Last little bits of 2009

We're all hunkered down at home on New Years Eve... Stephen and I have the stomach flu, which has been going around at church and among our friends for several weeks now. But on a happier note, I've got some great photos from the holidays, which were happy and healthy:

Reading stories with Gramps.
Going for a Christmas Eve spin in the ole Tune Coupe.
Daddy! Why are you putting blocks down my shirt?
Taking in the lights and sights at Opryland.

Christmas on the Cumberland

Field trip to Trader Joe's

After picking my mom up from the airport in Nashville on Monday morning, we hit Trader Joe's... one of the happiest places in foodland.
Stephen had all kinds of fun with his red balloon, running down the aisles and pushing the shopping cart.
We gathered lots of goodies for our Christmas Eve meal of munchies.

Emily's new cousin!!

My uncle, Doug Tilsch, and his wife Nilda just had a baby girl, Kiana. My mom and dad visited last week and I'm patiently waiting my turn :-)
I think she favors the Tilsch side...but that's only with eyes closed.

Stephen's first relative that's younger than he is!!

Nashville Science Center

Last Wednesday, we had a family day in Nashville. We took Stephen to the Adventure Science Center, where he ran through the galaxy, operated a digger in a ball pit, watched choo-choo trains, and climbed the tallest playground equipment Joe or I had ever seen. Here's some photos and videos of our adventure.

The altitude was making this kid crazy.


Steve can use a wheelchair!


Watching Daddy- aka "the drunken marionette!"

"Helping" with home improvements

Since Joe finished his student teaching, he's been hanging things like these coat hooks. Stephen, in another installation of "Doing what Daddy does," creeped up the step ladder behind him.

It's a tristairatops, Dad

Guest post from Joe: This one is for Poppa and he knows why.

Nonna boogies

During our last Cleveland visit, we spent a lot of time plopped in mom's living room. It was a scene of loud laughter, dessert nibbling and a little dancing. My mom kept playing a worship CD called Shalom Jerusalem. You won't see footage of my not-so-fancy footwork. But I couldn't help myself from secretly recording this bouncy frolic.

If you give an ostrich a cookie

Guest post by Joe: Who needs to go to the petting zoo? We've got all the wildlife we could ever want in our living room. And everybody loves cookies. Even two-dimensional animal portraits.(When you read the same book every day for three months, you get desperate to make it more interesting)

Doing what Daddy does

Munch a Metroparks lounger too

If you've read Moody Foodie, my original blog, you'll know that I love to watch birds and squirrels, especially the critters at the Cleveland Metroparks nature center in Rocky River... They have large reflective glass windows lined with curvy woven wood rockers where I could sit for hours if I had no other obligations.
Well. They've also got a mini rocker that was perfect for my son.

Uncle Jack and... "Ti Cris"

Joe's brother Jack's sweetheart was also in town for Thanksgiving. Cristiana's gift to Stephen, a floating fish xylophone and drum set was probably the highlight of the trip for Steve. He drooled and jammed on it all weekend.
I think Stephen took a swipe at the octopus shaker just before this photo.

IKEA in Chesterland

On our way to Cleveland for Thanksgiving, Stephen was in sore need of some spazz time. What better place to let him run around and climb on things than Mama's favorite store?

My camera died shortly after this... but I love the way he posed for me when he really wanted to keep running through the rainbow ribbons.

Usually we just window shop, but this time we left with a rocking moose (for Munchie) and a square platter with a colorful bird design (for me.) Joe put the moose together last night, with his little helper right by his side. I'll post some buckaroo pix once I get them off my camera. (Edit: here's a video of Stephen rocking the moose at the store instead.)

Sandwiches

I've been feeding Stephen sandwiches lately. Little triangles with pbj or melted cheese or even chicken salad. I've got a video of him snarfing one... it's quite cute.

Read it 100 times

Stephen is very fond of two big board books by Roger Priddy: "First 100 Machines" and "First 100 Animals," which incidentally only has 80 something critters in it, but that's OK. He loves these books and demands that they be read to him over and over. He especially likes to be asked questions, such as: "Where's the motorcycle?" "Where's the combine and disc?" "Where's the meerkats?" "Where's the emu?"

Gramps got to do 100 animals honors when we visited.