Llamas and zoos

While in Toronto we stopped at a neighborhood zoo and found (da da da duuuummmmm) a Llama!
Tovina was thrilled and tried to do the llama song. This song (taught to us by another cousin back in Cincinnati - thanks Molly!) involves one's hands trying to assume a llama like shape. Tovina is trying to show you below. We were impressed she recognized any resemblance between the actual llama in front of us and the song about llamas.

If you are having trouble understanding what I am talking about then you can check out some of the youtube videos though they don't really do the whole thing justice. You can also hear the obnoxious but bizarrely compelling llama song that may have kicked this whole hand dance thing here.

Cousins in Toronto

Had such a good time in Toronto and spent some great time with some new (to us) cousins.
T liked meeting them too.

Navigating Home

We had a great time in Toronto (what a fantastic city!) and made it home safely around 2am last night. We weren't sure we knew the path at first but luckily Tovina was on the GPS and steered us in.

Good times

This was the happy family heading home after all that excitement at the museum.
You can hardly tell we were there for 4 hours. Michael wanted to see the Cincinnati area and Tovina wanted to see the dinosaurs and we all wanted to play in the water area.

This was also to get us ready for some of the Toronto museums as we are heading up there in a few days to visit with family.

Experiments

We were back at one of Tovina's favorite exhibits at the local children's museum the other week. For the first time she figured out how to control some of the water spouts.

She was doing so well this kid tried to get in on the action. Tried and failed that is. T will not be pushed aside!

This is when she really had the whole process down pat

A new twist on getting lost in the woods

The fairy birthday party took us into a fantastic park in cincinnati. Today we will share the gigantic child eating tree.

Oh no! where did they go?!

Tovina was willing to look for her cousins at other entrances too. (Or is that exits?)

Fairy birthday party

This past weekend we attended a fairy birthday party. Tovina decided she had to wear a special pink dress for the first time just for the occasion.
I decided I needed to get into the act to.

The end is nigh

I knew it would happen some day. I just didn't expect it so soon. That's right, Tovina told her first knock knock joke this weekend.

Well, to be perfectly accurate, Tovina tried to tell her first knock knock joke this weekend. But I'm pretty sure punch lines will be following shortly.

Fun in the sun

We did many a thing this weekend. Sunday included time at a beach volleyball place that had been turned into a child's playground for a couple of hours.
After having a rather unfortunate waterslide-spin-around-and-land-face-down-in-very-chilly-water event, we eventually made it over to the dry area where T had a dolphin painted on her face and then a temporary Ariel the mermaid tattoo sponged onto her thigh. What shocked me about the whole thing is that Tovina was willing to help wash the dolphin off before going to bed.

Dancing queen

A few weeks ago Tovina honored me with her rendition of the tushie shuffle.


A short taste


A longer dance with more lyrics

Is that comfortable?

Tovina has taken to sleeping on the floor. I don't mean her mattress which lays on the floor, apparently that was just not low enough for her standards, she wants to sleep on the ground itself. A carpet is tolerable though it took 2 days to convince her that a blanket underneath her didn't invalidate whatever it is she is trying to accomplish.

We have no idea what is going on.

She has been doing this for almost a month now. We stayed over with cousins the other day and Tovina was all excited because she was allowed to share a bed with Sabrina who is about the same age.... but the next morning she was lying face down on the floor again. It turns out that another adult replaced Tovina in the bed twice during the night but T kept re-replacing herself out of the bed. And we're pretty sure - though we don't have any eye witness accounts - that she is not falling out of bed but rather making a conscious choice. (Would that be unconscious since she is mostly sleeping?)

I guess those triple level bunk beds Tovina's Daddy has been dreaming of are farther off than we first suspected.