otto hammers with one hammer....

see the video below for some footage of otto playing with a hammering toy. awesome.

more books

two videos of otto reading books in his room. his favorite books lately are pat the bunny and brown bear brown bear. he will say, "buh buh, buh buh" for "brown bear, brown bear", and then he likes to see the page with the teacher, as you'll see him do in the video.

otto is really starting to use more words and talk more and more. i like the way he says "baby" in the first video. and isn't he so cute in his jammies? he had just woken up and wanted to sit in the chair and read...i just love how you can tell on his face that he is still waking up.

art museum

to continue keeping ourselves busy with joe working hard in NOLA, the kids and i headed to the art museum for the all-american family cookout event. we had a ton of fun. meredith, katie, and megan and seamus met us there and we got to enjoy all sorts of fun and excitement. we checked out some of the art as well as participating in some of the activities.....we played cornhole, decorated baseball hats, hula hooped, and danced to jake speed and the freddies. bedtime came late that night but it was well worth it!

totter otterville

while joe was in new orleans, the kids and i tried our best to keep busy. we literally had a outing or get-together planned everyday while he was gone. on one of the days, we met up with my sister-in-law jessica and nephews roman and shamus at totter otterville. totter otterville is sort of like a mini children's museum (which is funny because the place is huge) at johnny's toys. the kids had so much fun! greta loved the face painting and otto liked the water table. well, he liked trying to drink the water.
it was ridiculously hot that day, so we stayed in the a/c and therefore didn't get to explore any of the fun outdoor activities they had. i think a return trip might be in order! be sure to check out the short video of greta painting her face. even though the video is super short, i love how seriously she is looking at herself in the mirror.

swaim park

a few times this summer, we've dropped joe off at work in olde montgomery and then headed to swaim park to play before heading home. we love this park!

little people

lined up....waiting for a turn on the merry-go-round.

pudding pops

reading

chicken tikka masala

we took the kids for indian food a few weeks ago, and it was a hit! joe and i both love indian food, so we thought we'd introduce the kids to it. greta was a bit more hesitant than otto, but she loved dipping her naan bread in the tikka masala that we ordered for them. and otto chowed down. we probably should have left a bigger tip for the mess that the waitress had to clean up. he was going to town!....the only thing he didn't care for were the peas in the rice, which were few and far between. he still insisted on picking each and every one out of the rice. yum!

paging dr. hansbauer

this picture makes me laugh out loud literally everytime i look at it. here is otto, prepped and ready for surgery....or something like that. this is at joe's parents house, but the kids love the doctor kit at our house too. otto loves to get the stethoscope and say, "bum bum, bum bum" for the sound of a heartbeat. and he likes to give you a shot with the syringe so that you will fake cry so he can laugh. greta likes to play too. she has to use the tools in a particular order (heaven forbid you would take my temperature BEFORE my blood pressure), and she likes to look for monkeys in your ears like their pediatrician, dr. bird, does.

and sorry for the lack of blog posts....after being reprimanded by several people who shall remain nameless, i have vowed to try to update some new posts soon. coming soon are (hopefully) more pictures from our trip to south haven, as well as trips from outings to totter otterville and coney island. stay tuned!