Feeding the Ducks

We got bored one Saturday afternoon, so we decided to head down to the local IGA on the South Side, buy a loaf of bread and then head to Riverfront Park to feed the ducks.

When we got there we found some kids already feeding them... in the water. The kids were in the water. Not bad until you see the water, and since this is the hot spot for the birds, you know that the bottom is just covered in bird poop. Disgusting. What's even worse is that the kids didn't really have brains. They would throw bread at the ducks, but the bread wouldn't go very far. So, the kids waded in farther to get closer to the ducks. Anyone who has fed ducks knows that ducks are stupid and the closer you get to them the farther they want to get back. So as the kids waded in deeper the ducks moved out, and so it went until the kids were up to their thighs in mucky, nasty, duck poop water.

We had our own game plan. Since the ducks clearly didn't want to eat the nasty soggy bread that these kids were throwing out because they were scared we plopped down in the grass and started throwing bread in the water where we were. A few ducks came over, and in the end we lured all of them to our location. We even managed to draw them out of the water by throwing bread on the beach (of poop).


As we fed the ducks we noticed that Izzie wasn't using the bread in the proper manner. She was eating it, and she kept eating it.




Ducks.


Izzie.


When all our bread was gone we just hung out and watched the smart girl that joined us feed the ducks. Izzie thought it was fun to run from us to the ducks and then back, so she did that a few times.



And that was it. We headed home and took a nap.

Playgrounds, Slides & Swings

Izzie has discovered the wonderful world of the playground. She loves them, and every time we drive by one and she sees it out of the window she starts growling, talking and pointing. If we stop at one she can't walk fast enough to get there. It's hilarious.

Here we are playing at Pioneer Park and having a good time.



She's learning to love the tunnels and enclosed slides now, but I will soon show you why she learned to hate them.

Here's one of her learning to master the bridge. She had some problems with the steeper up and down parts in the beginning, but she now has a loose grasp on the concept of momentum and center of gravity.



She loves the whole "fort" idea that the play ground sets afford. She runs back and forth peeking through the bars and laughing. Sometimes she play peek-a-boo with you, and sometimes she thinks it's a game of chase. It's fun for us too.


Slides! Izzie knows parks more affectionately as slides because we always say "want to go slide?" At first it was a hold her hand as she went down. Then it was help her get situated and catch her at the bottom. Next came teaching her how to sit and scoot to the edge and then go. Then it was showing her how to climb back up the fortress to get back to the top of the slide. For a while she would climb up, sit down, scoot to the edge and then go down all on her own. Sometimes we still had to catch her if the slide was too short on the end. The longer ones she stops on her own, rolls over and scoots backwards off of them. Such a smart girl.

Here she is showing off her mad skilz.




And then there's swings. Yesterday I took her to the park and she sat in the swing for 25 minutes non stop. When I stopped pushing she signed more. The kid loves swings. She sat in this one at Pioneer for about 15 minutes checking everything out and having a good time.



We frequent the parks a few times a week now, and our goal is to visit each park at least once. It's fun for us because it's something new, and it's good for Izzie because it helps her learn more. Here she is taking a corner.


Remember how I said she trots off to the stairs to go do it again. Well, there she goes.


Here's the reason that she is leery of slides now. We did all of the slides at this particular park except one. When I asked her is she wanted to go on it she said yes. It was her first fully covered slide that you couldn't see all the way through, so I can understand her fear. That was probably compounded by the steepness and the consequential speed. The first time she went down she got stuck somewhere in the middle. I started calling her (I stayed at the bottom while mom took her to the top) and then when I heard movement I knew everything was OK. She popped out a few seconds later head first (deja vu) some how.

Nell and I determined that she got stuck because her shoes jammed up on the side of the slide. So what do we do? We take the shoes off to eliminate the problem. What do you think happened the next time that Izzie went (on her own accord of course)? Well since she doesn't weigh very much and her clothes provide the same resistance that mine would, she flew. If you've ever seen a kid or been a kid that went down a fast slide that turns you know that you come out somewhere on the side because of the g-force. Well, Izzie did the same thing. She came rocketing out of that thing, and ever since then she hasn't liked slides as much. Bummer.


So after that we were done sliding, but swings were still in.


Here we are playing at a park near out house. We didn't slide much because of what happened the day before, but we did run all over that thing.



Here's a couple of videos of her (pre big slide).





I should mention that she enjoys trying to take the shortcut back to the top of the slide by turning around and climbing it. Still hasn't worked yet.

That's what we've been up to in September. More to come though.

First Time Finger Painting

One day while we were strolling through Hobby Lobby we decided to pick up some finger paints and paper for an evening of fun, adventure and messiness.

Of course we had the foresight to do it in the basement, and after taping the paper down and getting everything out, we were ready to go.


Not long after we got the supplies out, Izzie started packing them off. Probably because she thinks that the plastic bowls are her toys since we let her play with them in the kitchen all of the time. No fowl there I guess.

After chasing down the bowls we got the paints put in them, and before we even did anything Izzie was reaching for them. It didn't really cross my mind before we put the paint in the bowls, but I did have this thought after we put the paint in the bowls: food usually goes in bowls. She reached for it, but didn't touch it because she's usually apprehensive about new things until she sees mom or dad do it.


Then she stared at them for a few seconds.


Then after mom showed her to put it on her finger, she knew exactly what to do with it. Put it on the finger and...


Eat it! Obviously this was the next logical step for her because it usually goes: bowl, food, food in bowl, food on finger, food and finger in mouth.


We kind of suspected that she would give it a taste test anyways. After all she's a kid and that's what they do. That's why we bought lead based melamine finger paints from China.

It didn't take her long to catch on to what we were doing though and soon enough she was creating her own works of art.



Then we moved on to creative body part stamping. Izzie thought it was great and didn't really care so much about transferring the paint from her foot to the paper as she did about looking at the paint on the bottom of her foot.


So we decided to outsmart her and let her walk around on the paper. YES! Mom and dad win again.


When dad finally decided to join the fun instead of take pictures the whole time, Izzie decided to destroy dad's masterpiece.



So I extended my hand of justice and gave her some revenge in the form of green cheeks.


Her's the monster sitting her finger-painting-euphoric mess.



Then, as the paints were drying and the bowls were running low, she decided to repaint her feet since she noticed that the previous coat had worn off.


Yes it was fun, and yes we made a mess of ourselves. Well, Izzie made a mess of herself, mom made a mess of her hands, and I made a mess of my left index finger so that I could use my right one to take pictures (yes, I was thinking ahead).


Then it was straight off to the tub for a de-leading scrub down.


As I was leaving the bathroom to allow the bathing to finish without distraction, Izzie was waving good bye to me. Such a cute kid.


And that was our first finger painting experience.

Zoo Montana

Since the fair was such a big hit (and because we haven't gone yet) we decided to go to the zoo here in Billings.

Here's Nell and Izzie at the gate.


We headed to the kid section first. Here's Izzie checking out the ducks and chickens. We were having fun until some bratty kid came along and chased all of the ducks away.


Here we are petting the goats.


Of course we had to stop for a quick photo op at farmer face thing...


Here's Nell and Izzie on the trail around the kid section.


Here they are walking through the garden section.


Here's the tiger.


Here's Izzie watching the red panda run around his habitat/prison.


Here we are checking out the big horn sheep.


Nell and Izzie strolling down the path.


Dad and Izzie strolling down the path.


After we were done checking out all of the animals we headed into the learning center to see more animals (dead and alive). Here's Izzie and I checking out the dead beaver. She was slightly creeped out by it, and wouldn't get any closer than this.


And that was it. We didn't get to see the wolves, bear, badger, deer or the alive beaver, and despite my best efforts to convince Nell that I should go ask for half of my money back, I was talked out of it. I guess we'll just have to go again to see the rest.