The COSI

 

 

 

 

On our way back from Pennsylvania we made a stop in Columbus, Ohio. We were all exhausted and happy to go play at the COSI. I highly recommend for kids any age. The whole top floor was a massive playground very catered to young children and preschoolers. They had all sorts of pretend play activities, as well as water play and even house structures with door bells and light switches where the kids could finally push buttons to their hearts content.

 

 

 

 

This is a very typical Ezra pose above, when he's excited.

 

 

 

 

This is Carter, Ezra's best buddy. He loves going to play with Carter and Cai (hope I spelled that one right). Carter and Cai are around the same age as Micah and Ezra. The boys have a blast together. Too bad they're off to Idaho right now. The girl in the picture is Emily, Carter's neighbor. Her mother graciously lets us use her water slide and playground set. Having kids home in summer wouldn't be half as difficult if we had a fenced yard with a swing set. At least we have friends with a fenced yard and swings.

Micah the future vet

 
 
 
 

Micah just adores animals, especially cats and dogs. If there is an animal around nothing can distract him, or stop him from getting to it. He's very caring, always bringing a token of friendship to the pet, such as rocks, grass, wood chips. He hasn't quite understood yet that animals don't eat them. We visited Maya on the homestead today, and he got a big kick out of feeding the goats and cows.

Who swapped Micah

 


Who has Micah? And frankly, who ever took him and replaced him with this one, you can keep the old version! I don't know what's gotten into him, and whatever it is, I hope it lasts. Just three days ago he ate nothing but carbs (with the exception of eggs). His standard fare was toast with butter, pancakes, spaghetti, crackers and cereal. Not one single fruit, vegetable or protein in the last 8 months. Then three days ago, I poked him with a carrot and he took it from me, walked off and started chomping on it. Then yesterday at dinner he tried and ate chicken, and the sauce, tried the Spaetzle, even ate some blueberries and some carrot salad. I of course always offer him every kind of food. Usually he didn't even tolerate it on his plate, and threw it over to me with an indignant "No". Then today after shopping Ezra asked for an apple and Micah wanted one too. I thought he would do the usual routine, hold it for two seconds and then chuck it on the floor with another "NO". Instead he ate 3/4 of it. I had to take this picture as proof. At lunch he tried tomatoes and tuna salad??? Awesome!
I do have a suspicion on what brought this change about. He used to drink a lot of juice and we would give him a bottle of milk before nap and bed. We cut all those out, and now he gets only water, and roibos tea before he goes down. I think the milk was bothering his stomach so much he didn't want to eat. And the juice kept him full and messed with his taste buds so that everything started tasting bland. Whatever it was I'm grateful for the current trend.

Ezra's new lawn mower

Ezra had the idea to take all the toys from inside onto the blanket outside. He had a good time but it was too hot in the sun on the fuzzy blanket for mommy and Micah who fled to the shade between the cars.





Ezra is obsessed with lawn mowers. He's especially happy when daddy let's him help mow the lawn. Let's hope that that passion continues through his teenage years. I finally bought him a little toy lawn mower, which he happily pushed all around our lawn and our neighbors lawn.

Trip to the Indy Zoo

We haven't been to the Indy Zoo in a long time. I stopped taking them after a while since Micah couldn't really see the animals as an infant and Ezra was completely fixated on the buttons on the vending machine and the automatic doors. He rarely noticed the animals. He has gotten much better now. The kids had a really good time. The weather was a pleasant 70 degrees. Micah was especially fun to watch. He was very excited about the seals swimming past his nose and the Rhinos (who were finally moving for the first time since I had been. Was beginning to think they were just big stuffed props). In the dolphin dome, where you can walk into the dolphin pool underwater and watch them swim by all around you Micah got so excited that he did his little Indian war dance.
Ezra was a bit overloaded as usual with loud crowds. We took our time though and let him calm himself down by turning the wheel for the animal pennies. He loved making the goat twitch her ears in the petting zoo. His belly laugh is such a delicious sound.