday's temps in the 70s here of course we tried to take advantage of it. on saturday we took a drive to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island. not a bad little zoo, i'm happy to say. given how much Arwyn enjoys animals we thought it would be a good day trip - especially so once we learned they had a few elephants, they being among her favorite animals. here's a shot of her confronting her first real, live elephants. needless to say, she was a bit in awe.



it was a long day, for sure, to which the looks on both mom & Arwyn's faces will certainly attest :) we'd hoped to have enough time to check out the carousel at the park, but we'll have to save that for another trip!



today was Earth Day, and while we didn't get to take part in this year's Friends of Acadia MDI cleanup, we did try to enjoy the outdoors. we took our usual morning walk, which is always nice, on which we saw a bunch of trout and perch swimming in one of the tributaries of the Connecticut River. after all the rain i suppose it's not surprising to see these guys driven into such small waterways. anyhow... one of our goals for the day was to get Arwyn a sandbox. Lorri discovered this would be a good investment after a day spent at Paul and Davnet's house. here is a picture of Arwyn enjoying her new crab-shaped sandbox!



we hope you are well and that you enjoyed your weekend. take care and stay tuned for more to come (i've got some good videos i need to upload)!

guess who's talking?

ok, i don't know if one word counts as talking, but i got your attention, right? arwyn is now saying her first bona fide, non-"mama"/"dada" word: it's "car". it took about a week for her to get the pronunciation down (and in the right context) so that we could figure it out, but it's definitely "car". this video isn't the best example of her showing off but it's the earliest one I've got captured:



(sorry about the poor quality of the audio/video. the original cell phone movie isn't too bad but the converter i'm using leaves a lot to be desired. i'm working on it!)

dentition, dinosaurs, and dancing, oh my!

yep, that about sums it up. Arwyn's been struggling with cutting some new teeth, including a molar, of late. it makes her pretty miserable at times, but she's a trooper and is getting through it pretty well - mostly. sleeping well has been a bit of a challenge for her, which makes it a little tricky for mom & dad too, but we'll all get through it.

yesterday we went to Dinosaur State Park, which was a lot of fun. if you're not in the know or not going to check out the link, i'll sum up for you. it's the largest known collection of dinosaur tracks in North America. 500 of the 2,000 known tracks are housed under a geodesic dome that also contains some displays about dinosaurs and the like. true, it was more of a trip for good ol' mom & dad, but arwyn enjoyed touching the fossils and visiting with the other children.



more than ever, arwyn is a big fan of dancing. while she's always enjoyed bouncing in place to music (particularly banjo music for some reason), she seems to really like dancing with her mom. a favorite selection is Italian Café, from Putamayo (thanks, Suzin! she loves it!). here's a cute pic of them from this morning's dance-off.

my second easter - a summary

the day started simply enough, with some little presents at home (three trucks and some hippo-shaped plastic eggs!), and then it was off to GG and Poppy's house for easter festivities. doesn't she look sharp in her outfit, courtesy of Grandma Anna and Poppy Gio?



after a fun-filled morning that included an easter egg hunt with her cousin Nora (i can't believe how many eggs Arwyn found!) and the usual mystery gift hunt for the parents (dad struggled a little as usual), someone got her easter gift from GG and Poppy. let's just say she took to her new chair right away, as this picture will plainly show :)



after chasing her cousin around for a while and doing a whole lot of playing, Ms. Arwyn was definitely pooped. here's the evidence of her taking a rare, late 2nd nap.

...and this is...what?

...and this is...what?, originally uploaded by topoisomerase.

just a cute pic taken yesterday of Arwyn trying on her new sun hat. i'm not sure she knew what to make of it but she was nice enough to humor her dad and wear it around the house for a few minutes. :)

post-breakfast smile

post-breakfast smile, originally uploaded by topoisomerase.

the day is definitely a little easier to face after some milk and yogurt + cereal, isn't it? Arwyn certainly seems to think so. she's been trying to shake off the remnants of a cold for about two weeks now and hopefully she's in the home stretch. being the trooper that she is, her spirits have been pretty darned good through the whole thing, thankfully. unfortunately mom seems to have come down with the 2nd phase of whatever Arwyn had. hopefully all will be back to 100% again soon. perhaps a visit from The Easter Bunny would speed things along? :)

in her element

in her element, originally uploaded by topoisomerase.

someone is definitely happiest outdoors. the tub is pretty popular too!

(ok, this one is a wee bit blurry. i thought it was cute enough to keep anyhow!)

just hangin' out

just hangin' out, originally uploaded by topoisomerase.

...in the back seat of the car, having a snack. a trip to the toy store will leave a girl famished, you know?

breakfast via flickr

Breakfast via flickr, originally uploaded by topoisomerase.

just a little breakfast pic from this morning to test out my new flickr account. being able to upload right from my cellphone is pretty handy! i'd been meaning to check out this functionality for quite some time but just never got around to it. let's hear it for late night web browsing adventures!

lorri is presently down in florida with her family so it's just mr. mom from last friday afternoon through late monday night. quite a test for dear old dad, but i think he's doing just fine so far - but i might be a little biased... :)