1st Time on the Ice

After having no luck finding an ice rink in the Maple Grove area that was open before 4pm on a weekday I decided to look for one closer to Jackson and my school.  Through a website, I stumbled onto George Enloe Park.  I picked this one because the website stated that it had a sledding hill in addition to an ice rink.  I figured that if ice skating was a bust, we still had something fun to do. 

Before heading over I called the used children's store in hopes of finding some ice skates.  I guess I waited too late because they were all sold out.  Then I remembered my classmate telling me that she put all 3 of her boys on the ice in their tennis shoes 1st before having them balance on skates.  So that's exactly what we did!

 

 JV fell 3 times before making it to the actual rink, but he would roll over and say, "I do it." while picking himself up.

 With some encouragement he made it all the way around the rink.

 He really liked when we sang "The Wheels on the Bus." and pretended to drive the bus.

 And this is the reason for the helmet!  Yes, it was quite a fall, but the helmet did it's job and JV didn't even whine.

 

After skating for 30 mins or so we changed shoes, grabbed the sled and headed to the hill.  That hill would have really impressed BV.  Unfortunately I left the camera in the car so I have no pictures, but we will defiantly have to go back.  JV and I went together the 1st couple of times, but then he wanted to sled by himself.  "Just me." he would say.  So off he went.

 

Lastly we stopped by the playground on the walk by the park.  With the combination of a skating rink, warming house, sledding hill, and 2 playgrounds I would rate this as one of my favorite winter parks!

Science for the 2 year old

Last year I found this activity on Pinterest and had JV do it. I believe he was around 18 months. Between me being sick for the last week and JV getting the flu this week, we are tired of watching countless movies and reading books. We needed something easy to do that would break up the boredom. This activity lasted over an hour and surprisingly he made very little mess (although that was not the case when he was younger!)

Here are a few pictures of JV using a medicine dropper to drop colored water into a pan filled with baking soda.

Daddy's not an animal, hiding cookies and more

Lucky me got the flu and a bladder/kidney/who knows what infection in the same week. Of course it's the week that BV also had to go back to TX. I have always been a whimp when it comes to being sick, but with now one here to help me with JV I realized that I could also be quite a grump. Just when I had been fever free for 12 hours I got a wake up call from a crying JV. He had a temperature over 103. Off to urgent care we went!

The urgent care doctor and nurses were great. The nurse was able to do a flu swab without JV flinching and the doctor asked JV is he liked any cartoons. I told him that he was an Elmo and Cookie Monster fan. Then the dr asked JV if he was hiding Cookie Monster's cookies. He said, "Yes!" With a big smile. He typically doesn't like to talk to people who are in his personal space. He looked in JV's ears for the cookies, then his nose, and finally his mouth while asking JV if the cookies were in each. JV told the doctor that he was hiding them in his mouth...LOL. I was highly impressed by his bedside manner. I've met pediatricians who aren't this good. After the checkup, the nurse ran the flu test which came back positive. Doctor's orders: fluids, rest, and Tamiflu.

This evening JV was a little more playful and wanted to Skype with daddy. I told him I needed to see if he was available. JV looked at me with seriousness in his eyes and said, "No. Daddy (is) not animal." Oh 2 years olds are too funny.