Toddlers Gone Wild

We've had what seems like months of cold, gray weather. In an attempt to stave off cabin fever, we invited our friend Dylan (and his dad) over on Sunday. Dylan is just a few weeks younger than Isabel; you may remember their first date. They hit it off again this weekend... perhaps too well. The kids disappeared upstairs for a while, and after a few minutes I heard Isabel calling for me. I climbed the steps only to find Isabel in disarray, tights half off and diaper missing, and Dylan wearing a sly grin.

All joking aside, I think Dylan got more than he bargained for. Isabel has developed the alarming habit of escaping her diaper - poop or pee be damned! This has led to some literally sticky situations. Thankfully, Dylan was spared the sight of anything more than a Disney princess pull-up diaper.

Hocking Hills

I celebrated my 31st birthday in style this weekend. Kyle surprised me with a weekend getaway to Hocking Hills, a popular vacation area in Ohio. I figured he was up to something because he was spending a lot of time on the computer and would always hide the browser window when I came in the office. Luckily for him, he was planning this trip and not visiting XXX web sites!

Kyle's parents drove down from Cleveland to watch Isabel (and spoil her rotten!), and Kyle and I headed to our mystery destination. I was so happy to see our destination: Old Man's Cave Chalets, a group of cabins in Hocking Hills. The cabin was awesome, with a wraparound porch complete with hot tub, a wood-burning fireplace, even a friendly fox to greet us when we pulled in the driveway.


But the surprises didn't stop there! Saturday morning, Kyle gave me the rest of my gift: a handheld GPS to use for geocaching. I've been saying for years now that I'd like to try geocaching someday, so he did all the research and bought the supplies we'd need. Never heard of geocaching? From geocaching.com, "The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches." We spent the rest of the day trekking through the snow, hunting for caches, and checking out the sites in the area, some of which we'd never have known about without geocaching. The last picture shows one of the caches we discovered.

Songbird

Isabel has always enjoyed listening to music, but recently she's started performing it, too. Normally when she wakes up in the morning, she lets us know by whining or "crying" (crocodile tears, believe me). But yesterday morning, we were awakened by a chorus of:

Ding dong the witch is dead!

Ding dong the witch is dead!

Ding dong the witch is dead!

She watched part of The Wizard of Oz over the Christmas holidays and it really made an impression on her!

DingDong.WAV