Ten on Tues: Fun Photos!

Please note that I did actually have this post done on Tuesday like a good blogger. But mean ol' Blogger itself wouldn't let me upload anymore photos without purchasing extra storage space. Boo! But, here ya go. Our Ten on Tues chock-full of photos, better late than never!

1. This fall weather is seriously awesome. We have been spending so much time outdoors, and Cam and I have loved every second of it! In fact, Sunday we spent all our time outdoors with the exception of meals and naps. We woke up and ate our breakfast on the go as we headed over to meet up with a friend for a morning on the trail, then came home to take a nap and eat lunch. After lunch Cam and I went in search of a fun local toddler park and found one just down the road from my Mom's house. Cam LOVED walking around exploring the park and searching for such fantastic treasures as acorns, leaves, and rocks.

2. Exhibit A: How does she even squat like that? I'd fall on my butt.

Exhibit B: Studying nature up close.

3. These are two of my new Favorite-Ever's.

And by "two of my new Favorite-Ever's", I clearly meant three cuz I love this one, too:

4. She loved her little treasures so much that she took them on the swing with her - where I promise she enjoyed herself more than this photo portrays.

As much as I encouraged her to climb around on the play structure or swing or slide, my sweet little love preferred to just go exploring. So I obliged. And I delighted in watching her with such intent and focus as she searched the ground for little things to pick up in her chubby little fingers, and then studied each acorn or rock with her little furrowed brow of concentration and curiosity. Gosh I adore that girl.

5. We headed home from the park to take our afternoon nap, and when she woke up her cousin, Sydnee, came over to play. Both girls were crazy-hyper, so we tossed them in the car and headed back to the park for some more fun.

I quickly learned that going to the park with her crazy cousin Syd differed greatly from going with (apparently boring old) Mom. This time she was all about the play structure. All about the tunnels and slides and swings and weird-bug-shaped-climbing-things. Bringing Sydnee along added a whole new dimension of fun!

And the weird-bug-shaped-climbing-thing:

What a wonderful day outdoors we had! 

6. Monday morning Cam and I headed back to "Baby Bloomers" at the Children's Museum, and as usual had a wonderful time. The new exhibit is "Notion of Motion" and while 99% of the exhibits are for kids much older than Cam, she still had fun trying them out.

Then she and her BFF Audrey headed back to the restaurant/grocery store play area that she loved so much last time.

7. Before wrapping up our morning at the museum, we enjoyed the interactive music time. Sadly I couldn't get a good pic of Cam dancing or following along with the motions of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", but I did get this one of her entranced by the guy with the guitar. 

...and then, poor girl. We stopped at this jumbo lite-brite-esque station where Cam was happily inserting and removing the big pegs and tossing them in the bin below when she lost her balance trying to reach over her head and fell against the bottom edge. Poor thing hit her upper lip against the edge and busted herself up. I made it back to the stroller and diaper bag to rinse it off and try to calm her down, but she was having none of it. All she wanted was her paci but poor thing would try to suck on it but hurt her lip in the process and continue to cry. :( We headed back to the car, and poor little love passed out before we even made it out of the parking garage. It totally threw off her whole day.. she was sad and clingy all afternoon. :( When she woke up this morning it looked like a blood blister, and by the end of the day it was hardly noticeable. Thank goodness. 

blurry, but you get the idea:

8. Today this mama totally stepped outside of her comfort zone all in the name of good clean fun. When we got home from work this afternoon (by the way, I work afternoons now and Cam tags along!), Cam discovered the hose laying in the yard. She was holding the nozzle like she wanted to water the flowers so I went ahead and turned the water on softly and let her have at it. Girl had a blast!! 

9. I even let her play in the mud. Which, if you know me at all, is not like me at all. But how could I stop her? She was lovin' life.. and it didn't hurt anything. I guess. :shudder:

10. I'll give more detail in another post eventually, but basically we had Camy's allergist appt last Monday and it went much better than we had feared. Cam rocked out the Skin Prick Test where they tested her for 9 different allergens (plus 2 controls - histamine and sterile water). We learned that has a moderate allergy to both cats and dogs and she reacted pretty severely to peanuts. Peanuts. Peanuts were not even on our radar! They tested as a precaution not expecting any results, and man I'm glad they did! We hadn't offered her peanut-anything at this point because I was a bit paranoid, but perhaps my paranoia was Mother's Intuition in disguise? Both the nurse and the allergist commented that they had never seen such a large weal in response to peanuts with such a little kid before. Geez! We were given a script for 2 more Epi-Pens and told to eliminate peanut-products from our home and diets. We were given tips on how to educate others of her allergy and how to manage the allergy when out and about. Its a bit overwhelming to be tossed into this new reality, but we'll manage. I mean, we were already in the habit of not directly giving her any peanut products.. now we just have to take it a step further and get into the habit of diligently reading labels and making sure those around us know to do the same. 

Bonus: The End. :)