Dressed to impress...

Or rather undressed to impress... Maddie has recently discovered the joys of surprising us by undressing herself. One day Kevin and I walked in the room to find our little girl without pants, they were laying on the floor a few feet away. We thought that maybe they were just a little big, however... little did we know this was a new trend with Maddie. This little display of independence I caught with my camera the other day. She was just so proud of herself, can't you tell?? We have caught her three times since then, she's going to be trouble... I just know it!!

What a little stinker =)

Our little love bug

Here's a few pics from our little Valentines day photo shoot...

COSI childrens museum

Maddie and I decided to brave the Columbus streets in need of adventure, in need of excitement, in need of a children's museum?... ok, sure... why not. A local Columbian(?) told us of this magical place for children called COSI. So we traveled 20 min. to downtown Columbus(how we actually made it there in one piece, I'll never know-I hate one way streets!!) to seek it out. It was awesome!! There was an entire level called kidzone just for toddlers filled with water, balls, blocks, germs and more. After we played there for a couple of hours we decided to visit other areas of the museum which included... an ocean exhibit, space exhibit, media center, frog exhibit, gadgets and more. And of course we visited the gift shop filled with everything a little girls heart could desire, she even got to pick her own souvenir... which happened to be a stuffed "E-COLI" strange perhaps... but fun. It looks like a brown football with about 10-15 shoelaces hanging from it, for a girl obsessed with shoes this was a definite winner!! Sorry for the amount of photos... It's hard not to post all 300!!

Maddie loved all of the balls rolling around everywhere!!

Where's waldo?... Where's Maddie?

She also loved these balls suspended in air... and desperately wanted to grab them!!

Maddie has recently started standing by herself, but she will only do it when she is unaware... like holding onto a toy, car or something. Here she was pushing this car along when all the sudden it got away from her... she was so focused on the other children around her that she didn't even notice that she was standing by herself.

She loved this water table for infants... they had a larger scale one for toddlers that looked intriguing also. surprisingly she didn't get too wet.

She looks like bugs bunny with those two little teeth

I love her funny little expressions

Franklin Park Conservatory

We visited the Franklin Park Conservatory in downtown Columbus during our stay in Ohio. It was really neat... I had done a little research before we left for some attractions in the city and this one had some great reviews. There was a orchid exhibition going on that was very colorful as well as pretty. It was also cool because it had plants from a variety of global climate zones.

O-HI-O

A couple of weeks ago we took our first family trip to Columbus Ohio, Kevin was working there for the week so Maddie and I decided to tag along. We flew out early Monday, February 9th and arrived in Columbus around 10:30 ET. The flight was great(aside from nearly missing our plane) Maddie slept for the take off and then played happily making faces at the flight attendants until we landed. We found our rental car and were off... grabbed a bite, checked into our hotel, grabbed a nap... and then were off to the Zoo!! Kevin was off on Monday so we decided to take Maddie on her first trip to the Zoo - she loved it. It was about 40-45 degrees but we managed just fine. We had three hours and were determined to see it all - and we did =) We were exhausted by the end but it was so worth it, Maddie even tucked in for a nap for the last hour. She spent most of her time cuddled up next to mommy in the sling. Her favorite exhibit was definitely the fish... she loved watching them. Also, she loved all the other children running around... and enjoyed watching them too. She even got to pick her own souvenir at the end of the day too... a monkey =) We had a great time... here are some pictures of the day.

Here's Maddie riding the big cat with a little assistance from daddy.

posing with elephants

Watching the bears - who were obviously not hibernating

Manatee fun!!

"wow... that's big"

checking out our water friends