Tag Archives: the strong

Dear Emmett – 19 Months

Happy 19 Months, Emmett!dear-emmett-19-months-8

You’re 19 months. Let me repeat that… You are 19 months old! How is that possible? How is it possible that almost 600 days has past us by, when I feel like it was only just yesterday that I was holding you for the very first time? Well, regardless of whether I want it to be true or not, you’re growing up! 
This has been a fun month! You continue to be super active, getting into everything, always managing to find the one thing that you should not be playing with, and causing your father and I to chase you around from one room to the next.

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Early in the month you had your 18 month doctor’s appointment, and for the most part you are a healthy little guy. Your ears, throat and heart all sounded and looked good, the only problem was that you lost a pound and babies shouldn’t be losing weight. The loss could be due to multiple different things, you moved up to the older baby room and are way more active in there, plus you don’t always eat a ton of the food that you’re given at day care. Or it could have been that you had a fever about two weeks before your appointment, and you don’t eat much when you’re sick. Either way, we have another appointment in a few weeks to see if you’re gaining, if not we’ll need to investigate some new ways of getting you to gain. Here’s hoping you gain!

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This is often how he’ll ride his sit ‘n spin, with all his blankets and toys along for the ride.

We also had your second Valentine’s Day! You’re really REALLY into Elmo right now, so the “Love Bug” got you a little stuffed Elmo to hold and cuddle. It doesn’t do anything but look cute, but you love it. When your dad first handed it to you, you grabbed it and tucked it right under your chin. It was really really sweet! Your day care also held an ice cream social, which we all went to. It was fun to watch you interact with some of your friends and the toys there. You also got to enjoy a couple yummy bites of ice cream. Lucky boy!

Mommy and daddy had a week of vacation, so we all went out to The Strong – Rochester Museum of Play. This was our second trip here, but the first time you weren’t quite old enough to understand all the fun that was to be had, this time you totally got it. You were ready to go the second you rolled in (you were in your stroller). We spent a good hour in the Sesame Street section, going from one activity to the next and you got to meet Elmo! Well, not really, but the video is still pretty cool. They have this button that you press that makes Elmo come up on the screen, while you sit on a stool with a green screen behind you. It’s very cute to watch, but you lost interest quickly.

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You were then off to sit in the pretend taxi they have, which is where you probably had the most fun. You sat in there, pressing the different buttons and smiling for probably 15 minutes. It was very cute to watch and gave your dad and me a second to sit back and relax while you played. After we finished with all of the Sesame Street stuff, you and your dad road the train (or as you like to say choo choo) and you ran around like a crazy person for a bit. Haha Since we went on a weekday afternoon, it was pretty dead and you had a lot of free-reign of the place. I love watching you play!

We took you for your second haircut and I kind of feel like this one was more traumatic for you, then the first one was. You cried and fought a lot harder than you did the first time, but it wasn’t like you got hurt last time, you just don’t like the scissors close to your face. I had to hold your head still, which made you more upset and it was all just a downwards spiral, poor guy. The one plus, is that you look completely adorable!

Emmett and Daddy on Sesame Street!

Emmett and Daddy on Sesame Street!

You finally like snow! When winter started, you were terrified of snow and wouldn’t go near it, or if I put you down in it you would cry and whine, until I picked you up. Now, you love it and try to step in it, even if you aren’t wearing your boots.

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Sadly towards the end of the month you got another fever. It lasted for about 4 days and was no fun. You are pretty cuddly when you’re sick, but I would rather have you healthy then sick and cuddly. You got to spend some time with your Aunt Bridget on one of the days, and despite being sick, you managed to be uber cute and take some adorable pictures.

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You’ve also learned a new set of words; let’s see if I can remember them all:

Duddle         =        cuddle
boo             =        blueberry
mmm-nai     =        binkie
night night   =        Your blanket
Melmo         =         Elmo
Co-co          =         cookie
ray-shh        =         raisin
nilk             =          milk
tay-do         =          potato
choo choo   =          train
wah-shh      =          wash

I think one of my favorite new things is that you call yourself “you.” When we show you pictures, or talk about you, your dad and I obviously say “you” when we’re referring to you. So now, when you look at pictures of yourself, you point and say “yoooou,” or if you see yourself in the mirror, you’ll do the same thing. So cute! We’ve started to try and call you Emmett more, as in “that’s Emmett!”

Your obsession with shoes continues. You love taking my slippers and putting them on and trying to walk with them, but you’ll do the same things with daddy’s sneakers or my boots. I have no idea what it is about shoes that interests you, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.

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You are now more than proficient with running. For a while, you’d walk fast and any time you attempted to run, you’d kind of stumble but now you’re busy running from one activity to the next and it’s often difficult to keep up with you.

He will not sleep unless he has all of the items that are shown here. I'm completely NOT kidding. :)

He will not sleep unless he has all of the items that are shown here. I’m completely NOT kidding. 🙂

If there is one thing that I want you to take away from this month’s post, it’s that you are loved more than any parent can express. I can sit and stare at you for hours on end, and everything you do amazes me. I hope you continue to grow and develop into one of the sweetest little boys. I’m so happy I’m your momma!! I love you! 

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Family Fun Weekend

We had some serious family fun, this weekend!

Fair warning, this will be a picture heavy post. 🙂

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Every September, The National Museum of Play (or The Strong), provides free admission to anyone who works at my company. Seamus and I had gone when we were newly dating and it was pretty neat, but obviously since it is very kid-centric we didn’t spend a lot of time playing. Now, 6-ish years later, we went back with Emmett and had SO much fun!

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We had been planning this trip for a couple weeks. We knew that admission would be free in September, we had some pretty busy weekends all month long, but were able to keep this (the last weekend of September) free and I’m really glad we did. Our original goal was to leave the house early, go to the museum, then get lunch at Dinosaur BBQ, and end with a trip to Trader Joe’s, but it didn’t quite work out that way.

Once Emmett was awake, we all had some breakfast and caught an episode of Bob the Builder. I did want to get the museum early but I really love our leisurely weekends, since weekdays tend to be such a rush. We sat and cuddled and just enjoyed each other’s company, and a little TV. I eventually got Emmett dressed and I threw on some shlubby (I just made this word up!) clothes and we headed to the farmer’s market for some of the last yummy fruits of the summer. I got some great tomatoes that are just amazing and I want to eat them on EVERYTHING!

Emmett fell asleep on our way home from the market, so I put him down for a nap and then jumped in the shower. Seamus got home from the gym and showered and then we waited for Baby Doodah to wake up, then we almost immediately headed out the door. Since it was already noon, we decided we’d go to lunch first and then to the museum and Trader Joe’s.

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This was everyone’s very first time at Dinosaur BBQ, man was it delicious! I had some sort of jerk chicken sandwich, that was out of this world! Seamus had some form of a rack of ribs, I don’t know ribs so I have no idea what size or what cut, but he loved them. We ordered Emmett chicken fingers which might seem like a silly thing to order at a BBQ joint BUT they were hand breaded with their own breadcrumbs, and they were really really good. I, of course, had to try a bite. I’m glad we went with those because we know they’re something he’d eat AND they ended up being delicious!

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Mommy - Baby Selfie

Mommy – Baby Selfie

After lunch it was time for PLAY! Oh my goodness, readers, we had such a blast. From the moment I pulled into the parking of The Strong, I was giddy like a school girl. Ha! There was so much to see, even before you walk in the door. We checked in, got our wristbands and a map and then made a pit stop for a bathroom break and diaper change. The bathrooms are really nice, spacious and both the men’s and women’s have places to change a diaper PLUS they have a family changing area, which is always a bonus. I know to some readers this might seem like a silly thing to mention, but I assure you that for parents (or any adult with a child in diapers), knowing this, is of utmost importance!

Alright, enough about the bathrooms, onto the fun! We first went into the Field of Play. This was pretty neat, they had all sorts of interactive things to do, some were a little above Emmett’s skill set but we still found plenty to do. He opened and closed a bunch of little doors with stuffed animals in them, that were named alliteratively. I don’t think he knew what was in there, other than it was colorful and cute but he had fun opening and closing the doors. There was also an area to race cars and a perspective room. Throughout the entire exhibit there were areas that books sat out that pertained to the activities in the exhibit. I loved this! If Emmett were a little older, and had a higher attention span, we definitely would have utilized this.

family-fun-17 family-fun-22 family-fun-23 family-fun-25family-fun-24We made a quick stop at Sesame Street! It is almost an exact replica of the famous Sesame Street stoop. We got some pretty cute pictures of Emmett here, unfortunately they didn’t come out great. We just couldn’t get the lighting in the room and our flash figured out.

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Our next stop was to the Wegmans kids grocery shopping center. Holy cow, is this AWESOME! It is obviously sponsored by Wegmans, but the whole thing is set up to look exactly like a Wegmans grocery store. They have little baby carts and then they have carts that are slightly taller for the older kids, you walk around and grocery shop. You’re allowed 5 items at a time (because you have to re-shelve them yourself), once you’ve shopped you take them to the check-out and literally scan each item, like you would at the store. They have miniature conveyor belts, a working scanner and some sort of mechanism that collects what you “purchased” and prints out a legit receipt, like you just shopped at a real Wegmans. We didn’t spend a lot of time in this area, because it was mobbed and any time I went to grab something, Emmett would grab and knock everything over. Playing in this area when I was a kid, would have been a dream, I always wanted a cash register. I also didn’t get a lot of pics because Emmett grabbed his cart and was a speed demon, Seamus watched us from outside the store and said seeing him with the cart was adorable. He ran into a few kids, but overall he did pretty well with it.

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The newest exhibit at the museum is what they call Little Builders. It had just opened yesterday and once again, it was pretty mobbed. Emmett did a really good job of maneuvering around everyone and finding things to do. There are all sorts of activities where you build things and each station has a different type of block, then you have the hammering station, the crane station and all sorts of other activities. We spent the majority of our time in here because there was just so much to do and Emmett was having a blast. Check him out in the little orange construction vest! Isn’t he THE cutest?

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Pooped after all that play!

Pooped after all that play!

After that we wandered to a few different other areas, nothing really specific and we didn’t even make it upstairs. It was getting late and we still needed to make a quick stop at Trader Joe’s and make it home by 7. On our way out, we swung by the gift shop, this left a lot to be desired. It is full of toys, but very little (like a tiny section) are logo’d items. Seamus and I have a rule, you can get a souvenir when we go on trips like these (as long as we can afford it), but it has to be a logo’d item. The other toys might be fun, but you can likely get them somewhere else for much cheaper, but you can’t get a t-shirt that says Strong Museum of Play. Seamus said this is how his parents did it when he was a kid and I absolutely love it, so we’re stealing and using it! Anyhow, we ended up finding Emmett a cute tie-dye t-shirt (his Aunt Bridget will love it!) and I got myself a nylon draw string bag that I will be able to use on my bike rides.

The final thing we did before we left is find this bench in the gardens. When Seamus and I came here as a new couple we sat a good long while on this bench, and just talked (like you do when you’re new to each other). We took a picture that day (the one that sits on my desk, if you work with me) and we wanted to replicate it today. We got a couple with Emmett and a couple without, such great memories!

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We left shortly after that, made the quick drive to Trader Joe’s and then hit the road for Buffalo. Emmett slept the entire way, he was so perfect all day and seemed to really enjoy everything. We will absolutely take him again, as he gets older he will find more and more value out of all the fun things they have to offer.

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If you live in Rochester or the surrounding areas, I really recommend that you visit The Strong Museum of Play. It has so much to offer, and I promise that your kids will be exhausted by the time they get home. Emmett was, even after napping the whole way home.

Your turn

What family fun did you have this weekend?

And just for the fun of it, be sure to check out My Finds Friday from this week, visit the links and link-up any finds you might have!

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