cincinnati gymnastics

greta had her last gymnastics class this past friday. she has been taking for a while now, but we are going to take the summer off and probably start up again in the fall. it has been so fantastic....i really can't say enough about it. she LOVES going. in fact i am feeling a little guilty for not sending her in the summer.
and while i'm not sure she's the next mary lou (or nastia or whoever), it's so much fun to watch her have so much fun. she LOVES her teacher miss katie. she talks about her friends from class all week, especially olivia and andrew who have been in the class with her since she started. it's so neat to watch her climb the rope wall or walk the balance beam. and to watch her on the trampoline is still hilarious. and as a parent it makes me proud to see her listen to another adult, be kind to other kids, and to be able to follow a circuit pretty well. i had no idea she would get these skills from gymnastics.




i took these pictures on my phone, so they're not the best. check her out on the rings and on a few of the beams. and the picture at the top is the class with miss katie singing the CGA song. greta loves to sing and after the very first class, she was asking me to sing the song with her. so for the next few weeks, i had to really concentrate so that i could hear the song and memorize it. "try try try again, do your best today!" that's the part of the song we like the best.

who dey!

drool much?

"beans"

greta has really been into playing pretend lately. sometimes she pretends that random objects are her friend named "beans". today, "beans" was a jar of frosting. these pictures are of her reading a book to beans. after she finished reading, she said, "what do you want to do now beans? do you want to go on a trip?" and so they did.

otto walks some more....

i took this video today of otto walking. man, is he getting fast. so fast in fact that he still seems pretty unsteady on his feet. so cute.

naptime

on sunday we headed to the zoo. it was hot and crowded. everyone was ready for some lounging on the couch when we got home....

in the yard

greta and otto have been enjoying helping joe in the yard. and by helping, i mean getting wet and dirty. greta and joe have also planted a garden this year, which is starting to really grow! more on that in a later post.

more photos

photos finally!

i took greta and otto today to get their pictures done. it was time for otto's 12 month photos, and i haven't had a professional photo taken of the two of them together since otto was one month old. i have to say, these turned out pretty cute. they were both so good....otto hammed it up for the camera and greta listened so well and was so easy going. take a look at a few....

sharing

after playing with his real money for a while, otto moved on to trying to swipe greta's credit cards from her wallet.

mad money

otto got a birthday card in the mail. (thanks aunt dot and uncle al!) for some reason, he could not get enough of the money that came in the card. he was literally rolling around on the couch with it, staring at it and babbling away. it was hilarious.

playdate

we love having playdates, and we've been having a lot of them lately. on this day, we had my friend jena and her 3 boys!! over to play. i didn't get any pictures of baby ashton, probably because he is such a good baby and was content to smile and just be happy. actually, all the kids were pretty content and happy. they all played so well together. 4 of the 5 kids were actually playing legos TOGETHER and there was no fighting or whining or anything terrible. it was such a lovely playdate. thanks so much for coming over....we can't wait to do it again!

the best part of a present....

....is the wrapping. greta had fun shredded the tissue paper and then even more fun wadding it up into balls, and otto had fun putting it into his new toy drum. all this while mommy made dinner. awesome!

and then....

after the butterfly show, we walked down to the park for some playtime. i think it was cooler outside than it was in the krohn, which made for some happy kids. both greta and otto enjoyed the slide and the swings before heading home. thanks grandma joan for a fun day...we're glad you're feeling better!

butterfly show at the krohn

my mom came over today and we took the kids to the krohn conservatory for the butterfly show. it was so much fun. although it was super HOT in the krohn, which was making my hair a bit frizzy and greta a bit cranky. well, who am i kidding? my hair was a giant frizz ball and greta was whining and crying and wanting to be held. other than that, it was actually really neat. the butterflies are amazing....they are so beautiful and colorful and they are EVERYWHERE. even otto was able to see them, he kept pointing at them as they flew by. right before we left, one landed on the bow on greta's hair (see picture above). i told her there was a butterfly on her bow, and she said, "where?" and swatted at the bow. the butterfly flew off, but then landed there again and i was able to snap a photo. when we were getting ready for naptime later at home, i took greta's bow off and she looked at it and said, "where's the butterfly?" :)
it was so much fun and i'm so glad we went again....i was WAY pregnant with otto last year and all greta wanted to do was climb up and down the stairs. this year, except for the temperature causing some difficulties, she was way more into the butterflies....

new toys!

every so often, i take the time to switch our toys around a bit. bring some "new ones" out, put some away, move them from one room to another. it seems to bring new life into them. something on the shelf in greta's room that hadn't been played with in months seems irresistable in the family room. it's like the kids get in a rut every so often. we were having another toy rut recently....luckily otto's birthday fell at just the right time. we've got all sorts of new toys to play with. and the new toys mixed with the "old" toys is even better. thanks everyone!

otto walks

this video is about a week and a half old, and it's amazing what a difference that time makes! this is when otto really started "walking". since then, he is walking more and more. when you stand him somewhere, he automatically walks now, where as before he would automatically drop down and crawl. he get so excited when he walks that he seems like he's trying to run, which then causes him to fall. but it's so fun to watch him learn how to do it!

after nap fun

last week when getting up from naptime, greta was jumping in her bed. i was holding otto, and he started "jumping" in my arms, so i put him in her bed too. this turned into a hilarious show....lots of jumping and laughing and falling down over and over. i caught some of it on video, which i'll have to post later. they also took turns laying down and patting each other on the back....this picture is of otto patting greta. he will smack you on the back (or head or face or wherever) and say, "pat pat pat". it was fun to see them play together. although, this of course has meant that EVERYDAY after nap has to be jumping time in greta's bed. what did i start?

pajama dance party

after otto's birthday party, our friend gavin came over to play for a little bit before bedtime. all three kids were in their pajamas, so we had a quick pajama dance party before putting them all to bed. music was courtesy of the 'yo gabba gabba' guitar....and all the action shots i tried to take of the kids dancing came out blurry! thanks gavin for coming over!

otto's first birthday

otto's first bday

click on the picture above to see all the photos taken at otto's bday party....
we can't believe that our otto boy is one! he was born on a friday, so this year his birthday fell on a saturday, which was perfect because we were able to have his party on his actual birthday. the weather was a little chilly, but we were still able to celebrate inside with our family. otto had fun playing with his cousins. he liked opening presents for a little bit, and then tried to escape off of papa's lap. he REALLY enjoyed his birthday cupcake, and went to town! mama even had to put him in the bathtub to wash all the icing off! and he started walking just in time for the big day! so far otto seems to like to play with the balloon from grandma and grandpa more than any other toy he received. he points at it and shouts, "ba!" over and over again until you get it off the ceiling for him to play with.
happy birthday otto! you have brought so much joy to our lives...you are full of laughter and mischief and curiosity...