rainy days and mondays always get me down.

Thanks, mom. Now I have that song in my head.

It wasn't rainy, but yesterday was seriously lame.

just blah all around.

Post-spring-break-blues, perhaps?

Or maybe it was the chaotic grocery shopping trip where

carly managed to topple a whole tower of candy bars.

And here I was going to share the rest of

 yesterday's Alexander-esque day with you,

but how does that help any of us?

Instead, look at her:

Don't worry.

If you feel the urge to eat her, its totally normal.

xoxo.

the children's museum of indianapolis.

We spent the past few days down in Indiana,

visiting Chris's family and getting away from our everyday life.

It was nice.

On Thursday we took Carly to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

It is the world's largest children's museum.

I heard about it when Carly was a few months old and have been waiting patiently until she was old enough to appreciate it. To be honest, 19 months old was probably still a little young, but we still had a really wonderful time.

What really convinced us we had to go?

They are running a special Dora exhibit.

It was a sign.

Our experience started in on the dinosaur level.

Carly had no interest in that whatsoever, except pointing to one and calling it a doggy.

So we moved on.

[Prepare yourself for approx 28 pictures]

Next we saw the "choo choo".

[Carly pointing out the choo choo.]

Next were the "Fireworks of Glass."

These were really pretty and, even better, not breakable.

[Carly and daddy looking at the fireworks of glass ceiling.]

This crazy colorful glass tower ran all the way up the middle of the building.

It was coolio.

Next was a quick stop in Egypt.

Carly loved the pretend airplane ride to get there.

Why doesn't she act that good on an actual airplane?

[Enjoying an Egyptian lunch.]

[carly was a serious fan of Egyptian Sesame Street. had to drag her away.]

[just riding a Nile croc.]

I think I might admit my favorite part was the Barbie exhibit.

My sociological education has given me mixed feelings on Barbies, and I have yet to decided whether Carly will ever get any (personal thoughts, not pronouncing Barbies evil or anything) but this exhibit was so wonderfully girly. The little girls could dress up in girl-sized Barbie clothes. They could dress giant Barbies. Lots of different dress-up, doll stuff that would be so fun if you had a 5 year old. Carly danced to the music for a bit and was ready to move on.

Next time.

[carly did want to get her hands on all these classic Barbies behind glass]

Another cool part of the Barbie exhibit were these homemade Barbie clothes. A mom in the 60's used to make these beautiful really amazing clothes for her daughters' Barbie instead of buying them. They were really awesome; like Jackie Kennedy stuff. And there was a gorgeous wedding dress that I would have actually worn at my wedding if it was human-size. I wish I would have taken a picture. Anyway, the daughters donated the pieces to the museum, but they kept a lot more. What a cool thing to have from your mom.

Then, the main event:

Dora and Diego

[counting coins]

[where is Dora's mouth?]

Chris and I have a running joke that I have a crush on Diego. The Diego that is on Dora has a very pleasant voice in my opinion (the one in Go Diego Go is annoying). I made the mistake of telling Chris that and now I get a lot of grief for enjoying his voice. So of course I need a picture with my man (boy? ew). Oh, and that's my red carpet face. Looks like I'm going to puke. I'll have to work on that.

[heading in to Diego's jungle]

[probably could have gone back and forth through the tunnel all day]

[clueless on the rock wall]

Carly's physiologist daddy was very excited about her muscle strength and muscle endurance after her fine display on the monkey bars. I'm not sure who enjoyed the experience more.

[peek-a-boo!]

[catching estrellas]

No, wait. She could have gone down this slide all day long. It had very kid friendly stairs and she would come down and instantly circle around, climb back up, and slide down again. She probably went about 25 times.

The top floor was for older kids. It had exhibits on Ruby Bridges (first African American girl to attend a white school), Anne Frank (I hope you already know who that is), and Ryan White (child AIDS patient who fought for equal rights). They were all very interesting exhibits, but I was nearly in tears.

[heading into Ruby's school]

[Carly hitched a ride, as the big-kid floor wasn't super exciting.]

I was just about crying while looking at this jacket from an actual concentration camp that a survivor saved and donated to the museum. It was still filthy, and there was something on the collar that looked like blood, though it could have been mud, considering how old it is. But it was really touching and it was a nice experience in the middle of all the fun and games. 

After the big kids floor, we headed down to the "5 and under" play exhibit. A breeding ground of germs, to be sure. There was a sand section, but Carly has a fear of getting dirty. There was also a water section where you could to "fishing", but I didn't want to deal with a soaking wet baby. Next time I'll bring an extra shirt for her, now that I know. So we stuck with the dry, clean parts.

[Crossing the river on a log. Another favorite activity.]

We ended our adventure in the food court eating our sack lunch.

Carly was so cute the whole time, pointing at things, identifying things, playing.

She is so old.

A genuine little girl.

We had a blast.

I'm so glad we took her.

And before we even got out of the parking garage . . .

away away away from here i'll be.

and we're off.

we've left the mitten.

this momma desperately needed a change of scenery.

and the little girl is secretly hoping for another massive stuffed animal.

xoxo.

college girl.

We have had a lovely last several days.

We've hung with friends.

We've had family of three time.

We've just been doing our thing.

[came in from the kitchen to find Carly had pulled the changing pad out of my purse, opened it, pulled a diaper and wipes out, and then lied down. think she wanted a diaper change? hi-larious.]

Technically it is Chris's spring break, though we kicked it off with a snowstorm over the weekend and Chris has had to work most of the day Monday and today. But Monday morning he took off and we went shopping. And we actually bought stuff. Our tax return came it, and while we tuck our tax returns away for a rainy day, we decided to get a few prizes. I got some shorts to run it, Chris got some pants to teach in, and Carly got a dress to wear in the warm sunshine, assuming it ever shows up.

[she is becoming a towel hoarder: "two towels! two towels! two towels!"]

Last Friday (this post isn't very chronological, sorry) Chris was set to have long day so I decided Carly and I would go on a mommy daughter date. We went shopping at Target with gift card numero 2 (merci, ma mere) and then got lunch at Qdoba. Can I just tell you Carly is an excellent shopper already and I'm not sure if that is good yet. She will go through the clothes on the rack one at a time, just like I do. Then she will choose something (often something pretty cute and near her size) and walk over and throw it up into my cart. It is hilarious. And Carly had the folks going at Qdoba. People were telling her how beautiful she was and she would walk over to them and say "Hiiiii" and wave and do her big cheesy smile that gets people every time. What a ham. It was a fun afternoon. I would totally do mommy-daughter dates more often except it must have been so fun that she refused to nap when we got home. I almost died that day.

[enjoying a fork full of guac at Qdoba. photographic proof she's my daughter.]

Then today we headed to campus to visit Chris.

Right when we got out of the car Carly started walking down the sidewalk like no big deal.

What a college girl.

[making a new friend]

Chris's office is pretty much a Carly dreamland, with tons of stuff to look at and play on and get into.

[getting her VO2 max tested]

We took Chris lunch and enjoyed Jimmy Johns together.

[chris poses with his daughter, while carly poses with her chip]

Carly and daddy played.

When it was time to go, I put her coat on and my coat on and she kept pointing to Chris's coat and yelling "coat! coat!". She knew if he didn't put his coat on, he wasn't coming with us. We walked to the front door of his building and I told her to say goodbye to daddy. She started sobbing and clung to his sweatshirt.

She sure loves her daddy.

And now here it is 3:30 and she is upstairs wide awake in her crib, having never taken a nap.

Seriously?

We're never doing anything fun again.

xoxo.

carly's greatest hits.

one day old.

morning smiles.

early giggles.

tiny beauty.

meeting the ocean.

taking a seat.

going "round and round and round and round."

They grow so fast.

a,b, and c.

A few things:

a) I've been trying to get Carly to use utensils. Today she ate oatmeal with a spoon for breakfast and ravioli with a fork for lunch. I can't believe she actually makes a bigger mess with the utensil than without. But it sure is fun to watch her figure it out.

b) The last few days I've been finding Carly like this. Today I said "Carly, that screen is 42 inches. You don't need to be 6 inches away from it." Girl's eye's are going to burn out of her head. Will be nipping that habit in the bud.

and c) Carly can read.

xoxo.

say my name say my name.

it may have taken nearly 19 months.

and she may have a vocabulary of about 30 words already.

but Carly finally laid aside her stubborn pride and called me "mama".

it made me happy.

~

~

(ps. click here to see why you should wear blue on Friday)