"Please Touch Museum" in Philadelphia

The morning after Sesame Place, we took Abby to the "Please Touch Museum" in Philadelphia. It was soooo cute! It is a completely hands-on museum for kids age 1 and up. We spent almost 3 hours there enjoying the many touching experiences.

Riding the carousel with daddy
The water tables were lots of fun. They had mechanisms for kids to manipulate the flow of water, to push the boats around. Abby liked picking the boats up out of the water and moving them around.

The rubber ducky pond....the ducks just circulated round and round, but boy was it entertaining for a toddler.

On the "BIG" piano! Just like the movie....it played when you walked on it.

Goldilocks (Abby) and the 3 Bears! So cute!

She climbed right into this canoe and put the life vest on all by herself as if it were 2nd nature...weird!

Sitting on the swan!

Weeeee!!! Down the slide on her back!

This was so cute. They had a whole section based on "Alice in Wonderland" with the Mad Hatter, Tea Party and all!
Here she is with Mike in the shruken room.

Our play tea party with the Mad Hatter and Rabbit. She would have stayed here an hour playing with the cups.

The front porch replica. She had to pick up and move the dog's bowl of all things!

Then she grabbed the broom and started sweeping.

In the Children's Hospital room. She loves babies, so this was probably her favorite part and could have stayed here forever too! Its hard to convince a toddler to move onto another room and leave baby dolls behind!

Doctor Abby! They had dress up clothes in some of the rooms too.

And she's off! The mock grocery store was adorable! You pushed your cart around, filled it up with all the food items you wanted, and then had to put it all back after you "checked-out" at the register.

FRUITS!

In the Kindergarten room, stacking blocks. She kept stacking and the 9th block always made the tower fall down!

Quick Labor Day Weekend Getaway

We made a last minute getaway and drove up to Philadelphia Friday/Saturday to take Abby for a few new experiences, and just to get out of town and do something new. This was an early 2nd birthday celebration! We went to "Sesame Place" the first day and then to the "Please Touch Museum" the second day. She had fun at both, and we have a lot of great memories.

Waiting in line for the "Elmo's Fishbowl" dumbo-like ride!
About to "take-off" in her elmo fish

Gazing up at the next ride as the people before her went up & down!

Locked-in and ready to go! Her first ride with a harness. The only part she didn't like was being confined to a seat with the harness, but she got over it once the ride started. It was a bouncy up/down ride.

Lots of fun in "Elmo's World"- Sesame Place is full of dry attractions/rides as well as many water rides. We tried out the water at the end of the day but she was pretty tired and Mike said the water was cold so she didn't last long.

Here is Abby in one of the toddler tumble zones. She loved stacking and carrying the oversized foam blocks around, sharing with the other kids to build things.

Daddy bought her a build-your-own icee! YUMM!!!

Sitting with mommy on the steps of Sesame Street! There was a cute "Main Street" where characters were available for photos, and you could enjoy the scenes resembling the tv show.

Touching Oscar's trash can

Big Bird's mailbox

Her souvenier of the day! A Grover plush doll with a pink nose and cape! She hasn't let him go since!

Aunt Carol & Grma Donna's Visit Together with us

Aunt Carol and Grandma Donna both arrived on Saturday, and we had a beautiful day Sunday spent together. We went out to dinner, and enjoyed a nice stroll on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront afterwards enjoying the breeze and no sun! And of course Abby enjoyed the chance to run in the sand, chase the birds, and get wet! Her new adventure is the waves which she is no longer afraid of.....so daddy had to get a bit wet too!

30 Weeks......9 or 10 to go....and seriously counting!!

Here is the 30 week baby belly.....yes, still no name yet. Hopefully in the next few weeks we will come up with one just to be on the safe side in case things come a bit earlier then expected.

This new baby loves to be up in my ribs and lungs, and then there's Abby who just likes to use my baby bump as a shelf to sit on. The baby is not very amused and kicks in anger I presume, when Abby takes up the little space she has left in my belly!

Norfolk Botanical Gardens Visit

Abby and I went with my friend Julie and her daughters (Emily & Reese) to the Botanical Gardens on Friday. They have this adorable water fountain area for the kids to play in and it was a very hot day! Abby loved letting loose and running around in the water on her own.

There she is leaning on the rock that had water coming out the top of it!

She and Emily catching the water (Emily is 9 mo's older)

At this point they were both soaked and Abby kept wiping water from her eyes. I was surprised she ventured into this spritzer since you had to walk thru the wall of water to get to the center.....sometimes she's more adventurous with friends!

Taking a break and a drink!

Oreo....

Little miss Abby got to eat her first Oreo cookie and this was the result. Amazingly without any istruction, she first took apart the two cookie pieces and found the creamy center (I SWEAR!! ALL BY HERSELF). She then continued to lick off the cream and was only somewhat interested in the cookies themselves. I really didn't think it would be this messy of a snack....I should have known better.

The Dora Couch

I put Abby down for a nap the other day, and when I came out to clean up the house, Roxy was napping on her Dora couch! I swear she spends more time on that couch than on her own dog bed during the day.
Later, Abby awoke to find her in the Dora couch, and took the opportunity to dress her up with her clothes, and try to put "Mr.Potato Head" pieces in her mouth as if thats where they belonged! Roxy put up with it all for quite some time....she wasn't all that amused though.
And Abby didn't understand why the piece wouldn't fit!! I tried to explain, but it was useless, so I just laughed.

I LOVE to read with my dad!

Abby loves reading, and any chance to read in our arms!