The "Week of Fun"

Yes, I know. We are terribly creative when it comes to naming our vacations. But last week Erik took a week off from work to bond "with Newborn and Child." We declared it the "Week of Fun" and let caution fly to the wind. Out went the schedule. Out went regular naps and bedtimes. In came yummy, bad-for-you foods like chocolate croissants, hot dogs, Chik-fil-a, and Sonic drive thru. (I mentioned it was the week of fun, and nothing spells fun for this family like good food!)

Monday: We started the week off right and drove up to IKEA. For those who have never been, imagine a mall full of low-priced, quality everything and that sums up IKEA. They also serve yummy Swedish meatballs and fries on the cheap (did I mention how food factored into the week?). Because we were already up in Tim-Buck-Tu, we also hit Jungle Jim's, a Cincinnati institution of imported food and wacky decorations like full size animatronics.

Tuesday: A rainy day, so we headed to the Krohn Conservatory for their annual butterfly show. Unfortunately everyone else had the bright idea to also head inside (hence a few dead butterflies on the floor- maybe they should rethink letting a bunch of kids loose in a room full of butterflies). With Grace as wimpy as she is, we actually had more fun in the rest of the quieter conservatory, watching turtles and fish. She enjoyed the butterflies, but we couldn't catch one, and when a little boy tried to give her one, she shriveled back into her Daddy's legs. Don't think I'll ever catch my daughter eating bugs.

Note Grace's new "fake" smile she does for the camera. You can imagine how our family portraits turned out!

Wednesday: The office gave Grace a Build-a-Bear gift certificate after Matthew was born. There are a few advantages to driving to Pittsburg for a day of meetings 6 days after your wife has a baby! :) Her favorite part was finding fuzz on the floor of the store and then realizing that there was an entire machine full of fuzz (which they stuff the animal with). That's right, our daughter loves fuzz. She picked out some from a hole in one of her stuffed animals, and somehow it became very dear to her. One of the grandmothers tried to throw it away once and couldn't believe how devastating it was going to be. Grace can be heard at various times throughout the day "Where's my fuzz?". It sometimes even has to go up to bed with her. But I digress....

Here she is putting the heart inside her bear after it was filled with fuzz.

She named the bear "Gracie Bear" (so creative- just like her parents!) and picked out the dress. Erik tried to steer her towards the boy clothes but she would have none of it!

Thursday: Family picture day- need I say more? Somehow it took two hours, but with Grace's inability to smile normally, if at all, it really narrowed our choices down considerably. My favorite picture was probably the one of her kissing Matthew that we turned into black and white. I'll try to post some of those later.

Friday: We played in the pool in the backyard and attempted to go to story hour at the library, but my mommy brain somehow mixed up the dates. We still had fun picking out books though. Grace declared for the first time that it was "maybe too hot" to go outside.

Saturday: A much deserved jammie day at home, except for Erik who went running (how that fits into a week of fun, I'll never know!).