Two and a HALF!!!

Laylah officially turned two and a half yesterday. It's a milestone. In six months she will be three and that makes me think she won't be a baby anymore, she'll be a little kid. Don't really want to think about that. Anyway, this week I decided I'd take advantage of our fair city for the few remaining months we have left here, it seems Brandon is sure we're headed to DC. We went Everywhere! Monday we went to the zoo. We had a great time, the weather was warm, Laylah got to ride the train and sat in the Peacock chair on the carousel. She found all the animals that they mention comparing to dinosaurs on Dinosaur Train and told me all about them. Giraffes are like Apatosaurus, rhinos are like triceratops, lions are like T-Rexes, etc. She's so cute. It was really a fantastic day. On Tuesday we went to the children's museum and the aquarium, two of her favorite spots. She played the most with the pretend food at the children's museum, she's really gotten into that lately, first shopping for the food and paying for it, just like Mommy! and then putting it away and making dinner, just like Mommy! Only she warns you every time not to really eat it because, "It's pretend! Don't eat it!" At the aquarium we finally saw the belugas again, they've been gone forever, and after that we went to the playground across the street, she loves that playground and since it's still light outside later we can enjoy it after five when the museums close. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day and we missed the parade on Saturday because I thought it would be the day of, so I looked high and low for something to do that would be St Patrick'sy, we went to Gymboree first to no avail, then in the afternoon we went to a new toy store called Bean Head Toys where they had a craft time. Very cool toy store! We made a shamrock decoration and played with lots of toys there. They have a story time too that we might try. Then we made bread from scratch at home and I made sausage/potato/onion/beer stew with the crusty bread and some Irish cheese. It was yummy. Thursday was busy busy. We went to the High Art Museum in the morning because we ended up get a membership there from a coupon for only $45 which is less than it would cost of us to go once anyway and we can now go to a program they have called Toddler Thursdays. They give you a paper when you get there with instructions, every week is different. This week we were supposed to look for a portrait of a lady with a blue dress where we would then find Ellsworth the Cat who would read a story. We did this going from gallery to gallery asking questions about the paintings, "Is that lady wearing a blue dress?" "Does that have a boy or a girl?" "That girl looks like Laylah!" etc. We found lots of mommies with babies (Christ and Marys) and then we found the right one and got to hear a story about following lines and what lines make, very cute. Then we went downstairs to their classrooms to make a self portrait. We did this by drawing with marker on a mirror then wetting a piece of paper and pressing it to the drawing on the mirror so it would transfer. Had lots of fun with this, though the portrait ended up being more Picasso than Renoir. After that we went to their children's area which is great, they had a person doing a survey about putting children's area's in art museums that we took and ended up getting a free poster, Andy Warhol, Laylah picked it out, I wanted the Degas, but what can you do? After the art museum we went home for a nap before joining our friends at the Dino Museum. You thought we would forget to go there? Never! We ended up having Quinn, Rhea, Sofia, Jaqueline, and Laylah running around the place. At one point they were all holding hands, soooo cute. Of course Laylah took it upon herself to show her friends around and sing the T-Rex song at least eight times. On Friday we went to Sweet Apple Park, once we found it, I really need a GPS! The whole group was there again and we had fun playing in the sandbox, it was over 70! Then we all went to the Fickle Pickle for lunch, twelve mamas and babies and grannies, we drove the waiters crazy! It was fun though and we ate outside. After that we decided, well she hasn't napped yet and it 3pm so she probably won't, so we went to a toy store having a petting zoo day. We got to hold little chicks, see rabits, an alpaca, a horse, lambs, etc. We also played inside the toy store for a while and watched them take professional photos with bunnies, but we didn't do that. $20 for one 5x7? not worth it. Laylah did nap on the drive home afterall and good thing since we were stuck in traffic, including spending forty minutes on a stretch of road that usually takes less than five because Atlanta Traffic cops SUCK! Brandon spent Friday evening out with friends for a birthday party so Laylah and I had a quiet night, and since the weather was soooo nice I decided to open the windows for a while, right? nice? NOOOOOO! apparently I let in all sorts of bad air allergies because by bedtime I was terribly stuffed up, headachy, and had a sore throat! yay! I slept not at all, spent Saturday miserable in bed while Brandon took Laylah to the bookstore for a few hours. Sunday I was feeling a little better and I felt so bad about not doing anything for her official half birthday that I dragged myself out of bed and we took her to the children's museum beacuse that's where she said she wanted to go. It turned out ok and since it was rainy my allergies weren't bad. We went to a new pizza place after that where they gave Laylah a ball of dough to play with and a mini chocolate ice cream for dessert. It was yummy. This morning I woke up with a terrible migraine and a ball of tension in my neck, yay. The migraine is gone for now but the ball is still there. I've been applying heat which seems to help. Maybe just slept wrong, maybe thinking too much about how I don't want to move, I dislike this ball. When Laylah wakes up I'm debating staying in or going to the post office to send Cathy's baby package and then going to the store for food. We don't have any which is a problem. Well, I was busy last week, who can remember to buy groceries with all that going on?