Tater tot

Sorry if I mentioned this already but Dad took me a couple weeks ago to a special early screening of Toy Story 3, and I only lasted about 60 seconds longer than I did in Shrek Forever After. But don't worry, there's a happy ending: I finally got a Mrs. Potato Head of my very own after seeing her in Toy Story 2. So while I didn't get to see her onscreen in Toy Story 3, I get to see (and play with) the real thing!


(And we got a Mr. Potato Head for Henry, when he gets a little older!)

Happy birthday Babcia!

Babcia's birthday was Friday, and Julia gave her the best birthday present of all: she was in New York City all day with Mom and Dad (yes, my sister has been getting under her skin a bit). That meant that I got to have her and Dido all to myself that day! Thankfully, Julia arrived home with Mom and Dad just in time for Babcia's birthday cake and to help us sing "Mnohaya Lita" to her!


Happy birthday Babcia!

Look who's walking!

We all know that I've been extremely resistant to the concept of walking, even though I've been cruising around the house for months now. Well, Dido, Mom and Dad have finally worn me down, and yesterday I took my first real steps. Mom found the one thing in the house that I'm actually motivated to walk to: my fire truck. Take a look.



I'm still refusing to walk towards any other object or person right now, but Dad insists that I'll be sprinting around by July 4. We'll see...

Back to school

Shortly before the school year ended, my teachers give me a DVD photo slideshow of pictures they had taken during the year. There were lots of photos of me and all my classmates, and I wanted to share some of the best ones with you guys. Look at how short my hair was back in the fall!



This is Mr. Frog, which Miss Burnette used everyday to help us learn our addresses and each other's names.


I loved spending time with my classmates!


A couple months ago I showed you pictures of me made up as a clown for our circus-themed week. Here are a couple more photos of that great week.



They picked the perfect day to take a class photo: my birthday! You can see me wearing the special birthday crown that everyone gets to wear on their birthday.



And last but not least, here's one of Mom dropping me off at school.


I sure do miss it, but I'll be going back soon for summer camp. Yippee!

Sense of Place

So Julia talked all about Dan Zanes and the characters at Sesame Place, which leads me to wrap up by talking about...well, everything else. I enjoyed crawling around in the play area for toddlers.


Mom helped Julia win a prize!


It was raining a bit as we watched the Sesame Place parade, but I still clapped wildly when I saw all my friends.


Here we are with Mom, waiting to go in the park on the second day.


We went on lots of rides too. Dad took us both on the carousel (even though you can only see Julia in this photo).


Dad also took Julia on Elmo's Flying Fish...


And Big Bird's Balloon Race.


(They went on the teacups too for the first time.) Dad says that I can't go on any of these rides with them until I start walking. Hmmmm...I'll think about it.

We also went on the water rides too, but we didn't bring our camera into the pool.

After so much excitement, I was exhausted!


And here's one last video of last week's Sesame Place fun. As you can see, I went absolutely nuts during the Abby Cadabby show — it was terrific!



I can't wait to go back again soon and finally go on all the rides!

Julia in the Hat

It's Henry's 13-month birthday today — happy birthday, Henry! — but I'm the one who got to spend the day with Dad. I'm in the middle of a three-week period between the end of school and summer camp, and Mom and Dad have been taking me into their daycare centers at work a couple of days a week. So that means I get to take the train in (last week I finally got to ride on a double-decker train!), and spend some time in Dad's office playing with all the cool stuff he gets at work...like the Dr. Seuss hat you see above.

The only rough part of the day is after lunch, when I have to go back to the children's center for naptime. That's when I get weepy, because I don't want to nap and I don't want Mom and Dad to go. But I eventually calm down and start enjoying myself again.

But as much fun as I have in the city, I think I'll be even happier once summer camp starts and I'm back to my routine at home.

Daddy-O

Yesterday was Father's Day, so we tried to be on our best behavior for him (at least I did; Julia was a bit cranky in the morning). Julia and I got Dad some nice shirts for the summer, although Dad said what he really wanted for Father's Day was for me to start walking. Sorry Dad, I did accidentally take a couple steps on Saturday but I'm not repeating that mistake anytime soon.



Happy Father's Day, Dad! But stop trying to make me walk. It's not going to happen!

Characters welcome

One thing I can always be assured of at Sesame Place: spending quality time with my favorite furry friends. Like Zoe....



And Abby...


She even let me hold her wand!


And Elmo...


And Cookie Monster and Telly...


And Bert!


As for Henry, he had just as much fun with them as I did:





He even sat on Elmo's lap and let Elmo give him a great big hug!



Here's a video of the special meet-and-greet for Sesame Place season pass holders, where we got to spend lots of time with all the characters.



And we're not done yet...there's one more Sesame Place post coming soon!

Dan-cing queen

Two of my favorite things — Sesame Place and Dan Zanes — converged last weekend when Dan Zanes was actually performing at Sesame Place! How could I resist? I was so excited for the show to begin...


And so was Henry!


And once he started playing...I started dancing!


The show was so terrific! We came back later that day for a second show, but I was so wiped out by then that...


I fell asleep right during the show (I must have traded places with Henry, who was subdued during the first show and was clapping like crazy for the second one). Thankfully, I woke up in time to meet up with him afterwards.

Here's a glimpse of the Dan-cing queen in action during the show:



We've got lots more to tell you about Sesame Place, so check back later!

Getting the picture

Since Dad's whole family was together for Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary, we made sure to take lots of family photos. Here's me and Julia with Grandma and Grandpa...


And us with Mom and Dad...


And last but not least, a picture with Aunt Paula...


The day after we celebrated Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary, Mom, Dad, Julia and I went to Sesame Street for two amazing days. So we'll tell you all about that starting tomorrow!

The big 4-0

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. That's twice as much as I can count! We all went down — along with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Paula and Aunt Jess (and her boyfriend Pete) — to celebrate their big day, and took them out for a lovely dinner at Parc in Philadelphia. I put on a pretty new Lilly Pulitzer dress for the occasion.


Parc is a fancy French bistro, and they made me a delicious milkshake!


It was so good to see Uncle Ryan again.


Grandpa kept us entertained through dinner by having us all play a trivia game with questions about him and Grandma. It was very entertaining. Then he gave Grandma a beautiful bracelet!


Uncle Ryan showed it to me, it was so gorgeous!


Henry was also really good for his first fancy dinner.


He sat in his highchair for a whole hour before he needed someone to start carrying him around. Grandpa was more than happy to oblige!


Here's a few highlights from Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary celebration, including the one-of-a-kind anniversary present I made for them.


Happy anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!