Gym America

Well, I know it's been a month or more since I've blogged. It's been a vey crazy month. I hurt my back about 3 weeks ago. I couldn't even stand up the next morning I was in so much pain. George had to carry me to the car to go to the ER. They gave me the strongest pain meds they had and I was still unable to walk out. All I could do for days was lay on a heating pad. I was so blessed to have some wonderful people in my life that helped me out with the kids and meals and shopping...thanks so much everyone! So my back is finally doing bettter and life is slowly getting back to normal. I have many posts to catch on but I'll start with this one. There are several fun indoor play places in Ann Arbor. Emily loves going to Gym America, which has open gym time for preschoolers on Mondays and Fridays. These are pictures from our last visit there. Elijah enjoyed himself as well!

Her favorite "event" is the long trampeline. She must have jumped across it close to a hundred times. She made great strides in learning how to wait in a line this time.

Elijah enjoyed the open space and "crawling manipulatives."

Peek-a-boo!

Next time we need to work on arm stregnth. ;)

The gym is super close to Melinda's house, so we headed over there for lunch afterwards.

Emily had a blast making cookies with Melinda.

After the cookies were made, Emily decided to help wash dishes. That had to be the cleanest spoon Melinda's ever had - and sorry about the water bill, Mr. Mike! It sure did keep a busy preschooler occupied for a long time though!

Living it up in the North

We finally had enough snow recently to get out and do some real sledding, so we went to a nearby park that had a perfect size hill. Emily was so excited to give it a try but I was afraid she'd try it once and be too scared to get back on. Quite the opposite. She went down a small hill with her daddy the first time and got up saying "Again, again, again!" Elijah also loved his "toddler tobaggan" (who knew they had such things?). We pulled him around and whenever we stopped, he'd rock back and forth to try to move himself.

Emily could not wait to make a real snow angel

She thought it was great fun to slide down on her stomach and even convinced her daddy to slide down with her

they couldn't leave the park without trying out the playground equipment as well

Ah, time for a rest...

Well, the temps are in the 30's this week and there's water dripping over our doorstep continuously, so i'm guessing our 5 or 6 inches of snow won't be around much longer. They say it's been a strange winter for Michigan. We haven't seen the snow we were expecting to, didn't even have a white Christmas, but hopefully we'll get another good snow to enjoy before the winter's over. I can handle the subzero windchills if there's a blanket of white everywhere!

Our Visit to Toledo, OH

We visited the Imagination Station in Toledo during one of George's vacation days. It had a fabulous kids room with activities to keep both kids busy for hours. Elijah even got to play at a water table made for kids just his size. (He was lucky his dad was there because I've been a little of a germaphobia this winter!)

Emily putting out the fire by the fire engine

our little firefighter - had to snap the picture fast

They both loved these life-size tinker toy blocks

George even got to try out a couple of exhibits

"Death-defying" bycicle ride - no hands!

Winding down - "juggling" with scarves

We visited the Toledo mall on the way home because they have a Chic-fil-a (no Chic-fil-a's in our part of Michigan!) The mall was way too crowded to be very enjoyable, but Emily caught a ride on Santa's sleigh - and she enjoyed every minute of it!

Christmas '09

Although we missed visiting with all of our family, we had a wonderful Christmas morning here in Ann Arbor. To say Emily enjoyed opening presents is an understatement, and Elijah enjoyed playing with the boxes after the presents were opened. Here are some of the shots we got amidst all the chaos.

Emily made it easy for us sleeping until her alarm went off. She was still half asleep here but she woke up pretty quickly after seeing the My Little Pony sets Santa left her.

Santa brought Elijah a puzzle and he loved taking out the big chunky pieces!

Anything on the coffee table calls his name - but he's still working on pulling all the way up.

the ballerina was a hit (thanks Nonna & Poppa!)

so was the pop-up toy!

George had a "Michigan" Christmas

loved the ball too

last attempt at a good Christmas picture before getting dressed for the day

Elijah at 10 months

Don't know if you can tell or not but there's a piece of a green bean sitting on his nose.

Pulled all his toys out and played under the highchair.

Watching Emily play

An Elijah Update

It seems like our baby has grown into a little boy overnight. He's changed so much this past month. He now has two teeth (on the bottom) and is finally crawling! He had his first haircut (just the back that was starting to hang down on his shoulders). He loves to squeal when he's excited (Emily's an expert at hyping him up) and when he's mad (I'm pretty good at making him mad - taking away things he shouldn't play with and dragging him away from the computer, the oven, and the toilet). And he LOVES bread (takes after his uncle Paul!). He's eating a wide variety of solids now, and he'll only eat baby food if he's the only one eating. If we're eating at the table, he has to eat from our plates - or else the squeals break out, or he just refuses to eat! He's all boy, loves balls and cars and trains (he already makes vroom, vroom sounds while he pushes his cars). He also loves his new puzzle from Santa and he loves books. I can set a basket of books in front of him and he's entertained for quite a while. Until he sees or hears Emily, then he's off to watch what she's up to. We put a gate at her door so she can play with her little toys in her room, and he'll crawl to the gate and sit there and watch her play. Anyway, that fills you in on our youngest a little bit. Wish you could all see him. He's lots of fun. Maybe the videos will give you a small peek into his life as a 10 month old.

These next two videos show what he likes to do while I'm unloading the dishwasher. For some reason he likes the challenge of sliding under the dishwasher door and crawling backwards to get back out. It's very funny to watch (in real life anyway).

The Tolan's Visit

My sister and her family came to visit for several days while her husband, Aaron, interviewed at nearby residency programs. Unfortunately we didn't get to do all we were hoping to because of various illnesses throughout their time here, but we do have a few pictures to share (not in chronological order). It was so much fun having family around for a while. Hopefully the Coulters and the Tolans have set the example and many more of you will come visit us in Ann Arbor!

Hucks/Tolan Christmas morning:

Isaiah and his new CARS car

Emily setting up her new Eric Carle game

We went to a famous tourist attraction called Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. The Christmas store is 1.5 football fields in size and has tons of fun stuff to look at!

Play-dough: a great activity when you can't leave the house

We had their pictures made in their Christmas pj's for their Nonna. This was lunch at McDonalds afterwards - trying not to attract too much attention!

Baby Ania - so adorable! Wish I had more pictures but she was sick a lot of the time, not up to smiling for the camera.

Eating fruit snacks - thanks, Nonna and Poppa, for all of the wonderful gifts! They had a blast opening one each day. Some of their favorites were anything edible, the flashlight, the chewing gum and the little Christmas bags - and the cookies of course!

It wasn't much but there was a little snow to try out. Faith's family missed a foot of snow at their house (in Tennessee) while we got an inch in Michigan - seems like something's wrong with that picture! Here's Emily rolling around in the snow. She loved making snow angels too but I missed that shot somehow.

impressive snowball for a little guy!

Of course Emily spent a good portion of the time eating the snow.

Christmas Cookie Making (thanks, Nonna!)

The conversation of the week:

Isaiah: You're a ham.

Emily: I'm not a ham!

Isaiah: You are a ham!

Emily: I'm not a ham!

Isaiah: Ham, ham, ham! You're a ham!

Emily: Dad, Isaiah says I'm a ham!

George: Emily, you know you're not a ham. And we know you're not a ham.

Isaiah: You're a ham!

They actually did an amazing job getting along for so many days. They had a great time playing together.

Christmas Sunday picture